What we bought: Our favorite small kitchen essentials

While we at Engadget are blessed with a passion for cooking, most of us are not blessed with spacious kitchens. But that doesn’t stop us – we use every inch of our tiny apartment kitchens as efficiently as possible. In doing so, we’ve found that some o…

1Password knocks 50 percent off Personal and Family plans

We don’t have to tell you how frustrating it can be when you forget your username or password at a critical moment. But investing in a password manager can help you avoid those scenarios all together. 1Password is one of our favorites and the company is running a rare sale right now that knocks 50 percent off Personal and Family plans. The Personal plan is built for one user and is down to $1.50 per month, or about $18 when billed annually. The Family plan that can support up to five users is on sale for $2.50 per month, which comes out to $30 per year.

Subscribe to 1Password starting at $1.50/month

If you’re unfamiliar with how password managers work, they securely hold all off your login information and you only have to remember one master password to get into your account. While signed in, 1Password will fill in the appropriate credentials as you visit online stores, social media sites and more. Arguably the easiest way 1Password does this is via its many browser extensions, which recognize the sites you’re visiting and automatically plug in the proper usernames and passwords when you’re prompted to log in. And you’ll be able to do the same thing across all of your devices thanks to 1Password’s Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, Linux and Chrome apps.

You’re also able to save more than just password credentials to your 1Password vault, including credit card information, documents and more. And when you’re signing up for a new site or service, 1Password can help you make stronger passwords from the get go, so you don’t end up using a slightly tweaked version of the same old phrase again. 1Password also has a handy feature called Watchtower, which can automatically alert if any of your credentials may have appeared in data breaches, or if you have duplicate passwords saved to your vault. 

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Epic Game Store sale includes huge discounts for ‘Final Fantasy’ and ‘Far Cry’

Epic is betting that you’re looking for games to keep you entertained this summer. The Epic Games Store is running a “Mega Sale” from today (May 19th) through June 16th that offers significant discounts on a host of PC games, including a few recent blockbusters. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is 29 percent off, while the open-world shooter Far Cry 6 is a whopping 50 percent off. Bethesda’s recently launched Ghostwire: Tokyo is on sale for the first time at 34 percent off, while Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and the tough brawler Sifu both see 20 percent drops.

The deals are effectively larger than that. Every Epic Games account is receiving a 25 percent coupon that applies to any full-game purchases worth at least $15 after any other discounts, including the heftier ones mentioned above. You’ll get a coupon after each transaction, too. The sale doesn’t apply to add-ons, in-game content or non-game software.

The promo will dovetail with four weekly giveaways for “tentpole” games. You won’t have to pay a thing to get at least something out of the Mega Sale, then, even if Epic is clearly hoping you’ll buy something else while you’re downloading your free titles.

Sony details ‘God of War: Ragnarok’ accessibility features

Sony has been putting a bigger emphasis on accessibility in its first-party PlayStation games over the last few years with the inclusion of extensive options in the likes of The Last of Us: Part II, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon Forbidden West. When it eventually arrives, God of War: Ragnarok will be no exception. To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Sony has detailed some of the options.

“Not only have we redesigned our UI to allow for more flexibility and readability, but we have also rebuilt controller remapping from the ground up and added more customization to our combat and interaction systems,” Santa Monica Studio lead UX designer Mila Pavlin wrote in a PlayStation Blog post. “We have retained all our accessibility features from 2018’s God of War and expanded upon them to include more than 60 ways to adjust gameplay to best suit your style and needs.”

Among the settings is a customizable high-contrast mode. Players will be able to add a color layer to characters, targets, enemies and various items to make them stand out from the background. You’ll be able to adjust the individual colors for each category and desaturate the background to help make the objects more visible. Pavlin notes that the visibility of traversal paint (perhaps referring to the environmental markers that show players where to go) and special effects can be enhanced in this mode too.

Some of the accessibility options added to the PC version of God of War will be included in the sequel. Those include auto sprint, an always-on reticle (which can reduce motion sickness by providing a persistent focal point) and a way to toggle aiming and blocking.

Subtitles and captions are being upgraded with more size and color display options and a way to blur the background behind the text box. There will be expanded captions for sound effects and directional indicators for critical gameplay information, including for puzzles that have sound cues.

The features also include settings for other UI text elements and icon sizes, in-depth controller remapping (including the ability to set shortcuts for more complex moves on the touchpad) and traversal assistance. A new feature for the God of War series, and one that’s been included in games elsewhere, is a way to reorient Kratos toward the next story objective while not in combat with the press of a button.

These are just some of the accessibility settings that will be included in the game. “We can’t wait to tell you details about our other categories of accessibility features like combat/aim assists, puzzle/minigame assists, HUD adjustments, camera tuning, auto pick up and much more,” Pavlin wrote.

To underline how important the accessibility features are, Sony has revealed them before even announcing the God of War: Raganrok release date. It’s expected to arrive on PS4 and PS5 this year. Showing the accessibility options now suggests those are at least close to being finished. Hopefully, that means Sony won’t have to delay the game again.

In the meantime, Sony has released an audio description version of the God of War: Raganrok reveal trailer from last year’s PlayStation Showcase. If you’re interested, you’ll need to go to YouTube to watch it due to the age restriction settings.

The ‘villain’ in Reddit’s GameStop investor saga is shutting down

Reddit’s war over GameStop stock has claimed a major casualty. Bloomberg and The New York Times report Melvin Capital, the hedge fund considered the nemesis of the meme stock affair, is shutting down. Fund owner Gabe Plotkin told investors that the “appropriate next step” after steep losses was to liquidate assets and return cash to investors, and that it was time to “step away” from managing others’ capital. At least half of the cash will transfer by May 31st, with the rest coming by June 30th.

Melvin Capital had been a successful fund, starting 2021 with over $12 billion. However, its public bet against GameStop and other struggling companies made it one of the largest victims of a GameStop-centric investing spree by people coordinating across Reddit and social networks. Plotkin’s fund reported a 53 percent loss in January 2021, and it took a $2.75 billion cash infusion to soften the blow and keep losses down to 39 percent for the year.

The GameStop saga wasn’t the only factor involved, however. While a recovery appeared possible, Melvin posted a 23 percent loss through April that was partly linked to poor stock positions. The fund was clearly in peril after the Reddit battle — it’s just that some miscalculations finished the company once and for all.

Reddit speculators shifted their attention to BlackBerry and other companies in the aftermath of the GameStop drama, and there hasn’t been fallout on par with Melvin’s in the months since. Still, the shutdown illustrates the power of coordinated internet investors — they can demolish conventional stock managers in the right circumstances.

‘Fortnite’ is now available to all GeForce Now users

All GeForce Now users can play Fortnite via NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service, including those with iOS and Android devices. The company started testing the game on the platform in January. It says more than 500,000 people tried it out across “hundreds of mobile device types.” The full launch of Fortnite on GeForce Now means that there’s no longer a waitlist and anyone can drop into a match. 

Feedback from beta testers helped NVIDIA optimize the touch controls and menu system. To thank them, it’s giving everyone who signed up for the beta a three-day trial for GeForce Now’s Priority plan. That offers longer game sessions than those who use the free version, along with improved visuals and access to premium servers. A three-day trial isn’t exactly the most generous perk, but it’s better than nothing.

For the time being, the only way to access Fortnite on iOS (at least without playing a console or PC remotely) is through cloud streaming. The game is also available for free through Xbox Cloud Gaming. You won’t need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription if you go with that option.

Apple and Google pulled Fortnite from their mobile app storefronts in August 2020 amid a dispute with Epic Games. While Android users have still been able to sideload it, iOS players were effectively iced out until the cloud gaming options came into play.

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《魔物獵人 崛起》（Monster Hunter Rise）的超大型 DLC《Sunbreak》將於 6 月 30 日推出，現在到 CDKeys 上可以更便宜的價格預購，基本版由 Steam 上的 HK$308 減至 HK$231，而包含大量外觀裝備的豪華版，則由原價 HK$395.25 減至 HK$290，十分划算！…