From the long-awaited second season of “Squid Game” coming to Netflix on December 26,  Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” starring Angelina Jolie, Lisa Kudrow’s new comedy “No Good Deed”, Joe Barton’s “Black Doves” starring Keira Knightley, to Jamie Foxx’s latest comedy special “What Had Happened Was…”, among other titles.

I for one I’m excited to watch “A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter” a holiday variety music special that will be added to the streaming service on December 6. The show is to feature duets with Chappell Roan, Shania Twain, Tyla, and Kali Uchis, and will also include appearances from Nico Hiraga, Kyle Mooney, Quinta Brunson, Owen Thiele, Cara Delevingne, Megan Stalter, Jillian Bell, and Sean Astin.

Here’s everything coming to Netflix this December 2024:

December 1:  Bunk’d season 7 (TV show), Burlesque (movie), Daddy Day Care (movie), The Happytime Murders (movie), Little (movie), Midway (movie), Project X (movie), We’re the Millers (movie), and Zero Dark Thirty (movie)

December 2: 30 for 30: Bad Boys (TV show), 30 for 30: Celtics/Lakers: The Best of Enemies (TV show), 30 for 30: Sole Man (TV show), 30 for 30: This Magic Moment (TV show), 30 for 30: This Was the XFL (TV show), and 30 for 30: Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York (TV show)

December 3: Fortune Feimster: Crushing It (comedy special)

December 4: The Children’s Train (movie), Churchill at War (documentary), The Only Girl in the, Orchestra (documentary), Tomorrow and I (TV show), That Christmas (movie), and The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On season 3 (TV show)

December 5: BEASTARS final season: part 1 (TV show), Black Doves (TV show), Compliance (movie), Jentry Chau vs the Underworld (TV show), Subservience (movie), Top Chef: Boston (TV show), Top Chef: Kentucky (TV show), and Top Chef: Seattle (TV show)

December 6: A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter (music special), Biggest Heist Ever (documentary), Camp Crasher (movie), Echoes of the Past (TV show), and Mary (movie)

December 9: The Great British Baking Show: Holidays season 7 (TV show), and Rubble and Crew season 1 (TV show)

December 10: Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… (comedy special), Polo (TV show), and Rugged Rugby: Conquer or Die (TV show)

December 11: The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga (documentary), Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World (documentary), Maria (movie), One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part 1 (TV show), and Queer Eye season 9 (TV show)

December 12: La Palma (TV show), and No Good Deed (TV show)

December 13: 1992 (TV show), Carry-On (movie), and Disaster Holiday (movie)

 December 16: The Dead Don’t Die (movie), and The Equalizer seasons 1-3 (TV show)

December 17: Aaron Rodgers: Enigma (TV show), and Ronny Chieng: Love To Hate It (comedy special)

December 18: Julia’s Stepping Stones (documentary), and The Manny season 2 (TV show)

December 19: The Dragon Prince season 7 (TV show), Project Runway seasons 18 & 19 (TV show), and Virgin River season 6 (TV show)

December 20: Ferry 2 (movie), The Six Triple Eight (movie), Umjolo: Day Ones (movie), UniverXO Dabiz (documentary)

December 21: Flipping Out seasons 6-8 (TV show)

December 24: Your Friend Nate Bargatze (comedy special)

December 25: NFL on Christmas: Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans (live event), and NFL on Christmas: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (live event)

December 26: Squid Game season 2 (TV show)

December 28: Maestro in Blue season 3 (TV show)

December 30: Mad Max: Fury Road (movie)

December 31: Avicii – I’m Tim (documentary), Avicii – My Last Show (movie), Evil season 3 (TV show), Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall (comedy special), and The Millionaire Matchmaker seasons 5-7 (TV show)

The post All You Can Watch this December on Netflix, Squid Game 2 and More appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

The domain, chat.com, was previously owned by the founder and CTO of HubSpot, Dharmesh Shah who acquired it for USD$15.5 million (approx. UGX56.87 billion) last year making it one of the top 2 all-time publically reported domain sales coming after voice.com that was sold for USD$30 million (approx. UGX110.069 billion) in 2019 to Block.one, the startup behind the EOS cryptocurrency.

Announcing the purchase of Chat.com in a LinkedIn post before he resold it, Shah wrote “The reason I bought Chat.com is simple: I think chat-based UX (#ChatUX) is the next big thing in software. Communicating with computers/software through a natural language interface is much more intuitive. This is made possible by Generative AI,”

In a March LinkedIn post, Shah shared that he had sold Chat.com for more than he had paid for it. While he didn’t say to whom he had sold the domain at the time, yesterday Shan revealed in a post on X that OpenAI was that buyer — additionally implying that the company paid him in shares instead of cash.

Registered in September of 1996, Chat.com is also one of the older domains on the web.

OpenAI declined to say how much it paid for Chat.com.

It should be noted that despite the acquisition, the domain name has not changed hands since its sale last year, indicating that OpenAI is not hosting ChatGPT on Chat.com.

In July, AI companion startup Friend revealed to tech news site 404 Media that it had spent USD$1.8 million (approx. UGX6.6 billion) on buying the friend.com domain name to serve as the wearable’s website after raising just USD$2.5 million (approx. UGX9.17 billion) in funding.

“Premium domains are expensive, but it’s worth it,” Avi Schiffmann, founder of Friend, told 404 Media.

OpenAI is dropping more than USD$15.5 million (approx. UGX56.87 billion) of the USD$6.6 billion (approx. UGX24.215 trillion) raised to build ever-larger AI models. “We’ve raised $6.6B in new funding at a $157B post-money valuation to accelerate progress on our mission.” the company reported in a blog post last month.

See also: OpenAI has launched its search engine “ChatGPT Search”

The post OpenAI Acquires Chat.com in a Shares-Only Deal With Dharmesh Shah appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

First announced as a prototype called SearchGPT in July this year, the company wrote in a blog post “Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results.” Adding “We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier.”

ChatGPT users can now search the web via the platform and get timely answers with links to relevant web sources attached, eliminating the need to use search engines like Google or Microsoft Bing.

“This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more,” said OpenAI. “The chatbot will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or you can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon.”

Powered by a fine-tuned version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, Search will help bridge the gap between multiple searches and digging through links to find quality sources and the right information. All a user needs to do is ask a question in a more natural, conversational way, and the feature will respond with a better answer based on the information from the web. In instances where users have follow-up questions, the functionality will consider the full context of the chat and then provide a better result.

According to the blog post, the company has partnered with news and data providers to add up-to-date information and new visual designs for categories including weather, stocks, sports, news, and maps.

OpenAI further added that they have collaborated extensively with the news industry and carefully listened to feedback from their global publisher partners including Associated Press, Axel Springer, Conde Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, GEDI, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, and Vox Media.

Search is available across all ChatGPT platforms including iOS, Android, and desktop apps for macOS and Windows. However, the functionality is currently only accessible to ChatGPT Plus and Team users, plus SearchGPT waitlist users. The company says both Enterprise and Edu users will get access in the next few weeks while free users will gain access in the coming months.

The post OpenAI Launches its Search Engine “ChatGPT Search” appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

Some of the titles to prepare you for the holidays include “A Holiday Engagement”, “The Christman Trap”, and “My Dad’s Christmas Date” all coming to Netflix on November 8. Other shows arriving to the streamer this November include Season 4 of the hit drama series “Outer Banks” which will release part two of its new season on November 7. “Cobra Kai” Season 6 Part 2 is coming on November 15 while the Cannes-winning crime musical “Emilia Perez” will arrive on November 13.

Other titles to look forward to if you are a fan of the animated shows are “Arcane” Season 2, Act 1 (Nov. 9) and Season 2, Act 3 (Nov. 23), and “Tokyo Override” (Nov. 21), among others. For those into documentaries, a new documentary, “Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley,” will be added to the streamer’s library on November 13.

Here is what is new on Netflix in November 2024:

Coming Soon

• A Man on the Inside.
• The Later Daters.
• Mononoke The Movie: The Phantom in the Rain.
• The Trunk.

Nov. 1: Barbie Mysteries: The Great Horse Chase, It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football, Let Go, 60 Days In (Season 7), A Paris Christmas Waltz, Fall Into Winter, Free State of Jones, Goosebumps, Just Go With It, Love in the Wild (Season 2), Maid in Manhattan, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Oblivion, Pompeii The Scorpion King, Sixteen Candles, Superbad, The Whale, and Whiplash.

Nov. 5: Love Village (Season 2).

Nov. 6: Love Is Blind: Argentina, Meet Me Next Christmas, and Pedro Páramo.

Nov. 7: 10 Days of a Curious Man, Born for the Spotlight, Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson, Face Off (Seasons 6-8), Outer Banks (Season 4, Part 2).

Nov. 8: A Holiday Engagement, Bank Under Siege, The Cage, The Christmas Trap, Investigation Alien, My Dad’s Christmas Date, Mr. Plankton, Vijay 69, and Umjolo: The Gone Girl.

Nov. 9: Arcane (Season 2, Act 1), and The Lost City.

Nov. 10: Focus.

Nov. 11: Rob Peace.

Nov. 12: Adrienne Iapalucci: Dark Queen, Rhythm + Flow: Brazil, The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Fast & Furious 6.

Nov. 13: Emilia Pérez, Hot Frosty, The Mothers of Penguins, Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley, Sisters’ Feud, and Sprint (Part 2).

Nov. 14: Beyond Goodbye, The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish, and The Lost Children.

Nov. 15: A.P. Bio (Seasons 1-4), Cobra Kai (Season 6, Part 2), Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, and Million Dollar Decorators (Season 2).

Nov. 16: Arcane (Season 2, Act 2).

Nov. 18: Wonderoos (Season 2).

Nov. 19: UNT. Adam Ray / Dr. Comedy Phil Special, and Zombieverse: New Blood.

Nov. 20: Adoration, Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, GTMAX, The Merry Gentlemen, Our Oceans, Rhythm + Flow (Season 2), and Shahs of Sunset (Seasons 3-4).

Nov. 21: Maybe Baby 2, and Tokyo Override.

Nov. 22: 900 Days Without Anabel, The Empress (Season 2), Gold Rush (Seasons 1-2), The Helicopter Heist, JOY, The Piano Lesson, Pokémon Horizons: The Series (Part 4), Spellbound, Tex Mex Motors (Season 2), Transmitzvah, and When the Phone Rings.

Nov. 23: Arcane (Season 2, Act 3).

Nov. 25: Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, The Creature Cases (Chapter 4).

Nov. 26: Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All.

Nov. 27: Chef’s Table (Volume 7), and Our Little Secret.

Nov. 28: Asaf, Is it Cake? Holiday, and The Madness.

Nov. 29: Senna, and The Snow Sister.

The post Watch Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing Match (Live), and other TV Shows and Films on Netflix This November appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

While this new exciting feature is still under development, and not ready for beta testers, WABetaInfo reports that this new future update will introduce a music button within the drawing editor that appears after selecting a photo or a video for the status update. Just like it’s done on other Meta-owned platforms including Facebook and Instagram, users will then be able to search for songs or specific artists by tapping this button, which will make it easier for them to find and add their favorite music directly to their status updates.

“Once a song is selected, it will be automatically integrated into the status update, allowing users to personalize their photos or videos with music.”  wrote the WhatsApp tracker. “This enhancement will likely make status updates more engaging and expressive, as users can set the mood or add context to their shared content using music.”

Meanwhile, the instant messaging service is also working on several other features including the ability to create and share entire custom sticker packs. This update will enable users to organize their stickers more efficiently by categorizing them into distinct packs directly within the application, without the need to involve third-party apps. You will also be able to personalize your collections, modify packs, and share them easily with your contacts.

WhatsApp is always working on several features to enhance user experience on the app but it should however be noted that not all of them make it to the public release. Some of the features that made it include a ‘Favorites’ Feature to Filter Chats, and a Self-Destruct Audio Message Feature, among others.

The post WhatsApp is Working on a Feature to Share Music Through Status Updates appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

According to the social platform, users will now be able to save contacts to the app itself and manage them via the desktop version of the app, in addition to the mobile interface.

“Until now, the only place you were able to add contacts was from your mobile device, by either typing in a phone number or scanning a QR code. WhatsApp wrote in the blog post. “Soon, you’ll be able to add and manage contacts from the comfort of your keyboard on WhatsApp Web and Windows – and eventually other linked devices.”

WhatsApp has traditionally relied on users’ phone address books to hold and manage contacts, however, this meant that users couldn’t recover their contacts in case they lost their devices. This new development will however address this by making it possible to restore WhatsApp contacts from cloud storage. The company also adds that the feature will additionally be useful “For when you are sharing your phone with others or if you want to separate personal and business contacts when managing more than one WhatsApp account on your phone.”

The social messaging app added that the contact storing feature update will also make it possible for users to finally be able to manage and save contacts by usernames. “Usernames on WhatsApp will add an extra degree of privacy so that you don’t need to share your phone number when messaging someone,” WhatsApp said in the blog post.

This is the first time WhatsApp has publically mentioned the use of usernames, a feature that has been in development since last year according to a May 2023 report by WABetaInfo.

Additionally, Meta has acknowledged the privacy trade-offs that come with storing your information remotely, and to address this, the company has developed a more advanced encryption system to store and share relevant data called Identity Proof Linked Storage (IPLS).

“Contact names are stored encrypted within WhatsApp, and we’ve built this with additional, robust protections by using IPLS to deter access to contacts to anyone except the user.” writes Meta.

Meta further explains that IPLS incorporates new privacy technology that protects users’ contact lists in a privacy-preserving fashion, adding, “To further ensure the safety and security of this system, we’ve partnered with Cloudflare to provide independent third-party auditing of its cryptographic properties.” According to the company, the new technology stack was reviewed by external researchers and NCC Group Cryptography Services, an independent cybersecurity consultancy.

The post WhatsApp Introduces In-App Contact Saving Feature, Teases Usernames appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

This early version of the Windows desktop app is currently available for testing only to paid subscribers including ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise, Team, and Edu.

“Today, ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise, Team, and Edu users can start testing an early version of the Windows desktop app,” wrote OpenAI in a post on X (formerly Twitter)

The ChatGPT on Windows can easily be accessed via a keyboard shortcut (Alt + Space), and similar to the macOS client, this version lets users ask the chatbot questions in a dedicated window that can be kept open alongside other apps. The early version also allows users to upload files and photos to ChatGPT, request the app to summarise documents, and create images via OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 image generator. Furthermore, it comes with access to a preview of OpenAI’s o1 model capable of “reasoning.”

“With the official ChatGPT desktop app, you can chat about files and photos,” the version’s description reads. “This app brings you the newest model improvements from OpenAI, including access to OpenAI o1-preview, our newest and smartest model.”

According to the listing, this ChatGPT Windows app is compatible with Windows 11 and 10 (version 17763.0 or higher).

While this unfinished version currently has limitations with “a subset of features available in the macOS and web version” missing including Advanced Voice Mode, and some integrations with OpenAI’s GPT Store aren’t functional, the company plans to make them available in their full release later this year.

The post OpenAI Launches a ChatGPT App for Windows appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

Users are already receiving a “Block is changing soon” pop-up message, warning about the impending update.

“If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage,” the message states. “For more control over who can see your posts, you can still protect your account.”

In cases where block was being used to prevent harassment, stalking, and other dangerous behaviors, this isn’t great news. Users can still obscure their tweets by going private, but some people such as celebrities, journalists, influencers, etc. —still need the platform for their livelihood.

Blocking on X used to be simple. If you blocked an account, they couldn’t see your posts or interact with them. This new change makes blocking less restrictive.

This change is just one of many that Musk has made to X since purchasing it. Reportedly, this is being done to promote free speech, something that Elon Musk has professed is needed on the platform. He believes that users should be able to see all public posts, even if they are from someone they have blocked.

It remains to be seen how this change will affect users. Some may find it helpful, while others may find it annoying.

The post New X Update Will Allow Blocked Users to See Your Public Posts, but Can’t Engage appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

The service understands that while fans and creators have been interacting through the comments and the Community tab, “conversations would often revolve around a creator’s latest video or post.”

“We wanted to build a space where, for the first time, subscribers can chat with each other and the creator directly,” writes Whitney Taylor, the Head of Design, YouTube Community.

According to the blog post, Taylor says this new feature is a result of feedback from creators and their fans. They heard the creators and their fans want more ways to connect – that for the creators, their content and communities are already on YouTube, “so we have the potential to be the best place for deeper conversations too.”

“Another consistent theme was the desire for belonging – people want a place where they feel included and understood by like-minded peers.”

YouTube acknowledges the importance of balancing vibrant engagement with an environment where you can express yourself authentically, whether you’re sharing something, asking a question, or just hanging out.

“You know that feeling, that magic, that joy that comes from finding a group of people that just get you,” said the director of Product Management at YouTube Bangaly Kaba, during the event. “Communities is a place where you can choose to create that with your fans. This is a place where you and your fans can come together to build even deeper connections over the topics and videos you love, not just posting updates between uploaders or asking for opinions or ideas, but for the first time, subscribers will spark their discussions with you and with each other.”

It is important to understand that the new Communities feature isn’t the same as the already existing YouTube Community feature, which only allows creators to share text and images with their viewers, but doesn’t allow viewers to interact with each other.

The Communities feature is currently being tested on mobile devices with a small group of creators, however, YouTube plans to test it with more creators later this year before expanding to additional channels next year.

The post YouTube Announces “Communities” for Creators to Interact with Viewers appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.

Talking to Engadget, Spotify’s spokesperson said that the music service is always “testing and iterating,” adding that the company will be “expanding Lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally,” Plus, it will be available to all users “over the coming weeks.”

The music service first rolled out its real-time lyrics feature globally in November 2021 after only offering it to a select few countries. In September last year, Spotify began testing making lyrics a Premium-only feature but the wider rolling out started in May this year.

Spotify like any other music app has had a complicated history with lyrics. While the company currently works with Musixmatch to display song lyrics, the two parties in 2016 shortly parted ways. Spotify then opted to instead offer a “Behind the Lyrics” feature following its partnership with Genius.

However, this wasn’t the same thing. The feature was only offering background information on songs. It should however, be noted that at this time, the company was offering lyrics in some markets, like Japan where Spotify users had access to lyrics through a standalone deal with SyncPower, but the feature hadn’t received a widespread launch.

The post Spotify Song Lyrics Return to Free Status appeared first on PC Tech Magazine.