Razer’s zVault virtual currency promises a unified solution for gaming purchases

Why it matters to you

Razer is unleashing a reward-based method for making online payments, in-game or for-game, that won’t trigger a concerned phone call from your credit card company.

It’s not all fun and games when it comes to gaming. Sometimes we have to get our hands dirty with raw, unadulterated economics if we want to ensure that our gaming buys are being justified. And, out of all the ways you could choose to pay for video games, peripherals, and in-game content, Razer hopes that you’ll want to use its freshly revealed method.

Dubbed zVault, the green snake-embroidered hardware and software company has launched a “virtual currency platform” based on what it calls zGold units. Razer describes the service as a digital wallet that specifically caters to gamers, with points earned by using zGold being redeemable toward actual Razer products.

“The introduction of zVault is all about giving value to gamers with secure payment convenience and a great rewards program,” said Min-Liang Tan, CEO and co-founder of Razer. “This is much more than a club or credit card perks program or micro-transaction solution.”

More: Razer wants to support Linux on the Razer Blade laptop and is asking for help

zGold’s value is reminiscent of Microsoft’s points system from the Xbox 360, that is, 100 zGold is worth $1 in cash. Razer zVault customers can use zGold to make purchases in-game while earning what is known as zSilver as a reward. Put simply, zGold is purchased with PayPal, Openbucks, Paysafecard, or any major credit card. zGold can be purchased in 3,000 ($30), 5,000 ($50), and 10,000 ($100) portions.

The currency is then used to safely purchase digital content initially within games developed by Hi-Rez Studios such as Smite and Paladins, as well as those from Smilegate West, creators of CrossFire and LostSaga. We’ll also see zVault supported in online game shops IndieGala and GamersGate. At a later date, Trion Worlds also plans to implement zGold compatibility into its six-title catalog.

“Our ultimate vision is a complete gamer economy expanding from the zVault ecosystem,” Min-Lian Tang continued. “It’s social, interactive and truly useful, opening the doors to a safer way of doing business and an expansive rewards market for our fans.”

zVault was originally seeded exclusively to a limited selection of Razer’s community fanbase. Within the first six weeks of its initial run, zVault amassed well over 1.4 million unique page views. Over 770,000 wallets have been registered to date by users donning Razer IDs. The average amount of zGold spent on each transaction? 5,198 zGold (or $51.98).

Samsung Browser beta brings ad blocking to Pixel and Nexus devices

Why it matters to you

If you’re a Chrome devotee running a Google-branded device, Samsung’s browser may be worth a look, as it could save you some time and data in tandem with an ad blocker.

Samsung has made a surprising move with the latest beta of its browser, appropriately called Internet. The application has just been made available to download for Pixel and Nexus devices, according to the Google Play listing.

While at first glance this may seem counter-intuitive for owners of Google-branded devices, many of whom chose their Android phone out of a desire to avoid manufacturer-fronted duplicate apps and bloatware, Samsung’s browser is actually a full-featured replacement to Chrome with one significant advantage — support for ad blockers.

More: Samsung follows Apple’s lead, updates its Android browser with ad blocking

Run Samsung Internet with a third-party plugin like AdBlock Fast or Crystal, and in addition to avoiding intrusive banner and pop-up ads, web pages should also load more quickly, and you may even consume less data. Samsung introduced the functionality early last year, several months after Apple rolled out ad blocking for its Safari browser with iOS 9.

Since then, Chrome has been the odd one out of the three major mobile browsers when it comes to embracing the feature. This was not terribly surprising, given Google’s dependence on ad revenue. In the past, however, Pixel and Nexus devices didn’t have the ability to run Samsung’s browser, so this expansion to non-Samsung hardware may put a little more pressure on Google.

A study released exactly one year ago reported 25 percent of mobile users had some form of ad blocking installed on their device, and projected a rise to 80 percent by the end of 2017. Shortly after iOS 9 released, The New York Times conducted its own tests and corroborated the proposed benefits of ad blocking — namely, faster load times, significantly decreased data usage, and even a modest gain in battery life.

In addition to ad blocking, Samsung’s browser boasts support for DuckDuckGo search, 360-degree videos, Progressive Web Apps, QR reading, an Amazon shopping assistant that pits prices against the online retailer’s own, and the ability to make purchases with Samsung Pay. There’s also CloseBy, a feature that recommends websites and information based on the user’s location.

Samsung originally spun off its browser to the Google Play store to deliver faster updates, a trend many phone makers have followed with their own app suites over the last several years. Unlike Internet, the majority of Samsung’s apps have not been made compatible with non-Samsung Android devices.

Unlock your kids’ inner game builders with LittleBits’ Code Kit

Why it matters to you

Tech companies and educators are placing a heavy emphasis on learning to code in the classroom, and LittleBits is another solution that’s interactive and educational.

LittleBits, the Lego of the tech world, is out with a new kit to help teach children how to code. The aptly named Code Kit focuses on having kids build hands-on games with blocks, and then programming them to fruition via the LittleBits app.

LittleBits offers various kits for children that aims to bring out the inner inventor. The Rule Your Room Kit, for example, allows kids to build items like a buzzer for their door — the whole process is completed by following guides via the app. Children can also make their own designs and objects, and upload their creations to the app with plans for anyone else to follow.

More: LittleBits’ Rule Your Room is a Lego-like construction kit for young inventors

The new Code Kit features four games: Tug-of-war, Ultimate Shootout, Hot Potato, and Rockstar Guitar. Inside you’ll find 16 modular circuits including two new bits — the codeBit and the LED Matrix. Bits are usable with other kits offered by LittleBits. There’s also a rechargeable battery and 30 other accessories to help build these games.

The company said the block-programming interface in the app is based on Google’s Blockly, a drag-and-drop interface to make programming more visual and less intimidating. Setting up and using the Code Kit in curriculum is also easy, even for teachers not in the computer science field. There are more than a hundred activities and lessons that conform to computer science standards for children in grades three to eight.

These can be uploaded as lessons via Google Docs, in case teachers want to utilize the Code Kit in the classroom.

The Code Kit is available for purchase for $300 via various retailers (there’s a discount for educators), but it won’t ship until June 2017.

Unlock your kids’ inner game builders with LittleBits’ Code Kit

Why it matters to you

Tech companies and educators are placing a heavy emphasis on learning to code in the classroom, and LittleBits is another solution that’s interactive and educational.

LittleBits, the Lego of the tech world, is out with a new kit to help teach children how to code. The aptly named Code Kit focuses on having kids build hands-on games with blocks, and then programming them to fruition via the LittleBits app.

LittleBits offers various kits for children that aims to bring out the inner inventor. The Rule Your Room Kit, for example, allows kids to build items like a buzzer for their door — the whole process is completed by following guides via the app. Children can also make their own designs and objects, and upload their creations to the app with plans for anyone else to follow.

More: LittleBits’ Rule Your Room is a Lego-like construction kit for young inventors

The new Code Kit features four games: Tug-of-war, Ultimate Shootout, Hot Potato, and Rockstar Guitar. Inside you’ll find 16 modular circuits including two new bits — the codeBit and the LED Matrix. Bits are usable with other kits offered by LittleBits. There’s also a rechargeable battery and 30 other accessories to help build these games.

The company said the block-programming interface in the app is based on Google’s Blockly, a drag-and-drop interface to make programming more visual and less intimidating. Setting up and using the Code Kit in curriculum is also easy, even for teachers not in the computer science field. There are more than a hundred activities and lessons that conform to computer science standards for children in grades three to eight.

These can be uploaded as lessons via Google Docs, in case teachers want to utilize the Code Kit in the classroom.

The Code Kit is available for purchase for $300 via various retailers (there’s a discount for educators), but it won’t ship until June 2017.

Tinder celebrates International Women’s Day by donating up to $250,000

Why it matters to you

Its reputation among women isn’t always the best, but Tinder is hoping to turn things around with an International Women’s Day initiative.

It hasn’t always had the best reputation with women, but Tinder certainly is making an effort. In anticipation of International Women’s Day on March 8, Tinder announced it is pledging $250,000 to help empower women by donating to a dozen women-centric nonprofits across the world.

In a partnership with Pledgling.com, Tinder plans to launch its #FundHerCause social media campaign on Wednesday to support women (who make up 50 percent of the app’s user base). Starting Wednesday, if you tweet @Tinder with a cause you care about with the hashtag #FundHerCause, Tinder will send you a code for a $100 donation to one of the 12 organizations the app has selected.

More: Tinder makes a move: Dating app may add a Snapchat-like video feature

“All around the world, women are bucking societal norms — they’re breaking down barriers, they’re breaking with tradition, and by doing so, they may even be breaking the law — all for something the rest of us consider a basic human right,” Tinder wrote in a blog post. “We are grateful to them. We are inspired by them. And we are here to support them.”

Unfortunately, you’ll have to be a U.S.-based Tinder user in order to participate in the donation process, though women in London are invited to participate in Tinder’s #BeBoldForChange event at Observation Point in the city’s South Bank. It’s described as “an artistic space designed for women to send messages of love, solidarity, and empowerment to each other,” and will be open for 12 hours on Wednesday.

“To our sisters around the world, we say this: Live as you choose and make no apologies,” the blog post concluded. “Always look out for one another. Stay strong, be bold and keep on fighting the good fight. Because now, more than ever, it’s time to rock the boat.”

The full list of non-profits to which you can donate through the campaign can be found below.

• Planned Parenthood
• Women for Women
• Girls Who Code
• UN Women
• She Lift
• She’s the First
• Partners in Health
• Tostan
• Baby2Baby
• Becky’s Fund
• Grameen America
• Girls Not Brides

Another embedded SIM provider signs up to support Windows 10

Why it matters to you

Embedded SIM cards look set to play a big role in offering Windows 10 users another way to connect to the internet while they’re on the move.

Oberthur Technologies has announced the availability of an embedded SIM card validated for use with Windows 10. This marks the next step forward in Microsoft’s efforts to implement the technology, which has been of major interest to some of the biggest names in the device industry since at least 2015.

Unlike traditional SIM cards, eSIM cards cannot be removed from a device. Instead, they’re programmable, meaning that users can change their provider or contract instantly without having to replace the card itself.

Oberthur Technologies isn’t the only company eager to provide eSIM cards for use with Windows 10. Gemalto, the world’s largest SIM manufacturer, stated its intention to partner with Microsoft in February 2017, according to a report from MS Power User.

More: Windows 10 Insider Program: Latest Windows Builds, Updates, and News

With these two companies on board, it’s thought that Windows 10 devices with built-in eSIM cards could be available by the end of the year. These systems will allow users to purchase cellular connectivity and data packages directly from the Windows Store.

Over the past few months, Microsoft has seemingly been preparing to rethink its approach to data services in Windows 10. Later this month, Skype Wi-Fi will be retired — which makes sense, given that the hot spot service would likely have interfered with plans to offer data plans via an eSIM card.

These attempts to set up a straightforward means of purchasing cellular connectivity are likely tied to Windows 10 Cloud. It seems clear that Windows 10 Cloud will rely on an internet connection, so giving users an easy method of buying data straight from the device would be a smart move.

However, Microsoft has yet to lift the lid on Windows 10 Cloud officially, and for the moment the spotlight is on next month’s Creators Update. Once that has been released, expect to hear plenty more about the company’s plans for its flagship operating system going forward.

Close to the Metal ep. 33: Ryzen is here, but is AMD really back?

AMD’s Ryzen is here, and ready to destroy any hopes Intel had for world domination — or at least, that’s what they tell us. In fact, we heard this same rhetoric come out for the last big architecture change, Bulldozer, only to be sorely disappointed when it landed. Even in the Radeon RX Series cards couldn’t keep up with Intel’s latest and great. Is this the chip that finally puts AMD back in mainstream systems?

Probably not. While the highest-end Ryzen chips compete very well with Intel’s CPUs when the core count surpasses four, the instructions per clock still can’t keep up with the most popular chips from Intel, such as the Core i7-6600K, which remains our top pick for gaming machines.

It’s not all bad news for the red team. The Ryzen chips fight up a weight class when it comes to prosumer and home workstation systems, particularly with the R7 1800 X, which boasts performance not seen with even upgraded X99 Intel processors, depending on the workload. We ran the processors through the ringer of not just performance tests and stress tests, but overclock testing too, for those who like to erk out extra performance.

So is it worth making the jump to AMD’s brand new platform? We’ll dig into the performance results and pricing structure to decide who exactly needs Ryzen, and who should stick with the status quo and choose an Intel chip. All that and more on this week’s Close to the Metal.

Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that focuses on the geekier side of life. It tackles the topics PC enthusiasts argue over in language everyone can understand. Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Tuesday at 1pm EST/10am PST.

Land (and Air) Rover: Drone-launching SUV will aid search-and-rescue teams

Why it matters to you

By launching a drone without even stopping — or getting out of — the vehicle, natural disaster teams can improve response times.

Land Rover is only a half-accurate description for Jaguar’s latest SUV designed for both land and air. Today at the Geneva Motor Show, the company unveiled Project Hero, a variation of the Land Rover Discovery that’s the first vehicle that not only has a built-in drone launching platform on the roof, but can also launch and land drones while in motion.

The SUV, designed by the Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations team, uses a magnetic retention system to keep the drone on top of the vehicle until it’s ready to launch — or to allow the drone to land while the vehicle is in motion. Land Rover says that the fully integrated landing system is also self-centering.

More: Forget the Batmobile, this photo mobile launches a drone, stores camera gear

So why does Land Rover want to launch a drone from the roof — besides that fact that’s it’s incredibly cool? Project Hero is part of the company’s longstanding support of the Red Cross, a relationship that started in 1954 and has since resulted in 120 vehicles designed specifically for the organization’s work around the globe. The latest drone-launching vehicle is designed for search and rescue to get a pair of eyes up in the air faster when every minute matters.

Live footage from the drone assists emergency response teams, allowing groups to quickly search the scene from a safe distance. The drone is controlled from a panel inside the car and uses both a live camera and thermal imaging. The company says the latest Discovery will help speed up the response time at landslides, earthquakes, floods, avalanches and other natural disasters.

The drone-launching SUV is a variation of the TD6 engine in the Land Rover Discovery. Along with the rooftop landing pad, the rear cargo space floor slides out to become extra work surface. LEDs to aid in night searches and multiple plug- and equipment-mounting options also aim to make the vehicle more rescue friendly.

Beginning this summer, Project Hero will be tested in Erzberg and Vienna, Austria, and used in training and simulations before being integrated into the Red Cross emergency response efforts for natural disasters.

Get your WordPress site upgraded to the latest version to fix six serious bugs

Why it matters to you

WordPress self-hosted sites are vulnerable to attack and if you’re a WordPress administrator then you will want to get your site updated immediately.

We all have to deal with security patches and updates that try to keep our systems safe from the ever-increasing levels of cybercrime. If you’re a webmaster, then you have at least one more system than most other people that you need to keep up to date, specifically software that runs your website.

Most recently, one of the most popular web publishing systems around, WordPress, suffered some serious vulnerabilities and its developers published a new version to address them. Consider this a public service announcement — if you’re running WordPress, then you want to upgrade to version 4.7.3 immediately, WeLiveSecurity reports.

More: WordPress fixes huge security vulnerability, all users instructed to update

The six vulnerabilities that researchers identified are as follows:

• Cross-site scripting (XSS) via media file metadata.
• Control characters can trick redirect URL validation.
• Unintended files can be deleted by administrators using the plugin deletion functionality.
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) via video URL in YouTube embeds.
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) via taxonomy term names.
• Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in Press This leading to excessive use of server resources.

Fortunately, the researchers first privately let the WordPress team know of the vulnerabilities early, allowing the development and rollout of a fix before the vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed. That fix is available now for all self-hosted WordPress sites and if your site is set to automatically update, then you might already have received it.

If your site isn’t set to automatically update, then you’ll want to back it up first. If you have a staging site, then you will want to test there first to make sure nothing breaks when the update is applied. Then, just go to the WordPress admin panel, select Dashboard > Updates, and follow the instructions. While you’re at it, you can check to see if any of your WordPress plugins need updating and get them current as well. Plugin vulnerabilities can be just as damaging as those in the core WordPress system.

If you’re running a site on WordPress.com, which is administered by Automattic, then your site will already have been updated and these vulnerabilities, at least, will have been patched. If not, then your job of webmaster just got another important task that you will likely want to check off sooner rather than later.

Emulator team gets ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ to run on Windows

Why it matters to you

Breath of the Wild is getting rave reviews, but it’s still only playable in 720p or 900p. With this emulator, it could potentially be playable in 4K.

Praised for its innovative game design and killer visuals, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild went from one of the most eagerly anticipated games of 2017 to one of the best reviewed games in recent memory. To celebrate the release of Breath of the Wild, the team behind the CemU Wii U emulator figured out how to get the game to run on a PC.

Partially, anyway.

Just two days after Breath of the Wild hit store shelves, the CemU team had managed to get it working on their Wii U emulation platform. Don’t get too excited — it’s still in very early stages, and most of the game is unplayable due to game-breaking physics bugs and other major issues.

According to Kotaku Australia, you can’t get very far in the game, and performance is still a little rough. Running on an Intel Core i7-4790K, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780, and 8GB of system memory, the emulation delivers predictably choppy performance. The real achievement here is that it’s running at all, the CemU team went from barely being able to access the menus in Breath of the Wild to having access to the full game in just two days.

More: ‘Zelda’ and ‘Nioh’ may look friendly, but look closer, and you’ll find a dark soul

Motherboard spoke to “Exzap,” one of the CemU team’s developers, and shed some light on the magnitude of their achievement, as well as their plans for the future.

“The goal is to get every game running 100 percent eventually. How we get there and how long it will take is difficult to answer. But in regards to [Breath of the Wild] I think we will see small incremental improvements in almost every future CemU release. It’s been this way for most other games so far,” Exzap said, speaking with Motherboard’s Jordan Pearson.

Eventually, the goal is to have a fully functional version of Breath of the Wild capable of running in CemU, which could mean you’d be able to play the game at resolutions beyond its native 720p or 900p. That is, unless Nintendo’s legal team manages to squash the project first, an eventuality which Exzap says he’s already preparing for.