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The data privacy company Onerep.com bills itself as a Virginia-based service for helping people remove their personal information from almost 200 people-search websites. However, an investigation into the history of onerep.com finds this company is operating out of Belarus and Cyprus, and that its founder has launched dozens of people-search services over the years.

Onerep’s “Protect” service starts at $8.33 per month for individuals and $15/mo for families, and promises to remove your personal information from nearly 200 people-search sites. Onerep also markets its service to companies seeking to offer their employees the ability to have their data continuously removed from people-search sites.

A testimonial on onerep.com.

Customer case studies published on onerep.com state that it struck a deal to offer the service to employees of Permanente Medicine, which represents the doctors within the health insurance giant Kaiser Permanente. Onerep also says it has made inroads among police departments in the United States.

But a review of Onerep’s domain registration records and that of its founder reveal a different side to this company. Onerep.com says its founder and CEO is Dimitri Shelest from Minsk, Belarus, as does Shelest’s profile on LinkedIn. Historic registration records indexed by DomainTools.com say Mr. Shelest was a registrant of onerep.com who used the email address dmitrcox2@gmail.com.

A search in the data breach tracking service Constella Intelligence for the name Dimitri Shelest brings up the email address dimitri.shelest@onerep.com. Constella also finds that Dimitri Shelest from Belarus used the email address d.sh@nuwber.com, and the Belarus phone number +375-292-702786.

Nuwber.com is a people search service whose employees all appear to be from Belarus, and it is one of dozens of people-search companies that Onerep claims to target with its data-removal service. Onerep.com’s website disavows any relationship to Nuwber.com, stating quite clearly, “Please note that OneRep is not associated with Nuwber.com.”

However, there is an abundance of evidence suggesting Mr. Shelest is in fact the founder of Nuwber. Constella found that Minsk telephone number (375-292-702786) has been used multiple times in connection with the email address dmitrcox@gmail.com. Recall that Onerep.com’s domain registration records in 2018 list the email address dmitrcox2@gmail.com.

It appears Mr. Shelest sought to reinvent his online identity in 2015 by adding a “2” to his email address. A search on the Belarus phone number tied to Nuwber.com shows up in the domain records for askmachine.org, and DomainTools says this domain is tied to both dmitrcox@gmail.com and dmitrcox2@gmail.com.

Onerep.com CEO and founder Dimitri Shelest, as pictured on the “about” page of onerep.com.

A search in DomainTools for the email address dmitrcox@gmail.com shows it is associated with the registration of at least 179 domain names, including dozens of mostly now-defunct people-search companies targeting citizens of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia and Mexico, among others.

Those include nuwber.fr, a site registered in 2016 which was identical to the homepage of Nuwber.com at the time. DomainTools shows the same email and Belarus phone number are in historic registration records for nuwber.at, nuwber.ch, and nuwber.dk (all domains linked here are to their cached copies at archive.org, where available).

Nuwber.com, circa 2015. Image: Archive.org.

A review of historic WHOIS records for onerep.com show it was registered for many years to a resident of Sioux Falls, SD for a completely unrelated site. But around Sept. 2015 the domain switched from the registrar GoDaddy.com to eNom, and the registration records were hidden behind privacy protection services. DomainTools indicates around this time onerep.com started using domain name servers from DNS provider constellix.com. Likewise, Nuwber.com first appeared in late 2015, was also registered through eNom, and also started using constellix.com for DNS at nearly the same time.

Listed on LinkedIn as a former product manager at OneRep.com between 2015 and 2018 is Dimitri Bukuyazau, who says their hometown is Warsaw, Poland. While this LinkedIn profile (linkedin.com/in/dzmitrybukuyazau) does not mention Nuwber, a search on this name in Google turns up a 2017 blog post from privacyduck.com, which laid out a number of reasons to support a conclusion that OneRep and Nuwber.com were the same company.

“Any people search profiles containing your Personally Identifiable Information that were on Nuwber.com were also mirrored identically on OneRep.com, down to the relatives’ names and address histories,” Privacyduck.com wrote. The post continued:

“Both sites offered the same immediate opt-out process. Both sites had the same generic contact and support structure. They were – and remain – the same company (even PissedConsumer.com advocates this fact: https://nuwber.pissedconsumer.com/nuwber-and-onerep-20160707878520.html).”

“Things changed in early 2016 when OneRep.com began offering privacy removal services right alongside their own open displays of your personal information. At this point when you found yourself on Nuwber.com OR OneRep.com, you would be provided with the option of opting-out your data on their site for free – but also be highly encouraged to pay them to remove it from a slew of other sites (and part of that payment was removing you from their own site, Nuwber.com, as a benefit of their service).”

Reached via LinkedIn, Mr. Bukuyazau declined to answer questions, such as whether he ever worked at Nuwber.com. However, Constella Intelligence finds two interesting email addresses for employees at nuwber.com: d.bu@nuwber.com, and d.bu+figure-eight.com@nuwber.com, which was registered under the name “Dzmitry.”

PrivacyDuck’s claims about how onerep.com appeared and behaved in the early days are not readily verifiable because the domain onerep.com has been completely excluded from the Wayback Machine at archive.org. The Wayback Machine will honor such requests if they come directly from the owner of the domain in question.

Still, Mr. Shelest’s name, phone number and email also appear in the domain registration records for a truly dizzying number of country-specific people-search services, including pplcrwlr.in, pplcrwlr.fr, pplcrwlr.dk, pplcrwlr.jp, peeepl.br.com, peeepl.in, peeepl.it and peeepl.co.uk.

The same details appear in the WHOIS registration records for the now-defunct people-search sites waatpp.de, waatp1.fr, azersab.com, and ahavoila.com, a people-search service for French citizens.

The German people-search site waatp.de.

A search on the email address dmitrcox@gmail.com suggests Mr. Shelest was previously involved in rather aggressive email marketing campaigns. In 2010, an anonymous source leaked to KrebsOnSecurity the financial and organizational records of Spamit, which at the time was easily the largest Russian-language pharmacy spam affiliate program in the world.

Spamit paid spammers a hefty commission every time someone bought male enhancement drugs from any of their spam-advertised websites. Mr. Shelest’s email address stood out because immediately after the Spamit database was leaked, KrebsOnSecurity searched all of the Spamit affiliate email addresses to determine if any of them corresponded to social media accounts at Facebook.com (at the time, Facebook allowed users to search profiles by email address).

That mapping, which was done mainly by generous graduate students at my alma mater George Mason University, revealed that dmitrcox@gmail.com was used by a Spamit affiliate, albeit not a very profitable one. That same Facebook profile for Mr. Shelest is still active, and it says he is married and living in Minsk (last update: 2021).

The Italian people-search website peeepl.it.

Scrolling down Mr. Shelest’s Facebook page to posts made more than ten years ago show him liking the Facebook profile pages for a large number of other people-search sites, including findita.com, findmedo.com, folkscan.com, huntize.com, ifindy.com, jupery.com, look2man.com, lookerun.com, manyp.com, peepull.com, perserch.com, persuer.com, pervent.com, piplenter.com, piplfind.com, piplscan.com, popopke.com, pplsorce.com, qimeo.com, scoutu2.com, search64.com, searchay.com, seekmi.com, selfabc.com, socsee.com, srching.com, toolooks.com, upearch.com, webmeek.com, and many country-code variations of viadin.ca (e.g. viadin.hk, viadin.com and viadin.de).

The people-search website popopke.com.

Domaintools.com finds that all of the domains mentioned in the last paragraph were registered to the email address dmitrcox@gmail.com.

Mr. Shelest has not responded to multiple requests for comment. KrebsOnSecurity also sought comment from onerep.com, which likewise has not responded to inquiries about its founder’s many apparent conflicts of interest. In any event, these practices would seem to contradict the goal Onerep has stated on its site: “We believe that no one should compromise personal online security and get a profit from it.”

The people-search website findmedo.com.

Max Anderson is chief growth officer at 360 Privacy, a legitimate privacy company that works to keep its clients’ data off of more than 400 data broker and people-search sites. Anderson said it is concerning to see a direct link between between a data removal service and data broker websites.

“I would consider it unethical to run a company that sells people’s information, and then charge those same people to have their information removed,” Anderson said.

Last week, KrebsOnSecurity published an analysis of the people-search data broker giant Radaris, whose consumer profiles are deep enough to rival those of far more guarded data broker resources available to U.S. police departments and other law enforcement personnel.

That story revealed that the co-founders of Radaris are two native Russian brothers who operate multiple Russian-language dating services and affiliate programs. It also appears many of the Radaris founders’ businesses have ties to a California marketing firm that works with a Russian state-run media conglomerate currently sanctioned by the U.S. government.

KrebsOnSecurity will continue investigating the history of various consumer data brokers and people-search providers. If any readers have inside knowledge of this industry or key players within it, please consider reaching out to krebsonsecurity at gmail.com.

The FCC has raised the speeds required to describe internet service as “broadband” for the first time since 2015. The agency’s annual high-speed internet assessment concluded that 100 Mbps downloads and 20 Mbps uploads will be the new standard. The news will likely irk ISPs who would love to keep pointing to 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps speeds (the previous standards) and convincing people they’re getting high-speed broadband.

The FCC’s report broke down several areas where the country’s online infrastructure falls short. The agency concluded that broadband isn’t being deployed quickly enough to serve Americans, especially those in rural areas and those living on Tribal lands. “These gaps in deployment are not closing rapidly enough,” the agency wrote in its report.

More specifically, the agency said fixed terrestrial broadband service (not including satellite) has yet to be deployed to around 24 million Americans, including about 28 percent of people in rural areas and over 23 percent of those living on Tribal lands. On the mobile front, it added that about nine percent of Americans (including 36 percent in rural areas and over 20 percent on Tribal lands) lack adequate 5G cellular speeds of at least 35 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up.

The report set a long-term goal of broadband speeds of 1 Gbps down / 500 Mbps up “to give stakeholders a collective goal towards which to strive.” Those numbers may hint at where the Commission would like to move the goalposts the next time it updates them. In 2015, when the commission set the 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps requirements, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel commented, “Frankly, it should be 100 Mbps”—the benchmark the agency finally moved to today, nine years later.

The FCC can’t police ISPs to force them to boost their speeds, but this type of move may be the best card it can play. What it can do is prevent them from marketing their services as “broadband” internet if they don’t meet these thresholds. It remains to be seen whether the companies providing the infrastructure play ball or opt for other marketing buzzwords to sell customers on glacial and outdated internet speeds.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-fcc-just-quadrupled-the-download-speed-required-to-market-internet-as-broadband-205950393.html?src=rss

With Microsoft's Xamarin.Forms mobile-centric UI toolkit for .NET developers nearing its end-of-life date of May 1, the open source Uno Platform is throwing its hat into the ring as a possible replacement.

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Meta is discontinuing data analysis tool CrowdTangle on August 14. The closure will come three months ahead of the next US presidential election and three years after it was reported that the platform used for spotting misinformation on Facebook and Instagram was causing internal strife.

Meta acquired CrowdTangle in 2016. CrowdTangle has been used by researchers, reporters, and government officials to identify trends about conspiracies and other forms of misinformation spreading through Facebook. Meta is going to replace CrowdTangle with a technology currently under development called Meta Content Library, but it will only be available to academic and nonprofit researchers. For-profit organizations, like many news organizations, will lose access, as The Wall Street Journal points out.

Previously, CrowdTangle had some features available to the public, like Live Displays, which tracked how people discussed trending topics on certain social media channels like Facebook Pages. Journalists working at for-profit news outlets were able to apply for access to the full CrowdTangle service, as were publishers, including music labels, content creators, and public figures.

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Enlarge / SpaceX's Starship soars through the sky over South Texas, powered by 33 methane-burning Raptor engines. (credit: Stephen Clark/Ars Technica)

SpaceX's new-generation Starship rocket, the most powerful and largest launcher ever built, flew halfway around the world following liftoff from South Texas on Thursday, accomplishing a key demonstration of its ability to carry heavyweight payloads into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX's third towering Starship rocket, standing some 397 feet (121 meters) tall and wider than the fuselage of a 747 jumbo jet, lifted off at 8:25 am CDT (13:25 UTC) Thursday from SpaceX's Starbase launch facility on the Texas Gulf Coast east of Brownsville. SpaceX delayed the liftoff time by nearly an hour and a half to wait for boats to clear out of restricted waters near the launch base.

Hitting its marks

The successful launch builds on two Starship test flights last year that achieved some, but not all, of their objectives and appears to put the privately funded rocket program on course to begin launching satellites, allowing SpaceX to ramp up the already-blistering pace of Starlink deployments.

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It’ll soon be time for the tech world to once again turn its attention to Mountain View. Google has revealed the date for this year's I/O conference. The event is set for May 14. 

Google for Developers disclosed the date in annoying fashion. It asked folks to complete a tedious logic puzzle (think of the path puzzles from BioShock). Once enough people kindly finished all 15 levels and got a marble to its destination over and over again, Google announced when I/O will be happening. It will again be a one-day event this year.

Twist, turn, and teleport your way to solve the Google I/O puzzle and help reveal the 2024 dates. Just remember, never slow your roll! #io24puzzlehttps://t.co/BSXTPkaEMb pic.twitter.com/mlAhRYgRpO

— Google for Developers (@googledevs) March 14, 2024

While I/O is a developer conference, there’s always plenty of interest for consumers. The keynote, for instance, is bound to provide a look at some upcoming Pixel and Android features. We’ll likely learn about Google’s next steps in the fast-moving AI space as well (let’s just hope it’s not going to rebrand its chatbots yet again). Of course, we’ll have full coverage of the keynote and everything else you need to know from I/O right here at Engadget.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-io-2024-takes-place-on-may-14-200705393.html?src=rss

Intel just broke another speed record when it comes to desktop CPUs. The company just introduced the Core i9-14900K CPU, which can reach up to 6.2GHz without overclocking, making it the fastest desktop processor available to consumers. The company did the same thing last year, but that chip maxed out at 6GHz. 

In addition to the record-breaking CPU speed, the i9-14900KS boasts a 24 cores/32 threads architecture and 36 megabytes of Intel’s proprietary Smart Cache technology, which shares the cache memory between the various cores. Intel says this will allow for “powerful performance in gaming and content creation workloads.”

The chip also makes use of Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost tool, which is a feature in 11th Gen and later Intel Core chips that ups the clock frequency by 100 MHz when the temperature is below a threshold of 70 degrees C, or 158 degrees F. In other words, make sure your cooling system is on point.

As for metrics, the company promises that gamers will experience up to 15 percent better performance and that content creators should enjoy a 73 percent performance uptick when engaging in compute-intensive workflows. The i9-14900KS is compatible with Z790 and Z690 motherboards, but Intel recommends the latest BIOS to ensure the best results.

The Core i9-14900KS is available right now and starts at $700. It’s available at traditional retailers as a boxed product and will be integrated into systems from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners in the near future. Intel continues to focus on raw speed, rather than AI, which has been noticeable throughout this year’s product announcements.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intels-latest-desktop-cpu-hits-62ghz-without-overclocking-breaking-another-speed-record-193839340.html?src=rss

Enlarge / Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection has had an early reception much like the ship at left in this battle off the planet of Felucia. (credit: Aspyr Media)

The last version of Star Wars: Battlefront, released by Electronic Arts, was so stuffed full of loot boxes and pay-to-play systems that EA admitted it "got it wrong" and overhauled the game.

So it was that when the well-regarded, pre-EA versions of Star Wars: Battlefront were announced for a modern remaster and re-release, by experienced porting firm Aspyr Media, there was (forgive us) a new hope. As we wrote at the announcement:

[T]here was nothing quite like the originals, which were PC games first and foremost ... There was a purity to those games that's lost in the general, well, EA-ness of the reboots.

And, lo, was there much rejoicing when Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection arrived? There was not. Reviews of the $35 package are "Mostly Negative" on Steam as this is written, with roughly 20 percent of reviews positive. Players are reporting numerous bugs and (rightfully, we might suggest) complaining about the lack of an option to invert joystick axes. There's also a lack of aim assist for console players, which typically helps round out their relative disadvantage to PC players using a mouse and keyboard.

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Enlarge (credit: Nathan Devery)

Cellulose is the primary component of the cell walls of plants, making it the most common polymer on Earth. It's responsible for the properties of materials like wood and cotton and is the primary component of dietary fiber, so it's hard to overstate its importance to humanity.

Given its ubiquity and the fact that it's composed of a bunch of sugar molecules linked together, its toughness makes it very difficult to use as a food source. The animals that manage to extract significant calories from cellulose typically do so via specialized digestive tracts that provide a home for symbiotic bacteria—think of the extra stomachs of cows and other ruminants.

Amazingly, humans also play host to bacteria that can break down cellulose—something that wasn't confirmed until 2003 (long after I'd wrapped up my education). Now, a new study indicates that we're host to a mix of cellulose-eating bacteria, some via our primate ancestry, and others through our domestication of herbivores such as cows. But urban living has caused the number of these bacteria to shrink dramatically.

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Enlarge (credit: Intel)

PC enthusiasts who have been around the block a couple of times might remember the stretch from the '90s into the early 2000s when ever-increasing clock speeds were Intel's primary metric for increasing processor performance. AMD participated, too—it managed to beat Intel to 1 GHz in what was considered a major coup at the time—but Intel's Pentium 4 processors specifically prioritized boosting clock speeds at the cost of instructions-per-clock.

Today, the company is ever so briefly revisiting those old days with the $689 Core i9-14900KS, its newest flagship desktop processor. The i9-14900KS can hit speeds of 6.2 GHz out of the box, a small push past the last-generation i9-13900KS and the i9-14900K that topped out at 6.0 GHz. Like other recent high-end Intel desktop chips, it also features Intel's "Adaptive Boost Technology," which will allow the chip to increase its power consumption and performance until it hits 100° Celsius.

This kind of clock speed boosting is both impressive and impractical. On the one hand, Intel has managed to push clock speeds even higher without changing its architecture or manufacturing process, a culmination of years of iteration across the 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-generation processor families. On the impractical side, the i9-14900KS can use a ridiculous amount of power to achieve marginally faster performance, reminding us of the laws of physics that helped shut down the megahertz wars in the first place.

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Enlarge / Dr. Craig Wright arrives at the Rolls Building, part of the Royal Courts of Justice, on February 06, 2024, in London, England. (credit: Dan Kitwood / Staff | Getty Images News)

"Overwhelming evidence" shows that Australian computer scientist Craig Wright is not bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, a UK judge declared Thursday.

In what Wired described as a "surprise ruling" at the closing of Wright's six-week trial, Justice James Mellor abruptly ended years of speculation by saying:

"Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Dr. Wright is not the person that operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Dr. Wright is not the person that created the Bitcoin system. Nor is Dr. Wright the author of the Bitcoin software."

Wright was not in the courtroom for this explosive moment, Wired reported.

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan )

Epic Games yesterday urged a federal court to sanction Apple for alleged violations of an injunction that imposed restrictions on the iOS App Store. Epic cited a 27 percent commission charged by Apple on purchases completed outside the usual in-app payment system and other limits imposed on developers.

"Apple is in blatant violation of this Court's injunction," Epic wrote in a filing in US District Court for the Northern District of California. "Its new App Store policies continue to impose prohibitions on developers that this Court found unlawful and enjoined. Moreover, Apple's new policies introduce new restrictions and burdens that frustrate and effectively nullify the relief the Court ordered."

The permanent injunction issued by the court in September 2021 said that Apple may not prohibit app developers from including external links to alternate sales channels "or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms" that aren't Apple's in-app purchasing system. The injunction also said that Apple may not prohibit developers from "communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app."

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Enlarge (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

As health systems around the US are still grappling with an unprecedented ransomware attack on the country's largest health care payment processor, the US Department of Health and Human Services is opening an investigation into whether that processor and its parent company, UnitedHealthcare Group, complied with federal rules to protect private patient data.

The attack targeted Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealthcare Group (UHG) that provides financial services to tens of thousands of health care providers around the country, including doctors, dentists, hospitals, and pharmacies. According to an antitrust lawsuit brought against UHG by the Department of Justice in 2022, 50 percent of all medical claims in the US pass through Change Healthcare's electronic data interchange clearinghouse. (The DOJ lost its case to prevent UHG's acquisition of Change Healthcare and last year abandoned plans for an appeal.)

As Ars reported previously, the attack was disclosed on February 21 by UHG's subsidiary, Optum, which now runs Change Healthcare. On February 29, UHG accused the notorious Russian-speaking ransomware gang known both as AlphV and BlackCat of being responsible. According to The Washington Post, the attack involved stealing patient data, encrypting company files, and demanding money to unlock them. The result is a paralysis of claims processing and payments, causing hospitals to run out of cash for payroll and services and preventing patients from getting care and prescriptions. Additionally, the attack is believed to have exposed the health data of millions of US patients.

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Bill Skarsgård takes on the role of Eric Draven in the Lionsgate reboot of The Crow.

The 1994 cult classic film The Crow turns 30 this spring, so it's as good a time as any to drop the first trailer for the long-in-development reboot directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman, Ghost in the Shell). Bill Skarsgård takes on the starring role made famous by the late Brandon Lee.

(Spoilers for the original 1994 film below.)

Based on a 1989 limited comic series by James O'Barr, The Crow was directed by Alex Proyas. The film starred Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a rock musician in crime-ridden Detroit. He and his fiancée, Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas), are brutally murdered on Devil's Night by a gang of thugs on the orders of a crime boss named Top Dollar (Michael Wincott). A year later, Eric is resurrected, dons black-and-white face paint, and proceeds to take his bloody revenge before returning to his grave. Alas, Lee was accidentally killed by a prop gun during the final days of shooting; the film was completed with the help of Lee's stunt double (Chad Stahelski, who launched the John Wick franchise) and some clever special effects.

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Recteq revealed five new smart pellet grills in October, including unique dual-chamber and griddle options. Now, the company is back with two more models: a larger version of the recently overhauled Flagship 1100 and a built-in design for outdoor kitchens. 

The Flagship XL 1400 has all of the updates that were announced with the Flagship 1100 last fall, including the updated Wi-Fi-enabled controller and sturdier leg design. The key difference on this new version is increased cooking capacity. The Flagship XL 1400 has 1,437 square inches of grilling space, with a second grate situated above the main cooking surface. Recteq also increased the size of the pellet hopper, which can now hold a massive 60 pounds of fuel when full. Depending on which brand you use, that's at least three bags of pellets — way more than even the longest brisket cook will require. 

Like the Flagship 1100, this XL version does more than low-and-slow smoking as it has a temperature range of 180-650 degrees Fahrenheit. And the Wi-Fi connectivity means you can adjust cooking temps and monitor internal food temperatures from your phone. The Flagship XL 1400 is available now for $1,599.

Recteq Flagship XL 1400Recteq

Permanent outdoor kitchens have become increasingly popular spaces for socializing at home. These typically include a grill that's been mounted into some type of fixed counter or cabinetry, but there aren't a lot of options if you want to do that with a pellet grill. Most people simply remove the legs or cart for a pellet model to make it work in these setups, but Recteq has a new option that's specifically designed for outdoor kitchens. 

The E-Series Built-In 1300 is a fully stainless steel smart pellet grill with 1,300 square inches of cooking space. This model also packs Recteq's recently updated Wi-FI controller with dual-band connectivity and compatibility with the company's app. Like the SmokeStone griddle, the E-Series Built-In has a front-fill hopper for easy access and removable secondary cooking grates. The company says an a-frame-shaped drip pan makes grease drainage more efficient and a cast iron deflector helps evenly distribute the heat. 

Like the company's other pellet grills, the E-Series Built-In is more than just a smoker, which means it can be the cornerstone of an outdoor kitchen without needing another grill. This model can run at 180-700 degrees Fahrenheit, which will accommodate everything from barbecue to searing. Grills like this that are permanently installed are typically quite pricey, and the E-Series Built-In 1300 is no exception. It's $3,499, which is $900 more than the company's 2,535-square inch "BFG" unit, previously the most expensive option in the Recteq arsenal. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/recteq-adds-flagship-xl-and-built-in-models-to-its-smart-pellet-grill-lineup-181449204.html?src=rss

• The Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra. [credit: Asus ]

Asus' latest flagship is the Zenfone 11 Ultra. For lovers of small phones, this represents one of the stalwart small-phone manufacturers abandoning you. I'm sorry. The Zenfone 10 was a unique little 5.9-inch powerhouse, but the Zenfone 11 is just another big Android phone with the same 6.78-inch display as everyone else. Big displays are expensive, so of course, the price is bigger, too: $899 instead of the $699 price of the smaller phone.

The whole phone looks a lot more generic than last year. Instead of the two big camera circles of the Zenfone 10, the back now has a square camera block that looks like every other phone. The front screen is flat, the sides are a flat metal band, and the only real identifying features are a few decorative lines on the rear panel.

That big 6.78-inch display is a 2400×1080 OLED. Normally, it runs at 120 Hz, but Asus says it's capable of 144 Hz "for gaming only." It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of UFS4.0 storage. The 5500 mAh battery is a bit bigger than most phones, so that's something to cling to. The phone has 65 W wired charging and 15 W wireless charging, IP68 dust and water-resistance, and an in-screen fingerprint reader. There's a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom of the phone.

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It's that time of year once again. The Steam spring sale is now live. It's typically not as extensive as the summer and winter editions, and there's no Steam Deck discount this time, unfortunately, but there are still plenty of deals worth paying attention to.

Let's start with Baldur's Gate 3, which was the 2023 game of the year, according to The Game Awards and Steam itself. The RPG has dropped by 10 percent. A modest discount, but nothing to sniff at. Palworld, one of this year's biggest hits so far, is 10 percent off too. Another viral smash, Lethal Company, has dropped by 20 percent. 

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which only came out in late January, is already 20 percent off. A bundle of Cyberpunk 2077 and its well-regarded Phantom Liberty expansion is down by 43 percent while the base game is half off. Grand Theft Auto V has dropped by 63 percent for the 15 people out there who don't already own it, while you can save 40 percent on Mortal Kombat 1.

Starfield is a third off, and several other Bethesda games are on sale. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is down by 55 percent. Other notable games in the Steam sale include Diablo IV (50 percent off, but coming to Game Pass late this month), EA Sports FC 24 (80 percent off) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (67 percent off).

That's barely scratching the surface of the huge sale, which includes thousands of games. If there's something you've had on your wishlist for a while, it's worth taking a peek to see if there's a discount on it. The Steam spring sale runs until March 21.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-steam-spring-sale-is-here-to-raid-your-wallet-175109711.html?src=rss

Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. (credit: Epic Games)

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has long been an outspoken opponent of what he sees as Valve's unreasonable platform fees for listing games on Steam, which start at 30 percent of the total sale price. Now, though, new emails from before the launch of the competing Epic Games Store in 2018 show just how angry Sweeney was with the "assholes" at companies like Valve and Apple for squeezing "the little guy" with what he saw as inflated fees.

The emails, which came out this week as part of Wolfire's price-fixing case against Valve (as noticed by the GameDiscoverCo newsletter), confront Valve managers directly for platform fees Sweeney says are "no longer justifiable." They also offer a behind-the-scenes look at the fury Sweeney and Epic would unleash against Apple in court proceedings starting years later.

“I bet Valve made more profit... than the developer themselves...”

The first mostly unredacted email chain from the court documents, from August 2017, starts with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell asking Sweeney if there is "anything we [are] doing to annoy you?" That query was likely prompted by Sweeney's public tweets at the time questioning "why Steam is still taking 30% of gross [when] MasterCard and Visa charge 2-5% per transaction, and CDN bandwidth is around $0.002/GB." Later in the same thread, he laments that "the internet was supposed to obsolete the rent-seeking software distribution middlemen, but here's Facebook, Google, Apple, Valve, etc."

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Series like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre (which got a lovely remaster in 2022) tend to dominate the conversation around SRPGs. And rightly so. However, with its latest release – Unicorn Overlord – developer Vanillaware is taking cues from older titles in a way that pays tribute to the classics while also providing something fresh and engaging for 2024. And after being completely engrossed by this beautiful mash-up of old and new, Unicorn Overlord feels like a must-play for strategy game fans.

Vanillaware isn’t shy about where it drew inspiration for Unicorn Overlord. Instead of typical grid-based battlefields, the game plays a lot like Ogre Battle 64, which has you commanding a handful of smaller squads that you maneuver around the map to intercept enemy forces and capture strongholds. Each squad has a captain who lends a passive bonus with party sizes that grow to five over the course of the game. But because you don’t have direct control over individual characters during fights, you need to be crafty about setting them up for success.

Screenshot by Sam Rutherford/Vanillaware

Strategy is dictated not only by the position of each squad but also by which classes you choose and the actions you set (e.g. setting a command to attack the lowest health enemy or only hitting an opponent that’s already been debuffed). This results in gameplay that feels like fantasy football but for war. Look at you, you’re the general now. Except it’s better because you can see how well your art of war plays out, like when your archers take out flying enemies such as gryfons and wyverns that are naturally susceptible to their attacks.

But the strategizing doesn’t stop there, because outside of combat, there are other ways to manipulate battles. You can commandeer siege units like catapults and ballistas to rain damage down on opposing units before they get close. Alternatively, you can spend Valor points (which are earned by defeating enemies) to buff friendly combatants (haste, extra stamina, etc.) or soften up foes with targeted strikes like a cavalry charge. Then there’s all the various equipment and loot you’ll gather, which adds another layer of customization to your army.

Screenshot by Sam Rutherford/Vanillaware

On top of straightforward spec bumps, you can give units additional turns or alter their abilities by adding poison damage to a spear or other weapon. And when you get everything set up just right, the results are devastating. One of my favorite combos was giving an archer and swordsman fire-based attacks to afflict a burn on enemies. Then I followed this up with a mage that ignites every burning opponent with additional party-wide damage at the end of a fight and I think you can see where this is going. Honestly, I’ve lost track of the amount of time I’ve spent looking at menus to tweak ascactions and equipment. But min-maxing each squad’s potential is a ton of fun all by itself.

Meanwhile, another feature Unicorn Overlord borrows from franchises like Fire Emblem is its Rapport mechanic. Characters in the same squad will grow closer over time, offering upgraded stats over time. Alternatively, you can improve rapport by sharing meals or giving gifts, and after enough bonding, you’ll get a cutscene that dives deeper into two people’s relationship. On top of that, the main character, Alain, can develop a romance allowing you to choose your best girl (or boy, in some cases, though I haven’t had the chance to try that out myself).

Screenshot by Sam Rutherford/Vanillaware

Unicorn Overlord’s roster is massive too. It felt like every other battle I added a new member to my ranks, and before I even explored 50 percent of the map, I had more than 30 unique story characters. And if that’s not enough, you can also recruit mercenaries, which is arguably a more strategic decision as that lets you customize a unit’s growth (e.g. Keen types get extra crit while all-rounders receive more balanced stats and so on).

I also want to call out Unicorn Overlord’s visual design, which is flat-out gorgeous. It’s a clear homage to the 2D sprite-based graphics of old-school SRPGs, but it’s been polished up for modern HD screens. Portraits and character models are incredibly detailed and the animations are a joy to watch even after the 1000th time. Granted, Vanillaware occasionally succumbs to the trope of girl armor in games where male characters have huge sheets of metal protecting them while some female characters are much more scantily clad. Why does the witch class wear a bikini? We may never know, though this has been Vanillaware’s style for the last 20 years, so it’s not exactly a surprise. Really, my gripe with this is that there should be a few more himbos to balance things out.

Screenshot by Sam Rutherford/Vanillaware

As for more general cons, the main one is that the game’s plot is a bit generic. It’s not bad, it’s just based on a familiar setup centered around disenfranchised Prince Alain (who probably not coincidentally looks a lot like Magnus from Ogre Battle 64, right down to the blue hair) and his quest to liberate his nation from the clutches of evil emperor Galerius. That said, there are still plenty of touching moments to keep the plot from getting too dull. 

The other potential issue is that some may find the game a bit too easy. To start, there are three difficulty levels, plus an even harder setting once you beat the game. However, the amount of strategizing you can do means you can almost always have an advantage in battle, so depending on how you look at it, the game is hurting itself for having such a high level of control and customization. Though in my opinion, that’s a good problem to have.

Screenshot by Sam Rutherford/Vanillaware

The most important thing about Unicorn Overlord is that it feels like a passion project from start to finish. Its visuals are wonderfully hand-crafted, and by adopting and then updating features and gameplay from Hall of Fame strategy titles, the game feels like a love letter to the genre as a whole. Heck, the CEO of Vanillaware even went so far as to pay for the game’s development out of pocket after its budget ran out. So while Unicorn Overlord might not appeal to everyone, tactics fans just got a new instant classic.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/unicorn-overlord-review-a-must-play-for-tactics-fans-173259209.html?src=rss

If you happen to find yourself at a loose end this weekend, it might not be a bad idea to fire up the Apple TV app and check out some Major League Soccer action. All 14 of this weekend's games will be available to watch for free in English and Spanish, so you won't need an MLS Season Pass subscription.

Apple Vision Pro users will be able to check out MLS games on a virtual screen that appears to be up to 100 feet wide. The Apple TV app is also available on smart TVs, set-top boxes, game consoles and of course on Apple's own devices.

Among the games you'll be able to watch are Inter Miami's visit to DC United. Ticket prices for Miami games have gone through the roof since Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player of all-time, joined the team last year. So, getting to watch the match for free is nothing to complain about. (Messi is likely to miss the game due to injury anyway, so you might be glad you didn't spend up to four figures on a ticket.) I'll most likely be watching my local team CF Montreal playing away at Chicago Fire, which takes place at the same time as the Miami match on Saturday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-tv-will-stream-every-mls-game-for-free-this-weekend-170045330.html?src=rss