Technology

What are we actually looking at here? A rock? An enemy? Does it even matter compared to the glory of running Horizon Zero Dawn at the eye-watering resolution of 128 pixels wide by 72 pixels tall? Yes, a YouTuber has managed to play Horizon Zero Dawn at 72p, and that’s not a typo. The YouTuber in question is Kryzzp, who also goes by zWORMz Gaming, and he ran the game at this absurd resolution to test the performance of an Nvidia GT 710, an ultra-budget video card that barely cost $40 brand-new back in 2016. Incredibly, he manages to fend off one of the robotic enemies, though it’s impossible to tell how much ammo he had left after doing so. To put that 128×72 resolution in context, it’s actually less than a modern color graphing calculator like the TI-84 Plus CE, whose 320×240 scr...

Though the international version of Steam has been available in China for years, an official Chinese release of the the popular PC gaming platform has now debuted (via analyst Daniel Ahmad). If Chinese gamers needed more reason to celebrate, Sony also announced that the PlayStation 5 will be coming to the country soon. The Chinese version of Steam currently only has around 40 titles available, with another 10 or so listed as coming soon. Included in that list are, of course, Valve’s own e-sports titles Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. The service is a long time coming — Valve announced that it would be bringing it to China back in 2018, though Chinese gamers have been able to access the service with Steam’s global client. Steam China’s storefront. The global version, however, h...

Last June, 20-year-old Alex Kearns died by suicide, blaming stock trading app Robinhood for his death. He mistakenly believed he’d lost $730,000, and that the company was coming for more than $170,000 of that money in a matter of days. His family now agrees that it was Robinhood’s fault — on Monday, they sued the company for wrongful death. According to the complaint, Kearns never owed any money at all, but that didn’t stop the Robinhood app from suggesting that he did, or sending him an “immediate action required” email telling him he needed to deposit $178,612.73 by June 17th. Here’s a screenshot one of his relatives shared on Twitter last June of what the app reportedly showed him at the time: Kearns reportedly tried to contact Robinhood’s support department four times, but only got an ...

A company called Expanscape has created the most Inspector Gadget-like device that I’ve ever seen. It’s a laptop prototype called the Aurora 7 (a working title), and attached to its humongous black box of a chassis are six extra displays that extend out in every direction away from the main screen, each showing its own windows and applications. If you’re like me, the first thought that comes to mind is “that poor hinge!” Yeah, poor hinge, indeed. Many laptop hinges don’t gracefully handle having one screen attached, let alone seven. Piggybacking on the main 17.3-inch 4K display are three other screens of the same size and resolution. Above the left and right displays is a single seven-inch 1200p monitor. You’ll also find one more seven-inch 1200p touchscreen display mounted into the wrist ...

The parent company of a West Virginia newspaper chain has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook and Google parent company Alphabet, alleging the platforms are siphoning away much-needed digital ad revenue. It appears to be the first such lawsuit by a news organization against the digital giants and makes the argument that the platforms represent a digital monopoly that should be broken up, like Standard Oil or AT&T were back in the day. “Google and Facebook have monopolized the digital advertising market thereby strangling a primary source of revenue for newspapers across the country,” according to the complaint filed by HD Media, which operates the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail and several other West Virginia newspapers. The company bought the Gazette-Mail out o...

While Zoom was originally created as a serious meeting application for businesses, it has since become one of the most-used services during the pandemic for anyone who wants to have a face-to-face virtual conversation. As a result, the company has been adding more fun stuff, such as weird backgrounds, to use for online family gatherings, friend chats, and well, for business meetings. And now, it’s come up with a feature called Studio Effects that gives you the ability to add a variety of eyebrows, facial hair, and lip color to your video image during Zoom sessions. The feature, still in beta, isn’t really new — Zoom announced it in September 2020 — but this is the first time many Zoom users are first discovering it. At any rate, it’s easy to find. Start up a Zoom session and go to Video Se...

Facebook is expanding what false claims it will remove from its platforms related to COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general starting today. The company began removing debunked COVID-19 claims in December of last year and notifying customers when they had interacted with a post that has false information that same month. But now the list of potential claims that could get a post removed has grown. Highlights from the new expanded list of false COVID-19 and vaccine-related claims that will be removed include: COVID-19 is man-made Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they were created to protect against It’s safer to get a disease than to get its vaccine Vaccines are dangerous, toxic, or cause autism Facebook says it will start enforcing this policy immediately, ...

Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX) has died after two weeks in the hospital with COVID-19, his office announced today. Wright was the first sitting member of Congress to die from the disease. Wright was 67 years old and had a number of comorbidities. He was sick with lung cancer and was hospitalized for complications related to that condition in September. He announced that he’d tested positive for COVID-19 on January 21st after coming into contact with someone who had the virus the week before. Over 60 members of Congress have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. That includes three other Texas Republican representatives: Kevin Brady, Louie Gohmert, and Kay Granger. A number of lawmakers contracted the disease after the riots at the Capitol on January 6th after they were forc...

Andrew Spinks, the co-creator of Terraria, announced that his studio would no longer be working on a Google Stadia port of the game, he announced on Twitter earlier today. The reason: his studio, Re-Logic, has been locked out of its associated Google and YouTube accounts for “over three weeks” without any explanation and with little recourse from the company. Early Monday, Spinks tweeted that he had “not done anything to violate your terms of service, so I can take this no other way than you deciding to burn this bridge.” In the thread, Spinks says the lockout has cost him access to “thousands of dollars of apps” he purchased, and his Gmail account, which he used for more than 15 years, is gone, too. I absolutely have not done anything to violate your terms of service, so I can take this n...

iOS 14.5 looks like it will be packed with features, including the ability to use your Apple Watch to unlock an iPhone with Face ID while you’re wearing a mask and support for next-gen console controllers. But users who have already installed the beta discovered another great feature: you’ll be able to select a third-party default music service when you ask to play a song using Siri — including Spotify (via MacRumors). When you ask Siri to play a song on iOS 14.5, you may be prompted to select which app you want to use to play it, according to a screenshot shared on Reddit. The menu to select an app.Image: u/matejamm1 on Reddit I’m on the iOS 14.5 beta, but interestingly, the feature worked a bit differently for me. I asked Siri to play some Tame Impala, and I wasn’t presented with a list ...

Today, TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) have announced the formation of what they’re calling an “expanded global alliance.” It’s a continuation and deepening of the agreement that allows TikTok’s massive user base to use songs from UMG artists. “The companies have additionally pledged to experiment with exciting new features,” the companies write in a press release. “TikTok users will now be able to incorporate clips from UMG’s full catalog of music, spanning the company’s iconic labels, songwriters and global territories.” It’s a smart move. TikTokers get to use more of the music they love as the soundtrack for their videos, the artists behind the works get paid, and UMG gets greater access to a proven viral hit-making machine. For better or for worse, TikTok is one of the biggest d...

Leaked images of the unannounced OnePlus 9 Pro suggest the flagship smartphone will include a Hasselblad-branded camera array. The images shared in a recent Dave Lee YouTube video show four cameras on the rear of the phone. These include wide-angle, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, the latter of which appears to offer up to a 3.3x optical zoom. At this point it’s unclear exactly what this Hasselblad branding could mean for the OnePlus 9 Pro’s cameras. The Swedish manufacturer, which is majority owned by Chinese company DJI, is best known for its expensive medium format cameras, and has previously worked with Lenovo on a modular camera accessory for Moto Z devices, as well as Vertu for its Signature Touch smartphone. Hopefully the presence of its logo means Hasselblad has provided some rea...