Starting 2023, Nvidia Shield TV users will lose access to a feature that allowed them to stream the games they run on their PC directly to their TVs.
The feature, called Gamestream, allows users to access their favourite games from a GeForce GTX-powered PC directly on a Shield TV or Shield Tablet at 60FPS at up to 4K HDR. Starting mid-February, however, a planned update will begin rolling out to Shield owners that will permanently disable remove the Gamestream feature from Shield devices.
As an alternative, Nvidia is recommending users to migrate over to using Steam Link to stream games from their PC to Shield devices. “Steam Link supports 4K streaming and allows streaming to many devices, including PCs, phones, and tablets. Gamers can also stream PC games from the cloud to their SHIELD TV using NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW service,” wrote Nvidia in a support document.
You’ll need the SteamLink app on your Shield TV and Steam on your PC to stream games.
Mid-February is when the update will reportedly drop. However, if you want to use Gamestream for a little bit longer, you can choose to not update your device. According to Nvidia, if you don’t update, “Gamestream may continue to work for a time, but will no longer be supported and eventually will stop working.”
It is currently unknown why Nvidia decided to end support for Gamestream. Learn more here.
Microsoft has floated the idea of introducing a lower-cost, ad-supported membership for Xbox Game Pass.
In a new survey sent to some Spanish Xbox players, per Windows Central, the tech giant looked to gauge interest in a number of hypothetical less expensive Game Pass subscriptions.
One of the proposed memberships would be to pay a lower fee to get first-party Xbox games as much as six months later, a significant change from Game Pass’ current promise of day-one exclusives. An even cheaper tier could also introduce ads into the service, which would presumably play when a game is launched.
Interestingly, Windows Central notes that Microsoft recently patented a method to show personalized ads in games, which is curious timing considering the new survey.
Given how Game Pass already draws inspiration from the on-demand nature of these streaming services, it’s easy to see how Microsoft might also be looking at how they’ve been handling ads. Of course, it’s important to stress that surveys and patents are not the same as an actual confirmation, so it remains to be seen whether Microsoft will go down this route.
Google’s upcoming Pixel Tablet and ‘Charging Speaker Dock’ showed up for sale on Facebook Marketplace with several pictures showing off the device.
The search giant has given us a few glimpses of the tablet already, but aside from a vague 2023 release timeframe and some other basic details, we still don’t know a ton about the tablet. However, the Pixel Tablet for sale on Facebook Marketplace gives us some more information.
Spotted by leaker’ShrimpApplePro’ on Twitter, images in the Marketplace listing show the Pixel Tablet’s home screen (which looks a lot like the Pixel Launcher with a tablet-friend layout), the settings app with a two-column layout, how the Pixel Tablet looks sitting on the charging dock (like a thick Nest Hub Max) and a close-up of the charging dock itself.
We can see from the image of the Settings screen that the tablet has 256GB of storage and 70 percent battery with an estimated 15 hours and 54 minutes of remaining life. Moreover, 9to5Google was able to make out a USB-C port on the left edge of the tablet in one shot.
As for the charging dock, you can see four metal contacts on it — there are likely four metal contacts on the back of the Pixel Tablet too for connecting it to the dock. 9to5 notes that the charging dock’s port looks similar to the port on the Nest Hub Max, and the pictured power adapter also looks a lot like the one for the Nest Hub Max. It’s possible it could be the same 30W adapter with a barrel connector.
We’ll likely learn more about the Pixel Tablet in the coming weeks, either from continued leaks or possibly a full reveal from Google in the new year. My guess is someone will purchase the tablet from Facebook Marketplace and post more details online, but we’ll see what happens.
Adult entertainment website Pornhub’s official YouTube channel has been taken down.
Pornhub’s official YouTube channel, which had almost 900,000 subscribers, dates back to December 2014, but it was banned last week for reportedly violating YouTube’s policy regarding linking to external websites that host content not allowed on YouTube itself, as reported by Variety.
Searching for the channel now shows no results, while its URL shows a 404 error.
“Upon review, we terminated the channel Pornhub Official following multiple violations of our Community Guidelines,” YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon said in a statement given to Variety. “We enforce our policies equally for everyone, and channels that repeatedly violate or are dedicated to violative content are terminated.”
On the other hand, according to a spokesperson from Montreal-based MindGeek, the adults website’s parent company, “Pornhub maintains the absolute best trust and safety measures on the internet and takes special care to ensure it does not violate any of YouTube’s Community Guidelines.” The spokesperson added, “Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of discrimination against those in the adult industry, a trend seen across social media and all other facets of life, especially as groups disingenuously conflate consensual adult content with exploitation.”
Following the ban, on Friday, anti-pornography group National Center on Sexual Exploitation published a new blog post, where it stated that it had initially flagged some content on Pornhub’s YouTube page that it believed was in direct violation of YouTube’s policies. “After review, YouTube alerted NCOSE that they had terminated the channel for violations of their Community Guidelines.”
This comes soon after TikTok and Instagram banned Pornhub’s accounts citing repeated violations of community guidelines. Learn more here.
The full list of gaming accessories deals can be found here.
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.
Doctors are well known for scribbling hasty prescriptions that are near indecipherable for the average person. However, Google’s working on a solution that could allow Google Lens to detect the medicines listed in a prescription.
Google showed off the feature at its annual conference in India on December 19th (via TechCrunch), saying that it was working with pharmacists to decipher the handwriting of doctors. Once the feature rolls out to Google Lens, users will be able to either take a picture of a doctor’s note or upload one from their photo library. After processing the image, the app will detect and highlight medicines mentioned in the note.
However, Google hasn’t shared details about when the feature will launch, saying only that “much work still remains to be done before this system is ready for the real world.”
Moreover, Google Lens already offers some features for transcribing written notes. However, as noted by The Verge, how well the feature works depends on how legible the handwriting is. Given doctors’ notoriously illegible handwriting, it’ll be interesting to see how well the Lens feature will work, if at all.
Revisiting any kind of media from your childhood as an adult can be a bit risky.
On the one hand, you might come to an even greater appreciation of it, but on the other, you may now realize there were more flaws than you’d remembered. With Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, I find myself falling somewhere in the middle. As a remaster of 2007’s Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, one of my most cherished games from my teenage years, it certainly gets me feeling warm and nostalgic. But it also makes me see that Crisis Core — a prequel to my all-time favourite game, Final Fantasy VII — is definitely rougher around the edges than I’d thought.
The end result is an experience that I overall enjoyed revisiting, especially since it’s been stranded on the PSP, but also definitely view in a different, more complicated light. As a result, my willingness to recommend it to non-VII purists, especially those who were introduced to the mythos through 2020’s incredible VII Remake, comes with a fair number of caveats.
A hero’s (uneven) journey
Before we go further, it should be noted that this Reunion is, fundamentally, the same experience as the original PSP game, despite a litany of visual and gameplay changes. In particular, the story remains exactly the same, outside of a few odd words being changed. For the uninitiated, Crisis Core‘s narrative takes place years before Final Fantasy VII and follows young Shinra SOLDIER Zack Fair as he pursues a rogue SOLDIER named Genesis who has ties to his mentor, Angeal, and iconic VII villain Sephiroth. Zack is also the best friend of VII hero Cloud, so a big part of Crisis Core‘s appeal is learning more about a pivotal character who had very little screentime in the original 1997 classic.
It’s a premise with significant potential, then, but unfortunately, the game doesn’t fully capitalize on it. In particular, the dialogue is oftentimes incredibly stilted, resulting in meaningful character interactions falling flat. Although the original VII has an infamously botched English translation, it was still never less than serviceable. Crisis Core, however, just suffers from some awful writing, period. And because this is a straight remaster, it doesn’t benefit from the extensively revised and genuinely well-written script treatment that was given to Remake.
Genesis, pictured on the screen, is a pretty weak villain, especially compared to Sephiroth.
Some of Crisis Core‘s plot beats are also painfully derivative of VII. Take Genesis, whose villainous turn as an ex-SOLDIER seeking revenge against Shinra is a decidedly less interesting retread of Sephiroth’s story in VII. Making him even blander is his annoying proclivity to recite lines of poetry in literally every single scene; he comes off more as an angsty teenager than a genuinely threatening foe like Sephiroth. The fact that he lacks any real personal connection to Zack only made me more disconnected from him as a character.
But where Crisis Core succeeds, even to this day, is in its portrayal of Zack. As a nice contrast to the stoic and sullen Cloud, Zack is energetic, optimistic and bubbly. Unlike Cloud, he begins his journey naïvely wanting to become a big hero at Shinra, but over the course of the campaign matures enough to question his role in everything, leading him on a path to discover what true heroism really means. There’s a lovely sincerity to this arc that feels even more refreshing in 2022; where many modern stories might be afraid of such joke-free sentimentality, Square Enix fully commits to it in earnest. It makes Zack an extremely likeable and compelling lead and creates a strong emotional investment in his story, especially in the game’s heartwrenching third act. Zack’s a character who I’ve held dear for many years, and I’m overjoyed that his story remains as gripping as ever.
Credit should also be given for how Crisis Core enhances pre-existing elements of VII, like Sephiroth, whose more loyal and caring side in the prequelworks wonders in humanizing him before his inevitable fall from grace. Similarly, the fresh-faced Cloud’s lovable friendship with Zack adds weight to his character development in VII, and the same goes for Aerith and her burgeoning romance with Zack. The game could have benefited from exploring these threads more thoroughly, but what we get is undeniably solid. Crisis Core also fleshes out the world of VII in some novel ways, be that through unpacking the inner workings of Shinra or showing more of the everyday people affected by the company. Thankfully, character- and world-building efforts make up for the more unsavoury elements of the story.
A stunning glow-up
If Crisis Core remains a mixed bag in the narrative department, the remaster graciously makes sweeping improvements in both visuals and gameplay.
With respect to the former, this is easily one of the most impressive graphical remasters I’ve ever seen. Using Unreal Engine 4, Square Enix and co-developer Tose have overhauled every aspect of the visuals to make Crisis Core look like a modern game. All of the character models look much sharper, particularly with their now sleek, shiny and smooth skin and hair, and that attention to detail has also carried over to pretty much everything else. Robot enemies have tons of little scuff marks on them to show wear and tear, particle effects from magic attacks are plentiful and dazzling, and fires and smoke flicker with realistic flair. It’s not quite as gorgeous as Final Fantasy VII Remake, but it’s remarkably close, especially for an upgrade of a nearly 15-year-old game.
That said, the pristine visuals only highlight the more dated elements of the visual presentation. For one, characters still have the same canned animations in several interactions, which can feel repetitive. Worse still is the fact that the PSP game’s once-impressive CG cutscenes haven’t been remastered, resulting in some jarringly blurry cinematics on a 4K TV. These are relatively brief and only happen periodically throughout the roughly 12-hour campaign, but it still would have been nice for them to get some form of enhancement.
Also spotty are the newly recorded voiceovers, which have several of Remake‘s new cast reprise their roles instead of the original PSP actors. This includes Caleb Pearce as Zack, Cody Christian as Cloud, Tyler Hoechlin as Sephiroth and Briana White as Aerith. Admittedly, some of these changes were for the better; Christian and White, in particular, bring a lot of charm to their respective roles. But Pearce often feels miscast as Zack, with his nasally tones coming off as more annoying than anything, especially compared to the character’s original actor, Rick Gomez, who delivered a far better performance all-around. This surely won’t be much of an issue for newcomers, of course, but it’s certainly one for many returning players like me.
“More than a remaster”
Unlike the original FFVII, Crisis Core features real-time combat, allowing Zack to perform basic sword attacks in conjunction with Materia-enabled spells and other abilities. In Reunion, that system has been refined in several key ways to make it feel significantly better across the board. For one, the input limitations of the PSP meant that all of Zack’s commands had to be toggled horizontally with the handheld’s side buttons. Reunion, however, allows you to map your moves to shortcuts, removing that clunkiness and freeing you up to get more into the action.
Reunion also cleans up the Digital Mind Wave (DMW), a roulette-esque mechanic that rolls automatically throughout battles and allows Zack to perform special offensive or stat-boosting ‘Limit Break’ moves depending on whichever character is spun. The idea is that this represents Zack’s mental state and might result in some characters, like Cloud or Sephiroth, being rolled more often depending on recent plot points. It’s a neat storytelling technique that illustrates Zack’s loyalty to his friends through gameplay, although it felt intrusive at times in the original game due to the associated cutscenes (Zack’s memories) that would play and disrupt the flow of combat. DMW moves would also be used automatically, reducing player agency. None of this is a problem in Reunion, as you can choose to skip DMW scenes and bank Limit Breaks to use at will. This adds a new layer of strategy, since you can control when you want to execute, say, Sephiroth’s powerful Octaslash Limit or Aerith’s restorative Healing Wave.
The DMW in the top-left, featuring returning VII characters Tseng, Cloud and Aerith.
Other changes include a new Remake-inspired sword stance for Zack (unlockable in the latter half of the game) that lets him wail on enemies with slower-but-heavier blows, the ability to sprint through maps and increased damage for certain moves after using basic melee attacks to encourage a bit of mix-and-match combos. Even with these changes, Reunion by no means feels as fast, fluid or engaging as Remake, but it’s an understandable shortcoming considering it’s been built on the bones of a PSP game. For what it is, though, Reunion is definitely an entertaining and easy-to-pick-up action-RPG.
In a similar vein, I have to be a bit more forgiving of the game’s environments. While they look exponentially prettier now in Reunion, they’re still woefully linear and generic in terms of actual structure. This is especially true in the game’s many sidequests, which consist of Zack just running through the same bland caves, forests and mountains to hunt monsters. There’s very little in the way of story in these missions, so your only incentive to do them is to receive lucrative new Materia and gear, which play into the addictive Materia Fusion system. Crisis Core‘s portable DNA is most prominent in such environments, as Square Enix clearly intended for these bite-sized missions to be completed on the go. They’re trite, to be sure, but at least they’re optional.
The price of freedom
In the end, Crisis Core Reunion is a bit tricky to recommend. If you’re someone who played and enjoyed the original PSP game, Reunion is a must-play many graphical and mechanical improvements. But those who have only played FFVII Remake should be wary of going into Reunion with the assumption that this isanywhere near the same quality. Still, if wonky writing, relatively simple combat and repetitive side missions aren’t deal-breakers, then Reunion is certainly worth checking out. Above all else, Zack makes for a tremendously endearing protagonist in his own right — not to mention one who’s set to play a key role in Remake‘s two sequels. Regardless of where you’re coming from, Reunion is an excellent and worthwhile remaster of a flawed-but-heartful game.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox consoles, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.
If you’re looking to get into photography over the holidays or know someone that is, there are lots of Nikon deals on Amazon.
One of the best beginner options for video and photos is the Nikon Z fc, which the camera company is selling for $1,768 with a decent 18-140mm lens.
While a little more photography-focused, the Nikon Z 50 is also a decent option for beginners as well. This one comes with a 16-50mm lens and a 50-250mm which is a lot of camera for the low price of $1,549.
MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.
Serial poster and Twitter CEO (although maybe not for much longer) Elon Musk ran a poll on Twitter Sunday night asking if he should step down as head of Twitter. 57.5 percent of the 17,502,391 respondents voted in favour of Musk stepping down.
In the tweet, Musk said he would “abide by the results,” but he has a history of not following through on the things he tweets (examples A, B, and C). After sharing the poll, Musk tweeted, “be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” which seems to be a potentially ominous warning related to the poll. Of course, it’s also worth noting that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety warned that polls could easily be swayed by bots.
This follows a turbulent week for Musk, who launched a banning spree on Twitter targetting journalists and alternate social media platforms, notably Mastodon, an oft-cited potential alternative to Twitter. It started with Musk banning Jack Sweeney and Sweeney’s ElonJet Twitter account that shared details about the flights of Musk’s private jet using publicly available information. Musk previously used Sweeney as an example of his “commitment to free speech,” saying he wouldn’t ban the ElonJet account despite it being a “direct personal safety risk.”
It remains to be seen what, if anything, comes from Musk’s latest Twitter poll. If he follows through, there’s a chance we could see Twitter’s current trajectory improve. But I won’t hold my breath.
You can follow the ongoing sage of Musk and Twitter here.
As we finish out the year, here are some thoughts on the cost of ransomware.
The cost of ransomware keeps growing
In 2018, analysts at Cybersecurity Ventures predicted ransomware damages would grow from US$325 million in 2015 to US$20 billion by the year 2020. Those numbers may have seen astronomical at the time. That same firm is has now updated its forecasts to predict that ransomware attacks will cost a total of US$325 billion by 2031.
Is this just being alarmist? It’s hard to tell, given that the details of many ransomware attacks may go unreported. And frankly, big numbers like this are scary, but are not particularly informative.
Even the “average” cost of a ransomware attack, as reported this year in an IBM report at US$4.54 million, is presumably accurate – IBM does good research – but again, what does that mean?
And what is the real impact? Presumably, some of these companies have ransomware insurance. So how much actual damage is done?
Two examples surfaced in the past week or so that brought this into a real focus. Rackspace, a U.S. hosting company has been battered by an attack that has had severe consequences. Likewise, a Canadian grocery company has also been hit hard by a recent attack. In each case, we can see some of the real impacts – many of which are not covered by ransomware insurance.
Rackspace – a tiny portion of revenue, an enormous cost
TWiR reported last week that Rackspace tried to reassure investors after its email hosting outage with a statement that the revenue from the affected area is less than one per cent of overall company revenue. Further, the company had ransomware insurance.
These statements were not sufficient to keep the company’s share price from plummeting. Despite how little revenue was affected, share prices dropped by 30 per cent.
Last week, the other shoe dropped, as the company is reported to be facing a potential class action suit for “carelessness and linked infringements arising from the email hosting provider’s recent high-profile data breach.”
Empire supermarket chain estimates uninsured cost of recent attack at $25 million
Another company reported losses that cyber insurance would not cover. According to a report on IT World Canada, the company that owns many of Canada’s big name grocery chains is expecting to take a C$25 million charge against its earnings for the uninsured portion of the costs of a recent attack.
Empire, which owns the Sobeys, IGA and FreshCo chains (among others) certainly can absorb the cost, but in a world where missing your earnings targets can have serious impacts on share prices, this is a considerable expense to take.
What would the cost be for your company?
There’s an old saying that a recession is where your neighbour loses their job. A depression is when you lose your job. Likewise, the real costs of ransomware are not totally in the macro numbers. There is an overall story in terms of lost value and funds that presumably could be reinvested in economic expansion and wealth creation, or simply passed to investors, consumers, employees, and governments. These are real losses.
But the real story may lie in the individual companies and the impacts on their customers and stakeholders.
Empire will survive and take a modest hit. Rackspace will undoubtedly recover, but damage has been done. But many companies might not be so well placed. We talked to a private company over a year ago who frankly admitted that they came perilously close to closing their business when they were hit by ransomware. This, and many other stories like it, simply go unreported. But the damage is real.
As we approach the new year, it is worth asking – what is it that we can collectively and individually do to, if not end, at least better mitigate these costs?
I’d love to hear what you think as we move into the new year. Write me at jlove@itwc.ca or just click the checkmark or X and send me a note.