Category: Technology

You can now get and use Proton VPN’s browser extension even if you’re not a paying user. The extension used to only be accessible if you’re on one of the service’s paid plans, but now you can install it as long as you’re on a Firefox- or a Chromium-based browser. Proton VPN was our top choice for VPNs last year, because it was fast and doesn’t collect data that passes through its network. 

Its apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux have always been free to use, but the unpaid service does come with limitations. The service’s paid plans are faster, has over 100 countries to choose from and lets you connect up to 10 devices at once. Meanwhile, the free version struggled to stay connected at times when we tested it out. Still, it does its job and now it comes with access to the service’s browser extension, which lets you keep your Proton VPN connection within your browser only. 

Yes, the extension will let you use your standard internet connection outside of your browser. If you’re using an app that doesn’t work properly when you’re on a device-wide VPN, but you want to protect your connection or circumvent region-based website blocks, the extension can solve your problem. Proton unfortunately has no plans to release a Safari browser for now, but we’ll let you know if that changes. You can get the Chrome and Firefox extensions from Proton VPN’s official website.

The company has also recently launched a new plan called Proton Duo, if you’re considering paying for its products. It was specifically designed for two users who’ll then get to share 1 TB of storage space (with additional 15 GB of bonus storage every year), as well as full access to Proton Mail, Drive, Calendar, Pass and VPN. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/proton-vpns-browser-extension-is-now-free-for-all-users-100049528.html?src=rss 

Instagram is failing to enforce its own rules and allowing some of its most high-profile accounts to be targeted with abusive comments “with impunity,” according to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The anti-hate group claims that Meta failed to remove 93 percent of comments it reported to the company, including ones that contain racial slurs, violent threats and other disturbing language that would seem to clearly violate the social network’s rules.

CCDH’s researchers zeroed in on five Republican and five Democratic lawmakers who are up for election this year. The group included Vice President Kamala Harris, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Representative Lauren Boebert.

The researchers reported 1,000 comments that appeared on the lawmakers’ Instagram posts between January and June of this year and found that Meta took “no action” against the vast majority of those comments, with 926 of them still visible in the app one week after being reported. The reported content included comments with racial slurs and other racist language, calls for violence and other abuse.

“We’re simulating the moment at which someone reaches out their hand asking for help, and actually, Instagram’s failure to act on that compounds the harm done,” CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed said in a briefing about the report.

The CCDH also found that many of the abusive comments came from “repeat offenders” which, according to Ahmed, has “created a culture of impunity” on the platform. The report comes less than three months before the US presidential election, and it notes that attacks targeting Harris, who is now campaigning for president seem to have “intensified” since she took over the ticket. “Instagram failed to remove 97 out of 105 abusive comments targeting Vice President Kamala Harris, equivalent to a failure to act on 92% of abusive comments targeting her,” the report says. It notes that Instagram failed to remove comments targeting Harris that used the n-word, as well as gender-based slurs.

In a statement, Meta said it would review the report. “We provide tools so that anyone can control who can comment on their posts, automatically filter out offensive comments, phrases or emojis, and automatically hide comments from people who don’t follow them,” Meta’s Head of Women’s Safety, said in a statement. “We work with hundreds of safety partners around the world to continually improve our policies, tools, detection and enforcement, and we will review the CCDH report and take action on any content that violates our policies.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/instagram-is-failing-to-act-on-abuse-targeting-women-lawmakers-on-both-sides-of-the-aisle-103025621.html?src=rss 

Sad Cat Studios announced on X that it is delaying its highly anticipated cyberpunk action game Replaced to next year.

The studio says in its online statement that its expectations for the Xbox and PC exclusive are high since they first announced the game at E3 in 2021. It wants to make sure it meets those expectations and doesn’t want to rush the production process.

“Our initial release was optimistic, and we apologize for that,” the statement reads. “Developing Replaced is quite a unique challenge, and we’re proud to be creating something that special. We need more time to ensure we meet the high standards we’ve set for ourselves and to meet the expectations of our fans.”

If there are no more delays and Sad Cat feels the game meets its expectations, Replaced will now be released in 2025.

This marks the third time that Replaced’s release date has been moved by Sad Cat Studios. The first delay moved the game from 2022 to 2023 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced the studio to relocate developers from its offices in Belarus and Ukraine for their safety, according to Eurogamer.

Last year, Sad Cat Studios announced on X its second release date shift to this year. The statement echoed similar concerns about making sure they released a game that met fans’ expectations instead of a “sub-par game.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-pixelated-cyberpunk-platformer-replaced-has-been-pushed-back-to-2025-220802916.html?src=rss 

It’s been three years since Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit. Since then, the company has launched three new smartwatches under the Pixel brand, including the Pixel Watch 3 at today’s Made By Google event. Meanwhile, Fitbit’s not launched a single new smartwatch since the unceremonious announcement of the Sense 2 and Versa 4 two years ago. The writing has been on the wall for years that Fitbit might not make smartwatches anymore, instead focusing on lower-profile activity trackers that last long. Engadget can confirm that this is indeed true moving forward.

In an interview with the senior director of product management for Pixel Wearables Sandeep Waraich, I asked whether we would ever see another Fitbit-branded smartwatch anytime soon. Waraich said “Pixel Watch is our smartwatch part of the portfolio.” He confirmed that moving forward everything from Fitbit would focus on the more minimalistic, long-lasting trackers the brand has become synonymous with.

While the Sense 2 and Versa 4 will continue to be available in the market, a Google spokesperson said “Pixel Watches are our next iteration of smartwatch for Fitbit.”

As for the devices Fitbit continues to make, “trackers is where users clearly tell us they want something discreet,” Waraich said. “They want longer battery life, they want a simple experience and we are very proud of our Inspire line.”

Waraich also shed some light on how the Google and Fitbit teams have collaborated to build Pixel watches, referencing the former’s AI prowess and the latter’s established expertise in interpreting heart-rate sensor data for greater insights. According to him, Google brought its expertise in machine learning, providing “advanced models that otherwise probably externally weren’t readily available.” Fitbit, of course, had deep knowledge on things like data and signal capture and how that translated into how your hands are moving or what you’re doing. “HIIT has a very different heart rate algorithm [and] implications than a running workout,” Waraich explained.

There’s little doubt that the Fitbit brand remains valuable to Google and the industry at large, given the fact its name is basically the catch-all noun for activity trackers. While it can be jarring to see the Fitbit name and app in devices like the Pixel Watch, where integrations should feel more seamless and unified, Waraich told me “it’s not an app in Pixel Watch. It’s deeply integrated at a system level.” 

Outside of the Pixel portfolio, the Fitbit app and Fitbit Premium both still exist to the large chunk of the population that want something simple that can help them stay on top of their overall health. With the trackers and Pixel watches having now matured into devices that can log your activity very well, Waraich said “There is a tremendous opportunity in terms of going from tracking to coaching, real-time guidance included.”

Time for everyone’s favorite buzzword and trend for 2024: AI. With the Pixel Watch 3, Fitbit Premium users can get AI-generated customized workouts based on their activity and recovery. Of all the features Fitbit Premium has offered (and paywalled) in the past, this feels like a more-suitable use of AI and charging for it. Fitbit and Fitbit Premium are unlikely to be going away, and while we may not see a Fitbit-branded smartwatch again, this feels like a smart move.

Catch up on all the news from Google’s Pixel Watch 3 launch event right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/waiting-for-a-new-fitbit-smartwatch-google-says-thats-the-pixel-watch-3-202314838.html?src=rss 

Michael Myers may be dead and Ash Williams may be flung far into the future, but they aren’t done slashing up the screen here and now. Boss Level Games announced the upcoming release of two new retro style games under its RetroRealms banner based on the classic slasher flick Halloween and the Starz horror comedy series Ash vs. Evil Dead.

The retro Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead titles will be released on October 18 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PCs via Steam.

The Halloween game puts players in control of the murder machine Michael Myers during the events of the original John Carpenter film as he hacks and slashes his way through Haddonfield, Illinois with his iconic machete. The Ash vs. Evil Dead game pits players as the horror movie and TV series hero with his arm-mounted chainsaw and his beloved boomstick against an onslaught of Deadites unleashed by the Necronomicon.

The games will be sold separately, or together as part of a special “Double Feature” bundle. There’s also a special “Collectors’ Edition” that includes a physical copy of the game for your chosen console, two extra playable characters — including Laurie Strode for Halloween and Kelly Maxwell for Ash vs. Evil Dead — and a bunch of other Halloween goodies like a 12-inch plush Michael Myers doll, a digital copy of the Halloween game’s soundtrack, a pack of Halloween trading cards and more. The games connect to each other when both are installed through crossover access in which characters can be brought to either game and “an ever-expanding universe of popular characters that unlocks additional gameplay,” according to Boss Team Games.

Boss Team Games is one of the studios behind the popular asymmetric survival horror multiplayer slasher Evil Dead: The Game. The studio’s press release also notes that these two games will be “the first two releases in a new series of games for console and PC” implying that more throwback game projects are in the works.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/halloweens-michael-myers-and-ash-vs-evil-deads-ash-williams-are-getting-their-own-throwback-games-193000903.html?src=rss 

The House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) sent a letter to his committee’s chair, Jim Jordan (R-OH), on Thursday, urging him to investigate inaccurate information about the presidential election on X (Twitter). Jordan, a self-proclaimed free speech advocate, has relentlessly pursued claims that social platforms have censored conservative voices. For a little taste of what Jordan considers censorship, he cried foul when platforms removed bogus COVID conspiracies during the height of the pandemic and banned Donald Trump for inciting a mob to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Nadler cited reports that Grok, X’s AI chatbot, falsely claimed Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris missed deadlines in nine states, making her ineligible to appear on their ballots. Harris didn’t miss any deadlines and will appear on all 50 states’ ballots.

In addition, Nadler pointed to reports that Musk’s social platform suspended the group White Dudes for Harris (@dudes4harris) after it hosted an event that raised over $4 million from over 200,000 people for the Vice President’s campaign. The account was barred due to a “user report” accusing it of “violating rules against evading suspension,” which was never explained further. After X reinstated the White Dudes account the following day, the same profile was labeled as spam after being falsely accused of “manipulating the platform,” limiting its reach.

Nadler also mentioned “prominent journalists with left-leaning accounts” finding their X profiles “accidentally” suspended.

“Given Chairman Jordan’s extensive focus on allegations of censorship on social media this Congress, Ranking Member Nadler urged Chairman Jordan to continue fighting against political discrimination on platforms by investigating this matter,” Nadler’s office wrote in the letter. “Chairman Jordan’s silence on this matter follows X’s actions to stop disinformation against Republican officials on its platform that have not been similarly applied to Democratic officials.”

“In sum, I lack confidence that Mr. Musk (with his self-proclaimed expansive view on free speech) will take the same swift action against false election information about liberals as he does when it targets conservatives.”

Musk has seemingly had no issue policing accusations of the censorship of right-wing figures. Nadler’s letter cites the platform’s swift response to false posts claiming to derive from internal X software which stated Musk, Trump and other far-right personalities were exempt from policies banning racial slurs. The account posting the false images was suspended within hours, and they were soon tagged with warning labels about manipulated media. X confirmed that multiple accounts were suspended for sharing the bogus pictures.

Where is the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in this fight? Likely, sitting it out. “The FEC has consistently dismissed complaints against social media sites where they could show that they were merely enforcing their own moderation rules,” campaign finance lawyer Brett Kappel told The Washington Post. “That’s likely to continue to be the case with X even though the company has seriously weakened its own rules.”

“While we may have significant disagreement over the degree and extent of content moderation, I hope that we can at least agree that enforcement on a major platform like X should be fair to both sides,” Nadler said. “At a basic level, a platform’s policies should be applied in an even-handed manner free from political bias.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/now-its-democrats-who-want-the-house-to-investigate-x-for-political-censorship-180048710.html?src=rss 

About 50 percent of my photo album is receipts. That is, screenshots of everything I consider even mildly interesting. Whether it’s Uber drivers who never seem to be getting closer, hot tea from my friend’s Instagram Stories or unfathomable email threads, my gallery is full of unexplainable internet detritus. Best of all, just from viewing their thumbnails, I can never know where exactly a specific image is, because walls of text all look the same from afar. So when Google announced its new Pixel Screenshots app at its Made By Google event today, I was excessively excited.

The Screenshots app launches alongside the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and uses Gemini AI to help locate specific images. After you grant the app access to your photos, the AI will not only ingest files it thinks are screenshots, but also start identifying what’s within each picture.

On the home page, you’ll see a row at the top called “Collections,” with a series of pre-organized snaps like “Gift Ideas,” “Boots” or “Places to visit.” These can be curated by yourself or suggested by the system.

Below this row is a grid of all your most recent captures, and at the bottom is a search bar and a Plus symbol next to it. Pressing that symbol will let you either launch the camera or import a photo from your album. This is helpful for pictures you’ve taken of real-world signs that contain information you want Gemini AI to help remember.

Tapping each screenshot in this app will expand the image and bring up a title, summary and buttons based on its contents. These are all AI-generated, so if you’re looking at a picture of a music festival’s Instagram post about upcoming dates, the title might say “Lollapalooza headline acts” with buttons to add specific events from that picture to your calendar. If you’ve pulled up an image of a restaurant’s website, then Screenshots might offer shortcuts to call the shop or navigate to the business address via Maps.

From the home page, you can either type into the search bar or tap the microphone icon in it and ask Google for things like “What was Sam’s WiFi password?” or “How much do I owe Cherlynn?” The app will scour your gallery and not only return images with possibly relevant info, but also attempt to answer your question up top. In the demo I saw at a recent hands-on event, a Google rep asked the app “When do the tickets for the festival go on sale?”

Screenshots responded almost instantly by pulling up a picture of a folk festival’s Instagram post, and seconds later showed the words “The tickets for the festival go on sale on August 5th.” This example was particularly impressive as there were multiple dates noted in the screenshot, one for the ticket sales starting and one for the festival itself kicking off. From the same interface, the company’s rep was able to get the Pixel 9 to set a reminder to buy the tickets in time.

It’s kind of a coincidence that Google is launching this app today, considering Apple’s redesign of its Photos app also pays extra attention to organizing and filtering out screenshots. My experience of both approaches is extremely limited at the moment, but currently I slightly prefer Google’s Screenshots app. It feels like a more focused and deliberate way to look for information and get help from AI, rather than possibly getting distracted by my million selfies in the Photos app on my iPhone when I’m trying to look for a bank statement, perhaps.

The use of AI to make sense of our screenshots feels like a smart one, though there are of course privacy concerns. Microsoft already had to hit pause on the rollout of its Recall feature that was supposed to remember everything you were doing on your computer by taking screenshots every few seconds. Google’s Screenshots app uses Gemini Nano, which is its on-device AI model for local processing, and the company says this feature won’t share your screenshots offline (beyond the backups you might already have opted in to via Google Photos).

The Pixel Screenshots app will be on the Pixel 9 family at launch, and the company has nothing to share on wider availability at the moment. But based on how Google has launched and rolled out apps like Recorder in the past, it’s likely that older Pixel devices will get Screenshots in time, as long as it’s received well by users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-pixel-screenshots-app-uses-ai-to-scour-the-screengrabs-i-cant-remember-why-i-saved-170043423.html?src=rss