Since 2019, Sign in with Apple has allowed iPhone and Mac users to protect their privacy by allowing them to generate random email addresses when they need to access a new website, service or app. It’s one of those small features that can have an outsized impact, and now something similar is coming to 1Password.
The company has partnered with email host Fastmail to introduce a feature called Masked Email. Like its Apple counterpart, the tool allows you to create unique email addresses for your logins. You can create the aliases directly within the 1Password app, which means you can access the tool on all platforms where the password manager is available.
Just how much the ability to hide your email can do to help safeguard your online privacy can’t be overstated. The vast majority of privacy breaches start with phishing emails. You’re far less likely to click on a suspicious link or inadvertently share your personal information if you don’t get one of those messages in the first place.
The Nintendo Switch OLED is due to hit store shelves on October 8th, and we’ve been able to get some face-to-face time with the new hardware. Our Kris Naudus says the new machine is beautiful in a way previous pieces of Nintendo hardware have never been.
Obviously the biggest feature worth discussing is that gorgeous new 7-inch OLED display, which is brighter, crisper and lovelier than its predecessor. Then there’s the new kickstand that stretches across the back of the device for better balance, reliability and adjustability.
Nintendo
At the same time, Naudus got to play Metroid Dread, a de-facto launch title for the refreshed console. The 2D-side scroller is heavy on horror, and one of the best tactics the main character, Samus Aran, can employ to survive is to just run the hell away from whatever unspeakable monster attacks.
To get on, Samus uses some new tech, including a spider magnet that lets her cling to ceilings. Oh, and she’s now packing a cloaking device so she can sneak past those unquenchable horrors — but she can only use it in short bursts.
Facebook is “pausing” work on Instagram Kids to consult with parents, experts and policymakers. The project, which politicians on both sides of the aisle agree is a terrible idea, has come under sustained criticism since its existence was revealed. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the pause really is a pause, since Facebook knows there is a real problem of tweens lying about their age to access the full-fat version of the app.
This will not, however, placate critics of the company and the effects its platforms have on younger children. The volume of which has intensified after WSJ reported Facebook’s own internal research said Instagram had a toxic effect on kids’ mental health. (Facebook claims the data, while true, has been misrepresented and has pledged to release more of its own internal research to counter.)
Corporate wrangling over cash makes cord-cutting so relaxing.
NBC Universal and YouTube are now publicly fighting about how much cash NBC gets from YouTube TV’s service fees. The pair are recruiting users to aid their causes, with NBC saying YouTube TV users risk losing NBC, USA, Bravo, CNBC and Telemundo (among others) if the Google-owned video service doesn’t pay up. YouTube, meanwhile, has told users it’ll cut the monthly price by $10 a month if those channels do wind up going.
IK Multimedia’s first Uno Synth was a surprise, coming as it did from a company with a pedigree in MIDI controllers rather than synthesizers. It didn’t get it entirely right the first time, but there was enough promise in IK’s premise for it to justify a second go. Managing Editor Terrence O’Brien has spent some time with the improved Uno Synth Pro Desktop, a $400 replacement for the original model. There’s plenty of detail in his full review, but it seems that while IK hasn’t buffed out all of the original’s faults, the sounds are so good, you won’t care.
Series creator J. Michael Straczynski is back, too.
Warner Bros. / Babylonian Productions
The CW has started work on a potential reboot of seminal ‘90s TV series Babylon 5 with original creator J. Michael Straczynski back running the show. Originally airing between 1993 and 1999, Babylon 5 helped build the world of Peak TV as it exists today. If you thought Game of Thrones invented long-running plot lines, tireless internet speculation and a lengthy, novelistic series of plot arcs, think again. And Babylon 5 managed to do this on a budget that would have made the makers of General Hospital reconsider if it was worth getting out of bed in the morning.
Of course, you might argue some of B5’s plot lines were a little bit fantastical, even for a sci-fi series. One of the biggest story arcs the series ran was the takeover of the Earth government by a xenophobic and paranoid president who was aided by a shadowy foreign power. Escapism! This may also go some way to redressing the way (parent company) Warner Bros treated B5 both during its original run and in its digital second life, which I’ve covered pretty extensively over the last few years.
If you’re a fan of horror/zombie games, it doesn’t really get any more iconic than Capcom’s Resident Evil series. The games have proven themselves to be pretty scary and that’s when you play it on your TV, so imagine if you were in an actual zombie survival situation, how do you think you might fare?
If you’re curious about that, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Resident Evil 4’s VR remake will be arriving on the Oculus Quest 2 on the 21st of October. The remake was originally announced by Capcom back in April earlier this year, so it’s good that we now have an official date to look forward to, and right in time for Halloween too!
The game has been remade for the Oculus Quest 2 by Oculus Studios and Armature Studio where it will put players in the virtual shoes of Leon. It will be a first-person experience so unlike some other Resident Evil titles where you play over the shoulder of your character, this will all be upfront and personal.
There is support for physical movements to pick up and use weapons, so it should be a rather immersive experience. It will be exclusive to the Oculus Quest 2 so if you own a different VR headset, you’ll have to sit this one out.
Right now, many governments are encouraging its people to get vaccinated as it is currently the best way to protect ourselves and the people around us from Covid-19. But what happens if you do get Covid-19 even after you’ve been vaccinated? That’s something that Pfizer is looking into with its latest trials.
The pharmaceutical company has announced that they have begun a middle-to-late stage clinical trial for anti-Covid pills. These are pills that are ingested orally for those who have been exposed to the virus. The idea is that it would be similar to other oral drugs like Tamiflu which is eaten by those who have influenza.
It is said to help prevent the disease from progressing to becoming more severe, which is kind of what the vaccine is for as well. According to Pfizer’s chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten, “We believe that tackling the virus will require effective treatments for people who contract, or have been exposed to, the virus, complementing the impact that vaccines have had.”
Pfizer’s pill is also known as a protease inhibitor which is designed to help prevent the virus from replicating. The company had begun developing it in March 2020 and the current trial will see the involvement of 2,660 adults and will be used to assess the safety and efficacy of the drug.
TikTok has been steadily gaining users over the years and now according to the company, they have finally surpassed the 1 billion mark where they say that their platform now hosts 1 billion monthly users worldwide.
That’s actually pretty crazy and if you think about it, it almost would not have happened. This is because back in 2020, the US government announced that they could be looking to force ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company based in China) to sell off TikTok to a US company lest they get banned, but that did not happen.
We imagine that should this have gone through, TikTok would have easily lost a lot of users and if they were banned, they would not have access to the US market, which the company says is one of their biggest markets along with India and Brazil. Other platforms like Instagram have also since hit the 1 billion active users mark and have since launched their own competitor to TikTok in the form of Reels.
That being said, TikTok is still quite a ways off from overtaking Facebook. Based on the latest figures, Facebook has close to 3 billion monthly active users, so it might be a while before TikTok overtakes them, if they ever do.
Google never had a great relationship with tablets. It wasn’t until the disaster that was Android 3.0 Honeycomb did the mobile platform acknowledged the tablets that had long existed before it, and even then, it took a few iterations for Android to stop feeling awkward on large screens. Google itself would only make two and a half tablets under the … Continue reading
Scientists consider early galaxies to be those formed within 3 billion years after the Big Bang. They believe the galaxies would contain large amounts of cold hydrogen gas, which is the fuel used for creating stars. However, scientists studying early massive galleries using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered six mysterious galaxies that … Continue reading
One of the biggest challenges for future lunar missions and a subject of intense study by NASA and other agencies is how to deal with the lunar regolith that tends to cling to everything. Lunar regolith can create problems for rocket engines and other critical systems used on the moon’s surface. A company called Masten Space Systems has developed a … Continue reading
Ableton Live 11 landed earlier this year, and the first major update to the DAW appears to be imminent. And it’s little surprise that the big news for Live 11.1 is the addition of support for Apple’s M1 chips. Being one of the the most popular music production suites, getting up and running natively on Apple silicon is pretty important for Ableton. The company notes that, if you’re already on the beta track, the autoupdater will not automatically download the M1 version — you’ll need to grab the installer from Centercode.
There are a few other small improvements to Live as well. The most obvious will be the new Shifter device which is a real-time pitch shifting effect. It’s monophonic, but has features like an LFO, glide, envelope and delay for further manipulating your sound.
There are also two new Max for Live tools: Align Delay and MIDI Shaper. Align Delay compensates for lag while MIDI Shaper is for generating modulation.
Finally there are some minor tweaks to comping and clip handling as well.
Ableton Live 11.1 is available now as a public beta. But I wouldn’t expect it to be too long before the update makes it way to a stable release.
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