Ronald.phillips

January 2022 will remain a pivotal month in the history of gaming, having already crushed the entire past year (already a record-breaking one) when it comes to total expenditures for M&A with an incredible $85.4 billion committed by Microsoft, Take-Two, and Sony.

The Redmond-based giant made the largest splash when it announced the intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, the biggest Western third-party publisher, for nearly $70 billion. Never before had the gaming industry recorded such a massive deal.

Earlier in January, Take-Two surprised everyone when they revealed their deal with Zynga for $12.7 billion in an effort to push into the ever-growing mobile market. Last but not least, Sony acquired Bungie, known as the original creators of Halo and Destiny, for $3.6 billion.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance Live, renowned games analyst Michael Pachter (currently the managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities) said the last deal makes the least sense. He pointed out that Sony appears to have vastly overpaid for Bungie, unlike both Microsoft and Take-Two for their respective acquisitions.

I think Microsoft has a vision and a strategy. They made a bold statement with their acquisition of Activision and it fits their strategy.

Take-Two surprised us and explained it very well when they did it. But we didn't know that they wanted to be big in mobile, and they clearly do. And so they bought one of the two big public mobile companies, the other being Playtika. And they paid up for it. And Sony, I think, just did a me too statement and said, we're not going to be left behind. So we'll buy Bungie.

The Activision deal and the Zynga deal were both done below those stock's recent highs. So Activision had traded over 100, and the deal was at 95. Back in October, it was over 100. Zynga had traded over 11, I believe, and the deal was done at 9.86. So you know, they didn't really overpay, either of the acquirers. Bungie went for $4 million per developer. And most deals are between $250,000 and a million. I've seen deals as close, you know, as high as $2 million per developer. This is crazy talk.

And just to compare and contrast, EA bought Respawn about three or four years ago for $700 million with 400 developers. And those guys generate $700 million a year in revenue. Bungie does about $200 million in revenue. So I think Sony vastly overpaid. I think this was a statement that we're not going to let Microsoft get ahead of us, so we'll just buy something out of desperation. It's not really a deal that makes a whole lot of sense to me. The others do.

Personally, I agree with Pachter that Sony paid a lot for the Bungie deal (even though, as it turns out, about one-third of the sum will be geared towards an employee retention program). That said, the move still makes sense for both companies as they perfectly complement each other.

The same goes for Microsoft and Take-Two, by the way, although those companies also enjoyed fairly good deals. Microsoft especially, largely due to the wave of scandals that hit Activision Blizzard at its highest levels.

With Tencent and Embracer Group also very active in the M&A area and Netflix possibly getting ready to enter the fray, it's likely that we'll see a lot more big deals in the coming months and years.

Stay tuned on Wccftech to get all the latest news, updates, and rumors.

The post Sony Vastly Overpaid for Bungie, Says Pachter, Unlike Microsoft & Take-Two for Activision Blizzard & Zynga by Alessio Palumbo appeared first on Wccftech.

After nearly two months of dominating the charts virtually unopposed (save for one week where "Scream" took the crown), "Spider-Man: No Way Home" has finally fallen from atop the box office and, amazingly enough, it was Johnny Knoxville and the gang that took the Marvel superhero out. Yes, in what might be one of the most smile-inducing wins in a long time, "Jackass Forever" managed to top the box office in its opening weekend as audiences were ready to laugh and have a good time again. Meanwhile, the disaster flick "Moonfall" also made its debut and the results were far less encouraging, making for a mixed bag of lessons to be learned from a very full movie-going frame. Let's dig into the numbers, shall we?

Jackass Forever Gets An Important Victory

Comedy was having a tougher and tougher time at the box office even before the pandemic and, unless you were someone like Seth Rogen, scoring a hit was particularly tricky. Heck, even Rogen suffered a misfire with the seemingly sure-bet "Long Shot" back in 2019. And yet, after something like two years without a pure, live-action comedy being released widely at the box office, "Jackass Forever" brought moviegoers out en masse to the tune of $23.5 million according to Box Office Mojo. That is a win for comedy and a win for those who want to see comedy remain a theatrically viable, studio-produced product.

From a business perspective, it was great for Paramount to stick to their guns with this one and not give the movie a streaming release, which might have seemingly been the play as they attempt to boost Paramount+ subscribers. With a budget of just $10 million, this is going to end up being a gigantic win from a financial perspective. What's more, this now means that every single "Jackass" movie has opened number one at the box office dating back to "Jackass: The Movie" in 2002. Very few franchises of any kind can claim that sort of success and, though it would be easy for some to write these movies off as lowbrow toiler humor, there's clearly more to it than that.

The one and only knock against the positive aspects of this is that it's yet another example of an established brand being the thing that manages to get moviegoers out of the house. It is excellent that a comedy didn't get dumped to streaming much like "The Lovebirds" did to Netflix or "Vacation Friends" did to Hulu but it remains exceedingly difficult for original films to succeed theatrically right now. That will, at some point, become extremely limiting. But right now this is largely a very good sign for those who value the theatrical experience beyond superhero stuff and horror films.

Moonfall Crashes In Concerning Fashion

Speaking of original movies not doing well, director Roland Emmerich's big-budget disaster flick "Moonfall" landed in the number two spot this weekend with $10 million. Given that the film's price tag is said to be in the $140 million range, that is arguably more disastrous than the moon actually falling to Earth, as this movie puts forth. Emmerich, the disaster master behind the likes of "Independence Day" and "2012" seemingly was operating right in his lane with a premise that may well have worked for him and audiences some years ago. But things have changed.

Disaster movies truly run the gamut from the biggest of big hits ("2012") to the most epic of epic flops ("Geostorm"). In this case, Emmerich and Lionsgate, who are distributing the flick, found themselves in flop country. Granted, international audiences may turn up for this one but it is going to be a tall order to save this one from being a trainwreck. The problem is that audiences weren't being asked to show up for some tough sell arthouse movie. This was a big blockbuster that attempted to inject a lot of entertainment value in its runtime for the masses to enjoy. The masses made it clear they were uninterested. If this kind of movie can't even achieve modest success anymore, where does that leave us?

One could make the argument that people don't want to see disasters play out on screen after living through a pandemic. Though Netflix's "Don't Look Up" was a huge success in the streaming world so that theory runs out of steam pretty quickly, especially when considering that there is quite a bit of doom and gloom in most comic book movies as well. The real tragedy here is once again having to narrow the scope of what can and cannot work in post-pandemic Hollywood -- and that was already a pretty small target to try and hit.

The Worst Person In The World Provides Hope For Indie Cinema

On another positive note, at least one indie film had a promising start at the box office this weekend in the form of Neon's "The Worst Person In the World." Opening in just four theaters, the acclaimed pic earned a huge $135,000, making for a per-screen average of more than $33,000. Whether or not it can keep the good buzz going and continue to put meat in seats as it expands remains to be seen but this is a wildly promising start.

The problem is, we've seen platform releases such as this top out pretty quickly. Even Wes Anderson's "The French Dispatch" finished with $44 million against a $25 million budget. Hollywood has got to find a way to get audiences to pay attention to and show up for smaller movies while they're in theaters or the window of hope for original cinema is going to shrink even further, with virtually everything that isn't a guaranteed hit being produced with streaming in mind. That having been said, "The Worst Person In the World" offers a glimmer of hope in a corner of the moviemaking world that could really use it right now.

And The Rest...

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" slipped to number three (finally) taking in another $9.6 million, dropping less than 13% in its eighth weekend. It now stands at $1.77 billion globally and has a great chance of passing "Avatar" ($760 million) to become the third-highest-grossing film domestically in history. Just genuinely amazing stuff. "Scream" came in at number four adding another $4.7 million for a $120 million global total. It should finish in the $150 million range, making it no surprise that "Scream 6" has already been announced.

Rounding at the top five was Universal's "Sing 2" which, despite being available on VOD for weeks now, has continued to do quite well. With another $4.1 million under its belt the animated sequel now stands at $291 million worldwide, all but assuring it will eclipse $300 million The studio can definitely call this one a win.

Looking ahead to this weekend, we've got a trio of varied new releases in the form of "Death on the Nile," "Marry Me," and the latest Liam Neeson action flick "Blacklight." For better or worse, it should make for an interesting weekend between the newcomers and the holdovers.

Read this next: Sci-Fi Box Office Bombs That Deserve A Second Chance

The post Jackass Forever and Moonfall Offer Equal Parts Hope and Concern for the Box Office appeared first on /Film.

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It didn't take long for the Internal Revenue Service to respond to pressure to drop facial recognition. The agency has told Senator Ron Wyden it plans to back away from using facial recognition for verification purposes. Wyden cautioned the transition would "take time," but he saw this as evidence the Biden administration knew privacy and security weren't "mutually exclusive" concepts. The New York Timesunderstood the shift would take place over weeks to minimize disruptions to tax filing season.

We've asked ID.me, the company slated to provide facial recognition to the IRS, for comment. Under the plan, the IRS would have used the technology to authenticate users hoping to file taxes online or otherwise use the IRS' internet services. The approach was intended as a fraud prevention tool, and would have been available by the summer.

The about-face comes after a wave of recent political pressure. While the Treasury Department was already reconsidering the use of facial recognition tech at the IRS, the service encountered opposition from Republican senators, House Democrats and civil liberties groups concerned about a range of issues. They've been worried about the privacy of uploading sensitive data, historical biases in facial recognition, susceptibility to cyberattacks, inaccessibility to people without broadband and a lack of audits and other forms of accountability. Wyden sent a letter to the IRS mere hours before the organization signalled its change of heart.

Commissioner Rettig said the IRS was exploring "short-term options" to replace facial recognition. It's already developing another verification process. Whatever the replacement may be, this should represent a significant victory for those hoping to ban federal uses of facial recognition. Although this might not lead to a total ban, it could prompt other government institutions to limit or resist uses of the technology.

When you think about Hollywood blockbusters, French cinema is not the first thing you think of. In fact, it might be the last. French filmmaker Luc Besson abandoned expectations and turned the sci-fi genre on its head with the 1997 release of "The Fifth Element." With roots in French New Wave cinema that emphasizes visual style and experimentation, Besson created a style of his own with bold and bombastic fashion, humorous and bizarre antagonists, and a dystopian future set to lush colors rather than monotone palates. Besson is credited as one of the creators of the French film style known as Cinéma du look, which emphasizes style over substance.

In the case of "The Fifth Element," it has both. As The Atlantic notes, when the film's hero Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) cries (or at least gets misty-eyed in a moment of revelation) during the opera scene, it was something unheard of in a modern-day blockbuster. Think Han Solo weeping rather than replying, "I know" to Princess Leia's love confession, or Neo disconnecting from the simulation to collect himself whilst shedding a tear.

As we near the 25th anniversary of "The Fifth Element," a look back at the film reveals some surprising details about the genre-defying film. Perhaps most notable is that the seminal moment of the film almost didn't happen. An accident at an airplane tarmac, as far from the opulent landscape created in the movie as you could imagine, almost ruined the entire film.

The One Thing You Absolutely Did Not Want

pdir="ltr">Thepivotalmomentinthefilmisoftenreferredtoasthe"Divascene."TheDiva(MaïwennBesco)isanalienoperasingerwhocarriesfourengravedstones,fourofthefiveelements,insideher.Shegivesamovingperformancebeforelosingherlife.Membersofthefilm'sproductionteamtalkedtoahref="https://ew.com/movies/217/7/19/fifth-element-oral-history-luc-besson/">EW/a>aboutthepowerfulscene.FirstassistantdirectorChrisCarrerasexplainedthatthescenewasshotlikeaconcert,describingitas"jaw-dropping."/p>pdir="ltr">Youwouldn'tthinkaconcertsequenceinthemiddleofanactionfilmwouldbethemostdifficultscenetoshoot,butasCreatureDesignSupervisorNickDudmansaid:/p>blockquote>"WeendedupwithMaïwennon14-inchstiltswearingaskintightfoamandlatexdressthathadtobemadeinonesinglepiecewithnoseams...Itwasnerve-wracking,shootingatnightintheoperahouse,worryingaboutwhetherthelatexgoingtopeeloff,orifshesteppedforwardtoofaronthestiltswouldshejustscreamanddisappearintotheorchestrapit?Therewerelotsofworries."br>/blockquote>pdir="ltr">Theconcertscenewasintercutwithafightscenetomakecinematicbrilliance./p>pdir="ltr">[embed=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrUi8I4aI]/p>pdir="ltr">Thecriticalscenealmostdidn'tmakeitthefinalcutofthemovie.AssociateProducerJohnAmicarellaexplainedhowthefilmnegativesforthescenehadfallenofftheairplaneontothetarmacatLAXandrunoverbyaforklift.Thebeautifuldivascenewasreducedtoamessoffilmcanistersintrashcans.However,theeditorswereabletosalvagethenegativesandcuttogetherthesceneBessonwanted,saving"themoneyshot"ofthefilm./p>

More Elemental Truths About The Film

p>Whatmight"TheFifthElement"looklikewithoutthescene?Editorswouldhaveeithersalvagedenoughfootageorre-shotthescenetoestablishthebasicpremiseoftheDiva'sconcert.Unfortunately,reshootsarerarelyasextensiveasprincipalphotography,andthere'snodoubtingthatthefilmwouldhavesufferedwithouttheoriginalfootage.Moreimportantly,itlosesthestory'smostcatharticscene./p>p>TheDivascenegivesKorbenDallas(andaudiences)abriefrespitefromthenon-stopassaultonoursensesthefilm'sactionhadprovidedthusfar.ThepauseservesasamomentofreflectionbyDallasandanimportantmomentofhischaracterarc.Itcompleteshistransformationfromreluctantherotogalvanizedsaviorofhumanity.ThisessentialscenesetsKorbenDallasapartfromtheflat,Western-inspiredheroesthatcamebeforehim./p>p>WithoutthefullDivascene,thenarrativewouldfocusmostlyontheactionsequencewiththealienMangalores.WhatsetstheMangalorefightsceneapartisthejuxtapositionwiththeexquisiteperformancehappeningatthesametimeonanotherpartoftheship.Withoutit,youwouldhaveamiddlingactionsequenceastherisingactioncomestoitscrescendo./p>p>Thankfully,thegreatnessof"TheFifthElement"wassavedwiththerecoveryofthedivascenefootage.ThefilmwasalaboroflovethatLucBessonbeganwritingwhenhewasateenager.Theendresultmade$263millionworldwide.Notbadforanaspiringteenagescreenwriter.Thankgoodnessitwasn'truinedbyaforkliftonatarmac./p>

Read this next: The 16 Best '80s Action Movies Ranked

The post The Accident That Nearly Destroyed The Fifth Element's Most Complicated Scene appeared first on /Film.

Last month streamers in China discovered that Fight Club had arrived on streaming platform Tencent — but with an entirely new ending where local authorities "rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals....." But now there's been another round of changes, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "After widespread online backlash to clumsy censorship of the film's ending, Chinese streaming service Tencent Video backtracked in recent days and restored most of the cuts it had made." Crucially, Fight Club's complete ending is now viewable in full in China... News of the cuts went viral around the world and sparked much debate and embarrassment on Chinese social media about local censorship practices.... [I]t would appear that the backlash has been deemed more troublesome than the fictional film's ending, as Tencent has now restored 11 of the 12 minutes it originally cut from the 137-minute movie. The minute still missing is mostly comprised of brief nude sex scenes between Brad Pitt's and Helena Bonham Carter's characters. Insider reports that changing the original ending provoked comments like these on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo: - "This has become a Chinese-only joke. Even dogs won't want to watch this." - "This is exactly why, even if you have streaming platform subscriptions, you still have to watch pirated versions." And it brought massive attention to China's history of changing movies, notes the Wrap since "word quickly spread across the globe, bringing embarrassment to the country," reports the Wrap: Censorship of American films and TV shows at the behest of Chinese officials has become common as Hollywood has made in-roads in the country over the past decade. Last year, an episode of "The Simpsons" in which the titular family visits China was removed from Disney+ in Hong Kong over a joke made in the film about the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and the Chinese government's censorship of the event. Even the South China Morning Post reported that Chuck Palahniuk, the author of the novel that inspired the film, "appeared to mock the move on Twitter. 'Everyone gets a happy ending in China!' he wrote..." Similar changes have been made to other films in China in the past. Nicolas Cage's 2005 crime film Lord of War had its final half-hour cut and replaced with text reading, "Yuri Orlov confessed all the crimes officially charged against him in court and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the end." And another example from the Hollywood Reporter: After 20th Century Fox's Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody won multiple Oscars in the 2018, it was granted a theatrical release in China — but only after all mentions of Freddie Mercury's homosexuality were cut from the film. But in this case a global popular outcry appears to have been too embarrasing to endure. According to the Hollywood Reporter now we even have an expected ending to the story of how China tried to censor Fight Club. "Reversals of censorship actions are extremely rare within China's entertainment industry — but cuts to Hollywood movies are not."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers, Facebook and Instagram may be shut down across Europe, the social media giants' owner reportedly warned in its annual report. The key issue for Meta is transatlantic data transfers, regulated via the so-called Privacy Shield and other model agreements that Meta uses or used to store data from European users on American servers. The current agreements to enable data transfers are currently under heavy scrutiny in the EU. In its annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta warns that if a new framework is not adopted and the company is no longer allowed to use the current model agreements "or alternatives," the company will "probably" no longer be able to offer many of its "most significant products and services," including Facebook and Instagram, in the EU, according to various media reports, including in iTWire, The Guardian newspaper and Side Line Magazine. Sharing data between countries and regions is crucial for the provision of its services and targeted advertising, Meta stressed. Therefore, it previously used the transatlantic data transfer framework called Privacy Shield as the legal basis to carry out those data transfers. However, this treaty was annulled by the European Court of Justice in July 2020, because of data protection violations. Since then, the EU and the US did stress they are working on a new or updated version of the treaty.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Have your running shoes run their course? You might need to swap them out for a fresh new pair.

In the season 2 finale of "The Mandalorian," "Star Wars" fans were treated to a surprise appearance by Luke Skywalker, the powerful Jedi hero from the original trilogy, thanks to some tech wizardry. Although original actor Mark Hamill was on set and delivering lines, he wasn't actually on camera. Instead, actor Max Lloyd-Jones -- who already bears a resemblance to Hamill circa "The Empire Strikes Back" -- also delivered Luke's lines with motion capture dots on his face, so that a digital mask could later be used to transform him (the dialogue itself was synthesized with voice-cloning technology, and Mark Rugetti performed the stunts as Luke cut a swathe through Moff Gideon's Dark Troopers). 

When the creative team at Lucasfilm decided to bring Luke back once more for "The Book of Boba Fett," they also recast the role of on-set Luke. Though the show's credits list Mark Hamill among the main stars of the episode (since his face and voice are used), the very-end credits list Graham Hamilton as the body double for "Jedi" (this was also how Max Lloyd-Jones was credited in "The Mandalorian"), with Scott Lang as the stunt double. 

Bringing Young Luke To Life

In the wake of "The Book of Boba Fett" episode 6's release, Hamilton took to Instagram to express thanks to the showrunners for inviting him to be a part of "Star Wars history. He says that the new, young version of Luke was co-created with Hamill, which implies that the original Luke Skywalker was once again involved in bringing his younger self to life.

If you want to see Hamilton in motion (and without his Luke mask on), check out this interview in which he discusses efforts to clean up L.A. area beaches by picking up trash, as well as his love for surfing. He not only looks quite a bit like young Luke, but also sounds quite a bit like him, including the all-American surfer-guy cadence. Like Max Lloyd-Jones, Hamilton's existing resemblance to a young Mark Hamill presumably makes the process of Hamill-ifying him a bit easier. The thought of it all still makes my tech-ignorant mind melt, but the final results are truly impressive. 

While the technology is certainly stunning, it is expensive and still imperfect. Why not just hire Hamilton to play young Luke with some minor digital alteration -- or better yet, cast Sebastian Stan, who already has a deal with "Star Wars" parent company Disney and currently plays Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For his part, Stan is totally game to portray young Skywalker, joking with Esquire in February 2022:

"Look, it's really kind and never say never. Mark Hamill is my father, you know, and he knows that. And I call him every Christmas to tell him, 'I just want you to know I'm around.'" 

Whether Lucasfilm casts Stan, gives Hamilton a bigger role, or hires someone completely unknown, one thing's for certain: I hope that they stop relying so heavily on technology to recreate old performances, and let some of these talented folks give us new ones. 

The finale of "The Book of Boba Fett" premieres Wednesday, February 9, 2022 on Disney+.

Read this next: The 11 Best Star Wars Droids Ranked By Usefulness

The post Here's What The New Luke Skywalker Looks Like Under His Digital Mask appeared first on /Film.

After the events that take place in the latest episode of "The Book of Boba Fett," there are two burning questions on everyone's minds:

• What was up with Luke's voice?

• Is Max Rebo good? Has anyone checked on him?

The episode, entitled "From the Desert Comes a Stranger," features a devastating explosion at Garsa's Sanctuary, and it's interesting to note that a point was made to show all sorts of cantina patrons and staff present moments before the bomb went off -- including two other musicians who played there -- and Max Rebo wasn't among them.

This obviously leaves the fate of the blue space pachyderm musician unknown. Is he alive? Is he hurt? Was he even there at all? We have a few theories concerning his status.

Surviving Two Explosions?

As I stated in my assessment of the series premiere, I am the most casual of "Star Wars" viewers. I have not seen all the movies. I cannot name all the characters, but I am invested enough in this series, and have absorbed enough second-hand knowledge of "Star Wars" to kinda know a little bit. There are also fandom wikis dedicated to providing all sorts of information about all sorts of pop culture juggernauts, and "Star Wars" is no exception. 

Using the knowledge so generously provided by dedicated fans, I learned that if Max Rebo is alive, this would not be the first time the elephant alien guy survived an explosion. He also managed to escape the destruction of the Khetanna, Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, with his life back in "Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi." Seems kind of unlikely that he'd be present for two devastating explosions in one lifetime, let alone that he'd survive both of them -- that is, if he survived at all. And if he was even there to begin with.

Space Drugs Or Sinister Secrets?

I asked my boyfriend for his thoughts on the matter, and he suggested that perhaps Max Rebo wasn't at the lively little cantina at all. Maybe he's busy elsewhere, doing space drugs or something. Musicians and entertainers are known to be particularly susceptible to the use of illicit and questionable substances, so maybe he was out on a bender, getting his fix and living it up on cloud nine while his bandmates were blown to smithereens. That'd be pretty sad, but maybe the death of his bandmates would be the thing he needed to turn his life around and show up to work on a day when the cool space bar doesn't happen blow up.

Another theory is that perhaps he knew of the explosion, and was either in on it or had at least been tipped off. Let's not forget that despite his delightful children's show protagonist appearance, he did once work as an entertainer for Jabba, a sentient booger-slug who was notorious for being a cruel crime lord, pervert, and slaver. It's understandable that well-paying, consistent gigs can be hard to come by for freelancers, but where were Max Rebo's ethics? What do we really know about Max Rebo's moral code beyond the fact that he will play his red ball jett organ for just about anyone? It's perfectly possible that he's been secretly working with the Pyke Syndicate all along, and so he knew of the bomb beforehand. Or perhaps his apparent absence is indicative of his own masterplan to become the next crime lord. He strikes me as the ambitious type.

Or maybe he was out sick that day. Or maybe he was there and now he's just dead. Hopefully we'll get some answers next Wednesday, when a new episode of "The Book of Boba Fett" drops on Disney+.

Read this next: Star Wars Movie Villains Ranked Least To Most Powerful

The post Is Max Rebo Okay?! appeared first on /Film.

Apple impressed critics and consumers with the efficiency of the M1, claiming that its portable Macs featuring this chip will last for hours. The same efficiency was carried over to the M1 Pro and M1 Max found in the 2021 MacBook Pro while also giving them the ability to perform significantly faster. According to the latest battery test, the best high-end gaming notebook, which has insane endurance, cannot hold a candle to the redesigned MacBook Pro’s runtime, as you will soon find out.

Dell’s G5 5515 Has the Best Battery Life for a High-End Notebook, Lasting for 12+ Hours, but the 2021 MacBook Pro Effortlessly Beats It

The introduction of Ryzen processors for high-end gaming notebooks tackled perhaps the biggest complaint of this product type; battery life. According to Jarrod’s Tech, Dell’s G5 5515, which is fueled by a Ryzen 7 5800H and full-powered RTX 3060, lasts for 746 minutes, or 12.4 hours in the YouTube playback test, making it the longest-running gaming laptop that has ever been put through its paces.

Unfortunately, while those numbers are impressive, the 2021 MacBook Pro is miles ahead of the competition, lasting for a whopping 1195 minutes, or 19.9 hours in the same test. If you were thinking that high-end notebooks like these will always compromise on battery life, this should be a massive surprise for you. It is also worth mentioning that the MacBook Pro Jarrod tested was the 16.2-inch version featuring the M1 Pro, not the M1 Max.

For those that do not know, the M1 Pro features the same 10-core CPU as the M1 Max, but sports half the number of GPU cores, which in this case, is 16 instead of 32. It is unclear if the 32-core M1 Max would consume more battery life, but for the time being, these are the results. Also, this 2021 MacBook Pro features a 100Whr battery, which is the maximum legal limit of a charging cell present in a notebook that you can bring onboard a plane.

By comparison, the Dell G5 5515 has an 86Whr battery. If that capacity was increased to 100Whr, Dell’s beastly gaming laptop would have lasted longer, but could it outlast the 2021 MacBook Pro? Unlikely. In either case, we are highly impressed with what both machines are capable of achieving while being unplugged, and in the future, when newer models are released with more efficient hardware, things will only get better.

Now, if manufacturers could use more advanced battery technology for longer runtimes, that would be great. If you want to check out Jarrod’s detailed review, the video is posted below. He previously tested the 2021 MacBook Pro’s wireless networking speeds, and they were abysmal, scoring the lowest out of any notebook tested so far.

The post Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pro Lasts 60% Longer Than the Best High-End Notebook’s Battery Timing, Claims New Test by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

I had two margaritas at my "Jackass Forever" screening, so you know I was dying to hit the bathroom by the time the credits rolled. But before I sat down in the theater on a rainy February 4th in New York City, I promised myself I would stay until the last person was thanked or acknowledged. There was just something I needed to see.

You see, this franchise means a lot to me. I watched the original show at a tender age I definitely shouldn't have (about 8-ish or so) and it stuck with me; I became a fan for life, probably too quickly for my own good, and I'm not afraid to say the "Jackass" franchise has framed my formative years. It connected me with my first real love, and it's something my mom and I have a mutual affection for when we don't have a mutual affection for much else. With the fourth movie in the series, it was like meeting up with a best friend you haven't seen in a long time, years and years after things have changed — which is why I needed to make sure of one thing.

At the end of "Jackass Forever," the slapstick footage becomes archival as the final block of the credits roll through, bringing us back to the early days of the group and their antics. Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Dave England, Ehren McGhehey, Preston Lacy, Bam Margera — they're all there, they all make appearances. And then, all of a sudden we're watching footage of core crew member Ryan Dunn, running over his friends with an electric scooter inside a building, and it nearly feels like a dream. The footage is slipped so subtly into the mix, and it quickly becomes clear how the film will end. "Ryan Dunn Forever," is the final message we are left with, as the camera pans up to the late daredevil's face. I had been nervous, but I know my guys, and I should've known this was the way the crew would choose to go out.

11 Beautiful Years Of Ryan Dunn

Any "Jackass" die-hard will agree: to watch the late Ryan Dunn was to love him. A Pennsylvania transplant from Ohio, he met Bam Margera on their first day of high school, and the rest is beautiful, messy, and wild history. Dunn was in 21 of the 25 episodes of the initial MTV run of "Jackass," and went on to be part of every single film thereafter (except "Bad Grandpa," of course), as well as his part on the spin-off show "Viva La Bam" and its successors. He had "Jackass" top billing, was in every powerhouse opening credits bonanza, and was crucial to the operation. Hell, he would even do stuff none of the other guys — not even Steve-O, known for his laissez-faire disregard for his own body — would even go near.

When I think of quintessential Ryan Dunn, I think of the final stunt of the first "Jackass" film, "The Butt X-Ray." It's a historic one, because it starts with Steve-O pleading his case to why he refused to take part. Despite saying he wanted "nothing more than for this to happen," he wasn't going to let himself be the one to insert a toy car up his own ass. But Ryan Dunn, he was going to let himself be the one. It was a heroic act in the "Jackass" world, and honestly, it still registers to me 20 years later as legendary. I mean, the scene where he goes to the radiologist and plays dumb? For lack of a less cliché term, chef's kiss.

The sketch is a double-pronged electric shock, a gorgeous mess of masochism, hilarity, absurdity, and near nihilism. We could always count on that from Dunn in his many almost-cynical stunts. He took a beating with pride, even if it didn't seem like it in the moment, and he was never afraid to look back on it fondly. He assumed every scratch, cut, and scar with passion, and he was in the perfect company to do so.

How We Move On

It isn't easy to reminisce when the whole crew isn't around anymore. How do you do that, let alone pick a project back up when a part of it has literally left this Earth? That was a little of how I felt when "Jackass Forever" was announced, the memory of Dunn's death hitting me like a sharp, cutting wind. It was hard to imagine there being more of "Jackass" when it would now always be incomplete. What does moving on after grief look like in this weird and wild world these guys have built? 

Well, in "Jackass Forever," it looks like bringing eager, charismatic, and, frankly, stupid young bloods in to join the ranks. It's a move I think Dunn would've embraced, just like the rest of the guys do. It's really moving (yes, I said moving) to see how much affection and admiration there is between the newbies and the vets in the film. That's what's always been at the heart of "Jackass" -- an unhinged joy wrapped in a daredevil's thrill tied with a bow of pure love. It's something we miss without Dunn, without his dedication to the bit and unwavering support of his homies. He would've been a good mentor, in that screwed up "Jackass" kind of way.

When I saw the words "Ryan Dunn Forever" on screen as "Jackass Forever" came to a close, there was no way I could hold back the tears. It's been nearly 11 years since he died, and it's hard not to think of the TV career he could've had (he was an excellent presenter) or even the stunts he might've done this time around. No one will ever know those things, but that doesn't mean we're done imagining. I don't think I'll ever be. And it doesn't mean we'll stop remembering. One thing is for sure about our fallen "Random Hero:" There was no one like him. 

Well, scratch that. There were eight guys just like him, and thanks to their ridiculous, disgusting, and unwavering friendship, we were able to have 11 beautiful years of fun with him. He was fearless in his own way, and looking back on the years past, it was a great run. Not one thing would I change about it. Not one thing. Except the time.

"Jackass Forever" is in theaters now.

Read this next: The 14 Greatest Action Movies Of The 21st Century

The post Ryan Dunn Forever: The Legacy of Jackass' Craziest Member appeared first on /Film.

NBC News tells the story of Rich, a Coca-Cola delivery driver who didn't get a paycheck at Christmas because of a ransomware attack on the payroll company serving Coke's largest distributor. But then "more than a month after hackers crippled Kronos," paychecks to its employees in Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia "have been sporadic, according to union representatives." Rich, who asked not to be identified by his last name for fear of retaliation from his employer, is among hundreds of workers who deliver Coke products in at least three states who say they're still owed wages — fallout from one of the many ransomware attacks that hit U.S. companies practically every day. Rich, a father of three, said he's had to dip into his savings, which have dwindled down in recent weeks. "They went from $1,100, $1,200 a week to $300, $600," he said of his paychecks. "I got one $300 paycheck, and I called and told them exactly what I needed paid, and they sent me a $46 check...." "We've got 130 people and they've all got problems," said Max Zemla, the president of the Cleveland-area Teamsters Local 293. "Some are telling me they're not as bad off. I have a guy who's off a thousand dollars. Uses his money for his kid's tuition for school, and he's not able to pay it...." "The timekeeping vendor Kronos that suffered the attack is in the process of coming back online," [said Josh Gelinas, Coca-Cola Consolidated's vice president of communications February 1st] in an emailed statement. "But, until these digital systems are fully restored, we must continue manually recording work hours for thousands of our teammates. This process is taking longer than we would like and may have resulted in some inconsistencies, but our teammates will be paid for every hour they've worked...." [NBC reports that a spokesperson for Kronos "noted that the company announced on Jan. 22 that it had finally restored all its services."] Jeff Combs, the secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 135 in Indianapolis, said the vast majority of the roughly 200 Coca-Cola Consolidated employees he represents are still owed pay. "Some are still owed as high as $4,700," Combs said. Rich complains to NBC News that "now my savings have dwindled down because a billion-dollar company can't give you an average paycheck." But it shows ransomware's effects ultimately reach farther than we realize. "It's often assumed that ransomware mainly affects governments and major corporations because it's those incidents that make the news," a ransomware analyst at Emsisoft tells NBC News. "The reality, however, is that more than half of all ransomware victims are small businesses and individuals. And, unfortunately, they are usually not as well prepared to deal with the problem as larger organizations and probably feel more pain as a result."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Facebook is threatening it will simply pull out of Europe altogether if it is no longer able to share data about European users with its U.S. operations, applications, and data centres," reports ITWire. It's customary for regulatory filings to preemptively declare a wide variety of possible future hazards, and in that spirit a recently-filed Meta financial statement cites a ruling by the EU's Court of Justice (in July of 2020) voiding a U.S. law called the Privacy Shield (which Meta calls one legal basis for its current dara-transferring practices). Though courts are now determining the ruling's ramifications, ITWire notes that "with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) well in force, the U.S. Privacy Shield principles were found non-compliant and consequently invalid." So while that ruling affects every American company, including cloud companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, it's Facebook/Meta that "says stopping transatlantic data transfers will have a devastating impact on its targeted online advertisements capabilities." Read it yourself, in Meta's own words: "If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we are unable to continue to rely on Standard Contractual Clauses [now also subject to new judical scrutiny] or rely upon other alternative means of data transfers from Europe to the United States, we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations." Of course, the filing also cites other hazards like the possibility of new legislation restricting Facebook's ability to collect data about minors, complaining that such legislation "may also result in limitations on our advertising services or our ability to offer products and services to minors in certain jurisdictions." And in addition, "We are, and expect to continue to be, the subject of investigations, inquiries, data requests, requests for information, actions, and audits by government authorities and regulators in the United States, Europe, and around the world, particularly in the areas of privacy, data protection, law enforcement, consumer protection, civil rights, content moderation, and competition..." "Orders issued by, or inquiries or enforcement actions initiated by, government or regulatory authorities could cause us to incur substantial costs, expose us to unanticipated civil and criminal liability or penalties (including substantial monetary remedies), interrupt or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business, result in negative publicity and reputational harm, divert resources and the time and attention of management from our business, or subject us to other structural or behavioral remedies that adversely affect our business." (Thanks to Slashdot reader juul_advocate for sharing the story!)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When "Casper" was released in 1995, I doubt anyone thought it would carry the cult legacy it enjoys today. The film was only a moderate success at the box office, and its PG rating completely derailed audience expectations. The first live-action adaptation of "Casper the Friendly Ghost," was marketed as a heartfelt and entertaining way to educate children about death and what comes after, as well as learning how to appreciate those we have while they're still on this Earth. "Casper" is often cited as nothing more than a children's film with an animated ghost trying to find a friend for the afterlife, but few remember how depressing the film actually is, and its deeply examined themes of loss, grief, neglect, and the human's unwillingness to accept the reality of mortality.

Bill Pullman plays paranormal therapist James Harvey who has recently moved into a haunted manor in Maine with his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) while simultaneously trying to contact the spirit of his deceased wife. Harvey's profession forces him to travel around the country, to the point where Kat's well-being and social life is the sacrificial lamb thrown on a pyre in order for Harvey to pursue his obsessive desire to see his wife again. Kat struggles to make friends due to her constant moving, so it's no wonder that the first real friend she makes is one of the ghosts that haunts her new home. Sure, the duo get into plenty of ghostly hijinks and Cathy Moriarty and Eric Idle have great roles as the villainous duo looking to find the alleged treasure hidden in the walls of Whipstaff Manor, but hidden beneath the playful scenes of "Casper" lies a deeply upsetting plot point that few people ever think about.

In Case You Forgot, A Lot Of People Die

After moving into the haunted house, Dr. Harvey attempts to have therapy sessions with the three "mean" spirits, Casper's uncles Stinkie, Stretch, and Fatso. In a cruel prank (because this trio is THE WORST) they promise to repay Harvey by convincing him they are in touch with his dead wife. They're lying, obviously, and Dr. Harvey becomes despondent after he realizes they've failed him. While in his vulnerable state, they take him to a bar with the intention of killing him and becoming a quartet. The trio have a change of heart after a drunken Dr. Harvey promises to help them keep Cathy Moriarty's Carrigan off their back, but in a moment of cruel irony, Dr. Harvey accidentally falls down a manhole and dies, leaving Kat an orphan in a haunted house.

When Kat sees her father as a ghostly apparition for the first time, she is rightfully devastated. She's now lost both of her parents, her only real friend is a ghost, and she is now literally as alone on this mortal plane as she's ever felt. Casper, being the friendliest ghost you know, sacrifices his only opportunity to become a human again and instead allows Dr. Harvey the chance to return to mortal existence through the use of the Lazarus machine, an invention created by Casper's dad (who was institutionalized for claiming his dead son was haunting him) that contains the ability to bring the dead back to life. The ghost of Dr. Harvey goes through the machine, transforms back to a human state, and the Harvey family has a dance party with their new ghastly brethren ... but there's one massive problem with this so-called "happy ending."

The Lazarus Machine Transforms Ghosts, Not Resurrects Flesh

Just to make sure we're all on the same page here, the Lazarus machine reanimated the ghost of Dr. Harvey, but his fleshy corpse is still at the bottom of a f***ing manhole. So while the movie ends with Dr. Harvey dancing around and having a good ol' time with his daughter and their ghostly pals, his actual born-of-this-Earth body is rotting away in some sewer in front of a bar and some unsuspecting construction worker is going to have one hell of a Monday when they find it. Better yet, when the cops show up at Whipstaff to inform Kat that they've found the dead body of her father, they're going to all have to be institutionalized when a very much alive Dr. Harvey answers the door.

Casper's dad was so incapable of accepting the loss of his son that he created a machine that could transform a ghost into a human being, which sounds great until you remember that his lil' baby Devon Sawa child, the one that he changed as baby and taught how to ride a bike, is sleeping in a mound of dirt six feet under. Had his plan worked, he could have theoretically visited his own grave, something that is far too warped to imagine for a PG movie. 

Anyway, enjoy the existential nightmare this movie will inspire the next time you hear, "Can I keep you?" during the school dance scene. I was cursed with this information over a decade ago by indie filmmaker Dustin Mills, and I am now passing it on like the tape from "The Ring," in the hopes that maybe I one day won't be haunted by this knowledge.

Read this next: The 25 Best Kids' Movies Of All Time

The post The 1995 Movie Casper is Deeply Upsetting, and We Need to Talk About This appeared first on /Film.

"Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm." So writes Ted Gioia, author of the Substack music/pop culture newsletter "The Honest Broker". But it gets worse: "The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs. The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago....." The signs are everywhere — including the fact that viewership for the music industry's Grammy awards plummeted 53% this year to just 8.8 million. "More people pay attention to streams of video games on Twitch (which now gets 30 million daily visitors)." And even then, "When a new song overcomes these obstacles and actually becomes a hit, the risk of copyright lawsuits is greater than ever before.... Adding to the nightmare, dead musicians are now coming back to life in virtual form — via holograms and 'deepfake' music — making it all the harder for young, living artists to compete in the marketplace." But in the end the real problem may ultimately be that "nothing is less interesting to music executives than a completely radical new kind of music." Who can blame them for feeling this way? The radio stations will play only songs that fit the dominant formulas, which haven't changed much in decades. The algorithms curating so much of our new music are even worse. Music algorithms are designed to be feedback loops, ensuring that the promoted new songs are virtually identical to your favorite old songs. Anything that genuinely breaks the mold is excluded from consideration almost as a rule. That's actually how the current system has been designed to work. Even the music genres famous for shaking up the world — rock or jazz or hip-hop — face this same deadening industry mindset. I love jazz, but many of the radio stations focused on that genre play songs that sound almost the same as what they featured 10 or 20 years ago. In many instances, they actually are the same songs. This state of affairs is not inevitable. A lot of musicians around the world — especially in Los Angeles and London — are conducting a bold dialogue between jazz and other contemporary styles. They are even bringing jazz back as dance music. But the songs they release sound dangerously different from older jazz, and are thus excluded from many radio stations for that same reason. The very boldness with which they embrace the future becomes the reason they get rejected by the gatekeepers. A country record needs to sound a certain way to get played on most country radio stations or playlists, and the sound those DJs and algorithms are looking for dates back to the prior century. And don't even get me started on the classical-music industry, which works hard to avoid showcasing the creativity of the current generation. We are living in an amazing era of classical composition, with one tiny problem: The institutions controlling the genre don't want you to hear it. The problem isn't a lack of good new music. It's an institutional failure to discover and nurture it. So while the author acknowledges that "The fear of copyright lawsuits has made many in the industry deathly afraid of listening to unsolicited demo recordings," far deeper than that is the problem that, "The people running the music industry have lost confidence in new music." Yet if there's any hope, the author argues, it's that people "crave something that sounds fresh and exciting and different.... Songs can go viral nowadays without the entertainment industry even noticing until it has already happened. That will be how this story ends: not with the marginalization of new music, but with something radical emerging from an unexpected place...." "The CEOs are the last to know. That's what gives me solace.... The decision makers controlling our music institutions have lost the thread. We're lucky that the music is too powerful for them to kill."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The price of goods and services in the United States continues to rise at an alarming rate. Inflation was up 7% year-on-year in December 2021, which is the highest the country has seen in nearly 40 years. Used cars and trucks were the largest contributors to the inflation rate. Rising food prices also contributed to inflation.

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop SE is an excellent laptop for students in a system that sees value in the Redmond firm’s ecosystem, thanks to the new Windows 11 SE OS. I know; that’s a pretty loaded statement. The key thing is that Microsoft has to sell schools on Windows, and the unique value propositions that the OS can provide that can’t be offered by Chrome OS. Otherwise, Chrome OS still has some obvious benefits when it comes to speed on lower-end hardware.

And indeed, Windows 11 SE is absolutely not Chrome OS but with Microsoft services. I’ve long thought that would be a solution for the company. A Chromium OS fork that used Edge instead of Chrome, OneDrive instead of Google Drive, and so on. But that’s not what this is. Windows 11 SE is Windows, and for the most part, it’s just a locked down version of Windows like Windows 10 S was.

That’s where the education aspect of it comes in. It’s secure, and you can’t go and install other software without permission. It’s easier to use with apps opening full-screen and taking out various parts of the OS, like Teams integration, the Microsoft Store, and widgets. Those things are fun, but it’s all about simplifying the experience. When you get down to web browsing and doing schoolwork, this starts to make a lot of sense.

And then we have the hardware, which I kind of love. White needs to become a staple in the Surface rotation, as this Surface Laptop SE is just gorgeous. It’s not gorgeous in a flamboyant way, like you’d see in an HP Spectre x360 or something. It’s just got a clean and sleek design, all while making sense for younger users with plastic hardware that can withstand a drop.

Navigate this review:

• Surface Laptop SE pricing and availability
• Surface Laptop SE specs
• The laptop: The Surface Laptop SE hits just the right points
• Windows 11 SE: The new version of Windows is a step in the right direction for education
• Who should buy it, and is it good for education?

Surface Laptop SE pricing and availability

The Surface Laptop SE is available now, and it starts at $249.99. However, it’s not easily available to everyone. This PC is aimed at the educational market, so if you check out the listing on the Microsoft Store, it’s going to tell you that you need to contact a Microsoft education solutions expert.

There are a couple things to note here. First of all, that base price is not for the unit that Microsoft sent us for review. The base model has a Celeron N4020, 4GB RAM, and 64GB eMMC, whereas this review unit has a CPU with double the cores, double the RAM, and double the storage.

The other thing to note is that the price tag isn’t real. Any time you’re buying an educational PC or a business PC, you’ll be dealing with bulk discounts and such. That’s why you’re being directed toward a sales specialist for it. Sure, you can buy a Surface Laptop SE on your own as a personal laptop, but that’s not really what it’s for.

Surface Laptop SE specs

The laptop: The Surface Laptop SE hits just the right points

• The Surface Laptop SE is the first laptop to use Windows 11 SE, a new OS that’s aimed at K-8 students.
• It’s inexpensive at $249.99 ($329.99 for this unit), so it has low-end specs like a Celeron processor, 4GB or 8GB RAM, and 64GB or 128GB storage.
• The Surface Laptop SE is gorgeous and white should be a more common color on Surface devices.

I absolutely love the clean design of the Surface Laptop SE. There’s nothing flashy or fancy about it, but the all-white colorway is minimal and stylish, with a gray Surface logo stamped in the lid. I’d really like to see some consumer Surface PCs like this.

The size, footprint, and most importantly, the weight

• At under two and a half pounds, the Surface Laptop SE literally takes a load off.

It’s also small, compact, lightweight, and also strong. It’s made out of plastic, and like most computers that are meant for kids, it can handle drops and spills.

One thing that I really want to call attention to is that the Surface Laptop SE weighs under 2.45 pounds. I remember back in junior high school, I had a teacher that predicted we’d all grow up with back problems, thanks to having to carry around what seemed like tons of books in our backpacks all day. What a difference technology can make.

A laptop that weighs so little is a game-changer, and that applies to not just the books it can replace, but other low-cost notebooks. These things, even in this compact size, can weigh over three pounds. In larger sizes, it gets heavier than that.

The display and keyboard are great at this price point

• All of the core aspects of the Surface Laptop SE exceed expectations for the price point.

Spoiler alert: since this runs Windows 11 SE and I didn’t install any external software, I didn’t do my regular display testing here, nor are you going to find any performance benchmarks. That’s OK though. This is a laptop for K-8 students, so no one over roughly 14 years of age should be using it.

That means that you don’t need some flashy OLED screen. This is a matte, HD display that comes in at 11.6 inches with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The pixel density is 135ppi, which is slightly lower than the 148ppi that you’d find in the Surface Laptop Go. That’s pretty good at this price point, if you ask me.

What’s even more interesting is that it’s 16:9. That makes this the first 16:9 consumer Surface product since the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 were launched back in 2013. Again, it shouldn’t make a difference for the kids that will be using this, and what they’ll be using it for.

The keyboard is pretty great too. Naturally, this isn’t a premium keyboard like you’d find on the Surface Laptop Studio, nor should it be. This is an inexpensive device, and given the price of it, this keyboard is much more comfortable and accurate than I would have expected.

The Surface Laptop SE also has an HD webcam, which is nice for this price. Microsoft has been using FHD webcams in the bulk of its Surfaces since 2014, but given the price point, 720p is what we’re getting here.

Performance and battery life

Performance on the Surface Laptop SE is surprisingly good, and so is battery life. I set the power controls to best performance, something I felt was necessary for something with a Celeron N4120, and I really don’t end up with any noticeable lag.

That doesn’t mean that you as a consumer should buy one and install Windows 11 Home on it. You won’t have the same experience, because it’s Windows 11 SE that’s making the change here. Basically, the OS isn’t running unnecessary background tasks.

While I wasn’t able to run any proper benchmarks, here’s an experiment you can try at home on a Windows 11 PC. Do into Task Manager and take a look at all of the processes that are running. You’ll find a bunch of processes from Widgets, even if you’ve never used them before, and Microsoft Teams is using up system resources as well. On top of that, just take a look at the background processes from apps that you didn’t even know were running.

I really think that’s where the key performance enhancements from Windows 11 SE come from. There are no widgets and there is no Teams integration. Apps need to be approved by an admin, so you’re not running anything that’s not necessary, and that means nothing is running without you knowing it.

It’s still worth remembering that the review unit sent out is a higher end $329.99 configuration, with a Celeron N4120, 8GB RAM, and 128GB eMMC storage. The $249.99 base model comes with a Celeron N4020, which is dual-core instead of quad-core, 4GB RAM, and 64GB eMMC. This is a really big difference.

I also couldn’t run my usual battery report because you also can’t open a command prompt in Windows 11 SE. That’s right; you don’t get any of the utilities that you’re used to like the Registry Editor and more. I’m comfortable saying that the Surface Laptop SE will last through a whole school day though, even with power settings set to best performance.

This is also considering that the K-8 student isn’t doing power0intensive tasks. They won’t be doing photo or video editing, or probably even coding. This is something that’s great for taking notes in class, virtual classes with Teams or Zoom, writing reports, and so on.

Windows 11 SE: The new version of Windows is a step in the right direction for education

• Windows 11 SE is a new version of the OS that’s specifically aimed at K-8 students, and it’s only on new PCs.
• It removes a lot of the ‘extras’ in Windows 11.
• It opens apps to full screen by default, saves files directly to the cloud, and more.

Windows 11 works similarly, but different

• Apps open full-screen by default
• There are fewer Snap Layout options

Probably the two key things that work differently is that apps open full-screen, and there are fewer Snap Layout options. Starting with the latter, you’ll now only see two Snap Layout options: one for split-screen down the middle, and one for split-screen shifted to one side.

The idea is to make it simpler. That’s why apps are going to open full-screen as well. And before you say it, I can tell you that I asked even before I tried it; this is not a Windows 8 situation. The apps are just opening full-screen by default. After that, everything works normally, so you can do whatever you want. Even Calculator opens full-screen though, which is a bit weird.

It’s all about making Windows 11 easier to use. The general idea is that it should be so easy and intuitive that a kindergartner can pick it up and use it. Whether or not it succeeds at that isn’t something I can answer with authority.

Windows 11 SE is made for the cloud

• Files automatically save to the cloud be default, making it easier for kids to switch between devices.

By default, files being downloaded or saved go straight to the cloud. This is how it should be on all PCs, as it makes it easier to switch between devices. For kids using a Surface Laptop SE, they can pick up where they left off on their virus-ridden home laptop, and all of their files are right there.

Like I said, this is how it should be. I’ve used OneDrive as my file system since it was integrated into the OS with Windows 8.1. But to be clear, nothing crazy is going on here. It’s really just Known Folders backup.

You’ll find that a lot of what’s happening in Windows 11 SE is just not turning off defaults. For example, if you open a JPEG file from File Explorer, the OS doesn’t ask you what app you want to use to open it anymore. It just uses Photos. You can change the defaults as normal, of course.

Since the student isn’t the one setting up the PC, obviously Known Folders backup is turned on by default. That means that it’s going to look like you’re saving it to the Downloads folder, and you are, but that’s also being saved to OneDrive.

One thing that is noticeably different is that in File Explorer, you won’t see the C: drive or This PC. You’ll pretty much just see Quick Access and OneDrive, the former of which only provides access to those known folders like Documents, Downloads, and Pictures.

There’s a lot that’s stripped out of Windows 11 SE

• Windows 11 SE doesn’t have a Microsoft Store, Teams integration, Widgets, and more.

There’s a lot that’s stripped out of the OS here, and there are several reasons for it. These include security, performance, ease of use, and more. There’s no Microsoft Store, Widgets, or even Teams integration in Windows 11 SE, and as mentioned in the performance section, that just means fewer background processes.

It also means that you can’t go and install external apps on your own. You won’t be grabbing untrustworthy software here, or any software that’s not approved.

There’s also a Windows 10 S element to a lot of it. If you try to open an executable file, it will tell you that it doesn’t support that. And you’ll notice that that goes for system apps too. Things like the Registry Editor, Control Panel, command prompt, and more still exist, but Windows 11 SE won’t let you open them. They even come up in Windows search results.

One other thing I want to note is that Windows 11 SE doesn’t come with Microsoft’s bloatware. What I mean by that is all of the crap that the company loads up Windows with, like Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Candy Crush Saga, and more. This is as vanilla of a Windows installation as it gets.

Who should buy it, and is it good for education?

If you’re a regular consumer looking for a new laptop, I’m not sure how you made it this far into the review. The Surface Laptop SE isn’t for you, just in case you thought that the lowest-priced Surface ever was your entry into the Microsoft hardware ecosystem. This laptop is strictly for kids in the K-8 range.

Who is the Surface Laptop SE good for?

• K-8 students in a district that wants to stay invested in Windows.

Who is the Surface Laptop SE not good for?

• Consumers have no business buying this product.
• Adults or older students that will most definitely need more complex work flows.
• K-8 students in districts that have standardized on another platform, like Chrome OS.

Windows 11 SE goes a long way toward addressing the needs of K-8 students. However, the way I see it, it does a better job of retaining school districts that already use Windows, rather than converting districts that have made the move to something like Chrome OS. The OS is more secure, it’s faster, and it gets better battery life than a regular version of Windows 11, but that’s still not an answer to why you should choose it over Google’s operating system. That’s a question that Microsoft has to answer.

One possible answer is about what happens when a student gets to ninth grade. For me, that was when I took my first programming class (it was Quick Basic, and then Visual Basic 6 the following year). Before I spiral out of control into a vortex of nostalgia, let me say that this is the age where students might need something more than Chrome OS can offer. This could be the value proposition for raising students in the Windows ecosystem.

As far as the hardware goes, it’s a lot better than I expected. Given the specs, I expected to want to break away from it as soon as I possibly could. That wasn’t the case. Working through the browser was pretty pleasant, although as I noted above, I absolutely had to have the power meter set to best performance. This is a great laptop for schools, as long as those schools want Windows 11 SE.

The post Surface Laptop SE review: A Chromebook competitor, but Windows 11 SE isn’t a Chrome OS appeared first on xda-developers.

(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)

In 1998, a year before "The Matrix" and two years before the first live-action "X-Men" movie, a superhero arrived in a trench coat, black leather, and dark shades, ready to kill some vampires. His name was "Blade," and he was played by Wesley Snipes. But you already know that because He Is Legend: not quite "The Last Man on Earth," but certainly the last line of defense against big-screen vampires at the turn of the millennium.

While "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was holding down the Hellmouth in her TV neighborhood of Sunnydale, California, Blade was keeping hope alive for heroes and humans in a fictional metropolis. Blade is a Daywalker, half-human, half-vampire, all attitude.

David S. Goyer's script begins with Blade in utero as Eric Brooks in a hospital's trauma ward: "It's 1967, the Summer of Love and -- BOOM! Entry doors swing open as PARAMEDICS wheel in a FEMALE BLEEDER." This is Blade's mother. A vampire bit her while she was pregnant, and while her son will grow up with the thirst for blood, he'll still retain some of his humanity and be able to walk in sunlight.

In the real world, 1967 was two years out from the "Summer of Soul," the "Black Woodstock" you maybe never heard about until last year because, as the subtitle of last year's documentary tells us, it happened "When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised." As we continue to commemorate the Year of the Vampire — and Black History Month — it's worth remembering the lesson HBO's "Watchmen" taught us. The world's first superhero, or in this case, the vampire-hunting forerunner of the Marvel movie millennium, was Black.

What It Brought To The Genre

Has there ever been a vampire hunter who was a bigger badass than Blade? That's a rhetorical question because the answer is no.

Directed by Stephen Norrington, "Blade" infused the vampire film tradition with some good old-fashioned action heroism, at a time when pop culture as a whole was on the cusp of a new Golden Age of TV, rife with antihero dramas. So often over the last century of vampire cinema, we've seen humans at the mercy of bloodsuckers. On the news and in viral videos, we've also seen waves of protests and Black lives snuffed out by police brutality.

Blade is no vampire's victim. Neither is he a victim of Officer Krieger (Kevin Patrick Walls), that one weaselly white cop with the glyph on back of his neck, branding him like cattle as a vampire's familiar.

I'm not trying to conflate all cops with vampires. I'm just saying there are multiple scenes in "Blade" where the aspirational Black hero gives one bad cop his comeuppance, throwing him around and calling him a "vampire wannabe." Officer Krieger serves Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), an upstart bloodsucker who is so evil that he will expose his vampire elders to the sun and even turn Blade's own aforementioned mother, Vanessa (Sanaa Lathan), against him.

The world-building in "Blade" is on point. The movie immediately thrusts us into a cityscape where vampires roll human bodies through a meat packing plant as if they were sides of beef. They lead guys like lambs to the slaughter in raves where the fashion sense is "Matrix" (but again, pre-"Matrix") and where blood sprinklers shower bloodsuckers on the dance floor. Yet the minute Blade shows up, the vampires scatter like cockroaches. There's just one of him but he has no compunctions about striding into a night club full of the undead.

To Be A Vampire Hunter Among Vampires

Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) is the grizzled, grey-bearded, biker-type mentor and weaponeer we all need. He's there to dose the Daywalker with a serum that suppresses his blood appetite and he's there to sloppily gas his Blade-mobile in their garage/Blade-cave while lighting up a cigarette right next to it. Whistler also outfits the human hematologist Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright) with some vampire mace, "Silver nitrate, essence of garlic."

"Blade" contains some other creative flourishes, like the torture of a vampire blob named Pearl with a UV lamp, and the use of sunblock and motorcycle helmets by bloodsuckers in daytime or at daybreak. Some aspects of the movie are admittedly cheesy, none more so than the "blood god" special effects toward the end. However, "Blade" is an exception to the rule that the real star of most vampire movies is the monsters themselves. If I had a child, my only hope for them in this world would be that they could learn to be a vampire hunter among vampires, like Blade.

Sometimes vampires are scary, and sometimes, as in the case of the blood raver Racquel (Traci Lords), they're dangerously alluring. Either way, Hollywood usually puts them front and center as an inhuman threat or a seductive love interest — if not the outright main character.

The 2010s were particularly weighted toward the vampire's perspective, with films such as "Only Lovers Left Alive," "What We Do in the Shadows," and "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" foregrounding a new breed of undead protagonists. Donal Logue, who plays Quinn, the toasted vamp who comes back to life in the hospital in "Blade," appeared in the season 3 finale of the "What We Do in the Shadows" TV series last year, while Snipes himself made a Skype appearance in season 1.

The Superhero Vampire Hunter

It feels like Blade and Buffy provided the last great gasp of hunter and slayer narratives before the reign of the vampire antihero set in. Yet Blade was always the best of both worlds, a character who could walk the line between day and night, human and vampire. In the 2020s, he still inspires kids and other would-be vampire hunters, as seen in the Netflix horror comedy, "Vampires vs. the Bronx."

In the same way that Blade himself is a vampire-human hybrid, his film has one foot in the vampire movie genre and one foot in the superhero genre. Two decades before "Blade," Christopher Reeve made moviegoers believe a man could fly in "Superman." After four films, however, the Superman series had run its course. Furthermore, a horse-riding accident in 1995 tragically left Reeve paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

The "Batman" film series, meanwhile, had cycled through Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and four movies of its own. It entered a fallow period after "Batman and Robin" in 1997 and would only come back to life (rather like an undying vampire-turned-bat) when Christopher Nolan rebooted it in the mid-2000s with "Batman Begins."

In a world without Superman and Batman, Blade stepped up to lead the way for Marvel. He was there, slicing and dicing bloodsuckers in the first halfway decent Marvel movie, 10 years before "Iron Man" and the birth of the MCU, and 20 years before "Black Panther" and the first Best Picture nomination for a superhero film at the Academy Awards.

Now, after 27 movies and counting, Marvel Studios is finally coming back around to Blade with an upcoming MCU-set film starring Mahershala Ali. Unless you've been living under a rock or sleeping in a coffin, you've probably heard by now that Ali has already made his debut in the MCU by way of a voice cameo.

Respect For Blade

In "Blade II," director Guillermo del Toro took himself out of the vampire clock shop, as seen in "Cronos," and down into the sewers with the Daywalker to face a more terrifying breed of vampires with stretchy mouths. The director would return to vampire subject matter — with some long-tongued Strigoi in tow — as he helped launch "The Strain," the FX series about the outbreak of a vampire virus in New York. This brought the genre back to its "Nosferatu" roots, delivering plague-inflected screen horrors when the globe was only a few years removed from a real pandemic. Instead of COVID-19, the people of that time had been dealing with the 1918 Spanish flu.

In "Blade: Trinity," what should have been a slam-dunk concept — Blade vs. Dracula — wound up being a notoriously fraught production, as Goyer transitioned to writer-director and his friendship and four-movie collaboration with Snipes hit the skids. (He also worked with Snipes between "Blade" movies in his 2002 directorial debut, "Zig Zag.")

I wasn't there on the set to witness what really happened, but just as a thought experiment, put yourself in the shoes of a Black movie star, surrounded by an all-white cast, in the final installment of a trilogy with your character's name on it. Suddenly, like many a lead actor in today's mighty Marvel landscape, you're no longer the star of your own movie, but rather one member of a team of Nightstalkers. Some of your costars are comedians who will take the piss out of you with jokes and then tell stories later about how difficult it was working with you. You've had your efforts to foster a more diverse cast and crew stymied, and one day, you come out of your trailer to find the only other Black guy in the movie wearing a shirt emblazoned with the word "Garbage."

It feels like that kind of atmosphere (allegedly strangling your director, too) wouldn't fly in Hollywood circa 2022. It also feels like a lot of today's superheroes — and vampire hunters — might never have gotten any momentum going were it not for Blade and his success. Blade day-walked so they could run.

Read this next: 14 Sequels That Truly Didn't Need To Happen

The post Year of the Vampire: Blade Day-Walked So Other Superheroes and Vampire Hunters Could Run appeared first on /Film.

As many hardcore Marvel fans are surely aware, Sony controls the movie rights to the "Spider-Man" franchise and all of the characters closely associated with him. While Sony and Disney have a deal in place that allows Tom Holland's Peter Parker to exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that leaves hundreds of characters just sitting around waiting in the wings to be used for the sake of solo franchises. That's what led to "Venom" and, thanks to that movie's success, Sony is looking to other characters to expand what it now calls Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

One of the next characters to get the big-screen treatment will be Madame Web, with the character to be played by Dakota Johnson ("Fifty Shades of Grey," "Suspiria") while S.J. Clarkson ("The Defenders," "Succession") sits in the director's chair. Given that this is a slightly more obscure character (and one with a wild history), we are here to go over her history in the pages of Marvel Comics, her connections to Spider-Man, and what her inclusion in this universe might mean in the grand scheme of things. Let's dig in.

Madame Web's Comic Book Origins

Madame Web first debuted in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #210 as the creation of writer Denny O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr. Cassandra Webb, who eventually becomes an ally of Spider-Man, was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease known as myasthenia gravis, losing her vision as a result. She ends up utilizing a complex life support system that just so happens to look like a spider web -- hence her name. Another item of note is that she is generally depicted as an elderly woman and typically doesn't fight villains herself. That makes Johnson's casting quite interesting and could pave the way for a dramatic re-interpretation of the character for the purposes of the movie.

As far as her powers go, Madame Web is a strong clairvoyant mutant who has precognitive powers in addition to telepathy and a truly impressive intellect. Her first adventure with Spider-Man involved her helping him to find a kidnap victim. Long before he was unmasked as part of the "Civil War" event in the comics, Web was one of the people who actually knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. The two ended up having a long history together with Web serving as a consistent ally. She tends to show up when he is in dire need of guidance and utilizes her clairvoyances to warns him about the possible outcomes of his actions.

One particularly noteworthy event from the comics had to do with something called the Gathering of the Five. During that storyline, Web seeks the aid of Spider-Man to help prevent her impending death. (Clairvoyance: Simultaneously a benefit and a curse.) To prevent this, Peter is tasked with retrieving one of five artifact fragments, with each of the five participants receiving either knowledge, power, immortality, insanity, or death. Luckily for Web, she ends up with immortality, restoring her to youth and curing her myasthenia gravis -- for a time, at least.

In another storyline involving the nefarious Doc Ock, Otto Octavius created a new Spider-Woman using none other than Web's granddaughter, Charlotte Witter. She had the ability to absorb the abilities of each of the other Spider-Women, including Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, and Mattie Franklin. Web brought together the various spider-women to defeat Charlotte, which they ultimately did. However, she still managed to absorb Madam Web's abilities, which ended up making her an elderly woman again while maintaining her immortality.

Madame Web In Other Media

As it turns out, the "Madame Web" movie won't be the character's first foray into another medium, though it will serve as her live-action debut. Many Spider-Man fans of a certain age very likely became familiar with her thanks to her turn in "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" in the '90s. Web showed up in later seasons to help prevent some universe-shattering events, in addition to setting up a loose adaptation of the beloved "Secret Wars" storyline. Taking major liberties with the source material, far fewer heroes were involved, and it pitted Web against the Beyonder.

Web's main purpose in the show was to help prepare Peter for the arrival of Spider-Carnage, who was attempting to destroy all universes. Because of her abilities, Web can sort of traverse various timelines and universes, and though she's not necessarily physically imposing, Web is not to be discounted in terms of her ability to influence major events. Her arcs in the '90s cartoon were a great example of that. (As for other appearances on TV, the Julia Carpenter version of the character also appeared in "Ultimate Spider-Man.")

Another prominent role for the character in another medium was the acclaimed "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" video game, which was released in 2010. Long before "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" made the notion of the multiverse cool for the masses, this game told a wildly ambitious tale involving Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2099. Web gets involved when a tablet is broken, which ends up shattering the dimensions in question.

The Big Picture

So, how does the inclusion of a "Madame Web" movie shake things up for the live-action Marvel multiverse? "Spider-Man: No Way Home" certainly at least opened the door for the Sony films to crossover with the main Marvel Cinematic Universe in some ways, with Tom Hardy's Venom/Eddie Brock making a brief cameo. More than that, much of the larger implication for future crossovers had to do with Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange tearing open the fabric of the multiverse, which brought both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man into the MCU for a time.

We know that Sony also has "Morbius" on the way as well as a "Kraven the Hunter" movie, and there are even rumors that Garfield may not be done just yet. One might imagine that Sony would like a way to unite all of these universes under one roof again, especially when looking at how well "No Way Home" did at the box office. To that end, a report from Deadline discussing the casting of Johnson in this role states that "Insiders say due to her psychic sensory powers, she is essentially Sony's version of Doctor Strange."

That, coupled with the nature of her appearances in projects like "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" and "Shattered Dimensions," could pave the way for some further multiversal madness in the future. It is not a stretch to imagine that the "Madame Web" movie could provide Sony a lynchpin for future, ambitious crossovers. A live-action "Spider-Verse" movie perhaps? That is getting into wild speculation territory, but it's not tough to connect the dots when looking at everything we have out on the table.

The "Madame Web" movie does not yet have a release date set.

Read this next: The 15 Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

The post Who is Madame Web? Comic Book Origins & Spider-Man Connection Explained appeared first on /Film.

Scientific American reports: These are boom times for astronomers hunting black holes. The biggest ones — supermassive black holes that can weigh billions of suns — have been found at the centers of most every galaxy, and we have even managed to image one. Meanwhile, researchers now routinely detect gravitational waves rippling through the universe from smaller merging black holes. Closer to home, we have witnessed the dramatic celestial fireworks produced when the Milky Way's own supermassive black hole and its more diminutive cousins feed on gas clouds or even entire stars. Never before, though, have we seen a long-predicted phenomenon: an isolated black hole drifting aimlessly through space, born and flung out from the collapsing core of a massive star. Until now. Scientists have announced the first-ever unambiguous discovery of a free-floating black hole, a rogue wanderer in the void some 5,000 light-years from Earth. The result, which appeared January 31 on the arXiv preprint server but has not yet been peer-reviewed, represents the culmination of more than a decade of ardent searching. "It's super exciting," says Marina Rejkuba from the European Southern Observatory in Germany, a co-author on the paper. "We can actually prove that isolated black holes are there." This discovery may be just the start; ongoing surveys and upcoming missions are expected to find dozens or even hundreds more of the dark, lonely travelers. "It's the tip of the iceberg," says Kareem El-Badry from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was not involved in the paper.... The odds of seeing such an event for an isolated black hole were slim, but given that millions of stellar-mass black holes are predicted to be drifting through our galaxy, some might turn up in sufficiently broad and deep surveys of the sky.... This black hole's mass offers further evidence that astrophysicists' formation models are correct — that solitary black holes can rise from the ashes of especially hefty stellar progenitors.... Rogue stellar-mass black holes, long predicted but only now observationally confirmed, might well be sufficiently common in our galaxy to support demographic studies of their population. Pinning down their true abundance, masses and other properties could shore up our still-incomplete theories of stellar evolution — or reveal important new gaps in our understanding. "If confirmed, this is a very exciting discovery!" adds the astronomy column at Syfy.com. "We know those black holes are out there, and this research points to how we can find them." The precise astrometry was partly performed using the Hubble Space Telescope over a six-year interval, according to the research paper (shared by Slashdot reader Obipale).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

VMWare Player 3.1.x をアンインストールしないでアップグレードする【BM】
昔の記事ですが、バッチファイルがバニラ向けになってたのを思い出したので、拡張カーネル用にバッチファイルを追加してパックしなおしました。

オプションとして、MSIEXEC 改造版 が入っていると、VMWARE のインストールがスムーズです ･ω･
拡張カーネルだと、ドライバ入れ替えるだけなのでシンプルです( ˘ω˘ )

"All of Us Are Dead" is not just part of a bizarre conspiracy theory about the world ending in 2012; it's also the title of one of the most watched shows on Netflix in the US. Following the success of "Squid Game," the zombie drama has become the second Korean series to dominate Netflix's U.S. daily Top 10 list, rising to #1 on its 7th day of release. That's a milestone for South Korea, which (per Deadline) is the first country to have launched two non-English language TV shows to Netflix's top spot in the U.S.

This comes as no surprise when you consider the fact that, in addition to just being great entertainment, there has been an uptick in the popularity of K-dramas on Netflix in recent years. Specifically, US viewership of Korean media jumped 200% between 2019 and 2021 on the streaming platform. 

South Korea has also increasingly become a major exporter of pop culture and media since the turn of the 21st century, as evidenced by both the increased interest in Korean television shows as well as by the global rise and international popularity of K-pop groups like BTS. This phenomenon, known as the "Korean Wave," is a facet of how internet-facilitated globalization has led to increased accessibility to all types of media, meaning that audiences are no longer limited to their own country's entertainment offerings. Personally, I think that's a beautiful thing.

What Is All Of Us Are Dead About?

"All of Us Are Dead" is based on a webtoon by South Korean cartoonist Joo Dong-geun, titled "Now at Our School." The series ran from 2009 to 2011, and was adapted into a live action series and released by Netflix on January 28, 2022. The official synopsis: 

A high school becomes ground zero for a zombie virus outbreak. Trapped students must fight their way out — or turn into one of the rabid infected.

As far as genre, "All of Us Are Dead" features coming-of-age elements set against a zombie apocalypse horror backdrop. The events of the series takes place primarily in a high school, and the main characters are all teenagers who are trying to survive the aforementioned zombie outbreak — the result of a science experiment gone horribly wrong — that threatens to destroy them all. It's a very different premise to "Squid Game," but still with appeal for those who enjoyed that show's ensemble cast of characters, its nail-biting suspense, and its high-stakes violence.

If you're still on the fence about watching one of Netflix's most popular shows, you can check out the official trailer below.

And if you're ready to dive into "All of Us are Dead," you can watch the series on Netflix right now.

Read this next: The 20 Best Zombie Movies Of All Time

The post All Of Us Are Dead is the New Squid Game, Hitting the #1 Spot on U.S. Netflix appeared first on /Film.

As the saucer lands and local authorities clamor to gain control, you’re likely to hear the eerie tones of a theremin wailing in the soundtrack. Leon Theremin invented the device in 1928. It began its life as a Soviet laboratory curiosity before developing into the instrument we know today.

Apple TV+ has released the trailer for the eight-episode series "Shining Girls." If you, like me, have yet to read the critically-acclaimed book that this is based on, you can be forgiven for not quite understanding it. I watched it several times, and though I was intrigued, I couldn't figure it out. Elisabeth Moss is wonderful to watch, but it appears the trailer for this adaptation of Lauren Beukes' best-selling novel "The Shining Girls: A Novel" is targeting viewers who already know the story. There is a mystery here, and though I've now looked it up, I sort of wish I didn't know. It's always a balance when you're working with content like this, particularly when half of your audience knows the secret and the other half doesn't. 

With that said, I'm going to give you the non-spoiler synopsis now, and I'll speak about what's actually going on after the trailer. Read at your own risk. Though I wish I was going in fresh, I'm still excited to see how it all plays out. Here is the synopsis for "Shining Girls," which will premiere April 29, 2022, with three episodes, and air weekly after that:

Based on Lauren Beukes' best-selling novel, "Shining Girls" follows Kirby Mazrachi (Moss) as a Chicago newspaper archivist whose journalistic ambitions were put on hold after enduring a traumatic assault. When Kirby learns that a recent murder mirrors her own case, she partners with seasoned, yet troubled reporter Dan Velazquez (played by Wagner Moura), to uncover her attacker's identity. As they realize these cold cases are inextricably linked, their own personal traumas and Kirby's blurred reality allow her assailant to remain one step ahead. In addition to Moss and Moura, the gripping drama stars Phillipa Soo with Amy Brenneman and Jamie Bell rounding out the ensemble cast.

He's All The Time

The series was adapted by showrunner Silka Luisa, who also executive produces. Moss stars, directs, and executive produces through Love and Squalor Pictures with Lindsey McManus. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, and Michael Hampton executive produce through Appian Way, and the phenomenal Michelle MacLaren ("Game of Thrones") directs and executive produces with Rebecca Hobbs for MacLaren Entertainment. Daina Reid directs and executive produces. Beukes and Alan Page Arriaga executive produce. That's a whole lot of women on the list, and I'm thrilled to see it. 

SPOILERS ahead. Turn back now. 

Now that the details are out of the way, here is the deal. I won't spoil it all, but this is a time travel story. Though I was confused by the trailer, there are clues that now make sense. There is a singer that is clearly not from the time this is set. The pictures of the missing women all have hairstyles from different eras. Clearly, there is something going on with Kirby and her sense of reality. I'm no psychologist, but I do write books with many of them, so I'm going to give this analysis a shot: After a traumatic experience, people sometimes experience a split sense of reality. You remember who you were before, and that can seem like a different person from a different reality or a different time period. If I'm understanding this correctly, we're looking at the natural fictional extension of that. 

You can also get a few clues from some of the lines about the target of Kirby's investigation, but I only realized that once I knew. I'm not sure how I would have balanced the trailer differently or made it accessible to non-readers. Despite that, it's a fascinating concept and I'm excited to see how it all plays out. 

"Shining Girls" will premiere on Apple TV+ on April 29, 2022.

Read this next: Superman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Shining Girls Trailer: Elisabeth Moss Hunts an Impossible Killer in This Apple TV+ Thriller appeared first on /Film.

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Generational wealth may sound like something reserved for the elite 1% of Americans, unattainable for everyday people. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The term “generational wealth” simply refers to any assets passed on from one family member to another. This could include anything from a family business to stocks, savings, or real estate.

By building generational wealth, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing your family will have financial security even if you aren’t there to provide for them personally. Your family can also enjoy the comfort that this brings, especially if they currently rely on you as a primary earner. But just how do you create generational wealth? This personal finance article can help.

What is generational wealth?

Generational wealth refers to assets that are passed down from one generation to the next generation. This could include investment accounts like stocks and bonds, savings accounts, life insurance policies, and even cash. It could also include things like cars, real estate, jewelry, businesses, and heirlooms or collectibles. Anything with monetary value qualifies — it doesn’t have to be cash.

How to create generational wealth

Generational wealth can help families maintain long-term financial stability and spare individual members from undue hardship. It provides a financial cushion to fall back on while also opening up options — for example, it can help future generations avoid student loan debt. The challenge in building such a buffer, though, is setting up wealth to survive multiple generations. This requires more than simple assets like savings.

Why? A savings account can be chipped away at and depleted over time. Plus, the money in it is very likely to lose value due to inflation. The key to building generational wealth is to invest in assets with growth potential. Here’s how you can get started.

Understand your 401(k)

A 401(k) plan is a type of retirement account with distinct tax advantages. You typically contribute pre-tax earnings to the account, reducing your taxable income (although some plans allow you to contribute post-tax earnings, referred to as a Roth). Many employers will also match what you contribute to your 401(k) up to a certain amount. When you reach the minimum required age of 59 and a half, you can then withdraw from the account without any penalties (there are fees if you touch it before).

If you don’t need the money in your 401(k), you can leave it untouched and designate a beneficiary to inherit it upon your passing. The beneficiary can then access the funds in the account or leverage it for other purposes — for example, it’s possible to borrow from a 401(k). To make the most of your 401(k), though, consider automating your contributions, ensuring steady growth over time.

Set up a trust fund

If you want to pass down assets like a 401(k), house, savings — anything, really — you need to do some legal paperwork. Estate planning is the process of determining what happens to your assets when you pass on. Most people write a will to designate who gets what or set up a trust fund. A trust is a legal entity that holds property or assets, which can then be transferred to designated beneficiaries.

Although it’s a bit more tedious to set up and manage, a trust is usually a smarter option because it reduces gift and estate taxes on assets you leave behind. It also avoids administrative fees associated with probate. This is a legal process that a will must go through before an estate’s assets can be distributed. It involves authenticating the document and paying debts and taxes on the estate.

Another benefit of a trust is that you can create it with strictly defined conditions. For example, you might set up a trust for your children in which they only receive their inheritance in set increments, ensuring they don’t blow all the cash at once. You might also specify that they only get access to their trust after reaching key milestones, like completing their college education.

Invest in the market

Investing in the stock market is a great way to start building wealth, especially in an era when interest rates are low. Investing is easier than ever thanks to online tools that let you manage your own accounts, sparing you the higher fees of managed accounts. The S&P 500 (which tracks the 500 largest American companies’ stocks — from Amazon to Apple) provides returns of about 10%, on average.

If you’re new to investing, you may want to play it safe. Opt for a low-cost index fund, for example. You’ll enjoy low fees while benefiting from long-term growth.

Be smart about how you invest in real estate

Buying real estate is a major investment that isn’t always guaranteed to increase in value over time, so you’ll want to do your research before signing on the dotted line. This is especially true if it’s your first home. Figure out how much of a down payment you can afford, how large of a mortgage you’ll need, and what home loan terms and conditions are available. For example, if you rent the property, the monthly rent should ideally cover your monthly mortgage payment.

To maximize your real estate investment, consider setting it up as a rental property. This will allow you to rely on a largely passive income stream and create a steady cash flow that your loved ones can rely on even if you aren’t there.

Purchase life insurance

Life insurance is a great way to give your family a safety net in case you pass away unexpectedly. It can provide much-needed liquidity and financial security in a difficult time of grief. If you have people who depend on you for monetary assistance — from a spouse to kids — life insurance is a smart investment. There are many options available, so do your research to select a fitting policy.

When purchasing life insurance, you’ll need to designate the beneficiary, the person who will receive the payout upon your passing. Making sure your beneficiaries are up to date is also an important component of comprehensive estate planning. For example, if you get divorced and/or remarried, you may need to update your beneficiaries.

Note that we do NOT recommend whole life insurance as an investment vehicle — it’s much less costly over time to use term life insurance.

Start a business

A family business can be a valuable means of income and a great asset to pass down to future generations. There are many types of businesses you can start these days. For maximum success, look into leveraging your existing talents and resources. What skills and passions do you have that could be used to make money? This article can help you discover potential business ideas.

If you don’t have a lot of money to start a business, don’t stress. There are plenty of low-investment business models, especially in an age when so much business is done online. An internet-based business is convenient because it allows you to skip major expenses like commercial rent, cutting overhead costs. Here are some options to start the brainstorming process.

How to build your own rich life

You don’t need to hire a fancy financial advisor to build generational wealth. Increasing your net worth as described above can help you provide for the future. This kind of family wealth can lay the groundwork for a prosperous second generation, providing a monetary buffer to help ensure a brighter financial future.

If you’re the first generation in your family to build this kind of wealth, it’s important to create a financial plan. That doesn’t mean you have to scrimp and save every penny, pushing all your hard-earned cash into the stock market and other growth assets. You want to enjoy your life, too — not just make money for younger generations.

One way to achieve long-term financial success is through conscious spending. Figure out your money dials (what you truly enjoy spending on) and prioritize those by creating a conscious spending plan. Changing your mindset about money can help you eliminate fears about finances and allow you to get a handle on wealth management. Learn about the “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” mindset to get started.

What Is Generational Wealth and How Do You Create It? is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

Google is trying to salvage its failing Stadia game service with a new focus on striking deals with Peloton, Bungie, and others under the brand "Google Stream." Business Insider reports: When Google announced last year that it was shutting down its internal gaming studios, it was seen as a blow to the company's big bet on video games. Google, whose Stadia cloud service was barely more than a year old, said it would instead focus on publishing games from existing developers on the platform and explore other ways to bring Stadia's technology to partners. Since then, the company has shifted the focus of its Stadia division largely to securing white-label deals with partners that include Peloton, Capcom, and Bungie, according to people familiar with the plans. Google is trying to salvage the underlying technology, which is capable of broadcasting high-definition games over the cloud with low latency, shopping the technology to partners under a new name: Google Stream. (Stadia was known in development as "Project Stream.") The Stadia consumer platform, meanwhile, has been deprioritized within Google, insiders said, with a reduced interest in negotiating blockbuster third-party titles. The focus of leadership is now on securing business deals for Stream, people involved in those conversations said. The changes demonstrate a strategic shift in how Google, which has invested heavily in cloud services, sees its gaming ambitions. Google has continued to prop up the Stadia consumer platform with a steady stream of titles. After Google closed Stadia's internal game studios, known as Stadia Games & Entertainment, insiders said the directive was to build out what was internally dubbed a "content flywheel" -- a steady flow of independent titles and content from existing publishing deals that would be much more affordable than securing AAA blockbusters, two former employees familiar with the conversations said. "The key thing was that they would not be spending the millions on the big titles," one said. "And exclusives would be out of the question." Executives and employees for the Stadia product have also shifted roles. Phil Harrison, the former PlayStation executive Google tapped to run its gaming operations, now reports to the company's head of subscriptions. Patrick Seybold, a Google spokesperson, told Insider in a statement: "We announced our intentions of helping publishers and partners deliver games directly to gamers last year, and have been working toward that. The first manifestation has been our partnership with AT&T who is offering Batman: Arkham Knight available to their customers for free. While we won't be commenting on any rumors or speculation regarding other industry partners, we are still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022. With 200+ titles currently available, we expect to have another 100+ games added to the platform this year, and currently have 50 games available to claim in Stadia Pro."

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