Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023): Two-minute review The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 represents a strong contender for best gaming laptop of the year, following up the smaller Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 or dual screen Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16.  Using the AMD-CPU-and-NVIDIA-GPU-set-up that’s become standard for the ROG brand, the latest Strix Scar&#8230;

Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2023). The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 currently comes in all configurations in the United States, two in the UK, and one in Australia, with no options to configure the models independently. Be the first to know the latest updatesI agree that my submitted data is being collected and stored.

TechToday

AI, or artificial intelligence, is technology that attempts to simulate human cognitive function. AI has made its way into the software development space in a number of ways. Visit the AI article list to expand your AI knowledge.Learn MoreObservability is a way for development teams in an organization to view their program state. Failing to provide developers with insight into their tools and processes could lead to unaddressed bugs and even system failures. Read about the latest observability content hereLearn MoreIn the past, the CI/CD pipeline was simply a place to integrate code. Developers would write their code in GitHub, pass it through the pipeline, and then deploy it. The pipeline has become a much more critical piece of the software delivery lifecycle today.Learn MoreModern cloud-native applications, often leverage microservices, containers, APIs, infrastructure-as-code and more to enable speed in app development and deploymentLearn MoreSponsored By:Always On, Always FastDeploy Distributed PostgreSQL in just 90 SecondsLearn MoreAre TuringBots Up for the AI Autonomous Testing Challenge?Join Forrester’s Diego Lo Guidice to learn about the transformative power of AI in the software development lifecycleDec 6th at 10am CST Register HereMobile App Testing involves analyzing mobile apps for functionality, usability, visual appeal, and consistency across multiple mobile devices. It helps ensure an optimal user experience, irrespective of the device used to access the app.Learn MoreToday’s distributed software environments incorporate a variety of APIs with every interface your software touches, from mobile to microservices. Each API has to be continuously tested and verified to ensure your software functions as it should. Parasoft’s API testing platform makes quick, efficient, and intelligent work of such requirements.Learn MoreEnsure your application’s resilience, and make sure your software performs as expected under diverse operating conditions. (sponsored by Parasoft)Learn More DevSecOps is the DevOps community’s approach to bringing security into the development lifecycle. Businesses want to deliver software, but cannot afford to release unreliable or insecure applications— therefore security needs to be baked in much sooner than it has traditionally been.Learn MoreSecuring an application is just as important as building it in the first place. As data becomes more valuable, there are more people who want to steal it and use it for their own personal gain. Making sure applications are indeed secure has always been a challenge, as hackers try to stay one step ahead of defenders.Learn MoreIn 2023, there was an 18% decline in the number of open-source projects that are considered to be “actively maintained.” This is according to Sonatype’s Annual State of the Software Supply Chain Report.Learn MoreDevelopment Managers need a different type of content than developers… They need to know what platforms, tools, trends, and issues they should be thinking about. SD Times delivers those unique topics hereLearn MoreAgile software development has been around since the 1990s, but didn’t get the name until the famous meeting of 17 renowned software development thought leaders at Snowbird, Utah resulted in an Agile Manifesto. The idea behind Agile software development is to reduce time to market by enabling faster iterations of smaller segments of software.Learn MoreValue stream management involves people in the organization to examine workflows and other processes to ensure they are deriving the maximum value from their efforts while eliminating waste — of resources, time and assets. It is the practice that truly brings the business side and IT side together as partners in creating value for the organization.Learn MoreLearn MoreDevOps is a methodology in the software development and IT industry. Used as a set of practices and tools, DevOps integrates and automates the work of software development and IT operations as a means for improving and shortening the systems development life cycle.Learn MoreMicroservices define the latest iteration of a service-oriented architecture, under which applications are not written as a monolith but are built by joining discreet components — bits of functionality, called services — via application programming interfaces (APIs).Learn MoreAI, or artificial intelligence, is technology that attempts to simulate human cognitive function. AI has made its way into the software development space in a number of ways. Visit the AI article list to expand your AI knowledge.Learn MoreValue stream management involves people in the organization to examine workflows and other processes to ensure they are deriving the maximum value from their efforts while eliminating waste — of resources, time and assets. It is the practice that truly brings the business side and IT side together as partners in creating value for the organization.Learn MoreCopado is releasing a new tool designed to make it easier to test Salesforce applications. Copado Explorer integrates into CI/CD pipelines and automates a significant portion of the testing process. As manual testers are executing their normal activities, Copado Explorer works in the background to create test scripts using its generative AI scripting assistant, Test Copilot. These scripts can then be added into regression suites, shortening release cycles and expanding test coverage. It includes traceability features that allow users to understand exactly where an issue is coming from. It tracks defects against normal Salesforce features as well as user stories, and includes support for Jira and Azure DevOps. Testers can also record the test steps they went through and share that with developers, which results in fewer feedback loops being needed. In addition, Copado Explorer includes annotation and markup tools that allow non-technical subject matter experts to weigh in on issues, which provides additional context to the development team who is responsible for fixing them.“Release quality is a leading driver of risk, cost and speed within the software development life cycle,” said Esko Hannula, senior vice president of product management at Copado. “Copado Explorer makes it easy to automate the manual testing process, drastically reducing the time and effort typically required in traditional testing methods and improving both release velocity and quality. This launch not only underscores Copado’s commitment to innovation, but also sets a new benchmark in facilitating streamlined, effective, and collaborative software testing.”                      AI, Copado, Salesforce, testing                                                  Jenna Barron is News Editor of SD Times. She covers Microsoft, data, programming languages, and UI frameworks and libraries. She likes tabletop gaming, climbing, and knitting.                        Ready to subscribe to SD Times? It's just a click away!Subscribe

Copado releases new automated testing solution for Salesforce users - SD Times. Learn MoreValue stream management involves people in the organization to examine workflows and other processes to ensure they are deriving the maximum value from their efforts while eliminating waste — of resources, time and assets.

SD Times

Copado releases new automated testing solution for Salesforce users

Google, like the rest of us, is tired of people gaming search.  Google is adjusting its search engine to filter out spam-filled websites meant to game the system and land at the top of search results. The aim is to elevate original content over web pages that seem to be designed for search engines rather than people.  Along with updating its search algorithm to elevate better-quality sites, Google is changing its spam policies to keep sites "repurposed as spam repositories" out of its search results. It wants to filter out a new wave of zombie sites -- once defunct websites that have been resurrected and are now limping along with generic, AI-generated content.In a Tuesday blog post, Google said these new tweaks will reduce the amount of low-quality, unoriginal content in its search results by 40%.On Google's radar are bad actors who use automated systems, including AI generators, to create content that appears to answer specific search queries but fails to provide meaningful information, frustrating search users, according to Google.The tech giant said it's also going after reputable websites that host low-quality content from third parties. This kind of abuse aims to leverage the site's good name to get the third-party content to rank higher in search results. In these instances, readers may be duped into reading a low-quality article from what seems to be a trusted source of information. Google is giving a warning to websites now, and said it'll begin enforcing ranking for reputable sites on May 5.Google has long been waging a war against people who try to trick its system and profit off low-quality, ad-filled sites. These sites use Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, techniques to artificially inflate the value of their webpages and rank higher in Google search results. The goal for these actors isn't necessarily to answer the questions people are asking, but instead rake in clicks for monetization.It's led to a degradation in search, with some people lamenting the breakdown of Google results. A recent study found that Google Search results are now more likely to feature lower-quality text with aggressive SEO, monetization and affiliate marketing. Researchers warned that search results will only get worse as AI-generated spam proliferates. To work around the spam, people have, for example, been tweaking their queries with the word "reddit" after a question to help filter in more relevant human-written results.Google, which makes most of its revenue from ads placed against search results, needs to find a way to improve its process, especially as people begin looking more toward AI engines like ChatGPT to answer questions directly, instead of having to scroll through a feed of blue links.Google didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Google Updates Search to Filter Out Low-Quality Spam Sites. Google is adjusting its search engine to filter out spam-filled websites meant to game the system and land at the top of search results.

CNET

Google Updates Search to Filter Out Low-Quality Spam Sites     - CNET

Our expert deal-hunting staff showcases the best price drops and discounts from reputable sellers daily. If you make a purchase using our links, CNET may earn a commission.     The PS5 is among the most popular consoles for a reason, and now you can pick one up with a great game and save some money into the bargain.  The PlayStation 5 Slim is the latest version of the popular Sony console, and while there are some great handheld game consoles out there, you can't beat kicking back on the sofa with a big-screen TV. If you want to do that but don't yet have the hardware required, Best Buy is currently offering a pretty sweet deal on a PS5 Slim and one of the console's most iconic games.That game is Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and you can pick it up with a PS5 Slim console today for just $450, a deal that saves you a cool $50. There are no codes or coupons here, but you do need to place your order soon because we don't know how long we can expect this deal to last. Looking to save even more? You can trade in your old console and save up to $120 more, too.The PS5 features 1TB of storage in its ultrahigh-speed solid-state drive and supports 4K HDR gaming with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz if you have a compatible TV. The DualSense controllers feature haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, and the console is backward-compatible so you can play more than 4,000 PS4 games. Add that to the hugely impressive PS5 catalog, and you'll never be short of games to play. Remember that with this deal, you'll also get a digital code to download the Marvel Spider-Man 2 game, so you'll have something great to play as soon as your console arrives.Once you have your new PS5 console, you'll probably be looking to pick up some games and accessories as well. Our collection of the best PlayStation deals will have you all set in no time at all.CNET is always covering a wide array of deals on tech products and much more. Start with the hottest sales and discounts on the CNET Deals page, and check out our CNET Coupons page for current Walmart discount codes, eBay coupons, Samsung promo codes and more from hundreds of other online stores. Sign up for the CNET Deals Text to get daily deals sent straight to your phone. Add the free CNET Shopping extension to your browser for real-time price comparisons and cash-back offers. Peruse our gift guide, which includes a full range of ideas for birthdays, anniversaries and more.

Get a PS5 Slim With Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for Just $450 Right Here, Right Now. The PS5 is among the most popular consoles for a reason, and now you can pick one up with a great game and save some money into the bargain.

Get a PS5 Slim With Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for Just $450 Right Here, Right Now     - CNET

In an open letter published on Wednesday, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy outlined the livestreaming company’s plans for 2024, with a focus on helping streamers grow their audiences even when they aren’t live.This year, Twitch plans to overhaul its app for the first time in five years, ditching its longstanding design to focus on a scrollable feed that takes after TikTok and lets viewers hop between bite-sized bits of content to discover new streamers. The company hasn’t named a date for the launch of the redesigned app, but the move shows that Twitch is prioritizing changes to make both its business and its streamer community more sustainable for the long haul.“People can’t be live all the time, right? So we want to give tools to creators, to help them continue to engage their community while they’re offline,” Twitch VP of Community Product, Jeremy Forrester told TechCrunch in an interview.Twitch has had a rocky year. Emmett Shear, one of the original founders of Justin.tv, the variety livestreaming service that would grow into Twitch, stepped down from his role as the company’s CEO a year ago. In the time since, Twitch has undergone rounds of deep layoffs, cutting 500 employees — another 35% of its workforce — last month. Late last year the company announced that it would pull out of South Korea, a major esports market, citing the “prohibitively expensive” cost of running an online business there. In 2023, Twitch also wrestled with community-wide controversies following updates to its revenue split and branded content rules, which in both instances the company walked back after a backlash from streamers.Given the layoffs and broader uncertainty about its business, 2024 is a make or break year for Twitch. The company needs to tighten things up while reassuring the streamers that make the platform tick that Twitch is the right place to invest their time and energy.Livestreaming has long been Twitch’s bread and butter, but in the past year the platform has been more open to ways of packaging its content that don’t require streamers and viewers to be online at the same time.A year ago, Twitch released a tool that helped streamers easily export video clips to apps like YouTube and TikTok, with plans to export directly to Instagram on the way soon. Those additions show that Twitch knows that it needs a symbiotic rather than purely competitive relationship with other social networks to boost discoverability and make it easier for creators just getting started to build an audience.“We want to drastically increase the amount of content that’s exported from Twitch into other social networks,” Forrester said. “So the goal really is like, a lot more people seeing more Twitch content every time they’re in Instagram, every time they’re in TikTok, every time they’re in YouTube Shorts.“… Live content is very different from offline content, and offline content has a somewhat easier ability to go viral. In general it’s easier to get massive boosts on offline content than it is on live. And that’s one of the benefits of getting more content onto other services… you have an opportunity to be exposed to more people and more opportunities to get seen by many people and bring them back to your community.”Twitch’s new clip editor makes sharing vertical video on YouTube and TikTok a snapStream Together, the co-streaming product previously known as Guest Star, is another gesture toward improving discovery. Twitch says that it plans to bring improvements to Stream Together to streamline the setup process and build a way for streamers to “spontaneously” discover other streamers to collaborate with on the platform, rather than counting on them having an existing community of peers to tap. That might be a risky proposition (a lot can go wrong when you’re live) but it shows that Twitch knows it needs all of the force multipliers it can get to drive viewers to channels beyond its well-followed superstars.Twitch also introduced its own version of a Snapchat or Instagram-like Stories into the app last year. The feature sits at the top of the current design and highlights ephemeral posts from channels its users follow. Twitch’s Stories will soon add some basic quality of life improvements, like letting streamers create and upload original short videos, adding pinch-to-zoom for photos and making it possible to share vertical stream clips.“The purpose is how do we allow creators to engage with their community when they’re not live,” Forrester said. “How do we allow creators to take a break, but still be able to connect with their fans and their watchers and hopefully bring them back to future live streams.”Because of its long viewing sessions and the fact that streamers rely on beefy PCs (and, perhaps even more essentially, ambient RGB lighting), Twitch historically has focused more on its desktop experience than its mobile app. But the company wants to make those experiences more equal, including for the moderators who keep many of its popular communities humming along. In the open letter, Clancy acknowledged that the lack of mobile tools for mods was “a real limitation” for keeping communities safe and that the company will introduce a mobile mod view for iOS so mods can do their thing on the go.Twitch’s new Guest Star mode will let anyone turn their stream into a talk showMost social media platforms focus on punchy, seconds-long videos or short, grabby lines of text, but Twitch has always been a different beast. Content on Twitch is extremely long form, with streamers regularly broadcasting gameplay or just chatting for many hours per session. Viewers who follow streamers on Twitch are glued to these lengthy sessions, but the long form approach does have some inherent challenges, which the company is grappling with in 2024.For one, all of that livestreaming infrastructure for many hour long sessions is very expensive, even under Amazon’s wing. And given the depth of recent layoffs, Twitch’s parent company doesn’t seem willing to let its livestreaming business lose money forever. Another problem is that every six hour streaming session is powered by a streamer — an individual person that Twitch needs to adequately incentivize to keep broadcasting for long hours without having them burn out.Unfortunately for Twitch, many compelling alternatives to broadcasting one’s life for hours on end exist, particularly in the form of YouTube. YouTube has its own livestreaming service, YouTube Gaming, but is much better known for its creator-friendly economics and the trove of asynchronous videos discoverable through its keen recommendation engine.For now, Twitch’s plan is to cultivate products that complement the long live sessions the platform is known for, ideally giving streamers a little more breathing room in the process.“We are very mindful about the amount of hours it takes to be successful on the platform and we are not looking to ever increase that,” Forrester told TechCrunch. “But hopefully over time, I would love to be able to show that you can be as successful investing less hours in the live portion of your work.”“I think the proof is kind of in the pudding: If we can make it so the streamers can more efficiently grow, more efficiently monetize, I’m hopeful and optimistic that opens the door for streamers to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to take more time off, I’m gonna spend more time doing other things [and] invest in other aspects of my career,’ which hopefully will pay off in the long run.”Twitch’s money guy talks about the revenue split controversy and its monetization long gameKick lures disenchanted Twitch streamers, for nowTwitch launches stories for streamers

Twitch is looking at life beyond the livestream | TechCrunch. The company hasn’t named a date for the launch of the redesigned app, but the move shows that Twitch is prioritizing changes to make both its business and its streamer community more sustainable for the long haul.“People can’t be live all the time, right?

TechCrunch

Twitch is looking at life beyond the livestream

A comprehensive list of 2023 & 2024 tech layoffs | TechCrunch. Announced March 20 that it has laid off at least 100 employees, about 2% of the company’s workforce