- Does Your Switch OLED Screen Look Weird? We’ve Got A Fix! Nintendo Life
- PSA: Don’t peel off the protective cover on your OLED Switch’s glass screen The Verge
- Nintendo Switch OLED review – a luxury upgrade to a brilliant console The Guardian
- Nintendo Switch My Way – Pokémon™ Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, Mario Party™ Superstars Nintendo
- The OLED Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a Pentile screen The Verge
- View Full Coverage on Google News
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If you want to use the Apple Watch Series 7’s new fast charging, make sure to use the cable in the box
One of the best features on the Apple Watch Series 7 is its newly added fast charging system, which Apple claims is 33 percent and capable of charging the watch to about 80 percent charge in about 45 minutes. But if you want to take advantage of the fast charging, you’ll need to make sure to use the charger that comes with the Series 7, which is a brand new “Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger” that’s different from the old model (which doesn’t offer similar charging speeds).
The old USB-C charger and the new model look identical from the outside, but only the new cable can charge the Series 7 at full speed (assuming you’ve got a USB-C charger that can put out the proper wattage, that is — Apple recommends its own 20W USB-C charger, of course).
And while Apple has already stopped selling the old USB-C charger that doesn’t offer fast charging on its site, they’re still available from other retailers like Amazon, so you’ll want to make sure you’re buying the right one if you’re looking to pick up a spare. It also means that if you own an existing Apple Watch charging dock or stand that has a built-in charger, you won’t be able to take advantage of the faster charging available on the Series 7.
Of course, none of this matters if you own an older Apple Watch: even if you’re using the proper fast charging cable, the fast charging technology still needs a Series 7 watch to work. As Apple’s website notes: “Fast charging is only compatible with Apple Watch Series 7. Other models will have regular charge times.”
Bethesda Congratulates Nintendo On Metroid Dread’s Launch With Special DOOM Artwork
Unless you’ve been living under a giant Morph Ball-shaped rock for the last few months, you’re probably aware that Metroid Dread has launched for Nintendo Switch today. It’s utterly fantastic, and you should definitely go and play it.
Before you do, though, we thought you’d like to check out this special artwork from the team at Bethesda. The studio has congratulated Nintendo on the launch of the new Metroid on social media, sharing a cracking piece of art featuring the Doom Slayer replacing Samus as the box art star.
Here’s a comparison between the piece and Nintendo’s official cover:
Of course, Doomguy now has all the more reason to be associated with Nintendo’s own big guns after being revealed as a Mii Fighter costume for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate earlier this week. Matches between DOOM’s protagonist and Metroid’s Samus will soon be a real possibility – what a crazy world, eh?
Have you picked up a copy of Metroid Dread today? Make sure to let us know in our launch day poll.
Twitch Data Leak Shows Some Streamers Make Hundreds of Thousands Per Month
Leaked data this week from the streaming platform Twitch Interactive revealed that some people can make six-figure monthly incomes from playing videogames in front of a live online audience.
A user of the online chat forum 4chan claimed to have access to the payout information, and several people who called themselves Twitch streamers said many of the figures were consistent with what they had earned. Others said the figures didn’t paint a full picture of their earnings, in part because they didn’t appear to take into account what they make when streaming as part of a group or from third parties.
Twitch broadcasters’ earnings and other company information that was claimed to have been accessed were made public Wednesday. The 4chan user posted the information there to hurt the Amazon.com Inc. unit’s business, the user wrote.
Twitch confirmed a data leak but declined to comment on what information was accessed.
Such data hasn’t been disclosed by Twitch, which was founded in 2011 and acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million in cash. Though the platform is best known for its videogame streamers, many others broadcast themselves playing tabletop games and music, making crafts, exercising and more. One of its most popular categories is called Just Chatting, where streamers discuss all sorts of topics.
Last month, people spent 1.7 billion hours watching Twitch, which is up more than 20% from a year earlier, according to StreamElements, a provider of tools and services for content creators.
The leak announced on 4chan identifies streamers’ monthly revenue-sharing payments from Twitch since August 2019. Last month alone, a videogame streamer in Canada earned approximately $705,000 from the platform, while a group of Dungeons & Dragons players brought in roughly $311,000.
Twitch streamers typically generate revenue from paid subscriptions to their channels and through the platform’s ad-sharing program, which requires certain viewer metrics. For the most popular streamers, Twitch may cut special deals to prevent them from streaming on competing services.
Separately, some Twitch streamers earn income from viewer tips through third-party services as well as sponsorship agreements with brands such as State Farm Insurance. And large videogame publishers, including Electronic Arts Inc. and Activision Blizzard Inc., pay popular Twitch streamers tens of thousands of dollars apiece to play their latest releases on launch day.
Tanya DePass, a 48-year-old Twitch streamer in Chicago who is sponsored by videogame-accessories maker Logitech G, said the data leak is “wildly inaccurate” for those reasons. Further, she said her Twitch earnings vary greatly from month to month. In June 2020, her channel blew up in popularity, which resulted in her receiving her biggest paycheck ever from Twitch a month later.
Ms. DePass, who is Black, attributed the jump to a sudden interest among viewers in Black streamers in response to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man whose 2020 death in police custody was captured on video that went viral. “Anger over George Floyd’s murder mobilized folks to realize we exist,” she said.
Ms. DePass streams herself playing videogames and tabletop games for 10 to 25 hours a week under the name Cypheroftyr. She said she was frustrated by the leak because she thinks it gives people the false impression that streaming is an easy way to make lots of money. In reality, she said it takes a lot of work to promote her channel, keep viewers constantly engaged and handle administrative tasks. Ms. DePass also has had to grapple with racist and sexist taunts. “It’s just exhausting,” she said.
The 4chan user who allegedly posted the Twitch data labeled it “part one,” suggesting there might be more to come.
—Kevin Poulsen contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
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The OLED Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a Pentile screen
The new Nintendo Switch OLED Model doesn’t have a Pentile screen.
That might not mean much to you, and it wasn’t something we were able to confirm definitively during our review process — other than to say that the screen is a huge improvement. Which it is. But there’s been speculation ever since the OLED Switch was announced that its panel might use Pentile technology, which could have had big implications for image quality. Nintendo devices don’t tend to have the best screens, after all.
Pentile is a trademark owned by Samsung that refers to various subpixel matrix layouts most commonly used in OLED display panels. In casual conversation, or as casual as conversations about OLED subpixel layouts can really be, Pentile is now essentially shorthand for “not full RGB,” meaning that red, green, and blue subpixels are shared between pixels rather than each pixel having all three colors itself.
Almost all OLED screens in portable consumer devices use some form of Pentile subpixel layout these days. The benefit of Pentile displays is that they’re cheaper to produce and can last longer. The downside is that they’re functionally lower resolution than an equivalent screen with an RGB stripe, which means you can sometimes see artifacts like dithering and graininess, particularly in high-contrast situations like reading text.
The effect lessens as pixel density increases. Personally, Pentile stopped bothering me on phones when 1080p OLED displays became commonplace, which is to say that I didn’t like the Galaxy S III’s panel but was fine with the Galaxy S4. A 7-inch 720p Pentile screen on a Switch, then, would probably have been an problem. And Nintendo is not known for securing the best screen technologies for its devices — witness the 3DS, where some models randomly came with much better IPS screens than the regular TN LCD panels, with no indication as to which you’d get until you opened the box — so there was reasonable cause for concern over the Switch OLED Model.
Well, turns out there’s no need to worry. My personal OLED Switch preorder just arrived, so of course the first thing I did with it was take a macro photo. Here’s what the screen looks like up close:
This is a white area of the screen, so all the subpixels are lit up. The layout is actually a little unusual, with columns of blue subpixels next to smaller, alternating red and green ones rather than arranging them in uniform RGB lines. The Apple Watch does something similar, and I’m not sure what the advantages of this layout are — it presumably relates to the relative efficiency of each color. But what matters is that as you can see, each and every individual pixel is made up of a single red, green, and blue subpixel, or in other words you’re looking at a full RGB display with the same resolution for all three colors.
For comparison, here’s the iPhone 13 Pro:
You can see how the subpixels are arranged in a complex diamond layout, alternating blue and green on one line and red and green on the next. On displays like this, each pixel is comprised of fewer subpixels compared to LCDs and RGB OLEDs that reserve three specific subpixels for each pixel in the screen — the “green resolution” is actually higher than the other two colors. As I said before, it’s not really an issue on devices with such sharp panels, but the image quality can break down when pixels are visible to the naked eye.
It’s not necessarily a big surprise that the new Switch went with RGB — the original PS Vita had an RGB-stripe OLED display ten years ago — but you never know with Nintendo. There just aren’t that many 720p OLED displays of this size these days, or RGB OLED displays in general, so it was certainly an open question.
Anyway, glad to clear that up. Now I’m off to play Metroid Dread.
SVP of Android offers open invitation to help Apple put RCS texting on the iPhone
In a tweet earlier today, Google SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer called on Apple to support RCS, the next-generation texting standard that’s supposed to supplant SMS. He offered an “open invitation to the folks who can make this right” and said “we are here to help.” Translation: the “folks” are Apple and “we are here to help” is Google’s offer to assist Apple in implementing the new standard.
RCS is finally starting to gain traction around the world. Its biggest champion has been Google, which finally landed on using it as the default texting solution for Android phones after trying every other solution. RCS is far from perfect, but it’s clearly superior to SMS (which is, of course, a low bar). After securing deals from US carriers to commit to the standard in the next year, Google is setting its sights on a new target for evangelism: Apple.
Apple has yet to reply with comment to any inquiry from The Verge over several years on whether it intends to support RCS on the iPhone, and declined to comment on this story. It seems unlikely that RCS is coming to iOS anytime soon.
Group chats don’t need to break this way. There exists a Really Clear Solution. Here’s an open invitation to the folks who can make this right: we are here to help. https://t.co/4P6xfsQyT0
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) October 7, 2021
Lockheimer’s tweet followed a cheeky chain of tweets that started with a story about how pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau was breaking iMessage group chats with his green bubbles, which led to the official Android account cringingly drawing a parallel between green bubbles and the famous Masters green jacket. Lockheimer jokes that there is a “Really Clear Solution” (RCS) to group chats not breaking.
RCS has had a long, convoluted (and unfinished) slog towards becoming the default texting experience on Android. Beginning in March 2021, Google began securing deals from US carriers to get them to commit to using Google’s Android Messages app as the default on all Android phones sold on their networks. It started with a blockbuster deal with T-Mobile, followed later by smaller deals with AT&T and Verizon. Once all those deals are implemented, Android users who text each other will switch over to RCS, which supports typing indicators, better group chats, and bigger multimedia messages.
Importantly, RCS on Android Messages also supports end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats. That will mean Android users texting each other will have a higher level of privacy and security than when they text iPhone users — and vice versa. A recent hack on SMS company Syniverse is just the latest example of why encryption is important in messaging — especially for the default.
RCS has problems of its own, though. As with iMessage, it’s possible for messages to get lost in limbo when switching phones. It’s also a standard that is championed by Google but theoretically agreed upon by carriers around the world. The association with Google has tainted RCS in the eyes of many, and of course requiring carriers to agree on anything is a recipe for problems. There are also technical limitations, as Ron Amadeo explains here.
Nevertheless, it seems inevitable that RCS will replace SMS eventually — but only if Apple decides to support it. As more carriers adopt it and as more users realize that SMS is inherently less secure, Apple could begin to feel enough pressure to adopt RCS. Thus far, however, it hasn’t shown any signs of that.
New hacks reveal tech secrets in spreading guerrilla war – The Washington Post
New hacks reveal tech secrets in spreading guerrilla war The Washington Post
The internet has successfully killed YouTube’s “Rewind” videos
Since 2011, each November of December, YouTube would put a video called “Rewind” that looked back on the platform’s most popular trends and video creators of that year as a celebration of all the great stuff that people had uploaded to YouTube. It was advertising for YouTube, a PR move to make itself look good and promote its community, and it was also advertising for whichever YouTube people were lucky enough to get into the video, none of which should—on its own—be especially controversial.
And yet YouTube has always had a remarkable ability to egregiously fuck things up, and the 2018 video in particular quickly became (at least at the time) one of the most disliked videos on the entire platform. There were multiple reasons for that, with some users being upset that the “Rewind” video prominently featured normal celebrities like Will Smith rather than real YouTube people. Others were upset that prominent YouTube people like Logan Paul and PewDiePie were completely left out, even though this was after they had both done various awful things.
As we pointed out at the time, the backlash was emblematic of the massive gap between how YouTube wants to be perceived—which is as a positive platform for self-expression—and the actual reality we live in where YouTube is often a roiling cesspool of hatred and evil. In 2019, YouTube avoided the potentially unpopular video route and condensed its most popular trends into lists, which also doesn’t seem like the best way to do it.
It was hardly surprising, then, that YouTube finally seemed to get the message in 2020 when it decided that there was really nothing about the platform worth commemorating that year. What were they going to say? “Gather around for the biggest and most star-studded COVID denial videos!”
Now, in a rare move that pretty much everyone can get behind for one reason or another, YouTube has announced that its much-maligned “Rewind” videos are dead forever. Good work, everybody. Well, medium work, because “Rewind” will live on in some other form. According to Tubefilter, YouTube has decided that one annual video can’t represent “the full breadth” of YouTube people’s work, so it’s going to stop “Rewind” and come up with a new kind of “experience” to replace it.
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Maybe YouTube can create a few different recap videos for its various audiences? One with YouTube celebrities, one with actual celebrities, and one with the biggest pieces of shit who help YouTube keep the lights on even though nobody will admit it.
Twitch Streamers React To Leaked Incomes With Jokes, Criticism
An anonymous hacker leaked payroll information for every streamer on Twitch yesterday, and predictably, the revealed incomes have become an inescapable topic of conversation for streamers in their Twitch chats and on social media. The range of reactions to the leak has been vast, with some streamers making light of the matter, and others seeing it as an opportunity to spotlight longstanding issues with the livestreaming platform.
Yesterday, Twitch confirmed that “a breach had taken place.” While the company investigated the hack, prominent streamers took to Twitter to react.
Jack Manifold (JackManifoldTV), along with multiple other high-profile streamers, joked about the leak: “It is completely unfair that I am that far down the list, and I will be doing everything in my power to pump up that number going forward; for you guys!” Meanwhile, some streamers referred to each other by their ranked placement on the leaked list. Ludwig Anders Ahgren (ludwig), one of the biggest earners on the platform, jokingly replied to another streamer with “don’t speak unless spoken to, #486.” Several Twitch creators even updated their Twitter handles to incorporate their ranking among Twitch earners.
Other streamers such as Charles White Jr. (moistcr1tikal) expressed surprise at the public reaction to the disclosed figures, citing the fact that it was possible to calculate a streamer’s ballpark income from a channel’s subscriber count.
Super weird to see people freak out about twitch income and act like it was some big secret when sub count is publicly available. Take that number and multiple by 2.5 or 3.5 and you’re there. I made a whole video on it; it’s not the krabby patty formula, it’s basic shit
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Hasan Piker (HasanAbi), one of the platform’s biggest earners who recently generated strong public reactions for buying a house, jokingly anticipated being at the center of another firestorm, tweeting: “just woke up to some fun news. cant wait for ppl to be mad at me about my publicly available sub count again.”
Other streamers such as Smash Bros. commentator Phil Visu (EEvisu) ribbed more successful streamers for not being more generous with their Twitch earnings.
Twitch leak just made me realize my millionaire friends are cheap, how we hit Wendy’s and you ain’t picking up the tab Mr. 100k a month? Smh why TF we even at Wendy’s?!
However, other reactions were more serious.
Creators such as variety streamer and host Brandon Stennis (iamBrandon) were disappointed at how Twitch handled the leaks, citing a lack of communication with streamers who were affected.
With a big leak breach like Twitch has, why didn’t they email this information to people and only talked about it on Twitter? I mean its a bit of a huge deal if information like this is out. Not everyone is on Twitter.
Popular streamer Anthony DiMarco (ChilledChaos) was less than impressed with some people’s reactions to the largest doxxing that the Twitch community has ever experienced. Apparently, several streamers have had problems with chat participants behaving badly about the leaks.
Bro…if you make shitty Twitch Leak jokes and get banned by my friends, don’t come to my chat complaining. Because you are also going to get banned. “How does it feel to be XYZ compared to someone else”?
Streamer group Black Girl Gamers, meanwhile, saw the leaks as an opportunity to highlight the opportunity disparities for marginalized content creators on the platform.
The leak is proof of what we’ve been saying all along regarding the lack of diversity at the top, that’s all.
And Tanya DePass (cypheroftyr), director of the nonprofit organization I Need Diverse Games, was disappointed that the leaks gave some audience members ammunition with which to devalue the labor and costs of content creation.
Watching people spin out over the Twitch earnings numbers, especially the pearl clutching over [Critical Role] & adding the [Kickstarter] funds; reveal how little some folks know about how much content costs to create.
Apple’s AirPods are a steal at $109
Apple’s AirPods are no stranger to a decent deal, but they’re selling for close to their lowest price yet at Amazon and Walmart. You can pick up the set that includes a wired charging case for $109 (originally $159). These don’t have the same great sound quality or active noise cancellation found in the more costly AirPods Pro. Still, the standard AirPods might surprise you. I picked up a set a few months ago after being a holdout, and they sound good enough for casual listening, but the best feature to me is their fast and strong wireless connection.
The set of AirPods that includes a wireless charging case for Qi chargers, but is otherwise the same as the set above, is down to $129 at Amazon (originally $199).
Alternatively, if you want wireless earbuds from Apple’s Beats that have better sound quality, active noise cancellation, and USB-C charging (making them just as handy for Android as they are for iOS), consider the Beats Studio Buds. Normally $150, they’re $125 at Amazon in a few colors. These also include a wired charging case, but the similarities with the AirPods above stop there. The Studio Buds include three sizes of ear tips so you can find the right fit for your ears. Read our review.
If you’re looking for voice control of smart home devices and prefer the Google Assistant over Amazon Alexa or Apple’s Siri, B&H and Best Buy have the best deal right now on the second-generation Nest Mini. The tiny smart speaker is 50 percent off at both retailers, dropping to just $25.
The Nest Mini doesn’t compete with Google’s own Nest Audio for sound quality, but generation to generation, its audio quality improvements are most noticeable when you mount it to a wall. Also, the fabric covering and color options ensure they should complement your home decor with a touch of style. Read our review.
The latest and greatest streaming box from Apple brings plenty to the table with Dolby Vision and Atmos support, 4K HDR, and support for Apple services like Apple TV Plus and Fitness Plus, but you might just love it because they finally improved the remote. Gone is the frustrating trackpad-focused remote of the prior model, now replaced with sizable physical buttons. If you own a previous Apple TV box, the speed improvements here should make upgrading worth the cost.
While you can get a nice $169 price directly from Apple on a refurbished model, the best deal on a new in-box version of the Apple TV 4K is at Adorama for $159. This discount of $20 was popular enough to quickly get backordered, but Adorama is still taking orders for the sale price and will not charge your card until the item ships. Read our review.
Other deals you might be interested in
- This Philips Hue smart bridge (refurbished) is available at Woot for $35. These normally cost $60 new. Some Hue bulbs support Bluetooth and don’t require this bridge, but all bulbs (Bluetooth or not) play nicely with it. The bridge allows you to more quickly control your bulbs and lets you have more of them running in your house.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for the Nintendo Switch is $40 at Best Buy, a $20 price cut.
- Gigabyte’s spec-packed Aero 15 OLED is $1,799 after a $500 mail-in rebate over at Newegg. You’ll pay $2,299 today, though. It has a 15.6-inch 4K OLED display, Intel’s Core i7-11800H, Nvidia’s RTX 3080 graphics chip, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and it comes with a copy of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy once it comes out.