Despite denials until mid-2022, Stadia is coming to an end. The technically impressive game streaming service, which delivered current-gen games across smartphones, PCs, tablets and even Chromecast, is the latest victim in Google’s long list of service downgrades. Google said the service “has not gained the traction among users that we expected.” This is absolutely true. Google shut down its in-house game development studios early last year, and sadly, the company was unable to turn things around, even as rumors swirled that Stadia wasn’t long in this world. It’s a shame, as the service worked incredibly well, especially in the nascent beginnings of cloud gaming.
The good news is that if you invest in standalone games, Google will “refund all Stadia hardware purchases made on the Google Store and all game and add-on purchases made on the Stadia Store.” This was explained by Stadia VP and General Manager Phil Harrison in a blog post here.
If you have subscribed to Stadia Pro and created a catalog of games, there will be no refunds. You’ll be able to play your games until January, but it’ll serve as a reminder that streaming services, if they go out, could leave you with nothing. Except maybe a Chromecast.
—Matt Smith
The biggest stories you may have missed
The first time that both telescopes observed the same celestial target at the same time.
NASA made history this week when it slammed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into an asteroid nearly seven million miles away. Now, we can see the test from afar, thanks to the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. JWST and Hubble collected different wavelengths of light (infrared and visible, respectively), and NASA says observing data from multiple wavelengths will help scientists figure out if large chunks of material came off the surface of Dimorphos or if it was mostly fine dust. This is an important aspect of the test: the ultimate goal is to develop a system that can deflect incoming asteroids away from Earth. Like 1998’s Armageddon, minus Bruce Willis and Aerosmith.
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The sub-practice we’ve been waiting for.
Engadget
Finally, after only 10 years, Sonos has released the Sub Mini, and at $429, it’s relatively affordable. Perfectly sized for apartments and small rooms, it’s a simple upgrade to your Sonos Beam or Ray. Finally, you have a viable, mobile way to boost your sound that isn’t obscenely expensive. Check out our full review.
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Even more complicated art generated by AI.
Meta introduced its Make-a-Scene text-to-image generation AI in July, which, like Dall-E and Midjourney, can create fantastic renderings based on written prompts. On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Make-a-Scene’s livelier contemporary, Make-a-Video. Functionally, Video works just like Scene, combining natural language processing and generative neural networks to turn non-visual cues into images; it’s just extracting content in a different format.
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Why not both?
Teenage engineering
The Swedish brand, best known for electronic music toys and tools, has released the decidedly more analog PO-80 Record Factory. As the name suggests, it can cut vinyl records as well as play them. The orange and white design is beautiful, as is the simplicity. Just plug an audio device into the 3.5mm jack and start recording. You’re limited to mono sound and won’t cut more than one with a B-side. The Record Factory is available for $149.
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Dorsey asked Musk to join Twitter’s board long before he tried to buy the company.
A portion of Elon Musk’s private messages have been made public as part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a court filing Thursday, shed new light on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter leadership, discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey and how Musk talks to CEO Parag Agrawal quickly. The messages include Musk telling Agrawal he wants to acquire Twitter and take it private, rather than join the board, as well as Agrawal confronting Musk about an April 9 tweet asking if “Twitter is dying”.
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