While Cyberpunk 2077 didn't have the smoothest launch, it's been getting regular fixes and adjustments over the last year, and now an expansion is not only confirmed, but we know it'll be arriving next year. That's quite the wait, and with a few more years it would actually be 2077 (we kid), for the ultimate headset-free VR experience.
On Thursday's financial call, CD Projekt Red revealed that the expansion will be arriving sometime in 2023. There are no details now on what the new content will be like, but it did also confirm that there would be more details later this year.
CD Projekt Red also reaffirmed continuing support for the game, which comes as no surprise after the massive 1.5 patch in February. It was welcome, if slow to arrive, and introduced PS5 and Xbox Series versions and a huge list of refinements, fixes, and changes.
As it was mentioned in @CDPROJEKTRED_IR financial call moments ago, Cyberpunk 2077's upcoming expansion will arrive in 2023. Please stay tuned for more details coming later this year 🦾 https://t.co/rq1w6RDTDLApril 14, 2022
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There's a huge shopping list most players can make for Cyberpunk 2077 fixes. From extensions to the customization of V and their vehicles, increased depth and complexity of the NPCs and AI behavior, to agency and depth in the backstory system for V, but all seem unlikely with an expansion this far out from the main release. Instead, what's most likely is a suite of content additions, bringing new vehicles, new weapons and cyberware, and new quests and areas to drift through on your stolen cyberbike and shoot up in duels with gangers.
A welcome change that's possible would be some additional depth to the hacking systems for netrunners, and also the options available for the lackluster crafting system. It would be cool to see more quests able to be resolved, lore discovered, or missions deconstructed through the use of Intelligence-focused builds, and likewise, to bring some customization and flair to being a Technical character. The Crafting skill is a particularly boring one, with lots of perks exclusively unlocking higher rarities of crafting.
But maybe I'm just biased in wanting grappling hook launchers in my arms, or to make smart guns that cook me some eggs first thing in the morning.
If waiting for Cyberpunk 2077's expansion has you needing to fill hours, we had some high opinions in our Dying Light 2 review.
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Wikipedia's community of editors has voted to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations after an intense, months-long debate.
The vote – 232 for, 94 against – means that the proposal now goes to the Wikimedia Foundation for consideration, which isn't bound to accept it.
The discussion was started by Wikipedia user Molly White, known as GorillaWarfare, who runs the excellent Web3 is going just great blog, highlighting frequent oddities in the crypto space.
Extremely risky
"Cryptocurrencies are extremely risky investments that have only been gaining popularity among retail investors," White wrote back in January 2022. "I do not think we should be endorsing their use in this way."
One of the core reasons was that Bitcoin and ether, the two most popular currencies, use a proof-of-work model that requires huge amounts of computation power.
One of the main debates within the Web3 space right now is over proof-of-work versus proof-of-stake, a newer and less energy-intensive model that – if all goes to plan – Ethereum will eventually switch to.
In an email to Ars Technica, the Wikimedia Foundation said: "We are aware of the community's request that the Foundation consider ending our acceptance of donations in cryptocurrency. Our Fundraising team is reviewing the request and related discussions and we will provide additional information once they complete that process."
Hungry hippos
One popular estimate – which, it's worth noting, is dispute – shows that Bitcoin uses around 200 TWh of energy per year, or as much as 70 million people in Thailand.
As the climate crisis worsens, that much energy being consumed by an asset that is fairly useless outside of speculation is a very questionable thing to be happening.
Proponents of accepting cryptocurrencies at Wikipedia argued that the energy use comes from mining, not using the currency.
Similar debates have been raging at Mozilla, another independent web darling, which received a lot of criticism after a tweet referenced accepting donations in crypto.
The browser maker has since retreated and said it won't accept such donations in the future.
You’ve probably heard a lot about cloud gaming. The game library isn’t big. You’ve got to re-buy games you already own. It’s inferior to PC gaming. The lag makes most games unplayable. Depending on the cloud gaming platform, some of these things may be true. But NVIDIA is setting the record straight with GeForce NOW. The technology has come a long way, and the performance and features on offer can provide parity with PC gaming in ways you likely didn’t realize.
The graphics aren’t that good?
If you’ve tried to stream content over a poor internet connection, you might run into bad visuals. But with a strong internet connection, you’ll realize just how much power is under the hood in GeForce NOW to provide exceptional visuals. NVIDIA offers an RTX 3080 membership for GeForce NOW that provides an experience the vast majority of gamers aren’t getting out of their gaming PCs or consoles. There’s enough muscle there to deliver 1440p at 120fps or 4K HDR. Nvidia’s RTX real-time ray tracing is also available to provide life-like reflections and lighting, a rendering technique that takes serious power and will make a lot of computers sweat.
And all of that power is running behind the scenes, in the cloud, so you can enjoy it on your phone, MacBook, streaming device, or even a modest Chromebook. Just about whatever you can connect to the internet with and connect a controller or keyboard and mouse too. Running that heavy processing in the cloud also means the electric bill and heat in your room aren’t going up like they would from a local PC.
The lag makes games unplayable?
If your internet is having a lag spike, your online games are going to be unplayable whether you’re using the cloud or a local system. But with fast internet, you’ll find GeForce NOW more than up to the task of offering a responsive gaming experience. NVIDIA’s servers offer stable performance that can help provide consistent frame rendering times, helping minimize that component of lag. With the RTX 3080 Membership, you’ll get a boost from even faster frame rendering and more efficient encoding. On a modest internet connection, your inputs will likely feel as responsive as gaming on a console. NVIDIA also has plenty of tips on optimizing your latency. As NVIDIA has expanded its service, you’ll have an easier time finding servers that may be closer to you (and therefore reduce ping).
(Image credit: NVIDIA)
There aren’t enough games?
If you’re looking at the wrong gaming service, it might feel like there aren’t enough games to play. If you look at the huge list of titles supported on GeForce NOW, you might change your mind. GeForce NOW has a library of more than 1,000 games, including AAA titles from the most popular publishers like EA Ubisoft, Epic, and more as well as critically acclaimed indie hits. Its library includes graphically stunning games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Far Cry 6 with RTX On and DLSS for superb visuals and exceptional performance. The service also offers almost 100 free-to-play titles, including industry titans like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Destiny 2.
You’ve got to pay for games you already bought?
Depending on the cloud gaming service, you might have to buy a game again even though you already have it in your PC gaming library. Fortunately, NVIDIA GeForce NOW isn’t one of those services. This subscription is for the PC gaming rig in the cloud, not for the games. In fact, you can log into Steam, Uplay, Epic Games Store, and GOG.com to access your libraries and play supported games through GeForce NOW. Not only do you not need to re-purchase them, you also don’t need to wait to download them or update them. That’s especially handy if you like to game on a lot of different devices. You won’t be downloading the game a half dozen times, and you won’t even have to find storage space for your games. The amount you’d need to spend on storage to keep a thousand games available on all your devices at a moment's notice makes the $10-$20 subscription cost of GeForce NOW look like even more of a bargain than it already is.
You can’t play with your friends?
You have to be on a console to game with your console friends, and you have to be on a PC to game with your PC friends, right? That’s just it — when you use GeForce NOW, you are using a gaming PC. That gaming PC is in the cloud, but it’s still a gaming PC. You can link up with your friends just the same as if you were on your own local PC. For games that support cross-play, you won’t miss out on that functionality either.
If you’re still skeptical about cloud gaming, why not let NVIDIA GeForce NOW prove it’s the real deal. You can sign up for a subscription here to reap all the benefits of the service, from 4K HDR or 1440p/120fps to near-instant game downloads and PC gaming across a huge range of devices. You can even try the service for free to get a taste. And if you think it’s good now, you should know it just keeps getting better. To stay up to speed on all the new games and developments on the service, you can tune in weekly for the GFN Thursdays blog or follow GeForce NOW on Facebook and Twitter.
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Building on its VPN and secure email service, Proton has launched an encrypted calendar app for Android as part of its mission to create a better internet where privacy is the default.
Proton Calendar first launched on desktop back in 2020 and last year, the company released a beta version of its encrypted mobile calendar app.
While securing your calendar may not be the first thing that comes to mind in regard to protecting your privacy, it actually contains loads of personal data including who you meet and where you meet. As this information deserves the same level of protection as your email and files, Proton has stepped up to create the most secure calendar around.
Unlike other calendar apps, all of the event details including event names, participants, locations, notes and descriptions in Proton Calendar are fully encrypted to prevent others from gaining access to your schedule.
Proton Calendar for Android
Proton Calendar for Android includes a full set of advanced features and functionalities so it can easily replace Google Calendar or any other calendar app you may currently be using.
With Proton Calendar installed on your Android smartphone, you can easily switch between day, schedule and month view to see your calendar as you like and Proton has also created a widget which you can add to your home screen for a bird’s eye view of your upcoming events.
Proton has even included both a light and dark mode with the option to easily switch between the two as well as the ability to set multiple reminders on your phone and by email to ensure you’re always on time.
For those interested in switching to Proton Calendar, there are two ways to do so. First off, you can import your existing calendar by using Easy Switch from the settings menu of your ProtonMail account. However, you can also import a local calendar file with the .ics file extension directly into Proton Calendar.
Once your events arrive in Proton Calendar, they are automatically encrypted to help keep your data, plans and whereabouts private.
After falling victim to a data breach last year, the US telecom T-Mobile hired a third-party which tried to buy back the company’s stolen data before it could be widely distributed online.
As reported by Motherboard, the plan was ultimately unsuccessful as the cybercriminals responsible continued to sell the company’s data on an online hacking forum despite being paid a total of $200k to delete their copy.
The news outlet only recently learned that a third-party hired by T-Mobile tried to buy back the telecom’s stolen customer data following the Department of Justice unsealing an indictment against Diogo Santos Coelho who is allegedly the administrator of the notorious hacking site RaidForums.
While Coelho was arrested in the UK back in March of this year, an affidavit regarding his extradition to the US contained new information on the T-Mobile data breach though the company was not named outright.
Purchasing stolen data from cybercriminals
According to the affidavit, a RaidForums’ user going by the handle “SubVirt” made the original post on the site offering to sell a stolen database containing the social security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s licenses and other sensitive information of 124m T-Mobile customers.
An employee of the third-party hired by T-Mobile responded to the post and bought a sample of the data in the database for $50k in Bitcoin. After reviewing the sample, they then went on to purchase the entire database for around $150k on the condition that SubVirt would delete their copy of the data. This would limit T-Mobile’s customer data from ending up in the hands of other cybercriminals that could use it to commit fraud, identity theft, phishing attacks and other cybercrimes.
After being paid $200k for the database, SubVirt and the other hackers behind the breach continued to try and sell the company’s stolen customer data on RaidForums. While the court documents don’t name the third-party hired by T-Mobile, in a statement back in August, the company’s CEO Mike Sievert explained that its investigation into the breach had been “supported by world-class security experts Mandiant from the very beginning”.
Paying cybercriminals is not out of the ordinary and it routinely occurs when organizations fall victim to ransomware attacks. Just like in this case though, cybercriminals may not keep up their end of the bargain which is why the FBI and other law enforcement agencies say to never pay a ransom.
Apple has released the next version of Final Cut Pro, version 10.6.2, and introduces a host of new improvements and new features, including optimizations for Mac Studio workstations, and introduces new Duplicate Detection and Voice Isolation features.
For the Mac Studio, the new update is somewhat vague other than indicating that there have been optimizations for playback and graphics performance on both the M1 Max and M1 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio, but users should see an overall improvement in performance.
Duplicate detection, as the name suggests, searches for duplicate ranges within the timeline and marks the clips for easier editing, something that would be especially helpful for long-form content.
Meanwhile, Voice Isolation, as the name suggests, is a feature that uses machine learning to isolate voice frequencies from other sounds in the background.
Other improvements to Final Cut Pro include updates to its companion apps Motion and Compressor, various updates to Tracker Options/Object Tracker, and other performance and reliability enhancements.
iMovie has also been updated to its 3.0 version, which adds Storyboards and Magic Movie features.
NordSecurity’s encrypted cloud storage service NordLocker is expanding beyond consumers with the launch of its new business product aimed at protecting corporate data for organizations around the world.
NordLocker Cloud for business supports all file types and offers secure and convenient login methods including multi-factor authentication (MFA) as well as third-party logins from Google and Apple.
Just like its consumer offering, NordLocker’s new business product prevents important files from getting lost or exposed through the use of end-to-end encryption with encryption keys stored both on device and in the cloud. NordLocker Cloud for business also employs the world’s top cryptography algorithms and ciphers such as AES-256, ECC, and XChaCha20-Poly1305-IETF.
Head of product at NordLocker, Aivaras Vencevicicus explained in a press release how launching an encrypted cloud storage service for business was the next logical step forward for the company, saying:
“We introduced NordLocker as a robust file encryption tool in 2019. Since then, the product has undergone a few solid development phases and is now positioned as an end-to-end encrypted cloud storage option with a file encryption solution. It was only natural for us to move forward and launch an encrypted cloud service for business clients to offer a secure, convenient, and cost-effective way to store and manage their data.”
(Image credit: NordLocker)
NordLocker Cloud for business
NordLocker Cloud for business is easy to set up and doesn’t require any additional infrastructure or advanced technical skills for organization’s deploying the company’s encrypted cloud storage solution.
The service’s Admin Panel provides a centralized solution that allows company admins to manage all users in a single place. At launch, admin functionalities include license distribution as well as role and access management though NordLocker plans to roll out account and file recovery, user groups, and user activity logs soon.
Each NordLocker business user gets a Locker Share functionality that makes it possible for coworkers to securely share entire lockers (encrypted folders) with both those inside their organization as well as with outside partners. Sharing files is also simple as users just need to type in the email address of the receiver.
Businesses can choose from two plans though there is also the option to get in touch directly with NordLocker to get a plan tailored to their organization. The less expensive plan costs $8.99 per user per month on an annual subscription and includes 500GB of encrypted cloud storage while the more expensive plan costs $14.99 per user per month and includes 2TB of encrypted cloud storage.
Google’s plan to transform Google Pay from a mere mobile payments app to a “comprehensive digital wallet” could be one step closer to implementation now that a new “Wallet” icon has emerged.
As reported by 9to5Google which saw the icon in question, the search giant’s new “Wallet” icon makes use of the colors green, yellow, red and blue just like Gmail, Drive, Meet and the rest of the company’s other mobile apps.
However, unlike the current GPay logo that is made up of two multi-colored, interlocking arcs, the new icon features an actual wallet in blue with red, yellow and green cards inside it. At the same time, the new icon is less obvious than the Google Pay icon which features a multicolored “G” next to the word “Pay”.
Not only is the new icon a welcome sight compared to those of GPay and Google Pay but it also fits with Google’s plans to to turn Google Pay into a comprehensive virtual wallet that goes beyond payments.
A comprehensive digital wallet
Following Google pulling the plug on its banking and personal finance service Plex in October of last year, the company hired a former PayPal executive to help reset its strategy.
Google now wants Pay to “become the connective tissue for the entire consumer finance industry” according to Bloomberg and this includes working together with partners in the cryptocurrency space.
As Google Pay transforms from a mobile payments app to a comprehensive digital wallet, the service could also be used to store “digital tickets, airline passes and vaccine passports” in a similar way to Apple Wallet.
While the new “Wallet” icon could end up replacing the current one for Google Pay, Google still has plenty of challenges to overcome when it comes to payments. This is because GPay is available in the US, India and Singapore while Google Pay is available in the rest of the world. Both apps also have different features as GPay includes support for peer-to-peer payments, purchasing transit passes, paying for parking and gas and more while Google Pay only shows a carousel of stored payment cards and passes.
Although the new “Wallet” icon gives an idea as to Google Pay’s future, we’ll have to wait until we hear more from the company itself regarding how its mobile payments app will be transformed into a comprehensive digital wallet.
