A new pilot program in China is using VR and advanced biometrics to test whether people want to use drugs
A new pilot program in China is using VR and advanced biometrics to test whether people want to use drugs
Every day that passes brings us closer to the dark technological existence our future Chinese overlords will force upon us. We’ve seen the Black Mirroresque social score that dictates people’s access to what society has to offer, but now the Chinese government has gone even further and even darker. They’ve graduated from Charlie Brooker to Anthony Burgess levels of dystopia. A test drug rehabilitation program is using VR to test whether drug addicts have really kicked their habit, or if they’re merely pretending.
The pilot program in Shanghai uses VR headsets to show addicts scenes of drug use and gages their reaction. VR headsets can track eyeball movement, but the test administrators use other accessories to monitor heart rate and rises in body temperature.
Image via: South China Morning Post
Local media in China is reporting this as a positive way to help drug addicts turn their lives around, but if you scratch under the surface, it is something else entirely. If you’re caught possessing or using drugs in China, you have to spend two years at a drugs rehabilitation center. People can leave early for good behavior, which means this new pilot program is an authoritarian way to keep undesirables off Chinese streets. If the pilot program gets a wider rollout, what is to stop the two year stay at the rehab center being extended if people are still exhibiting signs of addiction?
According to local media in China, the government is monitoring the program, and if results are significant, the program will receive a wider rollout. Scarier still, through the advanced biometric readings taken during testing, administrators should be able to cook up a “precise medical treatment” to deal with the drug addiction. Whatever that may be could be anybody’s guess, but you’d be forgiven if you searched your worst nightmares for ideas.
Black Mirror in China Part 2: The car vending machine
As Chinese society goes from “Black Mirror” to “A Clockwork Orange”, why aren’t other governments raising human rights issues when they deal Chinese delegations. The new British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was in Beijing yesterday, but rather than being held to account on his dealings with the Chinese, the entire British press concentrated on the fact he said his Chinese wife was Japanese. A gaff no doubt, but parts of the world are hurtling towards a techno-dystopian future, and nobody seems to notice what is going on.
With millions of active players, League of Legends is one of the most successful competitive games of all time. With almost ten years under their belt, LoL has had a long time to develop their community. Players can often be found together on Facebook groups, discord servers, and the LoL forums themselves. With this comes a variety of applications to assist players, both on PC and mobile. Some apps focus on helping players hone their skills, while others allow for more community building. With so much app support, League players have many apps to choose from. Here are some of the best ones to help you with your League journey:
LOLSumo is probably the first mobile app that comes to mind when thinking about LoL gameplay apps. Many popular League community members advertise this app as being the most useful for improving gameplay, and for good reason! The app has a free version and a premium version, but both focus on showing you where you can improve and what you should be doing in a given game. The app uses your match history and live gameplay to help you decide what to build and who to watch out for. The premium version is a big upgrade, but the free version is more than good enough to give you an idea on how the app works.
This handy website has helped many players learn about their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, while also teaching them about where they might be struggling themselves. OP.GG can be used in an overlay now during your games through the Overwolf application. The app lets you see a detailed history of each of your opponents and allies, and also can tell you how well you are doing in your division. Definitely worth getting if you frequently find yourself checking this site.
League Friends is probably the most useful community app for the game. Created by Riot Games themselves, this mobile app primarily functions as a tool to keep in touch with your League friends while you are away from the game. You are able to communicate with your online friends, while also being able to see what they are playing and how long it’s been. The best part about this app is that your friends are basically able to text you, so you can find out if someone would be down to play with you, once you’re free to get onto a computer.
There are quite a few guide sites for League of Legends. Each has its own benefits and downsides, but LoLking.net is one of the best free ones to use. They feature long iin-depthguides, as well as champion win rates. You can also use the site to check champion models which can help when deciding on a skin you might want.
While there are many other League apps, none are as effective as these. Each one assists you in a unique way, and are incredibly useful for any player.
Just because you’re a rock legend in Guitar Hero or Rock Band doesn’t mean you’re actually a good musician.
But could it?
The debate has been going strong ever since the release of the original Guitar Hero in 2005. While research indicates that video games do help with both cognitive and physical health, can they really help instill musical talent?
The first thing to realize is that music is a culmination of several subjects. Music is equal parts science, math, language, history, exercise, and – most of all – art. When you put it that way it’s almost harder to find a subject that doesn’t relate to music.
If you’re playing a video game with a strong focus on history (Civ 6 for example), it makes sense that it would help you better appreciate the historic implications of music, whereas a game like Dance Dance Revolution is both parts musical and physical exercise.
Video games across all genres can revolve around good teamwork. Great examples are titles such as Overwatch, Evolve, Borderlands, Star Wars Battlefront, or Team Fortress 2.
Team Fortress 2 is a class-based shooter with two competing teams. Players can pick from an assortment of characters like the Pyro, the Spy, the Scout, the Soldier, or the Medic. It’s all about knowing your role, and knowing where your unique talents are best put to use. Video games teach that there’s a shining moment for every weapon type, every class, every spell, and every character.
Playing music in a group setting like a band, an orchestra, or a choir is all about knowing your role too. Are you the lead voice? The harmony? The rhythmic pulse? You play a specific part in the music you’re creating. Know when you’re needed, but don’t overstep your boundaries.
Being a good musician extends past just knowing the ins and outs of your instrument – it’s about blending and listening, leveling and mixing, playing and resting. Just because you’re a trumpet doesn’t mean you won’t have moments where you need to play quietly, or just because you play bassoon doesn’t mean you’ll never be asked to be the lead melody. Video games can help you learn when it’s your moment to shine, and when it’s time to pass the ball to another player.
4. Different settings, different genres, different music
Video games have come a long way since the beeps and blips of arcades or early Mario games. Modern AAA titles hire professional composers like Jeremy Soule, Martin O’Donnell, or Jack Wall. We dare you to play any track from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura for a skeptic. We guarantee they won’t believe that it’s from a video game.
But does a professional quality soundtrack equate to a game “helping you learn about music?”
A truly well-crafted game will not skimp on music that fits the game’s setting. Let’s look at the Witcher series, for example. Based on the works of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the Witcher games are entrenched in Slavic lore and oozing with medieval fantasy. Check out the soundtrack and you’ll hear that it’s kept very true to the roots of the literature. Check out this article that describes the composition process for such a title.
It’s not just Witcher either – listen to the Japanese influence in the title track for Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, or the entire album for Civilization V: Brave New World. Every civilization in Civ V has its own unique collection of tracks based on the country you play as.
Ancient Greece’s peace theme in Civ V is a take on Epitaph of Seikilos, the oldest piece of music known to mankind – the melody and lyrics of which are etched on a tombstone that could date back as far as 200 BC. Music is history, and games can introduce a widely colorful array of music genres, instruments, composers, and scores.
3. Soundtrack matches the visuals
Just like with film, the accompanying soundtrack is determined and defined by the action taking place on-screen. Sometimes that action is the result of scripted events, and other times it’s the result of something that you did as the player.
You might be in the middle of a stealth mission in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory when the music suddenly shifts to indicate that a guard has spotted you. Or it could be you’re roaming around in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when suddenly you’re set upon by a dragon.
Tonal shifts or modulations in music are nothing new. They can add a refreshing flavor to a piece, or they can be used to introduce a new direction or theme. It’s not just key changes either – jazz musicians like Horace Silver or Frank Zappa often change a song’s time signatures too.
Musicians who are more often exposed to songs where the time or the feel will change are not thrown off as easily the next time it happens. Additionally, anticipating tone shifts and recognizing modulations can help with visualizing the narrative of a song, lending insight and relatability to your own performance – something that any musician will tell you raises your musicianship to the next level.
2. Video games are reactive
The old slogan for Electronic Arts was to “challenge everything.” Video games are competitive at their heart, and for any competition, you need at least two entities: Yourself, and the opposition. You need to have someone or something to compete with, be it the AI, a high score, or another player. A player’s actions are always determined by what is seen on the screen. Moreover, their actions in a multiplayer game are determined by those of the other players, whether their intent is cooperative or competitive.
Let’s look at Street Fighter 4, for example: You can know all the moves and combos for Ryu, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always be playing as him with the same strategies. A fight with M. Bison is going to look and feel very different from a fight with Chun-Li. That’s because they’re two very different opponents.
What determines who wins the match is hugely dependent on who reacts and counters more appropriately, capitalizing on their character’s strengths and their opponent’s weaknesses.
Playing jazz in a combo setting is all about reacting to other players and carrying on a musical conversation with them. Similar to our first point, listening is hugely important.
If you’re playing keyboard and the drummer suddenly changes the style underneath you, you’ve got to match the change. If the saxophone just finished an improvised solo, how did their solo end? Can you begin your solo on the same note and pick up where they left off?
Video games teach players how to handle a dialogue with another player. That dialogue might be literal words, or it may be a combination of button presses that demand a certain retaliation. Music and games are both reactionary conversation.
1. The grind
Ask any musician “how they got so good” and they’ll immediately say it was through practice. Talent plays a part too, but no one wakes up a virtuoso. The legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker allegedly practiced anywhere between 11 and 15 hours a day for over three years to achieve the technical facility he was famous for. Put the work in, and eventually, you’ll have the skills to show for it.
There’s a practice method for every video game out there, too. Mortal Kombat IX even has a room specifically for practicing mastering a character’s combos, or learning the proper timing for fatalities. Halo 3 introduced “theater mode” as a means for players to study their matches. They could use it to see their mistakes and improve upon them next time around.
But does landing a 30-hit combo in Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension mean you’ll be a guitar legend?
Well it doesn’t quite work like that. But it does mean you have good diligence, patience, and self-discipline, and those are massively important to succeeding with music.
All of this goes double for games that focus primarily on music – playing with a group in Rock Band, learning the outrageous timing and button combos for Guitar Hero, or learning to train your ear and listen carefully with Loom.
http://walkthrough.wikia.com/wiki/LOOM_(1990)
So pick up your controller and hop online to play some Overwatch or some Fortnite. But next time you nervously sit down in front of a piano, remember that video games can teach you a thing or two about listening, knowing your role, and developing a good solid practice routine.
Star Wars boasts some of the coolest science fiction locations to ever hit the big screen. Be it the endless dune seas of Tatooine, the lush fields and waterfalls of Naboo, or the salty red dustbin of Crait. We’re lucky that so many Star Wars games have given us the pleasure of living out our dreams and playing in these fantastic locations. As game graphics get more and more advanced, these locales are looking better and better, too.
Ever notice, though, how many of these planets are defined by a single topographical feature?
In all seriousness, though, EA Star Wars Battlefront II has some of the most cutting-edge graphics to date, and their released maps are nothing if not stunning. We were particularly excited to see the faithful recreations of fan favorites like Theed and Echo Base.
Still, there are a plethora of locations from the series that we’re longing to explore, score kills, and inevitably die on. We’ve narrowed the list down to our top five.
If you haven’t experienced EA’s superb imagining of your favorite Star Wars locations, be sure to pick up the game here:
Think of Coruscant and you’ll soon be thinking of the Jedi temple where so much time was spent in the prequels. There are a ton of scenes and encounters that take place on this planet, making it an excellent candidate for inclusion in EA’s Battlefront 2.
The biggest plot points that come to mind are the two fights from “Revenge of the Sith” that take place here – Palpatine vs. Mace Windu (who we’d love to see added as a playable hero!) and later Palpatine vs. Yoda. Though we’re not sure which factions would be present were EA to include it, we’d sure love to march on the library like in “Episode III.”
Playing a heroes vs. villains match in this huge open room full of moving podiums would also be a blast, and would make for some really chaotic lightsaber duels. Oh, and let’s not forget about that huge chase scene with Zam Wessell in the beginning of “Attack of the Clones” – that was on Coruscant, too.
4. Utapau
Like Coruscant, Utapau was also present in Pandemic’s 2005 Star Wars Battlefront 2. Utapau is the massive sinkhole planet where Obi-Wan famously confronted and dispatched the fearsome commander of the droid army, General Grievous. In the time that we got to follow General Kenobi’s escapades at this location, we got to see a flashy lightsaber fight, a retaliatory clone strike force, and a chase sequence leading to the final confrontation with Grievous. We’re getting antsy just thinking about how cool it would look to run down clone players with a massive wheel bike.
https://www.starwars.com/databank/utapau
Since “Revenge of the Sith” was fresh out the gate at the time of 2005 Battlefront, this map was featured heavily in the trailers, and was one of the maps we got to play on in the demo. The scale of the map seems extremely small when compared to massive maps in EA’s Battlefront 2 (Kashyyyk and Yavin come especially to mind) and we’d love to see what they can do to expand upon it.
The hive network of the sinkhole would also allow for the map to have more verticality to it – something that we haven’t seen in abundance on the ground maps in EA’s Battlefront 2. We can envision some excellent ambush opportunities for flying classes like the jet trooper or Boba Fett.
Utapau also seems the logical choice with the game’s inclusion of both Grievous and Obi-Wan.
Added to the first EA Star Wars Battlefront, “Rogue One’s” Scarif came along with the same downloadable content that added playable characters like Jyn Erso and Director Krennic. An oceanic paradise world rife with tropical islands and teeming with beaches and palm trees, Scarif was also home to a high-security Imperial base. Hidden inside were the schematics that revealed the Death Star’s one weakness.
Galactic Assault matches on Scarif would in all likelihood play similarly to the walker pushback like the one on Crait. A neat difference would be if the late-game stage put more focus on stealing the plans and escaping, almost like a Capture the Flag mission from Pandemic’s original Battlefront 2.
If DICE went in this direction, it would certainly be a great way to put the focus on team cohesion, and would likely call for a vastly different choice of class and hero than the earlier phases. Plus this locale looks like it was straight out of James Bond, and that can never be a bad thing.
2. Mustafar
https://www.starwars.com/databank/mustafar
The battle of the heroes, the duel to end all duels, Mustafar is the volatile volcanic world where Obi-Wan faced off with Anakin Skywalker at the end of “Revenge of the Sith.” Covered in molten lakes and laced with rivers of lava, this treacherous terrain would make any match exciting and challenging, be it Heroes vs. Villains, Blast, or even a full-on Galactic Assault.
In addition to the multiple stages that we see in Galactic Assault, we think it would also be cool if sections of the map became covered in lava and were rendered inaccessible as the match went on. It would increase the intensity and make the most of the planet’s awesome atmosphere. Maybe even destructible and repairable bridge platforms? But alas, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We probably shouldn’t even bring up how awesome it would be to PvP on a collapsing platform over a river of lava …
1. Jabba’s Palace
Another fan favorite from Battlefront 2 2005, this was one of the coolest maps in the game. Boasting sadistic droid torture chambers, ruthless Gamorrean Guards, A vicious Rancor, and even Jabba himself in the center throne room, this map really had it all.
What we loved so much about this map was how much it pushed the close-quarters chaos: Small rooms, cramped stairwells, tight corners, and brutal firefights peppering all across the map in a desperate attempt to hold back the horde of enemies. We can only imagine how crazy a Blast match would get on a map like this!
Not to mention that with EA Battlefront 2’s multi-stage games, we think it’d be pretty sweet to skirmish on the Sail Barge like the heroes in “Return of the Jedi.” Considering how much of the cast was present during that fight (Luke, Han, Chewbacca, Lando, Boba Fett), it actually seems pretty remiss not to have put this map in yet. Not to mention that EA has finally nailed the way sand looks and behaves in Battlefront. If there were two sail barges in the later phase of the match, it would almost amount to a ship-to-ship battle for control, all with heroes running around and people ducking in and out of the barge itself.
Any of these maps sound like a Star Wars fan’s dream come true? Let us know which ones are on your wish list!
With remastered games popping up left and right, it’s exciting to hear when your favorite childhood memory is going to transform into a modern visual masterpiece. Likewise, it’s also equally disheartening when a game that sorely needs the same treatment gets swept under the carpet and ignored.
While we’re excited to see games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Bioshock, or Crash Bandicoot get a face-lift, there are many old titles out there that have yet to receive their much-needed makeover.
Doom 2 with a Star Wars twist, Dark Forces puts the player in the boots of Kyle Katarn on his first missions to help the rebellion after the destruction of the first Death Star. The game was fully voice-acted and had a cast of familiar faces, including Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, and Mon Mothma.
Some of the folks who worked on Dark Forces moved on to make the next games in the series – Dark Forces 2, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy. Since Bethesda’s release of a remastered Doom, we’re anxious to see how a Dark Forces reboot would look and play.
Set during World War II, the fifth game in the Call of Duty series is action-packed and gritty as ever. With a surprisingly emotional campaign that split the player between fighting the Japanese as an American and fighting the Nazis as a Russian, this game captured the dirty, demoralizing look and feel of the locations, weapons, and sounds of the war.
The first game in the franchise to introduce the now infamous Nazi Zombie mode, a remade version of Call of Duty: World at War would be truly spectacular to see. With some smoothed-out edges and refinement, the multiplayer here could be just as exciting as the more recent Call of Duty installments. Since they’ve already remade Modern Warfare, it would make sense if CoD 5 was up next!
With Ubisoft’s March 27 release of Far Cry 5, the Far Cry series has really hit its stride and become a well-known public title with the AAA funding to back it. Most fans of the series have experienced the latter three games (and likely Far Cry: Blood Dragon as well), but fewer current fans of the franchise can say they’ve played the original Far Cry. Now that we’re five games deep, it’s a better time than ever to put out a fresh remaster of the game that started it all.
The first game in the Far Cry series was a much more linear, scripted experience – far from the free-roam RPG that made its entrance with Far Cry 3. Far Cry Instincts’ story plays more like a cheesy 80s action flick that takes the player through island jungles, dark rain forests, abandoned mines, towering canyons, and zombie-infested research labs. It didn’t take itself as seriously as Far Cry 4 or 5, for sure. A remake of Far Cry: Instincts would be a great idea for any gamer interested in checking out the newer Far Cry games, and yet still want to start from the beginning.
Since nearly every Final Fantasy game has gotten a full remaster, it only seems fair that Final Fantasy IX receive the same treatment. With a roster of likable characters, compelling narrative, refreshing backdrops, a solid RPG system, and a memorable score, this installment in the series is definitely worthy of returning to the spotlight.
We’d love to see how these beautiful vistas and characters would look with updated graphics and models. Just don’t mess with our chocobo track – it’s perfect the way it is.
Few games can match the zany destructive fun of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Pandemic’s 2008 release was a single player or (online) multiplayer shooter game set in the sandbox world of war-torn Venezuela. The protagonist gets shot in the butt during the opening cutscene (yes, we’re serious), and proceeds to seek vengeance on the man deemed responsible – Ramon Solano. By vengeance, we mean dropping nuclear bombs on … well pretty much anyone you like, really. It’s that kind of a game.
With multiplayer hijinks that rival popular titles like GTA or Saints Row, an updated Mercenaries 2 would be glorious indeed. Seeing as EA is behind the wheel on this one, we can understand the skepticism, but hear us out: Two Mercenaries games have already been canceled and yet EA still renewed their license on the franchise. We’re not sure whether Mercenaries 3 will ever be a thing, but we can definitely see EA putting out a generic reboot. We hope so; we’re itching to skydive into a military base without a parachute again. Chicken suit: Mandatory.
Since Square Enix’s announcement of The Avengers Project, fans have been long wondering what the mysterious game might be like. For news on that front, check out this article! Many fans are hopeful that The Avengers Project will be an unofficial sequel to the beloved Ultimate Alliance and we have to say we agree.
Ultimate Alliance was the perfect game for any Marvel fan. Featuring a huge roster of over thirty playable and upgradable characters with a variety of moves there was a character for everybody. Players were also able to assemble their own teams and change costumes, for strategy or simply for aesthetic, to create a team capable of facing off with the game’s huge number of villains. The cutscene graphics have aged gracefully, but the in-game graphics could certainly do with a touch-up. While the RPG elements were solid, the combat itself (particularly the boss fights) tended to drag on. With the sad lack of Marvel games coming out this past year, we’d love to see this one get polished and redone.
We love WB’s Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War to pieces, but they didn’t do much in the way of letting the player interact or play as Middle Earth’s most beloved characters; it was never the intent of the game. EA’s 2003 release of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was a surprising success given the generally infamous reputation of games based on movies. Featuring solo mode or two-player co-op, Return of the King took the well-constructed combat and RPG elements from Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (2002) and simply improved upon the formula by adding more missions and more playable characters.
Players hacked and slashed their way through three separate campaigns – the Path of the Wizard, The Path of the Hobbit, and The Path of the King – to make their final stand at the Black Gate while Frodo and Sam dealt with Gollum once and for all. Chock full of playable characters (Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam, Frodo, and Faramir to name a few), upgradable weapons and combos, unique enemies, twisting and turning maps, and voice acted by many of the original cast members, it’s easy to tell that a lot of love was put into this one. We’d be thrilled to see what it looks like spruced up and with multiplayer compatibility.
This one’s been a fan favorite since its release on Nintendo 64 back way back in 1997. One of the first games to highlight splitscreen competitive play, Goldeneye was the ultimate party game … and ruiner of friendships. With a healthy mix of weapons (including the infamous golden gun), maps, and character models, Goldeneye is more than deserving of a remastering.
We’d love to play this game with our friends again. Just please nerf Oddjob? Pretty please?
Another of our favorite games from the 1980s and 90s, Sierra’s Quest for Glory: So You Want to be a Hero was the first of a five-part series of point-and-click adventure games. One of the first RPGs, players could pick between the wily thief, the mighty warrior, or the clever mage. It was a puzzle game at its heart, but the puzzles were not always solved with equipment in the player’s pocket as was the case with games like King’s Quest or Monkey Island. There were a number of tricky puzzles that were solvable in different ways depending on which class you were playing as, sometimes opening up entirely new avenues and locations. One of the more charming features of Quest for Glory was the inclusion of an import option between games, allowing players to keep their character and transport them from game to game. Revolutionary for its time, and sadly underutilized today.
With Roberta Williams’ King’s Quest series receiving a reboot in July 2015, it’d be great to see other Sierra games make a comeback. Quest for Glory’s fast-paced combat and humorous storytelling make it our top choice. If you want a more modern take on Quest for Glory, you can check out the recently released Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, available now by the same developers as the original!
A fan favorite by LucasArts and Bioware, the original Knights of the Old Republic is set in the beloved Star Wars universe and features an intricate plot with memorable characters, locations, quests, and battles. The game is definitely showing its age, however, and the animations and combat are clunky at best by today’s standards. It’s a shame when that detracts from the overall impact of such a deep and detailed story, and in our opinion, there’s no game more deserving of a remaster.
If EA and Bioware want to see an influx of players on their servers for The Old Republic, this would be a smart place to start. It would remind people of what made the KOTOR series so special, and would renew their faith after the mixed response they received from Battlefronts 1 and 2.
Agree with our list? What games would you like to see brought up to 2018 speed?
Venmo exchanges money between users, whether by connecting directly to a bank or acting as a temporary account for funds. Thanks to their excellent security, the ease of payment (if someone is in your phone’s contact list, you can quickly send or request money from them) makes Venmo an excellent way to settle small debts: pay your friend for a meal, buy a refrigerator, or send the security deposit for a house.
However, the app also contains an interesting feature: public transactions.
When finalizing a transaction in Venmo, you’re given the option to make the purchase open to the Public, visible to Friends, or entirely Private. However, the default is set to Public:
There’s no need to be concerned yet! As shown in the two pictures above, Venmo protects user privacy by only releasing four pieces of information: the profile picture of the transaction’s initiator, names of the people involved, how long ago the exchange occurred, and a short, user-created description of the purpose. Also, don’t forget that the privacy setting is up to the user’s choice.
Still, the question is: why does Venmo put transactions in the open?
Surprisingly, Venmo says little about this issue, which can be seen by visiting the Venmo Help Center. Their self-description simply notes the app is, “a social way to pay your friends when you owe them money and don’t want to deal with cash”.
For some, this may be too much. It’s understandable that public transactions come dangerously close to releasing financial information.
For others, this may be seen as a sign of changing times: while the idea of protecting personal information won’t disappear, the age of technology and digital information encourages people to put their information in the open. Why shouldn’t financial transactions be next?
Of course, it’s your choice to decide! If you’re connected to people who use Venmo regularly but you don’t want anything open to the public, go into menu, choose “Settings,” and head to “Privacy.” From there, you can alter the default setting for transactions from public to friends or private. Not only that, but it’s possible to alter the setting for all past exchanges as well, and block certain users.
While some people may be fine with Public transactions, we hope this better informs your personal decision!
Apples recently released MacBook Pros can be bought with Intel’s Core i9 processor. Though this processor is powerful, this option is expensive, with the lowest spec model including it costing $2,800.
Apple had advertised that these new MacBook Pros could reach speeds of 2.9 GHz. However, the cooling system included within the MacBooks can’t keep up with the new processor, causing the laptops to overheat and their processors to slow down significantly. Apple fans have gotten creative in order to hit the advertised speeds, with Dave Lee aka YouTuber Dave2D going as far as to put his MacBook in his freezer.
The 2018 MacBook Pro with an i9 processor was only able to beat the clock speed of the 2017 MacBook Pro with an i7 after Dave put it in the freezer. When the new MacBook Pro gets too hot, it automatically throttles its clock speed. While this prevents the laptop from getting dangerously hot, it also prevents the device from maintaining even its base clock speed. This has understandably upset many Apple users, as their $2,800 device cannot perform at advertised or even baseline speeds.
Apple relies on their devices being as streamlined and simple to use as possible. The Apple audience does not expect to have to use under-the-hood or 3rd party solutions in order to get more performance out of their device, especially for a device with such a premium price tag. Apple’s MacBook Pro line had been criticized by laptop enthusiasts for a few years because their processors have been a generation behind. It’s disappointing that when Apple finally decides to move to the next generation of processors they’re completely crippled by heating issues.
Watch Apple’s new machine that can take apart 200 iPhones an hour
Openbook could be a privacy and transparency-focused, ad-free, open-source Facebook killer.
Openbook could be the privacy and transparency-focused, ad-free, open-source Facebook killer
Facebook is trying really hard at the moment to regain our trust. The social media giant has stumbled from one crisis to another over recent months as it has become gallingly clear that the huge amounts of our data it collects are not in safe hands. Everybody from Russian-based analysts to democracy-defying deviants have been able to get their hands on a lot of Facebook user data and then use it to manipulate the public.
Accordingly, Facebook is now trying to tell us that it knows this is not what it is for, but popular culture has already started kicking back. HBO host John Oliver gave Facebook’s reconciliation ads a good kicking on Sunday, over $100 billion was wiped off Facebook’s stock value, and there could be even worse storm clouds on the horizon for the big blue, in the form of ethical competition.
Warning: Contains strong language
Openbook promises to be a social network that will not serve up ads, and won’t track users’ behavior or web habits. It isn’t the only privacy-first social network to hit the internet, but it does have a couple of things going for it that others like Minds, Mastodon, and Diaspora don’t. Openbook already has the support of some big names in the tech world, like the creator of PGP encryption (most widely used form of email encryption), and it claims to make it incredibly easy to transfer your photos, videos, and chats across from other social networks.
Image via: Openbook
The design of Openbook does look familiar to other social networks, but it is completely bloat-free and doesn’t have any ads. The new social network will also appeal to people who feel they spend too much time browsing social media. Users will receive a lot fewer notifications than they currently receive on other social networks like Facebook and Instagram.
Until now, Openbook has been completely self-funded by the team involved and is not yet live on the internet. The next stage of development sees the team behind Openbook trying to raise $100,000 through Kickstarter so that they can look for a general release around next year. At the time of writing, they were approaching 25 percent of their target with 16 days left to raise the rest. The Kickstarter campaign accepts pledges of as little as $1, and everybody who pledges will gain early access in March 2019 and will have their name added to the Openbook Founders Book.
Once Openbook is live, the plan is for there to be an Openbook marketplace. The network will then take a cut of all transactions and use the proceeds to pay for the costs of keeping everybody connected.
This new type of social media project could be just the answer to the user data crises that have gripped the world recently. Anything that will put users back in control of their data seems like a good thing, and decentralizing vast troves of tracked user data means it’d be much harder for nefarious actors to get their hands on it. There are still questions that need to be answered, however, like whether a cut of marketplace transactions will be enough to pay for the huge amounts of servers that would be needed if Openbook took off.
For now, though, we feel that Openbook should be given a chance. For just a $1 pledge you could help it get that chance, and should Openbook become the world’s privacy-focused ad-free social network of choice, having your name in that Founders Book would be pretty cool.
UK charity creates an app to help educate people on the signs that somebody is a victim of slavery
UK charity creates an app to help educate people on the signs that somebody is a victim of slavery
It is not something that sounds like a modern-day problem, but slavery is still very much an issue around the world today. Shockingly, according to the charity anti-slavery.org, there are an estimated 40.3 million people in modern slavery around the world. This is not just happened in far-flung places either. There are an estimated 1.5 million people in slavery in developed economies. That means that modern slavery could be occurring right under your noses, without you even knowing about it.
Image via: antislavery.org
With this in mind, and to mark #WorldDayAgainstTrafficking, a leading anti-slavery charity called Unseen is working hard to educate everyday people like you and me about how to spot signs of labor exploitation. Unseen’s latest initiative is a brand new app, which launches today and is designed to show information about modern-day slavery in a number of contexts.
Using visual guides like infographics and engaging bullet points the Unseen app will give users specific details about what they may see, including signs of physical abuse, should they be witnessing a case of modern-day slavery. If users think they are witnessing a victim of labor exploitation they can report it using a form found in the app.
Unseen developed an anti-slavery hotline back in 2016, which can also be used to report worrying signs of malpractice. That helpline has seen constant growth in the number of incidents reported, although prosecutions remain low. The new educational app could go a long way to helping people spot cases more successfully and help bring more gangmasters and human traffickers to justice.
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The new app offers real hope in the battle against this insidious problem that hides in plain sight. Speaking to the Guardian, the UK’s Association of Police and Crime Commissioners national lead for human trafficking and modern slavery, Mark Burns-Williamson said:
“I have helped develop a similar app in West Yorkshire around hate crime and know it works. We all have a responsibility to take action…”
The new Unseen app will be available later today in all of the main app stores. Even though the focus of the Unseen anti-slavery app is the UK, it can still serve as an educational tool for users all around the world. If you can get your hands on it, give it a try. You never know what it could mean to somebody if you have a hand in freeing them from slavery.
Marvel has announced its new mobile card game Marvel Battle Lines at San Diego Comic-Con. Developed by Nexon, the game will be free to play, and will launch on Android and iOS late this year. A trailer for the game can be viewed below:
The trailer doesn’t offer a ton of details on the game, but we can see at the end that the game utilizes a grid-based battle system. Each player will choose from hundreds of heroes to create a 12 card deck. While the deck size is small, the real strategy is positioning your heroes correctly on the grid. This allows the game to toe the line between simplicity and depth, forgoing the daunting practice of deck building for strategic positioning.
Powerful heroes require the use of Cosmic Fragments, the game’s equivalent of mana or energy cards. The most powerful hero in a player’s deck is their Deck Leader, and taking down your opponent’s Deck Leader wins you the game. Popular heroes like Black Widow and Iron Man are featured as Deck Leaders, and they have special abilities that help you specialize your strategy.
In addition to the game’s PVP mode, Marvel Battle Lines will feature a single player campaign written by comic book writer Alex Irvine. In this colorfully illustrated story, Captain America and the Red Skull battle for the Cosmic Cube, which has shattered with its pieces scattering across the Earth.
You can preregister at the game’s official website, which nets you 5,000 in-game gold and an exclusive Dr. Strange card.
Marvel Munchkin is the card game every superhero fan needs
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