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On Tuesday evening, hundreds of thousands tuned in live to watch Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, joined by fellow Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar, go toe-to-toe with some of Twitch’s brightest stars—Hasanbi, Pokimane, DisguisedToast and Valkyrae—in the popular, whodunit party game Among Us. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s stream, one of the platform’s largest to date, hit a peak of 435,000 concurrent viewers reigniting conversations about the influence of gaming and social media as tools for political outreach to the historically unreachable youths of America....

A little less than two years after announcing SG&E, Google said it would stop making its own games for the Stadia platform. While the platform remains the sole focus for Google in terms of gaming, experts say Google’s ambitions to become a leader in creating gaming content in-house fell short. “Stadia’s main problem for Google was the lack of content,” wrote Jack Adams, a content writer at servers.com, to Lifewire in an email....

The Supernote isn’t meant to replace your iPad. It does a few things very well and cuts the distractions from your life so you can concentrate on creating rather than consuming content. At $499, the A5X isn’t a casual purchase, but I found it to be worth the cost for the ability to focus on tasks. You won’t be watching movies on the Supernote. At 10.3 inches, the grayscale screen is sharp and crisp, but it’s meant for note-taking rather than video....

The Syntakt is a combination drum machine, synthesizer, analog FX box, and sequencer. It joins two already-legendary boxes from the Digitakt and Digitone to make a same-sized trilogy of musical magic or mayhem. “No other box has given me such instant, usable results, in such a short amount of time,” said electronic musician and Syntakt reviewer Adam Jay in a forum thread. “It’s fine by itself, but paired with another Elektron, you really don’t need anything else....

While players hoped the jump to the Nintendo Switch would push the series forward, Pokémon Sword and Shield left many disappointed, including myself. Fortunately, it looks like Pokémon Legends: Arceus is finally going to deliver on the bigger, wider worlds and RPG systems that gamers have been craving. “It’s the first Pokémon game ever to feature an open world RPG concept,” Roger Senpai, an avid fan of the series, told Lifewire via email....

Apple announced a new feature to let users scan their driver’s licenses and save them to their iPhones to use as a valid form of identification. It’s part of a continuing effort to make iPhones a one-stop-shop to hold everything from credit card data to movie tickets. Putting government documents on your phone is different, however. “The most immediate security risk is that losing your iPhone will be even more like losing your physical wallet and that someone who steals or recovers your lost iPhone will now be able to access your driver’s license,” Christopher Budd, a senior threat communications manager at the cybersecurity firm Avast, said in an email interview....

Victor has released a new lineup of wood music centers, suitcase turntables, hybrid record players, and desktop stereos. Record sales are booming, and the latest music players offer modern conveniences like Bluetooth but cater to users whose tastes run to vinyl. Ryan Mungia, the co-author of a book about retro tech called “Do You Compute? Selling Tech from the Atomic Age to the Y2K Bug,” said in an email interview that old tech reminds us of simpler times when technology felt like more of a novelty....

The suspended Magic Keyboard offers a lot more room in a bus/plane seat, it has cellular, and when you take the keyboard off, you still have your iPad. And the iPad Pro now has Stage Manager, which is a pain for most things but super useful for working. The iPad definitely falls well short of the Mac for many tasks, but what it’s good at, it’s really good at, and no other machine can touch that....

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that we spend a significant percentage of our gadgets’ price again on cases, cables, adapters, stands, and other accessories. From iMac shelves through wearable Apple Watch cases to golf-club cozies, we’re obsessed with buying gifts for our devices. Why do we like them so much? “You choose your own wallpaper when you get a new iPhone, right?” Andrew Green, co-founder of Twelve South, told Lifewire via direct message....

Logitech says that 65 percent of its mice and keyboards are made with recycled plastics. It’s part of a growing effort by manufacturers to cut down on electronic waste. “From toxic chemicals to microplastics in water supplies, there are a lot of problems that plastics pose for the planet,” Ted Dhillon, CEO of FigBytes, a company that helps organizations track sustainability, told Lifewire in an email interview. “The more we can recycle the substance, the better for the environment....

Xiaomi unveiled the new Mi 11 Ultra this past week, a competitor to go up against Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra and other flagship devices on the market right now. The Mi 11 Ultra includes one of the best Snapdragon chipsets available right now, a massive 6.81-inch 120Hz QHD+ OLED screen, and a 5,000mAh battery. The back of the phone features three different camera lenses—a 50MP Samsung GN2 sensor is the primary driver here, with both a 48MP ultra-wide and a 48MP periscope lens alongside it to help give you even more options....

Starting June 1, 2021, Google will charge for storing more than 15GB of photos. And this 15GB will also be used by any Google Docs or spreadsheets in your Google Drive. The good news is that the photos you currently have stored are safe, and won’t count towards the new 15GB cap. The bad news is, there aren’t any decent free alternatives for online photo storage. “[It’s] notable that free Google photo storage helped to drive tons of startups out of this market—Everpix, Loom, Ever, Picturelife,” writes technology journalist Casey Newton....

Smartphones can also overheat when left in a hot car or outside in stifling weather, for example. Here’s how to identify the issue and cool your phone down. What Causes Android Phones to Overheat? There are many ways to send your smartphone into overdrive, including streaming videos or playing mobile games for hours. Using turn-by-turn GPS navigation can heat things up too. Your phone can also overheat if you leave it out in the sun for too long....

BeBop Sensors has launched their new RoboSkin line of skin-like coverings for tactile awareness for humanoid robots and prosthetics. The fabric-based sensor skin can be shaped to any surface allowing quick tailoring to fit any robot, with high spatial resolution and sensitivity. It’s part of a growing movement to improve robotic skin to give automatons better awareness. “As robots integrate better with humans in the home (assisting the elderly, taking over mundane home tasks such as dishwashing), they’ll need more distributed sensing to be safe and feel out their surroundings in cases where vision fails,” Alex Gruebele, who recently completed his Ph....

Ever since the flat-edged, home-button-less 2018 iPad Pro, the iPad’s hardware has been way more capable than the operating system. The gap is even more apparent with the M1 version, an iPad that uses the same chip as the Mac. Wrangling files is still a pain, you still can’t record a podcast, and Apple’s Pro apps, like Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro, are nowhere to be seen. Is that about to change?...

Bluetooth Camcorders Bluetooth is a wireless technology commonly used in mobile phones and digital music players, such as sending music or voice calls from the device to a headset or earphones. Likewise, Bluetooth cameras work with other wireless accessories such as external microphones and GPS units. JVC’s Bluetooth camcorders even support a free app that transforms your smartphone into a remote control for the camcorder. One thing you cannot do with a Bluetooth-enabled camcorder is to transfer high definition video to a computer wirelessly....

In addition to many other things (all listed below), one feature that stands out is the ability to auto-clean things like log files, temporary files, invalid Windows Registry entries, browsing history, document access logs, etc. Wise Care 365 Tools Some system optimizers have unique features that set them apart from other similar software. Every feature in Wise Care 365, however, is actually included in similar programs; we couldn’t find anything unique that you can’t get elsewhere....

You might consider replacing your commercial word processor software like Word, with this one since it includes all the standard formatting abilities and works with the most popular document file formats. More Information on WPS Office Writer Works with Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, and iOS, and can also be used directly from a browser The installer includes other software you can optionally add to your computer, like WPS Spreadsheets and WPS Presentation Common formatting is allowed, such as organizing data in columns, changing the orientation of the page, aligning text and objects, adding a header and footer, overlaying a watermark, and using heading styles Encryption is supported, which means when you save a document you can choose a custom encryption type and a unique password for opening the document, and another for modifying it Business, resume, and thesis cover letters are available for use from inside WPS Office Writer, without requiring any external download....

Twitter user @iamstake was the first to notice the change on the YouTube homepage. According to 9To5Google, the move now allows some users to watch videos from the homepage without having to click through to them. Additionally, there also are some limited controls for audio, closed caption, and the ability to scrub the video progress bar. It is unclear if the progress made in a video will be retained once you scroll past it, as we haven’t had a chance to test the feature ourselves (it appears to be rolling out to a limited number of users)....

The Asus Zenfone line, however, emphasizes form factor and portability, and this trend continues with today’s launch event for the Zenfone 9. This newest iteration of the company’s flagship mini-smartphone brings some impressive specs but, most importantly, a complete overhaul of the camera system. The camera includes a gimbal-like stabilization system to eliminate shaky video footage and improve the results while shooting in low light. How does it work? The entire camera, lens, and sensors alike move to accommodate for poor lighting conditions and accidental vibrations....