Technology

One of the biggest hurdles facing HBO Max is no longer a problem: the streaming service will finally be coming to Roku devices, starting December 17th. The move comes just after after WarnerMedia announced that it will simultaneously release its 2021 movies on HBO Max the same day they debut in theaters. The move follows Wonder Woman 1984 debuting on HBO Max the same day as its released in theaters on December 25th. Wonder Woman 1984 and many of Warner Bros.’ 2021 slate are the types of movies that will drive subscribers to HBO Max, so it’s a win-win for both parties to have a deal by then. Roku can reap some of the reward from those signups, and HBO Max is now available to tens of millions of people who use Roku devices. Once available, Roku users will be able to simply install the HBO Ma...

Sony on Wednesday announced that HBO Max is finally available for its next-gen console. Support for the app, revealed in a tweet from the official PlayStation account, should be great news if you managed to get a PS5 and were planning to use it as an entertainment hub for movies in addition to games, as HBO Max was the last major streaming service absent from the console. If you’re still on the PS4, this update likely won’t mean much to you, as that device has had the app for a while now. But it does mean any PlayStation fans should now be able to watch Wonder Woman 1984, which will be available in 4K HDR for PS5 owners with supported TVs and other Warner Bros. movies coming out next year on HBO’s new streaming service. (Xbox Series X / S owners have had access to the app since the console...

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has refused to sign a law banning most government use of facial recognition. The Boston Globe reported last week that Baker sent an omnibus police reform bill back to state lawmakers, asking for changes that included striking the facial recognition rules. Massachusetts legislators passed the first major state-level facial recognition ban, following a model set by individual cities like Boston and San Francisco. The bill says public agencies, including police departments, can’t use or acquire biometric surveillance systems. It makes exceptions for running facial recognition searches against a motor vehicles registration database, as long as police obtain a warrant or demonstrate “immediate danger” that requires a search. It would help fill a gap left by fede...

Today, Neverware announced in an FAQ that it’s now part of Google. Neverware, based in New York City, makes a software application called CloudReady that allows you to convert a PC into a system that runs Chrome OS. In its FAQ, Neverware states that it and its CloudReady software are “officially part of Google and the Chrome OS team.” CloudReady offers a free version for personal use, as well as paid tiers for enterprise and education. The idea is that companies and schools (as well as individuals) can convert old, slow systems into Chromebooks rather than throwing them out — Chrome OS is a less demanding operating system for these machines to run than Windows 10 is. According to Neverware’s FAQ, not much is going to change for current CloudReady customers in the near future. The company’s...

Carbon dioxide coming from the buildings where we live and work set a new record in 2019. What’s more, those planet-heating emissions will probably keep rising after the pandemic, the authors of a new UN report warn. The report urges governments to make structures more energy efficient and speed up a transition to renewable energy. Doing that could be a great way to address both the climate crisis and the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. The building sector was responsible for a whopping 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally in 2019, the report says. For comparison, all the planes, trains, automobiles, and other transportation in the world only pump out about 24 percent of global carbon emissions. Growing prosperity around the world, especially in developing nations that don...

Today, Discord is rolling out screensharing to its mobile users. It’s a smart move; earlier this summer, the company’s mobile app was hitting lifetime highs for downloads every day. Mobile screensharing means that you can just share your screen — and whatever you’re watching — with anyone in a voice channel. That means you can watch everything from TikTok to Twitch with any of your friends from anywhere in the world, in real time. While chatting. I saw a demo of the feature recently, and more than anything else, I found the simplicity astonishing. In our pandemic year, I’ve spent so much time socializing virtually — sometimes on Discord, sometimes not — and it’s underscored the importance of casual hangouts; spontaneity is one of the many things the pandemic has taken from everyday life. F...

Hours after announcing it would bring controversial horror game Devotion to its platform, CD Projekt Red’s digital storefront GOG has reneged on its release plans. The company’s social media account claims that “after receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store.” Devotion has been at the center of a censorship controversy since release last year, after players found in-game content that referred to Xi Jinping, the president of China, as a “Winnie-the-Pooh moron.” The Chinese leader is notoriously sensitive to the cartoon bear, to which memers have continuously compared him; the movie Christopher Robin did not get a Chinese release. Mentions of comedian John Oliver were outright censored on social media after a segment that mentioned the Winnie the...

Today, Amazon revealed the design of the antennas its customers will use to tap into the company’s upcoming massive satellite constellation, Project Kuiper, designed to provide broadband internet coverage from space. The antenna, which is a phased-array design, underwent development and testing this fall, according to the company. With a diameter of just 12 inches across, the antenna is “smaller and lighter than legacy antenna designs,” Amazon claims. Testing showed the antenna can provide “maximum throughput of up to 400 Mbps.” The company also notes that the antenna can be used to stream 4K-quality videos from geostationary satellites, spacecraft that are located about 22,000 miles above the Earth. Testing showed the antenna can provide “maximum throughput of up to 400 Mbps” Amazon Kuipe...

Instagram spent much of the past eight years fighting to maintain its independence from Facebook. In 2020, the fight was over. Instagram has rolled out a series of features that are thoroughly Facebookian in nature. They’re largely focused around getting you to use the app for longer (and also tend to feel messy and incomplete). It’s hard not to see this as the moment that Instagram succumbed to Facebook’s worst tendency: a focus on growth at all costs, even if it means making a product that’s less enjoyable to use. The most telling change was one of the less explosive The changes are numerous. Facebook Messenger was integrated into Instagram DMs, a beat-for-beat TikTok clone was created and given its own section within the app, the primary “post a photo” button was tucked away into a corn...

Half-Life 2 is one of the last things that makes me feel like a fan, and that’s why I was afraid of Half-Life: Alyx. Writing about video games changed my relationship with the medium. I’m used to analyzing exactly why I like my favorite games. Meeting developers has helped me see their work as an idiosyncratic human creation, not a magical self-contained artifact. I’ve encountered the worst of fan culture, and it’s made me wary of deep, unconditional, inarticulable loyalty to media. Gordon and Alyx felt like old friends For some reason, though, Half-Life 2 and its follow-up episodes are special. They’re not my favorite games, or even my favorite Half-Life games. Like a robot short-circuiting while trying to articulate the concept of love, I’m incapable of explaining my deep investment in t...

Apple had a solid year of tech products across a wide variety of categories. From introducing the M1 chip on computers (including the MacBook Pro), releasing four new iPhones (including the first iPhone with the “mini” moniker), two new Apple Watches, and a few updates on some iPad models, this year’s releases spanned a wide gamut. Today’s deals highlight some of the better discounts you can find right now if you want to buy some Apple tech this holiday season, including historically low prices on the Mac mini with M1 and multiple iPad Pro configurations discounted. The new Mac mini with M1 is on sale at B&H Photo The new Mac mini with the M1 chip launched last month, and if you were looking to upgrade to this computer, you could get the base configuration with 8GB of memory and 256GB ...