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Name game: Noita Price: $6,87 USD $8,58 (-20%) Link store: Store Link! Offer ends up after January 2. Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 Processor: Dual Core CPU, Intel i5 or better Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 512MB VRAM, OpenGL 3.0 support Storage: 1 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 Processor: The more cores the better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: 1024MB VRAM, OpenGL 3.0 support Storage: 1 GB available space

What just happened? It appears that Facebook's decision to give app developers too much access to users' personal information is backfiring again. A new report has revealed that user names and phone numbers of over 267 million US user accounts have been scraped by malicious actors and uploaded to a hacker forum. According to a report from Comparitech, around 267 million Facebook user names and phone numbers were left exposed on a web server with not even a password to prevent unauthorized access. This isn't the first time this has happened. In September, a researcher found the personal information of over 400 million Facebook accounts from all over the world stored on an unsecured web server. Luckily, that dataset turned out to be old and there's no evidence that it was used to compromise any accounts. Comparitech along with security researcher Bob Diachenko uncovered the new treasure trove for data thieves, which was stored on an Elasticsearch cluster. Diachenko suspects it was obtained through an illegal scraping operation in Vietnam that abused a Facebook API. The resulting dataset could be used in SMS spam and phishing campaigns, and it was online between December 4 and December 18. It appears that most of the user IDs, phone numbers, and names belong to US Facebook accounts, and were allegedly shared on a hacker forum. A Facebook spokesperson said the company is investigating the report, and reiterated that this may be another old dataset from 2018 when developers were able to access too much information from publicly visible profile pages. The company restricted access after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. One way to protect yourself is to make sure that only friends have access to your profile picture, your details, and what you post on your wall. Also, make sure the option "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile" is set to "no" as this is one of the things that facilitated the Elasticsearch scraping. In related news, Facebook hard disks containing payroll information were stolen earlier this month during a car robbery. No Facebook user data was compromised, but it prompted the company to tighten its security policies. Adrian, P. (2019, December 21). 267 million Facebook user IDs and phone numbers exposed online. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83286-267-million-facebook-user-ids-phone-numbers-exposed.html

Name game: Buy Far Cry 5 - Gold Edition Price: Buy Far Cry 5 - Gold Edition - $18,81 USD $75,26 (-75%) Buy Far Cry 5 - Standard Edition - $13,54 USD $54,18 (-75%) Buy Far Cry 5 + Far Cry New Dawn Deluxe Edition Bundle - $24,38 USD $81,28 (-70%) Buy Far Cry 5 Gold Edition + Far Cry New Dawn Deluxe Edition Bundle - $31,61 USD $105,37 (-70%) Link store: Store Link! Offer ends up after January 2. Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or AMD R9 270 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better) DirectX: Version 9.0c Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 40 GB available space Additional Notes: Game contains EasyAntiCheat (https://www.easyanticheat.net/) anti-cheat technology, and Denuvo (https://www.denuvo.com/) and VMProtect (http://vmpsoft.com/support/user-manual/introduction/what-is-vmprotect/) anti-tamper technology. RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) Processor: Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.2 GHz or equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R9 290X (4GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better) DirectX: Version 9.0c Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 40 GB available space Additional Notes: Game contains EasyAntiCheat (https://www.easyanticheat.net/) anti-cheat technology, and Denuvo (https://www.denuvo.com/) and VMProtect (http://vmpsoft.com/support/user-manual/introduction/what-is-vmprotect/) anti-tamper technology.

Name game: Resident Evil 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2 Deluxe Edition Price: $19,52 USD $59,15 (-67%) Link store: Store Link! Offer ends up after January 2. Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: WINDOWS® 7, 8.1, 10 (64-BIT Required) Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4460 or AMD FX™-6300 or better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 760 or AMD Radeon™ R7 260x with 2GB Video RAM DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 26 GB available space Additional Notes: This game is expected to run at 1080p/30 FPS. If you have don't have enough graphics memory to run the game at your selected texture quality, you must go to Options > Graphics and lower the texture quality or shadow quality, or decrease the resolution. An internet connection is required for product activation. (Network connectivity uses Steam® developed by Valve® Corporation.) RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: WINDOWS® 7, 8.1, 10 (64-BIT Required) Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3770 or AMD FX™-9590 or better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon™ RX 480 with 3GB VRAM DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 26 GB available space Additional Notes: This game is expected to run at 1080p/60 FPS. An internet connection is required for product activation. (Network connectivity uses Steam® developed by Valve® Corporation.)

Name game: STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order™ Price: $46.79 $59.99 (-22%) Link store: Store Link Offer ends up after 13 days with 5 hours. Note: Keep in mind that I only recommend pages that I bought before, they are serious people! Requirements: PC System Requirements MINIMUM SPECS: OS: 64-bit Windows 7/8.1/10 Processor (AMD): FX-6100 or Equivalent Processor (Intel): i3-3220 or Equivalent Memory: 8 GB Graphics card (AMD): Radeon HD 7750 or Equivalent Graphics card (NVIDIA): GeForce GTX 650 or Equivalent DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent Hard-drive space: 55 GB RECOMMENDED SPECS: OS: 64-bit Windows 7/8.1/10 Processor (AMD): Ryzen 7 1700 or Equivalent Processor (Intel): i7-6700K or Equivalent Memory: 16 GB Graphics card (AMD): RX Vega 56 or Equivalent Graphics card (NVIDIA): GTX 1070 or Equivalent DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent Hard-drive space: 55 GB

The big picture: Playdate won't be as technically advanced as say, a Nintendo Switch or your smartphone, but that's not the point. Instead, developer Panic will rely on quality games, an endearing crank controller and a bit of nostalgia to help move hardware. Playdate, the quirky handheld that harkens back to the earlier days of mobile gaming, is one step closer to being something you can actually own. Panic in a recent blog update said the hardware is more or less ready to go. They recently adjusted their circuit board design to pass various RF emissions tests and also engineered a new crank that features all metal-to-metal contacts for the bearing surfaces. The new crank design will be stronger, more reliable and best yet, serviceable using just a hex screwdriver. The handheld, announced back in the spring, will utilize a unique cranking mechanism that’ll serve as an in-game input device. In Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure, for example, the hand crank will control the flow of time forwards and backwards. With the hardware finalized, the Playdate team said their next focus is to get the system to developers ASAP. To do that, they announced a developer preview program that’ll allow a limited number of devs to get their hands on the system so they can start creating games for it. Expect these units to go up for sale very soon, we’re told (devs that have expressed interest will be e-mailed directly). The good news for prospective players is that the handheld is still on track to ship in 2020 as originally scheduled. Shawn, K. (2019, December 19). Retro-inspired Playdate handheld will be shipping to developers soon. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83282-retro-inspired-playdate-handheld-shipping-developers-soon.html

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In brief: Google hasn’t updated its distribution dashboard, which lists how many devices are running the different versions of Android, since May, but an unlikely source has revealed the statistics: Pornhub. Google had updated its Android Platform Distribution dashboard on a monthly basis, giving us an idea of the speed at which new versions of the OS were being adopted, but there hasn’t been an update in about seven months. Thanks to Pornhub’s annual ‘Year in review,’ however, we get a rough idea of Android's distribution figures. As noted by Android Police, the site is in the top 50 when it comes to global views (according to Alexa rankings), so its analytics will likely be a good representation. It's worth noting that Pornhub doesn’t have data on the exact number of devices running the different versions of Android, and the information covers the entire year. The most po[CENSORED]r version of Google’s OS visiting Pornhub was Pie, which came out last year. It took 48 percent of all Android traffic. In second place was 2017’s Oreo (23 percent), and then Nougat (12 percent). Android 10, or Q, only managed to 2 percent of traffic, but seeing as the figures are for the whole year and it was only launched in September that low number is to be expected, especially as it only reached Galaxy phones over the last month. A Google source told Android Police that its dashboard hasn’t been updated due to “an unexpected loss of the source of usage data, and that the monthly updates should have returned to a regular pace,” but we’re still waiting. Until then, at least Pornhub offers a satisfying alternative. Rob, T. (2019, December 19). Pornhub exposes the 2019 Android stats that Google won't announce. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83262-pornhub-exposes-android-stats-2019-google-wont-announce.html

In brief: Apple's new and rather expensive Mac Pro has received compliments from the team at iFixit for its modular design and repairability. The company's high end desktop managed a score of nine out of 10, which is unusually high for an Apple device and should be seen as a move in the right direction. When you think about Apple's products for the past four or five years, they're not exactly the most easy to open up and fix by yourself. It's so difficult that in some cases replacing the device is the only possible option, as the company has made some radical design decisions such as soldering components like the RAM and SSD onto the motherboard. iFixit did a full teardown of Apple's new Mac Pro, which surprisingly scored an impressive nine out of 10 for repairability. The repair experts explained that it's easy to open and doesn't require any special tools to replace components. The CPU is more difficult to get to as it's buried deep inside, but since it's not impossible it might be worth it for those who want to save $1,050 when upgrading to a 12-core CPU. They noted the machine is a "Fixmas miracle: beautiful, amazingly well put together, and a masterclass in repairability." And they've also taken the time to see if comparisons with a "cheese grater" are warranted, but it turns out you shouldn't be tempted into grating some cheddar with it unless you're prepared for a painstaking cleanup afterwards. To put things in context, the iPhone 11 scored a six out of 10 for repairability, and the MacBook Pro 16 with the more reliable scissor keyboard still only managed a one out 10. That's just as bad as the 2016-2019 MacBook Pros, but at least the Retina MacBook Air managed a three out of 10 thanks to some design tweaks. They also require special tools and patience to open, whereas the Mac Pro can be opened using the handle on top to slide its shell out. This action also cuts power to the machine for safety reasons, and the inside draws many similarities with a traditional desktop tower PC meaning most components like RAM modules and graphics cards can be handled in a similar way. An interesting detail is that Apple provides step numbers and guiding diagrams right on the device, as well as free repair manuals that cover the essentials. However, the SSDs installed in the new Mac Pro are proprietary and linked to the controversial T2 chip, so they're not user-replaceable despite being modular. The good news is you can add more storage using MPX modules. The modular design of the machine is evident throughout the detailed teardown - the feet can be replaced with wheels, the three fans at the front slide out in one piece, there's very little cabling, and the screws and connectors are standard. That said, if you want to replace one of the proprietary components, you're going to depend on Apple to get them and you'll likely pay a hefty price. In any case, the new "cheese grater" Mac Pro is more repairable than its "trashcan" predecessor, and arguably a more innovative desktop computer. iFixit speculates that Apple's efforts to make the new machine more modular can be explained, in part, by the right-to-repair battle, which has recently made some progress in Massachusetts and California. Adrian, P. (2019, December 19). iFixit teardown reveals Apple's new Mac Pro is a "Fixmas miracle". Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83248-ifixit-teardown-reveals-apple-new-mac-pro-fixmas.html

The gruesome opening of Blasphemous bluntly sets the stage for the type of game you're in for. After awakening amongst a sea of deceased worshipers, the silent protagonist, known only as The Penitent One, slowly makes his way through a long-abandoned citadel. Blocking his exit, however, is a so-called warden who wields a golden chandelier as a club. After dodging its attacks and striking when its most vulnerable, The Penitent One removes his helmet near the slain beast, fills it with the blood of the defeated foe, and immediately pours it over his head. It's undoubtedly an over-the-top intro, yet its feats pale in comparison to the other horrors that await. Blasphemous is an exceedingly bleak adventure with strong religious undertones throughout. What's driving you as The Penitent One is your goal to find the source of the mysterious Miracle, a supernatural force that has created tangible manifestations of people's guilt throughout the land. The structure for Blasphemous' peculiar narrative and hack-and-slash gameplay pays hearty tribute to the Souls series and metroidvania subgenre. Though this reverence for established formulas can come off as derivative, the concepts are suited perfectly to the macabre atmosphere. Despite its grim nature, however, there is an alluring quality to the dark setting. It can often be oppressive with how unrelenting it all is, yet I still felt intrigued by it all. Some of the most fascinating and exciting moments come from unraveling more locations and minor storylines that fold back onto themselves, reconnecting forgotten areas and characters in unexpected ways. Blasphemous has an array of stoic NPCs with unique motivations and stakes--whether you're trying to ease the suffering of afflicted peasants or assisting a pilgrim struggling to complete his ill-fated pilgrimage, there's an emotional investment in figuring out how this nightmarish reality came to be. This investment is bolstered by the game's stunning visuals, which convey a sense of dread that feels increasingly palpable as new areas are introduced. Blasphemous' impeccably detailed sprite artwork gives a greater presence to the grotesque monsters and locales that you'll come to know well throughout the journey. Nearly every area of the game features a climactic battle, which has you face off against some lavishly designed boss that offers a fun and challenging change of pace from the long hallways filled with monsters and spike-filled pitfalls. Most of these boss battles are a real standout in Blasphemous, which pit you against extravagant and grotesque monsters--like the giant baby who will rip The Penitent One limb from limb if you get too close to it. Many of these clashes are where the heavy religious imagery reaches its peak, making for some particularly gruesome fights that pull upon larger themes of repentance and sacrifice. There's an impressive level of world-building in the game, and several essential items and artifacts throughout also feature unique bits of lore that flesh out the land's history. A few of the characters also have minor quests that can span an entire playthrough, some of which are entirely missable given how loose the game's sense of direction is. From the opening, and all the way to the climax, Blasphemous leans heavily on that familiar loop of exploration, discovery, and the ensuing trials by traversal and combat. It's simple enough to get into the rhythm of trading steel with foes and leaping across perilous jumps, though you'll most certainly suffer from an inevitable death at some point--often in gruesome fashion. There are a generous amount of spawn points, and without the loss of currency upon death, death isn't as taxing as it seems. However, repeated deaths will accrue guilt, weakening your mana bar and currency gain. If you don't shake off the guilt by returning to your death-point or spending the funds to purge at guilt statues, your character will become significantly disadvantaged. This system is lenient enough that you don't feel too discouraged about death, yet it still inspires anxiety in life or death situations, such as a leap of faith across a bottomless pit. While these mechanics surrounding death are undeniably influenced by From Software's Souls games, Blasphemous isn't just a 2D Dark Souls experience. It shares more blood with classic action games like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden, putting less of a focus on RPG mechanics and more on the in-the-moment action and platforming. The core combat and traversal systems are lean and very reflex-driven, and you'll spend most of your time honing your limited, yet still refined skills. One of the more satisfying moments can come from successfully parrying strikes with your sword, opening up a gory execution attack on your opponent. To give you more of an edge, you can boost your attributes with collectible relics and other upgrades, allowing you to stand against the tougher challenges with greater ease. As you rack up new abilities, access to new areas opens up, revealing pathways from previous locations that can give you a renewed sense of appreciation for the world itself. However, while these new skills and tools present some change, the core gameplay of running, jumping, and slashing from the opening hour to the closing act remains mostly the same. Without any significant advancements to your skillset, later sections of the game come across as incredibly repetitive and, at worst, dull. This feeling is magnified by how tedious exploration can be after getting settled with the lay of the land. While fast-travel points are present, they're few and far between, meaning you have to hoof it through long stretches of treacherous dungeons you've come to know inside and out. During these backtracking sessions, you continue to fight the same enemies with the same abilities. Moreover, you can easily fall prey to a stray projectile from an out-of-sight enemy, sending you careening down onto spike traps. This can be especially frustrating when handling particular tasks that require you to avoid death in order to complete them. The lack of change in the overall flow is noticeable, especially when approaching the mid-to-late portion of the game. As the plot escalates, showing off increasingly spellbinding visuals, your tactics and the general flow see little change. This is disappointing for a game that prides itself on a core loop that's about revealing hidden details around you and overcoming more challenging foes. Still, I can't deny that Blasphemous presents an evocative setting that becomes far grimmer as it progresses. Though it can be frustrating that its core gameplay never evolves past the often one-note rhythm of hacking and jumping across different levels, keeping it from reaching greater heights, I still came away impressed with how much Blasphemous stuck close to its haunting, dark storyline. To that end, playing through this send-up to metroidvania games was a satisfying trial to overcome in its own right. System Requirements Minimum Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 64-bit Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E8400 or AMD Phenom II x2 550 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4850 Storage: 4 GB available space Recommended Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Phenom II x4 945 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 650 or Radeon HD 5770 Storage: 4 GB available space Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/

Noita is a game about dying. You could say this about most roguelike games, but Noita’s deaths are so spectacular and often unexpected that it really does become the most enjoyable part of the game. I found myself giggling as what was left of my body oozes into a puddle of flaming oil and blood, and the game’s GIF maker ensures you can capture these hilarious deaths and share them with your friends. Noita’s premise is familiar; a procedurally generated map filled with enemies to fight and loot to pick up. One quirk thrown into the mix is that every particle on the map is physically simulated. Water flows, fire spreads, and loose dirt gets kicked up as you walk over it. The game’s enemies are quite varied, with gun wielding humanoids accompanied by flying skulls and acid spewing blobs. The loot comes in three forms; gold, wands, and flasks. Gold can be used between levels to buy wands or spells. Wands are your main weapon in the game, they come preloaded with various spells and modifiers which you can customize between levels. Flasks contain liquids with effects such as invisibility, polymorph, and berserking damage boosts or can take the form of flasks of water or oil. Flasks can be thrown to expel their contents in one shot or can be sprayed with more finesse to create puddles where you want them or to put yourself out while on fire. You can also acquire perks between levels, which will improve your character’s abilities or give them new features (such as having flaming oil for blood). An interesting feature of Noita is the fact that all the maps are connected. While you can take the usual route of getting to the bottom of the map and taking a portal to the between-map temple, there are also alternate routes that will allow you to directly move between maps and even backtrack. The game is packed with secrets and easter eggs that will require backtracking or finding special items in these secret paths. One example is a lake of fire that can be found at the far right of the first map. By using a water flask or other method of cooling the lava, you can traverse to the other side of the lake and find an entrance to the third map, completely bypassing the second. There are also secret maps that only seem accessible by digging through the edges of the map with the right wand type. Noita is a tough-as-nails roguelike who’s particle simulation ensures that chaos can erupt at any moment. You could be having a good run one minute and then be on fire drowning in a pool of acid in seconds because your stray wand shot started a chain reaction of explosions and showers of flaming coal. It feels like a complete game already and hopefully its time in early access will continue to add features to turn up the chaos factor to eleven. System Requirements Minimum OS: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 Processor: Dual Core CPU, Intel i5 or better Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 512MB VRAM, OpenGL 3.0 support Storage: 1 GB available space Recommended OS: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 Processor: The more cores the better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: 1024MB VRAM, OpenGL 3.0 support Storage: 1 GB available space Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/

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In a nutshell: Hard as it is to believe, we’re only a couple of weeks away from the end of the 2010s. To mark the occasion, Time magazine has compiled its ten best gadgets of the decade list, which includes three Apple products and the Nintendo Switch. In Time’s list of the “most important and influential gadgets” from the last ten years, Apple is the only company to appear more than once. Not too surprisingly, the 2010 iPad gets a spot. While it wasn’t the first tablet, it did make the form factor po[CENSORED]r. The publication writes that the slate resulted in a “cultural shift for personal computing, and set the tone for the next decade of portable devices.” The two other honored Apple devices are its Apple Watch, which has long remained the best-selling smartwatch on the market, and its AirPods, which might be a slightly controversial choice. One welcome entry is the Nintendo Switch. It’s easy to forget, but there was quite a bit of skepticism surrounding the hybrid console before release—it even caused the company’s share price to fall seven percent. But the Switch has shipped 41.67 million units as of September 2019, surpassing the lifetime sales of the Wii U, Nintendo GameCube, and Nintendo 64. It’s also set to be the best-selling console of 2019. Other entries include the Tesla Model S, the electric car that showed just how fast and cool EVs can be. There’s also the Raspberry Pi, which has sold over 25 million units, and Google’s Chromecast. The rest of the list is made up of the Amazon Echo—another product that many believed would fail but now boasts over 100 million sales—and the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which makes playing titles much easier for those with limited mobility. Rob, T. (2019, December 16). Time's best gadgets of the 2010s include the first iPad, Nintendo Switch, and Raspberry Pi. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83209-time-best-gadgets-2010s-include-first-ipad-nintendo.html

In a nutshell: If you like leaving captions on your Instagram photos and videos, be prepared for a warning if they’re a bit risky. The Facebook-owned social network is utilizing artificial intelligence to identify language in captions that could be considered offensive or classed as bullying. With the new system, users posting captions that Instagram believes could be offensive will see a message informing them it looks similar to others that have been reported. The company says this will give people a chance to pause and reconsider their words before posting. Earlier this year, Instagram introduced a similar feature that also uses AI. In that case, it identifies toxic comments. The filter is powered by machine learning that has been trained using a set of test data, and takes context and relationships into consideration. Instagram only warns users about their words being potentially offensive or bullying, so people can still ignore the prompts and post the captions/comments if they wish. But the company hopes the notifications will help reduce the number of cyberbullying incidents while educating people on what is and isn’t allowed on the platform. “We can do more to prevent bullying from happening on Instagram, and we can do more to empower the targets of bullying to stand up for themselves,” said Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram. “It’s our responsibility to create a safe environment on Instagram. This has been an important priority for us for some time, and we are continuing to invest in better understanding and tackling this problem.” The AI-powered feature will launch in “select countries” first before expanding globally over the coming months. Rob, T. (2019, December 16). Instagram's AI will warn users when they post offensive or bullying captions. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83212-instagram-ai-warn-users-when-they-post-offensive.html

What just happened? Usually when we hear the words “Facebook” and “data leak,” it’s about user data being mishandled or exposed. But the latest data theft for the company is a little closer to home, as hard disks containing payroll information for thousands of employees have been stolen during a smash-and-grab car robbery. Facebook may have taken steps in the last few years to tighten their data control policies, but it seems their best intentions have been foiled by an employee mistake and a spot of bad luck. On Friday morning, Facebook employees received an email from management confirming that unencrypted hard drives containing personal and payroll information had been stolen from a staff member’s car. According to Bloomberg, the disks contained the data of almost 29,000 people who worked at Facebook during 2018, and included information such as salaries, bonus payments, bank account details and partial social security numbers. For once, no Facebook user data was compromised. The company doesn’t believe that staff information was specifically targeted. Instead they believe it was just bad luck that the disks happened to be in the car that was broken into. A spokesperson for Facebook said, “we worked with law enforcement as they investigated a recent car break-in and theft of an employee’s bag containing company equipment with employee payroll information stored on it, we have seen no evidence of abuse and believe this was a smash and grab crime rather than an attempt to steal employee information.” Unsurprisingly, the unfortunate employee whose car was robbed was not meant to have taken the hard disks out the office. Facebook have confirmed that they have taken “appropriate disciplinary action” though they declined to say what ‘appropriate’ meant exactly. Perhaps just as worrying for fellow staff members, however, is the timeline of events and Facebook’s sluggishness in communicating with people. The break-in allegedly happened on November 17, and Facebook confirmed a few days later that the disks in question had been taken, but employees were not notified until December 13. That’s almost a month during which the perpetrator could make use of the data. The email to staff reportedly encouraged employees to inform their banks, and offered affected people a two-year subscription to an identity theft detection scheme. James, M. (2019, December 14). Facebook hard disks containing company's payroll information stolen. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83196-facebook-hard-disks-containing-company-payroll-information-stolen.html

Highly anticipated: We've known Microsoft has been working on a new Xbox gaming console (codenamed "Scarlett") for some time now, but at 2019's annual Game Awards, the company finally saw fit to showcase it to the world. The device is called the "Xbox Series X," and it'll be available during 2020's holiday season. First, the design: it's quite a bit different than the Xbox One. It's square-shaped instead of rectangular, and it's far taller than you might expect. In fact, in many ways, it more closely resembles a compact desktop PC than a gaming console. In the end, though, the unit's looks matter much less than its capabilities, and in that regard, the Xbox Series X is set to impress. Xbox chief Phil Spencer showed off the full power of the device with an in-engine trailer for Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, which you can watch below. Hellblade II is the sequel to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, the mind-bending horror adventure game developed by Ninja Theory -- one of the many indie studios recently swallowed up by Microsoft. The trailer looks simply stunning (not to mention terrifying), and if Spencer's words are to be believed, it should be fairly representative of the final game's look when it releases. To accomplish that level of visual fidelity, the Xbox Series X will be running on AMD's next-gen RDNA graphics architecture with GDDR6 RAM, as well as the "latest" Zen 2 processor. The console will feature hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and the ability to pump out 4K visuals at a smooth 60FPS. Microsoft also says 8K and 120FPS gameplay will be supported, but we wouldn't be surprised if players have to make some visual compromises to reach those numbers. The Xbox Series X will feature Variable Rate Shading technology, "Auto Low Latency Mode" for minimized input lag, and a "next-generation SSD" that can "eliminate load times." If you're worried about being forced to give up your existing collection of Xbox One games, Microsoft promises full backward compatibility with "thousands" of Xbox titles across "four generations" of gaming. Further, all of your existing Xbox One gaming accessories will work on the new system. If that's not enough compatibility for you, the Xbox Series X will also let you transfer your saves over from the Xbox One for titles that are available on both consoles. It's also worth noting that the Xbox Series X still features a disc drive, so it seems the gaming industry's dream of streaming-only gameplay has not yet come to fruition. Other details about the Xbox Series X, such as its specific GPU and CPU model, are still up in the air. Microsoft says more information about the highly-anticipated console will come throughout 2020. Cohen, C. (2019, December 13). Xbox Series X is Microsoft's new game console for 2020. Retrieved from https://www.techspot.com/news/83174-xbox-series-x-microsoft-new-game-console-2020.html

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