Dolphin Emulator, the free open-source GameCude and Wii emulator, released new 2503 release on Monday.
Why stop at one scary movie when you can fill your eyeballs with two?
The next Battlefield game—referred to unofficially as Battlefield 6—is currently holding an early beta and despite players having to sign an NDA to participate, footage has leaked online. Encouragingly, the reactions are overwhelmingly positive as players seem excited about new features, details, and the return to the…
AI NPCs aren’t the future for PlayStation 5, but you know what is? Improved AI upscaling.
Nvidia has launched all of the GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs that it announced at CES, at least technically—whether you’re buying from Nvidia, AMD, or Intel, it’s nearly impossible to find any of these new cards at their advertised prices right now.
But hope springs eternal, and newly leaked specs for GeForce RTX 5060 and 5050-series cards suggest that Nvidia may be announcing these lower-end cards soon. These kinds of cards are rarely exciting, but Steam Hardware Survey data shows that these xx60 and xx50 cards are what the overwhelming majority of PC gamers are putting in their systems.
The specs, posted by a reliable leaker named Kopite and reported by Tom’s Hardware and others, suggest a refresh that’s in line with what Nvidia has done with most of the 50-series so far. Along with a move to the next-generation Blackwell architecture, the 5060 GPUs each come with a small increase to the number of CUDA cores, a jump from GDDR6 to GDDR7, and an increase in power consumption, but no changes to the amount of memory or the width of the memory bus. The 8GB versions, in particular, will probably continue to be marketed primarily as 1080p cards.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Vodafone is warning staff in the UK to work onsite at least eight days a month or be subject to disciplinary action from April. Group UK employees were last week sent the “Hybrid Working at Vodafone” memo — seen by The Register — to highlight the policy and tell them to expect a year-end conversation with their line manager. “You will have read in Get Ready for Year-End Conversations and a Hybrid Working Reminder [documents] that your line manager may discuss hybrid working with you as part of your year-end conversation. “We therefore want to remind everyone of the Group UK Hybrid Working policy. It’s essential that all employees adhere to the expectation of being in the office 2-3 times a week, or at least eight days a month,” it states.
“Employees who are not fully compliant with our hybrid working policy by the end of Q1 may be subject to disciplinary action in line with policy. Continued non-compliance with attendance expectations could result in a final written warning, which would mean individuals are not meeting the minimum performance standards and therefore would not be eligible for a bonus in 2026 or in subsequent years in which a final warning is given.” Line managers can ask team members to attend the office on a specific day if reasonable notice is given and are advised to set team days to “help teach members to form a pattern.” Vodafone has operated a hybrid work policy since 2021 “following the pandemic.” “Vodafone’s hybrid working policy has been in place since 2021, with all employees expected to be in the office 2-3 times a week, or at least eight days a month,” said the company in a statement. “This allows flexibility for staff, and for them to benefit from in-office collaboration.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Behold a map that shows the complex web of energy exports between the U.S. and Canada, and just how many cards our neighbor to the north has left to play.
Scientists have long understood that microbes, zooplankton, and fish are vital sources of recycled nitrogen in coastal waters. But whales and other marine mammals like seals also help in this regard by releasing tons of nutrient-rich fecal matter into those waters. Now we can add whale urine to that list, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.
“Lots of people think of plants as the lungs of the planet, taking in carbon dioxide, and expelling oxygen,” said co-author Joe Roman, a biologist at the University of Vermont. “For their part, animals play an important role in moving nutrients. Seabirds transport nitrogen and phosphorus from the ocean to the land in their poop, increasing the density of plants on islands. Animals form the circulatory system of the planet—and whales are the extreme example.”
Back in 2010, Roman co-authored a study in which they examined field measurements and population data to determine that whales and seals could be responsible for replenishing 2.3×104 metric tons of nitrogen per year in the Gulf of Maine alone. Specifically, they feed in deeper waters and then release “flocculent fecal plumes” (i.e., feces) at the surface, serving as a kind of “whale pump” that boosts plankton growth, among other tangible benefits.
New research suggests that frequent blood donation can trigger genetic changes that might protect certain stem cells from becoming cancerous.
In a rare recent example of a product becoming more affordable (rather than moving full-speed in the opposite direction), the popular podcast service Pocket Casts no longer requires a subscription to access its web player and desktop apps. Although the premium tiers are still there for some paywalled features, the only platforms where you can’t listen for free are now smartwatches without a paired phone — a niche within a niche, if ever there was one.
Before Tuesday’s announcement, you could listen for free on the Pocket Casts Android and iOS apps, but its web player and desktop apps required a premium subscription starting at $4 monthly or $40 annually. Now, you can check in with your favorite podcasters on your Mac or PC without paying a dime. Although you could already do that on free alternatives like Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube Music, Pocket Casts enthusiasts (including some Engadget staffers) swear by its clean UI, silence trimming and voice boosting features and queue management.
The Automattic-owned service framed the move as standing up for open podcasting that’s freely accessible to anyone, everywhere. “By making our Web Player available to everyone, we’re reinforcing our belief that podcasts belong to the people, not corporations,” the brand wrote in its announcement post.
That’s a noble sentiment — and one we would love to see more companies embrace. But if we read (perhaps a bit cynically) between the lines, YouTube announced last month that it’s passed one billion monthly active podcast viewers, with third-party data showing that it’s the most popular podcast service in the US. When combined with Apple’s recent addition of a web player for its free podcast service, perhaps Pocket Casts realized it was limiting itself to a diminishing piece of the pie by paywalling everything but its mobile apps.
As it stands, Pocket Casts hopes its subscription-gated features will entice some folks into throwing a few bucks its way. The Plus tier adds (deep inhale) a shuffle feature, bookmarks, the ability to preselect chapters, 20GB of cloud storage, watchOS and Wear OS apps (which you can still use for free as long as the content is streaming from your phone) and other goodies like themes, icons and a year of content from Slumber Studios. Meanwhile, the Patron tier offers all that plus early access to features, 100GB of cloud storage, extra icons and, the most important of all, a profile badge.
Pocket Casts Plus will set you back $4 monthly or $40 annually, while a Patron subscription costs $10 monthly or $100 annually.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/pocket-casts-makes-its-web-player-and-desktop-apps-usable-without-a-subscription-193035046.html?src=rss
Bluesky’s latest update adds a few more useful options to its impressive arsenal of anti-harassment tools. The changes make it easier to hide direct messages (DMs) from strangers, and to mute accounts even faster. You don’t need to do anything to receive these features, too. As long as you’re using the latest version of Bluesky’s apps or log in to the website on any browser, you should see them. Here’s everything that’s now available as a part of Bluesky’s 1.99 update.
No one wants a bunch of DMs from strangers, and Bluesky has now acknowledged that. If you’re on the end of a targeted harassment campaign, you’ll now be able to sort out DMs from strangers quite easily. Go to the Chat tab in Bluesky’s apps or website, and you’ll see the new Chat requests button up top. This is where all DMs from strangers will now end up by default. You can accept these requests to allow the people behind them to DM you on a case-by-case basis, or reject them to stop them from pinging you again.
Bluesky now lets you mute accounts directly from any post. If you’re scrolling through your feed and you see a post you dislike, just hit the three-dots button next to the post and select Mute account. This will mute the account until you choose to unmute it. This is useful if you encounter accounts posting things you’d rather not see, such as spoilers, political content, or incendiary posts. It’s much faster than having to go to their profile to mute them.
Bluesky has increased the length of videos you’re allowed to post on the service. Previously, you could post videos up to 60 seconds long, but with the 1.99 update, you can now post three-minute long videos, too. This brings Bluesky closer to its competitors. Threads allows you to upload individual videos that are up to five minutes long, while X (formerly Twitter) has the limit at two minutes and 20 seconds for people who don’t pay for its premium subscription.
This update has a few other improvements, including translations to three new languages—Esperanto, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh. It also has better layouts for those accessing Bluesky’s website from tablets. The company also claims that it has improved the process of reporting posts to moderators and the error reports you see when you encounter an issue during the signup process.
Two people in Oklahoma have likely contracted measles infections linked to a mushrooming outbreak that began in West Texas, which has now risen to at least 258 cases since late January.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma’s health department reported that two people had “exposure associated with the Texas and New Mexico outbreak” and then reported symptoms consistent with measles. They’re currently being reported as probable cases because testing hasn’t confirmed the infections.
There was no information about the ages, vaccination status, or location of the two cases. The health department said that the people stayed home in quarantine after realizing they had been exposed. In response to local media, a health department spokesperson said it was withholding further information because “these cases don’t pose a public health risk and to protect patient privacy.”
A new trailer for the latest part of the long-running MMO’s 15th anniversary is a harkening back to the time of the original Trek movies.
Renovating your house has serious upsides in terms of your enjoyment of the property and the return on your investment—but there’s a price to be paid in time and discomfort. Renovation projects can take weeks or months to complete, and during that time your home will mostly likely be filled with dust, debris, and workers. It’s little wonder people choose to move out of their homes and live in a rental while the work is being done.
Not everyone can do that, of course—and not everyone can spend the next few months living in a construction zone. If you’ve got limited time (and limited tolerance for the mess and disruption), you might choose to put off home improvement projects until you have more of each. Or you could re-calibrate your expectations, because there are several one-day renovation projects (including clean up) that will have a big impact but have you relaxing on the couch by dinner time.
A complete bathroom remodel can take weeks or months to complete, which is seriously inconvenient—especially if you only have one bathroom in the house. But you can accomplish a pretty dramatic refresh of your bathroom in one day if you keep your focus narrow:
Re-caulking the shower should take just a few hours. This not only gets rid of unsightly stained, discolored caulk—it will also help prevent future leaks resulting from failing old caulk.
A new showerhead can be installed in less than an hour. Alternatively, clean the one you have: Remove the existing showerhead and soak it in white, distilled vinegar for about an hour, then rinse, scrub, and re-install.
Similarly, a new faucet on the vanity can be installed within an hour, unless accessing the supply lines and drain is difficult.
Boom! A day’s work and your bathroom can be dramatically improved. You could also consider intalling a bath liner, instantly transforming your shower or bath in (theoretically) just a day.
Paint is the easiest and cheapest remodel of them all, and you can get a lot done with one day and a gallon of good-quality paint:
Paint a room—you can absolutely paint an entire room in one day. You’ll need to budget in a few hours between coats, so get an early start and have a plan.
Paint furniture: Any piece of furniture in your house that’s looking a little drab can be upscaled with a coat of paint—including upholstered pieces.
You can also paint floors that have seen better days; additionally, lampshades, fireplaces, radiators, and kitchen appliances can all be successfully painted in just a few hours.
Just like your bathroom, a full-scale kitchen remodel can take a long time, and have your house filled with dust for ages. But you can transform your kitchen in one day by targeting a few relatively easy but visually powerful spots:
New pulls. Swap out the old, tarnished, probably outdated pulls on your drawers and cabinets for shiny new ones.
New faucet. Swapping out the old faucet for a new one shouldn’t take more than a few hours.
Lighting. Adding adhesive lights under your cabinets will a) make the space brighter, which in turn will make it look cleaner and fresher, and b) add a touch of glamour to the space.
Cover the backsplash with peel-and-stick tiles for a whole new look.
If your current floors are a little sad and worn out, you might think that installing a whole new floor will take at least several days, if not a week. But you can install brand-new vinyl plank flooring in a day, as you can see here (and this guy tore out and replaced his subfloor, then installed vinyl plank, all in one day).
Granted, your mileage will vary on how comfortable you are measuring and cutting the planks, but this kind of flooring is one of the easiest to install—and it looks great and wears well.
If you’re thinking about replacing the faucet in your bathroom as noted above, why not take it one step further and upgrade the entire vanity? Disconnecting the plumbing, removing the old vanity and faucet, and installing new ones requires just some basic plumbing knowledge and the use of a power drill, and should only take you a few hours from beginning to end—even if you include going out to buy the new vanity.
If you’re not afraid to do a little basic wiring, you can change the light fixtures in your house, the plates over the outlets and switches, and even the outlets and switches themselves all in one day. Once you’ve turned off the power so there’s no chance of killing yourself, changing out existing light fixtures can take just a few minutes for each one, so unless you’ve got a football field of lights in your house it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two to tackle them all (or however many you want to change).
Similarly, swapping out outlet and switch plates takes just a few minutes each (and requires just a screwdriver). And upgrading your light switches to dimmer switches is a similarly quick and relatively easy project that you can do all over the house in one day, easily.
If you’ve got tile floors that need a little upgrade but you don’t want to install a floor over them or tear them out entirely, you can cover them up with peel-and-stick tile tiles or decals very quickly. While you shouldn’t rush, because the end result depends heavily on how accurately and neatly you cut your pieces to fit your space, you can definitely complete an average-sized room within a day, and you can probably do multiple rooms in one day if you’re focused once you get the hang of it.
Southwest Airlines boasts that its passengers’ “bags fly free” — but not for long. From a report: Starting May 28 — just in time for the busy summer travel season — only Southwest’s most elite Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred members and passengers who book their top-tier Business Select fares will receive two free checked bags. Frequent flyer A-List Members, Southwest-branded credit card holders and other select customers will be allowed one checked bag.
Everyone else will be charged for their first and second checked bags on flights booked on or after May 28, the carrier says. It’s a break with Southwest’s 54 year history — one that could undermine customer loyalty to the carrier, according to experts. “This is how you destroy a brand. This is how you destroy customer preference. This is how you destroy loyalty. And this, I think, is going to send Southwest into a financial tailspin,” airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, of Atmosphere Research Group, told CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. “Southwest, with these changes, becomes just another airline.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
ZA/UM Studio, the company behind Disco Elysium, just announced a new game called Project [C4]. It’s being described as a “genre-defining RPG” and there’s a teaser trailer that’s light on gameplay but heavy on disturbing imagery.
Based on the trailer, we still don’t know if the game will pull mechanics or visuals from the highly-regarded Disco Elysium. A press release did note that folks would play as a spy of some kind and suggested that the game could actually, in part, take place in the human brain. Everything else is still shrouded in secrecy.
What’s not shrouded in secrecy? ZA/UM has had, to put it lightly, a tumultuous several years since Disco Elysium was released in 2019. It has been plagued by layoffs, firings and departures of the core team that made Disco Elysium, including creator Robert Kurvitz, art director Aleksander Rostov and writer Helen Hindpere.
Back in 2022, the company’s new executive suite fired all three, accusing them of misconduct and attempted intellectual property theft. It’s worth noting that Kurvitz wrote the novel that Disco Elysium is based on, so we aren’t sure how someone could steal from their own book. Lawsuits were filed and Kurvitz and Rostov set up their own company.
The pair also refuted the allegations of IP theft, writing in an open letter that they were fired as they attempted to investigate suspicious activity surrounding the takeover of ZA/UM by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel. These two were previously convicted of investment fraud. The pair has also been accused of creating a hostile work environment, particularly for women.
“I know at least five women who’ve left or been made to leave the studio since Disco’s launch, naming Tõnis Haavel as a major factor. There are zero women in creative leadership and very few women in leadership positions in general,” a former writer for Disco Elsyium told PC Gamer amidst recent company-wide layoffs.
A handful of other previous ZA/UM employees recently formed a dev company called Longdue to create a new game that acts as a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium. Kurvitz and Rostov’s company, Red Info, is said to be making a new game with the financial backing of NetEase, but no concrete details have been released.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-studio-that-technically-made-disco-elysium-has-a-new-game-in-the-works-185218695.html?src=rss
Ubuntu is based on Debian, but they’re not the same. To help you choose which to install, we compare support, pre-installed software, release cycle, user-friendliness, and more.
The long-running rumors and hints that Microsoft is planning to enter the portable gaming market accelerated forward this week. That’s thanks to a Windows Central report that Microsoft is planning to partner with a “PC gaming OEM” for “an Xbox-branded gaming handheld” to be released later this year. The device, code-named Keenan, will reportedly feature “Xbox design sensibilities,” such as the branded Xbox guide button, but will almost certainly be a PC gaming device running Windows at its core.
Any Microsoft entry into the world of gaming handhelds will join a market that has become quite crowded in the wake of the Steam Deck’s success. To make its own portable gaming effort stand apart, Microsoft will have to bring something unique to the table. Here are some of the features we’re hoping will let Microsoft do just that.
There’s never been a better time to bring back the old Xbox 360 “blades” interface.
Credit:
Microsoft / Reddit
For decades, Windows has been designed first and foremost for the world of large monitors driven by a mouse and keyboard world. When hardware makers try to simply stick that OS into a handheld screen size controlled by buttons and analog sticks, the results can be awkward at best.