Month: May 2024
YouTube’s terrible free games are now available to everyone, here’s how to play them
YouTube has rolled out its terrible free games to all YouTube users, but why would you want to play any of them?
Over the past few months, a select group of people have been able to play games on YouTube, and now the feature has rolled out to everyone – but take it from me, they’re not worth your time.
Called ‘Playables, ’ YouTube has rolled out 75 titles today per its blog post announcement, all of which can be played for free in the mobile app or on your desktop. Plus, when you quit out of them, if you ever decide to return your progress will have been saved so you can pick up where you left off.
I’ve been trying some of the Playables for research (and definitely not as a way to avoid work) but found none were that fun. They’re mindless ways to burn through 10 minutes or so if you’re desperately bored, but if you’re on YouTube, there are literally millions of more entertaining ways to spend your time on the social media platform (like my recent obsession Jet lag: The Game, or watching The TechRadar Podcast)
Admittedly, Cut The Rope is a charming trip down memory lane with a classic smartphone app, but many other games are those mindless ‘puzzle’ games you see in TikToks or YouTube Shorts. After a minute, they lose all appeal.
It’s certainly nothing close to matching the quality of the Netflix games catalog – though I guess you are paying for those titles as part of a subscription so you should expect them to be higher quality.
Here’s how you can find YouTube’s games
(Image credit: YouTube)
If you’re still interested in finding YouTube’s new games here’s how.
On desktop, head to the YouTube homepage and scroll through the menu on the left side of the screen until you find the Explore section. At the bottom of this submenu, you should see ‘Playables,’ click on it and you’ll have found the games you seek.
On the mobile app, you’ll also hit the compass symbol in the top right corner on the homepage. From here, tap on playables at the bottom of the menu, and you’ll find them.
On either platform, you’ll first load into the home menu, which shows you a few games, but clicking ‘browse’ will show you everything YouTube has to offer.
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Data Centers Could Use 9% of US Electricity By 2030, Research Institute Says
Data centers could use up to 9% of total electricity generated in the United States by the end of the decade, more than doubling their current consumption, as technology companies pour funds into expanding their computing hubs, the Electric Power Research Institute said on Wednesday. From a report: Depending on the adoption pace of technology such as generative artificial intelligence, which is fueling the expansion of data centers, and the energy efficiency of new centers, the estimated annual growth rate of electricity use by the industry ranges from 3.7% to 15% through 2030, the institute’s analysis said. The institute is a U.S.-based research organization funded by energy and government organizations.
Data centers, along with expanding domestic manufacturing and electrification of transportation, are lifting the U.S. electricity industry out of two decades of flat growth. The centers require massive amounts of power for high-intensity computing and cooling systems, with a new large data center requiring the same amount of electricity needed to power 750,000 homes, according to numerous energy company earnings calls this year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Data centers could use up to 9% of total electricity generated in the United States by the end of the decade, more than doubling their current consumption, as technology companies pour funds into expanding their computing hubs, the Electric Power Research Institute said on Wednesday. From a report: Depending on the adoption pace of technology such as generative artificial intelligence, which is fueling the expansion of data centers, and the energy efficiency of new centers, the estimated annual growth rate of electricity use by the industry ranges from 3.7% to 15% through 2030, the institute’s analysis said. The institute is a U.S.-based research organization funded by energy and government organizations.
Data centers, along with expanding domestic manufacturing and electrification of transportation, are lifting the U.S. electricity industry out of two decades of flat growth. The centers require massive amounts of power for high-intensity computing and cooling systems, with a new large data center requiring the same amount of electricity needed to power 750,000 homes, according to numerous energy company earnings calls this year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
White House rejected offer from TikTok allowing US government to oversee social media app
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Ars Live: How profitable is Starlink? We dig into the details of satellite Internet.
How has Starlink has gone from zero to profitability in five years?
Enlarge / A stack of 60 Starlink satellites launched in 2019. (credit: SpaceX / Flickr)
SpaceX began launching operational Starlink satellites five years ago this month. Since then, the company has been rapidly developing its constellation of broadband satellites in low-Earth orbit. SpaceX has now launched about 6,000 satellites with its Falcon 9 rocket and has delivered on its promise to provide fast Internet around the world. Today, the company is the largest satellite operator in the world by a factor of 10.
But is this massive enterprise to deliver Internet from space profitable?
According to a new report by Quilty Space, the answer is yes. Quilty built a model to assess Starlink’s profitability. First, the researchers assessed revenue. The firm estimates this will grow to $6.6 billion in 2024, up from essentially zero just four years ago. In addition to rapidly growing its subscriber base of about 3 million, SpaceX has also managed to control costs. Based upon its model, therefore, Quilty estimates that Starlink’s free cash flow from the business will be about $600 million this year.
HBO is adapting the Brazilian epic City of God into a series and it’s coming to Max in August
HBO is set to release a new adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel City of God on Max in August.
HBO is bringing the critically acclaimed Brazilian gangster movie City of God back as a series that will stream on Max in August, and while details about the show are sparse, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has released some information about what we can expect.
City of God: The Fight Rages On is an HBO Original series that will be made up of six episodes. It’s a continuation of the semi-autobiographical novel by Paulo Lins that the original movie was based on, so you can expect the same characters to be involved.
In fact, WBD, alongside O2 Films, which produced the series, has also managed to bring back many of the original cast members, including Alexandre Rodrigues, who played Buscapé (nicknamed Rocket), Roberta Rodrigues, who played Shaggy’s girlfriend Berenice, and Edson Oliveira, who played Rocket’s childhood friend Stringy. Like the original movie, the series has also cast emerging talents from favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
City of God: The Fight Rages On – what we know so far
Originally released in 2002, City of God was set in the late 60s when the Cidade de Deus favela was formed and spans a period leading up to the 80s. The show isn’t expected to pick up where the movie left off though. Instead, it’s set in the early 2000s, two decades after the events of the film.
While the movie is centered on the diverging paths that two young men take while growing up in a poverty-stricken favela, you’re introduced to a number of different characters throughout that I suspect will play more of a bigger role in this series adaptation. The richness of these characters helped define the rawness of the original film, so I’m excited to see what a new cast will improvise.
If you haven’t seen the movie before, now is a great time to, as it will help you understand the flashbacks that are expected to be included throughout the series. WBD has said that it will use these in scenes to “reconstruct the protagonists’ memories.” City of God: The Fight Rages On will stream on Max in August.
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Opera is drafting in Google Gemini to help supercharge the browser’s Aria AI assistant
Opera is enhancing Aria AI with Gemini, offering cutting-edge text-to-voice and image generation features.
Generative AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini have been around for a while now and are slowly infiltrating various products, the latest of which is the Opera browser, which is getting AI features powered by Gemini.
Opera made an official announcement yesterday, explaining that it’s collaborating with Google Cloud to enhance its browser AI, Aria, along with its text-to-voice and image generation capabilities. Opera powers Aria using its multi-LLM (large language model) Composer AI engine.
Opera observes that Aria makes its browser unique, as the Composer AI engine doesn’t just utilize one AI or one LLM provider. The engine processes what a user would like to do while using the browser and chooses the best model for the task at hand, and Gemini is now part of the options that Opera can leverage in this way.
Opera is one of the more popular browsers, especially for one that’s not a default or pre-installed app on an operating system, and it’s been incorporating novel generative AI technology into the browser for just over a year now.
(Image credit: Opera)
How you can try the new Aria AI for yourself
The catch here is that for now, the freshly boosted Aria AI is only available in the Opera One Developer version of the browser, which enables users to test the newest AI features and additions (including the new image generation capabilities that enlist Google’s Imagen 2 model on the Vertex AI platform).
You can download the Opera One Developer version from Opera’s website, but rather than trying a test spin of the browser, we’d recommend you wait for the Gemini integration to reach the finished version of Opera.
If you want to try an alternative to some other more popular browsers like Google Chrome, Opera is a good choice, especially as it’s based on Chromium. Chromium is Google’s open-source engine, which several popular browsers are based on, including Chrome and Edge, so you can easily import your history and bookmarks.
Even if you don’t sign up to try the new version of Aria AI, the standard take on Opera, and Opera GX (the gaming spin), have AI-powered features already – and as mentioned, the newer Aria AI will make it into the standard browser eventually (unless it gets abandoned, which seems unlikely). Opera also offers other features that have given the browser a loyal fan base including Workspaces for file management, sidebar functionality, and a built-in VPN.
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Apple’s MacBook Pro could finally get the OLED treatment in the next few years
We could see an OLED MacBook Pro in the next few years – possibly boosting demand for the high-end laptop in the future.
We’ve been waiting for OLED MacBooks for quite a while now, especially since the launch of Apple’s M4 iPad Pro models boasting new high-end displays. Naturally, you would think the MacBook Pro range would follow suit, and we previously held out hope for that when the M3 MacBooks launched late last year. However, it now seems like we might finally see OLED MacBook Pros in 2026, which may tempt more users towards these high-end laptops.
As Wccftech reports, according to analyst firm Omdia, OLED technology will seemingly debut on MacBook Pro models in 2026, making the laptops thinner, since OLED screens have their own individually lit pixels and don’t require a backlit panel.
We’re told these MacBooks will use the same Tandem OLED displays as the iPad Pros, with ‘tandem’ referring to them having two OLED panels layered on top of each other (for better brightness and color clarity).
Why not sooner rather than later?
Omdia’s Senior Principal Analyst of Display Research, Ricky Part, posted his predictions for the future of Apple displays in a blog post, stating that: “Apple is highly likely to incorporate OLED into its MacBook Pro models as early as 2026. This move could spark a significant surge in OLED demand within the notebook market, potentially reaching over 60 million units by 2031.”
As you can see, Part suspects the move to OLED screens will boost the Apple MacBook Pro’s desirability, and I am inclined to agree. Who normally uses MacBook Pros? Artists, videographers, filmmakers, animators, editors, and many other creative or visually demanding use cases would greatly benefit from a sharper, better, more vibrant OLED display.
If that’s the case, then why would Apple be so slow to jump on the OLED train? Well, possibly because the panels are expensive to manufacture, and the company will need to rely on a much higher level of demand for MacBook Pros to justify beginning the process. There’s also the matter of securing production facilities for the screens, too.
As we said before, Apple has only just brought its M4 chips to iPad Pro models, so it would make sense to wait for a future new chipset, or other major upgrades and features, to add into the mix alongside the introduction of an OLED screen to make a new MacBook Pro worth it. Higher production costs trickle down to the consumer, so we expect an OLED MacBook Pro to be one of the most expensive laptops on the market – meaning it’ll really have to seem worth the outlay.
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