The days of Netflix taking a lax stance toward password sharing may be coming to an end. In a test spotted by The Streamable, the company has started sending a notification that prompts people to sign up for the service if it detects they're not in the same household as the main account holder.
"If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching," says the notification. It then instructs them to verify their identity by inputting a code Netflix sends to the email address or phone number associated with the account. The company's terms of use prohibit sharing access to the platform outside of a single household.
It's worth pointing out the trial may have more to do with securing accounts than preventing friends and families from saving money, at least that's what Netflix suggests. "This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so," a spokesperson for the company told CNBC.
Historically, the only significant measure Netflix has taken against account sharing is setting limits on simultaneous streams. For instance, with the company's $9 per month basic plan, you can only stream to one device at a time, while the $18 premium subscription lets you watch on up to four devices simultaneously.
Uber and Lyft will work together to share information on US drivers and delivery people accused of physical and sexual assault to ensure those individuals are banned on both platforms, the two companies announced on Thursday in separate blog posts. HireRight, a company that specializes in conducting background checks, will oversee the Industry Sharing Safety Program database. Other transportation and delivery companies in the US will have the chance to contribute and access the database as long as they adhere to the same data accuracy and privacy policies that Uber and Lyft must follow.
"We want to share this information with each other and hopefully in the near future with other companies, so that our peers in this space can be informed and make decisions for their own platforms to keep those platforms safe," Jennifer Brandenburger, Lyft's head of policy development, told NBC News.
The database won't include information on victims. Additionally, the incident that landed a driver in the database will fall in broad categories.
Creating a joint database of physical and sexual abusers is a major step for the two companies. Both Uber and Lyft have been frequently and consistently criticized for doing too little to protect their passengers, particularly if they're women, from predatory drivers. When Uber published its first safety report in 2019, the company revealed it had received nearly 6,000 reports of sexual abuse reports between 2017 and 2018. In 2019, 14 unnamed women sued Lyft, alleging the company had failed to run adequate background checks on its drivers. Finding a way to share the identities of contractors whom it had removed from its platform was one of the actions Uber said it would take in its safety report.
Starting tomorrow, Xbox Game Pass subscribers will have access to a new wave of Bethesda games to play. In all, Microsoft is adding 12 new titles, including Fallout 4, Morrowind and The Evil Within, for people to check out. They'll join eight other Bethesda games such as Dishonored 2, Fallout 76 and Doom Eternal that were already available through the service, making for a total of 20 available titles. You'll be able to play 16 of the games across every platform where Microsoft offers Game Pass. That means that they'll be playable on Xbox and PC, as well as through cloud streaming for those who have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription. You can see the full list at the bottom. According to Microsoft, a "handful" of the games will take advantage of Microsoft's FPS Boost tech, allowing the Xbox Series X and Series S to render them at higher frame rates.
The list represents nearly every great game Bethesda and its satellite studios have released over the last decade and beyond. And that's exactly why Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to acquire the company. Moving forward, Game Pass subscribers can expect more Bethesda titles to make their way to the service. "If you're an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists," Xbox chief Phil Spencer said during the recent Xbox-Bethesda roundtable.
Dishonored Definitive Edition (Console, PC and Cloud)
Dishonored 2 (Console, PC and Cloud)
Doom (Console, PC and Cloud)
Doom II (Console, PC and Cloud)
Doom 3 (Console, PC and Cloud)
Doom 64 (Console, PC and Cloud)
Doom Eternal (Console, PC and Cloud)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Console and PC)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Console and PC)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (Console, PC and Cloud)
The Elder Scrolls Online (Cloud and Console)
The Evil Within (Console, PC and Cloud)
Fallout 4 (Console, PC and Cloud)
Fallout 76 (Console, PC and Cloud)
Fallout: New Vegas (Console)
Prey (Console, PC and Cloud)
Rage 2 (Console, PC and Cloud)
Wolfenstein: The New Order (Console, PC Cloud)
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Console, PC and Cloud)
Square Enix will share details on the next Life is Strange game on March 18th. Next Thursday, the company plans to devote 40 minutes starting at 1 PM ET to its upcoming slate of games, with the next entry in Dontnod’s narrative adventure series headlining the presentation. With its April 1st release date quickly approaching, looter shooter Outriders will also get top billing.
The company also promised to detail multiple new games from Square Enix Montreal, its in-house mobile developer. The studio has been quiet since the release of 2016's excellent Deus Ex Go. And speaking of games you can play on your phone, there will be a segment devoted to Just Cause Mobile. Given Square Enix’s website says the game is “coming soon,” we can probably expect the company to share a release date. If you can’t catch the presentation, don’t worry. Engadget will have you covered with stories on all of the major announcements.
If you own a Mac, there’s a good chance you spent quite a bit of money to buy it. If for no other reason than that, you should take care of your computer. Not only will it work better over its life, but you’ll also be able to potentially sell it for more money if you ever decide to part with it. In this how-to, we’ll share some tips on how to take care of your Mac. It’s impossible to cover the topic of computer maintenance from every angle, so think of this guide as more of an introduction to some organizational features and apps you may not have known about.
How to clean your Mac’s screen and body
While there are a lot of products you can buy that are specially made to help you with cleaning your computer, I’ve found the simplest approach works best — and it’s the one Apple recommends. To start, all you’ll need is some water in a spray bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use either regular or distilled water. The advantage of the latter is that it’s far less likely to leave any residue on your Mac, particularly on the display. You can buy distilled water at a grocery store or make it yourself with some simple cookware. Either way, it’s more affordable than dedicated cleaning solutions and more versatile. If you don’t already own any microfiber cloths, Amazon sells affordable 24-packs you can get for about $15.
Two other products I’ve found that can make the job easier are Whoosh screen cleaner and a Giottos Rocket Blower. I can’t say enough good things about the latter. It will save you from buying expensive and wasteful cans of compressed air. Lastly, if you want to disinfect your computer, Apple recently said it’s safe to use isopropyl alcohol and Clorox wipes.
As for the process of cleaning your Mac, the most important tip to remember is to start with a clean cloth (that’s part of the reason we recommend buying them in bulk). You’ll save yourself time and frustration this way. Begin by turning off your computer and unplugging it. If you went out and bought a Rocket Blower, use it now to remove any dust. If not, take a dry microfiber cloth and go over your computer. Take special care around the keys, particularly if you own a Mac with a butterfly keyboard.
At this point, you can wipe down your computer with a disinfecting wipe. Otherwise, dampen one side of your cleaning cloth with either water or Whoosh. Never spray any liquid directly on your computer. You’ll have more control this way and you’ll avoid getting any moisture into your Mac’s internals. I always clean the display first since the last thing I want to do is create more work for myself by transferring dirt from some other part of my computer to the screen. The last step is to buff and polish your computer with the dry side of the cloth. That’s it. Your Mac should be looking clean again.
How to organize your hard drive
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
One of the hardest parts of cleaning your Mac’s hard drive is knowing where to start. After all, most of us have apps on our computers we don’t even remember installing in the first place. Thankfully, macOS comes with a tool to help you with that exact issue.
Navigate to the “Storage” section of the “About This Mac” menu and click the “Manage…” option. Here you’ll find a tool that sorts your files into broad categories and offers recommendations on how to free up space on your hard drive. You can use those in combination with the handy “Show in finder” button at the bottom of the interface to quickly navigate your hard drive. No need to search for files manually.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
The section dedicated to applications is particularly helpful since you can see the last time you used a program, as well as if it’s no longer supported by the operating system or if it’s outdated thanks to a more recent release.
You don’t need me to tell you to uninstall programs you don’t use, but what you might not know is that there’s a better way to erase them than simply dragging them to the trash can. A free program called AppCleaner will help you track down any files and folders that would get left behind if you were just to delete an application.
After deleting any apps you don’t need, move to the documents section. The name is somewhat misleading here since you’ll find more than just text files and excel spreadsheets. Documents, in this case, turns out to be the tool’s catch-all term for a variety of files, including ones that take up a large amount of space and DMGs you may have forgotten to dismount. The other sections on the sidebar are self-explanatory. The only other thing I’ll mention is if you’ve been using an iPhone for a while, there’s a good chance you’ll have old iOS backups stored on your computer. You can safely delete those too.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
By this point, your hard drive should be in pretty good shape. If you want to take some additional steps to clean it, there are dedicated apps that can help. I like one called CleanMyMac X. At $51 per year, it’s on the expensive side, but will save you the time and trouble of doing everything I mentioned above (and then some) on your own. It also doubles as a malware removal tool.
Tips and tricks for keeping a neat Desktop and Finder
Igor Bonifacic
Let’s start with the menu bar. It may not technically be part of the desktop, but a tidy one can go a long way toward making everything else look less cluttered. My recommendation here is to download a $15 app called Bartender. At first glance, it’s a simple program allowing you to hide unwanted menu bar items behind a three dots icon. However, the strength of Bartender is that you get a lot of customization options. For example, you can set a trigger that will automatically move the battery status icon out from hiding when your computer isn’t connected to a power outlet.
While we’re on the subject of the menu bar, take a second to open your Mac’s System Preferences menu and go to the “Users & Groups” section. Now click on the “Login Items” tab at the top of the interface and take a look at all the apps that launch when you boot up your system. You can speed up your system by paring this list down to only the programs you use most often.
When it comes to the desktop itself, the best advice is less is more. Nothing will make your computer look like a cluttered mess more than a busy desktop. Folders and stacks can help, but, for most people, I suspect part of the problem is they use their desktop as a way to quickly and easily find files that are important to them.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
If you’ve ever struggled to find a specific file or folder on your computer, try using your Mac’s tagging capabilities instead. Start by opening the Finder preferences menu(“command” + “,”) and click the “Tags” tab. You can use the default ones provided by macOS or make your own. Either way, drag the ones you think you’ll use most often to the favorites areas at the bottom of the preferences window. This will make it so that they’re easily accessible when you want to use them. To append a tag to a file or folder, click on it while holding the ctrl key and select the one you want from the dropdown menu. You can also tag a file while working on it within an app. Keep in mind you can apply multiple tags to a single file or folder. You can even apply them to applications.
What makes tags so useful in macOS is that they can appear in the sidebar of the Finder and are easily searchable either directly through the Finder or using Siri. As long as you have a system for organizing your files, even a simple one, you’ll find it easier to keep track of them. As one example, I like to apply an Engadget tag to any files related to my work. I’ll add an “Important” tag if it’s something that’s critical and I want to find quickly.
How to organize your windows and tabs
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
There’s one last app I’d like to suggest in closing out this article. If you’ve used both macOS and Windows 10, you’ll know that Apple’s operating system doesn’t come with the best window management tools. You can click and hold on the full-screen icon to tile a window to either the left or right side of your screen, but that’s about it and the feature has always felt less precise than its Windows counterpart.
My suggestion is to download an app that replicates Windows 10’s snapping feature. You have several competing options that more or less offer the same functionality. My go-to is a $5 program called Magnet. If you want a free alternative, check out Rectangle. Another option is BetterSnapTool, which offers more functionality than Magnet but doesn’t have as clean of an interface. All three apps give you far more ways to configure your windows than what you get through the built-in tool in macOS. They also come with shortcut support, which means you can quickly set up your windows and get to work.
If you have any interest at all in electronic music, you owe it to yourself to check out Google’s latest Arts & Culture exhibit. Music, Makers and Machines celebrates the history of the genre, highlighting the people, sounds and technologies that helped make electronic music what it is today. Google got help on the project from more than 50 international institutions, record labels and industry experts, including the Moogseum.
One highlight is an entire section devoted to the early days of Dubstep. You’ll find short, written segments on artists like Burial and the subgenre's development complemented by photos and YouTube videos. You can even use Google Street View to explore the locations of long-closed but seminal clubs like Plastic People. Another compelling exhibit explores the role Black artists and musicians have played in pushing the boundaries of electronic music. That said, the highlight of the exhibit is an AR synth module that allows you to play around with five classic instruments, including the Roland CR-78 and Akai S900. Speaking of synths, Google has uploaded 3D models of some of the most iconic ones.
You can check out Music, Makers and Machines online, as well as through the Google Arts & Culture app on Android and iOS.
Lou Ottens, the former Philips engineer who gave the world its first compact cassette tape, has passed away. According to Dutch news outlet NRC Handelsblad, Ottens was 94 when he died on March 6th.
Ottens started work on the cassette tape in the early 1960s. The way NPR tells the story, he wanted to develop a way for people to listen to music that was affordable and accessible in the way that large reel-to-reel tapes at the time were not. So he first created a wooden prototype that could fit in his pocket to help guide the project. He also worked to convince Philips to license his invention to other manufacturers for free. Philips went on to introduce the first "compact cassette" in 1963, and the rest, as they say, is history. But that wasn't the end of Ottens' career. He went on to help Philips and Sony develop the compact disc.
It's difficult to overstate the importance of cassette tapes to music culture. We wouldn't have mixtapes and playlists without them. What's more, they allowed people to listen to their favorite songs and albums on the go. No ads or input from a radio DJ. That's something that has come to define how people enjoy music ever since. And for all of their flaws, in recent years, cassette tapes have enjoyed something of a resurgence in popularity. In 2016, sales of the format increased by 74 percent. Two years later, they grew another 23 percent with help from the soundtracks of Stranger Thingsand Guardians of the Galaxy.
With upcoming national elections in five European countries, Microsoft is making some of the more advanced features of its AccountGuard service available to additional groups and individuals at no additional cost. AccountGuard is a program Microsoft offers to people and organizations at higher risk of being targeted by hackers. Typically that has meant politicians, but near the start of the pandemic, the company made the tool available to healthcare workers and humanitarian organizations at no cost. In practice, the service provides notifications from Microsoft when the company detects an attack and guidance on how to stop it.
As part of today's expansion, Microsoft is making the service's enterprise-grade identity and access management features available to all AccountGuard members in '31' democracies at no additional cost. Some of those more advanced features include multi-factor authentication and single sign-on service. The company trialed a similar expansion ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, providing political campaigns and parties access to those features. Microsoft also plans to provide up to 25,000 YubiKeys to AccountGuard customers. Depending on the size of the organization, the company will have multiple free keys on offer.
The expansion is timely for a couple of reasons. With national elections coming up in the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Estonia and the Czech Republic, Microsoft hopes to protect them from disinformation campaigns. It also was only last year that Russian state-sponsored hackers pulled off the SolarWinds attack. The US government is still sorting through all the damage left by the hack, and even Microsoft wasn't left unscathed.
The next time you’re browsing through your Twitter timeline on your phone, you may notice a small but impactful change to how the service handles images. With a small subset of iOS and Android users, Twitter has started testing full-sized picture previews, allowing users to see timeline images in their original aspect ratio.
Before starting today’s test, Twitter cropped all non-16:9 images to maintain uniformity on your timeline. Provided a tweet only includes one image and it’s in a relatively standard aspect ratio, the change will make it so that you don’t have to tap on an image to see it in its entirety. In theory, that should make the experience of browsing through your timeline more streamlined.
Additionally, the company announced that it’s also testing a feature that allows people to upload 4K-quality images from their iPhone or Android device. In the “Data usage” section of the settings menu, you’ll see a toggle to enable high-quality image uploads.
It might seem like a small thing for Twitter to change how it displays images, but it’s a significant one all the same. Over the years, there have been a lot of complaints about how the service handles images. Those came to a head last year when people found that Twitter’s image-cropping algorithm was focusing on white faces over black ones. “With this test, we hope to learn if this new approach is better and what changes we need to make to provide a ‘what you see is what you get’ experience for tweets with images,” said Twitter Chief Design Officer Dantley Davis of the test.
Twitter hasn’t said when the cropping change could make its way to all users. As with any test, the company could decide to keep things the way they are.
At this point in its history, Volvo’s Polestar brand is best known for making upscale EVs like the $60,000 Polestar 2. That’s what makes its latest project, Re:Move, so unusual. It’s a three-wheeled electric sled that came out of a remote collaboration between the automaker, industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, electric motorcycle maker Cake, aluminum manufacturer Hydro and Wallpaper Magazine. The group says they set out to re-envision what last-mile delivery could look like in a post-pandemic world. Re:Move is the result of that collaboration.
Polestar
There aren't many details on the EV just yet, but Polestar says it's designed to be compact enough to drive in most bike lanes while carrying approximately 600 pounds of cargo. The frame is also made from fully recycled aluminum. As a cyclist, I’m not sure how I feel about sharing a bike lane with what is essentially an oversized e-bike, but at least it’s better than a parked FedEx or UPS truck forcing cyclists into a car lane.
What’s more, Polestar seems serious about turning Re:Move into something that could eventually make its way to city streets. The company says it will unveil a working version of the Re:Move this fall. In the meantime, it will host an SXSW session detailing the work that went into the design on March 17th.
