Aug 09
“I’ve been reluctant to admit to myself or anyone else that I have to move on from playing tennis,” she said in an essay for Vogue.
Aug 09
Hocus Pocus is Back, Witches
Posted in: Today's Chili
Although it’s not for sure, apparently Idris Elba is working on something “big” for DC. My bet’s on a reprise of his Suicide Squad 2 character, Bloodsport, but lips are otherwise sealed. Set pics from the Marvel TV series Ironheart and Madame Web offer new clues. Plus, a hint that J.J. Abrams’ gritty Constantine is…
Aug 09
I Finally Got To Date My Crush Years After Middle School. Then The Unthinkable Happened.
Posted in: Today's Chili“A woman introduced herself as a longtime friend of Jeremy’s … ‘I’m so sorry if I am the first one to share the news,’ she wrote. ‘He would want you to know…'”
Aug 09
Hinge wants to make dating a little easier with a new feature called Not-so-Frequently Asked Questions. NFAQ seeks to answer the questions that daters, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community want to ask, but don’t exactly know how to do it.
Aug 09
Mastriano, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, was subpoenaed for participating in Trump’s fake electors scheme.
Aug 09
There’s a joke in the visual effects industry that goes like this: Someone hears you work on films, so they ask you, “What movie made you cry?” The artist will respond, “In theaters or in the office?”
Aug 09
Netflix’s entry into the gaming market has been quiet. According to analysis by Apptopia, Netflix games have been downloaded 23.3 million times and have an average 1.7 million daily users. Framed against the 221 million customers paying for the streaming service, it’s not a great number — just one percent of them. The company indicated it didn’t expect its gaming division to be profitable immediately. “We’re going to be experimental and try a bunch of things,” Netflix COO Greg Peters told investors during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings calls last year.
But given that Netflix is not afraid to cut well-regarded shows after a few seasons, how long will it be willing to run a gaming arm before it’s successful? And what does success look like for Netflix? Earlier this year, the company paid $72 million to acquire Next Games, the studio behind Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales. More recently, it secured exclusive mobile rights to beloved indie titles like Spiritfarer and Into The Breach.
For what it’s worth, Poinpy is a pretty wonderful game worthy of your smartphone gaming time.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
Anker charging gadgets are up to 40 percent off for Prime members
‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ multiplayer reveal set for September 15th
What we bought: This LED desk lamp gave me the best lighting for video calls
MG’s new all-electric hatchback will cost just $31,400 when it arrives in the UK
US imposes sanctions on cryptocurrency mixer that may have laundered over $7 billion
Tornado Cash helped North Korea, according to the Treasury.
The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash, a mixer that allegedly helped launder more than $7 billion in stolen crypto funds since its inception in 2019. Like a previous sanctions target, Blender, Tornado Cash is accused of “indiscriminately” helping thieves by hiding transaction details while failing to institute meaningful anti-laundering safeguards. Tornado Cash runs on the Ethereum blockchain. North Korea’s state-sponsored Lazarus Group hackers are believed to have funneled $455 million through the mixer so far.
Lucid Air will soon have a Stealth Look trim option
The $6,000 theme gives the EV a ‘darker and overtly sporting personality.’
Lucid
Lucid is adding a new trim option to its Air electric vehicle. The idea behind Stealth Look is to give the car a “darker and overtly sporting personality,” according to the automaker. Lucid is swapping out 35 exterior components that have a platinum finish for versions with a darker appearance, with black gloss and satin graphite accents. Lucid plans to introduce the $6,000 option early next year, though whether you’ll actually be able to get your hands on an Air at all anytime soon is another matter. Earlier this month, Lucid once again revised its production target for 2022, this time from 20,000 to between 6,000 and 7,000 units.
A live-action Pac-Man movie is the video-game adaptation no-one asked for
No Adam Sandler though.
Bandai Namco is developing a live-action Pac-Man film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Japanese gaming giant has reportedly tapped Wayfarer Studios, best known for its work on 2019’s Five Feet Apart, to produce the project. The film was reportedly pitched by Sonic the Hedgehog producer Chuck Williams. In 2020, Sonic the Hedgehogbroke the record for a US video game movie debut. So it’s all Sonic’s fault.
HBO Max finishes rolling out its much-needed app redesign
Just in time for Discovery to make it obsolete.
HBO
Warner Bros. Discovery has finished rolling out its redesigned app on desktop, Android and iOS, delivering a more intuitive interface, a performance boost and some overdue features. You’ll also find a dedicated video download page, split-screen support and SharePlay — at least for Apple devices in the US. The timing isn’t great. Warner Bros. recently confirmed it’s merging HBO Max and Discovery+ into one service next summer. The app you see today won’t last long.
Nintendo will dedicate a 30-minute Direct stream to ‘Splatoon 3’
The event happens on August 10 at 9 AM ET.
Splatoon 3 will arrive on September 9th, and Nintendo is setting the table with a dedicated Direct showcase. The stream will get underway at 9 AM ET on August 10th and have around 30 minutes of updates. Expect a deep dive into one of Nintendo’s tentpole Switch releases of the year, encompassing multiplayer changes and in-game mechanics.
Aug 09
9 Completely Unhinged Tweets About the FBI's Raid on Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Posted in: Today's Chili
The FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday to retrieve presidential records that were never properly handed over to the U.S. National Archives, according to the Washington Post. And Republicans had a complete freak-out on social media over the fact that Trump might finally…
Aug 09
U.S. Returns 30 Looted Relics, Including 3-Ton Sculpture Of God Ganesha, To Cambodia
Posted in: Today's ChiliKeo Chhea, Cambodia’s ambassador to the U.S., said the return of 30 antiquities to his country is like a returning of the souls of Cambodia’s culture.
Aug 09
WhatsApp's latest privacy features include the ability to hide your online status
Posted in: Today's ChiliWhatsApp just introduced several important privacy features including the online status blocking option it recently showed in beta, TechCrunch has reported. The aim is to eventually make WhatsApp “as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
The new “online presence control” feature allows you to send messages while appearing to be offline. That offers another level of privacy over the ability to hide your “last seen” status from specific contacts, a feature introduced earlier this year.
You can control the feature in a granular way, deciding which contacts can view your online status and which can’t. There are no limits, and you can swap people in and out at any time. The feature will roll out to all users across desktop and mobile, later this month.
WhatsApp is also testing screenshot blocking for view once messages that disappear after a single view. When those messages were introduced last year, Meta said that you should still take caution as you wouldn’t know if someone screenshotted them. A new feature that lets you block such screenshots is now in testing, but the company hopes to get it to all users “soon.”
With the final change, you can leave leave groups privately without sending out a mass notification to everyone else that you’re gone — though group admins will still be notified. That should save some awkwardness when it rolls out to the desktop and mobile apps, also later this month.
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