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Samsung and Xbox team up with dedicated gaming areas across Microsofts London and New York Experience Centers, offering unique gaming experiences on Samsung screens

Samsung Electronics introduced a new free-to-play Gaming Zone with Samsung screens in collaboration with Xbox at Microsoft Experience Centers (MEC) in London and New York.

In June of 2022, Microsofts Xbox joined Samsung Gaming Hub,1 the worlds first smart TV platform to include the Xbox App on Smart TVs.2 With this partnership, Samsung Gaming Hub users are now able to stream over 100 high-quality games through the Xbox App by subscribing to Xbox Game Pass.

Visitors can play the Minecraft Legend at the Cloud Gaming Zone in London

To bring the experience to more gamers, Samsung Electronics has teamed up with Microsoft to introduce a dedicated space where gamers can play their favorite Xbox games on the Samsung Gaming Hub. Multiple Samsung Smart TVs and gaming monitors have been installed in the MEC to provide an exciting and unique gaming experience.

The Gaming Zone in both London and New York City across the Microsoft Experience Centers on Regent Street and Fifth Avenue, now have three dedicated gaming areas incorporating a wide range of Samsung gaming screens3 for everyone to enjoy either as a seasoned gamer or those new to cloud gaming.

The Living Room Zone in London features three 98-inch Neo QLED 4K HDR Smart TVs

The three gaming areas are:

Powered by Tizen, the Samsung Gaming Hub is an all-in-one game streaming discovery platform bridging hardware and software for a better player experience. Instantly play thousands of games from Xbox, Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Utomik, with Antstream Arcade and Blacknut coming in 2023.4

The Samsung Gaming Hub is the new home for gaming and entertainment with Twitch, Spotify and YouTube Gaming integration that gives players easy access to enhance their experience. No storage limits, no downloads, no console or PC required all players need is a Bluetooth-enabled gaming controller and an internet connection to start playing.

Gamers can compete simultaneously at the Tournament Zone in London

It is a great pleasure to work with Microsoft to deliver the impressive experience of Samsung Gaming Hub to global gamers, said Sangsook Han, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. Samsung Gaming Hub has been incorporated into Samsung Smart TVs and monitors demonstrating the evolution of the Samsung screen experience. Samsung will continue to advance this incredible service to attract global gamers by expanding its partnerships and innovative technology.

From London to New York, Samsung Gaming Hub is inspiring and connecting global gamers in new and exciting ways. In its collaboration with partners such as Microsoft, Samsung Electronics is helping to create next-level gaming experiences by leveraging its advanced Smart TVs and monitors in Microsoft Experience Centers.

Samsung Electronics introduced a new free-to-play Gaming Zone with Samsung screens in collaboration with Xbox at Microsoft Experience Centers (MEC) in London and New York

Visitors can instantly play the biggest games from Xbox and other top gaming partners with no downloads, storage limits or console required

Gamers at the Tournament Zone in London

1 Samsung Gaming Hub is only available in select countries: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, the U.S. and the U.K. In other European countries, cloud gaming apps can be downloaded from the TV App Store and accessed through the Samsung Smart Hub. Service and content availability may vary by region and partners.2 As of 2023 new models, Samsung Gaming Hub is supported by Samsung Smart TV models above CU7000, Smart monitors and Odyssey gaming monitors with smart features.3 Installation products in London MEC include three 98-type Neo QLED 4K (QN90A), six 55-type Neo QLED 4K (QN95B) and 12 24-type Odyssey G3 (G32A). Two additional Odyssey Ark will be installed within May. Installation products in New York City MEC include one 85-type Neo QLED 8K (QN800B), four 55-type Neo QLED 4K (QN85B) and 10 27-type Odyssey G5 (G55A).4 Service availability for partners may vary by region. Service subscription can be required by partners.

More here:
Samsung Opens Free-to-Play Gaming Zones in Collaboration With ... - Samsung

Airtable Free Plan

Airtables Free plan is perfect for individuals and small teams who are new to Airtable. The plan provides unlimited bases, allows up to five creators or editors, unlimited commenter and read-only users and one extension per base.

The Airtable Plus Plan is ideal for teams that want to build custom applications to manage their workflows efficiently. With three extensions per base and sync integrations, this plan offers 5,000 records per base and 5GB of attachments per base, allowing you to manage a vast amount of data.

Airtables Pro plan is designed to provide advanced features for teams and organizations that require customization and efficient team management. At $20 per user per month, billed annually, or $24 per user per month, billed monthly, this plan offers 10 extensions per base, seven sync integrations, 50,000 records per base, and 20GB of attachments per base. Additionally, users can benefit from Gantt and Timeline views, granular interface permissions, one-year revision and snapshot history, personal and locked views, and field and table editing permissions.

The Airtable Enterprise Plan offers organizations a comprehensive suite of features to ensure secure, scalable and customizable workflow management. With everything included in the Pro plan, the Enterprise plan also provides unlimited workspaces per organization and unlimited extensions, along with advanced interface controls, SAML-based single sign-on and an enterprise-wide admin panel.

Other features, such as Salesforce and Jira on-premises sync integrations, 250,000 records per base and 1000GB of attachments per base, make this plan ideal for departments and organizations that require a connected apps platform to stay aligned and move work forward.

More here:
Airtable Review 2023: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons - Forbes

US-based software company F5 has announced layoff of close to 9 per cent of its workforce or about 623 employees globally amid macroeconomic uncertainty.

"As we look at the past six months, it's clear that rising interest rates, geopolitical events, and macroeconomic uncertainty have dramatically affected our customers' spending patterns. We do not believe this environment will persist, but we also do not know what the new normal will look like when it comes," Francois Locoh-Donou, F5's president, CEO and director, wrote in a memo to F5 workers.

"Because of this uncertainty, we must take measures to decrease our costs without jeopardizing our future growth trajectory," he added.

Regions to be impacted

According to the company, the workforce reduction will affect employees from various regions, including the US, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Latin America, APCJ, and India.

Severance benefits

Moreover, the software firm said that it plans to spend $45 million on severance benefits and anticipates annual savings of $130 million from reducing its headcount.

Those affected will receive generous severance compensation, their Q2 FY23 MBO (Management by Objectives) payout and May 1 stock vest, outplacement assistance, retention of F5 laptops where possible, and immigration support.

In addition, the company will implement further reductions to travel and expense budgets and shift large internal company events to a virtual format.

Executive leadership takes cost cut in bonuses

F5's CEO also said that he will forgo his annual cash bonus for this fiscal year in addition to the executive leadership taking a 70 per cent cut in their bonuses.

Prior cost cuts and layoffs

This move comes after the company had already taken steps to reduce expenses earlier this year. The steps include slowing hiring, minimizing travel and reducing office space. The company also had a round of layoffs earlier in October 2022.

The company earlier this week reported a 11 per cent revenue growth to $703 million for its fiscal second quarter, with Non-GAAP income increased to $154 million from $131 million for the same period in the last year.

With input from IANS

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US software firm F5 lays off 9% of workforce; Executive leadership bonus cut by 70% - Free Press Journal

If you've spent any amount of time looking at user-made content around the Internet, I'd be willing to bet a sizable sum of cash that a free image hosting service provided most of the images you saw. They've been around for well over a decade, but each one eventually finds the same inevitable fate of a gradual to complete shutdown. Hosting millions of guest images for free doesn't sound sustainable on paper, and Imgur.com (opens in new tab) looks to follow the predecessors that proved it.

Imgur is a website offering free hosting for photos, digital images, animated GIFs, and videos. A popular choice for social media users, anyone can upload files from their computer or mobile device to share with or without registering for an account. Ads can be removed via a paid subscription.

Upcoming changes in the recent Imgur terms of service update are set to apply from May 15, 2023. Although it seems to focus mainly on explicit adult content, a significant section relating to images uploaded by guest accounts could affect a massive portion of the web. Sneaking in plans to remove all images uploaded by anonymous guests by bunching it in with subjecting 'inactive' content to mass deletion was sly. However, it's not gone unnoticed by the meme-loving masses who rely on Imgur.

Our new Terms of Service will go into effect on May 15, 2023. We will be focused on removing old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account from our platform ... You will need to download/save any images that you wish to save if they no longer adhere to these Terms.

But is this really such a big deal, and does anyone actually care? I can tell you firsthand that I've used Imgur and similar free image hosts for over a decade, moving to the new hotness whenever the current leader decides it's time to purge its servers and attempt to recoup the enormous server costs. It's undoubtedly an entitled opinion to assume that someone should host my silly memes for free, but a new service always comes along.

Removing every image uploaded without a registered account will send a Thanos-style ripple through the web that'll see broken thumbnails everywhere. Your favorite Twitch streamer probably uploaded their bio images to Imgur, and that step-by-step guide for replacing an obscure part in your car's engine is about to be reduced to a collection of dead links and plain text since the photos were in the same place.

I usually upload anything I generate with Bing Image Creator to Imgur, but I've never bothered signing up for an account. Anyone who relies on the free service, like me, should take a moment and think if you have anything in need of a backup. It doesn't take long to sign up for a free account, and you can pay for an ad-free experience if you're somehow still browsing the web without an ad blocker.

Still, the new policy to remove (mostly adult) content could have similar effects on Imgur's traffic as Tumblr experienced. Not to mention the proverbial graveyard filled with free image hosting services of the past, leaving fan-filled Internet forums littered with broken image signatures and unanswered questions attached to dead screenshots. What a shame. For now, back up your photos, memes, and cat GIFs to share in the Windows Central Forums (opens in new tab) before the Imgur change happens in May.

Excerpt from:
Major unpopular changes are coming to free image host Imgur - Windows Central

3. PDF Escape

Sticking with online editors, PDF Escape might have a weird name, but it also boasts some decent features on the free tier. Like PDF Candy, you upload documents to the web and work from there. Its a little less powerful, but this is due to there being paid tiers which naturally keep some of the more useful tools back. That being said, you can still get a lot done for free.

The workspace is similar to that of PDF Candy, in that the tools are on the left and the page layout is in the central pane. You can select from three types of features Insert, Annotate, and Page. As these suggest, each section has tools for certain types of jobs. Insert allows for text, images, hotlinks and other elements to be added to the document. Annotate is where youll find the highlighting, underlining, notes and similar things. While Page gives you the ability to reorder, reorientate, crop and append the pages within the PDF.

Theres a 10MB file size limit on the free tier though, and you cant digitally sign a document, unless youre really good with the freehand pencil option or have an image of one that you can upload. Theres also no option to edit the existing text or images in a PDF, convert to Word formats or redact information without moving up to one of the paid tiers. That will cost you $5.99 per month or $35.88 per year for Premium (around 4.80 and 29), or $8.99 per month ($71.88 per year) for Ultimate. Thats around 7 and 58 if youre in the UK, although youll pay in dollars. Ultimate allows for digitally signing and sealing of a document as well as the redaction tool.

PDF Escape isnt as good as PDF Candy (we saw a few glitches while testing it) and lacks some of features. Still, its does have some good tools and, since its free, is another option if PDF Candy doesnt do what you want it to.

See original here:
The Best Free PDF Editors Online in 2023 - Tech Advisor