Best Internet Providers in Seattle - CNET

This Pacific Northwest gem has lots to offer. But where does it stand on home broadband options? Find out about cheap options and affordable, fast plans.

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Reveil is a first-person story-driven thriller that looks like it takes a page out of the infamous PT horror manual. 

The upcoming psychological horror game Reveil seems like a psychedelic trip down memory lane with mind-bending maps and never-ending corridors not all the dissimilar to PT. 

In what seems to be a mentally challenging story, players will have to solve various puzzles to unlock the clues to our protagonist, Walter Thompson's past in an effort to save his missing daughter and wife. 

The new trailer released at the Future Games Show Summer Showcase depicted uncanny rooms, mysterious forests, and a particularly unwelcoming circus. The warped reality that Walter navigates looks like it'll confuse and terrorize players until the very end. What more could you want from a PT-style horror game? 

Reveil will be comprised of five playable acts that'll take place in different locations that have been carefully designed to mess with the player's mind, with some slight nods to the themes of memory and mystery in What Remains of Edith Finch. The first-person narrative experience will also include puzzles and riddles, meaning that this game isn't a walk in the park. 

There's been no release date announced yet so while you wait, why not check out some terrifying titles found on our best horror games list or even the new psychological horror Amnesia: The Bunker?

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Solar Panel Maintenance Guide: You Need to Clean Your Panels - CNET

Solar panels don't have much in the way of moving parts, so they don't require a lot of upkeep. But there are a few things you should do regularly.

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US Solar Panel Installations Boom at Start of 2023 - CNET

The record quarter is due in part to supply chain gridlock easing up and to President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

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Latest Tech News

Spotify is currently working on a new playlist that will automatically download recently played songs to your device for when the internet connection is spotty.

This information comes from the platform’s own CEO, Daniel Ek, who posted a screenshot of the upcoming feature called Offline Mix to his Twitter account. Details are slim as Ek doesn’t mention any other specifics about the playlist, but there are a couple of clues. First, one of the intended use cases of Offline Mix seems to be on flights where phone signals are basically nonexistent. Secondly, you'll be able to download hours of music onto smartphones. The image Ek provided shows the service can store up to three and a half hours of offline content.

It is already possible to download songs from Spotify for offline listening. The main difference between the two is the current method requires you to manually get tracks one by one whereas this new method removes all the busy work. Basically, Offline Mix is Spotify’s version of smart downloads on YouTube Music. That tool allows the YouTube Music app to "automatically download up to 500 songs” that can then be listened to anywhere with or without a connection.  

Speculation

Much of Offline Mix’s capabilities remain a mystery. We don’t know how many songs people will be able to download and whether or not a Spotify Premium subscription is required. It is worth noting that a couple of Twitter users claim to have received the feature. One person even complains Spotify failed to download most of the songs on their playlist. Although it’s possible the platform is rolling out Offline Mix to a select few as part of its tests, we urge you to take these claims with several grains of salt. There hasn't been any official confirmation of any public tests.

We reached out to Spotify to see if the company was willing to make a statement or perhaps share some details about the feature like its launch date. Hopefully, it's soon as the playlist has been in the works for some time now. Notable industry insider Jane Manchun Wong on Twitter was among the first to mention Offline Mix to the public in 2020, back when it was called Offline User Mix. This story will be updated if we hear back from Spotify.

In the meantime, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best music streaming services for 2023.  

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Apple Arcade Gets Word Puzzle Game Bold Moves Plus - CNET

It's like Candy Crush mixed with Wheel of Fortune.

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Google has been getting into the generative AI trend by incorporating it into its own search results as part of Search Labs with Search Generative Experience (SGE) recently going public. And now Google seems to be experimenting with a drag-and-drop feature for Google’s search app for Android.

According to a new video posted by Telegram user @theoj22 through the unofficial Google news group (reported by Android Police), this new feature is still under development and not visible to the public. But you can still see how it works, by long-pressing a link, piece of text, or image, prompting users to drop the result in the ‘Drop here to start’ search box. 

From there, search results immediately crop up. Or at least that’s the concept, because for most people right now if you attempt it Google Lens tries to open but nothing else happens. 

Google AI isn’t all good either 

Once this new drag-and-drop feature properly makes its debut it could really be a search game-changer. But not everything from SGE is all butterflies and rainbows, however. 

The first real danger is how Google plans to integrate generative AI directly into its search results, which would fill the top spots with those answers and ‘sources’ while pushing down links to verified and currently top-ranking websites closer to the bottom. This is a move that could absolutely kill digital journalism as we know it, because those sites need high Google search rankings for visibility and, most importantly, revenue to keep running.

The second is how Google Bard will be getting an Adobe-powered AI image generator, which you can already guess why that’s a bad thing. But if not, this means that the image generator will be plagiarizing art that’s already online to train its AI transformer, which is rapidly becoming a huge copyright issue.

It’s not all bad, as Mozilla Firefox’s recent initiative — the Responsible AI Challenge — has awarded its top three entrants for creating programs that will hold AI accountable in a variety of ways. If more tech companies would focus on tangible solutions and proper regulation like this instead of creating false panic around AI turning us all into paperclips to distract from its actual problems, we would have very little to worry about from Google or any other AI applications.

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NetherRealm has revealed how Mortal Kombat 1 will play at the Summer Games Fest with faster combat and a fully immersive story. The game looks to be incredibly fast-paced with an emphasis on colourful brutality. 

Some cues for Mortal Kombat 1 have clearly been taken from the developer's Injustice series, however, animations have taken received a serious glow-up. One thing that immediately stands out is the pop of color and the youthful energy that all the characters showcase, with iconic scenes such as Kano's heart rip and Sub-Zero's spine rip present and accounted for. It also happens to be bloody as hell. 

We also got our first look at how Kameo fighters will work in the upcoming game. Similar to tag-ins worked back in Mortal Kombat (2011), Mortal Kombat 1 uses additional characters in the roster to add a new dimension to fighting. The speed of the game is the biggest surprise, looking incredibly aggressive, as with Mortal Kombat X. 

Classic versions of the characters return, as can be seen with Sonya Blade and Kano as well as new versions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero looking far younger than ever before. The new Kameo system seems reminiscent of how things work in the likes of Marvel vs Capcom and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid.  The old Mortal Kombat energy appears to be alive and well with this title. 

Mortal Kombat 1 launches on Xbox Series X, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch on It launches on September 19.

For more info on games released this week, check out all our E3 2023 coverage.

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Google News Showcase Is Finally Coming To The US This Summer - CNET

The tech giant says it's partnered with more than 150, mostly local, news publications.

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You Can Still Return Amazon Packages for Free. Here's How It Works - CNET

Learn how to drop off your items at return centers, or have UPS pick them up at your home.

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Google Meet Update Lets You Do More From Picture-in-Picture Window - CNET

Raise your hand, use in-meeting chat or resize your view.

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The season of E3 2023 kicked off with a bang at Summer Game Fest, as Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

The game is launching on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, last-gen console, and Amazon Luna on January 18, 2024.

This latest Prince of Persia title might not be what fans were expecting when we're still waiting on the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, but what Ubisoft showed with this original title looks promising.

A 2D side scroller much like the series' roots, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown also features multi-weapon combat, and fantastical bosses. It doesn't look too far removed from something like Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight, but it remains to be seen if Ubisoft's game has any Metroidvania DNA.

This story is developing, more to follow...

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June is ‘Adopt a Shelter Cat Month’ and in order to properly celebrate, Drop is launching its fourth installment of ‘Caps for Causes’ with unique, limited edition keycaps.

The MT3 NoveltyCats keycaps come in a pack of four, fittingly cat-themed, based on the iconic black cat Jiji from Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. There are only 550 sets in total and the proceeds from each purchase will be entirely donated to the ASPCA, ensuring that you can help fund rescue care and adoption for real-life shelter cats.

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(Image credit: Drop)

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(Image credit: Drop)

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(Image credit: Drop)

For those interested, the full specs of the keycaps from Drop (via TechPowerUp) are below. To support the initiative, you can purchase them here.

• Made by Drop
• Designed by Matt3o
• Profile: MT3, Row 0
• Material: Doubleshot ABS
• Compatible with Cherry MX switches and clones

Cute gaming accessories are (hopefully) on the rise

Though these are meant to be limited-edition keycaps supporting a charity, the fact that they’re designed with adorable cats shows the slow shift in gaming accessory aesthetics. For too long, gaming accessories have been plagued with the same black color – sometimes given a green, blue, or red highlight to ‘liven it up’ – with little variation. The dreaded ‘gamer aesthetic’ has been the front face of gaming for too long.

It’s more than refreshing to see companies put out unique designs and accessory color palettes. For instance, HyperX’s personalization line, which I previewed before CES 2023, seeks to completely flip the concept on its head by offering tons of brightly colored cute or cool skull and dragon-themed work desk accessories. And its current keycap collection features some extremely cute animal designs that will absolutely stand out on any keyboard.

The fact that it’s gradually becoming more acceptable to release cute accessories for products made for a ‘hardcore’ gamer or PC enthusiast is very possibly why Drop, a company that normally releases very practical and high-quality products like its Drop ALT keyboard, can sell keycaps that have a cute anime cat on them.

As a lover of both the cute and cool for gaming, I’m extremely excited to see this change in perception and hope that more mainstream manufacturers will latch on to the concept. At the very least, there should be a colorful option every time a manufacturer offers a product in black. 

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It just might be time to finally make that upgrade from Windows 8 and 8.1, as the Google Drive app will no longer support them as of August 2023. 

The news comes from a Google support page, reported by Android Police. The tech giant will be ending support for both the 8 and 8.1 OS, as well as Windows 10 32-bit version. After August, users will not be able to use the app to sync or upload files through the app and will need to upgrade to a newer OS to continue to use those features.

The good news is that you can still use Google Drive through your browser if you’re using an older OS. But the bad news, according to The Verge, is that browser support is ending for Windows 8 and 8.1 with Microsoft Edge ending support in January 2023, Google Chrome releasing the first version that doesn’t support them in February 2023, and Mozilla Firefox planning to end security support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 next year.

Not to mention the issue of auto-syncing files, which is a feature only available through the Drive app. For that only you’ll need to make the jump to either Windows 10 64-bit version or Windows 11.

Google Drive has been pushing out solid updates

Google Drive has been improving its services in 2023, making the application much easier to use and navigate. This is on top of its new Material You redesign, which cleaned up its UI and completely changed the aesthetics.

In May 2023, Google redesigned the Drive homepage, making it easier to find files. In the ‘Home’ view, two view buttons at the top of the page allow users to alternate between a ‘Suggested’ and ‘Activity’ view. Earlier that same month, Google added a new Spam folder. Moving a file there unsubscribes you from activity notifications and removes the file from all other Drive locations.

February 2023 brought along two updates. The first one introduced a new toolbar for multi-selecting files that made it clearer and easier to make bulk changes, while the second one added new search parameters to help users narrow down their results.

There was the brief file limit update that Google rolled out to a small number of Drive users, before removing it in response to negative publicity. The limit of 5 million items is a large one that most people won’t hit, but the sudden error message with no advanced warning of the rollout was probably quite alarming to see anyway.

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Should You Avoid Using Your Gas Stove When Air Quality Is Poor? - CNET

Gas stoves have been shown to decrease air quality. A few rules and adjustments will help lower the risk for you and your housemates.

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