rise Archives

AppWizard

May 9, 2025

You can now verify if your Mullvad VPN app is legit

Mullvad has introduced reproducible builds for its Android VPN application starting with version 2025.2, allowing users to confirm the legitimacy of the app before installation. Reproducible builds ensure that identical copies of the application can be recreated from the same source code, build environment, and instructions, providing assurance against unauthorized modifications. This decision follows a rise in malicious free VPN applications and malware distribution through counterfeit software. Currently, only the latest version of Mullvad's Android VPN app features this capability, with no confirmed plans for other platforms. Mullvad encourages technically skilled users to verify the builds and has provided instructions for the verification process.

AppWizard

May 9, 2025

“A Minecraft Movie” spawns chaos in theaters

Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X have become crucial in shaping audience interactions with films, transforming word-of-mouth marketing into a global phenomenon that can significantly influence a film's box office performance. Audience reactions on social media can enhance a film's reputation, as seen with "A Minecraft Movie," which thrived on positive buzz despite initial skepticism. Conversely, negative feedback can lead to financial underperformance, as demonstrated by Disney's "Snow White." The in-theater experience has also changed, with audience behavior influenced by social media, leading to varied opinions on the impact of chaos during screenings.

AppWizard

May 8, 2025

Save 20% Off Two of the Best PC Games of 2025

Fanatical is offering a 20% average discount on two games released in 2025. 1. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is discounted by 22%, with its price dropping from .99 to .79. The game allows players to explore a sandbox world set in 14th century Bohemia, with 100% completion taking around 125 hours, though many players spend over 150 hours. 2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available for .99 after an 18% discount from its retail price of .99. The game features a turn-based combat system and has received the highest user rating on Metacritic. It explores themes of mortality and grief and has been praised for its narrative and emotional depth.

AppWizard

May 8, 2025

A couple met, then married, in ‘Minecraft’

Sarah Nguyen, 24, from Oregon, and Jamie Patel, 25, from England, recently got married in Minecraft, a game where they first met as children. They chose this virtual venue to symbolize their shared home despite the physical distance in their relationship. The trend of virtual weddings is growing, with other couples also marrying in games like Roblox and Animal Crossing, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, which led many to rethink traditional wedding plans. This shift has resulted in a rise in digital officiants and non-traditional wedding formats, with Minecraft weddings becoming increasingly popular in 2025.

AppWizard

May 8, 2025

Mojang’s big Minecraft VR mistake

Mojang has officially discontinued VR support for the Bedrock version of Minecraft on PCs, ending a VR initiative that began in April 2016. The Gear VR version was initially available on devices like the Oculus Go and original Oculus Quest, but support for older games on the Oculus Quest 2 rendered these experiences obsolete. Modders, particularly through the Vivecraft mod, have filled the gap left by Mojang, with QuestCraft being a notable port for Meta Quest headsets. Despite Mojang's claims of lacking resources for VR, the company has over 55 million daily active players and a workforce of more than 600 employees, indicating financial stability. The demographics of the Meta Quest user base suggest a strong potential interest in Minecraft if officially supported. Recent collaborations between Meta and Microsoft hint at potential opportunities for an official Minecraft VR port, yet progress remains stagnant. The QuestCraft Discord server has 80,000 members, indicating significant interest in a VR version of Minecraft, which could attract hundreds of thousands of active users.

Tech Optimizer

May 8, 2025

The Search Stack That Nearly Broke Us — Until We Did This

The initial architecture for the finlight.me real-time financial news API utilized Postgres full-text search, which was effective for early needs but faced limitations as article volume increased. Key challenges included performance degradation due to the inability to combine GIN indexes with regular B-Tree indexes, leading to slow query performance, especially with complex user queries and pagination. The decision was made to transition to OpenSearch for its optimized search capabilities while retaining Postgres as the source of truth for data integrity. Testing with OpenSearch revealed the need for production-grade resources, which led to a successful deployment that improved search response times significantly. The current architecture separates ingestion, storage, and retrieval responsibilities, with Postgres managing data storage and OpenSearch handling user-facing search queries. Regular snapshotting and thoughtful index management ensure resilience and scalability.

Winsage

May 7, 2025

As support for Windows 10 counts down, End of 10 asks ‘why not Linux?’

Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Users whose hardware does not meet the requirements for upgrading to Windows 11 have alternatives, such as transitioning to Linux. The End of 10 initiative encourages Windows 10 users to consider Linux as a way to rejuvenate their existing hardware, especially for those with machines not primarily used for gaming. To upgrade to Windows 11, users need a processor from Intel's 8th generation or AMD's Ryzen 2000 series at a minimum. The End of 10 website provides resources for users hesitant about installing Linux and addresses concerns about electronic waste, highlighting that 62 million tonnes of e-waste were generated in 2022, with projections of 82 million tonnes by 2030.

AppWizard

May 7, 2025

Minecraft Battle Of The Boroughs 2025: Bronx Semi-Final | The Bronx Daily

On May 3, the Bronx hosted the semi-finals for the 2025 Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Competition, with 659 submissions from 3,295 students, a 37% increase from the previous year. Each borough selected three teams to advance to the finals on May 31, 2025. The event featured 175 students from 35 teams across over 26 schools. Notable attendees included NYC Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. The semi-finals were held at the Bronx High School for Law and Community Service. The winning teams were: - Elementary Division: PS 100X, Team Game Over - Middle School Division: PS/MS 175 The City Island School, The Amazing Sharks - High School Division: MS/HS 223 The Laboratory School, Bronx Blocks.

Tech Optimizer

May 6, 2025

Avast antivirus-owner Gen Digital forecasts upbeat 2026 on strong demand

Gen Digital, the parent company of antivirus brands like Avast, Avira, and Norton, has projected annual revenue and profit that exceed analysts' expectations, leading to a 4% increase in shares during after-hours trading. The company forecasts full-year 2026 revenue between .70 billion and .80 billion, compared to the average analyst estimate of .13 billion. It expects adjusted per-share earnings to be between [openai_gpt model="gpt-4o-mini" prompt="Summarize the content and extract only the fact described in the text bellow. The summary shall NOT include a title, introduction and conclusion. Text: Gen Digital, the parent company behind well-known antivirus software brands such as Avast, Avira, and Norton, has recently provided an optimistic outlook for its financial performance. On Tuesday, the company announced projections for annual revenue and profit that surpass analysts' expectations, reflecting a robust demand for its cybersecurity solutions. Following this announcement, shares of Gen Digital experienced a notable uptick of approximately 4% in after-hours trading. Strengthening Cybersecurity Amid Rising Threats The surge in high-profile digital breaches and a rise in online scams have compelled businesses to enhance their cybersecurity measures. This trend has led to increased enterprise spending on security solutions, even as economic uncertainties loom over client budgets. Gen Digital's forecast for full-year 2026 revenue is set between .70 billion and .80 billion, significantly higher than the average analyst estimate of .13 billion, as compiled by LSEG. In terms of profitability, the company anticipates adjusted per-share earnings to fall within the range of .46 to .54, again exceeding the analyst estimate of .43. This positive outlook is bolstered by the growing demand for advanced security solutions, particularly as artificial intelligence continues to evolve, enabling more sophisticated hacking techniques. In its most recent fourth quarter, Gen Digital reported revenue of .01 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of 7 million. The company achieved an adjusted earnings per share of 59 cents, slightly above the anticipated 58 cents." max_tokens="3500" temperature="0.3" top_p="1.0" best_of="1" presence_penalty="0.1" frequency_penalty="frequency_penalty"].46 and [openai_gpt model="gpt-4o-mini" prompt="Summarize the content and extract only the fact described in the text bellow. The summary shall NOT include a title, introduction and conclusion. Text: Gen Digital, the parent company behind well-known antivirus software brands such as Avast, Avira, and Norton, has recently provided an optimistic outlook for its financial performance. On Tuesday, the company announced projections for annual revenue and profit that surpass analysts' expectations, reflecting a robust demand for its cybersecurity solutions. Following this announcement, shares of Gen Digital experienced a notable uptick of approximately 4% in after-hours trading. Strengthening Cybersecurity Amid Rising Threats The surge in high-profile digital breaches and a rise in online scams have compelled businesses to enhance their cybersecurity measures. This trend has led to increased enterprise spending on security solutions, even as economic uncertainties loom over client budgets. Gen Digital's forecast for full-year 2026 revenue is set between .70 billion and .80 billion, significantly higher than the average analyst estimate of .13 billion, as compiled by LSEG. In terms of profitability, the company anticipates adjusted per-share earnings to fall within the range of .46 to .54, again exceeding the analyst estimate of .43. This positive outlook is bolstered by the growing demand for advanced security solutions, particularly as artificial intelligence continues to evolve, enabling more sophisticated hacking techniques. In its most recent fourth quarter, Gen Digital reported revenue of .01 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of 7 million. The company achieved an adjusted earnings per share of 59 cents, slightly above the anticipated 58 cents." max_tokens="3500" temperature="0.3" top_p="1.0" best_of="1" presence_penalty="0.1" frequency_penalty="frequency_penalty"].54, surpassing the analyst estimate of [openai_gpt model="gpt-4o-mini" prompt="Summarize the content and extract only the fact described in the text bellow. The summary shall NOT include a title, introduction and conclusion. Text: Gen Digital, the parent company behind well-known antivirus software brands such as Avast, Avira, and Norton, has recently provided an optimistic outlook for its financial performance. On Tuesday, the company announced projections for annual revenue and profit that surpass analysts' expectations, reflecting a robust demand for its cybersecurity solutions. Following this announcement, shares of Gen Digital experienced a notable uptick of approximately 4% in after-hours trading. Strengthening Cybersecurity Amid Rising Threats The surge in high-profile digital breaches and a rise in online scams have compelled businesses to enhance their cybersecurity measures. This trend has led to increased enterprise spending on security solutions, even as economic uncertainties loom over client budgets. Gen Digital's forecast for full-year 2026 revenue is set between .70 billion and .80 billion, significantly higher than the average analyst estimate of .13 billion, as compiled by LSEG. In terms of profitability, the company anticipates adjusted per-share earnings to fall within the range of .46 to .54, again exceeding the analyst estimate of .43. This positive outlook is bolstered by the growing demand for advanced security solutions, particularly as artificial intelligence continues to evolve, enabling more sophisticated hacking techniques. In its most recent fourth quarter, Gen Digital reported revenue of .01 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of 7 million. The company achieved an adjusted earnings per share of 59 cents, slightly above the anticipated 58 cents." max_tokens="3500" temperature="0.3" top_p="1.0" best_of="1" presence_penalty="0.1" frequency_penalty="frequency_penalty"].43. In its latest fourth quarter, Gen Digital reported revenue of .01 billion, exceeding expectations of .07 million, and achieved adjusted earnings per share of 59 cents, slightly above the anticipated 58 cents.

AppWizard

May 6, 2025

Analyst claims Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is selling twice as fast as any other recent JRPG has on Steam—and it’s got me wondering what the secret sauce is

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive, is a strong contender for Game of the Year in 2025, resonating with RPG fans and achieving significant sales success. It outsold major titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Persona at a 2:1 ratio, selling over 785,000 copies on Steam in its first week and reaching a peak concurrent player count of 145,063. The game has garnered attention for its engaging opening hours, innovative parry-based combat system, and relatable characters, appealing to PC gamers. It combines elements of JRPGs with Western aesthetics, distinguishing itself from other titles in the genre.