President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to let him negotiate a deal to save TikTok from an imminent US ban.In an amicus brief filed to the court, Trump says he seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office, and that he alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform.Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments that a bill passed by Congress banning TikTok on national security grounds violates the First Amendment. While Trump pushed a TikTok ban during his first term, he has changed his tune after his campaign successfully used the platform during the 2024 election. He recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago and told a crowd that maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while.The bill that would see TikTok banned in January gives wide latitude to the president to delay its enforcement if theres progress being made towards a deal ensuring TikTok isnt fully controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. But the deadline for that determination is January 19th, which is one day before Trump is set to assume the presidency. In his Supreme Court filing, Trump asks for the January 19th deadline to be stayed, arguing that the deal hed negotiate would obviate the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment question presented here on the current, highly expedited basis.Developing...

Losing game? YouTuber won DMCA fight with fake Nintendo lawyer by detecting spoofed email Gamer urges YouTube to change DMCA takedown process to end copyright abuse. Ashley Belanger Dec 27, 2024 2:16 pm | 1 Credit: PHILIP FONG / Contributor | AFP Credit: PHILIP FONG / Contributor | AFP Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA brave YouTuber has managed to defeat a fake Nintendo lawyer improperly targeting his channel with copyright takedowns that could have seen his entire channel removed if YouTube issued one more strike.Sharing his story with The Verge, Dominik "Domtendo" Neumayera German YouTuber who has broadcasted play-throughs of popular games for 17 yearssaid that it all started when YouTube removed some videos from his channel that were centered on The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Those removals came after a pair of complaints were filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and generated two strikes. Everyone on YouTube knows that three strikes mean you're out and off the platform permanently.Suddenly at risk of losing the entire channel he had built on YouTube, Neumayer was stunned, The Verge noted, partly because most game companies consider "Let's Play" videos like his to be free marketing, not a threat to their business. And while Nintendo has been known to target YouTubers with DMCA takedowns, it generally historically took no issues with accounts like his.For many YouTubers, a DMCA takedown request is considered too risky to challenge, even if it's obviously fake. The risk of losing their channels outweighs the risk of losing income from removing specific videos at issue, so users often choose to delete content voluntarily, rather than defend their content. Copyright trolls try to benefit from this, getting content removed that otherwise would remain on the platform and sometimes attempting to push users to submit unnecessary payments.No one knows how much copyright abuse occurs on YouTube. According to YouTube, about 6 percent of removals from July to December 2023 were abusive, along with 10 times more attempted abusive removals. But if a significant number of users never flag abuseout of fear they could be sued for contributing to copyright infringementthen the true figure could be higher.Neumayer clearly took a long hard look at the DMCA takedown requests before making any rash decisions about submitting to the claims. That's when he noticed something strange. The requests were signed by "Tatsumi Masaaki, Nintendo Legal Department, Nintendo of America," but the second one curiously "came from a personal account at an encrypted email service: 'tatsumi-masaaki@protonmail.com,'" The Verge reported.Defending his livelihood, Neumayer started asking questions. At first, that led to his videos being reinstated. But that victory was short-lived, as the supposed Nintendo lawyer only escalated his demands, spooking the YouTuber into voluntarily removing some videos, The Verge reported, while continuing to investigate the potential troll.Reaching out directly to Nintendo helped, but questions remainThe Verge has all the receipts, sharing emails from the fake lawyer and detailing Neumayer's fight blow-for-blow. Neumayer ultimately found that there was a patent lawyer with a similar name working for Nintendo in Japan, although he could not tell if that was the person sending the demands and Nintendo would not confirm to The Verge if Tatsumi Masaaki exists.Only after contacting Nintendo directly did Neumayer finally get some information he could work with to challenge the takedowns. Reportedly, Nintendo replied, telling Neumayer that the fake lawyer's proton email address "is not a legitimate Nintendo email address and the details contained within the communication do not align with Nintendo of America Inc.s enforcement practices."Nintendo promised to investigate further, as Neumayer continued to receive demands from the fake lawyer. It took about a week after Nintendo's response for "Tatsumi" to start to stand down, writing in a stunted email to Neumayer, "I hereby retract all of my preceding claims." But even then, the troll went down fighting, The Verge reported.The final messages from "Tatsumi" claimed that he'd only been suspended from filing claims and threatened that other Nintendo lawyers would be re-filing them. He then sent what The Verge described as "in some ways the most legit-looking email yet," using a publicly available web tool to spoof an official Nintendo email address while continuing to menace Neumayer.It was that spoofed email that finally ended the faade, though, The Verge reported. Neumayer detected the spoof by checking the headers and IDing the tool used.Although this case of copyright trolling is seemingly over, Neumayeralong with a couple other gamers trolled by "Tatsumi"remain frustrated with YouTube, The Verge reported. After his fight with the fake Nintendo lawyer, Neumayer wants the streaming platform to update its policies and make it easier for YouTubers to defend against copyright abuse.Back in May, when Ars reported on a YouTuber dismayed by a DMCA takedown over a washing machine chime heard on his video, a YouTube researcher and director of policy and advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Katharine Trendacosta told Ars that YouTube's current process discourages YouTubers from disputing copyright strikes.Every idiot can strike every YouTuber and there is nearly no problem to do so. Its insane, Neumayer said. It has to change NOW.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 1 Comments

Joining Season 4.Back in September, Arc System Works shared a first in-game look at Guilty Gear Strives next DLC fighter Queen Dizzy.This fighter will be added to the Switch version of the game as part of a free content update. Arc System Works confirmed this on social media alongside the news this update is scheduled to arrive on February 2025.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The Sonic characters become famous superheroes.Update :Sega and DC Comics have elaborated on their upcoming "partnership" and it involves monthly crossover comics between DC and the Blue Blur.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Fill out the Final Fantasy questionnaire.The role-playing series Final Fantasy has been going strong for almost 40 years now and with this in mind, Square Enix wants to know how fans feel about the series. To find this out, it's released a 10-15 minute questionnaire covering all things Final Fantasy.Its the usual type of questions including the platforms you own, how many games youve purchased, how you get your news about Final Fantasy, which Final Fantasy titles you like, how big of a fan of the series you are, and how may Final Fantasy games youve played.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Apples iPads come with built-in productivity tools like Notes, Calendar, and Reminders, but if youd like to explore new ways to maximize productivity and organize your life, there are many apps out there to help you.Although the iPad started off as a device that could be used to stream content or browse the web on the go, Apple has essentially turned its iPads into computers that can handle a variety of different tasks for personal, work, and school use. As a result, there are numerous apps to help you do things like create a single place to organize your life or help you stay focused on your day-to-day tasks by blocking out distractions.Weve compiled a list of some of the best ones that are available on the App Store.Goodnotes Image Credits:GoodnotesGoodnotes is one of the most popular iPad apps, and for good reason. The app is great for people who like to write out notes using an Apple Pencil; you can include both handwritten and typed text on one page and add things like images, stickers, and even doodles.You can create a digital notebook with blank or ruled paper for notes, checklists, planners, and more. The app lets you export entire digital notebooks or specific pages into PDFs and other files.Goodnotes is also great for drawing and sketching. While its not as advanced as some creativity apps like Procreate, Goodnotes is easy to use and perfect for quick sketches or diagrams.If youre attending a class or a meeting, you can also record audio notes that are synced to the moment you write. Plus, you can use AI to summarize your notes and help you write.You can create three digital notebooks for free. If you want unlimited notebooks, youll have to pay $9.99 per year or a one-time fee of $29.99.TickTickImage Credits:TickTickIf youre not a fan of your iPads built-in Reminders app, or you just want a more advanced to-do list and task management app, TickTick might be a good choice. You can use it for both professional and personal tasks.The app lets you sync tasks across all of your devices and integrate your favorite calendar app. You can create checklists, set recurring tasks, upload attachments to tasks, share task lists to collaborate with others, and more.If you want to develop a habit, such as meditating before bed, you can set your goals in the app and track your progress. And if you get an email but dont have time to respond to it, you can turn it into a task to remind yourself not to forget to respond to it.You can also add tags to your tasks to better manage them, and you can mark tasks based on their priority. If you want to focus on a specific task, you can turn on the apps pomo timer, which is based on the Pomodoro Technique that breaks work into focused intervals to maximize productivity.TickTick is free to use, but if you want additional features like the ability to add up to five reminders to a task or more lists and tasks, then youll pay $3.99 per month or $35.99 per year.ForestImage Credits:ForestForest is an interesting app that gamifies productivity while helping the environment. If youre someone who struggles to stay on a task or are easily distracted, then this app might be good for you.When you need to focus on something, you can open the app and plant a tree. Your tree will then grow as you focus on and finish your work. If you leave the app before the timer finishes, then your tree will wither and die.You can set Allow Lists for different apps that youre using to be productive, like an email app or Microsoft Word. The app also lets you track your productivity.Over time, you create a digital forest that visualizes your productivity. If youre competitive, you can share your forest with others to see how it compares to theirs.As you stay focused and grow virtual trees, you can earn coins that you can save to help plant actual trees around the world through tree-planting organization Trees for the Future.Forest costs $3.99 to download, and you can buy in-app boosts to grow your forest and plant real trees faster.NotionImage Credits:NotionNotion is a great app for taking notes, managing tasks and workflows, organizing lists and habits, collaborating with others, and more. Instead of having to go to different apps to manage your calendar, tasks, and notes, you can get all of this done right within Notion.You can integrate the different apps that you use, like Slack and Dropbox, in order to combine all of your workflows in one place.One of the great things about Notion is its flexibility and customization options. You can customize it to be what you need, whether its to organize your personal or work life, your schoolwork, or your passion projects.If youre not sure where to start, you can use templates to create things like a travel planner or a product roadmap.Notion also has an AI feature that helps you write and brainstorm ideas. Notion AI can help you get answers about your content and turn large amounts of data into digestible action items.Notion offers a free plan for personal use. The company also offers an $8 per month Plus plan for small groups and a $15 per month Business plan for companies.You get 20 AI responses for free; after that you pay $10 per member per month.CroutonImage Credits:CroutonSometimes planning what to eat can take up a lot of time, leaving less time for other tasks, so it can be nice to have an app to help with that. Crouton, meant to help make cooking and meal planning easier, is great for organizing recipes and planning grocery lists. You can import recipes from websites or even scan them from a physical cookbook. So, instead of relying on bookmarked or physical recipes, you can store them together in one place.You can plan out your meals for the week, and if you get stumped on what to make one day, the app can generate a meal plan for you. Once you have planned your meals for the week, you can create a grocery list that includes all of the ingredients you will need.Crouton also features an in-app timer, so you dont have to use a different app when you have time-specific steps of a recipe.Plus, you can share your recipes with others, whether to tell your family whats for dinner or if you came across a recipe that you know your friend would love.Crouton offers basic features for free, but if you want unlimited recipes and additional features, theres a $14.99 yearly subscription.FreedomImage Credits:FreedomFreedom is a great app for blocking distractions in order to focus on your work and be more productive. You can start a Freedom session to block distractions across all of your devices for a select amount of time.You can choose which websites and apps you want to block during that time. So if youre getting work done on your iPad, but then try to open TikTok on your phone, you wont be able to and will instead see a green screen.The app lets you start a session right away, schedule an upcoming one, or set a recurring one. If you know that you need to be free of distractions at a certain time every day, you can set up a Freedom session to start at that specific time each day.If youre someone who listens to specific sounds to help you focus, Freedom offers a variety that you can listen to. For example, you can listen to the sounds of a coffee shop in a city like New York or Berlin, the sounds of birds chirping, calming instrumentals, and more.The app, which costs $3.99 per month, is pretty easy to use and includes a series of different articles that feature tips on how to boost productivity and better understand digital wellness.NotabilityImage Credits:NotabilityNotability is a great note-taking app that lets you jot down thoughts, import and annotate textbooks, record audio, and sketch out ideas. The app is useful for both students and professionals, or even hobbyists.You can choose to take notes with an Apple Pencil, text, or audio. If youre trying to find something specific, the app lets you search your notes, including handwritten ones and any documents you have uploaded.Notability also features AI-generated note summaries and the ability to work on two different notes side by side. Plus, you can test your knowledge with personalized quizzes based on the content in your notes.If you need a place to start, Notability includes a gallery of templates for things like planners, study notes, to-do lists, and more.Notability is free but offers a $4.99 monthly subscription for access to additional features like math conversion, automatic audio transcription, unlimited notes, and more.Update: This story originally ran September 28 and was updated on December 27, 2024, with a new app.

The period of the late 19th through early 20th centuries provided architects the opportunity of blending the two prominent styles, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival into a single composition, and as a result, this period has provided some of the most whimsical yet stately homes in New England. This modestly sized residencesits on Stimson Avenue, one of the finest streets in Providence, and despite its unassuming size, packs an architectural punch with its materials and detailing. The Henry Waldron House was built in 1893 for Henry A. Waldron, a clerk in Providence.From deed research, it appears a member of his family,Nathan Waldron, a wealthy grocer, purchased the site in 1891 and likely funded some or all of the construction of the residence there. The architectural firm of Hoppin, Read & Hoppinis credited with the design of the residence, which employs a Colonial Revival form with the gambrel roof and Columned and ornate entrance porch with fan motif, while the use of varied siding materials and octagonal tower with pyramidal roof veers into the Queen Anne style.

How to solve today's Wordle.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesLooking for Fridays Wordle hints, clues and answer? You can find them here:Back when I was a kid, the days between Christmas and New Years Eve were a kind of magical time. School was out. There was always snow on the ground. There was always lots of good food and family gatherings and extra time to spend with new toys.Now, I find myself wading through a kind of winter melancholy each year around this time. A week of mild gloom. Its almost like a spiritual Christmas hangover. All that anticipation and build-up leading to the Big Day and then its over, wrapping paper littering the floor. Back to work. Back to life. Back to this liminal week wedged and contorted between two of the years biggest holidays.And a Wordle to solve, of course. Shall we?How To Solve Todays WordleThe Hint: Publicly denounce.The Clue: This Wordle begins with a consonant.Okay, spoilers below!...The Answer:Today's WordleScreenshot: Erik KainPlay Puzzles & Games on ForbesWordle AnalysisEvery day I check Wordle Bot to help analyze my guessing game. You can check your Wordles with Wordle Bot right here. GRADE did much better than I expected it to, leaving me with just 49 remaining possible solutions and three yellow boxes. I tried juggling those with CIDER, but they all came back yellow, with a new yellow C in the mix. Fortunately, only one solutioned remained and eventually I tracked it down. DECRY for the win!Competitive Wordle ScoreI get 1 point for guessing in three and 0 for tying Wordle Bot.How To Play Competitive WordleGuessing in 1 is worth 3 points; guessing in 2 is worth 2 points; guessing in 3 is worth 1 point; guessing in 4 is worth 0 points; guessing in 5 is -1 points; guessing in 6 is -2 points and missing the Wordle is -3 points.If you beat your opponent you get 1 point. If you tie, you get 0 points. And if you lose to your opponent, you get -1 point. Add it up to get your score. Keep a daily running score or just play for a new score each day.Fridays are 2XP, meaning you double your pointspositive or negative.You can keep a running tally or just play day-by-day. Enjoy!Todays Wordle EtymologyThe word "decry" comes from the Old Frenchdescrier, meaning "to cry out, announce, or denounce." This, in turn, derives from the prefix des- (meaning "down" or "away") and crier (meaning "to cry or proclaim"). In English, by the late 16th century, decry took on the meaning of publicly condemning or criticizing something.Let me know how you fared with your Wordle today on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog where I write about games, TV shows and movies when Im not writing puzzle guides. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.

Emphasis on ferociter Blue Origin hot fires New Glenn rocket, setting up a launch early next year Also on Friday, the company obtained a launch license for New Glenn launch attempts. Eric Berger Dec 27, 2024 9:20 pm | 0 New Glenn rocket undergoes a hot-fire test on Friday evening in Florida. Credit: Blue Origin New Glenn rocket undergoes a hot-fire test on Friday evening in Florida. Credit: Blue Origin Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAfter a long day of stops and starts that stretched well into the evening, and on what appeared to be the company's fifth attempt Friday, Blue Origin successfully ignited the seven main engines on its massive New Glenn rocket.The test firing as fog built over the Florida coast marks the final major step in the rocket company's campaign to bring the New Glenn rocketa privately developed, super-heavy lift vehicleto launch readiness. Blue Origin said it fired the vehicle's engines for a duration of 24 seconds. They fired at full thrust for 13 of those seconds."This is a monumental milestone and a glimpse of whats just around the corner for New Glenns first launch," said Jarrett Jones, senior vice president of the New Glenn program, in a news release. "Todays success proves that our rigorous approach to testingcombined with our incredible tooling and design engineeringis working as intended."Completion of the dynamic hot-fire test sets up a historic moment for the company founded by Jeff Bezos nearly a quarter of a century ago, the firm's first ever orbital launch attempt. It will occur from Launch Complex-36, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.Blue Origin's post-test update did not include a launch date, but based on flight advisory information, a no-earlier than launch date is likely to be January 6.A license to flyFriday was important for New Glenn's debut mission in another way. Several hours before the test firing, the Federal Aviation Administration said it had issued a launch license for the rocket. The license allows Blue Origin to conduct orbital missions from Cape Canaveral with New Glenn, as well as to attempt first stage landings on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. The license is valid for five years.After years of waiting, the much-anticipated mission is finally coming together.The hot-fire test, taking place just two days after the Christmas holiday in the United States, reflects the urgency that Bezos has injected into his rocket company over the last 18 months. In the fall of 2023, Bezos ousted Bob Smith as chief executive of Blue Origin, and tapped a long-time Amazon executive, Dave Limp, to lead the company.During an interview at the time, Bezos acknowledged that Blue Origin was moving more slowly than he had hoped. "Blue Origin needs to be much faster, and it's one of the reasons that I left my role as the CEO of Amazon a couple of years ago," he said. "I wanted to come in, and Blue Origin needs me right now. Adding some energy, some sense of urgency. We need to move much faster. And we're going to."Over the last year the company has appeared to be more nimble as it raced toward the launch pad, completing work on its ground-based infrastructure, assembling the rocket, and preparing a fleet of ships upon which Blue Origin intends to land New Glenn's first stage for potential reuse.Alive in 2025At the end of October, the company rolled the rocket's first stage from its production facility in Florida to the launch pad, and about three weeks later, just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the company moved the integrated first and second stage out to the launch pad for testing.Now that the hot-fire test is completed, the company will roll the rocket back into a large integration hangar to install the small "Blue Ring" spacecraft, a test version of an in-space transportation vehicle the company is developing for last-mile and other services for payloads in space.Then the completed rocket will be rolled back out to the launch site in Florida for an attempt, possibly as soon as the first week of the new year.The launch comes at an important time in the US space industry. The incoming Trump White House is expected to take a hard look at NASA's current plans for the Artemis Program to return humans to the Moon, and if New Glenn can prove itself to be a reliable heavy lift rocket, it could have an important role to play in getting humans to the lunar surface.Eric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 0 Comments

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson Friday.In it, she warned that the US would breach its debt limit as soon as January 14 unless Congress acted.The Treasury Department will begin taking "extraordinary measures" to avoid defaulting on debt.The US will need to take "extraordinary measures" to avoid defaulting on its debt as early as January 14, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a letter on Friday.In the letter addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Yellen wrote that although the outstanding debt subject to the limit is expected to drop by approximately $54 billion when the new debt limit is established on January 2, it won't be long before the US does hit its limit.She said the Treasury Department will likely need to start making accounting manuevers between January 14 and 23 to prevent the US from defaulting.The debt limit is the mechanism that restricts the amount of money the US can borrow. Much of that money goes toward programs like Social Security, Medicare, military salaries, interest on the national debt, and tax refunds, Yellen said in the letter.The government could face trouble paying those bills if lawmakers fail to raise the debt limit.Yellen's warning comes days after President-elect Donald Trump pushed Congress to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling entirely. Lawmakers, however, failed to pass a two-year suspension extension while voting on a government spending bill earlier this month.The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 suspended the debt limit through January 1, 2025, following a contentious political fight. Republicans are set to take control of the government in January and will have to contend with the ongoing debt ceiling problem, which could affect financial markets and borrowing costs."I respectfully urge Congress to act to protect the full faith and credit of the United States," Yellen wrote.