You can play Hideo Kojima's post-apocalyptic delivery simulator/action game Death Stranding with a PC Game Pass membership in a few days' time. 505 Games first released the game for Windows in 2020, but soon you'll also be able access it through the Microsoft subscription service at no additional cost. The developer says the version heading to the service will include the same features the Steam and Epic Games editions have. Those features include a high frame rate, ultrawide mode, photo mode, hard mode and cross over content from popular franchises like Half-Life and Cyberpunk 2077.
The game will also have unlockable content you can get as you progress and complete more of the story. That said, the version coming to PC Game Pass is not the director's cut that was released more recently, but the original one. Death Stranding was published by Sony Interactive for the PS4 back in 2019 and got the director's cut treatment for the PS5 in 2021. When it comes to consoles, it's still a PlayStation exclusive — you can't play it on the Xbox with a Game Pass. But at least you can test it out for free on PC if you haven't given it a shot yet.
Death Stranding will be available on the PC Game Pass starting on August 23rd. 505 Games also promises to reveal more details in a Community Q&A in the next few days.
Did you know streaming TV was the future? Nielsen data shows streaming TV viewership in the US surpassed cable for the first time this July. About 34.8 percent of viewing time went to shows on internet services — slightly more than the 34.4 percent for cable.
Breaking it down further, Netflix had the largest share (8 percent) thanks largely to demand for Stranger Things 4. Hulu also claimed a record 3.6 percent; Amazon Prime Video picked up 3 percent. YouTube and YouTube TV earned a combined 7.3 percent, but no presence in these figures for Disney+.
The next challenge? Streams haven't yet overtaken traditional TV — broadcasts still represented 21.6 percent according to those July figures. Shouldn’t take too long: Netflix just released a documentary about cats. Broadcast doesn’t stand a chance.
Motorolo’s new Edge 2022 (not to be confused with the Edge+ from earlier this year) has a big 6.6-inch OLED screen featuring a 144Hz refresh rate, similar to its more expensive sibling, along with a sizable 5,000 mAh battery, 6GB or 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. As for its cameras, you also get a familiar 50-megapixel main sensor paired with a lower-res 13MP ultra-wide cam (which can also shoot macros) and a depth sensor to help with portrait-style shots. Between its specs and that $500 launch price, the Edge is looking particularly intriguing.
When Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis first talked about releasing an "American eMuscle" car last year, he said the company's vehicle will "tear up the streets, not the planet." Now, the company has revealed the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept, which looks like a futuristic take on its gas-powered Challenger and Charger muscle cars.
Unlike other electric vehicles that barely make a sound, the all-electric Charger is loud, just like its gas-powered counterparts. The company put an exhaust on the vehicle, even though it doesn't need one and the only thing it emits is sound. "The Charger Daytona SRT Concept voices a 126 dB roar that equals the SRT Hellcat," Dodge wrote in its announcement.
But you'll need an RTX 3080 membership to access the new settings.
NVIDIA is adding a new perk to GeForce Now’s most expensive tier. Starting today, you can stream games at 1440p and 120 frames per second through a browser. The new performance setting is available exclusively through GeForce Now’s $20 per month RTX 3080 membership and only Google Chrome on PC. Remember: You might need a compatible display to do it justice.
Given how much content the service is removing and canceling.
You get 30 percent off HBO Max’s streaming service if you sign up for a year (over 40 percent compared with a monthly plan). If you don't mind dealing with ads, the service will cost $70 for 12 months, down from the usual $100. HBO Max is introducing the offer just days before the Game of Thrones spin-off show House of the Dragon premieres. However, Warner Bros. Discovery has been culling content and canceling high-profile original movies as part of a major cost-cutting drive.
These tools may actually make you want to hit the books.
Sure, we might recommend laptops, but that’s just the start. You might want to consider a laptop stand for preventing neck and arm pain, or a pair of noise-canceling headphones for blocking out distractions. From an external keyboard to a USB dock, we have suggestions on how to improve those long study sessions.
YouTube wants everyone to know if you're simply cross-posting your Shorts to TikTok or Instagram Reels. In an update on its community help center, a Team YouTube member has announced that the website has started adding watermarks to Shorts downloaded from its Studio portal for creators. YouTube will start by watermarking Shorts you create on desktop over the coming weeks before expanding to mobile over the next months.
After TikTok exploded in popularity, other internet companies realized that short-form videos had won over the younger generation and had quickly developed new products to rival the platform. If you spend time consuming videos on several apps and websites, though, you can easily see that creators tend to repost the same videos across multiple services — a lot of Instagram Reels, for instance, are also TikTok videos.
The Google-owned website said that it's watermarking Shorts so "viewers can see that the content [the user is] sharing across platforms can be found on YouTube Shorts." It sounds like it's hoping that the new feature could raise awareness that it hosts short-form videos, as well, and get you to try it and use it over its competitors.
Apple has released a fix for a zero-day vulnerability that bad actors could exploit to take full control of an iPhone, an iPad or a computer running macOS Monterey. The tech giant's security advisory is pretty light on details, but it has identified CVE-2022-3289 as a vulnerability discovered by an anonymous researcher. It says the flaw could be exploited "to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges," which means attackers could act as the user and gain admin control of the target device. The company says it's aware that the vulnerability may have already been exploited.
In addition, Apple has also rolled out a fix for a vulnerability affecting WebKit, the engine used by Safari, Mail and many other iOS and macOS apps. According to the company, it allows attackers to arbitrarily execute code and could hence be used to, among other things, download more malware. Like the first vulnerability, Apple credits an anonymous researcher for the discovery of this flaw — it also knows that it may have already been exploited and used to compromise iOS and Mac devices.
Both flaws are present in macOS Monterey 12.5.1, and Apple has rolled out a patch for the operating system. They both affect the same set of iPhones and iPads, as well, particularly: iPhone 6s and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, iPad mini 4 and later and iPod touch (7th generation). Since both flaws are likely being actively exploited right now, it's probably wise for owners of all the aforementioned devices to install the patches by downloading the latest software update.
Monterey Car Week has been a hotbed of EV debuts this year with unveilings from Dodge, Acura, DeLorean and a host of other automakers. On Thursday, Lincoln revealed the Model L100, its futuristic foray into electrified mobility, which draws inspiration from the company’s very first luxury sedan, the 1922 Model L.
Lincoln Motors
Like its pre-Depression predecessor, the Model L100 exhibits a shocking degree of opulence. “Next generation battery cell and pack technologies,” read the Thursday release, will deliver “game changing energy density,” while the steering wheel will be replaced with a “jewel-inspired chess piece controller that captures light and depth by redefining the vehicle controls inside the cabin.” That fancy yoke won’t be much use for actual steering thanks to the vehicle’s theoretical autonomous driving capabilities taking care of the navigating.
Lincoln Motor Comapny
“Concept vehicles allow us to reimagine and illustrate how new experiences can come to life with the help of advanced technologies and allow our designers more creative freedom than ever before,” Anthony Lo, Ford’s chief design officer, in a statement. “With the Model L100, we were able to push the boundaries in ways that evolve our Quiet Flight brand DNA and change the way we think about Lincoln designs of tomorrow."
Lincoln Motor Comapny
Other fantastical design details include animal-free interiors with front row seats that can flip to face the rear passengers (good thing the car’s driving itself), a digital floor and canopy that can project realistic animated scenes onto the floor and ceiling, a full-length hinged glass roof and reverse-hinged doors that open up like a lily.
Lincoln Motors
There's no word yet on when the production vehicle spawned from this concept will arrive. Unfortunately many of the ideas presented here will inevitably be cut, going the way of Mercedes’ awesome, Avatar-inspired trunk hatch wigglers.
NASA is breaking new ground for astronauts. As Indian Country Todayreports, the agency recently confirmed that Marine Corps Col. Nicole Aunapu Mann will be the first Native American woman to travel to space. The Wailacki tribe member will serve as the mission commander for the SpaceX-powered Crew-5 mission heading to the International Space Station as soon as September 29th. When she arrives, Mann will be ISS Expedition 68's flight engineer during a six-month stay.
The Crew-5 mission will also ferry NASA's Josh Cassada, Japan's Koichi Wakata and Russia's Anna Kikina to the ISS. Chickasaw Nation member John Herrington was the first Native American of any gender to visit space, flying aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2002.
Mann has a background well-suited to spaceflight. She started her career as a Navy aviator and has flown the F/A-18 Hornet while supporting missions operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. She also earned her master's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford. NASA chose Mann as one of eight astronaut candidates in 2013. That group has since become influential, producing influential figures like Anne McClain, Jessica Meir and Crew Dragon pilot Victor Glover. Some of them, including Mann, have made NASA's shortlist for the first crewed Artemis missions to the Moon.
For Mann, this first spaceflight isn't just historic. In her interview with ICT, she saw the trip as smashing "barriers" for Native American children who didn't think they could become astronauts. It won't be surprising if more follow her before long.
The "brown noise" is a legendary tone purportedly capable of causing people to lose control of their bowels when subjected to its gut-punching harmonic resonance. South Park did a whole thing on it. Turns out that the 5400 RPM hard drives from a number of old Windows-era laptops possess a brown note of their own: Janet Jackson's 1989 mega-hit 'Rhythm Nation.'
According to Microsoft Software Engineer, Raymond Chen, who recounted the tale in a Microsoft Developers Blogpost earlier this week, "a major computer manufacturer discovered" that playing the music video (above) would not only crash the hard drive of the laptop it was running on but also any other similar model within earshot.
The Mitre Corporation was not amused by this newfound vulnerability, issuing it an entry in the CVE database. After a thorough investigation, the device manufacturer confirmed that the song contained one of the natural resonant frequencies of the hard drives playing the song essentially rattled the devices apart. Rather than recall untold numbers of decades-old drives, the manufacturer instead opted to develop a workaround by "adding a custom filter in the audio pipeline that detected and removed the offending frequencies during audio playback," according to Chen.
The union of HBO Max and Discovery+ is already causing pain through layoffs, and now the move is affecting some shows. Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed to Variety that it's removing 36 titles from HBO Max as soon as this week while it prepares for the Discovery+ platform merger. Most of the productions aren't huge, but they do include recognizable HBO work like the Sesame Street spinoff The Not-too-Late-Show with Elmo and the Peter Dinklage movie My Dinner with Hervé. A handful of Cartoon Network shows are leaving.
In a statement, HBO Max said content would disappear from both services as it worked to bring the media libraries "together under one platform." The provider didn't elaborate on its reasoning, although Variety noted that pulling the shows outright (instead of canceling future seasons) would help HBO Max avoid paying more royalties. Warner Bros. Discovery said it would find $3 billion in savings as part of the corporate merger.
As you might imagine, at least some affected producers aren't happy — this not only cuts off income, but might prevent people from seeing their work unless it finds another home. Summer Camp Island creator Julia Pott noted that some episodes developed during the pandemic will never see the light of day. Warner Bros. Discovery has "no respect for artists," she said.
The combination of HBO Max and Discovery+ is expected to launch in summer 2023. While it's not clear if Warner Bros. Discovery will drop more shows or otherwise slash costs, this latest move won't be reassuring if you were hoping your favorite series would make the leap to the unified service.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, a four vs. one multiplayer game, will arrive in the midst of spooky season. The game will hit the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 18th.
You can either play as a ghost or one of four Ghostbusters trying to hunt it down with the help of gadgets like the PKE Meter, Particle Thrower and Ghost Trap. The ghost can slime and stun the humans, teleport between rifts and possess objects.
There's full multiplayer support across all platforms, though you'll need a PS Plus or Xbox Live Gold membership to play online on PlayStation or Xbox. If you'd rather play solo as either a ghost or Ghostbuster, AI bots can fill out the other four slots.
Preorders are now open for Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, which is from Predator: Hunting Grounds studio Illfonic. If you lock in a digital preorder, you'll get advance access to a custom Particle Thrower and Proton Pack, Slimer and special clothing colorways.
A firm contracted by Meta recently told dozens of its workers that their work for Facebook “was soon being taken away,” according to a new report from Insider. The cuts affect about 60 employees of Accenture, a firm that oversees teams of Facebook moderators and other contractors.
The reasons for the cuts are unclear as workers were not given an explanation for the changes. According to Insider, workers were informed of the news during a hastily scheduled video call during which nameless Accenture representatives told the contractors they had been selected “at random” via an algorithm.
Facebook declined to comment to Insider and an Accenture rep denied that “layoff actions” had taken place. Affected workers were reportedly told they could reapply and interview for new roles within the firm.
The cuts come as Meta faces unprecedented challenges to its business amid an economic downturn and hits to its advertising business. The company, which recently reported shrinking revenue for the first time in its history after losing billions of dollars on its virtual reality division, has already drastically cut hiring plans and told managers to weed out low performers. The company also cut back some of its famously extravagant employee perks, like onsite laundry service, earlier this year. Meta employees are reportedly concerned that the company could slash its workforce by as much as 10 percent, though the company has so far denied it has plans for mass layoffs.
