Three long years after its CES 2017 reveal, and two years after its beta debuted on PCs, Nvidia’s GeForce Now game-streaming service is finally launching on PCs Tuesday. The wait was worth it. GeForce Now obliterates Google Stadia’s value proposition in every way, from game selection to pricing. It’s available in both free and paid forms, with a “Founders” premium tier costing just $5 per month.
While Google Stadia will eventually offer a “free” tier, it’s currently available only if you plunk down $129 for Stadia Founders Edition, then pay $10 per month for a Stadia Pro subscription. That Pro subscription gives you access to Destiny 2 and a couple of other games, but you’ll need to pay full price to stream any other titles in Stadia’s paltry library. Even if you own a game on another service, you can’t bring it over to Stadia. It’s like a locked-down console in the cloud.
GeForce Now, on the other hand, is essentially a powerful gaming PC on Nvidia’s servers that you can play anywhere.
How GeForce Now works
Nvidia’s service doesn’t sell you any games. Instead, GeForce Now taps into your existing game libraries from Steam, Uplay, the Epic Games Store, and the like, letting you play games you already own anywhere you want by signing into the service you own it on. That means the free tier can be truly free, unlike Stadia’s eventual “free” version. Nvidia’s service supports numerous popular free-to-play PC games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Apex Legends, Warframe, Path of Exile, and the free Destiny 2 base game—the crown jewel of Stadia’s launch lineup.
Nvidia
GeForce Now officially supports around 400 games, which you can find via the service’s search bar. That tally includes most of the more popular titles being played today, and Nvidia says it adds four or five new games every week or so. PUBG, Witcher 3, Skyrim, Borderlands 3, Dishonored 2, XCOM 2, and many, many more triple-A games work with GeForce Now, as do indie gems like Battletech, Stardew Valley, and Disco Elysium.
Supported games install almost instantly, appearing in your GeForce Now library bar, and launch just as quickly after that. Your save data persists between sessions with supported games, and they play nice with cloud saves when available, so you can hop between Doom on your proper gaming PC and Doom on GeForce Now on your laptop seamlessly. Nvidia keeps supported games updated with no effort on your end.
Brad Chacos/IDG
Your library of installed games appears in a row underneath GeForce Now’s splash screen.
GeForce Now can also work with about 1,000 more “single-session” games. These haven’t been officially optimized for the service yet, and they aren’t permanently stored on Nvidia’s servers, so you’ll need to download and install them every time you want to play one. Fortunately, Nvidia’s blazing-fast servers download games in the blink of an eye. Here’s how Nvidia’s Jordan Dodge describes single-session games:
“The single session installs are games that you can play after launching Steam, but ones that we haven’t had a chance to on-board yet (typically older games that you already own). The way it works is you log in to GeForce Now, and search for/click Steam as the “game” you want to play. Once connected, you can go into your Library and can try installing those games. These installs don’t persist from session-to-session (hence calling them single-session installs) but if the game supports cloud saves, you will be able to pick up where you left off during your next session.”
There’s bound to be some games you can’t run on GeForce Now, but between the supported and single-session games, there’s a huge chunk available.
How GeForce Now runs
Nvidia
Nvidia offers GeForce Now clients for PC, Mac, Android phones, and Android TVs (including its own excellent Nvidia Shield console). Soon, it’ll launch a WebRTC-based client so you can bring the power of PC gaming to Chromebooks, too. Apple’s mobile devices aren’t supported, however, with Nvidia representatives simply saying “ask Apple,” when I asked if iPhone or iPad support is in the works.
The games look incredible, as we noted in our impressions of the GeForce Now beta. Nvidia optimizes GeForce Now games to run well at 60 frames per second at 1080p resolution. (Unlike Stadia, there’s no 4K resolution support.)
Brad Chacos/IDG
GeForce Now’s streaming quality options.
The service offers a variety of streaming quality presets. Balanced uses 10GB of data per hour and offers the best blend of image quality and responsiveness. Data saver only uses 4GB per hour, which requires some compromises, but still promises “good image quality and gameplay.” Competitive uses 6GB and focuses purely on lowering latency, sacrificing visual quality for responsiveness when it needs to. You can also custom-configure your streaming settings, adjusting resolution, bitrate, V-Sync, and whether you want to stream at 60 fps or 30 fps.
Nvidia ensures you’re running the company’s latest and greatest Game Ready drivers, too.
GeForce Now played games like a champ in beta, assuming you met the modest system requirements, but will Nvidia be able to keep up once the floodgates open at the service’s proper launch? That’s the real question. Nvidia says that once you’re up and running in a game, the quality should stay consistent, but if the servers are full, you may need to wait for a few minutes before you’re able to boot into your gaming PC in the cloud.
That’s where GeForce Now’s subscription tiers come in.
GeForce Now: Free vs. Founders subscriptions
Nvidia
The beta version of GeForce Now was free throughout its lifetime, and the full launch continues that tradition. GeForce Now beta testers will automatically get converted to the free plan. Free users get standard access to Nvidia’s servers, and their play sessions end after an hour. You can hop back in immediately after—there is no limit to how many sessions free users get—but you can’t just play games endlessly without interruption. That should help keep the queue for the service moving smoothly.
The GeForce Now “Founders” tier lets you play for up to six straight hours, as often as you want, with priority queue access that should get you into your games immediately. GeForce Now Founders can also enable real-time ray tracing in games that support it, so if you can’t afford a $300 EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO, you can subscribe to Nvidia’s streaming service for cheap and try out the cutting-edge lighting technology for yourself. Not all ray-traced games are officially supported—Control, Battlefield V, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider are noticeable no-shows—but Metro Exodusis there with Wolfenstein Youngblood and Deliver Us to the Moon, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available in single-session mode. (Metro Exodus is the one to try if you’re just interested in ray tracing’s eye candy.)
Nvidia
Deliver Us to the Moon with ray tracing enabled.
Nvidia’s going for Stadia’s jugular with pricing, too. The GeForce Now Founders edition only costs $4.99 per month for 12 months, and you’ll get a free 90-day introductory period before your subscription timer kicks in. The pricing will increase sometime later, Nvidia says, so give the introductory period a try now and lock in the cost if you’re interested.
Nvidia
So to sum it up: Nvidia’s GeForce Now launches in full today, giving you the power of a full kick-ass gaming PC on almost any Internet-connected device. It’s a lot cheaper than Google Stadia, plays vastly more games than Google Stadia, runs cutting-edge ray tracing effects that Stadia doesn’t, and even offers no-cost access to Destiny 2, the big draw of Google’s pricey Stadia Pro subscription. What’s not to like?
We’ll see how Nvidia’s servers hold up once the grubby gaming hordes descend upon them, but on paper, GeForce Now looks like the cloud gaming service we’ve been waiting for—the opposite of Google Stadia’s stunning disappointment.
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The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
