Month: July 2023
Tor’s shadowy reputation will only end if we all use it
“Tor” evokes an image of the dark web; a place to hire hitmen or buy drugs that, at this point, is overrun by feds trying to catch you in the act. The reality, however, is a lot more boring than that — but it’s also more secure.The Onion Router, now called Tor, is a privacy-focused web browser run by a nonprofit group. You can download it for free and use it to shop online or browse social media, just like you would on Chrome or Firefox or Safari, but with additional access to unlisted websites ending in .onion. This is what people think of as the “dark web,” because the sites aren’t indexed by search engines. But those sites aren’t an inherently criminal endeavor.“This is not a hacker tool,” said Pavel Zoneff, director of strategic communications at The Tor Project. “It is a browser just as easy to use as any other browser that people are used to.”That’s right, despite common misconceptions, Tor can be used for any internet browsing you usually do. The key difference with Tor is that the network hides your IP address and other system information for full anonymity. This may sound familiar, because it’s how a lot of people approach VPNs, but the difference is in the details.VPNs are just encrypted tunnels hiding your traffic from one hop to another. The company behind a VPN can still access your information, sell it or pass it along to law enforcement. With Tor, there’s no link between you and your traffic, according to Jed Crandall, an associate professor at Arizona State University. Tor is built in the “higher layers” of the network and routes your traffic through separate tunnels, instead of a single encrypted tunnel. While the first tunnel may know some personal information and the last one may know the sites you visited, there is virtually nothing connecting those data points because your IP address and other identifying information are bounced from server to server into obscurity.In simpler terms: using regular browsers directly connects you and your traffic, adding a VPN routes that information through an encrypted tunnel so that your internet service provider can’t see it and Tor scatters your identity and your search traffic until it becomes almost anonymous, and very difficult to identify.Accessing unindexed websites adds extra perks, like secure communication. While a platform like WhatsApp offers encrypted conversations, there could be traces that the conversation happened left on the device if it’s ever investigated, according to Crandall. Tor’s communication tunnels are secure and much harder to trace that the conversation ever happened.Other use cases may include keeping the identities of sensitive populations like undocumented immigrants anonymous, trying to unionize a workplace without the company shutting it down, victims of domestic violence looking for resources without their abuser finding out or, as Crandall said, wanting to make embarrassing Google searches without related targeted ads following you around forever.Still, with added layers of security can come some additional hiccups, like lag or longer loading times. That could be true for some users depending on what they do online, but anecdotally it’s gotten a lot faster in recent years, and users have said they barely notice a difference compared to other browsers. Sameer Patil, associate professor at the School of Computing at the University of Utah, studied this by having students and staff try out Tor as their main browser. “I was personally very surprised at how many sites and things just work fine in the Tor browser. So not only did they work as intended, but they also were fast enough,” Patil said.But even if online privacy isn’t your main concern personally, using Tor can help support industries that heavily rely on it. By using the anonymous and secure browser, you’re supporting activists, journalists and everyone else’s privacy because the more people that use it, the more secure it gets, according to Patil. If only certain sensitive groups use it, it’ll be easier to deanonymize and ultimately track down identities. When you’re one in a billion using it, that task becomes nearly impossible.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tor-dark-web-privacy-secure-browser-anonymous-130048839.html?src=rss
“Tor” evokes an image of the dark web; a place to hire hitmen or buy drugs that, at this point, is overrun by feds trying to catch you in the act. The reality, however, is a lot more boring than that — but it’s also more secure.
The Onion Router, now called Tor, is a privacy-focused web browser run by a nonprofit group. You can download it for free and use it to shop online or browse social media, just like you would on Chrome or Firefox or Safari, but with additional access to unlisted websites ending in .onion. This is what people think of as the “dark web,” because the sites aren’t indexed by search engines. But those sites aren’t an inherently criminal endeavor.
“This is not a hacker tool,” said Pavel Zoneff, director of strategic communications at The Tor Project. “It is a browser just as easy to use as any other browser that people are used to.”
That’s right, despite common misconceptions, Tor can be used for any internet browsing you usually do. The key difference with Tor is that the network hides your IP address and other system information for full anonymity. This may sound familiar, because it’s how a lot of people approach VPNs, but the difference is in the details.
VPNs are just encrypted tunnels hiding your traffic from one hop to another. The company behind a VPN can still access your information, sell it or pass it along to law enforcement. With Tor, there’s no link between you and your traffic, according to Jed Crandall, an associate professor at Arizona State University. Tor is built in the “higher layers” of the network and routes your traffic through separate tunnels, instead of a single encrypted tunnel. While the first tunnel may know some personal information and the last one may know the sites you visited, there is virtually nothing connecting those data points because your IP address and other identifying information are bounced from server to server into obscurity.
In simpler terms: using regular browsers directly connects you and your traffic, adding a VPN routes that information through an encrypted tunnel so that your internet service provider can’t see it and Tor scatters your identity and your search traffic until it becomes almost anonymous, and very difficult to identify.
Accessing unindexed websites adds extra perks, like secure communication. While a platform like WhatsApp offers encrypted conversations, there could be traces that the conversation happened left on the device if it’s ever investigated, according to Crandall. Tor’s communication tunnels are secure and much harder to trace that the conversation ever happened.
Other use cases may include keeping the identities of sensitive populations like undocumented immigrants anonymous, trying to unionize a workplace without the company shutting it down, victims of domestic violence looking for resources without their abuser finding out or, as Crandall said, wanting to make embarrassing Google searches without related targeted ads following you around forever.
Still, with added layers of security can come some additional hiccups, like lag or longer loading times. That could be true for some users depending on what they do online, but anecdotally it’s gotten a lot faster in recent years, and users have said they barely notice a difference compared to other browsers. Sameer Patil, associate professor at the School of Computing at the University of Utah, studied this by having students and staff try out Tor as their main browser. “I was personally very surprised at how many sites and things just work fine in the Tor browser. So not only did they work as intended, but they also were fast enough,” Patil said.
But even if online privacy isn’t your main concern personally, using Tor can help support industries that heavily rely on it. By using the anonymous and secure browser, you’re supporting activists, journalists and everyone else’s privacy because the more people that use it, the more secure it gets, according to Patil. If only certain sensitive groups use it, it’ll be easier to deanonymize and ultimately track down identities. When you’re one in a billion using it, that task becomes nearly impossible.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tor-dark-web-privacy-secure-browser-anonymous-130048839.html?src=rss
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 Comes With a Bunch of Improvements, but Not Much Else – CNET
What’s in the box of Samsung’s new $1,800 Z Fold? Not much.
What’s in the box of Samsung’s new $1,800 Z Fold? Not much.
The Shocking Success of ‘Barbie’
Together with Oppenheimer, the so-called Barbenheimer opening weekend topped $244 million domestically. But that’s not its most astonishing achievement.
Together with Oppenheimer, the so-called Barbenheimer opening weekend topped $244 million domestically. But that’s not its most astonishing achievement.
Two years later, Netflix is still experimenting with games
Image: Netflix / Ripstone Games / Night School
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and The Queen’s Gambit Chess could not be more different, and yet both are key to understanding Netflix’s gaming philosophy. It wasn’t terribly shocking when Netflix announced it would be adding games to its platform. Instead, the news was treated with a mild disinterest. “Games” on the platform at that point were the “choose your own adventure” style interactive TV shows like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal. Though Bandersnatch had a hot moment, buzz for the “game” didn’t last terribly long. Then, when actual games first started rolling out on the platform, they were little more than inconsequential time fillers with names like Shooty Hoops.
Then, Netflix acquired Night School, makers of Oxenfree and now Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Indie hits like Into the Breach and Kentucky Route Zero started showing up alongside smaller, Netflix IP-based games like Nailed It! Baking Bash. Now, in the two years since the Great Netflix Gaming Experiment began, the platform’s gaming offerings encompass an impressive range of genres, complexity, and narrative substance, putting BAFTA winners next to games best suited for commutes and waiting rooms. And it’s long past time to consider Netflix not only a well-established streaming platform but an emerging (and serious) video game publisher.
Though Netflix won’t share how popular its games are, we can talk to the developers who make them and gain at least some insight into how gaming is going for Netflix. The Verge spoke to developers from two studios for two wildly different games to get a feel for how gaming is going for Netflix.
Image: Netflix / Night School
Night School was one of the first studios Netflix acquired for its gaming platform. Because of the studio’s success with Oxenfree, the acquisition felt like the first indication that Netflix was indeed serious about its gaming venture.
Night School just released the sequel to Oxenfree, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, to decent acclaim. Game director Bryant Cannon believes that part of the reason for that acclaim is because the game was, in part, developed under Netflix’s eaves.
“I think we were around 15 people when we got acquired,” Cannon said. “The Oxenfree II team is now about 25–30 or so. So we have the people now to put towards making the game as good as it can be.”
That increased worker power resulted in Oxenfree II being more accessible to people all over the world. “We also were able to localize the game into 30 languages, which is insane for a game of our size with about 200,000 words or something like that,” Cannon said.
But more than Oxenfree II’s technical improvements and additions, Cannon said the biggest value in having Netflix as a partner is maintaining Night School’s autonomy.
“From a creative perspective, we have been able to maintain our creative independence, which is personally what I care about the most,” he said.
In a climate of video game companies getting acquired by larger ones and then either getting absorbed, retooled, or simply shut down, that Night School was able to retain its creative independence is significant.
“We were really kind of wary and nervous before we kind of made the jump into Netflix,” said Adam Hines, lead writer on Oxenfree II and co-founder of Night School Games. According to Hines, Netflix understands that gaming is new, uncharted waters for a streaming platform and that the best way to navigate them is through collaboration.
“They’re really leaning on us and the studios that they’ve acquired to work with them to figure out how we want to forge ahead in this cool new space of streaming games,” Hines said.
Collaboration seems to be a throughline in Netflix’s gaming philosophy, and it extends beyond its subsidiaries.
Ripstone Games is a UK-based developer and maker of the recently released The Queen’s Gambit Chess, which turns the wildly popular chess show into an interactive chess-teaching experience. Netflix doesn’t own this studio, nor did it approach Ripstone — a company with a history of translating traditional games like poker and chess into video games — to make The Queen’s Gambit. Ripstone went to Netflix.
“Back in October 2020, when The Queen’s Gambit was released, the world fell in love with it,” said Jamie Brayshaw, head of marketing and business development at Ripstone. “The number of people playing chess online absolutely skyrocketed.”
In addition to The Queen’s Gambit, Brayshaw also credits the covid-19 lockdowns for igniting pop culture’s newfound love of chess. He explained that people were looking for safe ways to engage with others and turned to games to maintain connections with family and friends — a sentiment Brayshaw and his team wanted to encourage.
“Games like ours, especially chess, filled those needs perfectly, so we reached out to Netflix.”
What’s so interesting about Ripstone’s approach was that, at the time, Netflix’s gaming initiative hadn’t been launched or even announced yet. When Ripstone developers went to Netflix with their pitch, they were talking to a licensing team, not a gaming one.
“Before I pitched, I asked the question that kind of changed everything. I said, ‘A lot of people are throwing around the label of the Netflix of games,’” Brayshaw said. “So I asked absolutely cheekily, ‘Could Netflix be the Netflix of games?’ And I was shocked by the response.”
That cheeky but prescient question got Netflix to open up about its as yet still unannounced plans to bring games to the platform and totally changed Ripstone’s plans for a Queen’s Gambit game. “So all of those great ideas that I thought I wanted to pitch didn’t seem like they were the right approach anymore,” Brayshaw said. “So I offered for Ripstone to create a brand-new game for The Queen’s Gambit, and the rest is history.”
Image: Ripstone Games / Netflix
The Queen’s Gambit Chess is more than just a straightforward chess game featuring puzzles and other ways to play chess.
Brayshaw said that Netflix and Ripstone had to work together to actualize The Queen’s Gambit Chess. “The unique thing about partnering with Netflix is that they’re all about learning,” Brayshaw said.
As with Night School, Netflix took a relatively hands-off approach with Ripstone even though it was developing a game based on a Netflix property.
“They showed a lot of trust and love and support for us as a partner because they know that we understand chess, and they want to empower us to achieve our creative vision,” Brayshaw said.
Though Night School and Ripstone are only a couple of pieces within Netflix’s entire gaming ecosystem, from them, we can glean that Netflix’s gaming philosophy right now resembles a kind of patronage system. Netflix supplies its studios with resources, and they’re free to pursue whatever artistic avenue they want. This approach isn’t too far off from how game subscription services work, bringing Netflix in line with products like Xbox’s Game Pass and Apple Arcade.
And with Netflix as their patron, there’s also the possibility that these developers’ next projects could be adapting one of the streamer’s many original IPs — a prospect Night School’s down for, considering it was working on an unannounced Stranger Things project with Telltale Games before its acquisition.
Image: Night School / Netflix
“To be perfectly honest, we were always kind of in conversations about if we want to adapt some sort of IP that that’s already out there,” Adam Hines said. “But Netflix, to their credit, is always like, ‘You tell us what you want to do.’”
Ripstone has already adapted a Netflix show, but according to Jamie Brayshaw, there’s always the possibility for more. “It really matters to Ripstone to build communities around games people like to play,” he said. “The experiences that bring people together, like pool or poker and that sort of stuff, I think there’s definitely a place for that on Netflix.”
Though he stated clearly that there’s nothing to announce currently, it seems like The Queen’s Gambit Chess won’t be the last we see of Ripstone on Netflix.
“But Netflix, to their credit, is always like, ‘You tell us what you want to do.’”
The relationship between Netflix and its partners works the other way, too, creating a possible future in which Oxenfree or some other Netflix game gets its own show.
“It was definitely a goal when I first started the studio that all of our games and the experiences that we make could be translated into a movie or TV to a comic book or anything else,” Hines said. “So we’re very open [to the idea].”
Netflix’s gaming strategy seems reminiscent of the platform’s earlier days of throwing around cash for TV and movie projects in hopes of finding what audiences will show up for.
Netflix won’t share how popular its games are, but we’ve seen tiny glimpses behind the curtains. One report from 2022 stated that less than 1 percent of total subscribers play Netflix games. Though Oxenfree II and other games are also distributed on other platforms like the Switch and Xbox, that 1 percent still represents roughly 1.7 million people, which is a lot of eyeballs on games that may not have gotten those eyeballs elsewhere. Netflix is also purportedly working on a cloud gaming offering and is in the midst of hiring for an unannounced AAA PC game at its recently founded internal game studio.
From speaking with developers at Ripstone and Night School, there’s a sense that Netflix, two years into this endeavor, is still in the midst of figuring out if gaming is the value add it needs to give it an edge over the Paramount Pluses and Hulus of the world.
And for now, the streamer’s partner studios are content to help Netflix figure it out.
“They’re very honest with themselves and with us about this, not knowing what the best course of action is yet,” Hines said. “They just really want to put some stuff out there and see how fans and their audience respond and make adjustments based on that.”
Image: Netflix / Ripstone Games / Night School
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and The Queen’s Gambit Chess could not be more different, and yet both are key to understanding Netflix’s gaming philosophy.
It wasn’t terribly shocking when Netflix announced it would be adding games to its platform. Instead, the news was treated with a mild disinterest. “Games” on the platform at that point were the “choose your own adventure” style interactive TV shows like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal. Though Bandersnatch had a hot moment, buzz for the “game” didn’t last terribly long. Then, when actual games first started rolling out on the platform, they were little more than inconsequential time fillers with names like Shooty Hoops.
Then, Netflix acquired Night School, makers of Oxenfree and now Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. Indie hits like Into the Breach and Kentucky Route Zero started showing up alongside smaller, Netflix IP-based games like Nailed It! Baking Bash. Now, in the two years since the Great Netflix Gaming Experiment began, the platform’s gaming offerings encompass an impressive range of genres, complexity, and narrative substance, putting BAFTA winners next to games best suited for commutes and waiting rooms. And it’s long past time to consider Netflix not only a well-established streaming platform but an emerging (and serious) video game publisher.
Though Netflix won’t share how popular its games are, we can talk to the developers who make them and gain at least some insight into how gaming is going for Netflix. The Verge spoke to developers from two studios for two wildly different games to get a feel for how gaming is going for Netflix.
Image: Netflix / Night School
Night School was one of the first studios Netflix acquired for its gaming platform. Because of the studio’s success with Oxenfree, the acquisition felt like the first indication that Netflix was indeed serious about its gaming venture.
Night School just released the sequel to Oxenfree, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, to decent acclaim. Game director Bryant Cannon believes that part of the reason for that acclaim is because the game was, in part, developed under Netflix’s eaves.
“I think we were around 15 people when we got acquired,” Cannon said. “The Oxenfree II team is now about 25–30 or so. So we have the people now to put towards making the game as good as it can be.”
That increased worker power resulted in Oxenfree II being more accessible to people all over the world. “We also were able to localize the game into 30 languages, which is insane for a game of our size with about 200,000 words or something like that,” Cannon said.
But more than Oxenfree II’s technical improvements and additions, Cannon said the biggest value in having Netflix as a partner is maintaining Night School’s autonomy.
“From a creative perspective, we have been able to maintain our creative independence, which is personally what I care about the most,” he said.
In a climate of video game companies getting acquired by larger ones and then either getting absorbed, retooled, or simply shut down, that Night School was able to retain its creative independence is significant.
“We were really kind of wary and nervous before we kind of made the jump into Netflix,” said Adam Hines, lead writer on Oxenfree II and co-founder of Night School Games. According to Hines, Netflix understands that gaming is new, uncharted waters for a streaming platform and that the best way to navigate them is through collaboration.
“They’re really leaning on us and the studios that they’ve acquired to work with them to figure out how we want to forge ahead in this cool new space of streaming games,” Hines said.
Collaboration seems to be a throughline in Netflix’s gaming philosophy, and it extends beyond its subsidiaries.
Ripstone Games is a UK-based developer and maker of the recently released The Queen’s Gambit Chess, which turns the wildly popular chess show into an interactive chess-teaching experience. Netflix doesn’t own this studio, nor did it approach Ripstone — a company with a history of translating traditional games like poker and chess into video games — to make The Queen’s Gambit. Ripstone went to Netflix.
“Back in October 2020, when The Queen’s Gambit was released, the world fell in love with it,” said Jamie Brayshaw, head of marketing and business development at Ripstone. “The number of people playing chess online absolutely skyrocketed.”
In addition to The Queen’s Gambit, Brayshaw also credits the covid-19 lockdowns for igniting pop culture’s newfound love of chess. He explained that people were looking for safe ways to engage with others and turned to games to maintain connections with family and friends — a sentiment Brayshaw and his team wanted to encourage.
“Games like ours, especially chess, filled those needs perfectly, so we reached out to Netflix.”
What’s so interesting about Ripstone’s approach was that, at the time, Netflix’s gaming initiative hadn’t been launched or even announced yet. When Ripstone developers went to Netflix with their pitch, they were talking to a licensing team, not a gaming one.
“Before I pitched, I asked the question that kind of changed everything. I said, ‘A lot of people are throwing around the label of the Netflix of games,’” Brayshaw said. “So I asked absolutely cheekily, ‘Could Netflix be the Netflix of games?’ And I was shocked by the response.”
That cheeky but prescient question got Netflix to open up about its as yet still unannounced plans to bring games to the platform and totally changed Ripstone’s plans for a Queen’s Gambit game. “So all of those great ideas that I thought I wanted to pitch didn’t seem like they were the right approach anymore,” Brayshaw said. “So I offered for Ripstone to create a brand-new game for The Queen’s Gambit, and the rest is history.”
Image: Ripstone Games / Netflix
The Queen’s Gambit Chess is more than just a straightforward chess game featuring puzzles and other ways to play chess.
Brayshaw said that Netflix and Ripstone had to work together to actualize The Queen’s Gambit Chess. “The unique thing about partnering with Netflix is that they’re all about learning,” Brayshaw said.
As with Night School, Netflix took a relatively hands-off approach with Ripstone even though it was developing a game based on a Netflix property.
“They showed a lot of trust and love and support for us as a partner because they know that we understand chess, and they want to empower us to achieve our creative vision,” Brayshaw said.
Though Night School and Ripstone are only a couple of pieces within Netflix’s entire gaming ecosystem, from them, we can glean that Netflix’s gaming philosophy right now resembles a kind of patronage system. Netflix supplies its studios with resources, and they’re free to pursue whatever artistic avenue they want. This approach isn’t too far off from how game subscription services work, bringing Netflix in line with products like Xbox’s Game Pass and Apple Arcade.
And with Netflix as their patron, there’s also the possibility that these developers’ next projects could be adapting one of the streamer’s many original IPs — a prospect Night School’s down for, considering it was working on an unannounced Stranger Things project with Telltale Games before its acquisition.
Image: Night School / Netflix
“To be perfectly honest, we were always kind of in conversations about if we want to adapt some sort of IP that that’s already out there,” Adam Hines said. “But Netflix, to their credit, is always like, ‘You tell us what you want to do.’”
Ripstone has already adapted a Netflix show, but according to Jamie Brayshaw, there’s always the possibility for more. “It really matters to Ripstone to build communities around games people like to play,” he said. “The experiences that bring people together, like pool or poker and that sort of stuff, I think there’s definitely a place for that on Netflix.”
Though he stated clearly that there’s nothing to announce currently, it seems like The Queen’s Gambit Chess won’t be the last we see of Ripstone on Netflix.
The relationship between Netflix and its partners works the other way, too, creating a possible future in which Oxenfree or some other Netflix game gets its own show.
“It was definitely a goal when I first started the studio that all of our games and the experiences that we make could be translated into a movie or TV to a comic book or anything else,” Hines said. “So we’re very open [to the idea].”
Netflix’s gaming strategy seems reminiscent of the platform’s earlier days of throwing around cash for TV and movie projects in hopes of finding what audiences will show up for.
Netflix won’t share how popular its games are, but we’ve seen tiny glimpses behind the curtains. One report from 2022 stated that less than 1 percent of total subscribers play Netflix games. Though Oxenfree II and other games are also distributed on other platforms like the Switch and Xbox, that 1 percent still represents roughly 1.7 million people, which is a lot of eyeballs on games that may not have gotten those eyeballs elsewhere. Netflix is also purportedly working on a cloud gaming offering and is in the midst of hiring for an unannounced AAA PC game at its recently founded internal game studio.
From speaking with developers at Ripstone and Night School, there’s a sense that Netflix, two years into this endeavor, is still in the midst of figuring out if gaming is the value add it needs to give it an edge over the Paramount Pluses and Hulus of the world.
And for now, the streamer’s partner studios are content to help Netflix figure it out.
“They’re very honest with themselves and with us about this, not knowing what the best course of action is yet,” Hines said. “They just really want to put some stuff out there and see how fans and their audience respond and make adjustments based on that.”
US Senate Panel Passes AM Radio, Ticket Fee Pricing Bills
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation on Thursday to bar automakers from eliminating AM broadcast radio in new vehicles and require companies like Ticketmaster to put total ticket prices including fees in marketing materials. The AM radio bill and the ticket-pricing bill both had strong bipartisan support and both have companion measures in the House of Representatives. The AM radio bill would direct the Transportation Department to issue regulations mandating AM radio in new vehicles without additional charge. Senators said this year that at least seven automakers have removed AM broadcast radio from their electric vehicles, including Tesla, BMW, and Volkswagen. Ford reversed course in May under pressure from Congress. Lawmakers say losing AM radio undermines a federal system for delivering key public safety information to the public. The National Association of Broadcasters said the bill “will ensure that the tens of millions of AM radio listeners across the country retain access to local news, diverse community programming and emergency information.” The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing major automakers, opposed the measure: “This is simply a bill to prop up and give preference to a particular technology that’s now competing with other communications options and adapting to changing listenership.”
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee also approved two bills aimed at tightening privacy protections for children online.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation on Thursday to bar automakers from eliminating AM broadcast radio in new vehicles and require companies like Ticketmaster to put total ticket prices including fees in marketing materials. The AM radio bill and the ticket-pricing bill both had strong bipartisan support and both have companion measures in the House of Representatives. The AM radio bill would direct the Transportation Department to issue regulations mandating AM radio in new vehicles without additional charge. Senators said this year that at least seven automakers have removed AM broadcast radio from their electric vehicles, including Tesla, BMW, and Volkswagen. Ford reversed course in May under pressure from Congress. Lawmakers say losing AM radio undermines a federal system for delivering key public safety information to the public. The National Association of Broadcasters said the bill “will ensure that the tens of millions of AM radio listeners across the country retain access to local news, diverse community programming and emergency information.” The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing major automakers, opposed the measure: “This is simply a bill to prop up and give preference to a particular technology that’s now competing with other communications options and adapting to changing listenership.”
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee also approved two bills aimed at tightening privacy protections for children online.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
HerMD opening new women’s health clinics following $18M extension
The company offers comprehensive women’s healthcare, either in-person or virtual, and one of its differentiators is that the average appointment is between 20 and 60 minutes.
Women’s healthcare got another capital infusion today in HerMD, which announced $18 million in additional Series A funding, showing that this area continues to be of interest to investors.
My colleague Dominic-Madori Davis reported earlier this year that women’s health companies raised about $1.16 billion in 2022. Though down from $1.41 billion in 2021, this is still a vast improvement over the $496 million raised in 2020, according to PitchBook data.
Dr. Somi Javaid, founder and chief medical officer of HerMD. Image Credits: HerMD
HerMD is among a group of companies (for example, Herself Health, Tia Health, Vira Health and Adyn) providing care options specifically for women, at all stages of their lives, and attracting venture capital for their approaches.
Founder and chief medical officer Dr. Somi Javaid opened the first HerMD location in 2015 in Cincinnati to help change the notion that less than 20% of OBGYNs are trained in menopause and sexual health care. She later brought on Kathy McAleer as CEO in 2022.
The company offers comprehensive women’s healthcare, either in-person or virtual, and one of its differentiators is that the average appointment is between 20 and 60 minutes. All medical services are insurance- and Medicare-based. In addition, HerMD provides aesthetic services, including facial injectables and body treatments.
To address the lack of training, the company created the HerMD University that centers around proprietary algorithms of care to take providers from classroom to clinic. Providers are able to attend health conferences around menopause and sexual health and participate in monthly meetings.
“The first thing we had to fix was the educational component,” Javaid told TechCrunch. “Some providers have told us that they get more education in the first couple of weeks at HerMD University than they have in their entire career. Then we had to give our providers and patients more time.”
HerMD has around 20 providers between its clinics in Cincinnati, Franklin, Tennessee and Carmel, Indiana and is consistently seeing a waitlist of approximately 500 patients leading up to a clinic opening.
One of the areas that Javaid also focuses on is provider experience, explaining that many providers have become burned out in recent years amid the failings of the existing U.S. healthcare system.
“We’re in this era where we may lose 47% of our workforce by 2025 because of burnout from COVID, because of lack of mission-driven work and because female providers feel like they can’t climb the ladder as well and there’s a pay gap,” Javaid said. “We don’t have any of that at HerMD — it’s equal opportunity. You want to climb the ladder, you climb a ladder. And we give work-life balance, so we have almost zero turnover.”
Meanwhile, the Series A extension was led by existing investor JAZZ with participation from Amboy Street Ventures and B-Flexion. The new investment brings HerMD’s total funding to nearly $30 million.
With the funding, the company will expand its brick-and-mortar locations, including the first in the New York City area and a second Nashville-area clinic. HerMD will also continue developing its virtual services and HerMD University and grow its team — Javaid said there are 100 providers eager to join. The company will also launch mental health services and invest in the latest technologies around sexual health and menopause.
“We will also be introducing e-commerce and physician-curated products,” Javaid said. “Hospital-based systems, and relationships like that, is another thing that we would love to do. We rely on hospitals for imaging, primary care and obstetric and oncology care, but a lot of hospital systems say they struggle because their providers aren’t trained in menopause and sexual health. They need a partner like us, and I see HerMD having over 200 clinics in the future.”
Rockstar fuels remake rumors with a new Red Dead Redemption logo
A new Red Dead Redemption logo has appeared on Rockstar’s website adding to speculation that a remake is in the works.
Rockstar’s website now features a new Red Dead Redemption logo which has only fanned the flames of speculation that a remake or remaster release is imminent.
As spotted by Twitter user TezFunz2, (spotted by VGC) the new logo is a cleaner, clearer, crisper version of the logo compared to its predecessor. This in itself could be the reason for the change of course – some internal housekeeping. However, the further addition of a game referenced as “Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Presents Ver)” has been added to the internal listings on the site as well.
The new image is below. It looks quite similar to the old one but the updated game name and the overall overhaul compared to the previous/older logo leans to there being a
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)
Combine this with the fact that the game received a new or updated classification by the South Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee last month, and we’re starting to – well, potentially – see a mount up of evidence pointing to a new release of the game. For what it’s worth, that particular Korean rating committee does have previous form with revealing upcoming releases through classifications too.
One of the finest open-world games of the PS3/Xbox 360 generation, the game is still playable on Xbox One, a full remake of the game – in Red Dead Redemption 2’s updated engine and also onto PC particularly – will be welcomed with open arms by fans and the community. Especially while we wait for any more information on GTA 6…
Personally, it’d be a most welcome remake for my library: having just finished Red Dead Redemption 2 – and having added the original to my recently resurgent PS3 library – the timing is perfect to dive back into the first game again, and play it like the sequel it is.
We’ve reached out to Rockstar Games for comment, and if they get back to us, we’ll update this story.
Looking for more games like Red Dead Redemption? Check out our guide to the best single-player games and best single-player games on Game Pass to get stuck into.