Microsoft revealed via Xbox Wire it’s bringing its subscription service to the PC. For those of you who don’t have an Xbox One, the Game Pass allows you to play 100+ Xbox One and 360 games locally on your device (as opposed to streaming, as with PS Now) for about $10 per month. The service first launched two years ago, and, according to Xbox head Phil Spencer, had “millions of subscribers” as of late last year....
Most notably, the Surface Laptop 4 lets you readily choose between an Intel or AMD chipset, the latter which was only offered on the 15-inch model before. The 13-inch model gives you the most variety. You can choose between Intel Core i5 (1135G7) or i7 (1185G7) and the Ryzen 5 (4680U). Business users get the additional options of a slightly more powerful Core i5 (1145G7) or Ryzen 7 (4980U)....
For power users, the run command tends to be useful for quickly accessing system tools like the registry tool (regedit) or the startup utility(msconfig), and quickly running cmd commands. According to The Verge, the new tool will eventually be able to support all the same commands as before, but also be able to incorporate more features along the way, including plugins to customize the launcher to your needs. To start off, Microsoft is building in the features of Wox and Window Walker into PowerToys Run, but in the future, you’ll be able to add plugins, custom web searches, snippets and more....
The Light theme was first announced back in November, but it was only available to members of the Windows Insider Program – essentially beta testers. While Windows 10’s default theme largely includes light and white elements, major components like the Task Bar and Start Menu use a dark transparency that might mess with your minimalist mojo. The Light Theme fixes that with a light-frosted glass look throughout various elements, as well as white backgrounds throughout the OS....
You know the drill, let’s take a look at this weekend’s top cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines. 1. OneCoin investigative podcast to be made into TV drama If you didn’t get enough of the $4 billion OneCoin cryptocurrency scam then you’re in luck. According to entertainment news website Deadline, the real-life drama is going to be made into a TV show. In an allegedly intense bidding war, New Regency Television International beat the likes of 20th Century TV to win the screen rights to the popular BBC Sounds podcast, The Missing Crypto Queen....
It’s one of the most dramatic tech flops in recent memory. Once upon a time, MoviePass offered film aficionados the ability to pay $10 a month and see almost any film as often as they’d like. As it turns out, you can’t make a profit by allowing people to see unlimited movies for little over the price of an average single movie ticket every month. MoviePass promptly ran out of money, angered its few remaining subscribers by constantly changing its benefits and pricing, and at one point already shut down because it couldn’t pay its creditors....
The economist Thomas Sowell proposed two visions of human nature. The utopian vision sees people as naturally good. The world corrupts us, but the wise can perfect us. The tragic vision sees us as inherently flawed. Our sickness is selfishness. We cannot be trusted with power over others. There are no perfect solutions, only imperfect trade-offs. Science supports the tragic vision. So does history. The French, Russian and Chinese revolutions were utopian visions....
I’ve previously installed developer betas on Android and managed my way around bugs. However, given how shoddy iOS 13’s stable version rollout was, I was skeptical of the quality of this new developer beta. But after 24 hours of usage, I realized that this is a stable beta release, and I don’t have to worry about any major bugs. The major theme of iOS 14 is the customization of the home screen....
Currently, the free films on offer include Bird Box, The Two Popes, and Murder Mystery. The original shows Love is Blind, Elite, Grace and Frankie, and Stranger Things are also available, among others. I should say their first episodes are available — if you get hooked on the shows, you’ll have to create your own account in order to watch them with Netflix’s free trial. I’m not sure The Boss Baby: Back in Business would be a great enticement to start an account, but what do I know about high art?...
The idea isn’t a feature Netflix is testing widely, but rather it came about through one of the company’s ‘Hack Days,’ in which employees get to mess around with new ideas and technologies. The bulk of these experiments don’t come to fruition, but sometimes they make their way into your Netflix app. As per the description on Netflix’s blog post: In other words, a lot like playing a video game, minus the playing part....
The researchers say it could be used in a smartphone app to provide a more comfortable form of detecting the virus than eye-watering swab tests. The tool, named DeepCough3D, uses AI to analyze audio samples of coughs in frequencies that humans can’t hear. The researchers tested it on over 8,000 samples of people coughing in hospitals in Spain and Mexico since April 2020. Around 2,000 of the patients were COVID-19 positive, while the remainder had tested negative....
The world of business is often denoted as cut-throat, competitive, and ruthless. And while this may of course be true, there’s also room for kindness — that’s at least what Sarah Friar, the CEO of Nextdoor, believes. A seasoned CEO — she was previously at Square and Salesforce — Friar is a great believer that profit and kindness aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, she’s known for offering actionable insights on how monetization can be driven by responsibility and purpose....
Unfortunately, we forgot to account for “stock splits.” Companies split their stock all the time, multiplying (and sometimes dividing) shares in circulation in a bid to boost “liquidity” (a fancy finance term that refers to how easy it is to sell an asset). For example, Intel split its stock a few months after the dot-com bubble burst two decades ago. Without having to do anything at all, someone holding five Intel shares would’ve gone to sleep on July 31, 2000, and woken in August with 10....
Radio telescopes are designed to be incredibly sensitive. To quote the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, “The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.” The total energy now is probably a few snowflakes’ worth, but nevertheless it is still true that astronomical radio signals are typically magnitudes smaller than artificial ones....
We are a nuclear physicist and a nuclear engineer who study how to develop controlled nuclear fusion for the purpose of generating electricity. The JET result demonstrates remarkable advancements in the understanding of the physics of fusion. But just as importantly, it shows that the new materials used to construct the inner walls of the fusion reactor worked as intended. The fact that the new wall construction performed as well as it did is what separates these results from previous milestones and elevates magnetic fusion from a dream toward a reality....
The shopping mall, located in Cleveland, Ohio’s Tower City was originally planned to become a “blockchain-focused technology hub,” Cleveland.com reports. It will now become an entrepreneurship center, with some shops, instead. In an interview on Monday, one of the leaders of the venture, Bernie Moreno, said blockchain would no longer be the sole focus of the development. “I started with a mindset that this could be a blockchain hub, and… as we heard feedback, we adapted the mission to be much more focused…” he said in the interview....
However, the aurorae of Jupiter are (as might be expected) far more powerful than the iridescent displays we see at home. Hundreds of gigawatts of X-ray energy released in the auroral displays of Jupiter would be powerful energy to (momentarily) feed all human energy needs. And, oddly, there are also regular flashes of light that blaze up every half hour or so, adding another piece to this mystery of Jupiter....
Biden said at the G7 summit on Sunday that he was “open” to Putin’s proposal for the two countries to exchange cybercriminals: The comments immediately sparked concern that Biden would consider extraditing US hackers to Russia if Moscow did the same for Washington. [Read: Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters] However, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said later that the president was not contemplating a “prisoner swap:” Biden’s remarks may have been another of his legendary verbal missteps, but cybercrime will be a significant topic of discussion when the two premiers meet in Geneva on June 16....
The Tesla tycoon proposed the plan before his buyout bid was disclosed, reiterated it the day his offer was revealed, and pitched it once again after Twitter agreed to the deal. Musk outlined his proposal at a TED conference on April 14: Musk argued that disclosing what amplifies or downranks tweets would reduce the risk of “behind the scenes manipulation.” — TED Talks (@TEDTalks) April 14, 2022 The approach has won support from some transparency advocates and critics of Twitter’s content moderation....
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the World of Darkness is getting its own film and television universe. Per the THR report, Christine Boyer and Eric Heisserer are set to develop a “shared universe” for the World of Darkness’ many properties for Hivemind and Paradox Interactive. There’s a lot to unpack there, so here’s some facts: While details remain scarce (we’ve contacted the folks at Paradox Interactive for more information, but they’re staying mum for now), it appears as though this isn’t just good news for WoD fans… but great....
