Not made by Meta = Tick. The price though is almost the cost of three monitors... These may not be full time permanent replacements for monitors, but they are great for portable use, and could potentially save a ton of desk area space. You can also work in a confined area (even on a plane trip, without the neck strain of having to look down the whole time), with the illusion of space and the monitors being further away from you. Or they can also be used so that they don't disturb someone sleeping (or working) next to you, or you can use them instead of having a large screen TV. At even 60Hz to 120Hz, that is a pretty decent refresh rate, and more than I expected it to be. They are also not as heavy or cumbersome as many VR goggles are, weighing it at around 75g. Resolution is 1080p per eye. It seems too that the glasses can connect to Linux computers that support USB-C DP video output. But this type of device really needs to be tested in person before buying. It's not the sort of thing you can easily show someone remotely, or via a video, to help make a choice. See https://www.xda-developers.com/replaced-monitors-smart-glasses/ and the video at https://youtu.be/m5pTpB9x-es?si=V1K--m2ZwWQxPSLM is also worth watching #technology #glasses #smartglasses #AR

Bionic Reading is a new way of reading text that uses a patented algorithm to highlight the most important parts of words, making it easier and faster to read. The method was developed by a German software developer named Renato Cukar, who was inspired by the way the human eye reads text. Bionic Reading works by highlighting the most important parts of words, which helps the eye to follow the text more smoothly and efficiently. This makes it easier to read longer passages of text, and can also help to improve comprehension. Bionic Reading is available as a free Chrome extension, as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android. It can also be used on websites and in PDFs. See https://www.howtogeek.com/882688/why-you-should-use-bionic-reading-in-chrome-or-any-browser/ **EDIT:** Although some individuals claim to see improvement, it may be that results do vary as one test shows no real improvement across the board - https://blog.readwise.io/bionic-reading-results/ #technology #bionicreading #reading

Optillusion is a new indie developer that just released its first game today, and it's a doozy. This game is called Moncage, and it's a drop-dead gorgeous puzzler that offers a uniquely interesting mechanic. You see, the whole game takes place in a cube that you can rotate, and each side offers unique imagery. In order to solve the game's puzzles, you'll rotate this cube to line up the perspective of the cube's imagery. The goal? To collect photos of your perfectly aligned imagery, which reveals the story of the game. Moncage is an interactive optical illusion puzzle game, and not only is the presentation superb, but the gameplay is also a hoot that's perfect for play on a touchscreen. It's also available on Steam Games for desktops. See https://www.androidpolice.com/clever-perspective-puzzler-moncage-is-now-available-on-android/ #technology #gaming #puzzles #Moncage

Depending on whom you ask, PC Building Simulator is either utterly ridiculous or incredibly satisfying. You can decide for yourself by downloading this niche simulator for free from the Epic Games Store before October 17th. Like the majority of sim games, PCBS speaks to a very specific type of fantasy. If your idea of a good time is overclocking your computer while managing a small business, this is a game that does exactly that. See https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/8/22715201/pc-building-simulator-free-epic-games-store #technology #gaming #epicgames #PCBuildingSimulator #simulator

Inspired by another build, [Pierre] set out to build his dream desk that is maximum PC power in minimum space. It is chock full of easily-accessible cavities that hide everything you’d expect, plus a few things you don’t, like a flatbed scanner, a printer, a router, and a wireless charging pad. One cavity is dedicated to I/O, and another has three international power sockets. The only thing it doesn’t hide is the 22″ pen display that [Pierre] uses for sketching, signing documents, and occasionally as a second monitor. Even one of the table legs has a channel inside to hide the only two cables that leave the desk. Wonder if we'd ever see something like this for purchase, but I suppose the size of items do differ so not so easy. See https://hackaday.com/2021/04/20/you-wont-believe-how-much-tech-is-hiding-in-this-desk/ #technology #lessismore #clutter #hardware

Valve is currently testing a new feature on Steam Beta. The “Invite Anyone” upgrade to the existing Remote Play feature allows you, a Steam gamer, to play compatible games with any of your friends. They won’t need to set up an account on Steam to do so; they’ll just be able to hop right in after they click on a hyperlink (and install an app). Your friend will need to have Steam Link installed on their Windows, Android, or iOS device before they click. Let's hope this expands still to MacOS and Linux. See how it works at https://lifehacker.com/how-to-remote-play-steam-games-without-a-steam-account-1846355074 #technology #gaming #steamgames

Defeating Huawei’s draconian security measures wasn’t an easy task, but a developer named Andrey Smirnoff actually managed to decipher the bootloader unlock code generation algorithm for devices that are based on HiSilicon Kirin 960/659/655 chipsets. Apart from that, what makes PotatoNV possible is a low-level bootloader flashing method discovered by XDA Senior Member hackintosh5. The tool, which makes use of the VCOM_DOWNLOAD mode, requires users to open up the target device and access the test points on the motherboard. With the release of PotatoNV, owners of the aforementioned Huawei and Honor devices are finally able to flash all the custom ROMs and kernels they desire. So this can mean being able to replace the Huawei software with a custom ROM like LineageOS or others, where you can optionally install the Google apps if you wanted to. Point is Huawei still gets to sell their hardware device so there is no loss to them, it just opens up additional options for users. See https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-honor-bootloader-unlock-potatonv/ #technology #mobile #huawei #rooting

The reason why we as consumers get held to ransom by Big Tech is because they are the one's who create walled gardens of their apps to ensure it is very difficult to leave their service and to maintain any communication with your friends or family who stay behind. They count on that sticky network effect to hold you in place. The world was not always like this, as we see with e-mail where any app can e-mail any other app. Neither was messaging as it was also once open. So what we need is a protocol to be broadly supported that will connect anyone to any other app supporting that open protocol, but which allows end-to-end encryption. We need apps to support it, just like Hubzilla which built in a number of plugins to allow it to communicate with Diaspora, XMPP, Fediverse, etc all from one place. What do we do about Big Tech like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft? Well either they must be mandated by law to build in this protocol support, or we as consumers must start voting with our choices and not make use of services that are walled gardens. Our future lies in an open interoperable Internet offering privacy. The future cannot be walled gardens separating us all. From the link below the key columns are the License (how open is it for anyone to use without cost?) and End-To-End Encryption (can I use it privately?). From these requirements we can see that the following protocols could be suitable to consider: * Bitmessage (Desktop P2) * Briar (P2) but Android only * Echo * Jami (Desktop and Mobile P2P) * Matrix (Desktop and Mobile Federated Client-Server) * Ricochet (Desktop P2P) * Signal (Centralised Desktop and Mobile) * SIMPLE (more phones with SIP?) * Tox (Desktop and Mobile P2P) * XMPP (Desktop and Mobile Decentralized Client-Server) See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_protocols #technology #instantmessengers #interoprability #bigtech #privacy