“Twitch Prime” offers monthly game-related downloads, includes “Turbo” bonuses, more.
Welcome to Twitch Prime! Have a crown.
Amazon has unveiled yet another add-on for its paying Prime subscribers, and it represents the company's biggest tie-in yet with Twitch, the game-streaming service that Amazon acquired in 2014 for nearly $1 billion.
The new add-on, Twitch Prime, will dole out monthly gaming-related goodies to any Amazon Prime subscriber who links their shopping account with a Twitch user ID. Upon doing so, Twitch users will get a few Twitch-specific bonuses. The first is a series of free game downloads, which change every month and can range from full-game unlocks to DLC add-ons for games you already own (much like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold). Twitch Prime's first month includes a full download of the Twitch-enabled multiplayer game Streamline and add-on bonuses for free-to-play games Hearthstone and Smite.
Twitch Prime appears to be enabled for Prime subscribers in the US, UK, Spain, Germany, France, Canada, and Italy.
"Even among Luminous Blue Variable [stars], η Car is unusual and its parameters are extreme."
That bit of science-speak roughly translates to "Even among the largest, most energetic stars, η Carinae has done things we can't explain, but find incredibly impressive." The top item in η Carinae's list of extreme behaviors involves producing a decades-long outburst that caused it to become the second-brightest star in the sky. This outburst released as much energy as a supernova and ejected many times the mass of the Sun. Yet somehow η Carinae remained intact.
Now, researchers have used a series of Hubble images to produce a timeline of the debris left behind by this enigmatic outburst. The new data reveals that this was just the latest in a series of eruptions, and we still can't explain why they happen.
German automaker seems to be reinvesting in electric despite tepid i3 sales.
It says “Mini” but every generation gets bigger and bigger. (credit: Jim Resnick)
BMW confirmed to Bloomberg today that it will start work on an electric Mini and an electric X3 SUV. This news comes after reports of deliberation on BMW's electric strategy among the company’s top executives earlier this month.
Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger told Bloomberg that the all-electric Mini would be market-ready by 2019 and the X3 SUV would be a 2020 vehicle.
Reuters reported three weeks ago that BMW’s top executives had been resistant to the idea of building an electric Mini-brand car. Minis have a smaller profit margin than BMW-brand cars, they argued, and the investment costs of building an all-electric vehicle are considerable. A few executives felt that BMW should push ahead in the electric vehicle field, but after the weak US performance of the i3, other bigwigs were apparently not convinced that committing additional investment to purely electric cars would make financial sense.
Aside from a hands-off display at New York Comic-Con, we haven't seen or heard much about the upcoming, mini-sized NES Classic Edition since its first announcement in July. Now, new information is coming from Nintendo itself and from journalists at a recent hands-on preview event. They bring both good and bad news for retro Nintendo fans.
On the good side, the NES Mini apparently does have a few graphical options to play with. A recently updated promotional page now highlights three different visual modes: "pixel perfect" (i.e. square pixels), 4:3 (i.e. cathode ray tube ratio), and "CRT filter" (i.e. simulated scan lines on your HDTV). Nintendo also notes that you can create four "Suspend Points" for each of the 30 games on the system. You can lock any of those points so they don't accidentally get saved over.
Hands-on reports from journalists also confirm what we first surmised from an earlier NES Classic Edition trailer: that the emulated graphics and colors on the NES Classic Edition's 30 built-in games are much more faithful to the original games than Nintendo's previous Virtual Console releases. Wired's Chris Kohler notes that "the whites are sparkling white, and everything pops in bright color" on the new HDMI-powered system.
A popular YouTuber is experimenting with torrent-based technology in order to take control of his content and avoid third-party censorship. Bluedrake says that the potential for freedom when using WebTorrent “blows his mind” and has already carried out tests to get the project underway.
When discussing the most influential websites on the planet, there can be little doubt that YouTube is a true giant. The video-hosting platform is the second most popular site on the Internet behind its owner’s Google.com
YouTube attracts well over a billion visitors every money, with many flocking to the platform to view the original content uploaded by its army of contributors. However, with great power comes great responsibility and for YouTube that means pleasing advertisers.
As a result, YouTube has rules in place over what kind of content can be monetized, something which caused a huge backlash recently.
In a nutshell, if you don’t produce content that is almost entirely “appropriate for all audiences,” (without references to drugs, violence, and sex, for example), your content is at risk of making no money. But YouTube goes further still, by flagging “controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies.” Awkward.
Many YouTubers view this refusal to monetize content as a form of censorship but recognize that as long as they’re in bed with the company, they’re going to have to play by its rules. For some, this means assessing alternatives.
Popular YouTuber Connor Hill (Bluedrake42 – 186,600 subscribers) is no stranger to YouTube flagging his videos. As a result, he’s decided to take matters into his own hands by experimenting with WebTorrent.
As previously reported, WebTorrent brings torrents to the web. Instead of using standalone applications it allows people to share files directly from their browser, without having to configure or install anything.
Early on, WebTorrent creator Feross Aboukhadijeh identified “people-powered websites” as a revolutionary application for WebTorrent.
“Imagine a video site like YouTube, where visitors help to host the site’s content. The more people that use a WebTorrent-powered website, the faster and more resilient it becomes,” he told TF.
It is exactly this application for the technology that has excited Bluedrake. By taking his content, embedding it in his website, and using his own fans for distribution, Bluedrake says he can take back control.
“This solution does not require torrent clients, this solution does not require torrent files, this is a seamless video-player hosted solution, with a completely decentralized database, supported by the people watching the content itself,” Bluedrake says in a new video. “And it works…REALLY well.
Of course, all torrents need seeds to ensure that older content is always available, so Bluedrake says that the servers already funded by his community will have backup copies of all videos ready to seed, whenever that’s necessary.
“That’s literally the best of both worlds. A CDN and a TVDN – a Torrent Video Distribution Network – at the same time. It will be community-funded and community supported…and then we’ll have truly censorship-free, entirely impervious video content, in a network. That gives me chills,” Bluedrake adds.
But while this solution offers the opportunity to avoid censorship, there is no intention to break the law. Bluedrake insists that the freedom of peer-to-peer will only be used for speech, not to infringe copyright.
“All I want is a site where people can say what they want. I want a site where people can operate their business without having somebody else step in and take away their content when they say something they don’t like. We’re going to host our own content distribution network within a peer-to-peer, web-socketed torrent service,” he says.
The development has excited WebTorrent creator Feross Aboukhadijeh.
“This is just one of the extremely creative uses for WebTorrent that I’ve heard about. I’m continually amazed at what WebTorrent users are building with the open source torrent engine,” Feross informs TF.
“When a video site uses WebTorrent, visitors help to host the site’s content. The more people that use a WebTorrent-powered website, the faster and more resilient it becomes. I think that’s pretty cool. It’s something that traditional CDNs cannot offer.
“The magic of WebTorrent is that people can use it however they like. It’s not just a desktop torrent app but it’s a JavaScript library that anyone can use anywhere on the web.”
Of course, one YouTuber using the technology is a modest start but the potential is there for this to get much bigger if Bluedrake can make a success of it.
“The way that we get P2P technology to go mainstream is simple: make it easy, make it better,” Feross says.
“This is part of a larger trend of decentralized protocols replacing centralized services, as we’ve seen with Bitcoin and blockchain apps.”
Starting today, the Drug Enforcement Administration is free to list a popular herbal supplement called kratom as a Schedule I controlled substance. This would put kratom in the same lineup as heroin and make its sale and use a felony. But, in statements to the press, the agency said it has no timetable for officially listing kratom—it could be next week or longer—leaving users on the edge of their seats.
Since the DEA announced its plan to ban kratom at the end of last month, thousands of users have frantically sought to reverse the decision, as well as buy up as much of the drug as they can. Users claim kratom, or Mitragyna speciosa, a tree in the coffee family, is effective at treating chronic pain, as well as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other ailments. The main active ingredients in kratom are mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, which can interact with opioid receptors in the brain. While the data to back up medical use of the plant is scant, users are adamant that it's a lifesaver, allowing them to kick deadly and all-too-commonopioid addictions.
Since late August, more than 140,000 people have signed a petition asking the Obama administration to keep the DEA from banning kratom. On September 13, hundreds marched in front of the White House, hoisting signs that read “Kratom Saved Me” and sharing personal stories of how the drug got them off of opioid pain killers.
Newsweek suspects that attackers took down its site for hours on Thursday in order to bury a story about a company that Donald Trump owned decades ago. The magazine claims that the company secretly did business in Cuba, even though that was illegal at the time.
Newsweek editor-in-chief Jim Impoco told Politico:
We don’t know everything. We’re still investigating. But it was a massive DDoS attack, and it took place in the early evening just as prominent cable news programs were discussing Kurt Eichenwald’s explosive investigation into how Donald Trump’s company broke the law by breaking the United States embargo against Cuba.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack came, the newsmagazine suggests, in response to its cover story, “How Donald Trump’s company violated the United States embargo against Cuba.”
Das BKA will künftig auch Smartphones und Tablets mit einem Trojaner infizieren können. Die aktuelle Version des Bundestrojaners kommt nur mit Windows zurecht. (Trojaner, Skype)
Das BKA will künftig auch Smartphones und Tablets mit einem Trojaner infizieren können. Die aktuelle Version des Bundestrojaners kommt nur mit Windows zurecht. (Trojaner, Skype)
If you haven’t upgraded your WiFi router in a while, now’s as good a time as any to make the move to a model with dual-band 802.11ac capabilities.
Newegg is offering an Asus AC1200 router for $50 (after rebate), which is about half the list price for this model.
Amazon also has a Linksys AC1200 router for a similar price. And if you’re looking for something a little different (and faster), the TP-Link/Google OnHub router is on sale for $155, which is about $45 off the list price.
If you haven’t upgraded your WiFi router in a while, now’s as good a time as any to make the move to a model with dual-band 802.11ac capabilities.
Newegg is offering an Asus AC1200 router for $50 (after rebate), which is about half the list price for this model.
Amazon also has a Linksys AC1200 router for a similar price. And if you’re looking for something a little different (and faster), the TP-Link/Google OnHub router is on sale for $155, which is about $45 off the list price.
Das BKA will künftig auch Smartphones und Tablets mit einem Trojaner infizieren können. Die aktuelle Version des Bundestrojaners kommt nur mit Windows zurecht. (
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