Google Stadia’s Party Stream is exactly what it sounds like

Google Stadia is still very much alive and kicking — and has made some updates that will make it easier to livestream games. XDA Developers reported that Stadia will unveil a new Party Stream feature that enables players to privately broadcast their gameplay to up to nine other users, who can opt to either play or watch. Users can take advantage of Stadia’s party chat features during these streams, including emoji and voice reactions. A Google spokesperson confirmed the news to Engadget in an email.

Stadia already allows players to directly share their gameplay to YouTube. The Party Stream feature accommodates gamers who don’t want to broadcast their games to the world — but merely wants to share it with a few friends. We’ve already seen platforms like Discord (with its Go Live feature) tap into this need to gamestream to a select few. Party Stream also saves Stadia players the trouble of using Twitch to share games with friends, which requires downloading a third-party encoder.

Other updates include the ability for players to switch devices mid-game without ending the livestream. For example, you could stream a Stadia game from your PC and then resume playing it on your Android device— without halting the streaming session.

According to XDA Developers, Party Stream began rolling out to users on Monday and should be available to all players in the next 24 hours. Keep in mind that it is currently only limited to desktop and Android devices — but will likely expand to more devices in the future.

Amazon’s palm payments arrive in more than 65 Whole Foods stores in California

Amazon’s palm-reading payment technology will soon be available in many more Whole Foods stores. The company is rolling out Amazon One to more than 65 Whole Foods shops in California, starting with Malibu, Montana Avenue and Santa Monica locations in Los Angeles. More stores in LA, Orange County, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz will come online in the “coming weeks.”

Before, palm-based payments were only available in a handful of Whole Foods stores in Austin, LA, New York City and Seattle. In California, you could also try Amazon One at the company’s Style fashion store in Glendale and certain Fresh and Go locations.

As usual, One is meant to streamline retail shopping. So long as you link your palm and payment card to the service, you just have to hover your hand over a scanner to complete a purchase. While you still have to stop at a checkout terminal, you don’t have to pull out a phone like you do with Amazon’s camera-based Just Walk Out system.

Third-party adoption may be trickier. While Amazon has touted plans to use One at concert venues and sport stadiums, there’s been a mounting backlash over worries palm data could be misused or stolen. Amazon has maintained that it holds info in secure, One-exclusive cloud storage, but politicians have still been concerned enough to grill company leadership over its practices. There’s a reluctance to trust biometric tech like this, and the Whole Foods expansion isn’t guaranteed to assuage people’s fears.

Yamaha’s flagship noise-canceling wireless earbuds arrive in the US for $280

After launching earlier this summer, Yamaha’s flagship TW-E7B true wireless earbuds are now available in the US. You can buy them starting today for $279.95. The TW-E7B have a few things going for them. They’re the first true wireless earbuds from Yama…

People spent much less time watching gaming streams this spring, report says

The number of hours streamed and watched across Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming have dropped significantly over the last year, according to the latest Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet report on the landscape of livestreaming. Between April and June, streamers on the three platforms were live for 273 million hours. That’s down 19.4 percent from Q2 2021 and 12 percent from the previous quarter.

Viewers tuned in to streams for 7.36 billion hours across the three platforms last quarter. That’s a drop of 18.1 percent year over year (viewership was at 8.99 billion hours in Q2 2021) and 8.4 percent from the previous quarter. The slowdown for all three platforms could be a case of people spending more time outside than they did last year for pandemic-related reasons.

Twitch is still by far the biggest player among the three platforms, with 76.7 percent of market share in terms of hours watched (5.64 billion) and 92.7 percent of hours streamed (204.2 million). Those figures dropped by 13.4 percent and 16 percent from Q2 2021. The number of unique channels streaming on the platform dropped by nearly 2 million to 9.6 million as well.

However, Twitch’s Just Chatting category continues to go from strength to strength. Hours watched there actually grew by 2.2 percent from the previous quarter, giving the category its highest ever viewership. The most-watched categories after that were Grand Theft Auto V (465 million hours) and League of Legends (464 million).

YouTube Gaming viewership actually remained steady from the previous quarter, though it dropped 13.1 percent from Q2 2021 to 1.13 billion hours. The total hours streamed dropped by 9.6 percent year over year to 8.05 million.

Facebook Gaming suffered a bigger setback, per the report, despite Meta’s efforts to court creators. The number of hours watched fell by a whopping 51 percent from a year ago to 580 million. There was an even bigger drop in terms of hours streamed, from 20.8 million in Q2 2021 to 7.9 million last quarter — a decline of 62 percent.

Perhaps we’ll soon start seeing some of those numbers creep up again, though. With a recession looming, folks may spend more time indoors again, tuning back into streamers they enjoyed watching during the first 18 months or so after COVID-19 took hold.

1Password’s big app redesign brings desktop features to mobile

It took several months, but you now have access to 1Password’s major updates on your phone. The company has released 1Password 8 for Android and iOS, and many of the desktop version’s features have carried over to mobile. For starters, there’s a new home screen that provides quicker, customized access to frequently-used passwords. There’s also a new navigation bar to help you find info across every account you use.

The updated 1Password is also better at dealing with an era when data breaches are all too common. The Watchtower dashboard has reached mobile devices, providing alerts when a breach compromises your login. The tool also helps you randomly generate answers to security questions, and even encourages you to strengthen your sign-ins by generating an overall security score. More advanced passwords, two-factor authentication and other changes can boost your rating.

The additions won’t necessarily persuade you to switch from LastPass and similar password managers. However, they might make a good case for trying 1Password f you routinely search for passwords or want a broader picture of your digital security.

Google’s learn-to-read app for kids is now available on the web

You no longer have to reach for your Android phone to try Google’s learn-to-read tool. Google has launched a beta web version of Read Along that offers a similar experience on your computer. As before, the virtual helper Diya encourages your kids to read aloud and offers correctional feedback. Children can read at different skill levels and receive digital prizes for completing goals.

The beta currently supports reading on Chrome, Edge and Firefox, with functionality for Safari and other browsers due “soon.” Kids can learn in several languages, including English and Hindi. You can sign in for a personalized experience, but Google makes clear that you don’t need an account. All speech recognition also happens in your browser, so you don’t have to worry that someone might grab your child’s voice recordings.

Read Along’s web version won’t change your mind if you prefer the personal touch. However, Google isn’t pitching this as a full substitute for human contact. It helps kids improve their reading in moments where their parents aren’t available, and could help schools teach literacy when one-on-one time isn’t practical.