Month: January 2024

Enlarge / JANUARY 13: NFL Wild Card signage on field prior to an NFL Super Wild Card Weekend playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 13, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri. (credit: Kara Durrette/Getty Images)

The NFL playoffs started this past weekend, and with it came the first streaming-only playoff game. Usually, premium NFL games like the playoffs are on one of the major TV networks nationwide, but the Dolphin/Chiefs wildcard game was exclusively available on Comcast/NBC's Peacock streaming service outside. NFL fans weren't particularly happy about having to sign up for some random streaming service to watch a playoff game, but that didn't stop many people from actually signing up, with Nielsen logging 23 million average streaming viewers for the game.

NBC says that 23 million viewers make the game "the most streamed event ever in US history" and "a milestone moment in media and sports history." Nationally, the game was exclusively on Peacock, but local TV broadcasts were still available in the Miami and Kansas City metro areas, so 27.6 million people watched the game. The NFL hasn't announced the ratings for the other playoff games yet, but last year, the wildcard round averaged 28.4 million viewers per game, so this got in range of that. On paper, this was one of the better games of the weekend, featuring the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the high-flying Dolphins' offense, and it was in prime time, so with a traditional broadcast, this was probably due for above-average ratings. Peacock exclusivity reduced the audience somewhat, but it still attained NFL-class numbers.

Surprisingly, Peacock managed to survive pretty well. There aren't widespread reports out there of major problems. Previously, the service had an exclusive regular-season game, a Bills-Chargers week 16 matchup on December 23 that drew 7.2 million viewers. That game helped work out the growing pains for Peacock, with users complaining of poor streaming quality and muted colors.

Enlarge / A Verizon store in New York on July 3, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Verizon Wireless customers may get up to $100 each as part of a $100 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over Verizon's monthly "Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge."

But as is typical in class-action settlements, Verizon isn't admitting any wrongdoing. It also plans to keep charging the monthly fee and says it may raise it in the future.

Settlement notification emails with unique codes for submitting claims have been going out to eligible Verizon customers over the past week. The emails were still being distributed as of last night, so you might still be in line for a payout even if you haven't received one yet. Postcard notices are also being sent.

Enlarge / A Verizon store in New York on July 3, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Verizon Wireless customers may get up to $100 each as part of a $100 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over Verizon's monthly "Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge."

But as is typical in class-action settlements, Verizon isn't admitting any wrongdoing. It also plans to keep charging the monthly fee and says it may raise it in the future.

Settlement notification emails with unique codes for submitting claims have been going out to eligible Verizon customers over the past week. The emails were still being distributed as of last night, so you might still be in line for a payout even if you haven't received one yet. Postcard notices are also being sent.

Enlarge (credit: Future Publishing | Getty Images)

YouTube appeared to be continuing its war on ad blockers, with users complaining that the company was slowing down the site for users it catches running an ad blocker. 9to5Google spotted this Reddit thread filled with users seeing poor loading performance with ad blockers enabled.

A video at the top of the Reddit post shows what some users are seeing: A video with an ad blocker on can't load quickly enough to keep up with the playback speed (which isn't on normal; it's maybe 2x) and has to pause at around 30 seconds. Turning off the ad blocker immediately improves loading performance, with the white line on YouTube's progress bar showing significantly more buffering runway. Users report that the ad-block detection causes strange issues, like "lag" that makes full screen or comments not work or Chrome being unable to load other webpages while YouTube is open.

YouTube has used all sorts of tactics to get people to turn off ad blockers and subscribe to YouTube Premium. The company previously has been showing pop-up messages saying ad blockers violate YouTube terms of service. Earlier, the company was caught adding a five-second delay to the initial site load for ad blockers. The changes have kicked off a cat-and-mouse game between Google/YouTube and the ad blocker community.

Enlarge (credit: Future Publishing | Getty Images)

YouTube is continuing its war on ad blockers. This time, the company is apparently slowing down the site for users it catches running an ad blocker. 9to5Google spotted this Reddit thread filled with users seeing poor loading performance with ad blockers enabled.

A video at the top of the Reddit post shows what some users are seeing: A video with an ad blocker on can't load quickly enough to keep up with the playback speed (which isn't on normal; it's maybe 2x) and has to pause at around 30 seconds. Turning off the ad blocker immediately improves loading performance, with the white line on YouTube's progress bar showing significantly more buffering runway. Users report that the ad-block detection causes strange issues, like "lag" that makes full screen or comments not work or Chrome being unable to load other webpages while YouTube is open.

YouTube has used all sorts of tactics to get people to turn off ad blockers and subscribe to YouTube Premium. The company previously has been showing pop-up messages saying ad blockers violate YouTube terms of service. Earlier, the company was caught adding a five-second delay to the initial site load for ad blockers. The changes have kicked off a cat-and-mouse game between Google/YouTube and the ad blocker community.

Enlarge / Meta has a verified program for users of Facebook and Instagram. (credit: Getty Images | Chesnot )

The trouble began three days before Christmas. When my sister-in-law Amy tried to log in to her Instagram account shortly before midnight, she was notified that an unauthorized user had tried to access her account. Instagram suggested that she change her password. Wanting to protect the security on her account—an important tool for her successful photography business—Amy did so.

She then tried to log in with her new password but first needed to enter a code to confirm her identity. The code had just been sent to the phone number on her account—a phone number once belonging to her ex-husband but now disconnected.

This was going to be a problem.

Enlarge / Meta has a verified program for users of Facebook and Instagram. (credit: Getty Images | Chesnot )

The trouble began three days before Christmas. When my sister-in-law Amy tried to log in to her Instagram account shortly before midnight, she was notified that an unauthorized user had tried to access her account. Instagram suggested that she change her password. Wanting to protect the security on her account—an important tool for her successful photography business—Amy did so.

She then tried to log in with her new password but first needed to enter a code to confirm her identity. The code had just been sent to the phone number on her account—a phone number once belonging to her ex-husband but now disconnected.

This was going to be a problem.

Enlarge / An Nvidia H100 graphics processor chip.

China is still finding ways to skirt US export controls on Nvidia chips, Reuters reported.

A Reuters review of publicly available tender documents showed that last year dozens of entities—including "Chinese military bodies, state-run artificial intelligence research institutes, and universities"—managed to buy "small batches" of restricted Nvidia chips.

The US has been attempting to block China from accessing advanced chips needed to achieve AI breakthroughs and advance modern military technologies since September 2022, citing national security risks.