Jan 12
The unvaccinated tennis star knew he’d tested positive when he attended a newspaper interview and photoshoot in Serbia last month.
Jan 12
Good lighting that flatters the subject is an essential element of production for streamers and video creators in general. Logitech (under the Logitech for Creators brand) has just launched a new lighting device made for streamers called Litra Glow, and it says the product is capable of providing a “natural, radiant look across all skin tones.”
Litra Glow delivers a glare-free light that’s supposed to be gentle on the eyes and is safe for all-day streaming. It also features Logitech’s TrueSoft technology, which promises cinematic color accuracy and enables a soft, flattering light that can apparently make streamers look less, well, tired.
Whether it can truly provide a “radiant” look across all skin tones remains to be seen. Different skin tones require different approaches to lighting on video — using the same lighting for white actors, for instance, had made Black actors look ashy or barely visible during dimly lit scenes in movies and shows for a long time. One of the creators Logitech got to talk about Litra Glow, however, is Black visual artist and photographer Aundre Larrow, who once shared tips on how to photograph darker skin tones in an article he wrote for Adobe. Larrow said of Litra Glow:
“The lighting looked natural. It looks good on my skin and works for people of different skin tones without looking blown out. The warm to cool is super accurate and I found light to be strong and soft enough to use on its own.”
Ring lights and streamer lights have become a lot more popular thanks to the rise of game streaming services like Twitch, but also to provide lighting for creators on YouTube and TikTok. Elgato already offers a Ring Light and Key Light for streamers, but they are a lot more expensive than Logitech’s new device.
Logitech designed Litra Glow to be plug-and-play, and streamers can choose between five presets with different brightness and color temperature. If they want to customize it further, they can adjust those settings on their own. They can also connect it to Logitech’s G HUB software to create their own presets and assign them to the G Keys on a Logitech G keyboard or mouse. The Litra Glow will come with a monitor mount that has adjustable height, tilt and rotation when it starts shipping sometime this month. It will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia and select European countries on Logitech’s website and from Amazon, Adorama and other retailers for $60.
Jan 12
WFH didn’t just mean working from home. For those with the drive, it also stood for workouts from home. Many companies boomed as they adjusted to many of us shifting our training and exercise from gym to living room / spare room / that corner of the bedroom. Now, the pendulum is swinging back as some gyms tentatively reopen, and we return to the squat rack that didn’t quite fit into our tiny studio apartment. But that won’t stop fitness companies from introducing new blends of gear with tech tricks, hoping you’ll be willing to upgrade your gear.
NordicTrack’s Adjustable Dumbbells can connect to any Amazon Alexa-capable third-party device to quickly adjust the weight from 5lbs to 50lbs (in 5lb increments) with just your voice. The voice assistant, sadly, won’t cajole you into a few extra reps.
There’s a subscription training service to go along with the $429 dumbbells — available now — but it’s thankfully not required.
— Mat Smith
‘Horizon Forbidden West’ may have leaked a month early
Another spoiler minefield.
Sony
Horizon Forbidden West is one of the most-anticipated games coming to PS5. But just over a month before the action RPG arrives on February 18th, it appears an unfinished version of the game has leaked. It’s another problem for Sony. Months before The Last of Us Part II was released, a large portion of the game, including cutscenes with major story spoilers, leaked online.
China’s lunar probe finds on-site evidence of water on the Moon’s surface
NASA had previously remotely confirmed the presence of the substance.
China Daily CDIC / reuters
China’s Chang’e-5 lunar lander has found water on the surface of the Moon, marking the first-ever time scientists have found on-site evidence of the substance on Earth’s satellite. Chinese researchers claim the lander detected signs of water molecules or hydroxyl, a close chemical cousin of H2O.
Chinese scientists believe most of the molecules came to the Moon through a process called solar wind implantation. Charged particles from the sun drove hydrogen atoms to the lunar surface where they later bonded with oxygen to form water and hydroxyl. The study builds on findings NASA published in 2018 when it found evidence of water on the sunlit surfaces of the Moon using an airborne infrared telescope.
LAPD fired two officers who ignored robbers to play ‘Pokémon Go’
To catch a Snorlax.
The LAPD has fired two police officers for ignoring a robbery on April 15th, 2017, deciding instead to play Pokémon Go. Rather than respond to a radio call demanding backup for a theft at Macy’s in the Crenshaw Mall, the officers reportedly spent the next 20 minutes driving around to catch a Snorlax.
Lozano and Mitchell denied playing Pokémon Go and insisted they were only “having a conversation” about the game, but the in-car camera revealed they discussed the robbery call and chose to ignore it. Another officer also witnessed the cruiser leave the area after the call.
The Associated Press will turn its photojournalism into NFTs
It will launch on January 31st.
The Associated Press (AP) will start selling its “award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism” as non-fungible tokens on January 31st. The news agency teamed up with blockchain technology provider Xooa to develop a marketplace for its NFTs, which will debut with an initial collection it will release after opening.
AP’s initial collection includes digitally enhanced Pulitzer Prize-winning images across categories such as space, climate and war. Each one will include the image’s original metadata that shows its location, the time and date it was taken and the equipment and settings the photographer used for the shot.
The biggest news stories you might have missed
A Nintendo Switch Online and microSD bundle is half off on Amazon
Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike steps down as CEO
Roku offers easy access to live TV with a new hub
Uber no longer supports ride-hailing via the Apple Watch
‘Wordle’ clones are taking over the App Store
Rapid COVID tests will soon be fully covered by insurance in the US
GM recognizes California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards
‘Attack on Titan’ gear is coming to ‘Call of Duty’
‘Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection’ heads to Nintendo Switch on February 17th
Jan 12
Boris Johnson Admits He Attended ‘BYOB’ Garden Party At Downing Street During Lockdown
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe British prime minister said he believed at the time it was a “work event” permitted “technically” under the rules of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
Jan 12
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 FE smartphone is still only available as a pre-order, but it’s already available with a discount of sorts. If you pre-order the S21 FE from Amazon, with shipping set to start around January 14th, you’ll get a $100 Amazon.com gift card — effectively a 12 percent discount off the $700 price.
Buy Samsung Galaxy S21 FE at Amazon – $600
In our CES 2022 hands-on, we called the S21 FE (“Fan Edition”) “last year’s flagship without the frills.” That’s because it offers the same 5-nanometer processors, 120Hz refresh rate in a slightly bigger screen and a similar triple camera system. However, the S21 FE actually has a larger battery and comes with Android 12.
Because of the larger screen, it is slightly heavier than the original and features a less shiny finish. Unfortunately it doesn’t support the stylus available with the S21+ and S21 Ultra, but that shouldn’t be an issue for many folks. The telephoto camera also comes with an 8-megapixel sensor, rather than a 64-megapixel sensor like the S21 Ultra. However, the front camera is actually sharper at 32 megapixels rather than just 10 megapixels on the original.
If you’re okay with last year’s phone at a discount, this looks like a solid deal with four colors available (graphite, olive, lavender and white). If you’d rather be on the bleeding edge, however, you might want to wait until the Galaxy S22 arrives. It’s reportedly set to launch on February 8th, according to the latest rumor, with pre-orders going live the next day and shipping start on February 24th.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Jan 12
Make your healthy resolutions stick with these versatile, shelf-stable foods.
Jan 12
The US government spent $1.1 billion on carbon capture projects that mostly failed
Posted in: Today's ChiliCoal should be going obsolete because renewable energy is becoming cheaper, but the US government is keeping it afloat with the promise of capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground. Now, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said that federal agencies spent $684 billion on coal plant carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that have mostly failed, Gizmodo has reported. It also spent $438 million on other three CCS industrial projects, two of which were cancelled.
“DOE [Department of Energy] provided nearly $684 million to eight coal projects, resulting in one operational facility,” according to the GAO report. “DOE’s process for selecting coal projects and negotiating funding agreements increased the risks that DOE would fund projects unlikely to succeed.”
DOE’s process for selecting coal projects and negotiating funding agreements increased the risks that DOE would fund projects unlikely to succeed.
Not only did the Department of Energy use a “high-risk selection” method to choose projects, it negotiated and funded them too expeditiously, according to the report. Coal negotiations lasted just three months instead of the usual year “based on DOE’s desire to begin spending American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds quickly.” On top of that, it bypassed the usual cost controls and supported projects “even though they were not meeting required key milestones.”
The DOE recently said that it wants to dramatically reduce the cost of carbon capture technology via a program called Carbon Negative Shot. The aim is to remove CO2 directly from the air and sequester it underground at a cost of less than $100 per ton, deploying it at the gigaton scale.
However, the easiest and cheapest way to cut gigatons of emissions would be to retire costly coal plants completely, according to a report last year the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). That’s because the costs of renewable energy have plunged in the last decade, making them effectively cheaper than coal. And of course, adding CCS tech to coal would increase costs considerably. All that said, coal and fossil fuels are a charged political subject in the US, despite the global risks of climate change.
In the end, the GAO recommended more congressional oversight for DOE expenditures on CCS. “Absent such a mechanism, DOE is at risk of expending significant funds on CCS demonstration projects that have little likelihood of success.”
Jan 12
White House Official Ridicules Idea of Sending Free N95 Masks to Everyone: Report
Posted in: Today's Chili
An unnamed senior official at the White House has mocked the idea of sending out free N95 masks to Americans because some people won’t wear them, according to a new report from Politico. The incident is reminiscent of when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mocked the idea of sending out free covid-19 tests, before…
Jan 12
Deon Lendore won a bronze medal for Trinidad and Tobago in the 4X400 meter relay at the London Olympics.
Jan 12
Leaked Footage Shows Off-Air News Anchors Calling Djokovic A ‘Lying, Sneaky Asshole’
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe hot mic conversation between Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern on Australia’s Seven Network has gone viral.
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