Google is now rolling out a system where Chrome directly tracks your activity and shares its summary with advertisers.

Also Firefox is faster as of like two months ago.

It takes five minutes to switch browsers, and the difference is so little that you'll often forget you did it.

On my phone especially, when I play a audio or video file, it will sometimes cut the audio for the first second or so. I have found online that it's a persistent issue with no fix and the developers haven't done anything about it. Do others have this issue and are there alternative media players I can use that don't have issues?

>Tesla might be dropping Steam support on some new deliveries of Model X, according to a message from the company shared by a Reddit user who is expecting to take delivery of the long-range version of the electric SUV. > >Tesla’s message alerts the customer that the company is “updating the gaming computer” in the Model X and says it’s “no longer capable of playing Steam games.” The message ends with a button for the customer to confirm they will proceed with the delivery. > >There’s no indication that other Tesla models will be affected. And we’re not seeing any signs that the automaker plans to remove Steam from current owners’ vehicles through a software update. However, Tesla’s already seems to be leaning toward dropping Steam support for some other models. > >Steam isn’t available in the Cybertruck, for example, and Tesla hasn’t said whether it plans on bringing the gaming platform to its bestselling Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, despite newer models sporting improved AMD Ryzen processors. The company has already removed some games over the years, including Sonic the Hedgehog. > >Tesla CEO Elon Musk had hyped Steam as a selling point, advertising the new GPU as powerful with the ability to play top-tier games like Cyberpunk 2077. Steam launched in a revised 2022 version of the redesigned Model S and Model X. Initial 2021 models were not installed with sufficient RAM to support the advertised games, so Steam was not included. Musk has said a retrofit would be available, but it’s not free. > >There’s speculation that Tesla might be backtracking on powerful gaming hardware in new Model S and X vehicles. Musk has been busy squeezing the company through hot-headed layoffs in an effort to make the company “absolutely hard core.” Tesla scaled back on what a new low-cost vehicle will look like and is going all in on building a robotaxi, which means games like The Witcher are no longer a priority.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15542273

> >Netflix has managed to annoy a good number of its users with an announcement about an upcoming update to its Windows 11 (and Windows 10) app: support for adverts and live events will be added, but the ability to download content is being taken away. > > >Netflix must realize that it's a huge frustration for people who relied on offline downloads to watch content without internet access: on planes, trains, and campsites, and anywhere else where Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable. > > >There's a small chance that Netflix will change its mind if it gets enough complaints, but the streaming service seems determined to add as many money-making features as possible, while taking away genuinely useful ones.

>Their results suggest that the Marcellus Shale "has the capacity to provide significant lithium yields for the foreseeable future" – as long as fracking continues, that is.

>If scientists can extract even a conservative amount of lithium from fracking wastewater in the state, they calculate it could meet more than 30 percent of the current US demand.

>That sounds really promising, but the potential environmental impact of extracting lithium from fracking wastewater is as yet unexplored, and the wastewater only exists if fracking activity continues.

> There was a time when streamers wooed potential customers with the promise of an ad-free experience. In recent years, however, companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney and more have hiked up their prices and made an ad-supported tier the most affordable option. Now, Netflix is taking the next step towards becoming a de-facto ad tech company by moving its development in-house, according to The Hollywood Reporter. > > Netflix announced the shift during its upfront preview, in which the company also shared that its $7 per month ad-supported tier has 40 million monthly active users. The ad-supported plan is reportedly getting 40 percent of new signups, with it having 15 million users just six months ago, in November. > > The streaming company has relied heavily on Microsoft to reach this success, partnering with the tech giant in 2022 on advertising and sales. But, the training wheels are coming off with Netflix's choice to move things in house, a choice that "will allow us to power the ads plan with the same level of excellence that’s made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today," Netflix ads chief Amy Reinhard said. Microsoft will also no longer be Netflix's sole ad tech partner, as the streamer will start working with companies like Google’s Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk later this summer.

I remember reading about samsung scaling back NAND production as not to depresss the price. I am in the market for a new setup as I move, and I saw that 4tb SATA and m.2 pcie4 were similar price, with the 2280 drives actually being slightly cheaper.

Have we reached the point where the cost of the controller is an afterthought?

what a shocking surprise!

https://archive.is/eO2ZR

• Cars bad
• I try and avoid playing in to the "china-boo" tendency that immerses hexbear, but they kinda keep winning.
• follow up with more features (yeah the first video wasn't done, it has a drone hangar lol): https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLq6fXt7/

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4531294

> Join our Communist Mastodon!

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/robot-dogs-armed-with-ai-targeting-rifles-undergo-us-marines-special-ops-evaluation/

My printer was detected out of the box, and I am overjoyed

Original post: https://hexbear.net/post/2511019

I used my Google phone number but I got banned after 4 hours. I don't want to use my actual phone number.

> I'm proud to announce the launch of the public beta for Clew, my independent web search engine! 🎉🎉🎉 > > Try Clew: https://clew.se \ > Add to your browser: https://clew.se/add/ > > Clew maintains an independent index and is aiming to be a copyleft (APGLv3), self-hostable, privacy-respecting, customizable search engine which prioritizes independent creators/bloggers/writers and penalizes sites with ads and trackers. > > Many features are yet to come. If you'd like to support Clew's development and server costs, you can donate to its Liberapay team: https://liberapay.com/Clew/ > > Boosts are very welcome, as is feedback of any kind!

> Imagine this: you’ve “dated” 600 people in San Fransisco without having typed a word to any of them. Instead, a busy little bot has completed the mindless ‘getting-to-know-you’ chatter on your behalf, and has told you which people you should actually get off the couch to meet.

The memes are becoming real. !omori-manic

Very funny enshitification coming from OpenAI. In exchange for access to real time data, it looks like they're planning to bake in partner ads. Wouldn't be surprised if this becomes just as pay-to-play as Google search.

>Details from the pitch deck

>The Preferred Publisher Program has five primary components, according to the deck.

>First, it is available only to “select, high-quality editorial partners,” and its purpose is to help ChatGPT users more easily discover and engage with publishers’ brands and content.

>Additionally, members of the program receive priority placement and “richer brand expression” in chat conversations, and their content benefits from more prominent link treatments. Finally, through PPP, OpenAI also offers licensed financial terms to publishers.

>The financial incentives participating publishers can expect to receive are grouped into two buckets: guaranteed value and variable value.

>Guaranteed value is a licensing payment that compensates the publisher for allowing OpenAI to access its backlog of data, while variable value is contingent on display success, a metric based on the number of users engaging with linked or displayed content.

>The resulting financial offer would combine the guaranteed and variable values into one payment, which would be structured on an annual basis.

>“The PPP program is more about scraping than training,” said one executive. “OpenAI has presumably already ingested and trained on these publishers’ archival data, but it needs access to contemporary content to answer contemporary queries.”

> Nintendo has apparently had enough of X’s (Twitter’s) API fees. The Mario maker said on Wednesday that starting on June 10, direct integration from the Switch’s image album to Elon Musk’s Nazi-curious platform will no longer work. With Nintendo’s departure, all three major console makers have pulled the plug on native screen-sharing to X. > > X’s official gaming account posted a bizarre, downright Orwellian response that ignores its central role in the Mario maker’s exit. “Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong, and we are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all users,” @xGaming posted at the end of its nonchalantly misleading reply to Nintendo’s announcement. “We will continue collaborating with partners to bring new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community.” > > Ironically, X’s built-in reader context feature filled in the omitted subtext. “This is in direct response to X changing their API,” the user-generated context says. “Specifically, X is charging companies upwards of $40,000 or more per month to access its API. Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox already removed integration with X last year.” > > Wired first reported last year that access to the cheapest Enterprise API plan for The Dumpster Fire Formerly Known As Twitter starts at $42,000 monthly. Higher tiers can allegedly cost $125,000 and $210,000 per month. Microsoft led the charge when it said the Xbox was abandoning Musk’s API plan in April 2023, while Sony held its nose and stuck it out until November. > > The $42,000 (or more) monthly cost may not sound like much to these well-heeled mega-corporations, but apparently, even they have their limits. After all, quick screen-sharing to social channels is a marketing feature from a corporate perspective. If their accountants look at the analytics, weigh them against Musk’s fees and see it isn’t paying off, they’ll do what profit-driven entities do and reduce the overhead. But hey, at least X’s “partnership with Nintendo remains strong.” > >Of course, you can still post Switch screenshots to Musk’s hellscape; it just has extra steps now. You can send Switch album images to your phone wirelessly or transfer them to your PC using a USB cable, and then post them manually. Nintendo says integrated Facebook sharing is still enabled but warns that it could be discontinued later.

> To put a human face on the way technology changes jobs, visit a fried chicken spot called Sansan Chicken in New York City’s East Village. There, the cashier takes your order over Zoom, from over 8,000 miles away in the Philippines. Another worker in the kitchen slides your order through a small window when it’s ready. These workers are employed by a company called Happy Cashier, which contracts them out to a handful of NYC-based restaurants. The big draw of Happy Cashier is that it saves the restaurants money, as the average hourly wage of a cashier in the Philippines is about $1, based on Indeed’s data. Happy Cashier’s “virtual assistants” make $3 per hour, according to the New York Times. > >While video calling isn’t bleeding-edge tech, the Zoom cashier captures what often happens when an industry integrates new tech into its business model: Jobs don’t really disappear, they just shrink, along with their paycheck, and this degradation is presented as the natural outcome of automation and technological progress.