Starting today, most Twitch partners and affiliates will be able to dole out emotes to community members just for following them. They can set up to five emotes that followers can use for free by uploading new ones, moving them over from subscriber-only tiers or picking from a selection of default emotes created by Twitch. The livestreaming platform started testing follower emotes last June, and now they're more broadly available.

There's one caveat: to offer follower emotes, a streamer will need to be eligible for instant emote uploads. That feature allows streamers to add emotes that their communities can access immediately without manual review by Twitch staff. Creators' accounts need to be in good standing to be eligible (they can't have been suspended within the previous 60 days, for instance).

If they lose instant upload eligibility, streamers can still rearrange and delete existing follower emotes — they won't be able to add new ones or reassign emotes from other tiers.

Until now, channel-specific emotes have mostly only been available to subscribers, though some streamers allow viewers to use Channel Points to unlock some emotes. Follower emotes should give streamers another way to make viewers feel as though they're part of a community, even if they're unable to subscribe.

Twitch also said affiliates should gain access to subscriber-only animated emotes this month. Partners can already use animated emotes.

Ahead of a planned enterprise release later this year, Magic Leap has provided a group of healthcare companies with early access to its second-generation augmented reality headset. One of the companies, SentiAR, offers software that allows doctors to see a 3D model of a patient’s heart while they’re operating them. Another company, Brainlab, wants to make its Mixed Reality Viewer software available on Magic Leap 2.

That Magic Leap is making its latest wearable available to digital healthcare startups first isn’t surprising; CEO Peggy Johnson said as much would happen last April. "Augmented reality may transform healthcare more than any other industry, at least in the near term," she said at the time, noting also that the company would focus on enterprise customers at launch.

Magic Leap has famously struggled since its emergence as one of Silicon Valley’s most hyped startups. In 2019, it came out that the company had reportedly only sold 6,000 units of its $2,300 Magic Leap One Creator Edition headset through the first six months that the device was available. It subsequently spent months laying off employees before a $350 million investment gave it a new shot of life.

It's another good year for streaming at the SAG Awards nominations, but who and what got picked is decidedly different this year. Netflix was still the frontrunner with one or more nominations in nearly every category, including multiple picks for The Power of the Dog (three) and Squid Game (four) as well as individual nods for productions like Don't Look Up, Passing and Halston. However, Apple also fared particularly well this year — Ted Lasso received five nominations, while The Morning Show racked up four. Coda and the not-quite-released The Tragedy of Macbeth also burnished Apple's image.

Other services also had their due. Amazon had success with titles like Being the Ricardos and The Tender Bar, while Disney's empire made its presence felt with nominations for The Handmaid's Tale and Disney+ series like Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Netflix also broke a cultural boundary — Squid Gameis the first non-English series to receive a SAG nomination, not to mention the first Korean series. This isn't completely surprising given Netflix's eagerness to produce worldwide blockbusters, but it's notable given how difficult it has been for foreign releases to crack these awards.

Theater- and TV-first material still has a significant presence in SAG's nominations. Nonetheless, it's evident the partial return to normalcy in entertainment only had a limited effect — streamed shows are still thriving in the current awards landscape.

Snapchat is ringing in the new year with a bunch of new features. In the coming days, Android and iOS users will be able to reply to individual messages in chats. So, if a group chat is getting a little out of hand, but you want to keep one aspect of the conversation going, Chat Replies will allow you to start a thread by holding your finger on a message and selecting the Reply option.

You'll soon be able to use Bitmoji reactions in chats. There are seven options to choose from, including thumbs up, thumbs down, a heart, a flame and tears of joy. Again, hold down on a message to add a reaction. Telegram recently added iMessage-style reactions too.

On top of that, Snapchat users can poll friends in snaps and stories. They can respond to your question with an emoji, and you'll be able to see how everyone voted. You'll find the option in the sticker folder.

Snapchat says it's improving the audio and video calling interface too. It should be easier to add lenses and see who has joined a group call before you hop in.

With its landmark climate legislation in jeopardy, the Biden administration has announced a series of new executive actions to accelerate the US’s transition to a clean power grid. On Wednesday, the White House said it would allocate billions toward projects that lead to the construction of more wind, solar and geothermal energy across the country.

Specifically, the administration announced it’s moving forward with the lease of six commercial areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey for use in wind farm projects. On offer is more than 488,000 acres of ocean seafloor for the winning bidders to build an estimated 5.6 and 7 gigawatts of clean power generation. As part of the bidding process, the White House says it will incentivize participants to support labor jobs and to source turbine components from American manufacturers. The New York Bight development is one of the primary pillars of the Biden administration’s plan to build out 30 gigawatts of offshore wind production by 2030.

Another significant facet of today’s announcement is the “Building a Better Grid” initiative. Pulling from the $65 billion Congress set aside for power grid upgrades when it passed President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the initiative earmarks $2.5 billion toward funding the installation of new transmission lines. It’s putting another $3 billion toward an expansion of the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, which supports projects that increase the capacity and flexibility of existing electrical infrastructure.

The administration notes it will also allocate $10 billion in grants to states, tribes and utility companies to help those groups strengthen their local transmission lines. Taken together, the investments will help modernize the country’s power grid, making it easier to transport renewable energy from remote generation sites to where it’s needed most. It will also harden the power grid against the kind of extreme weather events that have become more commonplace as the effects of climate change have worsened.

Today’s announcement sees the White House putting forward meaningful climate policy, but if the Biden administration is to have a chance of meeting the president’s ambitious goal of decarbonizing the country’s power grid by 2035, it will need to bypass the legislative gridlock that has left the Build Better Back Framework in limbo. Much of that will depend on whether the White House can convince Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia to support the approximately $1.75 trillion climate and social spending bill.

If you thought the PC market's pandemic-era renaissance would continue throughout 2021... you guessed correctly. Canalys estimates PC shipments jumped 15 percent year-over-year to 341 million despite supply shortages. Simply put, many of the customers in 2021 were adding new PCs rather than replacing existing ones. Remote students and seniors were purchasing first computers, for example, while multiple systems were "more common" in some areas.

Canalys

Some PC brands had a better time than others, though. Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and Acer held on to their respective top-five positions in shipments, but Apple and Acer were the shining stars after growing deliveries over 20 percent compared to 2020. Frontrunners Lenovo and HP had the slowest growth of the leaders in 2021, and saw their shipments fall in the very last quarter where other rivals grew. Their size didn't help them capitalize on expanded demand for computers, to put it another way.

It also seems likely that 2022 will be similarly bright. Principal Analyst Rushabh Doshi predicted the new year would be one of "digital acceleration" as people shift toward high-end PCs and accessories that help with remote work. It's too soon to say how accurate that prediction might be, but it coincides with a PC revival we saw at CES — competition appears to be as fierce as ever.

Everyone's favorite pink Nintendo mascot, Kirby, is returning to Switch very soon. Nintendo announced that Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the character's first 3D platformer, will arrive on the console on March 25th. It previously said the game would be out sometime in the spring.

Nintendo also offered another peek at the adorable-looking game with the latest trailer. It shows off some co-op gameplay — a second player can take control of Bandana Waddle Dee — as well as a look at some of Kirby's new copy abilities. After inhaling certain enemies, Kirby can use a blunderbuss or burrow underground. In addition, the trailer includes a glimpse of some minigames, which include serving snacks from a market stall and kicking back with a spot of fishing.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the character's second solo outing on Switch following 2018's Kirby Star Allies. Since then, Kirby has appeared as the protagonist in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate single-player campaign.

Printer makers have long used chips to thwart third-party ink cartridge sales and drive you toward their own products, but they're now feeling the sting of those restrictions. The Register and USA Today note Canon has had to ship toner cartridges without copy protection chips due to ongoing shortages. That, in turn, has led to some ImageRunner multifunction printers incorrectly flagging official cartridges as knockoffs — Canon has even told printer owners how to bypass the warnings and deal with broken toner level detection.

We've asked Canon for comment. Some users said they've encountered similar issues with HP printers, but that company wouldn't directly confirm or deny the problems in a statement to The Register. Instead, HP said it was using a "globally diverse" supply network to stay "agile and adaptable" in the midst of chip shortages.

The printer trouble illustrates one of the common complaints about digital rights management (DRM) and other copy protection systems: they create trouble the moment their designers can't offer full support. Just ask people who bought music tied to Microsoft's PlaysForSure, for example. It's doubtful Canon, HP or others will drop their DRM chips any time soon, but this incident won't exactly help their case.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans will need to wait several more months than expected to get their hands on the latest game in the series. Developer GSC Game World has pushed back the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl release date from April 28th to December 8th.

"These additional seven months of development are needed to fulfill our vision and achieve the desired state of the game," GSC Game World wrote in a statement. "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is the biggest project in the history of GSC and it requires thorough testing and polishing." Perhaps it needs a little more time to get characters' teeth just right.

The studio noted that, although the decision to delay the survival horror game wasn't an easy one, it believes "development should take as long as necessary, especially in the case of such a project." It plans to provide more details about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in the coming months.

The first-person shooter, which will be the first entry in the series since 2009, will initially be available on Xbox Series X/S and PC — it'll debut on Xbox Game Pass. Reports suggest Microsoft has a three-month exclusivity window for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

GSC Game World recently came under fire over its plan to include NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in the game. Just one day later, the studio said it would "cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2" following a major backlash.

Following some small-scale tests in a number of cities since Lime revealed its latest e-bike in March 2021, the company has started making the Gen4 available to users in the US. The first batch of the new model has arrived in Washington DC.

The biggest update this time around is a swappable battery that's interchangeable with Gen4 scooters, which should both save Lime money and bolster sustainability, in part by reducing the number of trips that Lime's charging vans need to make. The latest model also features a more powerful motor than previous generations, automatic two-speed transmission, a phone holder and a revamped handlebar display that matches the one on Lime's scooters. The company says the modular design should boost the usability of Gen4 e-bikes to five years.

Lime said last year it would invest $50 million into the Gen4 e-bike. It aimed to start transitioning to the latest model last summer. However, other than a few small-scale pilots in the fall, it had to put those plans on hold due to supply chain issues.

The company plans to upgrade e-bikes in the cities it currently serves to the Gen4 and expand to more cities this year. For now, 250 Gen4 e-bikes are available in Washington DC. Lime told TechCrunch it plans to replace its entire fleet of 2,500 e-bikes in the city with the Gen4 by April. The new e-bike should hit more cities around the globe this spring, including Atlanta and Charleston.