New Technology : Chrome Blocks Flash Ads, Minecraft Makes You Sad… [Tech News Digest]

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Chrome battles Flash, Notch hates being rich, Netflix becomes less Epix, T-Mobile limits your data, and Star Stuff explores the early life of Carl Sagan. Chrome Pauses Unimportant Flash Content Flash is boned. More or less. And that's because Google's Chrome web browser is about to start automatically pausing any Flash-based advert… — Dean Wentzel (@2_ones) August 31, 2015 The war on Flash is ramping up, with Google now making its Chrome browser pause unimportant Flash content by default. By unimportant, Google means anything that isn’t “central to the webpage”. This means the Flash video you actively want to watch...

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New Technology : Samsung’s Smart Fridge Just Got Pwned. How About The Rest Of Your Smart Home?

samsung-fridge-pwned

$3599 is a lot of money. It could get you a decent second-hand car, or a relatively tricked out iMac. You could buy 3599 McChicken burgers, or 2589 McDoubles. Or it could get you the Samsung RF28HMELBSR. This (snappily-named) fridge has everything. It’s got four doors, a colossal 28 cubic foot of space, and an integrated, 8” WiFi-enabled LCD touchscreen display that allows you to do anything from read the news, to remotely control your Android smartphone. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it was once featured on my list of the dumbest Smart Home products ever. And did I...

Read the full article: Samsung’s Smart Fridge Just Got Pwned. How About The Rest Of Your Smart Home?



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New Technology : Where to Download the Best Linux Games Without Any Hassle

linux-games

Not even a decade ago, native gaming on Linux was barely a conceivable reality save for a few open source cross-platform games. Today, it’s clear that the “no games on Linux” myth is dead. Sure, hardcore gamers will probably still choose Windows over Linux, but there’s more than enough evidence that many high-quality games can be played on Linux, and the number of available games is just going to keep increasing. The hard part is knowing which games work on Linux and finding them for digital download. Fortunately, there are a few services you can use to make the whole...

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New Technology : 5 Sites That Make Online Comments Awesome

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Comments get a bad rap, and sometimes that’s fair: they can be unrelentingly awful. But sometimes online comments can make the web better — like when they prompt great conversations, point out great tools, or make something hilarious even better. Today Cool Websites and Apps, a column that highlights software you’ve probably never heard of, explores five tools that make online comments better. Whether you want to find conversations related to any website or watch real-time Twitch comments for previous broadcasts, we’ve got you covered. Kiwi (Chrome and Firefox): See Conversations About the Site You’re Looking At You’re out there exploring random...

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New Technology : The Weakness of the Most Popular Superheroes and Villains

HeroVillWeakness

We all have weaknesses. For most people, a punch to the face will cause them to go down. Other people have more specific weaknesses. For example, I’m terrified of spiders, so if you start throwing spiders at me, I’ve been bested. For superheroes and villains, their weaknesses are a little bit different. They get punched in the face all the time and it doesn’t do anything to them. Remember who is weak to what is complicated, and can be difficult for even the most hardcore comic fans. But fear not, because the handy chart below from Morph Suits shows who’s weak to...

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New Technology : How to Play Games with SafeDisc or SecureRom DRM on Windows 10

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Reaction to Windows 10 has been largely positive, but it introduces a few new problems into the lives of computer users. Gamers with a penchant for retro titles have been particularly hard hit with the news that titles that employed SafeDisc and some versions of the SecuROM Digital Rights Management system are not supported. So what can be done about this, and what is Microsoft playing at? Don’t Blame Microsoft First off, it isn’t really appropriate to blame the immense technology giant on this occasion. Speaking at Gamescom this year, Microsoft’s Boris Schneider-Johne explained how the decision to remove support for these...

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New Technology : How to Search for a New Job Without Your Boss Knowing

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So you’ve decided that you want to quit your job. Great! That’s a hard but necessary decision for a lot of folks. The problem is, how do you start looking for another job without your current boss finding out? Or what if you’re worried about identity theft scams? The answer: anonymous job searches. There are lots of ways to find jobs online, and you can even find jobs through Twitter and jobs through Facebook. But these are all public avenues that can make it easy for employers to trace it back to you if they happen to be in the...

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New Technology : 12 Awesome Solar Powered Gadgets That Every Home Should Be Using

solar-powered-house

According to the EPA, the average electric bill for residences in the United States was $110.21 in 2013, which means households were spending over $1,300 a year on electricity. That really adds up. It also means there’s a huge demand for fossil-fuel-based power providers, who in turn add a significant amount of pollutants to the environment. Solar power provides cleaner, more sustainable electricity, but few people can afford to mount solar panels on their houses, and few power providers have invested significantly in solar power generation. It’s time to take solar power into your own hands. These 12 devices won’t let...

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New Technology : The Ultimate Way to Make Slack Work with Your Favorite Services

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Slack is fast becoming one of the most popular chat platform for teams and communities. In addition to communication there are many ways to unify information inside Slack, but there are few integrations that let you control external services from within Slack — until now. If you’ve never heard of Slack, then it is time to take a closer look at it for your (team’s) communication needs. Sure, email is great for group conversations, and IM is fine for one-on-one or small group meetings, but both of them have drawbacks that Slack overcomes. An email conversation can take days while you wait for...

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New Technology : Upscaling: How Does It Work and Is It Worth It?

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You’ve decided to upgrade your home entertainment system, or maybe your computer screen. Wandering through an electronics store, you’re bombarded with meaningless jargon. One of them is upscaling. What is upscaling? How does it work? And is it all it’s cracked up to be? What Exactly Is Upscaling? Upscaling converts low resolution material into a higher definition – or that’s what it’s purported to do anyway. It’s just one of the common terms you need to know before buying your next 4K television, or any device that supports upscaling, like a Blu-ray player. Upscaling has been around for a while...

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