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  A scene from Forza Horizon 5 on xCloud as seen with a Windows User-Agent string...

Microsoft's xCloud game streaming appears to dip to a lower visual quality setting when running on Linux. The apparent downgrade across operating systems was noted by a Reddit user over the holiday weekend and confirmed in Ars' testing this morning.

To compare how xCloud handles a Linux machine vs. a Windows machine, an Edge extension was used during testing to force the browser's User-Agent string to present itself as a Linux browser:

• Windows User-Agent tested: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.5060.66 Safari/537.36 Edg/103.0.1264.44
• Linux User-Agent tested: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/102.0.5005.27 Safari/537.36 Edg/102.0.1245.7

Tests were conducted on the latest version of Microsoft Edge (Version 103.0.1264.44, 64-bit) running on a Windows 10 PC. All tests were run on a wired Internet connection registering download speeds of 120 Mbps and ~9 ms latency, according to spot tests at Fast.com.

In this excerpt from her upcoming book, writer and historian Alyse Knorr talks about some of the design decisions that made Goldeneye 007 stand out from other '90s first-person shooters, and why that design endures to this day. The book is currently looking for backers on Kickstarter.

When [game designer David] Doak first joined the team at the end of 1995, GoldenEye’s levels were just barebones architecture—no objectives, enemies, or plot. After designing the watch menu, he and [game designer Duncan] Botwood started creating a single-player campaign that followed and expanded upon GoldenEye the movie’s narrative—a difficult task, considering the fact that the film’s dialogue about Lienz Cossack traitors and Kyrgyz missile tests went over the heads of quite a few 12-year-olds. Doak and Botwood’s job was to tell this complicated story using rudimentary pre- and post-mission cutscenes, pre-mission briefing paperwork, in-game conversations with NPCs, and mission objectives, which proved the most powerful way to allow players to experience the story themselves.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

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Following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, advocates for privacy and reproductive health have expressed fears that data from period-tracking apps could be used to find people who’ve had abortions.

They have a point. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA, does not apply to most apps that track menstrual cycles, just as it doesn’t apply to many health care apps and at-home test kits.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Jeffrey Coolidge)

An Ohio man created a fake broadband provider in order to scam low-income consumers who thought they were getting government-funded discounts on Internet service and devices, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture released Friday, the FCC proposed a fine of $220,210 against alleged scammer Kyle Traxler.

Traxler created an entity called Cleo Communications that sought authorization to be a provider in the FCC's Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program, which provided $50 monthly discounts on Internet service and discounts for devices. "Cleo apparently existed for the sole purpose of taking financial advantage of customers under the disguise of being a legitimate EBB Program provider," the FCC notice said. "Cleo Communications has had no business activity outside of the EBB Program and no other business purpose."

The FCC began investigating after receiving complaints from consumers in at least eight states who ordered devices and/or "hotspot service." In some cases, consumers said that Cleo threatened to sue them after they asked for refunds for items and service they didn't receive.

Enlarge / The new film Clerks III appears to be a joint production. (credit: Lionsgate)

After years of development, the snootchiest of '90s bootchies will finally return to theaters this September. Writer and director Kevin Smith unveiled the first look at Clerks III on Wednesday via a two-minute trailer, though you'll have to look at some fine print to figure out exactly when and where you might get to watch this feature-length film.

The core cast featured in 2006's Clerks II returns to modern-day New Jersey, once again relegated to a building that houses both a convenience store and a video rental shop. The latter has adapted to a modern video-streaming world, at least, with a massive "THC" indicator poorly taped over the original sign—and longtime series jesters Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) seem fine hanging out in front of this adjusted storefront for some reason. But time hasn't been kind to Randal (Jeff Anderson), as the trailer shows him suffering a heart attack and questioning a life spent watching movies all day.

“What am I, a hack?”

A serious health scare puts a jolt in Dante's and Randal's lives. (credit: Lionsgate)

"I always thought you could've made a cool movie," his longtime pal Dante (Brian O'Halloran) points out in an emergency room. The duo then spends the rest of the trailer trying to produce a film inside of the adjacent shops they work at, apparently assisted by a new-to-the-series pair of goths. These two new youngsters ask what the movie's about, only to be told, "It's about him working here." One goth replies flatly, "Meta."

Enlarge (credit: royyimzy | iStock / Getty Images Plus)

Censoring peaceful protesters isn’t the only reason governments have deliberately shut down the Internet in 2022, but researchers say it is the primary objective and is costing the most to the global economy.

According to a report from Top10VPN, the cost of government-ordered Internet shutdowns in 2022 has cost the global economy more than $10 billion. That figure nearly doubles 2021 costs, and it’s only halfway through the year.

At a cost of $8.77 billion, the biggest drain on the global economy is Russia. That country’s ongoing social media blackouts began shortly after the Ukraine invasion and are designed to limit peaceful protest and press freedoms by preventing access to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best deals from around the web includes a handful of early discounts Amazon has set live ahead of its annual Prime Day promotion, which is scheduled to begin next week.

This is still Prime Day, so several of the early deals Amazon offers aren't exactly winners: There are various discounts on middling TVs and less-recommended Amazon devices like the Halo View fitness tracker or Fire TV Cube media streamer. The pickings should improve during Prime Day proper, and as usual the Dealmaster will be sorting through the junk to help you find what's good next week.

That said, we are seeing a few deals of note at the moment, including the lowest prices we've tracked for the diminutive Echo Show 5 smart display (which is down to $35), the Kindle Kids e-reader—which, at $50, is a good value for those who don't want to pay up for the superior Kindle Paperwhite (which isn't discounted yet)—and the Echo and Echo Dot smart speakers, which are down to $60 and $20, respectively. (Just be completely sure you're willing to accept the myriad privacy and security risks with the latter two.) The extended Audible Premium Plus trial we noted last week, which gives new subscribers three months of service for no extra cost, is still available as well. There are a couple other deals of note that we've highlighted below; remember that you'll need to be a Prime member to take advantage.

Enlarge / A row of Tesla EVs charging at one of the company's Supercharger fast charging locations. (credit: Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

These days Tesla gets a lot of flak, but sometimes it does great things. In 2008, it launched the Tesla Roadster—the first-ever serial production lithium-ion battery car. Unlike previous electric cars, the Roadster was fast, sexy, and luxurious. Since its release, over 12 million electric cars have been sold worldwide, with Tesla contributing over 1 million to that number.

But what if Tesla never existed or never sparked the electric car revolution—would we have millions of electric cars on the road today? Of course, the electric car revolution would have happened eventually. But it was only two years before the Roadster’s release that the death of the electric car was being lamented in the infamous documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? If the big automakers really did kill the electric car, as the documentary suggests, then Tesla surely revived it.

That’s great news for Earth’s future inhabitants. Taking action to reduce the harms of climate change, by buying an electric car, for instance, is an urgent matter. Just last year, a study from Nature Communications estimated that "adding 4,434 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020—equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 3.5 average Americans—causes one excess death globally in expectation between 2020-2100."