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Are you worried your Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus needs more than case protection? It’s time for a screen protector. Here are our favorite ones so far.

HP has reduced the price of a HyperX QuadCast microphone and HyperX Alpha Cloud headset by a huge $120. Here’s why newbie streamers need it.

TwitchCon San Diego is taking place this weekend and, as always, the platform had some news to share during the opening ceremony. For one thing, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said the service will offer streamers and viewers who break the rules more clarity over why their accounts were suspended.

Soon, Twitch will share any chat excerpt that led to a suspension with the user in question via email and the appeals portal. Eventually, this will expand to clips, so streamers can see how they were deemed to have broken the rules on a livestream or VOD. “We want to give you this information so that you can see what you did, what policies were violated, and if you feel our decision was incorrect, you can appeal,” Twitch wrote in a blog post.

The service is also aware that permanent strikes on an account can pose a problem for long-time streamers who may eventually get banned for a smaller slip up. To that end, Twitch is bringing in a strike expiration policy starting in early 2025. “Low-severity strikes will no longer put streamers’ livelihoods at risk, but we’ll still enforce the rules for major violations,” Twitch said. “Plus, we’re adding more transparency by showing you exactly what led to a strike.”

On the broadcasting front, viewers of streamers who are using Twitch’s Enhanced Broadcasting feature will be able to watch streams in 2K starting early next year. This option will be available in select regions at first, with Twitch planning to expand it elsewhere throughout 2025. Also of note, Clancy said that “we’re working on 4K.”

Also coming in 2025 is the option for those using Enhanced Broadcasting to stream vertical and landscape video at the same time. The idea here is to offer viewers an optimal experience depending on which device they’re using to watch streams.

Elsewhere, Twitch is planning some improvements to navigation in its overhauled mobile app, such as letting you access your Followed channels with a single swipe and prioritizing audio from the picture-in-picture player. Streamers will have access to a feature called Clip Carousel, which will highlight the best clips from their latest stream and make them easy to share on desktop and mobile. The platform says it’ll be easier for viewers to create clips on mobile devices too.

In addition, Twitch will roll out a shared chat option in the Stream Together feature next week, allowing up to six creators who are streaming together to combine their chats. Streamers’ mods will be able to moderate all of the messages in a shared chat and time out or ban anyone who crosses a line. Creators who hop on a Stream Together session can also turn off Shared Chat for their own community.

Last but not least, Twitch will expand its Unity Guilds and Creator Clubs. The idea behind both is to help streamers forge connections, learn from each other and grow with the help of Twitch staff. Over the last year, Twitch has opened up the Black Guild, Women’s Guild and Hispanic and Latin Guild, and it just announced a Pride Guild for the LGBTQIA+ community. All four guilds will expand to accept members from around the world next year.

Creator Clubs are a newer thing that Twitch debuted last month for the DJ and IRL categories. Twitch says that engagement has been higher than expected. Four more Creator Clubs are coming soon for the Artists/Makers, Music, VTubers and Coworking/Coding categories.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/twitch-will-do-a-better-job-of-telling-rulebreakers-why-their-accounts-were-suspended-191502111.html?src=rss

Danny Boyle’s zombie sequel 28 Years Later was shot using several iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphones, according to a report by Wired. This makes it the biggest movie ever made using iPhones, as the budget was around $75 million.

There are some major caveats worth going over. First of all, the sourcing on the story is anonymous, as the film’s staff was required to sign an NDA. Also, the entire film wasn’t shot using last year’s high-end Apple smartphone. Engadget has confirmed that Boyle and his team used a bunch of different cameras, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max being just one tool.

Finally, it’s not like the director just plopped the smartphone on a tripod and called it a day. Each iPhone looks to have been adapted to integrate with full-frame DSLR lenses. Speaking of, those professional-grade lenses cost a small fortune. The phones were also nestled in protective cages.

Even if the phones weren’t exclusively used to make this movie, it’s still something of a full-circle moment for Boyle and his team. The original 28 Days Later was shot primarily on a prosumer-grade camcorder that cost $4,000 at the time. This camcorder recorded footage to MiniDV tapes.

28 Years Later is the third entry in the franchise and is due to hit theaters in June 2025. The film stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Cillian Murphy. This will be the first of three new films set in the universe of fast-moving rage zombies. Plot details are non-existent, but all three upcoming movies are being written by Alex Garland. He co-wrote the first one and has since gone on to direct genre fare like Ex Machina, Annihilation and, most recently, Civil War. He also made a truly underrated TV show called Devs.

As for the intersection of smartphones and Hollywood, several films have been shot with iPhones. These include Sean Baker’s Tangerine and Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/28-years-later-was-partially-shot-on-an-iphone-15-pro-max-182036483.html?src=rss

Cards Against Humanity is the latest entity to take on Elon Musk in court. The irreverent party game company filed a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX for trespassing on property it owns in Texas, which happens to sit near SpaceX facilities.

According to a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Texas, Musk’s rocket company began using its land without permission for the last six months. SpaceX took what was previously a “pristine” plot of land “and completely fucked that land with gravel, tractors, and space garbage,” CAH wrote in a statement.

As you might expect from the card game company known for its raunchy sense of humor and headline-grabbing stunts, there’s an amusing backstory to how it became neighbors with SpaceX in Texas in the first place. In 2017, the company bought land along the US-Mexico border as part of a crowdfunded effort to protest then President Donald Trump’s plan to build a border wall. Since then, the company writes, it has maintained the land with regular mowing, fencing and “no trespassing” signs.

SpaceX later purchased adjacent land and, earlier this year, allegedly began using CAH’s land amid some kind of construction project. From the lawsuit (emphasis theirs):

The site was cleared of vegetation, and the soil was compacted with gravel or other substance to allow SpaceX and its contractors to run and park its vehicles all over the Property. Generators were brought in to run equipment and lights while work was being performed before and after daylight. An enormous mound of gravel was unloaded onto the Property; the gravel is being stored and used for the construction of buildings by SpaceX’s contractors along the road. Large pieces of construction equipment and numerous construction-related vehicles are utilized and stored on the Property continuously. And, of course, workers are present performing construction work and staging materials and vehicles for work to be performed on other tracts. In short, SpaceX has treated the Property as its own for at least six (6) months without regard for CAH’s property rights nor the safety of anyone entering what has become a worksite that is presumably governed by OSHA safety requirements.

SpaceX, according to the filing, “never asked for permission” to use the land and “and hasnever reached out to CAH to explain or apologize for the damage.” The rocket company did, however, give “a 12-hour ultimatum to accept a lowball offer for less than half our land’s value,” according to a statement posted online. A spokesperson for CAH said the land in question is “about an acre” in size.

Christopher Markos / Cards Against Humanity

In response to the ultimatum, CAH filed a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX for trespassing and damaging its property. The game company, which originally was funded via a Kickstarter campaign, says that if it’s successful in court it will share the proceeds with the 150,000 fans who helped originally purchase the land in 2017. It created a website where subscribers can sign-up for a chance to get up to $150 of the potential $15 million payout should their lawsuit succeed. (A disclaimer notes that “Elon Musk has way more money and lawyers than Cards Against Humanity, and while CAH will try its hardest to get me $100, they will probably only be able to get me like $2 or most likely nothing.)

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But CAH isn’t the only Texas landowner that’s raised questions about the company’s tactics. SpaceX has been aggressively growing its footprint in Southern Texas in recent years. The expansion, which has resulted in many locals selling their land to SpaceX, has rankled some longtime residents, according to an investigation published by Reuters.

CAH says that Musk’s past behavior makes SpaceX’s actions “particularly offensive” to the company known for taking a stance on social issues. 

“The 2017 holiday campaign that resulted in the purchase of the Property was based upon CAH undertaking efforts to fight against ‘injustice, lies, [and] racism,” it states. “Thus, it is particularly offensive that these egregious acts against the Property have been committed by the company run by Elon Musk. As is widely known, Musk has been accused of tolerating racism and sexism at Tesla and of amplifying the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement Theory.’ Allowing Musk’s company to abuse the Property that CAH’s supporters contributed money to purchase for the sole purpose of stopping such behavior is totally contrary to both the reason for the contribution and the tenets on which CAH is based.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/cards-against-humanity-is-suing-spacex-for-trespassing-and-filling-its-property-with-space-garbage-181828453.html?src=rss

The original PlayStation console, otherwise called the PS1, came out in Japan in late 1994. So we are quickly coming up on the console’s 30th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, Sony just revealed nostalgia-tinged redesigns of both the PS5 and the forthcoming PS5 Pro. They look like the original PlayStation, with that classic gray colorway and the old-school logo. Gamers of a certain age will have a hard time resisting these things. Sony did something similar in 2014 with the PS4 for the console line’s 20th anniversary.

This isn’t a quick and dirty redesign. There was legitimate thought put into this. The updated DualSense controller doesn’t quite match the original design, but does mesh with the overall aesthetic. Sony’s throwing in a retro-looking cable connector housing, PlayStation-shaped cable ties and a themed vertical stand. The box even looks like it came from a Toys “R” Us in the 1990s. 

There are two bundles to choose from. The PS5 bundle ships with the digital version of the console (so no disc drive,) a standard DualSense controller, the aforementioned accessories and additional goodies like a sticker, a poster and, uh, a PlayStation paperclip. 

The PS5 Pro bundle includes everything mentioned above, but includes both a standard controller and the DualSense Edge. It also includes a retro cover for the optional disc drive and the charging stand. It’s easy to dunk on that costly PS5 Pro when it looks basically the same as a regular PS5. It’s much harder to do when it looks like it stepped out of a 1995 fever dream.

Sony

Even the bizarre pseudo-portable PlayStation Portal is getting a themed refresh, which features the iconic gray exterior. Sony fans can even pick up redesigned controllers without springing for an entire console.

Preorders start on September 26 at participating retailers and via the company itself. These items will be released on November 21. That’s just a couple of weeks after the PS5 Pro launches. To that end, Sony’s only making 12,300 of the PS5 Pro retro consoles, so we recommend getting that preorder in early. The company hasn’t released pricing information, unfortunately, and it’s likely that the PS5 Pro bundle will absolutely obliterate bank accounts. We reached out to ask about pricing and will update this post when we hear back.

While we wait for the pre-orders to start, Senior reporter Jessica Conditt got a brief glimpse of the 30th anniversary edition PS5 Pro and DualSense controllers, which you can see below:

Photo by Jessica Conditt / Engadget

Photo by Jessica Conditt / Engadget

Photo by Jessica Conditt / Engadget

Update, September 20 2024, 2:00PM ET: This story has been updated with photos of the 30th-anniversary PlayStation 5 Pro console and its controller.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/playstations-30th-anniversary-ps5-and-ps5-pro-consoles-are-so-very-pretty-170713396.html?src=rss

Sony pushed a PS5 system update on Friday that Square Enix says is a response to Final Fantasy XVI bugs created by the console’s last firmware update. The publisher addressed the update on X (Twitter). “In response to the crashes and graphical bugs that were occurring on the PlayStation5 version of Final Fantasy XVI, [Sony Interactive Entertainment] have released a new system update,” the account posted. “Please try downloading and installing this update.”

Before today’s alleged fix, users reported that last week’s PS5 system update (24.06-10.00.00) triggered Final Fantasy XVI crashes while loading saves or fast-traveling. It could also add annoying black squares obstructing the in-game camera.

Sony has kept things vague, only describing the update with the alleged fix (24.06-10.01.00) as improving “system software performance and stability.” Earlier this week, IGN reported similar bugs in Star Wars Outlaws, Death Stranding and No Man’s Sky. It isn’t yet clear if the update fixes those games’ glitches.

Users on Reddit claimed today’s update has fixed the problems with Final Fantasy XVI. “Played for an hour post update with no issues,” u/AdSweaty411 wrote. “Yup no issues so far,” Redditor u/Icy-Confection-312 added. (We’ll update this story if any additional bug reports arise.)

You can update your PS5 by heading to Settings > System, then System Software > System Software Update and Settings. After the update appears, choose Update System Software. If you don’t see the available update (and haven’t already installed it), restart your console and try again.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/a-ps5-system-update-squashes-those-pesky-final-fantasy-xvi-bugs-175832092.html?src=rss

Besides BlackCat and Zeppelin, Vanilla Tempest is now using INC, too.

The vulnerability has been patched months ago, but now federal agencies have a deadline to patch.