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 Apple seeded the release candidate version of iOS 18.2 today, which means it's going to see a public launch imminently. Release candidates represent the final version of new software that will be provided to the public should no last minute bugs be found, and Apple includes release notes with the RC launch.
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It's Thursday, which means that Epic Games has a fresh pair of PC games on its storefront for folks to claim for free. One of this week's options is a humdinger. Until 11AM on December 12, you can snap up Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for exactly zero dollars.
This is easily the best Lego game I've played, and probably the best Star Wars title. You don't have to start with The Phantom Menace if that name still causes you anguish 25 years later, though you'll play through the stories of all nine core Star Wars films. The game has that trademark Lego brand of silly humor with clever (and often very funny) riffs on famous moments from the movies. As you might imagine, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is packed with Easter eggs. It looks terrific too. There are a lot of reasons why this was one of my favorite games of 2022.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is not perfect, though. Reports that developers at TT Games were pushed to work long hours to finish the game cast a dark shadow over it. In addition, the collectathon aspects may start to feel like a slog if you plan to reach 100 percent completion. Still, there's potentially dozens of hours of family fun here, and you'll be able to hop in gratis.
There's one other free title on the Epic Games Store this week in the form of Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop. I hope that's also a fun game for people who check it out, but I'll never know myself!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-is-free-on-the-epic-games-store-160712375.html?src=rss
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Microsoft is pitching Copilot Vision as a collaborative assistant that works along with you as you browse the Internet. Vision was part of a suite of new Copilot demonstrations that Microsoft showed off in October, and was easily the most underwhelming example of new Copilot technologies that I'd seen.
Copilot Vision isn't a multimodal AI capability that can interpret the world around you. Instead, it's a cross between Windows Recall and the current version of Copilot. Vision is basically a real-time version of Copilot that's only available in Microsoft's Edge browser. Instead of asking Copilot for insights, Vision apparently can "scan, analyze and offer insights" based on what your eyes, and its AI sensors, see on the page.
Where might Copilot Vision be useful? Dealing with an overwhelming array of information, possibly. Think of a densely packed shopping page, all with similar products; making sense of the mess is what Copilot Vision promises. In this scenario, asking Copilot Vision what items meet your preferences, or offer the most value based on the available features, might be of interest.
In the October demonstration Copilot didn't offer anything insightful, often basically reading aloud what it — and presumably you — saw on the page. Furthermore, Microsoft is taking a very hesitant approach to Vision, possibly as a reaction to the
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The feature uses AI to convey details like intensity of speech and background sounds in videos and livestreams.
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At the time, according to the Windows Insider blog post, the changes were only available to Windows Insiders across all Insider Channels, with the promise that those changes would "also start rolling out to non-Insiders soon." That day is now here.
The Microsoft Store's new product page experience involves a revamped interface that highlights apps and games that may be of interest to you. Furthermore, for apps and games that have video trailers, you can watch them while browsing without having to leave the Store. If a product page doesn't have a trailer, it'll now show a hero image instead. (If you don't want trailers to autoplay, you can disable that in the settings.) The new product page experience is available to all regardless of whether you're using dark mode or light mode.
Other Microsoft Store improvements include:
Version notes for app updates, which show details provided by the developer or publisher about what you can expect in the current version of the app. Not all apps have version notes, though.
A new download progress bar that replaces the old circular progress bar, which wasn't as intuitive. This new progress bar also includes more info, like download size and progress percentage.
Faster Microsoft Store performance with the
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 In watchOS 11.2, Apple has added a useful new feature that's designed to allow you to pause video that you're recording on the iPhone using the Camera Remote app on the Apple Watch.
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You don't have to handle all the cleaning at home when you've got a robot vacuum at 40% off to take care of it.
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 The upcoming iOS 18.2 update expands the hearing test feature on the AirPods Pro 2 to nine additional countries, including Cyprus, Czechia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, according to Apple. The feature first launched in the U.S. and select other countries in late October.
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 With the iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2, tvOS 18.2, and HomePod 18.2 software updates, Apple has added a new natural language search feature for Apple Music and Apple TV.
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Get this beast of a EcoFlow Power Station for over 50% off at Amazon right now.
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Such third-party apps will be labeled as "provided and updated by" their respective developers or publishers, and these apps will appear in the general update list that appears in the Microsoft Store when you select Get updates. Prior to this, only apps that were hosted on Microsoft's system could be updated in this fashion.
Note that this new update process does not work with apps that were downloaded outside the Microsoft Store, such as from a product page or on GitHub. It only applies to apps that are listed in the Microsoft Store but configured to download from a third-party source.
The new Microsoft Store third-party app update feature is currently only available to Windows Insiders. It's unknown when it will appear in the stable version of the operating system.
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Spotify Wrapped proves to be a challenge for parents of young children. Here's how to save your year-end music playlist.
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We know how daunting sifting through Amazon can be, so we did it for you, handpicking the best deals we could find in key tech categories. (There's a lot of PC gear, since this is PCWorld, but also other goodies like earbuds, smartwatches, power banks, and more.) Every pick is something someone at PCWorld either has or would love to get themselves. We've relentlessly scoured the price, the specs, the reviews, brand reputations, and everything in between.
Our list of the top Amazon holiday tech deals will change every so often as some deals vanish into thin air while others take their place. We'll be updating this frequently, so if you don't find something you love today, make sure to check back in a couple of days.
Great tech deals under $50 on Amazon
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Oura is moving a respiratory sickness detection feature out of beta and rolling it out to Ring Gen 3 and Ring 4 wearers. Users with an active subscription should be able to take advantage of Symptom Radar by December 9.
Oura started publicly testing the feature earlier this year. The idea is that Symptom Radar looks at metrics including resting heart rate, skin temperature, sleep data and breathing rate to see if there are any differences from your baseline stats. If there are, Oura may let you know that it has detected possible common cold- or flu-like symptoms and offer suggestions on how to rest up and recover, such as putting your device into rest mode so you aren't prompted to meet activity goals.
Following feedback from beta testers, Oura has added a couple of extra features to Symptom Radar. It now has a history graph showing wellness trends and whether the daily Symptom Radar result has been recorded (this should happen when a ring syncs with the Oura app each morning). There's also a breakdown of each biometric input for those who wa
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Bitcoin has passed the $100,000 threshold for the first time. At approximately 9:39PM ET this evening, the cryptocurrency's value hit six figures, moving it past the milestone for the first time in its nearly 16-year history. As of the morning of December 5th, the price has stayed well above that $100,000 mark, and Bitcoin's value has generally been steadily increasing over the past month or so. That's no guarantee it'll stay where it is, but it's clearly having a moment.
That also means the legendary Bitcoin pizza order is now worth $1 billion. For those not in the loop, a Florida man — because, of course it was a Florida man — paid 10,000 BTC for two Papa John's pizzas over 14 years ago in what's considered the cryptocurrency's first commercial transaction.
"I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas … like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day," Laszlo Hanyecz posted in a crypto forum on May 18, 2010. Four days later, a British man took him up on the offer. That amount was only worth $45 at the time. (And the UK man only paid Papa John's $25!) But only nine months later, the transaction's value had skyrocketed to $10,000.
Hanyecz
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And right now, Amazon has a rare sale on this specialized mouse, selling it for just over $76 with a 24 percent discount.
The MX Vertical, like other vertical mice, is rotated so that your hand sits at a more natural and comfortable position. Logitech says its 57-degree angle "reduces the pressure on your wrist, while your thumb is positioned comfortably on the thumb rest." This is a matter of preference, of course. Only you can decide if you like it over conventional mouse designs.
The MX Vertical is packed with most of the same high-end components as the MX Master series, including 2.4GHz dongle support, multi-device Bluetooth, USB-C charging, and two programmable thumb buttons. An extra button on the top bar defaults to a quick sensitivity adjustment, but all of this can be customized in Logi Options software for PC and Mac.
I should point out that the MX Vertical only comes in a right-handed model. If you use your mouse in southpaw style, you might prefer the Logitech Lift vertical mouse instead, a similar design that's not quite as fancy but comes in mirrored righty and lefty shapes.
Logitech's MX mice rarely go on sale, doubly so for this more specialized MX Vertical model. If you've been hunting for a deal on this design, you're unlikely to find another one before the end of the year — so hop on it and
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Washington, D.C.'s attorney general has sued the retail giant for charging residents of two zip codes the same Prime price for significantly slower delivery speeds.
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Bitcoin has passed the $100,000 threshold for the first time. At approximately 9:39PM ET this evening, the cryptocurrency's value hit six figures, moving it past the milestone for the first time in its nearly 16-year history.
That also means the legendary Bitcoin pizza order is now worth $1 billion. For those not in the loop, a Florida man — because, of course it was a Florida man — paid 10,000 BTC for two Papa John's pizzas over 14 years ago in what's considered the cryptocurrency's first commercial transaction.
"I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas … like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day," Laszlo Hanyecz posted in a crypto forum on May 18, 2010. Four days later, a British man took him up on the offer. That amount was only worth $45 at the time. (And the UK man only paid Papa John's $25!) But only nine months later, the transaction's value had skyrocketed to $10,000.
Hanyecz told The New York Times in 2013 that he had no regrets about the then-$6 million pizza order. "It wasn't like Bitcoins had
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Google's Genie 2 is the evolution of its Generative Interactive Environments, which uses AI to construct new, interactive environments on the fly. Genie 1, which Google released in February, could construct 2D environments. Now, Genie 2, which Google announced today, takes that into 3D space.
Google calls Genie 2 a "world model," which means it can simulate virtual worlds, with animations, physics, and object interactions. It's a two-step process: Genie 2 requires a prompt image to extrapolate into a world, but that image can be itself generated by an ordinary text prompt. Want a cyberpunk Western? Genie 2 will create it. A sailing simulation? That, too. You just need a reference or a prompt to begin.
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Product manager Stephen Hosking (spotted by The Verge) says TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 is a "non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows," shutting the door on any official support for older PCs that don't have these integrated security chips. That means that many users will be faced with relatively few options next year: buy (or build) a new PC, stay on Windows 10 without support, or switch to Linux.
Microsoft's blog post lays out the argument for the TPM 2.0 requirement as a security necessity. TPM devices are essential for modern security and encryption tools, ensuring that every component of the computer is trusted and verified. And they're becoming far more ubiquitous — almost every new laptop and desktop comes with a processor that has TPM 2.0 compliance built in, no extra components required. That's even true for Arm-based hardware, like the new generation of laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.
But it's hard to take Hosking's promises of "future-proof" hardware at face value when there
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It's all about protecting against China, but there's the added benefit of protecting against Trump.
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As you'd expect, there's no shortage of gaming headsets out there. No one wants to wade through the myriad options only to settle on one that ends up leaving you disappointed. That's why I've done all the heavy lifting for you, testing a ton of different headsets to find the best.
Why should you trust me? Because I'm a hardcore gamer and tech user like you, which means I'm always on the hunt for better gear to improve my own experience. More than that, I've spent many years weighing the pros and cons of the latest new-release gaming headsets, so you could say I know more than a thing or two about them.
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless - Best dual-purpose wired/wireless gaming headset / Best overall
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 Websites posing as local news outlets funded by partisan groups have surged past the number of sites of independent daily newspapers on the internet, according to a new report by a disinformation watchdog. The post ‘Pink Slime' Sites Outnumber Daily Newspapers on the Web appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
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I've seen the future of computing; I wear it every day on my head.
I'm talking, of course, about the Apple Vision Pro, the first "spatial computing" headset on the market. Though it's not perfect — and at $3499, it's not cheap — I can tell you after four weeks of testing and use that this augmented reality (AR) device lives up to the pre-release hype. With a blend of well-executed features and even magical moments it's the kind of paradigm-shifting creation we haven't seen since the original iPhone.
For that reason alone, it should be on corporate radars everywhere. Your company might not yet need Vision Pro or have the exact use case in mind to make it worthwhile. But that day is coming.
To read this article in full, please click here
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