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31.01.2024 18:42 Yamaha has a new audio mixer for gamers and streamers. Nearly three years after the launch of the company’s first gaming-specific soundboard, the company’s new ZG02 adds a dedicated USB-C port for gaming consoles, a more streamlined profile and a lower price . Yamaha wants to establish its ZG line as more straightforward and accessible than offerings from rival audio companies with gazes similarly fixed on the Twitch and Discord sets . “While other game mixing solutions can be cumbersome and complex, the ZG02 offers a more tactile, compact and intuitive mixing experience with customizable effects controls,” Yamaha consumer audio director Alex Sadeghian wrote in a press release. In addition to its on-the-fly sound, chat and voice adjustments, the Yamaha ZG02 includes competitive gaming “focus” modes and 3D surround sound. It has software-based mic settings and voice effects, including compression, limiter, reverb, pitch and a radio voice filter. In addition, you can assign your favorite shortcuts to its physical buttons in the companion app for Windows and macOS. The mixer supports gaming headsets with built-in or dedicated mics through an XLR / TRS combo jack on its rear . It includes a “versatile USB interface” for Windows and macOS computers, and its console-specific USB-C port works with PS5 / PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The ZG01 includes a USB driver that lets you route audio to two different apps . Yamaha also touts compatibility with the Elgato Stream Deck lineup. The $200 ZG02 is available starting today in the US at Yamaha’s website.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yamahas-new-audio-mixer-for-gamers-has-a-simpler-interface-and-cheaper-price-140024235.html?src=rss

31.01.2024 13:42 MIT biotech researcher Lauren “Ren” Ramlan has run the iconic computer game Doom using gut bacteria. It’s not doing the running of the game, per se, but it is running on a display inside a cell wall made entirely of E. coli bacteria. The researcher dosed the bacteria with fluorescent proteins to ensure they lit up like digital pixels, reaching a heady 32x48 resolution. In their paper, Ramlan says “To run Doom, all one needs is a screen and willpower,” mentioning Doom running on the digital display for a pregnancy test. However, this is not playable. It takes 70 minutes for the bacteria to illuminate one frame of the game and another eight hours to return to its starting state. So, nearly nine hours per frame. Your Switch doesn’t sound so bad now, does it? — Mat Smith ​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!​​ The biggest stories you might have missed OM System’s OM-1 Mark II offers improved autofocus and stabilization Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package has been tossed out by the court How to watch Super Bowl 2024 Xbox boss thinks Apple’s EU App Store plan is ‘a step in the wrong direction’ Microsoft’s gaming revenue was up 49 percent in Q2 Mostly thanks to the Activision deal. It’s earnings season, so we’re trawling through reports and press releases and suffering earnings calls to eke out what it all means. For Microsoft, it was a boost in gaming revenue, having finally adopted Activision Blizzard. The entire company reported revenues of $62 billion and profits of $21.9 billion . Microsoft says its overall gaming revenue increased by 49 percent, 44 points of which came from the “net impact” of the Activision deal. Xbox hardware sales were up only three percent. Continue reading. Samsung’s annual profits continue to decline The company is banking on the Galaxy S24. Samsung still hasn’t recovered from its 2022 decline in profit. In its latest earnings report, it revealed KRW 258.94 trillion in annual revenue and KRW 6.57 trillion in operating profit for the fiscal year of 2023. That’s markedly less than last year. The company says its memory business — often a money maker — showed signs of recovery but not enough to stop it from incurring KRW 2.18 trillion in operating losses for Q4 2023. Samsung has high hopes for the Galaxy S24 series and believes the devices’ AI capabilities can help its mobile business achieve double-digit growth in 2024. Here’s what we thought of the flagship S24 Ultra. Continue reading. The best gaming handhelds for 2024 From portable PC powerhouses to mobile emulation machines. Engadget There are enough of them now to warrant a guide. Yes, handheld gaming PCs are having a moment and, depending on what you want to play, the right handheld could range from a solid $100 emulation machine to a $700 portable PC more powerful than your existing laptop. My one tip: consider battery life. Continue reading. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-this-is-doom-running-on-e-coli-bacteria-121421476.html?src=rss

31.01.2024 13:42 Samsung has failed to recover from the sharp decline in profit it experienced in 2022. In its latest earnings report, the Korean company has reported KRW 258.94 trillion in annual revenue and KRW 6.57 trillion in operating profit for the fiscal year of 2023. Those are markedly smaller numbers than the previous fiscal year's, especially the latter's — Samsung posted an operating profit of KRW 43.38 trillion for 2022, which was already $6.9 billion smaller than the year before due to the weak demand for its chips and smartphones. According to The Wall Street Journal, these numbers represent Samsung's weakest earnings in over a decade. The company says its memory business showed signs of recovery, but not enough to stop it from incurring KRW 2.18 trillion in operating losses for the fourth quarter of 2023. According to Nikkei, this is the semiconductor division's first annual loss in 15 years since the 2008 global financial crisis, and it's the biggest one yet. Samsung's visual display and digital appliances division also posted KRW 0.05 trillion in operating losses despite TV sales doing well in the fourth quarter due to the holiday season. Samsung's mobile business showed a a decline in sales and profit quarter-on-quarter, as well, due to lower smartphone sales and "the fading of new-product effects" from previous flagship models. For the first quarter of 2024, Samsung's game plan is to improve its profits "by increasing sales of high value-added products," such as components meant for generative AI products. It expects stronger demand for its chips in the PC and mobile sectors this year, but it admits that its earnings may not significantly recover soon because its customers are still downsizing their inventories. Samsung has high hopes for the Galaxy S24 series, though, and believes the devices' AI capabilities can help its mobile business achieve a a double-digit growth in 2024. The Galaxy S24 phones have already started shipping with prices starting at $800 for the most basic version and at $1,300 for the S24 Ultra. Update, January 31, 2024, 6:44AM ET: Added information about the semiconductor division's historic losses.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-annual-profits-continued-to-decline-in-2023-090500640.html?src=rss

31.01.2024 13:42 Universal Music Group is threatening to pull all of its music from TikTok today following a breakdown in negotiations over royalties, the company wrote in an open letter. That would mean TikTok creators would lose access to songs from stars including Taylor Swift, Billy Eilish, The Weeknd, Drake and others. With UMG's deal with TikTok set to expire, the sides have reportedly been in negotiations for the past year. Such deals are worth billions annually to music publishing firms and are typically negotiated every few years. Universal is the world's largest record label, and if does pull it's music from TikTok, it would be the first time this has happened in recent memory. Universal said TikTok wanted to pay a "fraction" of the rate paid by other social media sites. "As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth." In its own post, TikTok said that it serves as a valuable marketing tool for artists and publishers. "Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent." TikTok also benefits greatly from access to Universal's catalog and being cut off from access to ultra-popular artists like Taylor Swift would be a blow to creators and users. TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance has more than 3 billion monthly active users and made $29 billion in revenue in a single quarter ending June 2023, according to The Financial Times. Warner Bros. Music, the number three record label behind Sony Music and UMG, recently struck a deal with TikTok. Universal said it does "not underestimate what this will mean for artists and their fans" but that it will not shirk its responsibilities. "TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans." The company added that payments from TikTok amount to "only about 1 percent of our total revenue."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/universal-music-threatens-to-pull-songs-from-tiktok-over-payment-terms-101528365.html?src=rss

31.01.2024 13:42 In 2018, Tesla awarded Elon Musk a $56 billion pay package that helped propel him to the top of world's richest lists. Now, a judge in Delaware has rendered the deal between the company and the CEO to be invalid and called the compensation an "unfathomable sum" that's unfair to shareholders. As initially seen and reported by Chancery Daily on Threads, the court of Chancery in Delaware has released its decision on the lawsuit filed by Richard Tornetta. The Tesla shareholder accused the automaker of breaching its fiduciary duty by approving a package that unjustly enriches its chief executive. Judge Kathaleen McCormick wrote in the decision that Musk "enjoyed thick ties" with the directors who were in charge of negotiating his pay package on behalf of Tesla, which means there "was no meaningful negotiation over any of the terms of the plan." The judge also talked about how Musk owned 21.9 percent of the automaker when the package was negotiated. That gave him "every incentive to push Tesla to levels of transformative growth," because he stood to gain $10 billion for every $50 billion in market capitalization increase. "Swept up by the rhetoric of 'all upside,' or perhaps starry eyed by Musk’s superstar appeal, the board never asked the $55.8 billion question: Was the plan even necessary for Tesla to retain Musk and achieve its goals?" the judge wrote in the court document. As The Washington Post notes, she ruled that Tornetta is entitled to a "rescission" and has ordered Tesla and its shareholders to carry out her decision and undo the deal. Musk's camp, however, can still appeal her ruling. Musk has sold some of his Tesla stocks to help pay for his acquisition of Twitter, now X, from the time his pay package was approved. At the moment, he owns around 13 percent of Tesla, though he recently said that he wants 25 percent control over the company before he's comfortable growing it to be a leader in AI and robotics. In response to the court's decision, Musk tweeted: "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware." He also posted a poll asking followers whether Tesla should change its state of incorporation to Texas, where its physical headquarters are located. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musks-56-billion-tesla-pay-package-has-been-tossed-out-by-the-court-074235803.html?src=rss

31.01.2024 04:22 Microsoft posted another blowout earnings report for Q2 of the 2024 fiscal year, with revenues of $62 billion and profits of $21.9 billion . But really, the most interesting thing about this quarter is that we finally get to see how the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition affects the $3 trillion company. While Microsoft isn't breaking out specific numbers, it says that its overall gaming revenue increased by 49 percent, 44 points of which came from the "net impact" of the Activision deal. Microsoft's More Personal Computing division, which includes Xbox, Surface and Windows, was up 19 percent since last year. The company says the Activision deal accounted for 15 points of that increase. It's a huge change for a division that's been severely impacted by dwindling PC sales and struggling Xbox consoles. PC device revenues were down 9 percent for the quarter, while Xbox hardware sales were up 3 percent. Xbox content and services revenue is also up 61 percent since last year, 55 points of which comes from Activision. It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft can actually leverage that acquisition to help Xbox sales, or at the very least, spur on more interest in Game Pass subscriptions. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-gaming-revenue-is-up-49-percent-in-q2-mostly-thanks-to-the-activision-deal-222502444.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 A Microsoft manager claims OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 has security vulnerabilities that could allow users to generate violent or explicit images . GeekWire reported Tuesday the company’s legal team blocked Microsoft engineering leader Shane Jones’ attempts to alert the public about the exploit. The self-described whistleblower is now taking his message to Capitol Hill. “I reached the conclusion that DALL·E 3 posed a public safety risk and should be removed from public use until OpenAI could address the risks associated with this model,” Jones wrote to US Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell , Rep. Adam Smith , and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson . GeekWire published Jones’ full letter. Jones claims he discovered an exploit allowing him to bypass DALL-E 3’s security guardrails in early December. He says he reported the issue to his superiors at Microsoft, who instructed him to “personally report the issue directly to OpenAI.” After doing so, he claims he learned that the flaw could allow the generation of “violent and disturbing harmful images.” Jones then attempted to take his cause public in a LinkedIn post. “On the morning of December 14, 2023 I publicly published a letter on LinkedIn to OpenAI’s non-profit board of directors urging them to suspend the availability of DALL·E 3),” Jones wrote. “Because Microsoft is a board observer at OpenAI and I had previously shared my concerns with my leadership team, I promptly made Microsoft aware of the letter I had posted.” A sample image generated by DALL-E 3OpenAI Microsoft’s response was allegedly to demand he remove his post. “Shortly after disclosing the letter to my leadership team, my manager contacted me and told me that Microsoft’s legal department had demanded that I delete the post,” he wrote in his letter. “He told me that Microsoft’s legal department would follow up with their specific justification for the takedown request via email very soon, and that I needed to delete it immediately without waiting for the email from legal.” Jones complied, but he says the more fine-grained response from Microsoft’s legal team never arrived. “I never received an explanation or justification from them,” he wrote. He says further attempts to learn more from the company’s legal department were ignored. “Microsoft’s legal department has still not responded or communicated directly with me,” he wrote. Engadget reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI, but neither company responded immediately. We’ll update this article if we hear back. The whistleblower says the pornographic deepfakes of Taylor Swift that circulated on X last week are one illustration of what similar vulnerabilities could produce if left unchecked. 404 Media reported Monday that Microsoft Designer, which uses DALL-E 3 as a backend, was part of the deepfakers’ toolset that made the video. The publication claims Microsoft, after being notified, patched that particular loophole. “Microsoft was aware of these vulnerabilities and the potential for abuse,” Jones concluded. It isn’t clear if the exploits used to make the Swift deepfake were directly related to those Jones reported in December. Jones urges his representatives in Washington, DC, to take action. He suggests the US government create a system for reporting and tracking specific AI vulnerabilities — while protecting employees like him who speak out. “We need to hold companies accountable for the safety of their products and their responsibility to disclose known risks to the public,” he wrote. “Concerned employees, like myself, should not be intimidated into staying silent.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-legal-department-allegedly-silenced-an-engineer-who-raised-concerns-about-dall-e-3-215953212.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 PayPal is laying off nine percent of its workforce, the company’s CEO Alex Chriss told staff in a letter on Tuesday that PayPal made public hours later. The decision will impact about 2,500 employees, who will find out their fate between today and the end of the week, Bloomberg reported earlier. PayPal's layoffs come almost exactly a year after the company fired more than 2,000 workers to keep costs down. Despite thousands of job cuts in 2023, layoffs at tech companies have continued into 2024. On the same day as PayPal's latest layoffs, Jack Dorsey's Block, the company that owns Cash App, Foundational, and Square, conducted its second round of layoffs in two months, cutting nearly a thousand people. Earlier this month, Google laid off more than a thousand workers in its Assisstant and hardware divisions, with CEO Sundar Pichai warning employees to brace for more cuts through the year. Discord, eBay, Riot Games, TikTok, Microsoft, iRobot, Amazon, Unity, and Duolingo, among others, have collectively cut thousands of jobs in January PayPal was one of the earliest companies in online payments industry, but in recent years, rivals like Zelle and tech companies with deep pockets like Apple, have entered the space. The competition in the payments industry is putting pressure on PayPal. Bloomberg noted that four analysts have downgraded the company’s stock this month. The company will "continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth," Chriss said in the letter. PayPal's layoffs are happening despite the company's strong growth throughout 2023. The company's revenue as of September 2023 was $7.42 billion, an increase of more than eight percent compared to its revenue a year before. It beat earnings expectations and reported a "double digit growth" in the number of transactions that happened over its platform. The Information noted that Chriss, who took over as the company's CEO in September 2023, said in PayPal's last earnings call in November 2023 that its costs were "too high" and were "slowing us down."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paypal-is-laying-off-2500-employees-214628203.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 The CEOs of five social media companies are headed to Washington to testify in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about child safety. The hearing will feature Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino. The group will face off with lawmakers over their record on child exploitation and their efforts to protect teens using their services. The hearings will be live streamed beginning at 10 AM ET on Wednesday, January 31. Though there have been previous hearings dedicated to teen safety, Wednesday’s event will be the first time Congress has heard directly from Spiegel, Yaccarino and Citron. It’s also only the second appearance for TikTok’s Chew, who was grilled by lawmakers about the app’s safety record and ties to China last year. Zuckerberg, of course, is well-practiced at these hearings by now. But he will likely face particular pressure from lawmakers following a number of allegations about Meta’s safety practices that have come out in recent months as the result of a lawsuit from 41 state attorneys general. Court documents from the suit allege that Meta turned a blind eye to children under 13 using its service, did little to stop adults from sexually harassing teens on Facebook and that Zuckerberg personally intervened to stop an effort to ban plastic surgery filters on Instagram. As with previous hearings with tech CEOs, it’s unclear what meaningful policy changes might come from their testimony. Lawmakers have proposed a number of bills dealing with online safety and child exploitation, though none have been passed into law. However, there is growing bipartisan support for measures that would shield teens from algorithms and data gathering and implement parental consent requirements.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-the-ceos-of-meta-tiktok-discord-snap-and-x-testify-about-child-safety-214210385.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 Block is the latest notable tech company to lay off hundreds of workers, according to reports. CEO Jack Dorsey is said to have informed employees that the company is firing a "large number" of them, with Cash App, Square and the foundational teams bearing the brunt of the impact. According to a Business Insider source, Block is letting go nearly 1,000 people. Dorsey reportedly wrote in his memo that the company is becoming leaner. It laid off around 40 people from the Tidal team in December. Last year, Block said it planned to limit its headcount to around 12,000 workers, a reduction from the around 13,000 it had in late 2023. Engadget has contacted Block for confirmation of the layoffs. While it was initially expected that the layoffs would take place over a period of months, executives reportedly opted against that in favor carrying them out at the same time. "Why is so much happening in one single day? All of these teams were confident in the direction they're taking, and were ready to take action within the same 2-3 weeks," Dorsey is said to have written in his memo. "We decided it would be better to do at once rather than arbitrarily space them out, which didn't seem fair to the individuals or to the company. When we know we need to take an action, we want to take it immediately, rather than let things linger on forever." The tech industry has shed tens of thousands of workers over the last year or so, including thousands this month alone across companies including Unity, Twitch, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, eBay and Google. It also emerged on Tuesday that PayPal is firing around 2,500 people. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/block-is-reportedly-laying-off-around-1000-workers-205319045.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 OM System has unveiled the OM-1 Mark II with largely the same specs as its predecessor, but several significant upgrades. Those include improved autofocus, particularly on the AI side, along with other quality-of-life improvements to stabilization, handling and more. The company has completed its OM System branding change, as there's no trace of the Olympus logo as seen on the OM-1. That said, the cameras are much the same inside. As before, it comes with a 20-megapixel stacked Micro Four Thirds sensor and TruePix X processor that allows for very fast burst shooting up to 50fps with continuous autofocus. Those speeds haven't changed, but OM System boosted the camera's onboard RAM, allowing for some new features. The autofocus can now has a "Human detection" option that goes beyond just faces and eyes as before. The company says AF is also faster and more accurate , making it better for sports, wildlife and more. OM System It also features a deeper buffer, meaning you can shoot 256 RAW frames at 50fps before it fills, around double the OM-1 — ideal for action shooting. And while the previous model allowed for blackout-free shooting at the highest frame rates, it now works at slower speeds as well for photographers who prefer to work that way. The company has also used updated algorithms to boost in-body image stabilization up to 8.5 stops with supported lenses, better than any other camera on the market . And it now supports 14-bit RAW for multishot high-res mode, both in the 80MP tripod and the 50MP handheld modes, to improve dynamic range. One new function is called Graduated Neutral Density that builds on the previous model's Live ND mode. The latter isn't a true ND filter, but blends multiple short shots to simulate one. The graduated version lets you shoot a gradient exposure at any angle, while also controlling the mid-point and whether it has a soft, medium or hard edge. Olympus The body and control layout is much the same as before, but OM System has rubberized the command dials so they have a more tactile feel and work better when using gloves. That should be helpful, since the OM-1 is popular for bird and wildlife photography in all kinds of weather conditions. Beyond that, specs and features are largely the same. You still shoot 4K video at up to 60 fps, in either 8-bit or 10-bit modes . And the OM-1 can output 12-bit Apple ProRes RAW video at up to 60 fps to an Atomos Ninja V or Ninja V+ external recorder without any pixel binning. It comes with a 5.76-million dot 120Hz OLED viewfinder as before, along with a fully articulating display. There are dual SD UHS II card slots, but no CFexpress option. The battery delivers a solid 500 shots per charge, but that jumps to 1010 in "Quick Sleep" mode. Finally, you still get a small FL LM3 flash, designed mostly for fill or use with external flash units. The OM-1 Mark II is arriving in late February for $2,400 and $3,000 in a kit with the OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 zoom lens . This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/om-systems-om-1-mark-ii-offers-improved-autofocus-and-stabilization-201810603.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 The Kobo Libra 2 ereader has dropped to its lowest price of the year so far. You can grab one via Amazon for $170, which is a discount of $20. This matches pricing from the holiday season for the water-resistant reading tablet. Kobo’s Libra 2 easily made our list of the best ereaders for a number of reasons. First of all, this thing has actual buttons, which has become something of a rarity with modern ereaders. This gives users some tactile feedback when adjusting settings, turning pages and performing other activities on the tablet. Like most ereaders, the screen quickly re-orients itself, so you can make it so the buttons are on either side of the device. We also admired the aesthetics, as this device looks and feels premium during use. We also called it the “most comfortable ereader” we’ve ever held, due to the textured and rubberized back. There’s a highly useful warming light that mimics natural environments. The text and image clarity are also on-point and the whole thing is waterproof up to six feet for 60 minutes. So grab that towel and hit the pool. While we loved the beefy 32GB capacity, which holds thousands upon thousands of books, the Libra 2 features a relatively smallish 7-inch screen that pales in comparison to, say, the Kindle Scribe. However, it pretty much matches the size of a standard paperback. The $190 asking price is a bit steep, but this discount puts the kibosh on that concern. With this sale in place, the Libra 2 is a full $80 less than the similarly featured Kindle Oasis. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-kobo-libra-2-drops-to-its-lowest-price-of-the-year-so-far-195025528.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 23:20 An MIT biotech researcher has been able to run the iconic computer game Doom using actual gut bacteria. Lauren Ramlan didn’t get the game going on a digital simulation of bacteria, but turned actual bacteria into pixels to display the 30-year-old FPS, as reported by Rock Paper Shotgun. Specifically, Ramlan created a display inside of a cell wall made entirely of E. coli bacteria. The 32x48 1-bit display may not win any resolution awards, but who cares, right? It’s Doom running on bacteria. The researcher dosed the bacteria with fluorescent proteins to get them to light up just like digital pixels. There’s a couple of caveats here. First of all, the bacteria aren’t actually running the game, as we still haven't cracked that whole “inject biological matter with digital code” thing. Instead, the bacteria combine to act as a teensy-tiny monitor that renders gameplay for the beloved shooter. Also, there’s the subject of frame rate, which is always an important metric when considering FPS games. To be blunt, the frame rate is atrocious, likely due to the fact that bacteria were never intended to display 3D video games. It takes 70 minutes for the bacteria to illuminate one frame of the game and another eight hours to return to its starting state. This translates to nearly nine hours per frame, which means it would take around 600 years to play the game from start to finish. That’s even worse than Cyberpunk 2077 at launch. So while this won’t present the smoothest gameplay experience, it’s still a pretty nifty idea. Also, it further proves the theory that Doom can run on just about anything. We’ve seen the game running on pregnancy tests, rat brain neurons and even inside of other titles, like the sequel Doom II and Minecraft. Doom is the great equalizer. May it continue to surprise us for the next 30 years.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-a-video-of-doom-running-on-gut-bacteria-proving-you-really-can-play-the-game-on-anything-184629896.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 18:01 Day of the Devs is always one of the biggest highlights of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards. The showcase places the spotlight firmly on emerging indie games and underground titles, and each event always has at least a few projects that are worth adding to your wishlist. Now, Day of the Devs is shaking things up by becoming an independent non-profit organization. It started in 2012 as a collaboration between iam8bit and Double Fine, which Microsoft bought in 2019. The restructuring means that Day of the Devs will no longer have a formal affiliation with Microsoft and has more leeway to do its own thing while becoming truly platform agnostic. The team notes that "we have essentially always run things as a non-profit, but making it official — through a fiscal sponsorship partnership with Legacy Global — it opens us up to better funding opportunities, makes our fundraising efforts more transparent and public and helps our sponsors and audience understand how critical their support truly is." The organization will use funds raised to cover things like venue fees, equipment, staffing, video production and general operating costs. A fundraising campaign is now up and running. Supporters will receive perks such as keys for a bunch of killer games from a variety of developers and publishers, VIP tickets for events and physical goods. As Game Developer notes, donations to Day of the Devs now count as tax write offs. Day of the Devs doesn't charge developers to highlight their games and it wants to keep things free for event attendees. Next up is an in-person showcase in San Francisco on March 17. Developers can now submit their games for consideration. Day of the Devs has other events planned throughout March, including one at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on March 18 and another at the Game Developers Conference. And of course, the organization will host digital showcases around the time of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards later this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/indie-game-champion-day-of-the-devs-is-now-an-independent-non-profit-163439253.html?src=rss

30.01.2024 18:01 We may have an adequate understanding of the human body in that, well, we invented aspirin and sequenced the genome, but researchers still find out new things about the humble homo sapien all of the time. Case in point? Scientists just discovered a previously unknown entity hanging out in the human gut and mouth. The researchers are calling these virus-like structures “obelisks”, due to their presumed microscopic shape. These entities replicate like viruses, but are much smaller and simpler. Due to the minuscule size, they fall into the “viroid” class, which are typically single-stranded RNAs without a protein shell. However, most viroids are infectious agents that cause disease and it doesn’t look like that’s the case with these lil obelisks, as reported by Live Science. So why are they inside of us and what do they do? That’s the big question. The discoverers at Stanford University, the University of Toronto and the Technical University of Valencia have some theories. They may influence gene activity within the human microbiome, though they also hang out in the mouth. To that end, they have been found using the common mouth-based bacterium Streptococcus sanguinis as a host. It’s been suggested that these viroids infect various bacteria in both the mouth and gut, though we don’t know why. Some of the obelisks seem to contain instructions for enzymes required for replication, so they look to be more complex than your average viroid, as indicated by Science. In any event, there has been a “chicken and the egg” debate raging for years over whether viruses evolved from viroids or if viroids actually evolved from viruses, so further study could finally end that argument. While we don’t exactly know what these obelisk sequences do, scientists have discovered just how prevalent they are in our bodies. These sequences are found in roughly seven percent of human gut bacteria and a whopping 50 percent of mouth bacteria. The gut-based structures also feature a distinctive RNA sequence when compared to the mouth-based obelisks. This diversity has led researchers to proclaim that they “comprise a class of diverse RNAs that have colonized, and gone unnoticed in, human, and global microbiomes.” “I think this is one more clear indication that we are still exploring the frontiers of this viral universe,” computational biologist Simon Roux of the DOE Joint Genome Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory told Science. “It’s insane,” added Mark Peifer, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The more we look, the more crazy things we see.” Speaking of frontier medicine, scientists also recently created custom bacteria to detect cancer cells and biometric implants that detect organ rejection after replacement surgery. The human body may be just about as vast and mysterious as the ocean, or even space, but we’re slowly unraveling its puzzles.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/scientists-discover-weird-virus-like-obelisks-in-the-human-gut-and-mouth-162644669.html?src=rss