When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note10, it also introduced a new game streaming platform called PlayGalaxy Link albeit with very little by way of concrete information. We learned soon after that it would be launching in September, and so it's come to pass. The Playgalaxay.com site is now live and the Android app is available for download.
According to the site, Play Galaxy Link allows you to connect to your PC over WiFi or mobile data and stream your library of games on Samsung your phone or tablet. As you'd expect, the service supports third-party Bluetooth controllers, mice, and keyboard, and the site once again points you to the recommended Glap controller peripheral that your Galaxy phone can fit inside. On-screen controls are also supported, but let's be honest, they're entirely inferior.
When you register a Windows 10 PC with the app and are using a LAN connection, you'll even be able to wake it via Play Galaxy Link. It's completely free of charge, and assuming you have the games on your PC already, the app will discover them and auto-populate with a list. You can do this manually too, in case it misses some out.
PC requirements:
OS: Windows 10 GPU: NVIDIA GPU NVIDIA GTX 1060 or higher, AMD Radeon RX 550 or higher CPU: Intel Core i5 or higher Memory: DDR4 8G AP: Gigabit router
Play Galaxy Link is still in beta for now, and it's only available in the US and Korea to begin with. You can download the Windows app from the link below, and the Android app can be downloaded from APK Mirror (below) or via the Galaxy Store on your phone. It's restricted to the Galaxy Note10 and 10+ at the moment, but more devices and regions will be added in the near future.
Support for the S10 series
The latest version of the PlayGalaxy Link app has a small pile of fixes and tweaks, like improved right-click support and a dedicated site for error codes. But the most substantial change in the new v1.0.5 update is device support: PlayGalaxy Link now works with the Galaxy S10 series, including the S10, S10 Plus, S10e, and S10 5G.
Interested S10 owners can download this latest update via Samsung's Galaxy Store app on supported devices, or over at APK Mirror.
Support for more phones on the way
Samsung now says that the Galaxy Fold, S9, Note9, and A90 will be supported by PlayGalaxy Link in early December 2019.
Support for the Galaxy Fold, S9, Note9, A90
v1.07 of PlayGalaxy Link has brought support for the Galaxy Fold, S9, Note9, and A90. You can now unlock your PC lockscreen from your phone as well.
Look, we’re going to cut right to the chase on this one because there’s a very good chance it’s a big mistake. As with all mistakes like this, Amazon will honor the price if you get in on the action before it’s fixed. In this particular case, a $30 on-site coupon you can clip slashes the Nintendo Switch with Gray Joy-Con to $269.99, and then the promo code D3E2CDJ6GB6S gets you another $30 credit.
That effectively drops the price of the Switch to $239.99, which is completely unheard of. One of two things are about to happen: either Amazon will fix the mistake and one of those $30 promotions will disappear, or the Switch will sell out within an hour or two. Either way… HURRY!
Play your way with the Nintendo Switch gaming system. Whether you’re at home or on the go, solo or with friends, the Nintendo Switch system is designed to fit your life. Dock your Nintendo Switch to enjoy HD gaming on your TV. Heading out? Just undock your console and keep playing in handheld mode
This model includes battery life of approximately 4.5 to 9 hours
The battery life will depend on the games you play. For instance, the battery will last approximately 5.5 hours for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (games sold separately)
Model number HAC 001(01)
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Former NASA engineer Mark Rober made waves on the world-wide-web last year when he designed a revenge bait package (or Glitter Bomb Trap) to record would-be thieves stealing deliveries off of home porches.
His first model, which was inspired by Rober's childhood hero Kevin McCallister, Macauley Culkin's character in the wildly successful hit comedy Home Alone, garnered more than 77 million views since December 2018.
After ten months of tinkering and modifications, Rober is back with a new and improved device and video, with the help of his assistant/friend Sean and Culkin himself.
Scroll down to video
Guest star: Macaulay Culkin stars in the new revenge bait package video made by former NASA engineer Mark Rober, in order to humiliate and catch porch thieves on camera
The new video begins with footage of one of the culprits getting a taste of the device's flying glitter and disgusting fart spray that were firmly placed inside the package along with a circuit board, four video phones and GPS.
Rober then explains that he got idea of a revenge bait package after his home security camera captured someone stealing a delivery off his porch 18-months ago. He went to the police with the footage but, according to Rober, they said it simply wasn't worth the time to follow up.
It's at this point that Culkin opens the door of Rober's garage and makes his grand arrival, which leads to the engineer doing his best Kevin McCallister impersonation, of his hands on his face, made famous in the Home Alone movies.
The seed: Rober got idea of a revenge bait package after his home security camera captured someone stealing a delivery off his porch 18-months ago
Legendary: : Culkin, 39, appeared in the new video, in -part, because his Home Alone character Kevin McCallister was the inspiration for Rober's invention
Iconic: Culkin's character in Home Alone was the king of make-shift inventions
The new Glitter Bomb version has many of the same features as its predecessor but this go-around it's dressed up to look like a pair of high-end Bose headphones.
Rober also added smellier fart spray that shoots out five sprays every 30 seconds until the thief throw the package away. Culkin was one of the 10 volunteers that did a test run to confirm that it was in fact more disgusting than the previous model.
And Culkin and the rest all agreed it was much worse.
There's also a healthy dose of biodegradable glitter put in a round motor at the top of the device that shoots it out of the box, all over the thief. That will increase the chances that Rober will be able to retrieve the device once discarded.
Culkin helped with some of the improvements to last's years revenge bait package
New and imporved: The device, which is dressed up and packaged as Bose headphones, has four cameras to record thieves, a cup at the top that sprays biodegradable glitter, two cans of disgusting fart spray and sound effects
Just in case he doesn't get his device back, the gadget wizard installed a data chip that uploads the video footage to the Cloud so he can still see the footage of the thieves.
He also installed sound effects this year: a voice that makes a dramatic numeric count down, followed by some fake police chatter.
Once the fake package was all sealed, Rober added a phony shipping label that had the actual address of the Illinois home where they filmed the Home Alone movie.
Demo: Culkin put his acting skills on display to show how thieves steal the package off of porches, especially during the holiday season
Nasty: The actor was all-too-disgusted when he sampled the new and improved fart spray
Putting Culkin's skills to use, the actor donned a fake mustache and hoodie to show how people walk up to porches and steal packages, especially around the holidays.
In the follow up clips he demonstrates how a GSP signal, that alerts the four phones inside, begins recording once the package has been moved.
Moments later, the glitter sprays out and the fart smell is put into motion, which Rober called karmic justice.
In the end they dropped off 10 of these bait packages on suburban porches all across the US, all while Rober monitored their location, battery phone levels and camera feeds.
Busted! The four cameras inside the package start recording when thieves take off the box
Panicked: The device startles thieves with the spraying glitter, fart smell and sound effect of a numeric countdown and police chatter
The bait package got stolen a number of times, and the thieves’ reactions were all caught on video.
For an added touch of entertainment this year, Rober showcased some of the good Samaritans in the world by placing a few boxes near community mailboxes with real addresses. Anyone who picked up the package, without opening it, and brought it to that real address were awarded $400.
The new video has already made a splash: getting more than 4.3 million views on YouTube in the first half a day of its release.
Making waves! The new video has already made a splash: getting more than 4.3 million views on YouTube in the first half a day of its release
Mark Rober spent nearly a year designing a new and improved version of his "Home Alone"-inspired revenge trap in a bid to catch some of the numerous doorstep thieves who continue to dog the U.S. postal system by stealing packages from outside shoppers' homes.
In a video uploaded Sunday to his YouTube channel entitled "Porch Pirate vs. Glitter Bomb Trap 2.0," Rober describes how a heightened use of glitter — this time, biodegradable — and extra offensive stink spray, improve on his original "ratsnest" design. The newly improved version has additional features including a countdown voice and fake police chatter.
The video even features a guest cameo from original holiday prankster, Home Alone's Macaulay Culkin.
Rober said the update provides "relatively harmless karmic justice" for some of the estimated 1.7 million delivery packages that either get stolen or go missing every day.
The former-engineer, who helped design the U.S. space agency's Curiosity Rover, was originally driven to invent the device in 2018 after a $5 delivery was stolen from his doorstep.
He spent the next six months tinkering to come up with an elaborate and amusing mechanism which combines GPS tracking, cameras, fart spray and glitter inside a discrete electronics delivery box.
The trap works by setting off a can of "fart spray" and triggering a glitter explosion on would-be thieves when the device is taken from a doorstep and the lid removed. The comic process is tracked and recorded by devices inside the box and immediately uploaded to the cloud.
Following the online praise for last year's video, Rober this year enlisted the help of his some 9 million subscribers to try the new device.
Rober said he received 400 responses from applicants who themselves have dealt with package thefts in the past, and a handful of them were chosen to deploy the trap.
Among the respondents was one bad actor, Rober noted, who took the device for his own. He was swiftly avenged with a Scientology subscription and an influx of cringeworthy postcards, Rober said.
However, the viral star said the experiment also helped restore his faith in human nature, with several good-hearted passersby going to great lengths to return the stray parcel to its rightful owner. They were swiftly rewarded with $400 for their "opportunity cost," he said.
I’m trying out a new
Amazon
-branded oven that’s designed to be easy to operate with simple Alexa voice commands.
While in many ways it is easy, and it can do some impressive things, it exemplifies the problems we encounter when we try to control too much with our voices. Does anybody know the temperature at which they microwave oatmeal? Or even that microwaves had temperature settings?
The oven does a lot—it is also a convection oven and an air fryer—but when I said “cook salmon,” Alexa asked how much. I said a pound and was informed I can only cook “0.063 to 0.37 pound of salmon.” And while I can easily turn ON the convection oven with my voice, I can’t turn OFF the convection oven with my voice. (The oven itself doesn’t talk; you command it using a nearby Alexa-powered speaker.)
The Amazon-branded smart oven I tested exemplified many of the problems we run into when trying to conquer new tasks with a voice assistant.
Photo:
Amazon
Amazon says that many of the issues I encountered are being fixed in background updates, but it’ll be a long time before conversations with voice assistants are wrinkle-free. It’s almost like practicing a foreign language before a trip: You memorize certain phrases, but when you’ve used them up, you raise your voice and start gesticulating wildly.
I’ve replaced many light switches with Wi-Fi-powered ones; other lamps have connected bulbs. I have a talking speaker in many rooms, including bathrooms, and yes, the Christmas tree lights are connected to a smart plug. My family members all yell out commands to Alexa, and for the most part she obeys. But we keep it straightforward: Play this song, turn off these lights, set some timer or alarm.
The same can be said for how we interact with Siri on our
Apple
devices, or with the
Google
Assistant on the Nest Hub Max in our kitchen.
“Voice is at its best when you are able to do something quickly, in the flow of whatever you are doing,”
Ahmed Bouzid,
chief executive of the voice-first software developer Witlingo and a former Alexa product head at Amazon, said in an email. The best interfaces should require less effort than the commands they are replacing.
In the case of Amazon’s smart oven, Mr. Bouzid says he’s skeptical: If you’re cooking, you’re near your oven anyway and you generally don’t try to do other things while cooking—so you might as well push the button.
The counterargument, from
Daniel Rausch,
Amazon’s vice president of smart home, is that the oven has so many capabilities, no other interface can hold them: “If you tried to draw a chart of all the capabilities of those devices and wanted to put each on a button, you’d need a roadside billboard-size panel for buttons,” he said.
So is that what voice assistants are meant to do, replace switches and search boxes? The companies behind these interfaces are constantly adding features to their assistants, some surprisingly revolutionary. There is a lot you can do now if you work at it. But due to a combination of factors, including privacy considerations, it still feels like we’re in a rut.
Talking Back
Routines are a way to combine various actions into one string, so that a simple voice command like “I’m home” shuts off alarms, turns on lights, adjusts thermostats and maybe kicks on some smooth jazz.
In theory, this is cool; in practice, it’s annoying—because to set it up you have to sit there and think about all of the things you want to happen at once, and how to make it all happen.
Now, apps that control these interfaces provide suggestions—often based on your own actions.
Apple’s version of this comes when you download an app called Shortcuts. It isn’t the easiest app to use, but if you open it and tap Gallery, then look at Shortcuts from Your Apps, you might find something useful. At night, I normally set three alarms—”Wake Up,” “School Bus Pickup” and “Train.” Now, I can just say “Morning Alarms,” and they are set for me.
But routines only solve the problem of too many buttons to push. Developers are also making these interfaces more conversational, allowing for follow-up questions. Maybe you say, “Turn on the porch lights,” and that happens, then your assistant might suggest, “Do you want to turn on the patio lights, too?” Because that would make sense.
While both Amazon and Google do suggest actions, Amazon’s “hunches” take it further: When you ask for the porch lights, it might say, “Do you also want me to play smooth jazz?” The question would be based around your (possibly unconscious) behavior: Often, when you turn on porch lights, you also fire up the smooth jazz.
You can see a new app icon on your smartphone, but you can’t really see what’s new with voice assistants and home speakers like Google’s Home Mini.
Photo:
Google
Both Amazon and Google also allow you to momentarily do without a wake word. By enabling Follow-Up in the Alexa app and Continued Conversation in the Google Home app, you can wake your assistant, then keep asking questions without repeating the wake word. It also retains some of the context: “Alexa, what day is Christmas?” Then, after it answers, you say, “What about Easter?”
Apple’s Siri does this in different contexts. The AirPods Pro now have an Announce Message feature, which reads messages and allows you to respond in a conversational way.
Walmart’s
grocery-delivery app for iOS leverages Siri along with your shopping history, so you can more easily pick out items with just your voice, without memorizing key phrases.
Personalization and Privacy
What’s really needed is a tighter bond between human and disembodied voice, analysts that I spoke to said. Personalization means recognizing who is talking and remembering their preferences. But that requires data collection, and lately we’ve grown more conscious of that.
“Privacy is in the forefront of consumers’ minds. Companies like Apple have done a lot of work on improving it,”
Simon Forrest,
principal analyst at Futuresource Consulting, Ltd., said. It has become more possible for devices to hold information on the device and recognize a particular voice when it requests a particular movie, for instance.
The Alexa app provides a separate smart-home device history that you can purge. Google also says it allows you to review and delete your history.
Screen-equipped speaker devices that Amazon.com and Google sell—like Google’s Nest Hub Max—offer loads of suggestions, but that hasn’t been quite enough to train people to use them more.
Photo:
Google
“We are across the board thinking how we can have as little data as possible while still improving the product for users,” said
Lilian Rincon,
senior director of product for Google Assistant. For now, for quality reasons, most of what Google Assistant does requires the cloud, she said. However, “we have a desire to put more things on device.”
Google’s Pixel 4 phone is a remarkable example of this, as my colleague Joanna Stern demonstrated earlier this year. It can transcribe speech to text in real time using nothing but the silicon inside the phone. The iPhone 11 is also doing more without the cloud, such as rendering Siri’s new voice, and even older iPhones use on-device processing to monitor your behavior and suggest actions based on it.
Discover Me
So why, with all this evolution, are we still mostly just setting timers and asking for tunes? Unlike a new icon in your favorite app, you can’t really see what’s new with voice assistants. The Alexa, Google Home and Siri Shortcuts apps offer loads of suggestions, as do the screen-equipped speaker devices that Amazon and Google sell. But it really hasn’t been enough to train people up.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What are the things you do most with your voice assistant? What do you wish you could do with it? Join the conversation below.
“One of the biggest problems we continue to have is the problem of discovery, especially for speakers—letting you know what it is you can do,” Ms. Rincon said.
Amazon’s Mr. Rausch also acknowledged the discoverability problem, using
Jeff Bezos
’ famous phrase: “It’s day one at Amazon, definitely for Alexa and AI.”
So what does day two—or day 12—look like? Futuresource’s Mr. Forrest says even a voice-first interface might incorporate technologies like gesture control and haptic feedback, like the tap of an Apple Watch on your wrist. He sees “hearables,” aka supersmart AirPods, as a likely voice-first success.
Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to talk this smart oven into cooking more than 0.37 pound of salmon.
The Xbox Series X is going to be twice as powerful vs the best Xbox One and PS4 consoles that are currently available.
And this means that Microsoft has clearly drawn the line when it comes to the specs Sony’s PS5 will need to match.
To be clear, Xbox Series X is going to be massively more powerful GPU wise than the base Xbox One and PS4 consoles.
It will also outmatch the most powerful console available on the market right now, the Xbox One X.
According to Microsoft, the Xbox Series X will have a GPU that boasts twice the power of an Xbox One X.
And when it comes to processing power, using those stats, the Xbox Series X is going to have 12 teraFLOPs to pull from.
So in the Xbox Series X vs Xbox One and PS4, Microsoft’s next console is going to rule the roost.
And who would expect otherwise? It’s hardly surprising that two old consoles, released back in 2013, are now thoroughly obsolete.
The difference here is that Microsoft seems to have learnt from the past and are focusing on the nerdy stuff that gets gamers hot under the collar.
“We will also remove the technical barriers faced in previous generations and enable developers to create more expansive, immersive gaming worlds that invite more players to play,” a message from Microsoft confirms.
“From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with the possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability.
“Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware-accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console.
“Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.
“We are minimizing latency by leveraging technology such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and giving developers new functionality like Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) to make Xbox Series X the most responsive console ever.”
So what about the upcoming console war with Sony’s PS5? How will the Xbox Series X stack up with that rival?
Sadly, Sony has yet to reveal its PlayStation plans as far as Microsoft has, making it hard to judge. We’ve heard similar stuff about 8K support and powerful GPUs for the PS5, so there is no reason to believe it will be lagging.
And according to Xbox’s Phil Spencer, it’s going to be a choice between two very powerful consoles in 2020.
“On the CPU side, which is [something] we really wanted to push relative to previous generations, we have four times the compute power on the CPU in Project Scarlett,” he told Gamespot.
Adding: "I/O [input/output] is always an issue. How do we move both memory and bits around? So, we have a 40-times improvement in the I/O speed, [increased] bandwidth for us moving things around on the console [compared to] the past generation.
“And we've upgraded to GDDR6 memory inside of the box to ensure that the memory itself is able to keep up with the CPU, GPU, and the bandwidth requirements."
Spencer signed off by saying that Microsoft wants to be leading again in power, like what they achieved with the Xbox One X launch.
“Our goal has always been to build the most powerful console we can, and I think we're there,” Spencer explains. "We like leading in power and performance and I feel like we're going to be there again."
Rumours have been rife concerning the next Grand Theft Auto title from Rockstar Games.
But fans are still waiting to find out when GTA 6 will be coming out and if it will be happening in 2020.
This is when the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles will be arriving, albeit, at the end of the year.
And so far we have been relying on internet rumours and work done by enthusiasts to spot clues, hoping to find out more about the next major console launch.
It seems very likely that the next Grand Theft Auto game will be available to play on the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
But there are still major question marks regarding GTA 6 arriving on PS4 and Xbox One consoles.
There has yet to be a GTA game released on PS4 and Xbox One that has been built solely with those consoles in mind.
Many gamers will remember that GTA 5 originally came out on Xbox 360 and PS3, before being upscaled to PS4, Xbox One, and finally, PC.
So there are still lingering hopes that something like this will happen with GTA 6 in 2020.
A cross-generational launch which would allow a massive pool of players to enjoy the latest Grand Theft Auto adventure.
But a new rumour posted online suggests that GTA 6 is being made for the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
This would mean a generation skip and would also provide Rockstar Games with much more powerful consoles to play with.
The online rumour has to be taken with a pinch of salt and could be just one of a number of hoaxes posted online.
One thing fans have pointed out about the report shared in October is that it includes references to both Ray Tracing and some kind of 8K functionality.
Without much 8K support around in the way of TVs and screens, it seems a little premature to be making games with such features.
But these new rumours were posted weeks before Microsoft themselves announced they were planning for 8K with its new console.
Here’s what Microsoft confirmed about its Xbox Series X console, which is releasing holiday 2020:
“We will remove the technical barriers faced in previous generations and enable developers to create more expansive, immersive gaming worlds that invite more players to play.
“From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with the possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability.
“Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware-accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console.
“Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.
This doesn’t corroborate the latest reports, but it helps to rule them out as being technically impossible.
The source claims that a GTA 6 announcement will be coming in 2020, with a release being planned for later that year, or 2021.
So while this latest rumour won’t make great reading for PS4 and Xbox One gamers, it is something to get excited about if you’re planning to upgrade your console next year.
