Amazon Archives

Tech Optimizer

July 30, 2026

Generating Referentially Consistent Synthetic Test Data for PostgreSQL in .NET Application Modernization

Satyajit Gokhale, Aiswaryaa Venugopalan, Ruchi Agarwal, Nits Jeganathan, Khurram Khawaja, Vijay Mandadi, and Luke Huan contributed to this article. AWS Transform offers a .NET application modernization service that allows enterprise customers to migrate from Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL Compatible Edition. This migration reduces licensing costs and enhances scalability while utilizing an open-source ecosystem. Schema conversion tools can assist in translating DDL to PostgreSQL-compatible definitions, but correctness must be verified by teams to ensure performance under real-world workloads. Traditional testing methods, such as using production data or manual checks, are not scalable and raise privacy concerns. Therefore, there is a need for realistic synthetic data generated at scale that adheres to the migrated schema's constraints. AWS Transform for SQL Server modernization employs an AI agent to generate constraint-respecting synthetic data at scale during the migration workflow. This process involves loading the PostgreSQL schema into a live database, constructing a dependency graph for data generation, and distributing tasks across multiple sub-agents. The agent validates each generated INSERT against the live database, ensuring compliance with constraints and providing error diagnostics for any violations. The synthetic data generation workflow consists of four stages: schema analysis, establishing generation order, distributing tasks across sub-agents, and validation with error recovery. The agent extracts metadata from the PostgreSQL schema, determines a valid table generation sequence, parallelizes data generation while maintaining referential integrity, and generates and validates data row-by-row against the live database. Each successful insertion enriches the context for subsequent generations, while errors are handled through structured diagnostics and iterative regeneration. The process ensures referential integrity and preserves the generation state, allowing for recovery from interruptions without data loss.

BetaBeacon

July 30, 2026

PSP Classic Lumines Hits iOS And Android

The mobile and tablet ports of Lumines Remastered are now available with a free trial.

Tech Optimizer

July 30, 2026

EDB Says Postgres AI Tops Enterprise AI Data Platform Benchmarks

EnterpriseDB (EDB) has released benchmark results for its EDB Postgres AI (EDB PG AI), showing superior performance compared to various AI data platforms, including vector databases and managed Postgres platforms. The independent testing by McKnight Consulting Group indicated that EDB PG AI outperformed competitors in all evaluated metrics, including query speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency. Key findings include: - EDB PG AI achieved a median query latency of 50 milliseconds at 50 million vectors, making it the fastest platform tested, 80 times faster than Databricks and 21 times faster than MongoDB Atlas. - It demonstrated the highest accuracy for core vector search with a recall rate of 0.911, outperforming MongoDB by 26% and Databricks by 17%. - In a concurrent agent loop test, EDB PG AI completed tasks in 27 milliseconds, significantly faster than MongoDB Atlas (699 milliseconds) and Databricks (5.1 seconds). - EDB PG AI provided 76 times better price performance than Databricks and 34 times better than MongoDB. - The platform integrates vectors, structured data, and analytics within a single operational database, enhancing efficiency and reducing the risk of data inconsistency. The benchmark study assessed the performance of EDB PG AI against Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, Databricks, Crunchy Bridge, MongoDB Atlas, and open source PostgreSQL, all standardized on equivalent enterprise hardware.

AppWizard

July 30, 2026

Today’s best Android app deals and freebies: Dead Cells, Actraiser, Chrono Trigger, Thronefall, more

An enticing selection of Android game and app deals includes popular titles such as Dead Cells, Actraiser Renaissance, Chrono Trigger, Thronefall, Summer Catchers, and SpongeBob – The Cosmic Shake. Pre-order deals for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 are also available, along with enhanced trade-in rates at Amazon that include a 0 gift card. Today’s highlighted Android app price drops feature Dead Cells, Actraiser Renaissance, Chrono Trigger, Thronefall, Summer Catchers, and SpongeBob – The Cosmic Shake. Additional Android app price drops are still available.

AppWizard

July 29, 2026

Ubisoft is bundling free PC copies with 13 Xbox games, including Rainbow Six Siege and Valhalla

Ubisoft is offering Xbox users free PC copies of 13 popular games through the Ubisoft Connect app when they purchase or already own the digital Xbox versions. Users need to link their Xbox and Ubisoft Connect accounts to access the PC versions, with availability expected by August 4. The titles included in the offer are: - Assassin's Creed Mirage - Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - Far Cry 6 - Immortals Fenyx Rising - Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Riders Republic - Skull and Bones - The Crew 2 - The Crew Motorfest - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Watch Dogs: Legion Non-consumable downloadable content will transfer between console and PC versions, and some games support cross-progression through cloud save files. Users can link their Xbox accounts on Ubisoft's Account Information page. Other Ubisoft games have recently been added to the Xbox Store, with significant discounts available, but these titles do not support Xbox Play Anywhere and require separate purchases for console and PC versions.

Tech Optimizer

July 28, 2026

Migrate self-managed PostgreSQL to Amazon RDS using the RDS console

Running PostgreSQL on Amazon EC2 requires users to manage operational tasks such as patching, backups, and security. Migrating to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL or Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition offers a fully managed service that automates these tasks, allowing development teams to focus on application development. The migration process uses the auto-migration feature in the Amazon RDS console, supported by AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS), which facilitates PostgreSQL-to-PostgreSQL migrations using native tools for accurate schema mapping and faster migration. The migration can be executed using various methods, including pg_dump/pg_restore, manual AWS DMS tasks, or third-party tools, with the RDS console approach being preferred for its reliability and minimal setup effort. AWS DMS supports three replication modes: full load, CDC only, and full load + CDC, with the migration duration depending on database size and network throughput. Prerequisites for migration include having a source PostgreSQL 10.4+ on Amazon EC2, a target RDS for PostgreSQL or Aurora PostgreSQL, proper IAM roles, stored credentials in Secrets Manager, and appropriate networking configurations. Considerations include unsupported objects, potential issues with sequence values, and the need to avoid schema changes during CDC. The migration involves preparing the source database, creating necessary users and permissions, and executing the migration through the RDS console. Post-migration, it is essential to verify data integrity, optimize performance by updating statistics and rebuilding indexes, and implement security best practices such as disabling the DMS user and enforcing SSL/TLS connections. Common troubleshooting errors during migration include permission issues, incorrect WAL levels, and connection refusals, each with specific resolutions. Finally, to avoid ongoing charges, it is recommended to clean up resources created during the migration process, including deleting the DMS migration task, logical replication publications, Secrets Manager secrets, and the target RDS/Aurora instance.

AppWizard

July 27, 2026

Monday’s Android app deals and freebies: Friend of a Slime, Forest Golf Planner, AVARIS3, more

A selection of Android game and app deals includes titles such as Friend of a Slime: Survivors, Dungeons of Dreadrock 2, Forest Golf Planner, AVARIS3, Station Manager, Silver Screen Story, and Tropical Resort Story. There are pre-order discounts on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 devices, with up to 0 in instant trade-in deals and an additional 0 in complimentary credit. The TCL NXTPAPER 14 and NXTPAPER 11 Gen 2 Android tablets start at 9. There are savings of up to 0 on Copilot+ PCs and gaming laptops, and the Galaxy A57 phone is listed at an all-time low of 5 on Amazon.

AppWizard

July 25, 2026

Amazon walks back comments about taking 007 off of IO, but does say ‘anything’s possible’ when it comes to buying the studio outright

Jeff Gattis, general manager of Amazon Gaming, hinted at the future of the 007 franchise, suggesting that sequels might be developed by MGM and potentially by Amazon Game Studios. He clarified that no decisions have been made regarding the publisher or developer for the next Bond sequel and acknowledged the success of IO Interactive's current game, indicating that it would be prudent for IO Interactive to continue as the developer. Gattis mentioned that while anything is possible regarding Amazon acquiring IO Interactive, there are currently no discussions about that.

AppWizard

July 24, 2026

Tomb Raider: Catalyst delayed to 2028

Jeffrey Gattis, head of Amazon Gaming, announced that the release of the Tomb Raider game, Catalyst, has been delayed from 2027 to 2028. This delay follows challenges faced by developer Crystal Dynamics, including multiple layoffs, which may have impacted the game's development.

Tech Optimizer

July 24, 2026

How we pushed CDC into Postgres, and turned replication into clockwork

Making data from transactional databases accessible to analytical databases is essential in modern data architecture, but it faces challenges such as fragile tooling, high costs, and complex operations. Snowflake has developed a Postgres service that addresses these issues by reimagining Postgres replication. Postgres is a strong operational database, but its change data capture (CDC) capabilities need improvement. Many data pipelines are fragile due to complexities in managing continuous data flow, schema changes, snapshots, and failures. To enhance user experience with Snowflake Postgres, a complete reinvention of the replication process was necessary. A new feature called data mirroring is in public preview, allowing resilient data replication into Snowflake with low cost, minimal lag, and transactional consistency. This feature directly pushes changes from Postgres into Apache Iceberg™ tables in transactional batches, which are then automatically applied to Snowflake tables without extra infrastructure. Change data capture records changes from a transactional database for replay on another system, primarily using logical decoding in Postgres. This method decodes WAL records into logical operations, but the client bears the responsibility for subsequent steps like backfilling, managing schema changes, and handling failures. Built-in logical replication in Postgres only addresses some complexities. A limitation of logical decoding is that the external system does not recognize the state of Postgres, making it difficult to detect schema changes or correlate snapshots with changes. The solution is to push changes from Postgres into a data lake, specifically into Iceberg tables using compressed Parquet format, with object stores like Amazon S3 as the destination. The mirroring process uses a new Postgres extension called snowflake_cdc, which continuously pushes batches of changes into per-table change logs and a meta log. This extension understands the Postgres environment, coordinating schema changes and complex transactions while ensuring alignment between snapshots and changes.