#new android phones 2023

[ezzybrownmedia]

Top  Best Android Phones to Buy

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[jepretanjanet]

/farewell 2022 ✨️/

[changes]

Friday, July 28th, 2023

🌟 New

We’ve updated the text for the blog setting that said it would “hide your blog from search results”. Unfortunately, we’ve never been able to guarantee hiding content from search crawlers, unless they play nice with the standard prevention measures of robots.txt and noindex. With this in mind, we’ve changed the text of that setting to be more accurate, insofar as we discourage them, but cannot prevent search indexing. If you want to completely isolate your blog from the outside internet and require only logged in folks to see your blog, then that’s the separate “Hide [blog] from people without an account” setting, which does prevent search engines from indexing your blog.

When creating a poll on the web, you can now have 12 poll options instead of 10. Wow.

For folks using the Android app, if you get a push notification that a blog you’re subscribed to has a new post, that push will take you to the post itself, instead of the blog view.

For those of you seeing the new desktop website layout, we’ve eased up the spacing between columns a bit to hopefully make things feel less cramped. Thanks to everyone who sent in feedback about this! We’re still triaging more feedback as the experiment continues.

🛠 Fixed

While experimenting with new dashboard tab configuration options, we accidentally broke dashboard tabs that had been enabled via Tumblr Labs, like the Blog Subs tab. We’ve rolled back that change to fix those tabs.

We’ve fixed more problems with how we choose what content goes into blogs’ RSS feeds. This time we’ve fixed a few issues with how answer post content is shown as RSS items.

We’ve also fixed some layout issues with the new desktop website navigation, especially glitches caused when resizing the browser window.

Fixed a visual glitch in the new activity redesign experiment on web that was making unread activity items difficult to read in some color palettes.

Fixed a bug in Safari that was preventing mature content from being blurred properly.

When using Tumblr on a mobile phone browser, the hamburger menu icon will now have an indicator when you have an unread ask or submission in your Inbox.

🚧 Ongoing

Nothing to report here today.

🌱 Upcoming

We hear it’s crab day tomorrow on Tumblr. 🦀

We’re working on adding the ability to reply to posts as a sideblog! We’re just getting started, so it may be a little while before we run an experiment with it.

Experiencing an issue? File a Support Request and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Joseph Cox’s “Dark Wire”

NEXT WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

No one was better positioned to tell the tale of the largest sting operation in world history than veteran tech reporter Joseph Cox, and tell it he did, in Dark Wire, released today:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/

Cox – who was one of Motherboard's star cybersecurity reporters before leaving to co-found 404 Media – has spent years on the crimephone beat, tracking vendors who sold modded phones (first Blackberries, then Android phones) to criminal syndicates with the promise that they couldn't be wiretapped by law-enforcement.

It's possible that some of these phones were secure over long timescales, but all the ones we know about are ones that law enforcement eventually caught up with, usually by capturing the company's top founders explicitly stating that the phones were sold to assist in the commission of crimes, and admitting to remote-wiping phones to obstruct law-enforcement options. It's hard to prove intent but it gets a lot easier when the criminal puts that intent into writing (that's true of tech executives, too!):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

But after a particularly spectacular bust landed one of the top crimephone sales reps in the FBI's power, they got a genuinely weird idea: why not start their own crimephone company?

The plan was to build an incredibly secure, best-of-breed crimephone, one with every feature that a criminal would want to truly insulate themselves from law enforcement while still offering everything a criminal could need to plan and execute crimes.

They would tap into the network of crimephone distributors around the world, not telling them who they were truly selling for – nor that every one of these phones had a back-door that allowed law-enforcement to access every single message, photo and file.

This is the beginning of an incredible tale that is really two incredible tales. The first is the story of the FBI and its partners as they scaled up Anom, their best-of-breed crimephone business. This is a (nearly) classic startup tale, full of all-nighters, heroic battles against the odds, and the terror and exhilaration of "hockey-stick" growth.

The difference between this startup and the others we're already familiar with is obvious: the FBI and its global partners are acting under a totally different set of constraints to normal startup founders. For one thing, their true mission and identity must be kept totally secret. For another, they have to navigate the bureaucratic barriers of not one, but many governments and their courts, constitutions and procedures.

Finally, there are the stakes: while the bulk of the crimes that the FBI targets with Anom are just the usual futile war-on-drugs nonsense (albeit at a never-before seen scale), they also routinely encounter murders, kidnappings, tortures, firebombings, and other serious crimes, either in the planning phase, or after they have been committed. They have to make moment-to-moment calls about when and whether to do something about these, as each action taken based on intercepts from Anom threatens to tip the FBI's hand.

That's one of the startup stories in Cox's book. The other one is the crime startup, the one that the hapless criminal syndicates that sign up to distribute Anom devices find themselves in the middle of. They, too, are experiencing hockey-stick growth. They, too, have a fantastically lucrative tiger by the tail. And they, too, have a unique set of challenges that make this startup different from any other.

The obvious difference is that they are involved in global criminal conspiracies. They have to both grow and remain hidden. The tradecraft and skullduggery are fascinating, in the manner of any great crime procedural tale. But there's another constraint: these criminals are competing with one another to corner the market on these incredibly lucrative phones. Being part of violent, global criminal conspiracies, they don't confine themselves to the normal Silicon Valley crimes of violating antitrust law – they are engaged in all-out warfare.

These two startups are, of course, the same startup, but only one side knows it. As Cox weaves these two tales together – along with glimpses into the lives of the hapless gig-work developers in Asia who are developing and maintaining the Anom platform – we get front seat in a series of high-speed, high-stakes near-collisions between these two groups.

And it's not always the cops who have the advantage. When an ambitious mobster figures out how to clone the "black boxes" that initialize new Anom phones, the FBI are caught flatfooted as the number of Anom devices in the hands of criminals balloons, producing a volume of intercepts that vastly exceeds their processing capacity.

Cox has been on this story for a decade, and it shows. He has impeccable sourcing and encyclopedic access to the court records and other public details that allow him to reproduce many of the most dramatic scenes in the Anom caper verbatim. This really shines in the final section of the book, when the FBI and its partners decide to roll up the company with a series of global arrests that culminate in a triumphant press-conference in which the true masters of Anom are revealed.

As a privacy and encryption advocate, there were moments in this story that made me a little uncomfortable. There are places where the FBI is chafing at the constitutional limits on its surveillance powers where we can't help buy sympathize with these "good guys" going after "bad guys." But this the the FBI, a lawless, unaccountable secret police who routinely bypass those limits by secretly buying data from sleazy data-brokers, or illegally sharing data with the NSA.

The conclusion really hammers home the point that the FBI's problem isn't constitutional niceties. Despite seizing hundreds of tons of illegal drugs and arresting thousands of high-ranking criminal syndicate bosses, Anom made no difference in the drug trade. Prohibition, after all, just makes criminals more wealthy and powerful. The Anom raids were, at worst, the cost of doing business – and at best, they were a global reset that cleared the board of established actors so that other criminals could seize their turf.

But even though Anom didn't triumph over crime, Dark Wire is a triumph. The book's out today, and there will shortly be a Netflix adaptation based on it, directed by Jason Bateman:

https://deadline.com/2022/09/jason-bateman-netflix-21-laps-dark-wire-surveillance-gangs-movie-1235130444/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/04/anom-nom-nom/the-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-ndrangheta

[diddybok]

finding out best friend!stray kids has a new phone

all characters depicted in my writing are from my own imagination and do NOT in anyway represent nor reflect the people in real life :)

➩pairing: ot8 x gn!reader

➩warning(s): android slander, two swear words, suggestive text in changbin’s

➩notes: just to clarify i do not care what phone you have. this is just a bit of fun! shout out to all phones fr <3 (also skz in their bag era??)

chris

minho

changbin

hyunjin

jisung

felix

seungmin

i.n

ʚ hope you enjoyed ^.^ you can support me by liking, commenting and reblogging! it is heavily appreciated ᵕ̈ ɞ

i do not permit my work to be translated or reposted in any way, thank you.

© 2023 diddybok

[astrobolical]

What In “Hell” Is Bad - Limited L-Grade Banner “Guide”

Note: Now available on android as well! Unsure of any differences. I may go through and update this later with images from my phone rather than my iPad.

Looking for other guides? Check out my WHB Guide List!

Okay… not sure where to start with this one other than it’ll be nice and short. However, this is the first guide I’ve made that I hope I get to change quickly.

To start though; new L-Grade Devils to pull, and pretty, blood-covered versions of Leviathan and Beelzebub. I currently do not have them, however, so I will be unable to show their skill/ultimates at all. I’m not willing to pay for it, though, despite that I do spend money on this game… but yeah.

What’s this all about?

PrettyBusy has given us a brand new temporary banner to showcase their new devils and artifacts, basically. (With some added drama, but we’ll get to that.)

Get Leviathan (Bloodshed) or Beelzebub (Bloodshed) guaranteed within 220 pulls.

Use the new item “Solomon’s Seal” to pull (50 Rings for 1 Pull, 500 for 10 pulls)

DO NOT pull on the standard banners for these devils! Right now they’re only available on this one

The pity (220) is absurdly high, and I’ll get to why soon

You can also get two new artifacts from this new banner.

Wing-ripping Sword

“The wearer’s HP and ATK SPD increases by 20%. If equipped on Leviathan (Bloodshed), has a 30.00% chance of immediately killing the enemy with under 15% HP he hits with a normal attack.”

Cracked Sunglasses

“Upon an accurate hitting of a normal attack, recovers as much HP as 4.00% of HP of the wearer. If equipped on Beelzebub (Bloodshed), recovers 100% HP upon using skill.”

Both really good artifacts! Especially for the new devils. If you have the seals for it all.

What? What’s Solomon’s Seal?

This is the unfortunate part— and it wasn’t properly communicated from PrettyBusy. We knew the new currency was coming, but not the means to get it.

This is only purchasable with real money.

There is four purchasing options, and none of them seem overly well priced? Let’s go over that though. We get 50 Seals for the update (1 Pull).

Prices for Solomon’s Seal Packages:

241 Seals - $11.99 (4 Pulls)

717 Seals - $49.95 (14 Pulls)

1,312 Seals -$59.99 (26 Pulls)

2,200 Seals - $99.90 (44 Pulls)

Just looking at them, it’s like… okay? But thinking about the pity, and the 0.63% chance to draw an L-Grade from the temporary banner, it’s not great.

Assuming you don’t get lucky, and you go all the way to 220?

You would need to buy the $99.90 package around 5 times. Which is ~$500. Being real, you’ll usually get them before pity, but there’s four things to get through this banner if you want everything. That’s a lot of chance.

Why is this not good, though?

Because there is no free-to-play alternative.

These seals are only obtainable in the shop, as I said before. It’s not the first game to do this, and won’t be the last. It’s not the end of the world, either. But it’s not great or motivating to the ftp players or community. I’m not going to keep ragging on this, though.

If you have an issue with this, contact PrettyBusy POLITELY. Not with anger, or profanity. Be nice.

So… I can’t get them?

You can!

Just not now, unless they change how this works. When this banner is over (Nov 14, 2023) they’ll be added to the Standard Banner to pull like all the rest.

Oh! There is one more thing to add!

Story Prologues

On the bottom left of the banners you’ll find story prologues you can read to get an idea of why the boys are bloodied up. Just click the circular icon of the one you want to read!

[teetlezhere]

RISE OF THE TMNT: HOMECOMING - STEP-BY-STEP INSTALL GUIDE - UPDATED!

Like promised, I've retraced my steps and the post here is a full guide on how to download and play TMNT homecoming for Android device.

Here below I've compiled a series of steps and useful links in case you might need to play the game:

(Edit: The guide's updated now:)

Step 0: First things first...

First thing first, you'll need an Android device to download and play this game.

UPDATE! - The game now also works on Bluestack!

Second thing you'll need (unless you know chinese) is a picture Translator app.

I've used translation apps that take pictures of the screen and translate it to english and followed the instructions to set up my username and password.

Step 1: Downloading the APK

Unless you live in China, or you can get the game legit in some way I don't know, APK downloading sites might help. However, be careful, for some may be scam sites. Use a VPN to help block unwanted visitors.

I've used this site here to download the APK for the game and seems pretty legit (based on bitdefender, the apk is safe) compared to others I've tried. While the picture is from the beta version in 2022, the update is the most recent from 2023.

If you have another apk downloading site you'd prefer to try download the apk from, try looking up for TMNT Homecoming (it will not show as Rise or ROTTMNT despite being the same characters)...

Or if that fails too, try searching for 忍者龟: 归来 apk if you can't find it in english.

STEP 2: Installation

Once you download the game, install it on your device. Phone might ask for permission due to being considered an unknown APK from an outside source.

STEP 3: Username and Password

If everything has gone smoothly, then it's time for the username and password.

A window will show with MUZHI written on it. Here, you must write your username (top) and your password (bottom). -ps: ignore the writing below. It was my bad 😅-

You shouldn't have any issues with this step as it accepts western keyboard characters.

Just remember to write the ID and PW down somewhere so you won't forget them. Or take a snapshot of it before proceeding.

UPDATE! - It seems there are issues with the western keyboards and won't accept them anymore. So, if this step doesn't work, click the button that says: Quick Registration (the button in red) and proceed to step 4!

Step 4: THE DREADED

A new window opens

It requires that you put a name (top) and ID number (below) in order to play the game.

To bypass this, this helped me:

You can pick any of the codes shown (I used the very first one and it worked like a charm).

Let's use this for example: As you can see, there is a series on numbers first, and chinese characters at the end.

Careful with this step as the name goes on the top bar, and should be only chinese characters.

Like this: 刘剑丽

The ID is only numbers, and they go in the bar below.

Like this: 220283198306236235

It must be like this:

STEP 5: Selecting A Game Name

If you've reached this point, and if you're able to play the game at long last, then CONGRATS! You've made it! But it's not over just quite yet.

The game, eventually, requires that you add a GAME NAME. It can be anything you want it to be, but MIND YOU! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

IT WILL NOT ACCEPT Western Keyboard characters. Only chinese characters!

This is, however, much, much easier to bypass than step 4. Here, you have 2 options:

Option 1: If you want your very own original game name to play, you can go to google translate and simply write down and translate it to chinese.

Example:

Just copy the chinese characters and paste them in the bar. Then proceed.

Option 2: If you don't care about what name you use to play, just generate a complete random name by pressing the dice button right next to the name bar. The game will insta-generate a completely random name for you to use.

STEP 6: Have fun!

If you followed each step of the way without too much hassle and managed to get through the apocalypse that is bypassing this, then CONGRATS! YOU'VE FINALLY MADE IT!

I'm so, so proud of you! Now you're free to play this Rise of the tmnt game as much as you want! Keep your translator close just in case, and have plenty of fun with the features this game offers.

If you're looking to send me a friend request, You'll find me as Ninja of Liberation (or 解放忍者 ).

In case there’s issues, DM me and I’ll see to try help and update the guide.

[sussysatann]

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT NIGHTBRINGER SO FAR

3D game - possible free roam?

We now have a map of the House of Lamentation!! Hopefully we'll have maps for the other main locations too!!

New rhythm game (all songs are sung by the demons)

'Online meetings' with the characters - choices have a DIRECT impact on story

Talk to the characters and give presents - possibly fully voiced?

"New and improved D.D.D"

Takes place BEFORE RAD and AFTER THE CELESTIAL WAR

We still play as MC but have to "masquerade as a demon and act as a brand new attendant to the brothers in order to reform the lost bonds" with them - Solomon takes us back in time?

Release date for 1ST SEPTEMBER 2023

EDIT: NEW RELEASE DATE FOR 13 APRIL 2023

SYSTEM & DEVICE REQUIREMENTS:

-Android 6.0 or later -OpenGL 3.0 or later -iOS 12 or later

~ IOS requires 2GB or more of RAM ~ Android requires 3GB or more of RAM / device with 625 or more of CPU Snapdragon

Nightbringer's full description via Google Play and App Store;

"Return to life in the Devildom with seven unique demon brothers.

Are you ready for more trips to Hell's Kitchen and Devil's Coast?! Introducing the LATEST otome game from Obey Me!, the global sensation with over eight million downloads where you make ikemen demons do your bidding! Enjoy an iseikai with a huge, enthralling world where you hang out with seven quirky ikemen brothers and a rich variety of hunky side characters. And we've blurred the line between fiction and reality even further this time with even MORE features that are so real you will feel like you are really interacting with the characters!

When your smartphone turns into a D.D.D. terminal, you'll find yourself staring into a portal to another world! With the introduction of ikemen demons into your life, things just got a whole lot more dramatic and interesting!

Have meaningful interactions with these seven handsome, but dangerous brothers and live life on the wild side in this exciting and mysterious world!

◆◇ What is Obey Me! Nightbringer? ◇◆

▷Your choices have a DIRECT impact on how the story plays out! In addition to chatting and making phone calls, enjoy participating in online meetings this time! That's not all though, students! Cheer on your favorite characters' videos and strengthen their cards for battle! Your decisions in the Devildom matter, so pick wisely!

▷Peek into the daily lives of the demons!

Take a look into the daily lives of your favorite demons with a BRAND NEW feature! By talking to them and giving them presents, you might even see a whole new side to them! Try new things to learn all about your favorite demon!

▷Comment on your favorite videos!

Go even further and post comments on your favorite videos of the ikemen demons! Share your love via a comment or add an effect to cheer them on! Spice the videos up with your own personal touch!

▷Introducing brand new quests in the form of a rhythm game!

As you make your way through the episodic stories in the Devildom, you will encounter rhythm game quests! Polish your skills and use items and cards found in the Devildom to master the rhythm game! And what's more, all the songs your hear in the rhythm game are sung by the demons

◆◇ Story ◇◆

You wake up to find a world you once knew...a bit different. The brothers are cold and aloof, and RAD does not exist yet. You find yourself in the Devildom right after the Great Celestial War! Thanks to Solomon, you find yourself masquerading as a demon and as the brand new attendant to the demon brothers. Can you reform your lost bonds with the brothers and return to the world you once knew?!

Enjoy life in the Devildom with your new-and-improved D.D.D.! Though, don't let your guard down, as what awaits you are seven quirky brothers

with a load of problems! Yet there is only one rule you need to follow: One master to rule them all! Introducing Obey Me! Nightbringer! A game for the ages!"

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About P5X

(updated 9/24/24)

Persona 5: The Phantom X (P5X) has previously had three beta tests, the first of which ran from March 29th to 31st 2023, the second of which ran from August 18th to 25th 2023, and the third of which ran from January 16th to 31st 2024. The open beta, essentially the game's official launch, began on April 12th 2024. A global launch has now been indirectly (but officially) confirmed, though we don't know when it will happen. Here’s a summary of what we know about the game itself so far. Hopefully this’ll be useful, whether you're new around here or not!

I also keep updated posts about the game's story, playable characters, and other useful information, which can be found in this blog's pinned post (along with this post!).

Keeping this as succinct as I can, but it's still a little long, so under the cut it goes.

Overview

P5X is a turn-based RPG mobile game with gacha elements, developed by Black Wings Game Studio and published by Perfect World Games. While not directly creating it, it is officially licensed by Atlus and Sega. Atlus has apparently been very involved in its production, including Shigenori Soejima designing the protagonist and his Persona, and ATLUS writing the core of the story's plot.

The game's setting has been confirmed to be an alternate/"parallel" world to Persona 5's, though translated promotional information also confirms the plot has something to do with these two worlds interacting through "time and space".

As Perfect World Games and Black Wings Game Studio are Chinese game companies, P5X is produced in Chinese, with no current official English translations, though the third beta had files that possibly indicate future plans to translate the game into English, Spanish, and Japanese, among other languages. The dialogue in-game is voiced in both Japanese and Chinese, with Japanese and Chinese voice actors for the characters. Presumably, the global release will fill in the other languages.

Right now, we know the game is available on both mobile (iOS and Android) and PC (Google Play Games and Steam), and it's been officially stated that a console version is planned for after the game releases globally. The first three of the beta tests were closed betas, available only in China, Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong, where players could sign up for a chance to get in, and actual beta accounts were given out via lottery. The open beta requires only a Chinese phone number to sign up, although the Taiwan/Macau/Hong Kong version also allows players to log in with a Google account.

Note that there was some confusion about whether the open beta was the game's official launch at first, due to the language barrier. Posts on this blog prior to 5/15/2024 often refer to it as the "fourth beta" instead, and may erroneously suggest it was just another beta test.

As of 9/24/24, the game has been officially announced for a Japan release, though there will be at least one Japanese beta test prior to the official release.

There are specifically two main gachas in the game- a character gacha for gaining teammates, and a weapons gacha for gaining better weapons for those teammates. While the game is extremely similar to Persona 5 overall, there are many aspects, obviously including the gacha, that differ from it, which are summarized below and detailed further in another post.

The Characters

So far, there are 22 new Persona users. These characters can be divided into story teammates and "Phantom Idol" (gacha-only) teammates.

The story teammates so far are the protagonist (codename Wonder), an owl named Ruferu in Japanese which has sometimes been translated as "Luffy" by fans (codename Cattle), an athletic classmate of the protagonist's named Motoha Arai (codename Closer), a boy from another class with an interest in cooking named Shun Kanou (codename Soy), and disciplinary committee member Riko Tanemura (codename Wind). These teammates have all joined as part of the plot of the game.

The "Phantom Idol" teammates ("Kaidoru" in Japanese) are described as being cognitive beings created by Wonder's Velvet Room attendant, Merope, to assist him in the Metaverse, based on people Wonder meets, though they are only copies. So far, they include Motoha's best friend Tomoko Noge (codename Moko), imaginative first year student Kiyoshi Kurotani (codename Key), Wonder's family friend Kayo Tomiyama (codename Okyann), college freshman from China Yaoling Li (codename Rin), aspiring actor Reo Kamiyama (codename Leon), Yaoling's traditionally-dressed neighbor Yukimi Fujikawa (codename Yuki), fencing high school student Seiji Shiratori (codename Fleuret), injured ice skater Kotone Montagne (codename Mont), an online friend of Wonder's who goes by the name YUI (codename Bui), 10 year-old math prodigy Haruna Nishimori (codename Riddle), unemployed fisherman Toshiya Sumi (codename Sepia), aspiring puppeteer Miyu Sahara (codename Puppet), student working for her family's store Minami Miyashita (codename Marian), 75 year-old alcoholic woman Chizuko Nagao (codename Vino), flairtender Yuumi Shiina (codename Phoebe), aspiring musician Ayaka Sakai (codename Chord), and medical intern Kira Kitazato (codename Messa). Alternate, summer versions of some characters have also be added as part of a summer event.

The original Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 also appear as Phantom Idols: Joker, Mona, Skull, Panther, Fox, Queen, Oracle, Noir, and Crow. Datamining also found some of Wolf’s battle voice lines from P5S at least in the first beta, and an icon from P5S with Sophie in every beta and the official release, suggesting they may later be added as well. No sign of Violet has been found yet, other than the Faith Arcana card in the files. Joker, at the very least, seems to have some larger role in the plot, as Wonder has a dream about them fighting at the start of the game, and later what seems to be a Phantom Idol Joker comes out of nowhere to rescue Wonder and Cattle in Mementos. Wonder is also able to use his universe's Leblanc to visit the Leblanc of Joker's universe, and spend time with the P5 Thieves there.

There is also a multi-chapter Persona 5 Collab event, which involves the P5X and P5 Phantom Thieves meeting in strange Metaverse locations that mix aspects of both P5 and P5X's Palaces. Similar to the PQ games, the teams cannot leave these areas until they defeat the ruler of each area, and afterward, none of them seem to retain their memories of the events, though they regain these memories when they enter the next location to appear.

Munehisa Iwai, Tae Takemi, and Chihaya Mifune also return in P5X. Iwai runs the weapon gacha, Takemi sells medicine like in P5, and Chihaya tells fortunes. The other original P5 confidants’ portraits and 3D models have been found in every betas' data, and the Councillor Arcana card was with the other cards in the second, third, and fourth betas' data specifically, but it’s currently unknown whether they’ll actually return in any capacity.

Music

Several new songs have been heard in P5X, five of which feature vocals by Lyn: the opening song "Ambitions and Visions", "Last Strike", "Wake Up Your Hero", "Shadow", and "Fatal Desire". The new instrumental tracks so far include background music for the first two Palaces, background music for special fights, a new music track for Mementos and some other areas affiliated with Mementos, and some music for P5X's rhythm minigame/side quest, where Wonder plays music as a member of his school's music club.

When Ayaka Sakai (Chord) was added, two songs sung by her were also added to the game.

Locations

The majority of P5 and P5R’s locations have been confirmed for P5X, including Yongen-Jaya, Kichijoji, Shibuya, and Shinjuku, but the protagonist lives in a new location called Zoshigaya, and goes to a new school called Kokatsu Academy located in Shimokitazawa. Another school named Kiga High School has also been mentioned.

(Note that not every store is exactly identical to the P5 version; the Big Bang Burger in Shibuya is now called Boom Bang Burger, with no apparent traces of the space theming, and the Crossroads bar in Shinjuku has also been rebranded. Leblanc was also rebranded to a generic coffee shop in previous betas, but in the open beta has been turned back into Leblanc.)

Mementos and the concept of Palaces also return in P5X, though there are some differences. Mementos' floors are no longer randomly generated, and now have set layouts. Related to this, Mementos also now operates as a sort of hub, with characters entering Palaces through Mementos, from the entrance to each Palace located within the massive floors of Mementos. Mementos also has special battle locations apparently similar to “domains” in other gacha games, where completing the fight gives special items to strengthen characters and weapons, generally themed after P5′s Palaces (so far Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro, and Okumura's Palace-themed "domains" have been found, as well as one that doesn't seem to match any known Palace).

Basic Game Mechanics

For the most part, P5X operates extremely similarly to P5, both in and out of the Metaverse. One notable difference is that there is no calendar- days can pass due to the story, but they're not numbered, instead listed as simply "Yesterday", "Today", and "Tomorrow". There are also more time slots to perform other activities, as Wonder can do two after school activities, two activities even later in the day, and then a final one at night. Performing activities also costs hourglasses, which refill at a rate of 5 per real-world day.

One interesting and more significant change made in this category is that Confidants have a total of 20 ranks, instead of the series-standard 10, though there are still only 10 ranks that actually progress their story. They also haven't been associated with any Arcana, though the P5R Arcana cards have all been found in the second beta's data.

The UI elements of combat look a little different (as well as all the skill animations), appearing to be more optimized for mobile play, but otherwise it seems largely the same to P5, though one notable difference is that Navigator skills can be called in at will (and then have a cooldown), rather than occurring randomly. There is a new kind of special ability called a Highlight, which is similar to P5S’s Showtime attacks where the character executes a special move with their Persona, though not all Highlights are attacks, and some heal or have alternative effects instead.

The protagonist can gain Personas in combat (or from the gacha), though it no longer requires talking to them, and instead appears to have a random chance of occurring. Challenge battles in the Velvet Room, like in P5R, are available to attempt. Palace exploration also seems relatively standard, even if the Palace itself and the method of entering it is different. One major change is that several shadow/Persona designs have been censored in the mainland China version of the game; this includes Incubus and many others being given shorts, Bugs' stomach being repaired with the blood removed, Mara being given a large hat, Hell Biker and other skeletal Personas having a helmet/mask that obscures the skull, and several female Personas like Lamia being given shirts. However, these changes are purely cosmetic, and also seem to be reverted in the Taiwan/Macau/Hong Kong version (and possibly the Korean version as well).

Miscellaneous

It’s worth noting that because the game has yet to be officially translated to English in any capacity (outside of a single file confirming its English title as "Persona 5: The Phantom X"), character names can only be absolutely confirmed when they’re either written in Japanese kana (as opposed to the Japanese kanji characters that names are typically written in) or spoken aloud in official material, to confirm which reading of the Japanese name is the intended one for this specific character.

The characters do also have Chinese names, of course, but as the voice acting defaults to Japanese (including in Chinese promotional material), and the game is set in Japan, the names that would most likely be used by the global release are their Japanese ones. As such, the Japanese names are the ones presented in the Characters section earlier in this post, and are the main ones that this blog uses.

All the codenames, however, are written in English, and thus the most easily confirmed as official.

[cheritzteam]

[The Ssum] <The Ssum: Love from Today> Update (31/10 KST, v2.0.2)

Hello, dear lab participant.

You can now download the new version of <The Ssum: Love From Today>.

Google Play Store (Android) - link Apple App Store (iOS) - link

This update includes bug fixes, so you will receive 10 Aurora Batteries as Study Support upon accessing the game.

Make sure you access the Lab by the 1st of November, 2023 (KST) to get your compensation! *You must collect your reward within 3 days.

The following are the details of the update we have received from the Lab.

-

[Bug Fixes]

> (Teo, Harry) I can’t connect to my Ssumone on a special day…

The error that caused seasonal phone calls to show a bugged UI and no text has been fixed, and you can now enjoy the phone calls normally.

For lab participants who have experienced the error, please refer to the below to proceed with your seasonal call(s).

***

1) Delete <The Ssum>’s app cache or simply re-login after logout 

2-1) (Halloween Commemorative Call) Tap the Halloween button on the main screen, or tap the star under the date you made the call in your Milky Way Calendar

2-2) (Your Birthday Commemorative Call) Tap the star under the date you made the call in your Milky Way Calendar *Your birthday Photo Memento(s) will automatically be added to your gallery on access. *This patch is for lab participants with relevant phone call log data after the v2.0.1 update on October 25, 2023(KST).

***

[Others]

Minor bugs were fixed.

-

We appreciate your reports and your activities as a part of the Lab.

Thank you.

-Cheritz-

[mariacallous]

Citizens of the European Union live in an internet built and ruled by foreign powers. Most people in the EU use an American search engine, shop on an American ecommerce site, thumb American phones, and scroll through American social media feeds.

That fact has triggered increasing alarm in the corridors of Brussels, as the EU tries to understand how exactly those companies warp the economy around them. Five years ago, Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism neatly articulated much of lawmakers’ critique of the tech giants, just as they were preparing to enforce the flagship GDPR privacy law. Now as the EU enacts another historic piece of tech regulation, the Digital Markets Act, which companies must comply with starting tomorrow, March 7, a different critic du jour sums up the new mood in Brussels.

In his 2023 book, Technofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis argues the big US tech platforms have brought feudalism back to Europe. The former Greek finance minister sees little difference between the medieval serf toiling on land he does not own and the Amazon seller who must subject themselves to the company’s strict rules while giving the company a cut of each sale.

The idea that a handful of big tech companies have subjugated internet users into digital empires has permeated through Europe. Technofeudalism shares bookshelf space with Cloud Empires and Digital Empires, which make broadly similar arguments. For years, Europe’s wanna-be Big Tech rivals, like Sweden’s Spotify or Switzerland’s ProtonMail, have claimed that companies like Google, Meta, and Apple unfairly limit their ability to reach potential users, through tactics like preinstalling Gmail on new Android phones or Apple’s strict rules for the App Store. “It’s not a problem to be a monopoly,” says Sandra Wachter, professor of technology and regulation at Oxford University’s Internet Institute. “It becomes a problem if you're starting to exclude other people from the market.”

Crowbarred Open

In answer to that problem, Brussels’ politicos agreed to the Digital Markets Act in 2022. It is designed to rein in the largest tech companies—almost all of them from the US—that act as gatekeepers between consumers and other businesses. A sibling regulation, the Digital Services Act, which focuses more on freedom of expression, went into effect last month. Wachter says they follow a long tradition of laws trying to protect the public and the economy from state power, wielded either by the government or the monarch. “With the rise of the private sector and globalization, power has just shifted,” she adds. Tech platforms rule over digital lives like kings. The DMA is part of the attempt to keep up.

The rules change tomorrow for platforms deemed “gatekeepers” by the DMA—so far including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok parent Bytedance. The law essentially crowbars open what the EU calls the gatekeepers’ “core services.” In the past regulators have proposed containing corporate giants by taking them to pieces. EU lawmakers have adopted the motto “Don’t break up big tech companies, break them open.”

In theory, that means big changes for EU residents’ digital lives. Users of iPhones should soon be able to download apps from places other than Apple’s app store; Microsoft Windows will no longer have Microsoft-owned Bing as its default search tool; Meta-owned WhatsApp users will be able to communicate with people on rival messaging apps; and Google and Amazon will have to tweak their search results to create more room for rivals. There will also be limits on how users’ data can be shared between one company’s different services. Fines for noncompliance can reach up to 20 percent of global sales revenue. The law also gives the EU recourse to the nuclear option of forcing tech companies to sell off parts of their business.

Homegrown Challengers

Most tech giants have expressed uncharacteristic alarm about the changes required of them this week. Google has spoken of “difficult trade-offs,” which may mean its search results send more traffic to hotel or flight aggregators. Apple has claimed that the DMA jeopardizes its devices’ security. Apple, Meta and TikTok have all filed legal challenges against the EU, saying new rules unfairly target their services. The argument in favor of the status quo is that competition is actually thriving—just look at TikTok, a technology company launched in the past decade, now designated as one of the so-called gatekeepers.

But TikTok is an exception. The DMA wants to make it normal for new household names to emerge in the tech industry; to “drive innovation so that smaller businesses can really make it,” as the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager explained to WIRED, back in 2022. Many hope some of the new businesses that “make it” will be European. For almost every big tech service, there is a smaller homegrown equivalent: from German search engine Ecosia to French messaging app Olvid and Polish Amazon alternative Allegro. These are the companies many hope will benefit from the DMA, even if there is widespread skepticism about how effective the new rules will be at forcing the tech giants to change.

Today, US-based Epic Games said Apple had terminated its European developer account, soon after Epic announced it would take advantage of the DMA to open a new games store for iOS. Apple told WIRED that Epic was untrustworthy and Apple has the right to terminate the accounts of any of Epic's wholly owned subsidiaries following a 2021 court judgment. “Apple chose to exercise that right,” a statement provided by company spokesperson Rob Saunders said.

App Stores will be an early area of focus for DMA enforcement, Vestager said this week. But Europeans can’t expect the internet to transform overnight. In its early days, the new law’s effects will be more about the power struggles behind the curtain of the world’s biggest companies; not about making netizens’ lives easier. In fact, their online experience is likely to get messier at first. There will probably be even more website pop-ups. “This dominant position that these companies have is partially because we have been so addicted to convenience,” says Anu Bradford, a professor at Columbia Law School and author of Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology. The new rules will mean users have to reengage with what they want their online lives to look like, she adds. Defaults set by US corporations will no longer be chosen for them.

Instead the DMA’s objective is to remind Europeans what they traded in exchange for that convenience in the first place. The DMA is about power, not necessarily convenience. Whether Europeans will be able to remember that as their online worlds are cracked open remains to be seen.

[changes]

Friday, December 8th, 2023

🌟 New

On web, we’ve removed the option to delete your account from your primary blog’s settings. Account deletion can still be performed via your account settings.

We’ve rolled out some visual changes in the iOS and Android apps to how reblog information is displayed in post headers. These changes have been live on the web for a while, now it’s in the apps!

In the public API, we’ve added a new field to the Post object, “parent_post_url”, pointing to the reblog’s parent post (often referred to as the “prev” post).

🛠 Fixed

We’ve fixed a bug that was preventing the DuckDuckGo browser on Android phones from being able to copy links to posts.

🚧 Ongoing

Nothing to report here today.

🌱 Upcoming

Check out this prototype we’re working on over in Tumblr Labs called “Communities”!

Experiencing an issue? File a Support Request and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

Wanna support Tumblr directly with some money? Check out the new Supporter badge in TumblrMart!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Amazon discloses many reviews written by insecure, sniping writers https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/us/amazon-glitch-unmasks-war-of-reviewers.html

#15yrsago 700 comments tell the FTC “No DRM!” https://memex.craphound.com/2004/02/13/dd-to-be-reissued-by-wotc/

#15yrsago FTC gets an earful from the public on DRM, practically all of it anti- https://web.archive.org/web/20040314030944/https://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=11796&mode=thread&order=0

#15yrsago Flashbake: Free version-control for writers using git https://memex.craphound.com/2009/02/13/flashbake-free-version-control-for-writers-using-git/

#10yrsago Self-published ebooks: the surprising data from Amazon https://memex.craphound.com/2014/02/13/self-published-ebooks-the-surprising-data-from-amazon/

#10yrsago Tell the IRS that mountains of DVDs are a stupid way to distribute public records https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL0E1-5IhYE

#5yrsago Tracking down Dick Davy, a mysterious “lost” comedian who once championed civil rights and antiracism https://stolendress.com/comedyonvinyl/episode-291-family-albums-episode-6-finding-dick-davy/

#5yrsago Chuck Schumer’s general counsel, once a Goldman Sachs lobbyist, won’t disclose the names of 95% of his former clients https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/chuck-schumer-mark-patterson/

#5yrsago Burning Man purges one-percenter camp that charged up to $100K, littered like crazy, and ripped off its attendees https://journal.burningman.org/2019/02/philosophical-center/tenprinciples/cultural-course-correcting/

#5yrsago Ios and Android app stores both host Saudi government app that lets men track their spouses’ movements https://www.techdirt.com/2019/02/13/google-apple-called-out-hosting-saudi-government-app-that-allows-men-to-track-their-spouses-movements/

#5yrsago Blizzard/Activision celebrates record revenues by laying off 800 employees https://www.fanbyte.com/legacy/kiss-my-ass-activision-blizzard

#5yrsago Teen journalists profile each of the 1,200+ US children killed by guns since Parkland https://sinceparkland.org

#5yrsago Leak: Apple is demanding 50% of the revenue from its “Netflix for news” product https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/12/18222281/apple-news-subscription-service-50-percent-cut-publishers-media-deal

#5yrsago Phone scammer tried to con William Webster, the only person ever to serve as director of both the CIA and FBI: it did not go well https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2019/02/12/william-webster-ex-fbi-cia-director-helps-feds-nab-jamaican-phone-scammer/

#1yrato Obama's turncoat antitrust enforcer is angry about the Google breakup https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/13/the-last-man-to-die-for-a-mistake/#dont-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-the-way-out

[angelswithscalywings]

An anniversary gift - free mobile version of AwSW.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I wrote the last anniversary post. Time can just fly when you're busy. Despite that, I unfortunately wasn't able to keep the anticipated release date of 2023 for the sequel to Angels with Scaly Wings.

I again could go into the reasons for why the game is taking so long due to the vastly increased scope compared to the first game, but I've already talked about that at length.

Skip the next few paragraphs if you want to go into the sequel with no prior knowledge (which I would recommend).

--Potential spoilers starting here--

Perhaps one tidbit I haven't mentioned before is that this time around, the main character will be working with a team of characters instead of mostly being on their own. What does this mean?

There will be a lot more scenes where multiple characters are present, and they will feature interactions between these characters.

Investigations are much more interesting this time around, and will typically involve at least one other character besides the player character.

The presence of one or more other characters during these scenes add a lot of complexity as they will be influenced by each character's moods and other factors.

Doing this when the game's final script will have roughly double the word count compared to the first game is adding a lot more work than we initially anticipated.

But we'll keep at it! And I think the end result will be more than worth it.

--Potential spoilers ending here--

I am definitely planning to show much more of the game throughout this year.

But to ease the wait a little bit, we have prepared something special for you.

Some years back, we created a mobile version of the game for android devices. Unfortunately, we never got the opportunity to publish it on the various mobile platforms, so we are adding the .apk file for this to Steam and itch.io.

So, anyone who has previously purchased Angels with Scaly Wings will be able to access and play this mobile version.

However, there is a downside to this. As we made this version some years ago, it is only updated to version 1.08. The latest patches, including the Japanese language overhaul and other added languages are not present here.

But we figured we should make this version available as we had no other way to release it at this point and it's just been sitting here collecting dust.

Quite some effort went into making the game work as nicely as possible on both phones and tablets, including gesture controls, and new settings to adjust text and cursor size.

On Steam, you should find the .apk file to install it on your android device in the game's install directory.

On itch.io, you should find the file available as separate download on the game's download page.

[mr-abhishek-kumar]

Yesterday's work log 29th oct 2023

So I worked on adding more noise colors in my spiritual and brainwave entrainment website. I have added blue noise, violet noise, grey noise and velvet noise.

Each noise took 1 hour of coding to implement them. Blue noise was done day before yesterday but it had bugs, so I had to fix them.

I had implemented a bit of orange noise too. But didn't pushed them in production. So far it looks good to be pushed in production.

I have few concerns of velvet noise. As it doesn't matches the definition of Wikipedia but it does matches its own definition. Will people critisize it? Or will people want it to be removed? Or people would accept it? I don't know. But I am letting it be there.

I still have to push the code changes to Cordova Android app. I am delaying it because my setup doesn't works from when I shifted to winblows to linux. The code doesn't runs in the emulator but runs in physcial phone. The error log says it's outside the scope Cordova to fix it. Something about gradle missing a Java library.

But the good news is I have a physical android phone to test it. So I can test and publish it.

Honestly, I just want to shift from Cordova to react native for the android app. But it will be more work to do that. Plus it has Jekyll blog in that will not support it. So still sticking with the ol' bootstrap.

While I did saw an implementation of Jekyll-react blog, I am not sure if it will work with current project.

I haven't posted any blog posts in my spirtitual website but I did found more frequencies to add.

Indexing of the site is happening slowly. 69 pages have been indexed by Google but but around 150 pages still haven't been indexed more.

I read that you just have to post more frequently to get indexed, and that is what I will do. I will double down on posting more blog posts on my website.

I guess that's about it for the work log of brain beats