Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the designed-for-commuters department: Uber is launching a fixed-route shuttle service in major U.S. cities that offers commuters up to 50% off UberX fares during weekday peak hours. Called "Route Share," the service aims to provide a more affordable, predictable alternative to standard ride-hailing. TechCrunch reports: The commuter shuttles will drive between pre-set stops every 20 minutes, according to Sachin Kansal, Uber's chief product officer. He noted that there will be dozens of routes in each launch city -- like between Williamsburg and Midtown in NYC. The routes, which are selected based on Uber's extensive data on popular travel patterns, might have one or two additional stops to pick up other passengers. To start, riders will only ever have to share the route with up to two other co-riders.
Riders can book a seat anywhere from seven days to 10 minutes before a scheduled pickup, and the app will provide them with turn-by-turn directions to get them from their house to the corner where they'll be picked up. Uber is relying on the same underlying technology that it uses for Uber Share, its shared rides offering where riders can get 15% to 30% off the cost of an UberX ride by pooling with others. Kansal told TechCrunch that Uber completes millions of shared trips annually and has been seeing more traction lately as riders look for more ways to save. Hence, Route Share.
Uber envisions a future where Route Share could qualify for pre-tax commuter benefits. However, as a spokesperson noted, the company would need to find a way to match those trips with Uber XL vehicles. That's because only six-seater vehicles would meet the eligibility requirements. A potential progression of Route Share would involve autonomous vehicles, particularly in chaotic cities like New York City, where no self-driving car companies have deigned to test.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the more-than-just-the-Steam-Deck department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We've known for months now that Valve is expanding its Linux-based SteamOS operating system beyond the Steam Deck to other handheld PCs, starting with some versions of the Asus ROG Ally. This week, Valve began making some changes to its Steam storefront to prepare for a future when the Deck isn't the only hardware running SteamOS. A new "SteamOS Compatible" label will begin rolling out "over the next few weeks" to denote "whether a game and all of its middleware is supported on SteamOS," including "game functionality, launcher functionality, and anti-cheat support." Games that don't meet this requirement will be marked as "SteamOS Unsupported." As with current games and the Steam Deck, this label doesn't mean these games won't run, but it does mean there may be some serious compatibility issues that keep the game from running as intended.
Valve says that "over 18,000 titles on Steam [will] be marked SteamOS compatible out of the gate," and that game developers won't need to do anything extra to earn the label if their titles already support the Steam Deck. SteamOS uses a collection of app translation technologies called Proton to make unmodified Windows applications run on SteamOS. This technology has dramatically improved SteamOS's game compatibility, compared to older SteamOS versions that required games to support Linux natively, but it still can't support every single game that Windows does. Valve says that the "SteamOS Compatible" label isn't meant to imply how well a game will run on the Steam Deck or any other SteamOS handheld but that this label is "just the first step." The company is "continuing to work on ways for people to have a better understanding of how games will run on their specific devices."
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005
The official
Takara Tomy YouTube Channel have uploaded the fifth episode of the new Transformers Wild King anime. This a completely new CGI series which will promote the new
Transformers Wild King collection revealed some weeks ago. If you missed the first episodes, you can still click here to watch
episode 1 & 2,
episode 3 and
episode 4 (Japanese audio only). We won’t spoil the fun, so watch the new episode of the latest Transformers animation after the jump. As a nice extra bonus, we also have a new promotional video of the toys! Don’t forget to share your impressions on the
» Continue Reading.
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Transformers Wild King Episode 5 Available Online appeared first on
Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the strange-things department: Gilmoure shares a report: U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them, two people familiar with the matter said. Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used throughout the world to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are also found in batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.
[...] Using the rogue communication devices to skirt firewalls and switch off inverters remotely, or change their settings, could destabilise power grids, damage energy infrastructure, and trigger widespread blackouts, experts said. "That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid," one of the people said, The two people declined to name the Chinese manufacturers of the inverters and batteries with extra communication devices, nor say how many they had found in total.
Well, we’ve reached the end of the road. Andor’s second and final season brought us 12 episodes of (mostly) exceptional Star Wars drama released in three-episode chunks, a format which served the structure of the show brilliantly, with each chunk representing one year in the four years leading up to Rogue One, but…
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came out of nowhere. Yes, it made waves at Microsoft’s Xbox showcase last summer. And true, it continued to look exceptional as it revealed its star-studded cast. But I don’t know that anyone expected it to get quite so much love as it has, and not just from diehard RPG fans. It’s currently…
Aside from a more ambitious narrative scope, Doom: The Dark Ages also introduced semi open-world areas where you can take in the level at your own pace. “Ancestral Forge,” the ninth mission in the game, is the second of these, after “The Siege Part One.”
Scholars are still debating whether the current period is post-postmodern or neo-contemporary. 
Summer doesn’t officially start until later in June, but around where I live the days are getting hotter and the nights aren’t as cool as before. That’s fine. I don’t need the outdoors. I’ve got new PS Plus games to download and play, like Sand Land, Battlefield V, and a whole trilogy of classic STALKER games.
The next year for Ubisoft could be a quiet one. The French publisher announced that it’s pushing back some of its biggest games to allow them more time for development. The move comes after an internal review that took place last fall and could see upcoming sequels like Far Cry 7, Assassin’s Creed Hexe, and the next Ghost Recon
The first official trailer for WB and DC’s upcoming live-action Superman movie is here, and James Gunn’s take on the iconic superhero looks like the Man of Steel movie we’ve wanted for a long time.
In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you’ve most likely come across some Nevrons who aren’t keen on attacking you on sight. These special Nevrons will give you quests that offer some pretty nice rewards for your playthrough. One of the Nevrons is called a Hexga and they want you to collect some very special rock crystals.
RuneScape Dragonwilds wound up becoming a surprise hit seemingly overnight. It’s a far-cry from the original RuneScape, which was a grind heavy MMORPG with way too many skills to count. This is something more, something akin to Valheim or Enshrouded. But even if you have experience in survival/crafting games, this one…
As if the world of Wraeclast wasn’t tough enough to survive, what with over 100 bosses to fight in nearly Soulslike combat from an ARPG perspective. But developer Grinding Gear Games went ahead and added a new challenge in
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You dive into a big, modern blockbuster on day-one—maybe it’s an open-world RPG like Assassin’s Creed Shadows or a loot-heavy action-adventure with lots of items and numbers to keep track of like Monster Hunter Wilds—and you’re having a great time, but life gets in the way. By the ten…
This year’s PAX East felt small. There were a few big names on the show floor, like Bandai Namco which was there showing off Elden Ring: Nightreign and Larian Studios making its annual appearance with a Baldur’s Gate 3 booth, but many of the big industry movers and shakers who’ve appeared at the Boston games…
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