Walmart products are now available through Google Express and Home

Walmart finally makes its debut on Google Express and Home, with free shipping on orders of $35 or more.

You can do a lot of things with Google Home — you can ask for current weather conditions, call friends and family, set alarms, create reminders, and plenty more. In the most recent addition to Google’s smart speaker, you can now order products from Walmart through Google Express.

Google announced that Walmart would be coming to Home a little over a month ago, and today, that feature is now live. Just like with other stores that are on Google Express, you can use your voice to order any items that are sold through Walmart. It works in the same exact way that other stores have since Google Home’s launch, but you now have access to Walmart’s lengthy product catalog.

If voice shopping really isn’t your thing, you can always jump into the Google Express app and get your goodies that way. You can browse through all of Walmart’s Rollback sales, best sellers, beverages, snack foods, baking ingredients, and plenty more. Plus, like with other Google Express Stores, you’ll get free shipping as long as you order $35 or more worth of goods.

That’s the same free-shipping threshold that Walmart has for its own app, but the obvious advantage with Google Express is that you can quickly add items to your cart by using nothing more than your voice.

See at Google

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8 Games You Should Play on Amazon Fire TV

What are the best games to play Amazon Fire TV?

The Amazon Fire TV is a capable little streaming box that also doubles as a gaming console. While you might think that it can only play casual games like Crossy Road, the truth is that there’s a decent library of games to be found within Amazon’s app store.

If you’re interested in gaming on the Amazon Fire TV, you’ll first want to buy an Amazon Fire TV Game Controller if you don’t already own one. There are other Bluetooth controllers that will work with gaming on the Fire TV but based on some user reviews it seems like Amazon’s own controller is easier to setup and will have less issues during gameplay.

But most of these games will require a legit controller rather than the basic remote. I’ve also listed these games in order from family friendly to games intended for more mature audiences.

• Minecraft
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Riptide GP2
• Shovel Knight
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• The Jackbox Party Pack
• Five Nights at Freddy’s
• Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Minecraft

Minecraft is the most popular game of all time, so it should come as little surprise that there’s a version available for the Amazon Fire TV. It’s the ultimate sandbox game, allowing players to explore and shape the block-based world however they see fit with randomly generated worlds and a deep crafting system.

Minecraft for Amazon Fire TV is the base game (a port of the Pocket Edition of the game that’s been optimized for TV) that also supports Xbox Live and also allows for cross play between the Pocket Edition and Windows 10.

Download: Minecraft ($19.99)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

If you grew up with a Sega Genesis system, you definitely had this game. Sonic was Sega’s answer to Super Mario, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the best entry in the 16-bit era of the franchise.

Best of all, this full port of the classic game plays just as you remember it and the game really holds up in 2017. It’s the perfect game for slipping back into a nostalgic trip or for showing kids what gaming used to be like.

The first Sonic game is also available, but I’m leading with the sequel here because it’s where the series really hit its stride and just kept running.

Download: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 ($2.99)

Riptide GP: Renegade

Riptide GP: Renegade is the latest entry in the futuristic jet ski racing series for mobile that’s been ported over to the Amazon Fire TV.

Harkening back to memories of games like Jet Moto or Wave Race 64, Riptide GP: Renegade features a story-driven career mode alongside options to run a quick race or battle against online opponents. The graphics are top notch, with water and motion blur effects really giving the game a good sense of speed.

There’s plenty to unlock and upgrade as you play through the career mode, and the AI is top notch, providing a real challenge compared to other racing games.

Download: Riptide GP: Renegade (Free)

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Shovel Knight is a darling indie game that was funded on Kickstarter and released in 2014. In this 2D side-scrolling platform game, you play the Shovel Knight who has picked up his shovel to head out on an adventure to save his old friend Shield Knight. To do so, he’ll need to whack enemies with his shovel blade while aslo digging up treasures along the way.

Featuring gorgeous 8-bit graphics and great features like a fully cooperative campaign mode so you can play with a friend, (and a 4-player Battle Mode coming in 2018),

Download: Shovel Knight ($24.99)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: K.O.T.O.R. is an epic RPG based within the expanded Star Wars universe. Originally released for the Xbox a long, long time ago (2003 to be exact), you can play the full game on your Amazon Fire TV. That’s right, you get all the force-wielding, lightsaber-swinging, Republic-saving goodness that the console games dazzled us with.

Choose your party from nine types of characters, travel through eight planets on the Ebon Hawk, and learn to use the Force, including over 40 powers. You also get to build your own lightsaber!

Knights of the Republic is the epitome of Star Wars games for some and this port is just $10 via Amazon. As the Jedi’s last hope, you decide the fate of the galaxy as you battle your way to becoming a hero or falling to the temptation of the Dark Side.

You decide!

Download: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ($9.99)

The Jackbox Party Pack

From the folks behind the popular party board game, You Don’t Know Jack! comes Jackbox, a collection of party games you can play with your Amazon Fire TV and your phone. Jackbox offers three Party Packs for Amazon Fire TV that include great social games such as Fibbage, Drawful, Lie Swatter and more. People at your party can log in and play on their phone, a tablet or a computer — all they really need is a browser to access Jackbox.tv and the four-letter room code.

All party packs are available for $24.99 and feature four fun party games. Most of the games are designed around the players creating the content, so the age appropriateness will depend on the group playing.

Download: The Jackbox Party Pack ($24.99)

Five Nights at Freddy’s

If you’ve got traumatic childhood memories of the creepy Chuck E. Cheese band, get ready to undo all those years of therapy with Five Nights at Freddy’s.

The game has you take over the position of nightwatchman at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Why would a children’s pizzeria need a night watchman? Well, the animatronic characters (Fazbear and his pals Bonnie and Chica) have this weird quirk where they like to come to life at night and kill people.

No worries! All you have to do is stay in the security office and watch the cameras… Oh, but you also have to manually control the doors, too. Oh… and everything is running off of a power generator that will run out and leave you exposed to the demonic robots if you don’t manage the power smartly. It’s a frightening experience that highlights the importance of great game design.

If you enjoy the game, you’ll be happy to know that the next three games are also available: FNAF 2, FNAF 3 and FNAF 4.

The original game legitimately gave me nightmares so I nope’d out of playing the others, but if you love a good horror game you’ll be happy to know that developer Scott Cawthon upped the creepiness in the sequels — because who needs sleep, right?

Download: Five Nights at Freddy’s ($2.99)

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Ok, I put that disclaimer about the more mature games coming at the end because it didn’t feel right adding Hotline Miami to the same list as Minecraft without some sort of disclaimer. Hotline Miami is a great game but oh boy is it ever violent.

Despite it’s pixelated, top-down graphics, this game is as graphic as any action game you’ll play. Featuring a loose story, you play a drugged-out character that goes on gruesome killing sprees against armed gangsters. This game lets you unleash your creativity for mayhem as you make your way through room after room dispatching enemies with a wide variety of enemies. But you can’t go in guns a-blazing because one hit and you’re dead, so you really need to plan out your attacks and catch your enemies by surprise.

The original game is also available for just $9.99, too. Definitely not for kids, but a great game for anyone who enjoys gratuitous video game violence.

Download: Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number ($14.99)

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This 10-outlet Cyberpower battery backup with USB is down to $125 at Newegg

This is a great deal on a UPS with battery backup and USB charging ports.

This Cyberpower 10-outlet UPS with USB charging ports is down to $124.99 with code EMCSRKCG4 at Newegg. The code takes $65 off and includes free shipping. This same UPS sells for $165 from third parties at Amazon and as much as $190 at Best Buy.

An uninterruptible power supply guarantees protection from power surges or lightning strikes. This device has 1325VA and 810 Watts covering 10 outlets. All ten outlets have surge protection. Five of the outlets have battery backup as well.

The UPS’ backup battery helps in case the power completely goes out. How long the battery lasts depends on how much stuff you’ve got plugged in, but it is powerful enough that even if your most powerful electronics are plugged in, like a desktop computer, you should get at least enough time to save everything you’re working on and shut down safely. If you aren’t drawing too much power, the battery could last much longer.

This device uses a multifunction LCD display that keeps users up-to-date with real time information, including any potential problems like a power surge or faulty wiring.

See at Newegg

More from Thrifter:

• 8 weird things you probably have in your house that sell on eBay
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Microsoft announces Office 2019, teases new features

As part of its Ignite conference today, Microsoft officially teased the next perpetual Office update, Office 2019.

Microsoft has announced Office 2019, the next perpetual Office update and the follow-up to the most recent release, Office 2016. Due for release in the second half of 2018, Microsoft says that preview versions of the latest Office suite will start rolling out in mid-2018, though it’s unclear when exactly an Android version might be released.

Other than an announcement, Microsoft is fairly coy with what to expect. However, the company did tease certain improvements and features we can expect, including enhanced inking, new PowerPoint animations, and more. From Microsoft:

Office 2019 will add new user and IT capabilities for customers who aren’t yet ready for the cloud. For example, new and improved inking features—like pressure sensitivity, tilt effects, and ink replay—will allow you to work more naturally. New formulas and charts will make data analysis for Excel more powerful. Visual animation features—like Morph and Zoom—will add polish to PowerPoint presentations. Server enhancements will include updates to IT manageability, usability, voice, and security.

It’s definitely interesting to see another perpetual license version of Office on deck for release, particularly as Microsoft has put more and more emphasis on its Office 365 service in recent years. “Office 2019 will be a valuable upgrade for customers who feel that they need to keep some or all of their apps and servers on-premises,” Microsoft says. We should learn much more about Office 2019 and what’s new in the coming months as we move towards a preview release.

Equifax CEO Richard Smith suddenly decides to ‘retire’

Equifax has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, following a chain of blunders and mismanagement after it revealed that a security breach leaked the personal data of 143 million people. This morning, the CEO of Equifax and chairman of its board, Richard Smith, retired effective immediately.

In a release, Equifax stated that it has appointed Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., as interim CEO. He’s been with the company for seven years and most recently was the president of Equifax’s Asia Pacific division. Smith will stay on as an unpaid advisor to oversee a smooth transition. He cites the reason for his departure as the data breach: “At this critical juncture, I believe it is in the best interests of the company to have new leadership to move the company forward,” he said.

Smith is the latest casualty of the epic breach (their Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Officer also “retired”), which has been catastrophically mishandled by Equifax. The company’s failure to patch a well-known security hole is the reason hackers were able to gain access to the data. The company’s executives are also under DOJ investigation for suspiciously timed stock sales that occurred after Equifax realized the breach had occurred but before it disclosed information to the public. And their credit freeze pin system had security issues of its own.

It’s unclear whether new management will ease Equifax’s woes, after how mishandled this entire breach has been from the start. Senators have called for credit report changes, allowing for consumers to have more power over their information. It makes sense; credit agencies should be held accountable when they make terrible errors in judgment and don’t take action to protect the sensitive personal data they handle every day.

Via: CNBC

Source: Equifax

Bosch details its work on present and future self-driving cars

There are so many companies working on different pieces of the self-driving puzzle, it’s hard to keep track of all the partnerships and small developments that are pushing us ever closer to kicking back in a fully autonomous vehicle. While not as visible as some other firms, Bosch is a significant force in the automotive industry, producing various car components alongside the power tools and home appliances most regular consumers will associate the brand with. Naturally then, given its industry experience, Bosch is working on self-driving technologies of its own, recently heading to London’s Somerset House to show off some of the things it’s doing right now, as well as what it might do in the future.

Bosch has already partnered with NVIDIA to develop an AI brain for self-driving cars, with TomTom on mapping systems that’ll help vehicles see the road ahead, and with Mercedes on automated valet and taxi concepts. The showcase in London featured a few more tangible developments. These included various EVs powered by Bosch drivetrains, from e-bikes to existing and pre-market electric scooters and city cars.

At the event was also a kind of storyboard of autonomy, starting with the opening pane of assisted parking, which isn’t an uncommon feature in cars nowadays. Likeminded collaborator EasyMile, one of many at the showcase, was ferrying people around in its EZ10 autonomous shuttle, which had been programmed to run a pre-determined route around Somerset House’s main courtyard. While not mobile itself, Bosch also brought along an off-the-shelf Tesla equipped with extra cameras, radar and LiDAR sensors. Bosch is using this to develop autonomous functionality that goes beyond the Autopilot assisted driving tech Teslas already possess.

The most visually striking exhibit at the event was Bosch’s concept car, which featured an almost entirely screen-covered dashboard. Several demos showed how these displays could be used to control your smart home, browse social media or catch up on your favorite show. It’s intended to show what’s possible when the driver no longer needs to pay attention to the road — when we reach the holy grail of full autonomy.

Driving with AR glasses may be information overload

The bridge of my nose is starting to collapse under the weight of the augmented reality glasses I’m wearing. I’m sitting in an Infiniti SUV being taken on a short tour near San Francisco’s AT&T Park (home of the Giants. Go, local sports team), peering into what could possibly be the future of driving: a world where your glasses highlight landmarks and places of business while “following” a virtual Porsche along a route. I can’t say if it’s amazing or just another piece of technology being shoved into the automobile because it’s in vogue. I do know that if anyone is expected to enjoy the wonders of AR, the glasses are going to have to lose about five pounds.

While VR continues to underwhelm, AR is becoming a larger part of our lives thanks, in part, to Pokémon, Apple’s ARKit and Google’s Tango. So it’s understandable that companies like Aero Glass are trying to put augmented reality everywhere — including in front of the eyes of drivers. The company’s vision is to give anyone behind the wheel access to visual cues to their surroundings. Imagine a heads-up display that’s visible no matter where you look. But instead of just your speed, you can see the Starbucks logo off in the distance because you need a caffeine fix. Or maybe you’re a sports fan new to San Francisco and can’t find the ballpark. No problem, here’s a massive spinning Giants logo.

doesn’t make the hardware that was sliding down my face. Instead it creates the software that surfaces landmarks and brings navigation to your face. But founder Akos Maroy does believe that in two to three years AR glasses will be lighter and (more importantly) more stylish. His company is more interested in how the world looks to people wearing those specs. “We consider ourselves a visualization platform,” Maroy said. Aero Glass would grab the geolocation data from other sources like a car’s navigation system, Google Maps or from the car’s sensors.

It’s those sensors and cameras that might yield the most intriguing feature of AR. Maroy says that his company is talking to BMW about his system, which makes sense. Back in 2015, Mini (a subsidiary of BMW) showed off glasses that let you look “through” the car using the car’s external cameras to see pedestrians. Sort of like X-ray vision for driving.

While the safety features seem helpful, there is the chance of visual overload. When a system decides that everything is important enough for you to see, it’ll be difficult to separate the signal from the noise. Making your brain wade through five Starbucks logos to note that there’s a potential hazard up ahead is a concern.

Maroy knows this is an issue “depending on the situation you would want to prioritize.” He says that in the next few years his company will be working to figure that out. Plus as we slowly move into the world of autonomy, these glasses could display more data because you’re not actually driving anymore. One wrinkle in that plan is that automakers like Audi are researching making displays out of the windshield and windows in you car. It’s augmented reality without the need for headgear.

What Aero Glass envisions, though, is hardware you have on all the time. The glasses you would use in the car would be the same ones you use everywhere else. Sort of like when you get in your car with your smartphone and start using Android Auto or CarPlay, the Aero Glass app would kick in when you get behind the wheel. The company’s experience building HUD systems for the aviation market makes its foray into the automotive world a logical plan to connect with more users.

The question is: Is that what we want? Audi and BMW are both researching what the autonomous car of the future will be like. Will it be a relaxing oasis or an extension to our already overloaded digital lives. We still have awhile before AR glasses are small and comfortable enough to wear around town, but the last thing we need is another distraction behind the wheel. Even if it’ll help you find the nearest Starbucks.

The Ataribox will cost under $300 and ship next spring

Atari has so far kept pretty schtum about its forthcoming Ataribox, but in an email newsletter it’s now revealed a few nuggets of information that should tide fans over until the console’s Indiegogo launch this fall. As the newly-released pictures show, design-wise you can expect an Atari 2600 influence with a modern twist (and yes, that is real wood). Inside, the console will be powered by an AMD customized processor and run Linux, so you’ll be able to tinker with the OS and access games bought from other platforms. You can also do all the usual PC-for-TV things, such as streaming, listening to music and navigating social media.

Frustratingly, there’s still no word on pre-loaded games, although the company says it’ll “start talking titles very soon”. However, it has said it plans on shipping in late spring 2018, with an expected price tag of $250-$300 (£185-£225). Fans who get involved with the Indiegogo campaign, coming this fall, will be able to get their hands on special editions and exclusive pricing. And by then they’ll be chomping at the bit.

Instagram moves beyond its all-or-nothing approach to comments

Instagram already has tools to filter your comments, but sometimes that’s just not enough. What if you’re tired of comment spam, or just don’t like that creep who tries to flirt with you on every post? You can finally do something about it outside of reporting individual users. Instagram is rolling out comment controls that give you tight control over who can leave feedback on your photos and videos. So long as your account is public, you can set broad controls (such as limiting comments to people you follow). And even if your account is private, you can block specific users.

The social network is also mirroring its parent company by introducing anonymous reporting for livestreams. If you see a live video where someone is depressed or otherwise struggling with mental health issues, you can report the feed — the broadcaster will get a prompt offering mental health resources, such as help line contacts and an offer to talk to a friend. Instagram says it has response teams available 24/7, so there should always be someone who can help.

The additions are arguably overdue when Instagram has a huge user base — now up to 800 million people, or 100 million more than it had less than half a year ago. Many people use Instagram as their main social network, and there have been many instances of abuse ranging from body shaming to stalking. These tools give you a way to keep that abuse in check without completely isolating your account, and should also counter the effects of that abuse when it slips through your defenses.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Instagram Blog

SEC is getting serious about bitcoin fraud and fake news

The US’ Securities and Exchange Commission has to deal with a lot more than classic financial crimes these days: it has to worry about everything from insider trading hacks to the integrity of the latest digital currencies. To that end, it’s creating a Cyber Unit that will focus its enforcement team on digital offenses. These include hacks, such as attempts to obtain insider info or to compromise trading platforms and accounts, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.

To start, the SEC will look at fake news when it’s used to manipulate the market, such as pumping up a stock price to sell at a higher price. It also wants to look at shady dealings involving initial coin offerings and distributed ledgers like blockchains. Is that company starting a new bitcoin rival honestly, or is there a malicious purpose behind it? Officials will likewise worry about “misconduct” on the dark web, where it’s harder to track activity.

The Cyber Unit isn’t a group of novices: its new chief, Robert Cohen, headed up the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit for the past two years. The main question is whether or not the Commission’s new division can adapt to technological threats as they creep up. While the current mission strategy suggests the unit is on the right track, its hit list reveals just how fast-paced internet financial crime can be — many of these subjects were barely on the radar a year ago. The SEC will need to be technically savvy if it wants to keep up with criminals.

Source: SEC