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"de-DE": "Großer Anhänger der Videospiel- und Technologieindustrie, er hat bei Medien wie Alfa Beta Juega, Urban Tecno oder Nintenderos mitgewirkt. Zusätzlich leitet er einen kleinen Blog, der sich auf Videospiele konzentriert, HelGames.",
"en-US": "Avid follower of the video game and technology industry, he has worked with media such as Alfa Beta Juega, Urban Tecno, or Nintenderos. Additionally, he runs a small blog focused on video games, HelGames.",
"es-ES": "Gran seguidor de la industria del videojuego y la tecnología, ha pasado por medios como Alfa Beta Juega, Urban Tecno o Nintenderos. Adicionalmente, dirige un pequeño blog centrado en videojuegos, HelGames.",
"fr-FR": "Grand suiveur de l'industrie du jeu vidéo et de la technologie, il a collaboré avec des médias tels que Alfa Beta Juega, Urban Tecno ou Nintenderos. De plus, il dirige un petit blog axé sur les jeux vidéo, HelGames.",
"it-IT": "Grande seguace dell'industria dei videogiochi e della tecnologia, ha lavorato con media come Alfa Beta Juega, Urban Tecno o Nintenderos. Inoltre, gestisce un piccolo blog focalizzato sui videogiochi, HelGames.",
"ja-JP": "",
"nl-NL": "",
"pl-PL": "",
"pt-BR": "Grande seguidor da indústria de videogames e tecnologia, passou por mídias como Alfa Beta Juega, Urban Tecno ou Nintenderos. Além disso, dirige um pequeno blog focado em videogames, HelGames.",
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As of today, it’s quite challenging not to be aware of Patreon, an ideal platform for content creators of all types, who have a community willing to invest in their work to help it thrive. Speaking of Patreon, and in case you use it or plan to use it, you’ll be interested to know that the platform is undergoing a significant makeover.
Patreon has revamped its logo and the application, but these changes are not just cosmetic; the platform has introduced new features to make the user experience as optimal as possible. With these additions, they aim to continue evolving the relationship between content creators and their followers.
Patreon continues to evolve
To start, in addition to Patreon’s rebranding, the platform now offers access to free membership levels. This means people following a specific creator can engage with their content more closely without having to pay. Content creators will still provide exclusive content for paying supporters, but now they can also sell digital products like files or videos.
It’s worth noting that content creators producing material for adults over 18 cannot sell digital products. The updates don’t stop there; Patreon has also introduced fully deployed community chats, a messaging system similar to Discord. Furthermore, user profiles can now be more comprehensive, allowing for the addition of details such as bios, profile pictures, and links to social media visible to other followers.
In fact, it’s not ruled out that in the future, Patreon might allow adding more details to member profiles, such as displaying the subscription level they are at or the products/articles they have purchased, for example. However, this would be something for the future, as what has been announced now is far from lacking.
Returning to the current user experience, Patreon’s revamped home feed now allows us to see new posts grouped individually by creators and organized chronologically in reverse order. In other words, posts from one creator won’t be interspersed with those from others, greatly enhancing the overall user experience.
Certainly, Patreon is determined to invest in its future as a platform and to make it a great place for content creators looking to finance their projects with the support of their followers and community.
These days, the portable console market is heavily dominated by Nintendo Switch and its models, that’s something evident, but they are by no means alone. In fact, in recent times, several alternatives have emerged that, while not solely consoles, can be referred to as portable gaming devices. For example, there are the two featured in this post, Steam Deck and Razer Edge, and we’re going to share some of their most important differences so you can lean towards one proposal or the other.
To be precise, let’s explore several of the key differences between Steam Deck and Razer Edge, something that should help you decide between the two, if you haven’t already. Remember that both portable consoles have been available for some time now (Valve’s since early 2022 and Razer’s since this very 2023), so once you’ve made up your mind, you can go ahead and buy them without any issue.
Steam Deck vs Razer Edge
With the introductions made, we can now delve into these key differences between Steam Deck and Razer Edge that we are going to highlight right here. Before we start, it’s worth mentioning that here we will take a superficial look at their features and some of their differences that we consider relevant when choosing one or the other. However, if you want to know all the details of each one, you can access the official website of Steam Deck and Razer Edge.
Firstly, it’s true that Valve’s portable console has managed to position itself in an advantageous position compared to its competitors (excluding Nintendo Switch, which continues to lead in its own way, as always), but we can’t say that Razer Edge is anything less than a solid alternative. Both devices have screens of a very similar size (7 inches for Steam Deck and 6.8 inches for Razer), although in terms of resolution, there are more differences. Valve’s device has a resolution of 1280 x 800p, while the Razer Edge has one of 2400 x 1080p. Regarding the refresh rate of both consoles, the differences are also very notable, with Steam Deck lagging behind at 60 Hz, while Edge has 144 Hz.
As you can see, in terms of the screen, Razer Edge scores a significant point because what a portable console’s screen can offer is crucial for enjoying the best possible gaming experience. As for the battery life of both, Razer Edge also wins, although by a narrow margin. Additionally, it’s worth noting that while Edge has a 128 GB storage model, its rival comes in three models: 64 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB respectively. However, all of Valve’s models have 16 GB of RAM, whereas Razer Edge has versions with 6 GB and 8 GB of RAM. It’s a closely contested aspect, indeed.
Since we’re discussing the technical aspects, it’s necessary to mention that Valve’s portable console features an AMD APU Zen 2, while Razer Edge has the Snapdragon G3x Gen 1. Regarding operating systems, one runs SteamOS 3.0, and the other runs Android. While Razer Edge wins in terms of screen quality and smoothness during gameplay, it’s worth noting that Steam Deck remains the more powerful option.
Getting into the most exciting aspect of a gaming device, we need to talk about the compatibility of both devices. Steam Deck allows you to enjoy stores like Steam itself, obviously, Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft Connect, along with a few lesser-known stores. It also supports Xbox Cloud Gaming, so cloud gaming has its presence on the handheld. Well, all these mentioned stores can be accessed from Razer Edge, which also allows you to play mobile games since it’s compatible with the Google Play Store, given its use of Android.
Therefore, in this regard, they offer very similar experiences, but Edge wins by allowing you to enjoy many more games, no matter how mobile-oriented they are. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that Steam Deck gives us the option to play on our TV as it comes with a dock, although this needs to be purchased separately, if desired, at a price of 99 euros. This interesting option is not available on the Razer device, although we understand that if you’re looking for a handheld, this might not be a deciding factor.
Another major difference between the two consoles lies in their design. To put it simply, Razer Edge is similar to the Switch. In essence, this device is an Android tablet that comes with an integrated Razer Kishi controller which can be detached and used with other compatible devices, like our mobile phones. In the case of Steam Deck, the controls are fully integrated into the console, offering a much more secure usage experience.
With all that said, and before we conclude, let’s talk about the prices of both devices. Razer Edge has an official price of 499.99 euros, while Steam Deck is priced as follows: the 64 GB version costs 419 euros, the 256 GB version is around 549 euros, and the 512 GB version is 679 euros. Now that you have all the necessary and relevant information about both consoles, it’s up to you to decide based on what you’ve read in this post. We could recommend what we consider the better purchase, but ultimately, this depends on what each individual is looking for in a handheld.
Without a doubt, one of the major hits that can be found on Steam right now is the recently released Counter-Strike 2. Despite some criticisms from its players, Valve’s title usually boasts a more than notable number of simultaneous users. However, today we are here to highlight a title that isn’t even on Steam and yet competes head-to-head with CS2 in terms of concurrent players.
We’re talking about Blox Fruits, one of the many experiences you can find on Roblox. Obviously, the mentioned platform usually has a lot of users, but it’s quite striking that a game on the platform has such a resounding success. However, it’s worth mentioning that this triumph is largely due to a very significant update it received recently.
Blox Fruits is a success in Roblox
The other, in fact, the major part, of the success of this game within Roblox is due to its inspiration from One Piece, something they make clear just by looking at its logo. Blox Fruits has managed to capitalize on the popularity of the mentioned anime’s adaptation to live-action on Netflix. What we can also mention is that the proposal of this experience isn’t necessarily the closest to what the adventure starring Luffy and his crew offers.
Blox Fruits is a free role-playing game where players collect Blox fruit, which gives the game its name, and use the powers it grants to level up and become the best player in the experience. Yes, it’s true that the concept of the fruit is similar to One Piece, but the rest is a different story.
As expected from a Roblox experience, the game features Blox Fruits codes, which serve to assist players. This might not surprise you too much, as it’s more or less customary in these types of offerings. Earlier, we mentioned that one of the most recent updates is one of the main reasons so many players have gathered in the past few days, as it is heavily focused on Halloween.
At the time of writing, Blox Fruits has about 612.652 simultaneous playersin Roblox, while Counter-Strike 2 has about 652.886. As you can see, CS2 still has a greater number of players, as is normal, but the differences are minimal. In fact, this comparison is not at all coincidental, since not long ago Blox Fruits achieved 1.250.000 players, surpassing the Valve title, which had 1.200.000. Certainly, things seem to be getting back on track, but it is undeniable that it is very striking that a Roblox experience surpasses one of the most notable releases of 2023, although they are far from titles for the same type of audience.
Cities: Skylines 2 was surrounded by controversy days before its recent release, as its developers announced that the game would launch on its scheduled date but not in the best possible condition. Thus, both the developer Colossal Order and the publisher Paradox Interactive kept their promise and released the highly anticipated city management and construction title on October 24th for PC. However, it arrived with very noticeable performance issues, as they had already warned.
A few hours after the mentioned game’s release, and with several player criticisms regarding the performance issues, its developers communicated their intentions to improve the experience as much as possible. They also took the opportunity to reiterate once again that their goal is to make Cities: Skylines 2 run at 30 FPS, the ideal frame rate for this game, according to the developer.
Cities: Skylines 2 hopes to address its issues with upcoming updates
Through a blog post, Colossal Order has stated its intention to address the issues in the game. They aim to resolve problems experienced by some users with specific hardware configurations, eliminate flickering caused by synchronization issues in the simulation, and implement GPU optimization and balance improvements. Additionally, they plan to enhance CPU optimizations that have not been completed yet as part of the ongoing process.
Furthermore, the studio also recommends reducing the game’s resolution to at least 1080p, as well as disabling depth of field, volumetrics, and global illumination to achieve a FPS rate that allows players to enjoy the game in the best possible way. Additionally, Colossal Order aims to expand its scaling options, including compatibility with AMD’s FSR2 and Nvidia’s DLSS2, once the game supports the Temporal Anti-Aliasing system used by both scalers.
It’s worth noting that, despite the numerous improvements Cities: Skylines 2 is set to receive, at least as indicated by its developers, the goal remains to achieve a stable 30 FPS. “It’s worth mentioning that for a game like this, the performance goal is to run it at a consistent minimum of 30 FPS. There is no real benefit in a city builder to aim for higher FPS,” the developer states. They also emphasize that “a growing city will inevitably be limited by the CPU.”
With the announcement of the upcoming improvements for the game published by Paradox Interactive, the studio also explained the reason why the game was released on PC despite having multiple issues, as they themselves acknowledged. “We came to the conclusion that performance is not a decisive factor for every player. For us, the number one priority is that players have fun with the game, and we have seen enough player comments from those who enjoy the game,” which is why they found it more unfair to postpone its release than to launch it in the state they did.
We will see if Cities: Skylines 2 manages to redeem itself from its current state on PC and if, by the time the game is released on consoles, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, it can be in its best possible state.
Undoubtedly, one of the best movies, at least in the realm of superheroes, that was released in theaters last year was The Batman, the film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson. The movie captivated both critics and audiences, especially DC fans and enthusiasts of its iconic character, one that was represented cinematically at a level similar to The Dark Knight trilogy.
However, as much as The Batman was a success, what we didn’t expect is that it would have some kind of crossover with the last major video game featuring Batman himself, not counting titles like Gotham Knights. Specifically, we’re talking about Batman: Arkham Knight, the title released by Rocksteady in 2015 that marked the end of the iconic Arkham saga. It seems that the game has briefly featured a new free suit inspired by the aforementioned movie starring Pattinson.
Pattinson’s suit from The Batman unexpectedly appears and disappears in Batman: Arkham Knight
The 2015 game briefly featured The Batman’s distinctive suit, something that had not been announced or teased. However, as surprising as its inclusion in the Epic Games Store version was, its removal without prior notice was equally unexpected. All these actions suggest that the mentioned suit will eventually make its way to Batman: Arkham Knight, and it will likely be available for free.
The rumor that has gained more strength as the hours pass is that The Batman’s suit will land in Batman: Arkham Knight, and in all versions of the game available (that is, both on consoles and PC), to coincide with the release of the Batman: Arkham Trilogy for Nintendo Switch. This collection was initially set to be released this October but ended up being delayed until December 1st. In this way, the mentioned skin would arrive in the game as a gift for its players.
Certainly, it no longer surprises us that Elon Musk is so fixated on turning what is now X (formerly Twitter) into a “super app” for everything. Now, thanks to The Verge, we know that Musk intends for the mentioned social network to replace the role of banking and financial apps within a year.
In fact, the owner of X intends for his most recent acquisition to potentially replace traditional banks. This is demonstrated by a recording obtained by The Verge, making it very clear that he wants X to become the centerpiece of our financial world. In other words, the idea is that all kinds of transactions can be carried out from the mentioned app without leaving it.
X is getting closer and closer to being the “super app” for everything that Musk wants
“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. If it involves money, it’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever it is. So, it’s not just sending $20 to my friend. I’m talking about not needing a bank account,” this would be the highlighted excerpt from the mentioned recording that the previously cited medium would have had access to. In fact, as we were saying, Elon Musk aims to bring all of these functions to X next year, specifically by the end of 2024.
Additionally, it seems that Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, supports Musk’s idea and believes it’s a great opportunity for the mentioned social network. She also talks about implementing it in the coming year. It’s worth mentioning that earlier this year, X obtained money transmitter or currency licenses in 7 states in the United States.
All of this didn’t start just now, as it’s always good to remember that Elon Musk, along with others, created PayPal about two decades ago (originally named X as well). Later, it was sold at a very high price. However, it seems that now the South African magnate seeks redemption and plans to follow the same principles that were set for PayPal at the time, but this time to do the same with X and thus overcome its aforementioned rival.
“The product roadmap for X/PayPal was written by David Sacks and me in July 2000. And for some reason, PayPal, once it became part of eBay, not only didn’t implement the rest of the list but actually reversed a bunch of key features, which is insane. So, PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July 2000, that is, 23 years ago,” Musk himself said.
Vivaldi Technologies has already released their new update for their browser. In other words, Vivaldi 6.4 is now available, and this new version comes with several improvements and features that will make user experience more satisfying. For instance, pop-up videos are one of the elements that have received specific enhancements.
Apparently, these pop-up videos (Picture-in-Picture) now feature a sliding volume control, allowing users to adjust the volume on the go. Additionally, Picture-in-Picture can be enabled by clicking on the video in question when the cursor is directly above it. Among its other novelties, it’s worth mentioning that the controls for these pop-up videos will now include a close button and another to return to the previous tab, for example.
Vivaldi 6.4 is now available
Following the updates to this browser, it’s worth mentioning that Vivaldi’s integrated calendar now allows users to create templates to highlight events that occur regularly, such as birthdays or work meetings, among other things. This feature aims to enhance user organization and productivity. Additionally, with this new version of Vivaldi, several improvements have been made that are worth mentioning.
Vivaldi 6.4 has made corrections to the address bar, bookmarks, tabs, menus, history, and various other parts of the browser. If you’re interested in all the details of these improvements, don’t hesitate to visit the blog post they’ve published, which contains comprehensive information about this new version of their browser. There, you can find detailed explanations about the updates and corrections, providing answers to any questions you might have.
Furthermore, considering that this browser was recently launched on iPhone and iPad, Vivaldi 6.4 is now available on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Raspberry Pi. To conclude, here’s an important excerpt from their official post, which is crucial if you’re interested in understanding how your data is handled from now on.
“Keeping your data safe is our priority. That’s why we store synchronization data on our own servers in Iceland. Although we use the Chromium sync engine, we have modified it to use our own server instead of Google’s servers. This means you don’t need to entrust your data to Google. We have also added encryption to the data, using an encryption password to which we have no access on our servers, ensuring that only you can access it,” they state.
Today is a day with several financial reports from some of the leading companies in the technology sector, such as Google’s parent company, Alphabet. In this regard, we have learned that during this last quarter, spanning from July to September, the group has achieved noteworthy growth. However, their cloud business didn’t perform as well as expected, although they also experienced a significant increase in this area.
To begin with, Google has greatly benefited from the strong performance of digital advertising, a field well-recognized by those in Mountain View, as it has been revitalized after last year’s significant slowdown. So, albeit with a few nuances, the company’s profits have soared. Between July and September, Alphabet achieved revenues of $76.693 billion, which is 11% more than in the same period last year.
Google is growing in all areas, including the cloud, despite not meeting expectations
Additionally, the margins improved, and the net profit surged by 41% to $19.689 billion, according to the company’s own accounts published this past Tuesday. In summary, in the year-to-date, revenues have grown by 7% to $221.084 billion, and the profit has increased by 14.6%, reaching $53.108 billion, despite the costs of severance packages, such as those carried out earlier in 2023.
Continuing with the reported data from this last quarter, the company is growing in all possible areas, such as digital advertising, which increased its revenue by 9.5%, reaching $59.647 billion. It appears that both searches and YouTube ads had a strong pull during the three months corresponding to this report. However, Alphabet’s cloud business is the discordant note, even though it has also seen a notable growth of 22.5%, reaching $8.411 billion.
As we mentioned, although the results have been positive, it seems that the expectations were different for analysts in the sector. StreetAccount projected that Google Cloud would reach a figure of $8.640 billion during this last quarter. We will see what figures Google achieves in the next three months within this growing sector. On the other hand, Other Bets, Alphabet’s non-advertising business portfolio like Waymo, had about $297 million in revenue, a good growth considering it earned $208 million the previous year. In this latter field, the group continued to lose money, specifically talking about a loss of $1.190 billion.
Furthermore, it is expected that AI involvement will be much greater in the near future since the company aims to integrate it into more services following the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In fact, artificial intelligence could significantly impact Google’s dominance in search and advertising if it reforms how users search for information on the internet, at least according to analysts.
“I am pleased with our financial results and the momentum of our products this quarter, with AI-driven innovations across Search, YouTube, Cloud, our Pixel devices, and much more. We continue to focus on making AI more helpful for everyone; there is exciting progress and much more to come,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO, in a statement.
To conclude, it is worth mentioning that Alphabet’s stocks have appreciated by 56% so far this year due to expectations of business improvement. Currently, they have a market capitalization of over 1.7 trillion dollars.
While Threads had a strong start upon its launch, Meta’s new app has been declining over time. Mark Zuckerberg’s company aims to give a boost to what many consider the primary alternative to Twitter (now called X). With the goal of encouraging Threads usage, the company has started publicly sharing content from the new social network on Facebook and Instagram feeds without users’ consent.
Considering that this has been done without users’ permission, it was expected that this decision would spark controversy, as it has. Several users have expressed their dissatisfaction with this action because many of them use Threads in a more intimate manner, so to speak, and they do not like their posts being shared with their broader social circle on Facebook or Instagram.
Users of Meta’s new app, Threads, are not pleased with the cross-posting between Threads and Facebook
Despite these complaints, it’s true that the tactic of sharing Threads’ content on Facebook and Instagram has worked out well for them. According to a recent report, Meta’s new app has seen an increase in downloads in recent weeks. It’s worth mentioning that this new social network had been somewhat stagnant for a while, although shortly after its launch, it had already reached 100 million users, as noted by SimilarWeb.
Addressing user complaints about Threads, someone inquired about how to cancel cross-platform posting. Meta responded with the following: “We have released an update to make it easier for people to see the most recent Threads content directly on Facebook and Instagram.” Additionally, the company added that they are “listening to feedback like yours as we continue to develop this.”
Certainly, this isn’t new territory for Meta, as Zuckerberg’s company has used Facebook on other occasions to promote various projects and products, such as Instagram reels or including ads from WhatsApp businesses. However, the contentious issue arises when these actions are taken without the consent of the users involved.
So, if Meta hopes to boost the usage of Threads and keep its users engaged once they join, it’s expected that the company will take measures to appease the situation in the best way possible for the parties involved.
As reflected in the news about the highly likely implementation of a new exclusive feed for verified accounts on Instagram, Meta’s app continues to evolve and undergo changes. Clearly, AI is also a factor that Mark Zuckerberg’s company takes into account when introducing innovations on the mentioned platform and others, such as Facebook and Instagram Threads.
The new feature that Instagram intends to implement is a function that allows users to create custom stickers from photos. This news was revealed by Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, who stated that with this new tool, users will be able to create stickers using their own photos and use them in reels or stories within the app.
Soon, we will be able to create our own stickers on Instagram
Although it seems that AI will be responsible for carrying out this new function, it’s not going to be a very complex task. The AI will help Instagram remove the background of the photo users want to use and highlight the element of the photograph they want to create a sticker from. It’s worth mentioning that users will be able to select images from their mobile devices and other “eligible ones seen on Instagram (which initially raises some doubts, to be honest, so they will probably provide more details soon).”
Mosseri himself demonstrated briefly how this new and interesting feature works. Its usage is quite straightforward; the tool selects a possible subject within the photograph, highlights it, removes the background, and crops the selected subject. Once that’s done, users can use their new sticker in Instagram reels or stories.
As mentioned, this feature is currently in the testing phase, and only a few users have access to it. At the time of writing, there is no specific date for its general and complete release. However, it is safe to assume that this new tool will be available for both Android and iOS users when it is officially launched.
