Free Games

• Epic

• • Moonlighter

  • • 2018
    • Action RPG that has you managing your shop by day, working with inventory and making money to expand your town, and exploring dungeons and fighting hordes of enemies by night to earn loot

  • This War of Mine

  • • 2014
    • War survival game inspired by the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, it focuses on the civilian experience of making difficult decisions and trying to keep your people alive by gathering and crafting resources while avoiding snipers and hostile scavengers

Security warning

• there are eight different browser extensions out there that are stealing data from millions of customers and a long list of companies including Apple, Walmart, Amazon, 23AndMe, SpaceX, Skype, and many more
• The extensions are
• • Branded Surveys (Chrome)
  • FairShare Unlock (Chrome and Firefox)
  • HoverZoom (Chrome)
  • Panel Community Surveys (Chrome)
  • PanelMeasurement (Chrome
  • SaveFrom.netHelper (Firefox)
  • SpeakIt! (Chrome)
  • SuperZoom (Chrome and Firefox)
• The tracking activity has been reported to Chrome and Mozilla, who have disabled the add-ons and removed them from their marketplaces, but even after being disabled they continue to track and send user data
• • The only way to stop them is to completely uninstall the extensions involved
• Leaked data includes user names, addresses, credit card info, passwords, files stored in the cloud, tax returns, genetic information, medical history… the list goes on
• It just goes to show that we need to be careful about what browser extensions we download and use, since even though they’re on an official storefront doesn’t mean they’re safe

Nintendo has officially responded to the Joy-Con drift controversy

• An American law firm is investigating a potential class action lawsuit
• Their official stance is that affected players should visit support.nintendo.comand open a ticket to get your controllers repaired
• • This ticketing system seems to be a new development, since as recently as July 19th they just had basic troubleshooting steps like updating your system and recalibrating your Joy-Cons
• Even with Nintendo offering repairs many people aren’t satisfied, citing high repair costs ($50 CAD out of warranty), slow turnaround, and the drift issues coming back very quickly (in some cases within days)
• • Systems carry a 12 month warranty, but controllers bought separately are only covered for 3 months
  • There are also a few unsubstantiated reports of Nintendo offering free out-of-warranty repairs, and refunds to people that already paid out of pocket, but it hasn’t been consistent so far.
• It’ll be interesting to see how the Switch Lite fares, with its built-in controllers

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is now slated to launch this September

• They’ve apparently extended the plastic layer reviewers were peeling off to sit under the bezels, making it clear that it’s not supposed to be removed, and added reinforcements to protect the display from dirt and debris getting under it
• End of the day this is still a $2000 USD concept tablet that folds into a phone with a surprisingly small screen, but we’ll see what people think of it this fall

FaceApp is under fire for processing photos and device-related data in Russia

• A new warning tells users that photos will be uploaded to servers and not processed on their devices, but that was just added last week
• Another piece to note is that you’re granting them a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use your data

Google Stadia’s director was on a Reddit AMA recently trying to reassure people that paying money for games that exist only in their service is completely safe

• He went on to compare it to Gmail, Docs, Music, etc that have persisted for years
• He declined to mention things like Nest, Google+, Inbox, and Reader, which have all been shut down. In many cases with little notice and no replacement on offer
• If you want to see their track record you can check out killedbygoogle.com

Overwatch’s new Tank Sigma

ROLE

SIGMA ABILITIES

Primary Fire – Hyperspheres

• Fires limited ranged projectiles that can bounce off of walls. The orbs explode after a certain range and do area damage. This does 120 damage if you direct hit both of the orbs.

Experimental Barrier

• This is Sigma’s main shield and what he will use to prevent damage for your team. It starts with 1,500 HP and can be placed on the map in front of you. It moves forward until you release the shield button. You press the button again to bring the shield back to you. The shield is just like Reinhardt’s shield where it needs to be recharged, and doesn’t have a separate health pool like Orisa’s shield.

Accretion

• Gathers rocks and throws them. Hitting a target at close range will only deal damage, further away targets will be hit by a knock-back and CC.

Kinetic Grasp

• Absorbs in coming damage and converts the damage up to 400 shield for Sigma.

Ultimate Ability – Gravitic Flux

• Sigma’s ultimate ability floats Sigma into the air (you can kind of fly around slowly) and allows you to place a black hole like ability on the ground. Any enemy within this area gets floated up into the air, and eventually they are slammed down onto the ground for 50% of their hp. You can fire Hyperspheres immeddiately after you’ve set the black hole.

• For Quick play and Ranked

Tidbits

• This week has brought new updates to iOS and watchOS, including releasing ECG and irregular heart rhythm notification functionality in Canada and Singapore
• • The walkie-talkie feature has also been re-enabled, and you can now migrate to a new iPhone by wirelessly connecting it to your old one; no computer required!
• Amazon is apparently using police departments in the US to advertise their Ring seurveillance cameras in exchange for free products and access to an interactive map of active cameras where they can request footage stored in the cloud
• • The access is without a warrant, which is pretty damning, and Amazon’s agreement requires police to “keep the terms of this program confidential”, which means they clearly know it’s shady
• Stjepan Sejic (styapun shayitch), the Croatian artist known as Nebezial online and behind the very popular Sunstone comic, is officially bringing his Harley Quinn origin story concept to DC
• • Harleen will be a 3 book series with oversized, 60 page volumes, and follow Dr Quinzel’s descent into madness as she grows more and more attached to the Joker

Alan recommends the Pokemon Go Team Rocket event

For more content, Patreon supports get access to upcoming ideas and more!