December 2019

Here comes the Android December security update. If you’re the proud owner of a Pixel phone, it’s time to check and see if you can grab the latest fixes, patches, and features for your device. But remember: Google is rolling the update out, as always, so it’s possible you might not have it yet. Which Pixels are getting the December update? As far as Pixels go, the December update applies to Google’s Pixel 2, Pixel 3, Pixel 3a, and Pixel 4 smartphones—and the XL versions, naturally. But if you have a Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL, don’t bother checking for the update today. You’ll have to wait until next week to grab it. That’s just the way it is. Advertisement And if you’re still using an original Google Pixel or Pixel XL, this is your final update, period. This shouldn’t come as surprise, however; when the devices launched, Google promised two years of Android version updates and three years of security updates. We hit the latter … [Read more...] about Get Live Captions and Pixel Themes With Google’s December Security Update

You survived the holidays! You’re back at work! Nothing left to do now but lose yourself in a haze of spiked cider and cookies and wake you up when it’s 2020! Should you stir any time this week, you’ve got a lot of fun awaiting you on Netflix. Let’s dive in. We’ve got Tiffany Haddish on Tuesday with her standup special that Netflix is really and truly describing as “bombastic,” Black Mitzvah. This better be good, because she’s good, and it’s not every day you get a full hour of her “raunchy reflections,” unlike some other comedians I will not name. True crime series The Confession Killer (Friday) looks like a creepy serial killer documentary destined to become a holiday classic. Advertisement Also on Friday, we’ve got Noah Baumbach’s latest, Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson get divorced. I’ve seen this movie and I liked it, mostly because of the divorce lawyers played by … [Read more...] about What’s Coming and Going From Netflix The Week of December 2, 2019

2019 was the year of the Switch. Wii U is so far in the rear view mirror now that it all just feels like a bad dream. 2019 was the year that Nintendo proved that its console, a true hybrid machine that works just as well as a TV-based player as it does a portable, is more than just a flash-in-the-pan success. After a 2018 in which even Nintendo’s own output for the system was sluggish and uneven, it came roaring back this year with a nonstop blitz of amazing games, one after the next, in a wide variety of genres. Sales of both hardware and software have been record-breaking. Advertisement Kotaku is not running a companion State Of The Nintendo 3DS piece this year, because there are only so many different ways to write “dead.” Nintendo released a few farewell games for its long-lived portable this year, just in time for it to celebrate its eighth anniversary, then dropped it like a hot potato. But 3DS died so that Switch might grow even stronger. The release of the … [Read more...] about The State Of The Nintendo Switch In 2019

Wednesday, December 4 is National Cookie Day, and companies are handing out free cookies to the public, which sounds like something a boomer says on Facebook. The following chains are offering free cookies with no purchase necessary. BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse: Free pizookie when you register for are. Cheryl’s: Free cookie. DoubleTree: Stop by the hotel for a free cookie (which guests get year-round). Great American Cookies: One free chocolate chip cookie per person. But you have to download and sign up on their rewards app on Tuesday by midnight. Insomnia Cookies: Free “traditional cookie.” Kum & Go: Free cookie with the rewards app, according to USA Today. Penn Station East Coast Subs: Free chocolate chunk cookie bite, according to USA Today. Pizza Inn: Free chocolate chip “pizzert” with the rewards app. Deals via USA Today and Offers.com. Both of those lists include more discounts and other deals. But the above list includes … [Read more...] about Where to Get Free Cookies on National Cookie Day 2019

PlayStations don’t tend to go quietly at the end of a console generation. The PS2 got God of War II a few months after the PS3 came out. The PS3 got one of its best exclusive games, The Last Of Us, just a few months before the PS4 launched. In 2019, it may have looked like Sony was actually letting the PS4 fade away before the next PlayStation. But, no, 2019 was just an off-year for a mighty console that seems poised to have a big 2020–despite the fact that the PS5 is scheduled be out a year from now. Advertisement A Solid Showing Of Games Sony was always going to have a tough time topping a 2018 that was framed by PS4 exclusives God of War and Spider-Man. This year produced the inevitable comedown. In the winter-spring release window previously occupied by excellent PS4 exclusives such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne and God of War, 2019 gotDays Gone. It was an altogether decent but familiar open-world game about shooting through zombie-like hordes in the Pacific … [Read more...] about The State Of The PlayStation 4 In 2019