This week, TikTok's tracking your keyboard, Sega's giving you all new games, Google Search is limiting clickbait, and Cineworld is filing bankruptcy.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
Social media is a gamble, no matter what you use. For example, Facebook has famously given access to far too much information to companies with API access. Twitter made private information like email addresses and phone numbers accessible to advertisers. TikTok has been in the spotlight for its privacy violations, often related to its owner's relationship with the Chinese government. This week, we have new information related to privacy, stemming from how the company deals with its in-app web browser.
Over the past few years, long-time gaming companies like Nintendo and Sega have gotten into the nostalgia business. These companies have leaned into the demand for retro titles by releasing integrated versions of their previous consoles complete with built-in titles. As these new retro devices start to make an impression on the gaming world, Nintendo and Sega have had to do more to make the newest devices look more attractive. Sega has brought some new tricks to the table this week, as they have announced the lineup for the Sega Genesis Mini 2, and there are some surprising titles coming with it.
Over the past year or so, the quality of search results on Google has decreased significantly. This is, in part, because of websites that create no useful content but are able to game the Google Search algorithm to appear higher in the results. It appears that Google has figured out that people are unhappy and has committed to making changes to improve search results by lowering the ranking for true clickbait results.
Many industries were negatively affected by the COVID lockdowns across the world, but a few have not recovered. It is no secret that movie theaters have been having trouble following the lockdowns. Ticket sales have not recovered to their pre-pandemic levels, and in fact, are not even close. Because of this, Cineworld, the world's second-largest theater owner, plans to file for bankruptcy in the coming weeks, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).