We've all had a good seven years to figure out why our interconnected devices refused to work properly with the HDMI 2.1 specification. The HDMI Forum announced at CES today that it's time to start considering new headaches. HDMI 2.2 will require new cables for full compatibility, but it has the same physical connectors. Tiny QR codes are suggested to help with that, however.

The new specification is named HDMI 2.2, but compatible cables will carry an "Ultra96" marker to indicate that they can carry 96GBps, double the 48 of HDMI 2.1b. The Forum anticipates this will result in higher resolutions and refresh rates and a "next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link." The Forum cited "AR/VR/MR, spatial reality, and light field displays" as benefiting from increased bandwidth, along with medical imaging and machine vision.

A bit closer to home, the HDMI 2.2 specification also includes "Latency Indication Protocol" (LIP), which can help improve audio and video synchronization. This should matter most in "multi-hop" systems, such as home theater setups with soundbars or receivers. Illustrations offered by the Forum show LIP working to correct delays on headphones, soundbars connected through ARC or eARC, and mixed systems where some components may be connected to a TV, while others go straight into the receiver.

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With Valve's impressive work on the Proton tool for Linux and the Mac's Game Porting Toolkit and CrossOver options, few games are truly "Windows only" these days. The exceptions are those with aggressive, Windows-based anti-cheating tools baked in, something that hit back hard against players eager to dive into a new superhero shooter.

Marvel Rivals, an Overwatch-ish free-to-play hero shooter released in early December 2024, has all the typical big online game elements: an in-game shop with skins and customizations, battle passes, and anti-cheating tech. While Proton, which powers the Linux-based Steam Deck's ability to play just about any Windows game, has come very far in a few years' time, its biggest blind spots are these kinds of online-only games, like Grand Theft Auto Online, Fortnite, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, and the like. The same goes for Mac players, who, if they can work past DirectX 12, can often get a Windows game working in CrossOver or Parallels, minus any anti-cheat tools.

Is there harm in trying? For a while, there was 100 years' worth. As detailed in the r/macgaming subreddit and at r/SteamDeck, many players who successfully got Marvel Rivals working would receive a "Penalty Issued" notice, with a violation "detected" and bans issued until 2124. Should such a ban stand, players risked entirely missing the much-prophesied Year of the Linux Desktop or Mainstream Mac Gaming, almost certain to happen at some point in that span.

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"It's time for THE charger," the European Commission posted to X on December 28, 2024. While the sentiment only applies to one continent (and not all of it) and only certain devices, the Common Charger Directive now in effect in the European Union suggests that far fewer gadgets will foist barrels, USB-micro, or proprietary plugs onto their owners.

The Common Charger Directive demands that a "USB-C receptacle" be equipped on "radio equipment" that is "equipped with a removable or embedded rechargeable battery" and "can be recharged via wired charging." If it has a battery and can be powered by up to 240 watts through a USB-C connection, it's generally subject to the EU's USB-C requirements. The directive applies to devices "placed on the market"—sent to a distributor or buyer—after December 28, even if they were initially designed and sold before that date.

Laptops get until April 2026 to comply, but most other things—phones, tablets, handheld gaming devices, computer accessories, and wireless headphones—will have to be powered by USB-C to be sold inside the EU from now on. Drones, for the time being, are largely unaddressed by the directive, but the EU will likely get around to them.

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More than 18,500 games will have been released onto the PC gaming platform Steam in the year 2024, according to SteamDB. Dividing that by the number of people covering games at Ars, or the gaming press at large, or even everybody who games and writes about it online, yields a brutal ratio.

Games often float down the river of time to us, filtered by friends, algorithms, or pure happenstance. They don't qualify for our best games of the year list, but they might be worth mentioning on their own. Many times, they're better games then they were at release, either by patching or just perspective. And they are almost always lower priced.

Inspired by the cruel logic of calendars and year-end lists, I asked my coworkers to tell me about their favorite games of 2024 that were not from 2024. What resulted were some quirky gems, some reconsiderations, and some titles that just happened to catch us at the right time.

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It started, like so many overwrought home optimization projects, during the pandemic.

My wife and I, like many people stuck inside, were ordering takeout more frequently. We wanted to support local restaurants, reduce the dish load, and live a little. It became clear early on that app-based delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats were not the best way to support local businesses. If a restaurant had its own ordering site or a preferred service, we wanted to use that—or even, heaven forfend, call the place.

The secondary issue was that we kept ordering from the same places, and we wanted to mix it up. Sometimes we'd want to pick something up nearby. Sometimes we wanted to avoid an entire category ("Too many carbs this week, no pasta") or try the newest places we knew about, or maybe a forgotten classic. Or just give me three places randomly, creative constraints, please—it's Friday.

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Google will soon take more steps to make AI a part of search, exposing more users to its Gemini agent, according to recent reports and app teardowns.

"AI Mode," shown at the top left of the web results page and inside the Google app, will provide an interface similar to a Gemini AI chat, according to The Information.

This tracks with a finding from Android Authority earlier this month, which noted a dedicated "AI mode" button inside an early beta of the Google app. This shortcut also appeared on Google's Android search widget, and a conversation history button was added to the Google app. Going even deeper into the app, 9to5Google found references to "aim" (AI mode) and "ai_mode" which suggest a dedicated tab in the Google app, with buttons for speaking to an AI or sending it pictures.

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Home Assistant announced today the availability of the Voice Preview Edition, its own design of a living-room-friendly box to offer voice assistance with home automation. Having used it for a few weeks, it seems like a great start, at least for those comfortable with digging into the settings. That's why Home Assistant is calling it a "Preview Edition."

Using its privacy-minded Nabu Casa cloud—or your own capable computer—to handle the processing, the Voice Preview Edition (VPE) ($60/60 euros, available today) has the rough footprint of a modern Apple TV but is thinner. It works similarly to an Amazon Echo, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri device, but with a more focused goal. Start with a wake word—the default, and most well-trained version, is "Okay, Nabu," but "Hey, Jarvis" and "Hey, Mycroft" are available. Follow that with a command, typically something that targets a smart home device: "Turn on living room lights," "Set thermostat to 68," "Activate TV time." And then, that thing usually happens.

"That thing" is primarily controlling devices, scenes, and automations around your home, set up in Home Assistant. That means you have to have assigned them a name or alias that you can remember. Coming up with naming schemes is something you end up doing in big-tech smart home systems, too, but it's a bit more important with the VPE.

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When the impossibly punctuated S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl released on November 20, after many delays (that included the Russian invasion of the developer's native Ukraine), it seemed like it could have used even more delays.

Stalker 2 had big performance issues and game-breaking bugs, along with balance and difficulty spike issues. Some things that seem "wrong" in the game are just going to stay that way. The first-person survival/shooter series has always had a certain wobbly, wild feel to it. This expresses itself in both the game world, where a major villain can off themselves by walking through a window, and in the tech stack, where broken save games, DIY optimization, and other unmet needs have created thriving mod scenes.

Developer GSC Game World has been steadfastly patching the game since its release, and the latest one should nudge the needle a bit from "busted" to "charmingly wonky." Amid the "Over 1,800 fixes and adjustments" in Patch 1.1, the big changes are to "A-Life." In porting Stalker 2 to Unreal Engine 5, the developer faced a challenge in getting this global AI management system working, but it's showing its weird self again.

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Z-Wave can be a very robust automation network, free from the complications and fragility of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Just how robust, you ask? More than a mile long, under the right circumstances, as hardware soon to hit the market promises.

All claims of radio distances should be taken with amounts of salt unhealthy for consumption. What can be accomplished across an empty field is not the same as what can be done through buildings, interference, and scatter. But Z-Wave Long Range (or Z-Wave LR), operating "in long range mode at full power," can hit 1.5 miles, according to the Z-Wave Alliance, presuming you've got the right star-shaped hub network.

By using a star network topology instead of a more traditional mesh, Z-Wave LR reduces the need for hubs and repeaters, relying instead on a central hub. It can be more reliable for larger commercial spaces, security setups, and bigger homes, and also more power efficient. Devices automatically adjust their signal strength while on Z-Wave networks, extending the battery life of a single coin cell up to 10 years—again, under best-case circumstances. If you're really a glutton for punishment, you can fit up to 4,000 devices on a network running Z-Wave LR, because LR can co-exist on the same network as standard Z-Wave meshes.

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How do you fit 32 terabytes of storage into a hard drive? With a HAMR.

Seagate has been experimenting with heat-assisted magnetic recording, or HAMR, since at least 2002. The firm has occasionally popped up to offer a demonstration or make yet another "around the corner" pronouncement. The press has enjoyed myriad chances to celebrate the wordplay of Stanley Kirk Burrell, but new qualification from large-scale customers might mean HAMR drives will be actually available, to buy, as physical objects, for anyone who can afford the most magnetic space possible. Third decade's the charm, perhaps.

HAMR works on the principle that, when heated, a disk's magnetic materials can hold more data in smaller spaces, such that you can fit more overall data on the drive. It's not just putting a tiny hot plate inside an HDD chassis; as Seagate explains in its technical paper, "the entire process—heating, writing, and cooling—takes less than 1 nanosecond." Getting from a physics concept to an actual drive involved adding a laser diode to the drive head, optical steering, firmware alterations, and "a million other little things that engineers spent countless hours developing." Seagate has a lot more about Mozaic 3+ on its site.

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Citing "years of investment in AI, AR, and VR," Google is stepping into the augmented reality market once more with Android XR. It's an operating system that Google says will power future headsets and glasses that "transform how you watch, work, and explore."

The first version you'll see is Project Moohan, a mixed-reality headset built by Samsung. It will be available for purchase next year, and not much more is known about it. Developers have access to the new XR version of Android now.

"We've been in this space since Google Glass, and we have not stopped," said Juston Payne, director of product at Google for XR in Android XR's launch video. Citing established projects like Google Lens, Live View for Maps, instant camera translation, and, of course, Google's general-purpose Gemini AI, XR promises to offer such overlays in both dedicated headsets and casual glasses.

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YouTube TV, now one of the country's leading cable (or cable-ish) television providers, is starting to act like it. The service told customers in an email this morning that prices are going up in the new year, from $73 per month for the Base Plan to $83 on January 13, 2025—just days after suggesting that wasn't happening.

"We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we realize this has an impact on our members," Google's email to subscribers read. "We are committed to bringing you features that are changing the way we watch live TV, like unlimited DVR storage and multiview, and supporting YouTube TV’s breadth of content and vast on-demand library of movies and shows."

Google cited "the rising cost of content and the investments we make in the quality of our service" in announcing the price increase. It noted that customers can pause or cancel their subscription in their Settings and that current trials and promotions will be honored and unchanged.

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It might not ever be fully dead, but Firefox calling it quits on Do Not Track (DNT) is a strong indication that an idealistic movement born more than 13 years ago has truly reached the end of its viable life.

The Windows Report tech news site spotted that Firefox has removed the option to "Send websites a 'Do Not Track' request" as of version 135, already visible in Nightly builds. Users checking the Website Privacy Preference section will soon see a linked notice that Firefox will no longer support the signal. Firefox's support page for Do Not Track notes that "Many sites do not respect this indication of a person's privacy preferences, and, in some cases, it can reduce privacy."

Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge (based in part on Chrome's open source origin, Chromium) still offer a Do Not Track option, but they are just as ineffective. Global Privacy Control has largely superseded Do Not Track as a supported—and, in some places, legislated—means of signaling a desire not to be tracked.

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Are humans just squishy machines? Can an artificially intelligent robot create a true moral compass for itself? Is there a best time to play The Talos Principle again?

The answer to at least one of these questions is now somewhat answered. The Talos Principle: Reawakened, due in "Early 2025," will bundle the original critically acclaimed 2014 game, its Road to Gehenna DLC, and a new chapter, "In the Beginning," into an effectively definitive edition. Developer commentary and a level editor will also be packed in. But most of all, the whole game has been rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, bringing "vastly improved visuals" and quality-of-life boosts to the game, according to publisher Devolver Digital.

Playing Reawakened, according to its Steam page requires a minimum of 8 GB of RAM, 75 GB of storage space, and something more than an Intel integrated GPU. It also recommends 16 GB RAM, something close to a GeForce 3070, and a 6–8-core CPU.

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To fill a car with gas, you generally just need a credit card or cash. To charge an EV at a DC fast charging station, you need any number of things to work—a credit card reader, an app for that charger's network, a touchscreen that's working—and they're all a little different.

That situation could change next year if a new "universal Plug and Charge" initiative from SAE International, backed by a number of EV carmakers and chargers, moves ahead and gains ground. Launching in early 2025, the network could make charging an EV actually easier than gassing up: plug in, let the car and charger figure out the payment details over a cloud connection, and go.

Some car and charging network combinations already offer such a system through a patchwork of individual deals, as listed at Inside EVs. Teslas have always offered a plug-and-charge experience, given the tight integration between their Superchargers and vehicles. Now Tesla will join the plug-and-charge movement proper, allowing Teslas to have a roughly similar experience at other stations.

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"A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind" is a phrase sometimes attributed to Oscar Levant, but I give it to Egon Spengler. I also live that phrase.

My desk is not clean, but I know why everything is on it. It is inefficient if you are not me and are trying to find things or make sense of it. If you know where to look, like I do, however, every piece is doing a particular job.

If you're like me, or know someone like me, you know desk space is at a premium—not to keep it tidy and empty, but to fill it with even more junk. With this in mind, I have compiled some of the items I either own and cherish, or have saved to various online carts and considered many times. These gadgets keep devices powered, items labeled, the office space conveniently automated, and cables always within arm's reach. With all the space and mental stress these gadgets can and do save me, I have so much more room for, say, reading about Oscar Levant and putting empty seltzer cans everywhere.

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The Steam Link was a little box ahead of its time. It streamed games from a PC to a TV, ran 1,500 0f them natively, offered a strange (if somewhat lovable) little controller, and essentially required a great network, Ethernet cables, and a good deal of fiddling.

Valve quietly discontinued the Steam Link gear in November 2018, but it didn't give up. These days, a Steam Link app can be found on most platforms, and Valve's sustained effort to move Linux-based (i.e., non-Windows-controlled) gaming forward has paid real dividends. If you still want a dedicated device to stream Steam games, however? A Raspberry Pi 5 (with some help from Valve) can be a Substitute Steam Link.

As detailed in the Raspberry Pi blog, there were previously means of getting Steam Link working on Raspberry Pi devices, but the platform's move away from proprietary Broadcom libraries—and from X to Wayland display systems—required "a different approach." Sam Lantinga from Valve worked with the Raspberry Pi team on optimizing for the Raspberry Pi 5 hardware. As of Steam Link 1.3.13 for the little board, Raspberry Pi 5 units could support up to 1080p at 144 frames per second (FPS) on the H.264 protocol and 4k at 60 FPS or 1080p at 240 FPS, presuming your primary gaming computer and network can support that.

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When an updated, remastered, or otherwise spiffed-up version of a game is released, nobody—not long-time fans, not archivists, not anybody, really—ever asks for the original version of that game to be taken down. Does this seem to stop game studios from committing this unforced public relations error? Absolutely not.

Blizzard, a company that has recently released remastered versions of Warcraft and Warcraft II for $10 and $15, respectively (or in a bundle with III for $40) on its Battle.net storefront, has asked GOG to remove its non-remastered, DRM-free $15 bundle of those games from its store on December 13.

GOG (aka Good Old Games), which recently included Warcraft I and II in its Preservation Program, with a "Make Games Live Forever" tagline, suddenly finds itself with a new policy to figure out. So GOG is putting the Warcraft I & II Bundle on sale (discount code "MakeWarcraftLiveForever" for $2 off) and is letting folks know that if they buy it before December 13, they will keep access to it after the delisting, complete with offline installers.

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