diversity Archives

AppWizard

July 17, 2025

One Of The Best Space Strategy Games On PC Is Free Now With Amazon Prime

Endless Space 2, launched eight years ago by Amplitude Studios, is a 4X strategy game featuring diverse space-faring species, each with unique traits and strategies. As of July 17, the Definitive Edition, which includes all downloadable content and is valued at nearly on Steam, is available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers. The game includes eight original factions, expanded to twelve through expansions, and emphasizes internal faction management over combat. It offers a comprehensive tutorial and a user-friendly interface to help newcomers navigate its complexities. Endless Space 2 is currently available on PC.

AppWizard

July 14, 2025

Survey reveals this is everyone’s favorite weather app, by far

In a recent survey, Pixel Weather was identified as the most favored weather app, receiving 47% of the votes. It is exclusively available to Google Pixel users. The next closest competitors were Wunderground with 12.51%, Today Weather with 10.42%, Weather and Radar with 10.13%, and Ventusky with 4.02%. Users also suggested alternative weather applications such as Weawow, Samsung Weather, AccuWeather, Windy, MyRadar, and ForecastAdvisor. For non-Pixel users, Weather Master can replicate some features of Pixel Weather, and tech-savvy users can sideload the Pixel Weather APK onto other devices.

Tech Optimizer

July 10, 2025

New Survey Reveals Strong Demand for High Availability as Businesses Increasingly Use PostgreSQL in Mission-Critical Applications and to Alleviate Cloud Outage Concerns

pgEdge, Inc. conducted a survey revealing that 91% of organizations using PostgreSQL require a maximum of 4 minutes of downtime per month, with 24% aiming for less than 30 seconds. While 21% experienced an outage in the past year, 82% are concerned about potential cloud region failures. Additionally, 79% of respondents are considering or piloting a distributed PostgreSQL solution within the next year. Over half (51%) use PostgreSQL in a hybrid database environment, and 35% use it as their primary database for customer-facing applications. Strategies for high availability include 58% relying on read replicas and automated failover, while 47% have implemented multi-master replication across multiple cloud regions. Businesses exceeding downtime thresholds face delays (56%), damage to brand trust (40%), and increased support requests (49%). Organizations using high availability PostgreSQL solutions report benefits such as increased uptime (53%) and cost savings (36%). The survey included 212 IT decision-makers, with 75% from enterprises with over 500 employees, and the top industries represented were financial services, software and computing, and manufacturing.

Tech Optimizer

July 10, 2025

New Survey Shows Strong Demand for High Availability as Businesses Increasingly Use PostgreSQL in Mission-Critical Applications and to Alleviate Cloud Outage Concerns

In a survey by pgEdge, Inc., 91% of PostgreSQL users expect no more than four minutes of downtime per month, equating to 99.99% uptime, with 24% aiming for less than 30 seconds. Despite these expectations, 21% experienced outages in the past year, and 82% are concerned about cloud region failures. Additionally, 79% of participants are evaluating or piloting distributed PostgreSQL solutions. Over half (51%) use PostgreSQL in hybrid environments, while 35% use it as the primary database for customer-facing applications. To achieve high availability, 58% rely on read replicas and automated failover, and 47% use multi-master replication across multiple cloud regions. Among those who exceeded downtime thresholds, 56% faced delays in operations, 40% reported damage to brand trust, and 49% experienced spikes in support requests. Organizations implementing high availability solutions reported increased uptime (53%) and cost savings (36%). The survey included 212 IT decision-makers from enterprises with 500 or more employees, with 75% in IT, Networking, or Security roles. The leading industries represented were financial services, software and computing, and manufacturing, comprising 69% of responses.

AppWizard

July 6, 2025

Arkane Studios founder slams Microsoft for its Game Pass focus: ‘At some point reality has to hit’

Raphael Colantonio, founder of Arkane Studios, has expressed concerns about Xbox Game Pass, labeling it an unsustainable business model that has negatively impacted the gaming industry for the past decade. He believes that Game Pass cannot coexist with other business models and predicts it will either dominate or fail. Colantonio warns that while the service currently appeals to gamers, it may lead to resentment as its long-term effects on game quality and diversity become evident. He draws parallels between Game Pass and the trajectory of streaming services, suggesting that it may lead to similar issues in the gaming industry. Despite these concerns, Microsoft remains committed to Game Pass, which is crucial for its future amid declining console sales.

BetaBeacon

July 1, 2025

How Android Game Development Is Fueling the Next Generation of Mobile Entertainment

- Android gaming ecosystem has evolved significantly in the last decade, offering a wide range of gaming experiences. - Android game development has reshaped the way entertainment is consumed on mobile devices. - Android offers advantages such as device diversity, open-source flexibility, monetization freedom, robust development tools, and global reach. - Key trends shaping Android game development in 2025 include cloud gaming integration, AI-powered game design, cross-platform play, AR and VR capabilities, and the continued dominance of hyper-casual games.

BetaBeacon

July 1, 2025

Download Asphalt 8: Airborne (free) for Windows, Android, APK and iOS

Asphalt 8: Airborne is a free game that offers high-speed racing, easy controls, diverse cars and locations, daily challenges, and special events.

Winsage

June 28, 2025

5 reasons I prefer this distro over Ubuntu as a Windows-to-Linux convert

Transitioning from Windows to Linux can be challenging due to the variety of distributions available. Users often experiment with different options using virtual machines or dual-boot setups. Ubuntu is a popular choice, especially within the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Hyper-V, but Zorin OS is highlighted as a more seamless alternative for users familiar with Windows. Zorin OS provides a desktop experience similar to Windows, making it user-friendly for new Linux users. It allows customization of the taskbar's position, reminiscent of earlier Windows versions. Zorin OS also supports running Windows applications through preconfigured Wine and Bottles, simplifying the process compared to Ubuntu. Zorin OS performs well on older hardware, with its Lite version using the XFCE desktop environment to enhance responsiveness, unlike Ubuntu, which can be sluggish on legacy systems. Zorin Connect enables integration with Android devices, allowing users to sync notifications and control their desktop from mobile devices. Zorin OS is noted for its minimalist approach, optimizing resource usage and avoiding unnecessary applications, particularly in its Lite version. The author currently prefers Zorin OS over Ubuntu Core for its user-friendly design and performance but remains open to exploring other Linux distributions.

AppWizard

June 24, 2025

Türkiye’s answer to Disco Elysium just broke cover, featuring more lawyers, fewer cops, an indeterminate amount of communism and twin fistfuls of guilt and regret

Elyzio, a Turkish game studio, is set to release Pera Coda, a narrative-driven game inspired by Disco Elysium. Players will assume the role of Deniz, an attorney in a metaphysical struggle between life and death, exploring themes of guilt, regret, and inner peace. The game features an isometric camera and a painterly art style that reflects Istanbul's working-class life. The announcement trailer suggests a haunting and beautiful narrative guided by an unseen narrator.

Winsage

June 23, 2025

Introducing Mu language model and how it enabled the agent in Windows Settings

Mu is a small language model designed to run locally on Copilot+ PCs, specifically optimized for Neural Processing Units (NPUs). It is a 330M encoder-decoder model that translates natural language queries into actionable settings function calls, enhancing user experience. Mu achieved approximately 47% lower first-token latency and 4.7× higher decoding speed compared to a decoder-only model on a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. The model incorporates advanced techniques such as Dual LayerNorm, Rotary Positional Embeddings, and Grouped-Query Attention to improve performance while maintaining a compact size. It was trained using A100 GPUs on Azure, pre-training on hundreds of billions of educational tokens and fine-tuning on tasks like SQUAD, CodeXGlue, and the Windows Settings agent. Mu's quantization techniques converted model weights from floating-point to integer representations, optimizing performance on edge devices. The Settings agent was fine-tuned with a dataset of 3.6 million samples to achieve response times under 500 milliseconds, effectively managing user queries related to Windows settings.