This Company Sends You a Box of Hearing Aids to Try at Home - CNET

Bluemoth aims to combine the ease of over-the-counter shopping with prescription-grade devices -- but with a prescription-grade price tag.

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Google is introducing several new privacy changes to its search engine including an alert system that lets you know if personal information suddenly pops up online.

The alerts will be a part of the Results About You tool which is getting an improved dashboard letting “you know if web results with your contact [details] are showing up on Search.” If they do show up, you can request their removal right on the dashboard. Google will also let you know if any new results containing personal details ever crop up in the future. There is an alternate method the company recommends trying out. Google says you can enter your name into the search bar, and if you see your sensitive information anywhere on-screen, click the three dots to the right. You will see a “Remove Result” in the About This Result window.

The image below shows you what it looks like.

Remove Result tool in Google Search (Image credit: Future)

It may take a few days before the tech giant actually pulls the content. Google says it will perform a mini investigation to make sure the request lines up with its “policy requirements for removal”. The company will apparently deny requests to pull information from websites owned by either a “government or educational institution.”

The redesigned Results About You dashboard is currently rolling out to users in the United States where it will be available in English only – at least, for now. There are plans to expand the tool to support more “languages and locations soon.”

Search engine tweaks

As for the rest of the privacy upgrade, Google is making a few tweaks to its search engine. The blurring effect in image searches, something that was first seen earlier this year, is now being made into a default setting to protect families from encountering “explicit imagery”.

Speaking of families, parental controls can now be directly accessed on Search. All you have to do is enter in “google parental controls” or “google family link”. A box offering quick access to parental control management will appear on the right side. 

New parental controls box on Google Search (Image credit: Future)

The last feature is a policy update giving people the opportunity to take down “personal, explicit images that they no longer wish to be visible” on the platform. The company gives the example of removing intimate content “being published elsewhere without approval” or consent. This change, however, “doesn’t apply to content” currently being commercialized. The removal form for this can be found on the Google Search Help website.

It’s unknown if either the blurring effect or policy update will be present outside the United States. The wording is a little vague.  We asked a company representative for more details. This story will be updated at a later time.

Deleting information from Google Search is just one step in being totally anonymous on the internet. If you’d like to learn more, be sure to check out TechRadar’s guide on how to remove yourself from the internet. We’ve put together a list of nine suggested actions you can take right now.  

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Electric Bills Spike Nearly 30% for AEP Ohio Customers. How to Choose Your Energy Provider - CNET

Here's what you need to know about a recent AEP Ohio energy bill hike.

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Lionel Messi: How to Watch, Stream Inter Miami vs. FC Dallas on MLS Season Pass - CNET

Messi leads Miami into the Round of 16 Leagues Cup match in Texas on Sunday.

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If you recently updated Windows 11, you may have spotted the following message when trying to open the Cortana app: “Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated.”

Microsoft is finally cutting off support to Cortana, its Windows Phone-era assistant that first launched with Windows 10 back in 2014, in favor of AI features like Bing Search and Windows Copilot. Cortana was released in response to Apple’s Siri, which had been growing in popularity since its own debut. Microsoft even released a playful commercial poking fun at Siri’s more robotic voice while promoting how human-sounding Cortana was,

But thanks to this update, Siri has outlasted Microsoft’s robotic assistant. Here's the official post from Microsoft: "We are making some changes to Windows that will impact users of the Cortana app. Starting in August 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app.” And for those asking for an assistance program, Microsoft is recommending Windows Copilot which is set to release with the Windows 11 23H2 update. The tech giant has already been testing out first-party and Bing third-party plugins for Copilot.

The app is still working on Windows 10 for now but, according to a source from Windows Latest, Microsoft plans to kill off the app on Windows 10 within a few weeks. For now, Cortana will remain with other apps like Outlook and Microsoft Teams, though it mostly likely won’t be permanent.

Should Microsoft have canned Cortana? 

It’s rather ironic that Cortana, which was made as a fake AI assistant of sorts based on the iconic one that aids Master Chief in the long-running video game franchise Halo series, is getting ousted by actual AI tools. But considering how AI has skyrocketed in popularity and in growth potential, it makes sense that Microsoft would completely drop app support that hasn’t received an update in two years.

But was this the right move for Microsoft? On one hand, it feels obvious to dump tools that haven’t been supported for so long. But maybe there could have been a way to integrate Cortana with AI technology to create a more personalized AI assistant experience. Imagine having Cortana combined with Bing search or Windows Copilot, giving you your results and aiding you.

Of course, this opens up a huge can of worms in regards to using the voice actress Jen Taylor's audio likeness in ways that were never covered by her original contract with Microsoft. Ethically she would need to give her consent and be paid royalties for that purpose.

But with Microsoft officially closing the chapter on Cortana, we’ll never know what could have been.

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The 10 Biggest Banks in the US - CNET

Despite a few shake ups in the most recent Fed ranking, the top 10 list of the largest banks in the US by assets owned remains fairly consistent.

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The US PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) Education Fund has recently published a letter criticizing Google for its unwillingness to update 13 Chromebook models, leaving many with expired laptops.

Back in June 2023, parents and environmentalists wrote a letter asking the tech giant to provide important software updates to Chromebooks. Back in 2020, school districts in the United States bought a ton of Chromebooks and then distributed them all to students when things shifted to remote learning as a result of the pandemic. Everything was okay at first, but in the years since their purchase, the lack of technical support from Google is causing serious problems even if the hardware runs fine. No new updates mean the laptops are more “vulnerable to attacks and [are] unable to access… websites.” A report from the Mercury News says expired Chromebooks may even involuntarily block those "websites and applications from use.”

Mercury News goes on to explain, “These inexpensive computers are set to expire three to six years after their release.” It’s a short time frame that Lucas Rockett Gutterman, director of the Design to Last initiative, calls “absurd”. 

Still being sold

What’s particularly damaging to Americans is these laptops are not confined to just schools. In fact, Amazon is still selling most of them on their platform. There is a very real chance you own or have recently purchased one of these expired Chromebooks thinking you just scored an awesome deal. The Acer Chromebook 11, one of the affected laptops, costs $64.95 at the time of this writing.

The image below is one to look at for.

(Image credit: Staff/TPIN/PIRG)

The US PIRG has a list of the 13 expired models on their website ranging from the Chromebook 11 to the Samsung Chromebook Plus. It appears only the consumer-level hardware is available for purchase. The work-centric products like the AOpen Chromebook Commercial Tab or the Dell Chromebook 14 for Work are not on Amazon although you can purchase them elsewhere.

We highly recommend checking out the full list on the US PIRG’s website to learn more. Make sure you don’t have one of these faulty laptops.

What Google could do

The PIRG is currently asking Google to “double the life of Chromebooks” by providing much-needed tech support. Doing so could save the US education system as much as $1.8 billion and prevent a ton of e-waste from reaching landfills. Images posted on the US PIRG website show mountains of presumably dead Chromebook 11s stacked high in the backroom of a school. 

(Image credit: Peter Mui/US PIRG)

At the time of this writing, Google hasn’t said anything about this situation. We reached out to the company to see if it would like to make an official statement about the expired Chromebooks. We also asked Gutterman if he or anyone at the US PIRG is aware of any other affected devices. This story will be updated at a later time.

It’s totally understandable why someone would want to buy one of these laptops. $65 is one heck of a deal, but saving money shouldn’t come at the cost of increased vulnerability. Instead, be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best Chromebook deals for August 2023. We’re confident you’ll find something you’ll like

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Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards for August 2023 - CNET

A balance transfer could help get rid of your existing credit card debt, improving many aspects of your financial life.

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It might be the end of the road for Blu-ray discs.

That news comes to us from Australia’s Sky News (via Tom’s Hardware) and it has shifted our physical media-loving brains into meltdown. While the news pertains to only one movie studio and one continent, it could be the beginning of a grim trend, as the best streaming services fully overtake DVDs and Blu-ray discs as the primary means of home viewing.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to land on 4K Blu-ray in Australia on August 9. The disc will feature HDR10 high dynamic range and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. It will also include a pair of featurettes, deleted scenes, and a commentary from director James Gunn running the film’s full length.

Gunn’s movie is also currently available on Disney Plus, where it has the added benefit of being presented in Dolby Vision HDR – an enhancement Disney has routinely withheld from its 4k Blu-ray disc releases, though it’s widely used for movies on the company’s streaming service.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 will be the last Disney disc sold in Australia (Image credit: Marvel)

Analysis: No 4K Blu-rays for Australia  – a Disney thing, or beginning of a trend?

It’s no secret that the Disney company is under financial pressure. The company is seeking to profit off selling its content to other streamers – a strategy that category leader Netflix has so far held off from pursuing – and is also looking for strategic partners for its ESPN division. Disney’s ESPN cable TV channel had long been the company’s cash cow given the popularity of sports programming in the US, but cable TV subscriptions have steadily plummeted over the past decade.

So, while there’s been no announcement from the studio confirming that ending sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia is a money-saving measure, recent actions from the company have indicated that it is in cost-cutting mode. With sales of physical media on the decline, cutting off disc sales in a specific region would appear to be a financially motivated decision.

The reality is, Disney would prefer for viewers to subscribe to the Disney Plus service over buying movies on 4K Blu-ray. Blu-ray disc collectors have long bemoaned the lack of Dolby Vision HDR on the studio’s 4K Blu-ray releases, even as the company continues to provide the same titles in that format on its streaming service. Avatar: The Way of Water excepted, Disney has also routinely used the 66Gb disc format for its 4K Blu-ray releases over the 100Gb disc format, which allows for movies to be encoded with reduced video compression.

Even so, a movie on a 66Gb format 4K Blu-ray disc will have a substantially higher video data bit-rate than the same movie on streaming services, which generally top out in the 17-25 Mbps range for 4K streaming. Compared to that, 4K Blu-ray has a maximum 128 Mbps bit-rate, and regular Blu-ray has a maximum of 40 Mbps.

That’s the main technical reason why videophiles prefer to collect their favorite movies on disc for playback on the best 4K Blu-ray players. Another is audio: while streaming services all use the lossy Dolby Digital Plus format to deliver soundtracks, Atmos ones included, Blu-ray disc uses lossless Dolby True HD format, which yields superior sound quality.

One more reason people collect 4K Blu-rays, and physical media, in general, is pride of ownership. Movies regularly come and go on streaming services (check out our monthly Leaving Netflix posts as evidence), but if you own a disc of a movie you love, it can’t be taken away. That’s why I’m betting other studios won’t soon follow Disney down this dangerous path, even if that change does seem inevitable.

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Check out our favorite smartwatches for every wrist and budget.

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Credit Card Competition Act Won't End Rewards Programs, Says One Financial Expert. Here's Why - CNET

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More than a decade after the first color, electronic paper displays popped up at CES 2010, the technology's chief innovator E Ink has built a color panel capable of powering ereaders, smartphones, retail signage displays, and, now, even monitors.

This week, Chinese electronics manufacturer Dasung unveiled what it's calling The World's First E Ink Monitor which features a 25.3-inch Kaleido 3 color E Ink display. Based on details in the company's Indiegogo funding campaign, the 25.3-inch display supports 4,096 colors and a resolution of up to 3,200 x 1,800. That sounds good but it should be noted that the number is likely based on Kaleido 3's 300ppi rating. Essentially it's the same resolution you'll find on your best Amazon Kindle reader. On the other hand, that ppi beats Apple's Studio Display, which has a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880 and 218 pixels per inch.

Dasung promises turbo refresh rates along with the company's "Dasung X- color Filter" technology that should improve contrast, vibrancy, text darkness, and other on-screen effects. It's not clear if all of this enhances or replaces E Ink's own Kaleido 3 display enhancement technologies.

The look of color E Ink

In the promotional video, it's clear the slightly curved display is quite thin and lets you switch from landscape to portrait mode orientation. However, the display also looks, well, a bit dull. Like most E Ink displays, its reflective technology is well-equipped for use in well-lit environments (there's also a front light to decrease blue-light impact) but since there's no backlight to shine through the colors, the display imagery looks flat and almost a little grayed out.

Despite Dasung's promises of "unbelievable refresh speed on Color E Ink" the video makes it appear as if the display's refresh rate might fall somewhere below 60Hz. Some of the best cheap monitors, meanwhile, promise 120Hz refresh rates or higher, and most reports have E Ink's Kaleido 3 at a 350ms response time (so the best gaming monitor, this is certainly not). That means you should not expect the same kind of visual response you'll find on any of the best monitors on the market.

What you will get is a cool-operating, easy-on-the-eyes, ultra-low-powered display that, we guess, could be the talk of your office, home office, or student set-up. As for how much such a display will cost you, we don't know. Dasung's campaign does not feature a price or any details about when the color E Ink display will ship to consumers, aside from the tantalizing, "coming soon.".

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Best Nintendo Switch Multiplayer Family Games for 2023 - CNET

Looking to play games with family and friends in the same room? We've collected the best Kirby, Mario and other multiplayer games you can play on a single Nintendo Switch.

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CDs and bonds are low-risk options to grow your money, but you’ll need to evaluate your investing goals to determine which one is better for your portfolio.

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