While sweepstake casinos have traditionally operated using virtual currencies, many are now embracing crypto as an alternative payment and redemption option. It’s a match made in digital heaven–sweepstakes casinos get faster, more secure transactions, and crypto enthusiasts get yet another […]
The post How’s Crypto Is Being Implemented In Sweepstake Casinos? first appeared on Tech Startups.
Following a revamp of its Android app last year, Beeper is now bringing updated apps to both desktop platforms and iOS in beta to match the updated design and functionality.
more…Earlier this month, Google started emailing Gemini Live users about an upgrade that makes “your conversations even more dynamic and engaging.” It’s rolling out now, and here’s how to check if you have the new Gemini Live update.
more…Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has reopened access to its API after halting service for nearly three weeks due to capacity constraints. On Tuesday, the company began allowing customers to top up credits for use on its API, which lets developers build apps and services on top of cloud-hosted versions of DeepSeek’s AI. Server resources remain […]
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Microsoft is reportedly shrinking its data center footprint. The tech giant has canceled leases with multiple data center providers that total a “couple hundred megawatts” of capacity, according to Bloomberg, which cited a memo from investment bank TD Cowen. This total represents the equivalent of about two data centers. The reason for Microsoft’s move is […]
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As part of its efforts to further invest in the Chinese market, Apple announced this week that it’s bringing its Apple Developer service to China’s WeChat app. The service includes news, announcements, and other upcoming activities for members of the developer community, which have typically been offered via Apple’s website and its own Developer app. […]
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DoorDash has agreed to pay $16.75 million to settle a lawsuit by New York’s attorney general that accused the delivery platform of pocketing workers’ tips to cover wages. The lawsuit alleged that between May 2017 and September 2019, DoorDash used customer tips to offset the base pay it had already guaranteed to workers, instead of […]
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Last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake worked out pretty well for Konami and the studio that took on the project, Bloober Team. The two sides have decided to continue their partnership, as Bloober is making a new title based on Konami's intellectual property. Since the studio develops horror games, it's likely that this will be a fresh entry in the Silent Hill series. There is a possibility that it could be a Castlevania game instead. But I'm hoping the companies decide to get really weird and make a spooky Bomberman or something.
"The trust built upon the success of Silent Hill 2 laid the foundation for signing another agreement for a new project," the companies said. "The deal aligns with Bloober Team’s strategic plan to expand its internal development division within a first-party framework." Konami will publish the upcoming game and retain the rights to it.
The Silent Hill 2 remake arrived in early October and sold well, moving over 2 million copies by the end of January It was critically acclaimed and received several nominations at The Game Awards. The remake was also one of Engadget's favorite games of 2024.
If, indeed, Bloober is making a completely new Silent Hill game, it won't be the only such title that's in the works. Two Silent Hill games that were announced in 2022 have yet to arrive: Silent Hill Townfall from Annapurna Interactive and No Code, and Silent Hill f from Ryūkishi07.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/bloober-team-is-making-another-game-with-konami-following-silent-hill-2s-success-152602170.html?src=rss
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© Bloober Team/Konami
The iPhone 16 might just finally be coming to Indonesia. The island nation has reached an agreement with Apple to lift the country's ban on iPhone 16 sales, Bloomberg reports, citing familiar sources. Apple must invest $1 billion in Indonesia and train locals in the company's research and development to create their own products.
Indonesia banned the iPhone 16 in October, following Apple's failure to meet its 1.71 trillion rupiah ($109 million) local infrastructure investment by about $15 million. Since then, Apple has pledged more and more money to overturn it. First, the company offered $10 million, before raising it to $100 million. By December, Indonesia’s investment minister, Rosan Roeslani, reported Apple had increased that number to the current sum of $1 billion.
Yet, the government continued to push, rejecting the $1 billion and pushing for further benefits, such as the addition of R&D training. Apple would also create a plant on Batam to make AirTags, eventually equating to 20 percent of the world's production. Indonesia's industry minister, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, also recently announced that Apple paid a $10 million debt it owed for violations between 2020 to 2023.
Despite the reported agreement, nothing is certain until the phones start being sold. However, Indonesia has made an impressive push from a payment deficit to an extra $1 billion and training.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/indonesia-might-lift-its-iphone-ban-for-1-billion-150050471.html?src=rss
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© Cherlynn Low for Engadget
US-based employee screening services provider DISA Global Solutions said it was breached by hackers, putting the personally identifiable information of 3.3 million people at risk.
While DISA informed Maine’s attorney general of the data breach yesterday (thanks, TechCrunch) and reported the hack to Massachusetts’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation earlier on February 22, the attack began over a year ago, on February 9, 2024. The unidentified hacker accessed DISA’s network for two months before the company noticed on April 22, 2024. However, there’s allegedly “no evidence of actual or attempted misuse” of personal information.
In a sample notification letter sent to those affected by the hack, DISA claimed it “could not definitively conclude the specific data procured” even after an investigation with third-party assistance. However, the Massachusetts filing listed what the attackers accessed: Social Security numbers, financial accounts, driver’s licenses and credit and debit numbers. DISA didn’t share other details on the attack.
DISA serves over 55,000 customers, including 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The company offers drug, alcohol and background checks. This allows it to collect sensitive information, making it a prime target for cybercriminals.
It’s unknown why DISA took almost a year to notify anyone, especially when employee screening is a highly sensitive industry. Those affected can enroll for 12 months of credit monitoring and identity restoration services, a common act of apology companies often take after a cybersecurity incident.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/us-employee-screening-firm-disa-hit-with-data-breach-affecting-over-33-million-people-145658681.html?src=rss
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© rob dobi via Getty Images
Chegg is suing Google parent Alphabet over claims the search engine’s artificial intelligence summary tool has hit its revenues, leading the US-listed educational technology group to weigh up a sale of the business.
California-based Chegg, which provides study tools for students, filed the complaint on Monday claiming that Google AI Overviews, which presents users with summary answers to their queries, serves to keep users on Google’s own site.
Chief executive Nathan Schultz said the search giant’s AI search changes had “unjustly retained traffic that has historically come to Chegg, impacting our acquisitions, revenue and employees.”
To be the best at their jobs, people need relationships in the workplace. Employees who feel comfortable taking work challenges to peers or problem solving in tandem are more likely to excel in their work.
Theyâre also more likely to be happy, as recent research has revealed. Social connections in the workplace contribute to a greater sense of life satisfaction and well-being, one study found. Another examined the relationship between isolation and burnout and found that employees experiencing loneliness âexpressed a desire to be psychologically detached from their jobs for recovery.â Conversely, employee happiness leads to better outcomes, as research shows itâs ânot only correlated with workplace success,â but that employee happiness actually âprecedes measures of success.â
The move to hybrid work has deepened the challenge of establishing authentic workplace relationships, and itâs not going anywhere â 90 percent of businesses plan to keep a hybrid model in place and at least some of their workforce remote, according to Lenovo customer surveys. Amid this new standard for professional life, many employees are struggling to maintain meaningful relationships …
With the rapid introduction of computing that leverages AI, the gaming experience is set to take a step forward in 2025. In January, at CES, GIGABYTE provided a glimpse at that future when it introduced its B800 series motherboards.
Built to work with Intel B860 and AMD B850 chipsets, the mainstream B800 series models are redefining gaming performance. The motherboards continue GIGABYTEâs track record of innovation and the heritage of its Intel Z890 and X870(E) series motherboards, bringing the AI technology, friendly design, and ultra-durable components present in those models to new levels.
With its suite of AI-powered solutions, named D5 Bionic Corsa, GIGABYTE has emerged as a leader in innovation that leans on AI to get the most out of DDR5 memory. The solutions combine AORUS AI SNATCH software and AI-driven PCB design to approach 8600+ MT/s on AMD B850 motherboards, and 9466+ MT/s on Intel B860 motherboards with the HyperTune BIOS feature.
A closer look at the underlying technology:
The modern internet is nearly three decades old, and itâs starting to show its age. Think back to the â90s: some of what we built back then, though groundbreaking, now feels outdated. The Verge recently created a special issue on what we were doing online in 2004, highlighting how Web 2.0 was born. Take a step back and think about how we interact, transact, and spend our time online. Are we clinging to old structures that no longer serve us? Is it time to remodel our digital lives and rethink how weâre building our online experiences to better reflect the way we live today?
In this emerging AI era, the very ideas of community and human connection are poised for redefinition. Brands and platforms will weaponize the terms in a bid to capture the attention of their ideal audiences.
But where are communities really headed? How should this evolution shape how creators and media companies build products and marketers engage with their audiences? These are the questions that will define the next phase of the internet.
The Verge partnered with Vox Mediaâs Insights and Research team, along with Two Cents Insights, to better understand how American consumers are embracing this s …
Panasonic has announced an upgrade version of 2019’s Lumix S1R with a new sensor, smaller body, faster autofocus, and video recording that tops out at 8K at 30 frames per second. Although the Lumix S1RII’s new 44.3-megapixel back-side illuminated CMOS sensor is smaller than the 47.3-megapixel sensor in its predecessor, its improved video capabilities, including capturing 5.8K Apple ProRes RAW HQ or ProRes RAW without an external recorder, will appeal to shooters looking for a highly capable hybrid camera.
The Panasonic Lumix S1RII is expected to be available in late March for $3,299.99.
Using a faster hybrid autofocus system that introduces phase-detect AF alongside the S1R’s contrast AF, the Lumix S1RII offers improved eye and face detection, along with better AI-powered tracking accuracy for moving human subjects. It can also automatically detect and focus on a wide variety of subjects, including animals, cars, motorcycles, bikes, trains, and airplanes.
The camera can capture full-resolution 12-bit RAW still images at up to 40 frames per second using its electronic shutter, or up to 10 frames per second (nine when capturing 14-bit RAW images) using its mechanical shutter’s “High Speed Plus” mode.
For photographers wanting more than 44.3-megapixels of resolution, the S1RII offers a handheld high-resolution mode that can capture still images at 177-megapixels by shifting the sensor half a pixel and capturing and merging multiple exposures.
In-body image stabilization improves to eight stops of shake reduction, or seven stops when using the S1RII with a telephoto lens that supports its own image stabilization. When capturing video, Panasonic says the camera features cropless electronic image stabilization with distortion correction that reduces “peripheral distortion while preserving the original angle of view.”
The Lumix S1RII includes a 5.76 million dot OLED viewfinder as well as a three-inch articulated 1.84 million dot touchscreen LCD display that flips out and rotates up and down for videographers. That screen is slightly smaller than what the original S1R featured, but then, the new S1RII is smaller and lighter than its predecessor — 1.75-pounds compared to 2.24 pounds.
Both SD USH II and CFexpress Type B card slots are included, but videos can also be captured to an external SSD drive using the camera’s 10Gbps USB-C port. The Lumix S1RII also features a full-sized HDMI port for connecting it to a larger display.
Just a month after it sent shockwaves through tech stocks and wiped out over $1 trillion in U.S. stock market value, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is already preparing to do it again. Now, according to an exclusive report from Reuters, […]
The post DeepSeek is launching its next-gen R2 AI model—poised to surpass R1 and shock the world first appeared on Tech Startups.
