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Showing posts from April, 2022

Netflix cancels 'Space Force' after second season amid company layoffs and shake up

Netflix has canceled "Space Force" starring Steve Carrell, John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, and other notable actors after just its second season, another sign of a shake-up at the video streaming giant. Space Force, which premiered in May 2020 with a 10-episode run, was picked up for a second season that aired in February 2022. The show has received mixed reviews overall and has struggled to break into the top 10 in Nielsen's overall streaming ranking, though it topped out at number 7 in the streaming originals category according to Deadline , which broke the news of the cancellation.  In addition to Carrell, Malkovich, and Schwartz, the show featured Tawny Newsome, Dianna Silvers, Don Lake, and Jimmy O. Yang. The show centered around the newest branch of the US Military, the eponymous US Space Force, and its struggles to find its footing and be taken seriously by the government that created it. Metaphors don't hit harder, folks. Analysis: Speaking of struggles...

Intel CEO confirms Arc Alchemist cards will launch by June

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed this week that Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards will launch in Q2 2022. "AXG [Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group] is on track," Gelsinger said . "And we launched the mobile SKUs. We'll have the desktop SKUs coming in Q2. And we'll have more SKUs as we go through the year as well. We'll be filling out the product line." Back in February, Intel announced that "AXG expects to ship more than 4 million discrete GPUs in 2022” in an investor press kit before confirming that their launch would be delayed until May or June of this year. Analysis: Will the Intel Arc Alchemist be worth the wait? Though it’s pretty clear that Intel has launched the Arc Alchemist mobile GPUs first in order to test them out before the all-important PC launch, Intel’s flagship desktop GPU looks promising. We saw reports back in January that Intel’s Arc Alchemist XE 512 GPU could rival the Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti in power, w

The best sales to shop today: Moccamaster, Lenovo, Gap and more

Today, you’ll find a deal on the Technivorm Moccamaster Drip 53941 KBGV Coffee Brewer , a discounted Lenovo Smart Clock and savings at Gap . All that and more below. Technivorm Moccamaster Drip 53941 KBGV Coffee Brewer $349 $279 $279 at Amazon Technivorm Moccamaster 53941 KBGV Wayfair The Technivorm Moccamaster 59636 KBG, our luxury pick for best drip coffee maker , is beloved for its innovative and old-school industrial design as well as its delivery of reliably great coffee. Right now you can score the practically identical 53941 KBGV model on sale at Amazon. Just like our pick, it’s handmade and tested in the Netherlands and brews a perfect cup of coffee every time. Aurate New York 25% off sitewide Aurate

The best laptop deals at Amazon ahead of Amazon Prime Day

The best laptop deals right now include some of the most popular laptop releases of the past few years. Getty Images New laptop models are starting to roll out, and you know what that means: You don't have to wait for Amazon Prime Day to save money on a new laptop. Top brands such as Apple and Samsung tend to clear out their inventories when they debut new models, and that's good news for folks looking for a laptop deal right now on Amazon. Top products in this article: Best Apple MacBook deal:  Apple MacBook Air (Apple M1, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD), $949 (reduced from $1,000) Best Samsung laptop deal:  15.6" Samsung Chromebook 4 (Intel Celeron Processor N4000, 6GB RAM), $270 (reduced from $350) Best gaming laptop deal:  15.6" Acer Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop, $1,399 (reduced from $1,500) With new models coming in, there are deals being offered on many older models so retailers can c

Belkin denies report that it’s launching a truly wireless charger

This morning, we heard some news that would be exciting if true — that Belkin is working on what could be the very first consumer gadget with truly wireless charging, the kind that actually beams a small amount of power through the air and across a room. That’s what Wi-Charge founder and chief business officer Ori Mor told TechCrunch this morning — going so far as to claim that Belkin would launch a specific, “center-stage consumer product” with the tech later this year. But Belkin is now denying much of that report, telling The Verge that not only is there no product as of today, but the two companies also haven’t even moved to the product concept phase yet. Belkin spokesperson Jen Wei confirmed that Wi-Charge and Belkin do have a partnership to explore some product concepts but that “the TechCrunch story has taken liberties for sure on what we are able to promise right now.” “Currently our agreement with Wi-Charge only commits us to R&D on some product concepts so it’

These ultra-pure diamonds could be the key to unleashing the power of quantum computing

By working together with academic researchers, a Japanese jewelry firm has developed a new production method to create 2-inch diamond wafers that could soon be used in quantum computers . Adamant Namiki Precision Jewelry collaborated with Saga University in Kyushu to create its new “Kenzan Diamonds” which are pure enough to be used in quantum computing. While diamond wafers with the required purity do exist, up until now they were too small (no larger than a 4mm square) to be used in quantum computing applications According to a press release put out by Adamant Namiki, previous attempts to grow 2-inch diamond wafers failed due to the fact that they had higher levels of nitrogen impurities. Fortunately, the Japanese jewelry firm has developed a new technique that makes it possible to grow large diamond wafers with less impurities. Instead of using diamond micro-needle seeding, Adamant Namiki and Saga University’s new technique grows diamond wafers on a sapphire substrate coated wit

It's possible Apple's Private Relay VPN isn't so private after all

A potential security flaw in iCloud Private Relay can lead Apple’s VPN to ignore firewall rules and send some data back to the iPhone maker’s servers. This leak itself was first discovered by the VPN company Mullvad which was monitoring network connections while working on its own app. Share your thoughts on Cybersecurity and get a free copy of the Hacker's Manual 2022 . Help us find how businesses are preparing for the post-Covid world and the implications of these activities on their cybersecurity plans. Enter your email at the end of this survey to get the bookazine, worth $10.99/£10.99. For those unfamiliar, Private Relay functions in a similar way to a VPN tunnel or how Tor works by routing a user’s encrypted network through relay servers before it reaches the internet. The service is currently still in beta and is only available in certain regions though it also requires a paid iCloud+ subscription. TechRadar Pro reached out to Apple regarding this po

Matt Reeves’ Batman is getting a sequel

The new movie was just announced. | Image: Warner Bros. Robert Pattinson’s Batman will make a return, as Warner Bros. is making a sequel to Matt Reeves’ The Batman . Deadline reports Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group exec Toby Emmerich announced the new film at CinemaCon on Tuesday. While my colleague Charles Pulliam-Moore felt that the film was “one of the lesser entries, substance-wise, in the grand Batman cinematic canon,” it has proven to be a hit. The movie earned $760 million at the global box office and was watched by 4.1 million households on HBO Max the first week it was available, according to Deadline . (The movie came to the streaming service earlier this month. ) Both Reeves and Pattinson will be back for the new movie, though there aren’t many other details known just yet. But the film isn’t the only thing to look forward to in Reeves’ Batman universe, as there’s also a spinoff about Colin Farrell’s Penguin in the works for HBO Max . Source: The Verge

New pictures show the leaked Pixel Watch on a wrist

Circular. | Image: u/tagtech414 We’re now getting a look at what the leaked Pixel Watch looks like strapped to somebody’s wrist, courtesy of Reddit user tagtech414, who’s previously shared alleged images of Google’s as-yet-unannounced wearable ( via 9to5Google ). In the previous pictures, we could only see the little computer puck itself, not attached to a strap. While tagtech414 doesn’t seem to have successfully booted the device yet, they’ve given us a better idea of what it might be like to actually wear it. According to tagtech’s Reddit post , the strap is “kind of a pain to attach the first time,” but the connection feels solid when it's on there. Based on the images and tagtech’s description of a strap that’s “a soft silicone with good flex and doesn’t seem to show fingerprints/oil too badly,” it sounds similar to an Apple Watch sport band, except slightly narrower. The Redditor says Google’s band is 20mm wide, compared to at least 22mm for Apple’s version. Looks-wise,

Fidelity is rolling out Bitcoin investing for 401(k) plans

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Fidelity will soon start allowing eligible individuals to save a portion of their 401(k) in Bitcoin, the company announced Tuesday . Employees will only gain access to the option if their employer signs off the option, which Fidelity says will start rolling out in mid-2022. While Fidelity doesn’t specify how much employees can dedicate to cryptocurrency in its release, the Wall Street Journal reports that employees can elect to save up to 20 percent of their retirement fund in Bitcoin. Dave Gray, Fidelity’s head of workplace retirement offerings and platforms, also told the WSJ that Fidelity plans on adding support for other cryptocurrencies at some point in the future. MicroStrategy is the first to announce that it has adopted the Bitcoin retirement fund “As a leader in digital assets, we are thrilled to be the first to offer employers exposure to bitcoin for the core lineup of 401(k)s that reflects our commitment to meeting their evol

Microsoft says more than 10 million people have streamed games on Xbox Cloud Gaming

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More than 10 million people have streamed games over Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. Cloud gaming is a feature that’s only available as part of the $14.99 per month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier, so the figure shared Tuesday indicates that a lot of people are checking it out. It’s also a concrete stat in a field where there have been few — Google doesn’t break out numbers for Stadia, and any numbers shared by Nvidia for GeForce Now include people who have used a no-strings-attached free trial. Game Pass has proven to be popular, as Microsoft said in January that the service grew to have 25 million subscribers , which was up from 18 million the year before . That said, it’s unclear how Microsoft is defining what counts as a streamed game from Xbox Cloud Gaming, so we don’t know exactly what the stat might represent, how many current subscribers are included in that st

AMD Radeon RX 6400 might break the hearts of budget overclockers

Last week, AMD quietly launched its Radeon RX 6400 , a budget-friendly graphics card designed for those with low-profile PCs. However, a new review of the card reveals that it has no official overclocking support. It appears that AMD disabled the only way for owners to boost the power of their Navi 24-based GPU, according to a TechPowerUp review of the new card. And with it being an even weaker version of the RX 6500 XT , this could pose a problem for those looking to overclock the graphics card for a little bit of extra power. During its review, TechPowerUp found that AMD completely locked down the RX 6400 in the Radeon WattMan utility. While it still has the OC settings panel, there aren’t any sliders to adjust the clock speeds in its custom settings as would normally be the case. Right now there’s no word on whether this was done intentionally or if it was a mere oversight on AMD’s part. It also remains to be seen whether third-party utilities will be able to overclock the gra

Here's what Elden Ring looks like running on a Game Boy

Elden Ring might be among the most critically acclaimed games to release this year, but the burning questions that's definitely on everyone's mind remains: "why can't I play it on the original Game Boy?" Worry no more, as an Elden Ring fan has begun developing a 'demake' of the FromSoftware epic, scaling down the game's colossal open world to fit on Nintendo's breakout handheld.  And the best part? The developer, Shin, plans to have the Elden Ring demake playable on real hardware. That means if you've got an old Game Boy lying around, you could be playing the Elden Ring demake on that as opposed to an emulator on PC. Shin shared a proof of concept for the demake over on the Elden Ring subreddit (thanks, GamesRadar ) where it quickly went viral. The minute-long proof of concept shows a recreation of Elden Ring's starting location, the Chapel of Anticipati

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer originally looked a lot like Overwatch

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer was originally prototyped as a hero shooter that included PvP and PvE features, before the idea was scrapped in favor of the game’s current online build. That’s according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who confirmed on Reddit that developer 343 Industries was at one point working on multiple prototype builds for Halo Infinite that included hero shooter features. His comments were made in response to YouTuber Chris Ray Gun, who suggested on Twitter that the studio had originally developed Halo Infinite’s multiplayer to be similar to Overwatch, before pivoting to the build that made its way to the final game. “This was actually cut from my article late last year - yes, 343 spent a while prototyping a hero-based system,” Schreier said. “I don't remember exactly when they switched to the current version… but I can confirm that they were working on various hero-based prototypes. In fact, I think there were both PvP and PvE prototypes built.”