Month: August 2024
Lego Lord of the Rings, Shadow of Mordor, and Shadow of War are now available for free for Prime Gaming members
Amazon Prime Gaming members can now claim three Lord of the Rings games free of charge.
Amazon Prime Gaming members can now claim three Lord of the Rings games free of charge.
To celebrate the upcoming release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 on August 29, Amazon is now offering subscribers the chance to add three games inspired by the Tolkien universe to their collections.
The exclusive offer is running from today through September 30, 2024, with each title being offered a code for either GOG or access via Amazon Luna.
Those subscribed to Amazon Prime, which automatically unlocks the Prime Gaming benefit, can head over to PrimeGaming.com, log in to their account, and simply claim the three following games at no extra cost.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition – GOGLEGO The Lord of the Rings – GOG Middle-earth: Shadow of War – Amazon Luna in supported countries
While Lego The Lord of the Rings is inspired by the popular film trilogy, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War are spin-off action-adventure role-playing games (RPG) featuring an original narrative.
If you’re not already a Prime member, you can currently claim a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime to get access to these games. Just like a regular membership, you’ll get access to a ton of discounts, including savings on free delivery and access to other Amazon services like Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Gaming, and more.
You can see the very best prices on an Amazon Prime subscription or claim your free trial below.
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‘Nothing Ear Open’ earbuds listing spotted and I think it’s the best idea Nothing’s had in ages
It’s a name reminiscent of a big Audrey Hepburn musical number, but no cockney accent is required for this moniker.
Anyone else picturing Eliza Doolittle, wandering the streets of London singing “Nothing Ear Open!” to the tune of Morning Has Broken, in a long-lost draft version of the opening scene of My Fair Lady? OK maybe just me… but you’ve got to admit, it’s the funniest name for a set of earbuds you’ve heard in a while.
And that’s what’s been spotted in the wild! Gadget discovery site 91 Mobiles has posted an image of what the online publication claims is a listing for the new Nothing audio product within Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) certification.
The entry confirms the marketing name ‘Ear Open’ with Nothing as the brand, along with a model number, B182 (easy to remember for Blink 182 fans), and a ‘low power device’ listing category – i.e. something that connects to Bluetooth. Crucially, the equipment description reads ‘true wireless earphones’, which, if the leak proves genuine, is a pretty conclusive giveaway that new Nothing buds are in the pipeline.
For the avoidance of any doubt, the buds above are not the Nothing Ear Open – but don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t recognize ’em. Those are the July 2024-release CMF by Nothing Buds Pro 2 in blue, which we’ve just finished testing (we’ll be publishing that review soon).
Credit: 91 Mobiles (Image credit: 91 Mobiles)
Nothing Ear Open: what to expect
Obviously, the sum total of the information contained in the leak has now been shared, which leaves us with very little concrete evidence to go on. But if I know Nothing (and I believe I do) the company’s naming strategy is usually every bit as transparent as its products – who could forget the long, thin case that accompanied the Nothing Ear Stick, for instance?
So, I’m almost certain we can expect a set of open-ear earbuds from Nothing – something like the Bose Ultra Open, OneOdio OpenRock Pro, Oladance OWS, or in fact, any of the options in our best open ear headphones roundup.
Most, though not all, of these types of earbuds have a spiral-shaped design (think ammonite, if fossils are your thing), where the driver housing or ‘bud’ part sits in the center, close to your ear canal but not inside it, while the other end of the spiral slips behind the ear, sometimes snapping gently into place.
Regular readers will know that in May 2024, Nothing won the ChatGPT race and brought pinch-to-speak functionality to all of its audio products when used with a Nothing phone – including the inaugural Nothing Ear (1), subsequent Ear (stick) and Ear (2), plus the cheaper CMF Buds, CMF Neckband Pro, and CMF Buds Pro. So, it makes sense to assume that Nothing’s virtual voice assistant USP will be carried over to the Nothing Ear Open.
Then, there’s Nothing’s game-changing sound personalization mode. It’s reserved for the flagship models – you get it in Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (2); you don’t get it in Nothing Ear (a) – but as Nothing’s first foray into the world of open-ear offerings, I might expect to see the feature in some capacity, albeit pared down (because delivering a tailored audio experience in designs that sit outside the ear canal is a tricky business). Active noise cancellation? That’s unlikely, because the main reason for buying an open-ear headphone is to better hear your environment.
Finally, if recent reviews of the firm’s excellent 2024-release Nothing Ear (a) and Nothing Ear earbuds are anything to go on, the sound could be really something, you know? In summary – and if the pricing is as reasonable as recent offerings from Carl Pei’s 2020 startup – I predict a huge hit.
When might we see the Nothing Ear Open? Impossible to say with any certainty. For now, we wait…
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Intel Board Member Quit After Differences Over Chipmaker’s Revival Plan
An anonymous reader shares a report: The sudden resignation of a high-profile Intel board member came after differences with CEO Pat Gelsinger and other directors over what the director considered the U.S. company’s bloated workforce, risk-averse culture and lagging artificial intelligence strategy, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Lip-Bu Tan, a semiconductor industry veteran, had said he was leaving the board because of a personal decision to “reprioritize various commitments” and that he remained “supportive of the company and its important work,” in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
The former CEO of chip-software company Cadence Design joined Intel’s board two years ago as part of a plan to restore Intel’s place as the leading global chipmaker. The board expanded Tan’s responsibilities in October 2023, authorizing him to oversee manufacturing operations.
Over time, Tan grew frustrated by the company’s large workforce, its approach to contract manufacturing and Intel’s risk-averse and bureaucratic culture, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The circumstances around Tan’s exit have not previously been reported. The departure of the industry veteran, who is well-regarded by investors, over Intel’s strategy illustrates the uncertainty of its turnaround efforts. Tan leaves as the company endures one of the bleakest periods in its five-decade history that has left it vulnerable to a potential activist shareholder attack, former executives said. Intel has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to prepare a defense, according to sources familiar with the matter, confirming an earlier report.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader shares a report: The sudden resignation of a high-profile Intel board member came after differences with CEO Pat Gelsinger and other directors over what the director considered the U.S. company’s bloated workforce, risk-averse culture and lagging artificial intelligence strategy, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Lip-Bu Tan, a semiconductor industry veteran, had said he was leaving the board because of a personal decision to “reprioritize various commitments” and that he remained “supportive of the company and its important work,” in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
The former CEO of chip-software company Cadence Design joined Intel’s board two years ago as part of a plan to restore Intel’s place as the leading global chipmaker. The board expanded Tan’s responsibilities in October 2023, authorizing him to oversee manufacturing operations.
Over time, Tan grew frustrated by the company’s large workforce, its approach to contract manufacturing and Intel’s risk-averse and bureaucratic culture, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The circumstances around Tan’s exit have not previously been reported. The departure of the industry veteran, who is well-regarded by investors, over Intel’s strategy illustrates the uncertainty of its turnaround efforts. Tan leaves as the company endures one of the bleakest periods in its five-decade history that has left it vulnerable to a potential activist shareholder attack, former executives said. Intel has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to prepare a defense, according to sources familiar with the matter, confirming an earlier report.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Outdated processes mean nearly all IT teams are ill-equipped to combat outages
Outdated systems have a serious impact on the way IT teams deal with problems.
New research has revealed 92% of IT leaders have to deal with obstacles in their response to incidents, putting businesses at risk of outages and even more serious incidents.
Over 500 IT leaders were surveyed in the study by PagerDuty, with almost 60% saying digital incidents are on the rise.
“With ongoing internal strife and challenges for incident response, costly downtime is becoming a real concern,” noted Eduardo Crespo, VP EMEA, PagerDuty. “We have now seen, with this recent outage, that tomorrow is too late. Organizations need to start today to automate their operations, streamline processes and reinforce their digital infrastructure.”
Rising costs
IT incidents have become a costly business, and leaders have estimated that the true cost of outages is over $4500 per minute, with customer facing outages costing an average of $1.5 million in total lost revenue. Financial services were hit the hardest by the costs, with an average of $30.5 million per year, compared to $8.2 million for retail organizations.
Over 50% say they are under pressure to reduce the cost of IT operations, as well as improve efficiency and productivity. However as much as 38% of the time IT teams was in their responses was spent dealing with manual processes, potentially costing thousands of dollars. But despite this, 91% of respondents believe their team is effective at managing day to day operations and resolving technical issues efficiently.
It was recently reported the top 2,000 biggest companies could be losing almost 10% of their profits to lost revenue, missed SLA penalties, and regulatory fines, resulting in annual revenue losses of almost $50 million.
By automating the incident response, companies saved over an hour on average in dealing with customer-impacting incidents, and saved almost $15 million.
However, there is a danger in over-relying on automation in IT and operational technology. Human oversight, experience, and knowledge is invaluable in dealing with unanticipated scenarios.
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Sony hikes the PlayStation 5 price in Japan by 19 percent
Due to a “challenging external environment,” Sony will increase the PS5’s price in Japan by 19 percent. The new price of the standard PS5 model will be ¥79,980 (about $554) and will come into effect by September 2, 2024. Prices for the console in other countries are not affected.
It’s important to note that Sony raised PS5 prices around the world two years ago, with the exception of the US. Similar to the Japanese price hike, Sony also remarked that “challenging economic decisions” led to this difficult decision. Without getting into specifics, the console isn’t the only product about to cost more, as accessories like the DualSense controller and PlayStation VR2 are also experiencing price hikes.
A price hike this late into the console’s life and by this much is rather unusual, and Sony is expecting fewer PS5 sales for the fiscal 2025 year. But despite that slowdown, the PS5 reached 50 million sales last year and is outselling the Xbox Series X/S by a wide margin.
There are also rumors that a PS5 Pro will come out this fall. While it’s not likely why the PS5’s price in Japan is increasing, it’s still a potential factor in how Sony considers pricing the current model. Nevertheless, the PS5 Pro is still unconfirmed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-hikes-the-playstation-5-price-in-japan-by-19-percent-160557944.html?src=rss
Due to a “challenging external environment,” Sony will increase the PS5’s price in Japan by 19 percent. The new price of the standard PS5 model will be ¥79,980 (about $554) and will come into effect by September 2, 2024. Prices for the console in other countries are not affected.
It’s important to note that Sony raised PS5 prices around the world two years ago, with the exception of the US. Similar to the Japanese price hike, Sony also remarked that “challenging economic decisions” led to this difficult decision. Without getting into specifics, the console isn’t the only product about to cost more, as accessories like the DualSense controller and PlayStation VR2 are also experiencing price hikes.
A price hike this late into the console’s life and by this much is rather unusual, and Sony is expecting fewer PS5 sales for the fiscal 2025 year. But despite that slowdown, the PS5 reached 50 million sales last year and is outselling the Xbox Series X/S by a wide margin.
There are also rumors that a PS5 Pro will come out this fall. While it’s not likely why the PS5’s price in Japan is increasing, it’s still a potential factor in how Sony considers pricing the current model. Nevertheless, the PS5 Pro is still unconfirmed.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-hikes-the-playstation-5-price-in-japan-by-19-percent-160557944.html?src=rss
Microsoft Copilot could have been hacked by some very low-tech methods
Microsoft moves quickly to patch apparenty Copilot flaw.
Cybersecurity researchers have found a way to force Microsoft 365 Copilot to harvest sensitive data such as passwords, and send them to malicious third parties using “ASCII smuggling”
The ASCII smuggling attack required three things: Copilot for Microsoft 365 reading the contents of an email, or an attached document; having access to additional programs, such as Slack; and being able to “smuggle” the prompt with “special Unicode characters that mirror ASCII but are actually not visible in the user interface.”
As the researchers at Embrace the Red, who found the flaw, explain, Microsoft 365 Copilot can be told to read, and analyze, the contents of incoming email messages and attachments. If that email, or attachment, tells Microsoft 365 Copilot to look for passwords, email addresses, or other sensitive data in Slack, or elsewhere, it will do as it’s told.
Hidden prompts and invisible texts
Ultimately, if such a malicious prompt is hidden in an attachment, or email, via special Unicode characters that render it invisible to the victim, they may end up, unknowingly, telling their AI chatbot to hand over sensitive data to malicious third parties.
To prove their point, the researchers shared exploit demos with Microsoft, showcasing how sensitive data, such as sales number and multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes, can be exfiltrated and then decoded.
“An email is not the only delivery method for such an exploit. Force sharing documents or RAG retrieval can similarly be used as prompt injection angles,” the report concludes.
In the paper, the researchers recommended Copilot 365 stops interpreting, or rendering, Unicode Tags Code Points.
“Rendering of clickable hyperlinks will enable phishing and scamming (as well as data exfil),” the report concludes. “Automatic Tool Invocation is problematic as long as there are no fixes for prompt injection as an adversary can invoke tools that way and (1) bring sensitive information into the prompt context and (2) probably also invoke actions.”
Microsoft has since addressed the issue.
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