Month: November 2022

Enlarge / A still from Stranger Things, one of Netflix's biggest shows. (credit: Netflix)

Today, Netflix launched "Basic with Ads," its previously announced ad-supported subscription tier, in the US and several other countries. At $6.99 monthly, it's the cheapest Netflix subscription option, but it comes with some notable compromises.

The countries to get Basic with Ads today include the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Brazil; it first launched two days ago in Canada and Mexico.

Subscribers to Basic with Ads will see up to five minutes of ads per hour, including ads that play before episodes and some that play in the middle of them—the industry calls these "pre-roll" and "midroll" ads, respectively. Netflix says certain movies will only have pre-roll ads.

Enlarge / Companies like Nanoleaf have products coming soon with Matter support, but your ability to actually integrate them into any system, using any phone, is still a hazy promise.

It's not too often that there's an international launch event for an interoperability standard with a nearly 900-page spec manual. But there are big hopes pinned to Matter, an industry-wide effort to make smart home devices easier to shop for and set up without compatibility concerns.

Companies brought their Matter-ready devices to Amsterdam overnight for the Connectivity Standards Alliance's (CSA) Matter Launch Event. The CSA states that 190 devices have been certified for Matter since the standard was finalized in early October. Those devices include motion blinds, smart plugs, HVAC controls, door locks, lighting, hubs and gateways, and certain kinds of sensors. More device categories, including vacuums, cameras, and large appliances, are due next.

There were charts with smart home growth projections, talk from executives about what Matter means for the future of everything, and lots more light revelry and broad pontification. We'll focus here on what this actually means, in the short-term, for people who might be aiming to upgrade their home setup—or avoid doing so at all costs.

Enlarge / Just bear with me for a second, Kratos...

It's been four years now since Sony reimagined the remorseless god of war Kratos as a meme-worthy single father struggling to connect with his son. A few years have also passed between the events of that game and those of God of War: Ragnarök, a less focused game that still serves as a worthy sequel that slots easily into the same groove as that reboot.

In Ragnarök, the young and eager Atreus of the last God of War has been replaced with a headstrong pre-teen who is constantly pushing against his father’s headstrong attitudes. As the title implies, father and son both find themselves struggling through the realm-scarring Fimbulwinter, a prelude to the world-ending battle of Ragnarök.

Yet even the prospect of the end of the world isn't enough to re-ignite Kratos' lust for war. He's eager to avoid the battle, seeing that as the best way to fulfill his monomaniacal desire to protect his son at all costs. Atreus, meanwhile, sees his dad as too cautious and struggles to convince Kratos to trust his more active (and risky) plans to avoid an outcome that is literally fated.

Enlarge (credit: Google)

It has been almost three years since Chromebook users got word that Steam support is coming to ChromeOS. We're still not totally there yet, but today Google announced that it's ready to enter beta testing.

In a blog post, Zach Alcorn, Google product manager, announced that Steam on Chromebooks is available as a beta with ChromeOS 108.0.5359.24 and later. Steam on ChromeOS entered alpha in March, and Alcorn said the updates announced today are based on "thousands of gameplay reports."

AMD support

The Steam on ChromeOS alpha required not just an Intel CPU, but also an Intel 11th-gen Core i5 chip with Intel's Iris Xe graphics. The beta supports Intel's latest 12th-gen chips and extends support to Team Red. Alcorn said the beta supports AMD's Ryzen 5000 C-Series CPUs.