Everything posted by THē-GHōST
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Appearing in South Korea's rating system is the latest proof of Rockstar's remaster It's long been rumoured that Rockstar was beavering away on remastering the PS2-era Grand Theft Auto games: Grand Theft Auto 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas. The existence of these remasters has now been confirmed thanks to the South Korean games rating board, which has classified Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy—The Definitive Edition. Per a machine translation, the collection is rated "youth not allowed".The remasters had reportedly been planned for an earlier release but have suffered various internal delays, and their existence was all-but-confirmed thanks to Take-Two's statement to investors that it's working on three unannounced "iterations of previously released titles." The publisher's recent aggression towards mods using assets from these games is also notable. A Kotaku report on the remasters credited the remasters to Rockstar Dundee, the studio previously known as Ruffian Games, which was itself a spinoff from Realtime Worlds, which itself was a spinoff from DMA Design (which is now Rockstar North, and in Edinburgh). Those Scots eh. The games are supposedly being remastered using Unreal Engine and a mix of new and old graphical styles, as well as featuring an updated UI and other tweaks that bring the games more in-line with the more recent iterations of Grand Theft Auto. Take it with a pinch of salt, of course, but the trilogy will apparently hit PC in 2022. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/grand-theft-auto-trilogy-the-definitive-edition-is-happening/
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Verdict Small but spacious and with a great usable range of 248 miles, using sustainable materials and integrated into a user-friendly design with great ideas. The ID. Life concept is a taste of a cost effective small electric car future that needn’t be dull. Even if most of the features of the concept don’t make it to production, we need more concept cars like this. The ID. Life is far more than just an exercise for Volkswagen’s design team. In fact, this concept car is in many ways, no laughing matter: the future of the brand’s small cars depend on it. With difficult to navigate Euro 7 emissions regulations due to arrive in the coming years, cars the size of and smaller than the T-Cross and Polo are under serious threat of being priced out of reason for the manufacturers who make them. The complex catalytic converters and CO2 reduction measures that will be necessary to keep petrol powered small cars on the roads will drive their prices up considerably. But, salvation could be at hand for the small car, and in electric form to boot. More and more EVs are being produced and enjoying the economies of scale of flexible platforms, and the cost of the battery is supposedly decreasing too. It means that by 2025, Volkswagen thinks it will be able to offer you a Polo sized electric car on a modified version of the MEB platform called MEB Entry for around €20,000 - around £17,000 at current exchange rates. Advertisement AD The hatchback-cum-crossover concept car previews both a supermini badged ID.1 or a small SUV badged ID.2. If we could have our way, both would take on as many design cues from the concept as possible. It’s an impressive show car in execution, too, absent of some of the more typical rough edges you’ll spot on a concept. It’s a working concept, too, and we’ve been for a short drive to get an early sense of what the supermini of the future will be like. Our first taste of the ID. Life isn’t at great pace: the concept is only capable of a limited top speed of 18mph, which isn’t at all representative of the 231bhp front axle mounted electric motor the concept uses. Nonetheless, even at the low top speed imposed on us we can feel that even as a concept, the ID. Life drives very well. The fit and finish displayed on the car remains more impressive than the way it feels on the move, but for a one-off car it is decently controlled and solid.Getting to grips with the tangibles is an easier affair. Grabbing your attention is the aircraft yoke style steering wheel with an integrated screen. It’s a cute touch, its production relevance perhaps a little strained though. The integration of the indicators onto the steering wheel is another hint that VW will look to use as few parts in constructing the ID.1 and 2 as possible, to save money and keep the price down. Link: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/road-tests/356173/new-volkswagen-id-life-concept-review
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Scientists have long warned climate change is coming for our morning coffee and a recent spike in global bean prices could be the first sign it’s actually happening.Global coffee prices are forecast to jump to $4.44 a kilogram this year, according to IBISWorld, after a July cold snap in a major arabica coffee-producing region of Brazil wiped out a third of the crop.Tom Baker, the founder of Sydney-based Mr Black Roasters and Distillers, noticed the spike when the first shipment this year arrived with a heavy price tag. “The feeling was almost despair. We were expecting it because everything’s gone up. All our costs on every line item,” Baker said. “Glass, coffee, paper costs, label costs. It’s all gone up – and not just a small couple of percentages.”Each year his business imports between 150 and 200 tonnes of coffee beans, which are then roasted and distilled into a range of coffee liqueurs.Due to supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of a single shipping container has jumped from $3,300 to $10,000. Suzy Oo, a senior industry analyst with IBISWorld, said the cost of freight had contributed to making the recent coffee bean price spike the largest since 2014.She predicts prices will fall over the coming months and doesn’t expect an increase in the cost of a flat white – owing to fierce competition between cafe owners. But the other factor to consider is climate change, Oo said. “There’s also, of course, the extreme weather conditions in Brazil, which is the world’s biggest supplier of coffee beans.”Farmers in coffee-producing regions of Brazil have been grappling with a string of droughts in recent years and while frosts are common in July and August, the suddenness and severity of the most recent event caught producers by surprise.Freezing temperatures struck in late July after an unprecedented Antarctic front resulted in snow falling in the hills and frost spreading across coffee trees in the Cerrado Mineiro region of Minas Gerais state Similar frosts hit farmers in the state of Paraná 40 years ago, forcing many to seek out more stable conditions closer to the equator in Minas Gerais, which is why recent events have come as a shock as the area was thought safe.The increasing volatility and frequency of extreme weather events in Brazil are attributed to climate change.The worry now is that rising temperatures will lower both humidity and rainfall, leading to more prolonged periods of drought. By some calculations, Brazil has not had a typical rainy season since 2010 Prof Lesley Hughes, a spokesperson with the Climate Council and a distinguished professor of biology at Macquarie University, said farmers around the world were reporting similar experiences with fires, flood and drought “We’re also increasingly seeing farmers going bankrupt because there is just one extreme climate event too many, and some of these extremes are compounding. Going from a fire to a flood and then into a drought, for example,” Hughes said.Climate change is a known long-term risk to crops like coffee chocolate and wine grapes that require specific conditions to thrive As a tropical crop, coffee trees struggle in low temperatures and begin to die in sub-zero temperatures as ice particles “burn” their leaves. Because the plants take several years to establish, any significant loss can threaten to knock out producers.The coffee merchant and Brazilian expat Andre Selga said the uncertainty created by unusual weather patterns had made the industry “really tense“Most farmers have never seen anything like it,” Selga said.“Frost in that area is normal but not at that intensity and not at that altitude. I’ve heard of farmers that lost everything. All the plants. They’re waiting now to see if some of them can recover. They’ve lost their whole livelihood.”Selga said the price of the green beans he imports has jumped 60% and while the cost of freight was a factor, he was more concerned about the increasing uncertainty created by climate change.“It’s bigger than the cost of freight, it’s structural,” Selga said. “Climate change, a few years back, was something to be discussed by higher management and politics. But it seems now it’s come down to our level and ordinary people are having to deal with those things.” Link: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/sep/30/coffee-bean-price-spike-just-a-taste-of-whats-to-come-with-climate-change
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A former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp has been captured after trying to flee before her trial in northern Germany.Irmgard Furchner, 96, was due to stand trial for complicity in 11,000 murders, but she failed to turn up and the judge issued a warrant for her arrest.The defendant was detained by police hours after disappearing from a nursing home in the town of Quickborn. She had fled to Hamburg where she was reportedly seen on a local street Irmgard Furchner had been due to appear at a special juvenile court in Itzehoe, an hour's drive north of Hamburg. Instead she went to an underground station and travelled to the outskirts of Hamburg."She took a taxi," said court spokeswoman Frederike Milhoffer. The court spokeswoman said later she would now be brought before the court in Itzehoe, German reports said Judge Dominik Gross had earlier revealed that Irmgard Furchner was a fugitive and postponed the case until 19 OctoberA group representing Nazi survivors and relatives of the dead expressed outrage that she had been able to escape. "It shows incredible contempt for the rule of law and survivors," said the International Auschwitz Committee. The case is seen as unprecedented as Irmgard Furchner was a civilian worker at Stutthof.Holocaust guard found unfit to stand trial at 96She had worked as a typist in the office of Stutthof camp commandant Paul-Werner Hoppe, near the modern-day Polish city of Gdansk, which was then occupied by Nazi Germany and known as Danzig.For two years before the end of the war in 1945, she was said to have known key details of what went on at the concentration camp.During Hoppe's 1954 trial she revealed how he had dictated messages to her but claimed she knew nothing of the Nazi murders at Stutthof.Some 100,000 people were held at Stutthof, which was notorious for atrocious conditions and 65,000 are estimated to have died.Stutthof had gas chambers, and people were killed at the camp by gassing, shooting and lethal injection as well as death and starvation. More lost their lives on death marches from the camp as World War Two neared its end.Those killed at Stutthof include many Jews as well as non-Jewish Poles and captured Soviet soldiers. Thursday's case marks one of the last ever Nazi trials, largely because few defendants are still alive. The trial is taking place in a juvenile court as the defendant was under the adult age at the time. In March, a former Stutthof camp guard was declared unfit to stand trial, while last year another camp guard, Bruno Dey, was found guilty of complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 prisoners. He was given a suspended jail term. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58747082
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The professional social network LinkedIn appears to be making a bigger push into the events space after launching its own virtual event platform last year.According to a new report from TechCrunch, the Microsoft-owned company is in the process of testing out bringing paid events to its platform.We've built a list of the best event management solutions availableThese are the best virtual event platforms on the market Also check out our roundup of the best business webcams The news outlet first learned about LinkedIn's events test when it received code related to it from a source that wished to remain anonymous. After analyzing the code, TechCrunch discovered that the company is interested in selling tickets to work events as well as providing a dashboard that those organizing events can use to monitor sales and run their events.In a statement to TechCrunch, LinkedIn spokesperson Nicole Leverich confirmed that the company is indeed looking to delver further into the events space, saying: “Amid the changing world of work and transition to a nearly all-remote workforce, LinkedIn Events has seen a surge in growth, with 21 million people attending an Event on LinkedIn in 2020. We continue to learn from member and customer feedback and test new ways to improve the experience. As part of this, we are exploring options for payment in the Events product based on feedback from event organizers.”LinkedIn actually began looking into events before the pandemic began with the launch of its Events hub back in 2019. However, as more people started working from home during the pandemic, the company added online polls and video events to provide remote workers with access to events.As many workers already use LinkedIn for professional networking, adding paid events to the platform makes a great deal of sense and we'll likely hear more once the company is ready to announce a formal paid offering in the events space. We've also rounded up all the gear you'll need to work from home successfully Via TechCrunch
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Turns out the humble SSD might be useful for more than storing your favourite games. Researchers at Harvard and Samsung have teamed up to see if memory technology, the basis for speedy storage such as SSDs, might also be handy for storing a map of the human brain.This isn't just a case of dragging a picture of a human brain onto a folder, either. We're talking mimicking the human brain's neuron structure with non-volatile memory structures. There is, however, a lot of talk of copying and pasting.The idea is you can copy the brain's 'neuronal connection map' using a nanoelectrode array developed by the researchers, which they say is capable of recording a large number. This is then pasted to a high-density, three-dimensional network of solid-state memory—of which Samsung sees itself as the master of the craft."The authors envision to create a memory chip that approximates the unique computing traits of the brain: low power, facile learning, adaptation to environment, and even autonomy and cognition – that have been beyond the reach of current technology," Samsung says. The paper is actually titled 'Neuromorphic electronics based on copying and pasting the brain', which means it is not that far removed from your usual SSD behaviour. Yet while the language makes it seem rather simple, this sort of neuromorphic computing is actually aiming to mimic the neurons in the brain to better understand its incredible complexity.As Samsung puts it in a press release: "This is a scheme that directly downloads the brain’s neuronal connection map onto the memory chip."So pretty wild stuff, and no doubt it will take some spectacular tech to achieve something close to the human brain. Samsung says the "ultimate" neuromorphic chip would require 100 trillion or so "memories", which is the company's term for just some sort of memory technology, to store the 100 billion or so neurons of the human brain. That, Samsung says, is where 3D stacking comes in. Most SSDs today use 3D stacking to improve density in some manner, and this could be the key to the much larger devices required for a project as mightily large and unwieldy as the human brain. "The vision we present is highly ambitious," Dr. Donhee Ham, fellow of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and Professor of Harvard University, says. "But working toward such a heroic goal will push the boundaries of machine intelligence, neuroscience, and semiconductor technology." Another tech company us gamers are familiar with involved in neuromorphic chips is Intel. It's Loihi chip has been the foundation of its efforts to build a CPU with a layout more closely resembling a brain, and that has 131,000 'neurons' within it. Strap a few of those together and you can create a much larger system, too, such as the 100 million neuron Pohoiki Springs system.Even one of the creators of the original IBM PC, Dr. Mark Dean, has researched neuromorphic machines."We actually have designed some silicon devices that simulate or mimic neurons and synapses in the brain," Dean told me earlier this year. "They're not as complex as neurons and synapses in the brain, but we claim you don't need to be that complex. That the brain has its function, but if you're going to do computing, you just need some of the basic functions of a neuron and synapse to actually make it work."All of which feeds into a desire for smarter systems that, in some way, think for themselves. And why not learn from the best? Us humans—the undisputed champions of over-thinking.Does make you wonder if someday in a far future someone will accidentally hit format on someone's brain, though. Good time to remind everyone to backup your precious data.
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Nearly 700,000 people are running New World right now, but less than half of them are actually playing Amazon's new MMO. The rest are sitting in queues waiting to get into one of the 2,000-player islands. Projected wait times for certain New World servers are currently measured in tens of hours.Some players are stuck in queues on their own accord: As I write this, 20,000 players are waiting in line for the NA West El Dorado server, even though there are 18 NA West servers with single digit queues, including some with no queue at all. That's because, according to RedzyTV's New World Server List, the El Dorado server will be home to a number of big streamers, "possibly" including Shroud. Over in NA East, 24,000 players are queued for the Valhalla server, which a number of PvP guilds designated as the unofficial New World PvP server. (They call it "official," but it's not an Amazon designation.)It's not just servers that were pre-designated as gathering spots that are packed, though. It's around noon on the US west coast, so a lot of people are at school and work, but on the east coast, where it's mid-afternoon, the smallest queue is 96 players as I write. In Europe, where it's peak gaming time, newworldstatus.com (not affiliated with Amazon) showed over 400,000 people waiting in queues at one point. The EU server list then became briefly inaccessible. Now that it's back, the site reports 155,000 people waiting in EU server queues. In this life, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and MMO server queues on launch day. "Our sole focus right now is to get everyone logging in and playing quickly," Amazon says. The developer will continue adding new servers, and plans to raise the player cap on existing servers following future testing. In the meantime, though, if you're currently stuck a New World server queue, you may not have to be. Amazon announced that if you get started on a server with a low queue, you can transfer your character to your preferred server for free sometime in the next two weeks. Of course, that only helps if you can find a server with a low queue to use as your temporary spot. As day turns to evening in North America, the queues may continue to grow. We'll continue to monitor New World's server status today, and will update this article as we become aware of new information. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/new-world-server-queue/
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Track-bred Z06 C8 Corvette Stingray gains more aggressive aero, weight-saving measures and a more powerful V8 in a bid to beat the Porsche 911 GT3 Chevrolet has given us our first look at the hard-edged, track-honed Z06 variant of the C8 Corvette, which the brand will reveal in October. We’ve previously spied the car testing at the Nurburgring in camouflaged, pre-production from, but Chevrolet has revealed a near-production ready version of the car on social media, head of a full debut next month. The C8 Z06 adopts a new, more aggressive front bumper than the standard car which incorporates a pair of ‘fangs’ and three deep air vents into the bodywork. The headlights of the Z06 are unchanged, but interestingly, the front wheel arches bulge out with an additional sharp crease, suggesting a significant increase in track width.Created to battle it out with the Porsche 911 GT3, the Z06 also receives a new set of wheels, probably hosting wide-section high performance tyres. The C8’s distinctive side vents which cool the mid-mounted V8 have been opened up, too - extra airflow is necessary to feed larger radiators for an all-new V8, which will replace the standard car's 495bhp 6.2-litre unit.The engine cover has also been revised for the track-ready model, with a new, deeply sculpted design that features additional heat ventilation. There’s also a larger rear lip spoiler for added downforce. Chevrolet’s two teaser images show the rear wing in two different positions, suggesting the use of active aerodynamics, or the availability of an optional aero pack. The engine cover has also been revised for the track-ready model, with a new lightweight composite arrangement that features additional heat ventilation. There's no official confirmation as yet, but it's thought that lurking under that new engine cover is a 5.5-litre V8 that's a development of the same engine used by the C8-R racer. If so, we expect it to feature a flat-plane crank that will trade refinement for outright power. Speaking of which, expect around 700bhp: that should provide for a sub-3.0-second 0-62mph sprint and a top speed of around 200mph. Adding credibility to the theory of a race-bred engine making its way into the Z06, a teaser released by Chevrolet earlier this year featured an official sound clip of the V8 in action. It revealed that, instead of the 6.2-litre's deeper burble, the performance V8 would have a high-pitched sound reminiscent of a high-revving flat-plane crank V8.Helping the Z06 remain stable at high speed is the aforementioned new aero, which will also feature a large rear diffuser that repackages the four exhaust pipes within the centre to optimise air flow.Deploying all its power to the rear wheels will be an updated version of the C8 Corvette's eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. A manual six-speed will not be an option, and there's no word if the most extreme version of the C8 Corvette is being developed for right-hand drive. The new Z06 will be available in 2022 (as a 2023 model year car in the USA). There’s no word on price yet, but expect a huge premium over the standard Corvette Stingray, which is priced from £81,700 in Britain. Currently, there's just one licensed Chevrolet dealership in the UK, which is located in Virginia Water, Surrey. Link: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/chevrolet/corvette/355813/wild-new-chevrolet-corvette-z06-revealed-ahead-2022-release
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My sexual desire comes in peaks and valleys, but these days the peaks are fewer and further between. Do I need medical help I’m a 35-year-old gay man. I’ve always felt as though my sexual cycles may be different to everyone else’s. Sexual desire comes in peaks and valleys; I have periods of high sexual activity and then it plummets to almost zero. In my 20s, I shrugged it off by not staying in sexual or romantic relationships for long, having more casual partners in the highs and just enjoying time alone in the lows. However, as I get older, I notice these peaks are fewer and further between and much less pronounced. I worry that, now I’m longing for more stable relationships, I may not be able to offer a fulfilling sex life to a potential partner. Is this a medical condition I should fix? Or is this something I should learn to negotiate with any potential partner Men and women have cycles of libido – largely driven by hormonal activity – and everyone has to learn to adapt to them. These cycles and their intensity naturally change as we age or undergo life changes. They are also affected by elements such as stress, fatigue, anxiety and illness.Listen to what your true needs are now – and relax in the knowledge that you can have a great sex life within a stable relationship. With good communication between you and your partner, you should be able to develop a mature, long-term relationship that also fulfils your joint erotic needs.Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions: see gu.com/letters-terms. Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure discussion remains on topics raised by the writer. Please be aware there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/28/my-libido-is-highly-unreliable-will-i-ever-be-able-to-satisfy-a-partner
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Swedish police are investigating whether criminal activity was behind an explosion at an apartment block that seriously injured four people.Around 100 residents were evacuated and 16 taken to hospital after the blast caused a fire that tore through the building in Gothenburg city in Sweden.Police have said they suspect the early morning blast was started deliberately."It's obvious that a crime cannot be excluded," Interior Minister Mikael Damberg told a news conference.Unconfirmed reports in Swedish media say one of the residents of the apartment block is a police officer who had recently testified in a major gang trial.Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, speaking alongside Mr Damberg, said he did not want to "speculate" about the blast, but added: "Everyone should know that society is always stronger than crime."Sweden has seen a surge in gang-related crime in recent years, with firearms and explosives used to settle scores.One resident of the block in Sweden's second city said she heard a commotion from the street at just after 05:00 (03:00 GMT) on Tuesday."I went out on the balcony and I was shocked. There was smoke everywhere, from every stairwell," Anja Almen, who was among the evacuated, told Reuters."Fire trucks with ladders were pulling people from apartments."Residents had to be evacuated from windows and balconies as a fire afterwards spread through the building. Police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg told a news conference that they believed a device had "probably" been placed at the site of the blast."We believe something has exploded that is not of natural causes," he said.In 2020, police recorded 107 detonations nationwide and a further 102 attempted or prepared detonations, the AFP reports.The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention last year said the country - with a po[CENSORED]tion of 10 million - had gone from having one of the lowest levels of fatal shootings in Europe to having one of the highest. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58717591
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iPhone 13 series shipping began a few days ago in several regions and early adopters have already started reporting issues. There is apparently an issue with the Unlock with Apple Watch feature on iPhone 13 units and iPhone 13 Pro units are capping third-party animations at 60Hz. The latter issue exists even though the Pro models come with up to 120Hz refresh rate support. There is also a video that has surfaced showing how iPhone 13's screen repair via a third-party repair centre causes Face ID to stop working.Apple has taken to its support page to issue a statement about possible problems that users may face while using the Unlock with Apple Watch feature on the iPhone 13. The company says that it is aware of the issue and is looking to fix it in an upcoming software update. Some users may see an error that reads, ‘Unable to Communicate with Apple Watch' if they try to unlock their iPhone while wearing a face mask, or they might not be able to set up Unlock with Apple Watch.Apple advises users to turn off ‘Unlock with Apple Watch' for now and use the passcode method to unlock the iPhone 13 till the software update is rolled out. To turn off Unlock with Apple Watch, go to Settings > Face ID and Passcode.9to5Mac reports that iPhone 13 Pro's ProMotion screen cannot exceed 60Hz refresh rate while on several third-party apps. While standard animations and scrolling interactions are automatically scaled up to 120Hz, Apple has reportedly confirmed that third-party developers will have to add a custom code to take full advantage of the 120Hz display on the Pro model. Apple told the publication that developers will need to add a new Info.plist key to opt-in, and documentation regarding that will be published soon. Apple claims that this third-party app opt-in process has been introduced for battery life reasons. There is also a video released by Phone Repair Guru that shows how Face ID stops working if the screen of the iPhone 13 is replaced through a third-party service. The YouTuber shows that when you replace the iPhone 13 microphone, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor, nothing goes wrong. However, when you replace the iPhone 13 screen with a new one, the phone will recognise the change and show a message that the user has lost Face ID support. The blogger tries to reset Face ID settings as well, but the iPhone 13 throws an error that Face ID is not available.
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Microsoft is preparing a pair of upgrades for collaboration platform Teams that will help users customize their video feeds to better suit their needs.As per two new entries in the company’s product roadmap, Teams will soon allow users to hide their own video feed during calls and, conversely, to pin it to the screen.The two new options will cater to different user preferences, Microsoft suggested. The ability to conceal one’s own video feed is said to “help reduce distractions”, while the option to pin the feed lets users position themselves alongside co-workers on-screen, if they are so inclined. We've built a list of the best business webcams aroundHere's our list of the best VoIP services out there Check out out list of the best headsets for conference calls right now Both new features are still currently under development, but are scheduled to roll out to all users by the end of November. Microsoft Teams update Since the start of the pandemic, almost all professionals have had to find a way to make video conferencing and remote collaboration work for them. In the same way some prefer one medium of communication over another (i.e. text chat over email), some people prefer to use each individual service in a particular manner too.In recognition of this fact, the major players in the collaboration space have made a concerted effort to give users as much control over their personal setup as possible. For example, Microsoft Teams now offers a variety of display options, including a massive gallery view for large-scale meetings.When it comes to the user’s own video feed, however, Teams is currently a step behind competitors like Zoom and Meet, both of which already give users the option to minimize and pin. Currently, the user’s video is displayed in the bottom right corner, come what may.While the new additions may appear insignificant in isolation, they will contribute towards an overall feeling of flexibility that Teams users are bound to appreciate.Check out our list of the best office chairs and best office desks
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Being able to deliver up to 240W over a single Type-C cable will power any gaming laptop around at full pelt. Say goodbye to those bulky old power bricks, with myriad weird plugs, for your next gaming laptop. USB Type-C is soon going to be able to deliver the goods all the way up to 240W. In short, more than enough juice to get even the most thirsty gaming laptop running at full power.The new Type-C 2.1 specs revision has dropped and, though there are also a few tasty details about how to put a stop to electrical arcs when unplugging your suddenly superpowered juice pipeline, the biggest change is the switch in maximum power delivery. The previous version of Type-C connectors could only deliver 20V at 5A, which meant they topped out at 100W.That was fine for a standard ultrabook, such as an XPS 13, and is even enough to keep a Razer Blade Stealth 13, with its discrete GTX 1650 Ti, powered up, but that's not enough to keep a modern gaming laptop running at full speed. Some gaming laptops do support charging via USB Type-C, however, such as the Asus Zephyrus G14 and Razer's Blade 14 and 15, but won't keep the battery topped up if you're trying to use it at the same time The switch to supporting up to 48V at 5A gives you a peak wattage of 240W, which means all your laptop needs can be provided by that near-universal cable. Well, kinda universal. This new optional power upgrade requires newer Extended Power Range (EPR) cables rather than the Standard Power Range (SPR) ones we have today. And though the SPR cables are expected to be entirely deprecated in favour of the newer EPR versions, Ars Technica's report suggests that smaller chargers that don't need the higher power limit will still use SPR cables, at least in the short term. And that means we still won't quite be at the stage where you can just slam any laptop charger into any other laptop and be confident it'll work.
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This ultra-powerful, all in one suitcase PC certainly has one up on my desktop PC. Designed by Matt from the DIY Perks Youtube channel, this build's rich sound system, immense spec, and oodles of portability has me drooling over the idea of nestling myself at the end of the garden to play The Witcher, like some lurking, tech-laden Leshy.Not only does this thing include a full water loop, and a fold-out trio of 144Hz screens, it can even fit a full size keyboard and mouse inside the back panel for easy transportation. As such, I figured it deserved featuring—it's not often someone comes out with something as portable and powerful as this.I mean, people have made triple-screen prototypes before, but that doesn't always end well. Just ask Razer...Matt began this incredible build by prying apart an old monitor, and attaching some 3D printed brackets to the back. That made it possible to fit a light aluminium frame and backplate, complete with holes and cutoMounting in a powerful and efficient 16-core, 32-thread AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, with its 4.9GHz boost clock, Matt opted for a mini-ITX motherboard to keep the footprint as small as possible. That's complemented by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, and both the CPU and GPU are fitted with a waterblock for incorporation into a full water cooling loop. With the amount of heat expected to pour out, cooling was an important feature to get right.The liquid loop, which was cleverly tested with a pressure gauge before being filled up, connects to four, low-profile, Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 X-Flow 40mm Hepta Radiators. Attached are six little Noctua fans, which, after being used in Matt's invisible PC build quite messily—as he himself admits—have now been given a gorgeous, tidy rewire.uts for mounting this all in one PC's powerful components. To top off a potent PC like this one, Matt went for a 3,600MHz Crucial Ballistix 64GB RAM kit, and two 8TB Samsung SSDs for speedy storage aplenty. Don't worry though, all that data he'll be carrying around to do his video editing is only at risk for a hot sec. The moment he gets to his studio, he just transfers it into his new 100TB Synology NAS for backup. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/all-in-one-portable-pc-diy-perks/
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This year has seen a severe drop-off in new-car production. In July 2021, UK car manufacturing hit its lowest level since 1956, but this isn’t an issue confined to our shores. A worldwide chip shortage has seen many of the big brands throttling back on production, and in some cases demand is beginning to outstrip supply, with these parts delays causing customers to wait for their new-car purchases. As a result, the used-car market is flourishing. There’s a plentiful choice of low-mileage two and three-year-old models, and while you might lose some of the original maker’s warranty cover, you could buy a vehicle where someone else has taken the biggest hit of depreciation. Crucially, you could drive away in a car the same day, and even grab a premium brand for mainstream cash. To illustrate just what you can get for your money, we’ve taken a look at two of the most po[CENSORED]r five-door hatchbacks on the road; cars that were pitched at very different price points when new. The Ford Focus has consistently been one of the UK’s biggest new-car sellers, but slip into the used market and a similar sum will net a Mercedes A-Class. Both are available for less than £25,000, so is it worth waiting for a new car, or is the lure of that badge and instant gratification too much to resist? We compared them to find out, and explored similar rivalries in the family and luxury SUV classes, plus two four-door coupés. Link: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ford/focus/356128/new-ford-focus-vs-used-mercedes-class
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I am clamped into a razor-thin perineum-mashing machine with no brakes. What could possibly go wrong his is hardly the place to admit it, but I hate cyclists. I never know if they are going to stop at traffic lights or plough through; they’re often very shouty due to always being in danger; and the worst thing is, they’re right. We should all be cyclists as it’s good for the planet. I hate being around people who are right but, to my credit, I am always willing to have my rabid road prejudices punctured, so I have agreed to give track cycling a go.Track cycling is like cycling squared, but in an oval. You’ve seen it at the Olympics: supercharged, smooth, oddly soothing – until a collision takes out half the cyclists because they’re riding mere millimetres apart. I am surprised anyone is able to have a go at whipping around the London 2012 velodrome on a two-dimensional bike that looks like it weighs less than a toaster. The Lee Valley VeloPark, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London, is huge and engulfing. On the main floor, other people trying today’s taster session sit in three-sided metal pens, spaced apart like we’re at a sheep auction. I feel as if I’m in the hive where they make cyclists. I scan around for a giant alien ovipositor. Where is the Queen I feel grimly compelled to try cleats, since I’m here. Cleats are my nightmare: to be clamped at the foot to a perineum-mashing machine that is constantly falling over. “If you crash, your feet come right out,” fellow rider Gabriel, who belongs to a triathlon club, reassures me. Oh, excellent. Our permanently upbeat instructor Rory teaches us the elements of the track. The dark blue apron is a flat “safety zone” where anything goes. The dreamlike turquoise band, called the Côte d’Azur, is for easy riders. Then the track begins to bank: gently at first, towards a black line, then higher and higher, marked by a red sprinter’s line, then a blue line, and then there is a broad sweep of terror to the high top of the track, where there are no more lines because you may as well be in space.The others peel away. They may be beginners at track cycling, but I haven’t been near a bike in 15 years. I let go of the wall, wobbling violently. I feel like a child again – childhood being a time of massive anxiety, where one lacks motor skills and autonomy. Track bikes are twitchy, without brakes or gears. I overcorrect, wrenching the handlebars wildly. The ground rises to meet my panic. I crash, not hard but shockingly, spilling across the floor. Other cyclists steer around me. On the plus side, my feet did come out of the cleats.I hear a reassuring voice; a cyclist has stayed behind, to help with my cleats, and check I’m OK. It’s Gabriel. I could cry. Rory is there, too. “You’re good to go!” he encourages, with no evidence whatsoever. I stay low, hugging the black line. Low-friction environments always feel like alternate worlds, with unpredictable physical laws. Instead of slowing down for corners, we’re taught to speed up. An hour on the track requires the same energy as three in an everyday environment. The higher one’s track position, the longer the circuit and steeper the bank, requiring more work to maintain. I spend a half hour in terror, being passed by higher riders, who are instructed to shout “STAY” or “HOLD YOUR LINE” as they hurtle above me at a 45-degree angle, lest I change my position and cause carnage. It’s like being overtaken by lorries on a motorway designed by MC Escher.Steering into the corners, as I intuitively do, makes me lose height, and drop down the markers. (Bad news for riders behind.) “It’s an endless straight line!” Rory shouts. His epiphanic exhortation unlocks the magic trick at the heart of track cycling: when is a circle a straight line? Attacking the corner, I point the bike at what feels like an uphill angle, letting the track turn me. Or perhaps the world turns, and I stay in place. The paradox of speed and stasis feels like being in a video game. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/27/rhik-samadder-tries-track-cycling-its-like-being-overtaken-by-lorries-on-a-motorway-designed-by-escher
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Australia's prime minister has signalled he may not attend the UN's landmark climate conference in November as his government faces continued criticism of its poor climate record.In an interview, Scott Morrison said he had "not made any final decisions" on attending, suggesting it was a burden."It's another trip overseas... and I've spent a lot of time in quarantine," he told the West Australian newspaper.The COP26 summit will be the biggest global climate crisis talks in years.It is hoped that the 12-day meeting between world leaders in Glasgow, Scotland will produce the next emissions standards to slow global warming and keep temperature rise below 1.5C.But Mr Morrison said he would consider other priorities, including the reopening of Australia's borders. Australia - one of the world's top exporters of coal and gas - is one of 200 countries expected to present their updated 2030 emissions cuts at the meet. Mr Morrison has said he wishes Australia to achieve net zero emissions "as soon as possible", but has not outlined any measures to do so.His government has resisted committing to net zero by 2050 - a goal already pledged by the US, the UK and many other developed nations.Australia has consistently been criticised for its slow climate progress and heavy reliance on coal-fired power - which makes it the most carbon polluting nation in the world per capita.What needs to be agreed to stop climate change?Australia attacks EU climate plan to tax importsClimate action is still hotly contested in AustraliaCanberra is also staunchly protective of its fossil fuel industry - and has pledged to continue mining and trading dirty fuels as long as there is demand in Asia.In July, a UN report ranked it last out of 170 member nations for its response to climate change.And despite Australia's claims to the contrary, the UN has previously said the nation is not on track to reach its modest Paris Agreement targets of a 26-28% cut on 2005 levels by 2030.Not a no-show'Mr Morrison, who became leader in 2018, has consistently defended Australia's climate policies as adequate.The nation experienced a catastrophic fire season in its 2019-2020 summer - during which Mr Morrison was criticised for downplaying the role of climate change and travelling to Hawaii for a family holiday during the peak of the He has made several trips abroad this year, including to the G7 summit hosted by the UK in June, and in recent days to Washington for the Quad meeting with the leaders of the US, India and Japan.Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Monday that if Mr Morrison did not attend there would still be senior level representation at the meeting."It's not a no-show at the conference. Australia will be strongly represented at the conference no matter by which senior Australian representative and our commitment is very clear," she told the ABC. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58703128
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The Witcher: Blood Origin first look has arrived. On Saturday at the online-only TUDUM event, Netflix unveiled the first look at its six-part Witcher prequel miniseries that is set completely underwater and 1,200 years prior to Henry Cavill stepping into a bathtub — and will depict the creation of the first Witcher and the events leading to the “Conjunction of the Spheres”. Sophia Brown (Giri/Haji), Laurence O'Fuarain (Vikings), and Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians) lead the cast of The Witcher: Blood Origin, that comes from showrunner Declan de Barra (The Originals), with The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich among the executive producers alongside de Barra.In addition to Brown as Éile, O'Fuarain as Fjall and Yeoh as Scian, The Witcher: Blood Origin also stars Lenny Henry (Comic Relief) as Balor, Mirren Mack (The Nest) as Merwyn, Nathaniel Curtis (It's a Sin) as Brían, Dylan Moran (Black Books) as Uthrok One-Nut, Jacob Collins-Levy (The White Princess) as Eredin, debutante Lizzie Annis as Zacaré, Huw Novelli (The Capture) as Brother Death, Francesca Mills (Zoolander 2) as Meldof, debutante Amy Murray as Fenrik, and Zach Wyatt (Urban Myths) as Syndril. Hissrich and de Barra serve as executive producers alongside Sean Daniel, Jason Brown, Tomasz Bagiński, Jarosław Sawko, and Matt O'Toole. The Witcher: Blood Origin is a production of Hivemind and Platige Image for Netflix. As with the mainline The Witcher series, The Witcher: Blood Origin is also based on the eponymous works by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. It was first announced in July 2020.
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iOS 15 is available to anyone who has an iPhone 6S to an iPhone 13, and while it may not look fresh and exciting at first glance, there are plenty of refinements to take advantage of once you scratch its surface.One feature to note is Focus, Apple’s latest take on redesigning notifications, but this time you can tailor it to your workflow every day. It can also apply to your home screen on both an iPhone and iPad, alongside muting notifications on your Mac, once macOS 12 Monterey is released.However, it may be overwhelming in creating a custom Focus profile, so we’ve created a guide below to help show you how one can be made. How to download iOS 15Everything you need to know about iPadOS 15Read our hands on iPhone 13 Pro Max reviewWhat happens when Focus is enabledThink of Focus as your own personal planner that’s housed within your Apple device, who can tell your contacts that you mustn’t be disturbed at certain points throughout the day, while tailoring your home screen to the tasks at hand. You can create as many Focus profiles as you want, which can be enabled once you’re at a certain location, or when an event in your calendar begins, or when you launch a certain app. By default you’re given the following Focus profiles: Do Not Disturb Driving Sleep Work Personal You can customize each of these to fit to your schedule, but they’re not all switched on by default, so you can leave them off or delete one if you wish. When a profile is enabled, the following can occur, depending on how you’ve set one up: Home screen changes Muted notificationsCertain apps alert you, while some stay silentNotifies others of your status in Messages and will deliver any incoming messages silently.There’s plenty of ways that a profile can be enabled on its own which can help your workflow or even for important days you’ve got coming up.How to create your own FocusGo to Settings > Focus > Add icon, and you will be brought to a screen where you can choose a pre-set Focus profile, or create a new one.Choose Custom, and name your Focus. For example we’ve picked ‘Camera’. You can assign a certain icon or color to it to tell it apart from other profiles.