Switch Loses App You Probably Didn’t Even Know It Had

While it does have a handful of consumption apps like YouTube, Hulu, and Crunchyroll in the eShop, the Nintendo Switch is typically used for gaming and little else. That became a bit more true today, as the official Twitch app is getting tossed from Nintendo’s hybrid console.

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Source: Kotaku – Switch Loses App You Probably Didn’t Even Know It Had

LinkedIn Hits 1 Billion Users, Adds AI Features for Job Seekers

LinkedIn, the business-focused social network owned by Microsoft, on Wednesday said it now has more than 1 billion members and is adding more AI features for paying users. From a report: Crossing the billion-users mark puts LinkedIn — where members maintain a resume-like profile of their education, work experience and professional skills — in the top-tier of social media networks that include rivals such as Meta Platforms. About 80% of recent members are signing up from outside of the United States, the company has said.

LinkedIn has a free tier of membership but also offers subscriptions. Members of its $39.99-a-month tier will get new AI features that can tell a user, who may be plowing through dozens of job postings, whether they’re a good candidate based on the information in their profile. The system can also recommend profile changes to make the user more competitive for a job.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – LinkedIn Hits 1 Billion Users, Adds AI Features for Job Seekers

Super Mario Bros. Wonder Badges, Ranked From Worst To Best

Badges are one of the best new additions that Super Mario Bros. Wonder brings to Nintendo’s perennial platforming series. This new piece of equipment lets Mario and his friends take on new abilities, which in turn lets you customize your play style to accommodate your own strengths and weaknesses. But not all Badges…

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Source: Kotaku – Super Mario Bros. Wonder Badges, Ranked From Worst To Best

Apple Sticks A Fork In MacBook Pro's 'Revolutionary' Touch Bar

Apple Sticks A Fork In MacBook Pro's 'Revolutionary' Touch Bar
Apple has given its ‘Revolutionary’ Touch Bar its walking papers. The iconic Touch Bar debuted to much hype on the 13-inch MacBook Pro during the company’s 25th anniversary of Apple’s first notebook.

During Apple’s Scary Fast event on Monday, the company unveiled its new M3 lineup of chips. It then announced the release of 14 and 16-inch

Source: Hot Hardware – Apple Sticks A Fork In MacBook Pro’s ‘Revolutionary’ Touch Bar

Evil Week: How to Get Into Exclusive Parties Without an Invitation

Welcome to Evil Week, our annual dive into all the slightly sketchy hacks we’d usually refrain from recommending. Want to weasel your way into free drinks, play elaborate mind games, or, er, launder some money? We’ve got all the info you need to be successfully unsavory.

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Source: LifeHacker – Evil Week: How to Get Into Exclusive Parties Without an Invitation

Just How ‘Slim’ Is That New Skinny PlayStation 5?

Sony’s new slimmer PS5 could be on its way sooner than expected. Leakers have managed to snap a few pics of the new console in all its fish-tail glory. Plus, if these leaks are right, we may only need to wait a little more than a week before the PS5 starts shipping to U.S.-based customers.

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Source: Gizmodo – Just How ‘Slim’ Is That New Skinny PlayStation 5?

Crucial Unveils T500 SSD With Blistering Speeds And PS5 Gamers Can Come To Play

Crucial Unveils T500 SSD With Blistering Speeds And PS5 Gamers Can Come To Play
Back in the old days, solid state drive (SSD) storage was mostly relegated to the PC platform. That changed with the introduction of the PlayStation 5 (and new PS5 Slim) and Xbox Series X, both of which shed spinning platters in favor of NAND flash memory, and gamers are better off for it. So it’s no surprise that Crucial is pitching its new

Source: Hot Hardware – Crucial Unveils T500 SSD With Blistering Speeds And PS5 Gamers Can Come To Play

WeWork Plans To File For Bankruptcy as Early as Next Week

WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the matter, as the SoftBank Group-backed company struggles with a massive debt pile and hefty losses. From the report: Shares of the flexible workspace provider fell 32% in extended trading after the Wall Street Journal first reported the news. They have fallen roughly 96% this year. […] The company had net long-term debt of $2.9 billion as of June end and more than $13 billion in long-term leases, at a time when rising borrowing costs are hurting the commercial real estate sector. WeWork’s filing for bankruptcy would mark a stunning reversal of fortune for the company that was privately valued at $47 billion in 2019 and a black spot for investor SoftBank that sunk billions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – WeWork Plans To File For Bankruptcy as Early as Next Week

Garrett: Why ACPI?

Matthew Garrett explains
why ACPI exists
and why it is not as bad a thing as some think.

There’s an alternative universe where we decided to teach the
kernel about every piece of hardware it should run on. Fortunately
(or, well, unfortunately) we’ve seen that in the ARM world. Most
device-specific simply never reaches mainline, and most users are
stuck running ancient kernels as a result. Imagine every x86 device
vendor shipping their own kernel optimised for their hardware, and
now imagine how well that works out given the quality of their
firmware. Does that really seem better to you?



Source: LWN.net – Garrett: Why ACPI?

OnePlus 12 Breaks Ground As First Phone To Use Sony's LYTIA Camera Sensor

OnePlus 12 Breaks Ground As First Phone To Use Sony's LYTIA Camera Sensor
The OnePlus 12 will come with a newfangled Sony LYTIA image sensor that’s expected to move the needle beyond the already fantastic camera on the OnePlus 11. Do the Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S23 Ultra have anything to worry about?

Last year’s OnePlus 11 brought the company back into the flagship game with plenty of power, efficiency, and class-leading

Source: Hot Hardware – OnePlus 12 Breaks Ground As First Phone To Use Sony’s LYTIA Camera Sensor

Formula E preseason testing 2023: Five key takeaways from Valencia

Formula 1 may do its preseason tests right before the new schedule of races begins, but Formula E holds its trials months before the first E-Prix. The official action starts in Mexico City in January, but last week the all-electric series took to the turns of Valencia for its annual preseason test. 2024’s Season 10 will be the second for the ultra-efficient Gen3 car, following a debut that delivered lots of wheel-to-wheel racing and a hard-fought driver’s championship that was decided in the final two races. While there isn’t a new car this year, there’s still plenty to know before the lights go out in Mexico.

A battery fire cut testing short

Teams lost a considerable amount of track time after a battery fire following the Tuesday morning session. The Race reports that the incident occurred in a pit stall occupied by WAE, the all-electric series’ battery supplier. The fire reportedly started from a battery that had been removed from the DS Penske driven by rookie Robert Shwartzman for three separate stints. Shwartzman had to stop on track due to an issue and once the car was back in the pit lane, the battery was removed and taken to WAE for inspection. Motorsport.com reports that the automatic battery safety system was activated causing the driver to stop. According to The Race, witnesses say there was a small audible explosion about 90 minutes after the car came to a halt on the circuit.

Formula E canceled the Tuesday afternoon and both Wednesday sessions while it looked into the cause of the fire. One person was taken to the hospital as a precaution but was released without any treatment. The series’ governing body, the FIA, deemed conditions safe to resume testing on Thursday afternoon following “investigations and findings provided by the technical suppliers,” Formula E explained.

As The Race notes, there has never been a traction battery fire at an E-Prix in nearly 10 years of events. There were incidents in 2015 and 2017, but those affected the smaller 12-volt battery. This was also unrelated to the new Attack Charge as Shwartzman had yet to demo that infrastructure. Formula E only had eight units for 11 teams and DS Penske didn’t have one at the time, The Race reports.

The first female driver in a Gen3 car

Gabriela Jilkova, TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
Gabriela Jilkova drives the TAG Heuer Porsche
Simon Galloway

During the preseason test in Valencia, teams were required to put rookie drivers in their cars for three of the 18 scheduled hours of running. The lineup included former F2 driver Robert Shwartzman (DS Penske) and current F2 drivers Victor Martins (Nissan) and Zane Maloney (Andretti), among others. The rookie test saw the first female driver in a Gen3 Formula E car as well. ​​LMP3 and GT4 driver Gabriela Jilkova got behind the wheel of the Porsche team’s EVs, completing a 46-lap run. Formula E previously held rookie tests ahead of the Berlin E-Prix and during an extra practice session in Rome, both happening earlier this year.

The first test of Attack Charge

During a 10-hour session last Friday, Formula E held a simulated race, giving teams a 27-lap trial to test setups, run through safety car periods and demo the upcoming Attack Charge pit stops. The series had planned to introduce the stops last season, but supply-chain issues meant the technology would only be ready for the final few races. By then, Formula E felt it would be too late and decided to postpone the debut of Attack Charge to this season.

There is still a lot of unknown about how the stops will work, but what we do know is that they will take place during a specific window Formula E officials will announce right before the race. The series has also said that teams will be unable to double stack their two cars, a practice of pitting both vehicles back-to-back, which could lead to some interesting decisions about which driver gets priority. An Attack Charge stop is also expected to be quite long at 30-35 seconds. A mechanic hooks up a charging cable to the back of the car while the battery is replenished.

Jaguar and Porsche are quick… again

Mitch Evans, Jaguar TCS Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6
Mitch Evans in the Jaguar TCS Racing I-TYPE 6
Simon Galloway

After strong showings at the start of the Gen3 era last season, it looks like Jaguar TCS Racing and TAG Heuer Porsche are going to be contenders once again. Jaguar and Porsche vehicles claimed four of the top five times in each of the three test sessions, including quick laps from the Envision team that runs Jaguar powertrains.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans posted the fastest time of the week, notching a 1m24.474s mark that was over half a second quicker than the fastest lap in last year’s test. Evans, who finished third in the driver’s championship in Season nine, also topped the times in the second session. New teammate Nick Cassidy, who finished second in the championship last season while driving for Envision, kept Evans from sweeping all three sessions with a 1m24.617s in the final running of the week.

Mahindra seems poised to bounce back

Season nine was one to forget for Mahindra. The team that’s been in Formula E since the series began finished 10th out of 11. Significant offseason changes include an all-new driver pairing of Edoardo Mortara and Season seven champ Nyck De Vries. Mortara was fifth fastest in the first session of the week while De Vries posted the third best time in session two. Mahindra was hampered by the battery fire as it suffered damage to its equipment and both cars, but both drivers showed great pace at different points during the week.

The driver’s championship should be close again

19 of the 21 drivers set lap times within 0.7 seconds of each other during the last session of the week. Sure, that’s one-lap pace as opposed to managing all of the nuances of a Formula E race (like energy consumption and regeneration), but it’s clear the drivers are learning how to unlock the potential of the Gen3 cars. Last year, for example, teams were grappling with new cars and new tires, having to figure out the optimal performance for a harder Hankook compound.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/formula-e-preseason-testing-2023-five-key-takeaways-from-valencia-133234132.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Formula E preseason testing 2023: Five key takeaways from Valencia

The Best Ways to Clean and Care for Natural Wood Cabinets

Natural wood cabinets are popular right now, and with good reason. Natural wood can be warm, modern, or traditional, and wood is a durable material that can stand up to years of use. But wear and tear can show on natural wood cabinets if they’re not well maintained. Here’s what you can do to lengthen the life of your…

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Source: LifeHacker – The Best Ways to Clean and Care for Natural Wood Cabinets

AMD Rides Skyrocketing Ryzen 7000 Sales And Record EPYC Orders To Beat Earnings Estimates

AMD Rides Skyrocketing Ryzen 7000 Sales And Record EPYC Orders To Beat Earnings Estimates
We might be in the midst of a lingering PC sales slump but you wouldn’t necessarily know it by looking at AMD’s latest earnings report. AMD posted financial results for its third quarter of 2023, which reflected a 4% year-over-year and 8% quarterly gain in revenue to $5.8 billion. This pushed its profit to $299 million for the quarter, which

Source: Hot Hardware – AMD Rides Skyrocketing Ryzen 7000 Sales And Record EPYC Orders To Beat Earnings Estimates

Spider-Man 3 Has Plenty Of Ways To Bring Back Venom

It’s hard to say no to more Symbiote. Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 explores a totally new story about iconic alien parasite, and while many of the game’s plot threads get resolved by the end of the story, there’s still plenty of room for future DLC or a sequel to bring Spider-Man’s beloved foil Venom back for more…

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Source: Kotaku – Spider-Man 3 Has Plenty Of Ways To Bring Back Venom

Sony's 'GT Sophy' racing AI is taking all Gran Turismo 7 challengers

Nearly two years after its prototype debut and eight months after its public beta, Sony’s GT Sophy racing AI for Gran Turismo 7 is back, and going by Gran Turismo Sophy 2.0 now. It will be available to all PlayStation 5 users as part of the GT7 Spec II Update (Patch Update 1.40) being released on Wednesday, November 2 at 2 a.m. ET. 

We got our first look at the Sophy system back in February 2022. At that point it was already handily beating professional Gran Turismo players. “Gran Turismo Sophy is a significant development in AI whose purpose is not simply to be better than human players, but to offer players a stimulating opponent that can accelerate and elevate the players’ techniques and creativity to the next level,” Sony AI CEO, Hiroaki Kitano, said at the time. “In addition to making contributions to the gaming community, we believe this breakthrough presents new opportunities in areas such as autonomous racing, autonomous driving, high-speed robotics and control.”

The system’s public beta this past February saw the AI competing against a small subset of the game’s user base in the “Gran Turismo Sophy Race Together” event. Players who had already progressed sufficiently through the game were granted access to the special race, where they faced off against four AI-controlled opponents in a limited number of tracks. 

“The difference [between racers] is that, it’s essentially the power you have versus the other cars on the track,” Sony AI’s COO, Michael Spranger, told Engadget in February. “You have different levels of performance. In the beginning level, you have a much more powerful vehicle — still within the same class, but you’re much faster [than your competition].” That advantage shrank as players advanced through the race rounds and Sophy gained access to increasingly capable vehicles. In September, Sophy learned to drift.

“We have evolved GT Sophy from a research project tackling the grand challenge of creating an AI agent that could outperform top drivers in a top simulation racing game, to a functional game feature that provides all game players a formidable, human-like opponent that enhances the overall racing experience,” Spranger said in a press statement released Wednesday.

With Wednesday’s announcement, the number of vehicles Sophy can pilot rises from the meager four models available during the beta event, to 340 (yes, three hundred and forty) vehicles across nine unique tracks. Per Sony, that means Sophy can drive 95 percent of the playable in-game models and will select its car for the race based on what the player has available in their garage (that way they’re not randomly facing down a 918 in a Nissan Versa or are otherwise disadvantaged). The five percent of models it can’t drive are the handful of hyper-spec specialty cars like the karts or Dodge SRT Tomahawk VGT.

Players can match against Sophy in Quick Race mode (formerly “Arcade”) regardless of their advancement through the game or current skill level. As long as you have a PS5, a network connection and the latest update patch installed, you too can get Toretto’ed by a stack of algorithmic processes. Good luck.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-gt-sophy-racing-ai-gran-turismo-7-ps5-130057992.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Sony’s ‘GT Sophy’ racing AI is taking all Gran Turismo 7 challengers