Security camera kits, Chromebooks, mechanical keyboards, and more are all discounted today

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on the Blink XT home security camera system, GoPro’s 360-degree camera, an Acer Chromebook, and more! Time’s running out to take advantage of these prices, so hurry!

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If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Beyond Good and Evil 2 : Everything you need to know!

We’re all going to be Space Monkeys soon

During E3 2017 we got to see jetpacks, flying ships, hijacking, lightspeed travels, and a whole lot of explosions when Ubisoft announced they would be making a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil. Now, during E3 2018 they released another trailer for us to oogle over.

This is some pretty massive news considering we haven’t been able to play a new Beyond The Good and Evil since the release of the first game in November of 2003. What’s more exciting? It’s going to be a sequel to the original game, giving us a chance to continue the stories we stared before.

“Whatever can be common always has little value,” and Beyond Good and Evil 2 is going to be anything but common. Read on below for all the information we have on this upcoming title!

Open Universe and the Space Monkey Program

When I watched the gameplay video (shown below) I almost lost my mind when he zoomed out of the world and it just… kept going. It didn’t just stop at zooming out on the world around them, he straight up showed us the universe around that world. Even the timelapse of the game has the world actually rotating in space to change the entire dynamic of your visuals.

“System 3 has become the center of interstellar trade and colonization in the Milky Way due to the creation of “Hybrid Slaves”. While private enterprises fight over resources and power, the first colonists weave together the rich and diverse cultural heritage of “Old Earth” to give meaning to their existence. In this new era of piracy, players will rise from a lowly pirate to a legendary captain.”

These people look and feel real to the player, and that’s amazing. They each have their own style of clothes, culture, phrases, food, and accents based on the areas they were born and raised. It’s so refreshing to see so much diversity and that much more immersive to a space-futuristic based game.

Last year @Ubisoft announced that artists + fans around the world would get the chance to help make the game “Beyond Good and Evil 2” — and now, I’m so excited to announce everyone’s invited to create art + music for #BGE2 here: https://t.co/tUAsfrJOX7 #UbiE3 #E32018 pic.twitter.com/emTybaG9i5

— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) June 11, 2018

Right after the new E3 trailer was revealed Joseph Gordon-Levitt took the stage to explain to us that his production studio, HitRecord, was going to be teaming up with Beyond Good and Evil 2 to create an entire environment based on help from fans across the world. Environmental contributions include original content, art, music, and ideas for players to experience in the game. These live creative challenges give us all the power to shape the world we will be playing in.

I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely stoked to see this already diverse universe have even more of an opportunity to expand. If you’re interested, check out the link below!

See more at HitRecord

Gameplay

In space, you run the risk of being hit with meteorites and the other very real dangers of space. So the cities are built in a “safe space” the other areas of the planet are under constant dangers of meteorites. It doesn’t stop there, either. While you’re out there exploring these planets you’ll see slaves collecting the precious materials from these meteorites drops. It hasn’t been disclosed of how much involvement you get to have with those, but I personally hope I have the option to wipe out some massive slave owner and free the people. It’s never been an arch I appreciated in games.

Character creation: This time around you won’t be playing as Jade. Instead, you’ll be able to customize your own character at the start of the game!

Jetpacks: From what we can see of the gameplay trailer it looks like you won’t be able to use the fast speed of your jetpack for very long. There is no “stamina” or fuel bar shown for this mechanic, but the flames from your jetpack do slowly turn red as you run out of momentum. One thing that is shown is the speed and level of speed you are flying in.

Taking pictures: An interesting mechanic they have brought to this game is the ability to take pictures. It hasn’t even been made clear if sharing these images to social media is something we could do yet, but they do serve for a purpose. After taking a picture of something in the game you can share it with other characters in the city to trigger discussions on what they are seeing.

Flying spaceships: When flying a ship you can do loops, increase speeds, quick dash out of the way of things, fly upside-down (or sideways) and even come to drifting stops. You can take these ships and go directly into space with them. So those planet rotations I mentioned earlier? You can experience them in real time. Plus, when you are in space they’ve added a mechanic of losing friction in the atmosphere – allowing you to hit even higher speeds.

Characters

Looks like we get a couple of familiar faces here. Peyj is back as the Chief Chef of the Gada and Jade is back… looking like she just got back from Hell. What happened to our photojournalist who was so full of life and fight? Other than that we see some other faces like Umma, the Chief Medic of the Gada who is apparently also pretty skilled in high-tech acupuncture. Then there’s Shani and Knox, a badass pilot who (judging from the trailer) is a skilled fighter for the Gada and a smart-mouthed monkey full of mischief and bad ideas.

Release date and pre-order options

Currently there is no information on a release date or where you can pre-order this game. Stay tuned as we’ll update this article as soon as we get any of that information for you!

What are you most excited about?

Tell me all your thoughts and opinions on the upcoming Beyond The Good and Evil 2 game below!

Review: Kingston’s Nucleum USB-C Hub Adds Much-Needed Ports to Your MacBook or MacBook Pro

With Apple’s decision to embrace USB-C on all of its modern Macs, the company has created a need for USB-C docks so that we can continue to use all of our non-USB C peripherals as we wait for the rest of the tech industry to catch up.

Kingston’s Nucleum USB Type-C Hub is designed to meet that need, offering a selection of useful ports for MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac owners who still need to use the USB-A, HDMI, SD, and microSD ports that are no longer available on recent machines.

The Nucleum USB-C Hub, made from a silver Aluminum to match Apple devices, is small enough that it can be tucked into a purse or a bag, or, in a pinch, a pocket. It’s narrower and shorter than an iPhone X, but a bit thicker, with a short built-in USB-C cord provided.

It’s a bit larger than palm-sized, but it’s still not going to take up much room during travel or when it’s in use on a desk. There’s a “Nucleum” logo on the top of the device, while the back features Kingston branding and necessary regulatory labels.

The left side of the dock features a USB-A port and a USB-C power delivery port so you can charge a MacBook or MacBook Pro while the hub is plugged in, and on the right side, there’s another USB-C port for USB-C accessories, a single USB-A port, a microSD card slot, and an SD card slot. At one end, there’s the aforementioned power cord, while the other end houses an HDMI port.

All in all, there are a total of seven ports available on the hub, which is not too bad for a device of this size. I don’t often need more than two USB-A ports at a time, so the two-port setup worked for me, and it’s nice to have access to both microSD and SD card slots for camera accessories.

This port arrangement is standard for many of the USB-C hubs that you’ll find on sites like Amazon, but I’ve found that many of those hubs don’t offer multiple USB-C ports. An extra USB-C port is surprisingly handy for my MacBook in particular (which has a single USB-C port) because I’ve found myself with more USB-C accessories as I transition from USB-A to USB-C.

If you have primarily USB-A accessories, you may find that the Kingston hub does not offer a sufficient number of USB-A ports. Competing (and more affordable) hubs on Amazon typically offer 3 to 4 USB-A ports, but again, Kingston has a nicer variety of ports available. Most dual USB-C hubs seem to have higher price tags.

You can use all of the hub’s ports at once if so desired, and when testing multiple accessories plugged in at once, I ran into no problems. The HDMI port supports a 4K monitor (or a 1080p monitor), while passthrough charging functionality means your attached iPhones will charge up while plugged into the hub. Kingston says the Nucleum offers 5V/1.5A, which is best suited to iPhones and similar accessories. iPads will charge, but slowly.

When using the power delivery USB-C port with your USB-C cable and power adapter for charging purposes, the hub is able to deliver up to 60W of power. That is sufficient for charging the 12-inch MacBook (29W) or the 13-inch MacBook Pro (61W) but it falls a bit short of the full capacity of the 15-inch MacBook Pro (87W).

Still, 60W is enough to keep a 15-inch MacBook Pro topped up provided you’re not doing something that’s super battery intensive like rendering video or playing a graphics-heavy game. During my workday, the 60W provided by the hub was enough to keep my 15-inch MacBook Pro at 100 percent using apps like Safari, Mail, Slack, Photoshop, Pixelmator, Chrome, Tweetbot, and more all at once.

I did notice that when I unplugged my USB-C power adapter from the Nucleum or when I plugged it in, that it would cause the hub to shut off for a second. That means that any hard drives or other accessories I have attached temporarily disconnect, so you’re going to want to be careful not to plug it into a power source or unplug it during file transfers.

As a side note, the Nucleum does not need to be plugged in to a power source other than the host computer for it to function. Using the passthrough charging feature is optional.

Transfer speeds were at what I’d expect for a USB-A device plugged into a USB-C hub. With a traditional Seagate Backup Plus hard drive, for example, it took about 20 seconds to transfer over 3GB of data. Speeds were a bit slower when I was utilizing all of the ports on the hub, but not unreasonably so. As a note, you can only connect USB-C and USB-A hard drives to the hub. If you have a Thunderbolt 3 drive, like I do, it is not compatible because the Nucleum does not support Thunderbolt 3.

Moving files from an SD card and a microSD card was also relatively speedy, with it taking about 25 seconds to copy over 1GB worth of photos from an SD card to my computer, and a little under a minute to copy them back from the MacBook Pro to the card. As someone with several cameras and a drone, having access to both microSD and SD card slots is invaluable.

Bottom Line

With Apple’s focus on USB-C and its decision to remove all legacy ports, the company has created a thriving third-party hub market, and it can be difficult to narrow down what’s good from what’s just mediocre.

Kingston’s Nucleum is in the former category, providing the ports you’re most likely to need in your day to day life in a slim, portable hub from a trusted manufacturer. Kingston’s hub is more expensive than some options you’ll find on Amazon, but reliability is often worth the extra money.

I appreciated the compact size of the Nucleum, which makes it ideal for travel, and the variety of ports that it provides was perfect for me. It offers all of the ports that I need on a daily basis (primarily USB-C, USB-A, and an SD card slot), and everything worked as expected with no surprises.

I do wish that it perhaps had one more USB-A port for people who still need to use several USB-A accessories, but I have no complaints about an extra USB-C port. I don’t need dual USB-C ports on my MacBook Pro, but for my 12-inch MacBook, dual ports is a valuable addition. While I used this with Macs, it’s also going to be compatible with Windows-based machines.

The one major thing to be aware of with the Nucleum that it disconnects when connected to or disconnected from a power source. It’s not a huge deal, but if you purchase this hub, make sure not to change its power settings during file transfers.

How to Buy

The Nucleum USB Type-C Hub can be purchased from the Kingston website or from Amazon.com for $80.

Note: Kingston provided MacRumors with a Nucleum USB-C Hub for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

Tag: USB-C
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Microsoft Debuts Office 2019 Preview for Mac Enterprise Users

Microsoft today announced the launch of a new Office 2019 for Mac Preview, which is available starting today for its commercial customers.

Office 2019 for Mac, which includes new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, is the next perpetual update to Office for Mac and will ship alongside Office 2019 for Windows during the second half of 2018.

The new software is designed for customers who aren’t yet using Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription service and prefer instead to have access to perpetual non cloud based apps.

According to Microsoft, Office 2019 for Mac introduces a roaming pencil case and ribbon customizations across all Office apps, a new focus mode in Word, a focused inbox in Outlook, new charts and functions in Excel, and morph transitions, in-click sequence, and 4K video export in PowerPoint.

The update also includes features for IT designed to simplify deployment and management, such as command-line tools for centrally controlling how and when Office updates are provided to users and support for industry-standard MDM policies and preferences.

The new additions to Office 2019 for Mac are already included in the Office 365 ProPlus plan available to businesses, but are not available in Office for Mac 2016, the current perpetual Office version.

Microsoft has also prepared a website that lists all of the available features for the Office 2019 for Mac Preview.

Microsoft users interested in joining the Office 2019 for Mac Preview can do so by following the directions available on Microsoft’s support site.

Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Office
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Apple Support App Expands to 20 New Countries and Regions

Apple’s Support app for iOS devices, which is designed to allow you to get help with your Apple products, today expanded to more than 20 new countries and regions, making the app more widely available around the world.

Several new languages have been added to the Support app as well, including Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.

Apple also now allows you to get help from the Support app in your preferred language regardless of where you are located.

For those unfamiliar with the Apple Support app, it provides access to support documents through a Discover section along with options to get help from Apple’s support team for all of your linked devices.

The Support App can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Apple Support
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Instagram Expands Shopping to Stories

Instagram today announced that it is expanding its shopping feature beyond the news feed to Instagram Stories.

When viewing Instagram Stories from brands, stickers with a shopping bag icon can be tapped and will provide more details about the product along with purchase options.

Instagram has previously allowed users to view product information and make purchases through brand posts in the main news feed.

Instagram says that the new Stories shopping feature is available to a select number of brands that include Adidas, Aritzia, and Louis Vuitton, with support set to expand to additional brands in the near future.

Tag: Instagram
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Apple’s New App Store Guidelines Restrict Apps From Harvesting Data From iPhone Users’ Friends

Apple last week updated its App Store Review Guidelines for developers after unveiling iOS 12, introducing rules for remote mirroring apps, banning cryptocurrency mining, and introducing clear rules to allow developers to provide free trials for paid apps.

At the same time, Apple also quietly expanded its data sharing rules, as Bloomberg points out, introducing strict new guidelines that prevent app developers from collecting user data to build advertising profiles or contact databases. The rules also prohibit apps from harvesting data from an iPhone user’s contacts. From Apple’s updated 5.1.2 data sharing guidelines:

(iii) Apps should not attempt to surreptitiously build a user profile based on collected data and may not attempt, facilitate, or encourage others to identify anonymous users or reconstruct user profiles based on data collected from Apple-provided APIs or any data that you say has been collected in an “anonymized,” “aggregated,” or otherwise non-identifiable way.

(iv) Do not use information from Contacts, Photos, or other APIs that access user data to build a contact database for your own use or for sale/distribution to third parties, and don’t collect information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing.

(v) Do not contact people using information collected via a user’s Contacts or Photos, except at the explicit initiative of that user on an individualized basis; do not include a Select All option or default the selection of all contacts. You must provide the user with a clear description of how the message will appear to the recipient before sending it (e.g. What will the message say? Who will appear to be the sender?).

The wording of the updated 5.1.2 guideline puts an end to secretive data collection techniques, where developers collect data from an iPhone user’s contacts and then use it for marketing and advertising purposes. In the past, developers have used iPhone contact lists, which include phone numbers, email addresses, photos, and other information, for unsavory advertising and data collection purposes.

One developer explained to Bloomberg just how much data was accessible and how easily it could be obtained and abused without Apple’s knowledge:

“The address book is the Wild West of data,” the iOS developer said. “I am able to instantly transfer all the contacts info into some random server or upload it to Dropbox if I wanted to, the very moment a user says okay to giving contacts permission. Apple doesn’t track it, nor do they know where it went.”

Developers are now expressly forbidden from using apps to build user profiles and contact databases and from misusing contact information and other sensitive user data. Apple has also prohibited apps from sending out mass texts to a user’s contact list without explicit user permission. Developers who are caught breaking Apple’s new data sharing rules may be banned from the App Store.

The full App Store Guidelines for developers can be viewed on Apple’s website.

Tag: App Store
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Privacy virtual credit card service adds cash back for online transactions

Simpson33/123RF

Back in 2016, Privacy launched its free service that allows shoppers to use virtual “burner” cards for all your online transactions — making your financial details anonymous on the internet. On Tuesday, June 12, the company officially launched a cash-back program, giving users a percentage back when they use Privacy to make a purchase.

After creating an account and setting up your preferences, every transaction you make moving forward will provide you with at least 1 percent cash back  — and can go all the way up to 5 percent for specific vendors. But it’s important to note that transactions using PayPal and other money services don’t qualify for the rewards.

Privacy needs to be installed as a Chrome extension, which will recognize any time you’re on a checkout page.  The online-only service works with Visa debit cards, and all you need to do is link your bank account when you sign up.

You’ll see Privacy’s icon where you need to add your card information — click on the logo and you’ll get the option to create a new virtual card for the service. These cards can be reused with the retailer, or terminated after a one-time transaction.

What happens when you create a card? Privacy generates a random debit card number, security code, and expiration date. These are tied to merchants if you opt to reuse a card. The anonymous debit card number means you can use any name and billing address you want. This way, no one but you has your card information.

“It boils down to giving control back to you as the consumer,” Privacy co-founder and CEO Bo Jiang told Digital Trends. “You can definitely limit subscriptions … you don’t have to worry about data breaches anymore if such-and-such merchant gets hacked.”

Jiang says Privacy’s anonymity also protects you from debit card fraud and identity theft. For example, someone who accesses your virtual card information but can only use it with HBO Now will find it useless. The service also makes disputing a charge a piece of cake — just fill out a form and the information is sent to Visa.

Once the card is charged, the money is withdrawn from your account by Privacy. You can also add a charge limit to your card per merchant, to control spending at various online retailers; and you can pause or cancel cards at any time.

The company is able to provide the service for free as it takes a cut of the interchange fee with its issuing bank as well as with Visa.

Privacy is available to everyone. Support for Firefox, Safari, Google Pay, and Apple Pay are in the works. You can also download the iOS app and Android app to generate burner cards and view your transactions, just like the web app.

Updated on June 11: Privacy launches cash-back rewards for users.

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The worst internet trends of 2018, 2017, and beyond

The internet can be a powerful stage for new ideas and movements. In recent years, it has been home to countless trends and initiatives, including #MeToo and the March for Science, as well as acting as an invaluable platform to garner donations for important causes.

Some internet challenges, like the Ice Bucket Challenge (which reached its heyday back in the summer of 2014), help raise money and awareness for diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Challenges like this are capable of doing a lot of good thanks in part to the power of the internet.

Not all trends are so praiseworthy, however. Some are ill-advised or downright dangerous, and only exist to amass likes and views online. From eating Tide Pods to feather eyebrows, these are the worst trends to ever emerge from online culture.

Here’s how much Amazon Prime costs and how you can get it for cheaper

Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service that provides eligible Amazon members with a plethora of exclusive benefits, including free two-day shipping and access to on-demand music and videos. For the 100 million people already using the service, Amazon Prime is a great way to make the most out of your Amazon account. But how much does the service actually cost to use?

When Amazon first introduced the service in 2005, it cost $79 a year for free shipping within the contiguous United States. However, the membership fee has since increased (once in 2014, and again just recently) to accommodate the new services — such as Prime Video, Prime Reading, and the Whole Foods discount — that have been added to the service. Before you can figure out how much the service is going to cost you, though, there are several subscriptions and discounts you’ll want to be aware of.

Amazon Prime

Amazon recently announced some price changes to its Prime membership tiers. The standard Amazon Prime membership will still run you about $13 a month (for a total of $156 a year). Where the biggest change will be felt is in the annual membership, which is increasing by $20 (from $99 to $119). However, if you can afford to shell out for the annual membership, it’s still the better deal in the long run, as you end up saving yourself about $37 a year by not paying month-to-month.

Existing Prime members with an annual membership will renew at this rate ($119) starting on June 16. As of May 11, all new members will be charged this rate as well.

Amazon Student

If you are a student or professor (or anyone with a .edu email address), you may be eligible for the Amazon Prime Student membership which only costs $6.50 a month ($78 a year). If you purchase the annual membership, it will only cost you $59.

However, the one downside of this cheaper membership is that you will need to re-enroll as a student every year to keep this rate or Amazon will assume you’ve graduated and beginning charging you the standard rate.

Free Trial

Are you new to Amazon Prime and are not sure if you want to commit to an entire year’s worth of the subscription? Amazon also offers a 30-day free trial of its Prime service. You’ll need to put a credit card on file to sign up for it, and it’s only available to first-time members, but as long as you remember to cancel your membership before your 30 days are up, this is a great way to test run the service for free before you commit.

Prime Video Membership

While free shipping used to be one of the biggest draws to becoming an Amazon Prime member, that may no longer be the case since Amazon started streaming exclusive content like Mozart in the Jungle and Lore, with plans for an Amazon-exclusive Lord of the Rings prequel as well. You can enroll in a Prime Video-only membership, which will allow you to stream everything the service has to provide for only $9 a month ($108 if you pay monthly versus $99 for the annual Prime Video membership).

You won’t be able to get the free shipping or other services associated with the traditional plan without signing up for that one, but the Prime Video membership can be a good way to get some of the benefits of the Prime service for less money. You can also add additional services to your Prime Video account through participating partners such as HBO, Cinemax, and Starz (for another fee, of course).

Other options

Besides Prime Day, which is known to offer exclusive deals (including Prime memberships) for current membership holders, you may also be able to get a Prime membership through another service you already have (such as Sprint) for a potential discount. Be sure to check with your cell phone or cable provider for more details and to see if you are eligible.

Even at its most expensive ($156 a year if you opt to not get the annual membership), Amazon Prime is a great way to make the most out of your Amazon account, if you use the service regularly.

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