Userway is facing a class action lawsuit filed by Bloomsybox.com, LLC, accusing the company of making misleading claims about its accessibility widget. The lawsuit, filed at Delaware District Court, alleges that Userway promoted its product as a simple, foolproof solution […]
If you've found your TV to be too slow to stream its built-in apps, here's a decent deal that can help fix things on the cheap: The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is once again on sale for $29. This offer has been available for much of the holiday season, and it's not an all-time low — the dongle previously fell to $25 toward the end of 2023 — but it does match the largest discount we've tracked this year. For reference, Roku normally sells the device for $50, though in recent months it's often retailed for $34 at third-party retailers like Amazon. Either way, you're saving a bit more than usual.
The discount is available at several stores, including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Roku.com. If you're hoping to grab the device as a Christmas gift, that'll be more of a hassle: Most listings we could find say that it won't ship until after the holidays, so you'll likely have to order with in-store pickup at Walmart, Best Buy or another retailer with physical locations.
We recommend the Streaming Stick 4K in our guide to the best streaming devices. It's not as fast or fluid as a premium set-top box like the Apple TV 4K, but it's still quick to load up apps and menus, and its tiny design plugs directly into your TV's HDMI port. It supports just about all of the major HDR formats and streaming services (Twitch aside), plus it works with Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol, so you can beam content to it from an iPhone. While it can't decode Dolby Atmos audio on its own, it can pass that audio through to a compatible sound system from apps that support the tech.
Like other Roku devices, the Streaming Stick 4K is dead-simple to navigate, with a home screen made up from a basic grid of apps. Google's TV Streamer (the top pick in our guide) is much more proactive about recommending content you might like and getting you back to shows you've watched recently, but you might find Roku's interface easier to take in if you don't mind surfing for things to watch yourself.
The UI makes a host of free content easily accessible as well, and we found searching to work fine, even if it's not quite as robust as Google's OS. We also like Roku's mobile app, which lets you control the device and listen in privately with a pair of headphones. As with every other streaming player, there are ads scattered throughout the UI, though Roku is at least a little less aggressive about them than Amazon is with its Fire TV devices.
A few other Roku devices are still available for their Black Friday prices as well, including the Roku Express 4K+ (which lacks Dolby Vision HDR) for $24 and the Roku Ultra (which has a larger box design, full Atmos support and a more advanced remote) for $79. For most people looking to visit Roku City, though, the Streaming Stick 4K should be the best value.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-roku-streaming-stick-4k-is-back-on-sale-for-29-175310234.html?src=rss
A group of talented fans have made a native PC port of Star Fox 64, which they are calling Starship. Even better? It’s technically legal. Harbour Masters, the team behind the project, used a tool that converts the original game ROM into PC executable code, so it doesn’t actually use any proprietary Nintendo code.
This is the same method used to create the native PC port of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and that one’s still available for download. Members of this crew also ported Majora’s Mask and Super Mario 64 using the same conversion tool. There is one major caveat here. You’ll need your own legally-sourced Star Fox 64 game ROM to play.
Just like previous ports, Starship features all kinds of modern bells and whistles to set itself apart from the 1997 original. The frame rate is higher and the port includes frame smoothing technology for better visuals. There are custom-made textures and the ability to run on widescreen monitors, as seen above.
There’s also another major benefit. This port is moddable, so who knows what we’ll see in the future once people get their hands on it. The team’s Ocarina of Time port has received plenty of love from the modding community. Some mods allow for abilities sourced from newer Zelda games and one even throws functioning Pikmin into the mix because, well, why not?
According to Redditors, the Star Fox 64 port is easy to get going on a Steam Deck, if that’s your bag. It requires Proton and some light hurdle-jumping, as the code isn’t Linux-based. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a legitimate Star Fox game from Nintendo, and it was a weird one, so this could sate that neverending urge to do barrel rolls.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/fans-made-a-native-star-fox-64-pc-port-with-some-modern-flourishes-174612229.html?src=rss
One of the most widely used techniques to make AI models more efficient, quantization, has limits — and the industry could be fast approaching them. In the context of AI, quantization refers to lowering the number of bits — the smallest units a computer can process — needed to represent information. Consider this analogy: When […]
Days after web hosting provider WP Engine won a preliminary injunction against WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and rival hosting provider Automattic, Mullenweg announced that WordPress.org is taking a holiday break. WordPress.com — a site that provides access to WordPress plug-ins, themes, and other artifacts to the community — will take a break from providing free […]
Louisiana's flu activity has reached the "Very High" category set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the latest data. The 13-category scale is based on the percentage of doctor's visits that were for influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) in the previous week. Louisiana is at the first of three "Very High" levels. Oregon is the only other state to have reached this level. The rest of the country spans the scale, with 13 jurisdictions at "High," including New York City and Washington, DC. There are 11 at "Moderate," 10 at "Low," and 19 at "Minimal."
Last week, NPR, KFF Health News, and New Orleans Public Radio WWNO reported that the state had forbidden the health department and its workers from promoting annual flu shots, as well as vaccines for COVID-19 and mpox. The policy was explicitly kept quiet and officials have avoided putting it in writing.
The XM4 are over four years old, but they still sound great for the money. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
A couple of months ago, we saw the Sony WH-1000XM4 drop to $129.99, which was an absolute steal for the last-gen noise-canceling headphones. That deal predictably sold out in a heartbeat, and there’s no telling whether we’ll see it that low again, but Amazon is selling them in black for $178.20 (about $170 off), which would be an all-time low if not for said outlier. You can also pick them up in other colors for $198 right now, though that price is frequently available these days.
The newer Sony WH-1000XM5 have leapfrogged the heap as the best noise-canceling headphones for most people in our book, but the XM4 remain a great pair of headphones if you’re looking to save some money. They feature phenomenal audio quality and noise cancellation, which keeps them in the big leagues occupied by newer sets. They also have nice quality-of-life features, including a foldable design and multipoint Bluetooth support, the latter of which allows you to connect them to two devices simultaneously. The XM5’s improved microphones make them the better buy if you frequently take calls while using your headphones, but not so much that we would dissuade you from saving more than $100 by going for the older pair.
If you want to try something a little different to play games on Xbox and PC, RIG’s Nacon Revolution X controller might be worth checking out. Amazon is selling it in white for an all-time low of $39.99 (50 percent off) when you clip the on-page coupon. You can customize the weightiness of the wired gamepad, change its analog stick shafts and toppers, remap all of its buttons (including its four back buttons), and set thumbstick sensitivity and trigger dead zones using the companion app. It doesn’t have Hall effect sticks and its build quality doesn’t quite match that of the best Xbox controllers; however, those are fair tradeoffs at this price.
The newly released Insta360 Link 2 is pretty expensive, but you can get it for a new low of $179.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Adorama right now. The 4K webcam is overkill for the average work needs, but its rotating head can be fun for content creation, dynamic presentations, or just to ensure you’re always centered in the frame. The Link 2 builds on the original with magnetic mounting, the ability to recognize and reframe multiple people in a scene, improved gestures, and stronger noise cancellation.
The budget-friendly Sony ZV-1F is a modest step above a smartphone for basic vlogging needs, and now the camera is going for a new low of around $348 ($151 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Sony’s online storefront. It has a 20mm-equivalent fixed focal length lens with a 20-megapixel sensor and decent low-light performance, and records up to 4K at 30 frames per second or 1080p at up to 120fps. It also has an articulating display to help frame your shots, plus eye autofocus like some of Sony’s pricier cameras (but with a less effective contrast-detect autofocus system). The ZV-1F is not a great stills camera as you can’t shoot RAW photos, but it’ll do if all you need are quality clips and YouTube thumbnails.
Honey is a popular browser extension owned by PayPal that’s at the center of a big new controversy. As a new investigative video outlines, the extension that’s meant to save users money not only misses key discounts, but also intentionally redirects affiliate funds away from creators.
Health care company Ascension lost sensitive data for nearly 5.6 million individuals in a cyberattack that was attributed to a notorious ransomware gang, according to documents filed with the attorney general of Maine.
Ascension owns 140 hospitals and scores of assisted living facilities. In May, the organization was hit with an attack that caused mass disruptions as staff was forced to move to manual processes that caused errors, delayed or lost lab results, and diversions of ambulances to other hospitals. Ascension managed to restore most services by mid-June. At the time, the company said the attackers had stolen protected health information and personally identifiable information for an undisclosed number of people.
Investigation concluded
A filing Ascension made earlier in December revealed that nearly 5.6 million people were affected by the breach. Data stolen depended on the particular person but included individuals' names and medical information (e.g., medical record numbers, dates of service, types of lab tests, or procedure codes), payment information (e.g., credit card information or bank account numbers), insurance information (e.g., Medicaid/Medicare ID, policy number, or insurance claim), government
identification (e.g., Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, driver’s license numbers, or passport numbers), and other personal information (such as date of birth or address).
Director Denis Villeneuve's stunning two-part film adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune has received many well-deserved accolades—with Dune: Part 2 being crowned Ars Technica's top movie of 2024. The films also spawned a lavish HBO spinoff TV series, Dune: Prophecy, just renewed for a second season right before a momentous season finale.
(Some spoilers below for S1 of Dune: Prophecy, but no major plot reveals.)
Dune: Prophecy is a prequel series inspired by the novel Sisterhood of Dune, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, exploring the origins of the Bene Gesserit. It's set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides and follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, establishing the fabled sect that will become the Bene Gesserit in the process.
The bureau says Walmart was opening direct deposit accounts using Spark delivery drivers’ social security numbers without their consent. The accounts also can come with intense fees that, according to the complaint, would add either 2 percent or $2.99 per transaction, whichever is higher. It also says Walmart repeatedly promised to provide drivers with same-day payments through the platform starting in July 2021 but never delivered on that.
The Bureau alleges that for approximately two years starting around June 2021, defendants engaged in unfair, abusive, and deceptive practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, including by requiring Spark Drivers to receive their compensation in Branch Accounts, opening Branch Accounts for Spark Drivers without their informed consent or, in many instances, on an unauthorized basis, and making deceptive statements about Branch to Spark Drivers.
“Walmart made false promises, illegally opened accounts, and took advantage of more than a million delivery drivers,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in a statement. “Companies cannot force workers into getting paid through accounts that drain their earnings with junk fees.” The agency sued both companies in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota.
Spark delivery workers have been complaining about Walmart’s Branch Messenger account requirements for years, which forced workers to use these accounts with no option to direct deposit to a preferred credit union or local bank. Walmart allegedly told workers they’d be terminated if they didn’t accept the Branch accounts.
According to a report out of Korea, Samsung is cutting down significantly on its plans for 2025 Galaxy foldables as it reflects on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, which ultimately failed to meet expectations.
From now through December 31, save 20% on all 9to5Mac Daily Plus, 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus, and 9to5Mac Pro annual subscriptions with promo code HOLIDAY! Visit 9to5mac.com/join to sign up.
Benjamin and Chance reflect on Apple’s 2024 products, focused on all the product announcements from the past twelve months. From the lows of AirPods Max to the highs of M4 iPad Pro, and the mixed reception to Apple Vision Pro. We break it all down in our last episode of the year.
And in Happy Hour Plus, we talk about what we are most excited for in 2025 as rumors swirl for the iPhone 17 lineup and Apple’s deeper foray into the smart home. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.
Map of ILI activity by state
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