Embracer Group has closed yet another studio. This time around, the embattled company has shut down Pieces Interactive, the developer of the recent Alone in the Dark reboot.An image posted on the studio's X account reads "Pieces Interactive 2007 - 2024. Thanks for playing with us." The front page of Pieces' website notes that the developer has released more than 10 titles of its own over the last 17 years. It also worked as a support studio on other projects.Embracer bought Pieces in 2017 and placed it under the umbrella of publisher THQ Nordic. In April, reports emerged that Pieces had laid off some of its employees, just a few weeks after releasing Alone in the Dark (which had been delayed a couple of times).The closure of Pieces comes several weeks after Embracer said it had concluded its restructuring process following the collapse of a proposed $2 billion investment a year ago. The company shut down several studios, including TimeSplitters developer Free Radical Design and Volition (Saints Row), and it laid off nearly 1,400 workers in the second half of 2023. Embracer has also sold off several studios, including large parts of Saber Interactive as well as Gearbox Entertainment.Meanwhile, yet another studio is shutting its doors. Galvanic Games founder Patrick Morgan said on Friday that the company is closing. Morgan noted that despite a promising start, sales of Gavlanic's final game, Wizard with a Gun, were "not strong enough to sustain our studio."The number of layoffs in the game industry so far in 2024 is estimated to be around 10,800. That's already more than the 10,500 total for all of 2023, and we're not even halfway through the year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/embracer-shuts-down-alone-in-the-dark-reboot-studio-pieces-interactive-124555063.html?src=rss
Chrome on Android has a new feature called "Listen to this page" that lets you read a webpage aloud from within the app, Google said in a help document spotted by 9to5Google. That long-awaited feature should boost accessibility for the app and make it easier to listen to web pages when you're busy with something else.The feature isn't supported by all web sites, but if so, you'll find "Listen to this page" in the three-dot menu at the top right on the Chrome app. The new function offers podcast-like controls, letting you play, pause, scrub, change playback speed and skip ahead or behind by 10 seconds. So far, it works in English, French, German, Arabic, Hindu and Spanish.Also available are options for different voices in each language, including four in the US and two in the UK, along with text highlighting. The control bar stays docked when you open other tabs and playback will continue if you lock your screen with Chrome in the foreground.The new feature is rolling out gradually as part of Chrome 125, so it may take awhile to arrive to your corner of the world. Google Assistant has been able read web pages aloud for quite some time now, but the new feature adds another way of doing this.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-chrome-on-android-can-now-read-webpages-aloud-123011073.html?src=rss
McDonald's has ended a two-year test of AI-powered drive-thru ordering. The company was trialing IBM tech at more than 100 of its restaurants but it will remove those systems from all locations by the end of July, meaning that customers will once again be placing orders with a human instead of a computer.As part of that decision, McDonald's is ending its automated order taking (AOT) partnership with IBM. However, McDonald's may be considering other potential partners to work with on future AOT efforts.While there have been successes to date, we feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly," Mason Smoot, chief restaurant officer for McDonald's USA, said in an email to franchisees that was obtained by trade publication Restaurant Business (as noted by PC Mag). Smoot added that the company would look into other options and make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year," noting that IBM has given us confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurant's future."McDonald's told Restaurant Business that the goal of the test was to determine whether AOT could speed up service and streamline operations. By automating drive-thru orders, companies are hoping to negate the need for a staff member to take them and either reduce the number of workers needed to operate a restaurant or redeploy resources to other areas of the business.IBM will continue to power other McDonald's systems and it's in talks with other fast-food chains over the use of its AOT tech. The likes of Hardee's, Carl's Jr., Krystal, Wendy's, Dunkin and Taco Johns are already testing or using such technology at their drive-thru locations.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mcdonalds-pauses-ai-powered-drive-thru-voice-orders-120024406.html?src=rss
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's mission to make its thinnest product ever won't stop at the iPad Pro - the company also has plans for a skinnier Macbook Pro, Apple Watch and iPhone. Gurman says the slimmed-down iPhone - also rumored by The Information - could come as early as 2025, with the introduction of the iPhone 17 line.A thinner iPhone is likely to be more expensive than current generation devices, however. Remember 2017's iPhone X, which ditched the home button but cost more? That, again.Meanwhile, on Engadget, we've got even more Summer Game Fest news. Did the show end last week? Yes. Are there still embargoed games we're itching to talk about? Definitely, yes!- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedMicrosoft's Xbox refresh can't compete with its leaked roadmapDoctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday review: What legend?Cybertruck buyers say they've been told deliveries are paused due windshield wiper problemsYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!US military reportedly used social media to spread anti-vax propaganda in the PhilippinesDuring the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.According to a Reuters report, the US military used fake social media accounts to discredit China's COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines during the height of the pandemic. In one example of the US's anti-vax messaging cited by Reuters, an account in 2020 tweeted, COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don't trust China!" The campaign also pushed the narrative that China's vaccines were haram" - forbidden under Islamic law. In a statement to the publication, a Pentagon spokesperson brought up China's own disinformation campaign, and said the military uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks."Continue reading.If you're waiting for a new Persona, Metaphor: ReFantazio will scratch that itchIt's an Atlus RPG, and everything but a new Persona title.AtlusMetaphor: ReFantazio has been a long time in the making. It was announced in 2017, but we finally got to play through a three-part demo last week at Summer Game Fest. Atlus and the game's director, Katsura Hashino, are both known more for (semi-) grounded urban fantasy/school life simulations of Persona than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio, in that sense, represents a big departure. As do all the British accents. Expect cockneys, Liverpudlians, and more, all represented in fantasy equivalents. The gameplay of battles, however, is turn-based, strategic and tied to the strength of the bonds with your allies. And yep, that sounds very Persona.Continue reading.The Engadget PodcastRecovering from Apple's WWDC daze.In this week's Engadget podcast, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss their final thoughts on Apple Intelligence and the company's upcoming software teased at WWDC, and they chat about some of our coverage highlights from the pseudo-E3 Game Fest.Listen here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-may-be-planning-thinner-iphones-macbooks-and-watches-111531784.html?src=rss
Delicious in Dungeon just wrapped up its first season on Netflix, and we now have confirmation that there will be another. The studio behind the show shared on social media this week that a season two is coming, and it's already in production. The anime, based on the manga by Ryoko Kui, follows a group of broke adventurers who end up eating monsters along their quest to save their friend from the belly of a dragon. It's one of the most unexpectedly delightful things I've watched recently and, despite the questionable ingredients that often go into the meals, has some truly top-tier examples of mouthwatering anime foods.
Are you more than your past? This seems to be the question at the heart of Penrose, a short but impactful psychological horror game for Playdate by Liza Olson. The answer will ultimately be determined by the choices you make as you try to find your way out of the strange titular town.Much of the experience in Penrose is exploration, and the game plays from start to finish like an eerie, emotionally challenging walk down memory lane. There are things your character might encounter, like an old playground, that'll spark a tinge of fondness, while others - a mirror, a locked bedroom door - seem linked to more painful events. As you make your way out of the house where you started and through the seemingly abandoned town, things get progressively weirder.You'll encounter some creepy entities, not to mention a deeply unsettling mall that is, for some reason, oozing (I really appreciated the design of this in a love-hate kind of way). The names of the stores in that mall are also pretty fun, each being a play on some real-life chain, like Not Tropic. There are a few puzzles in Penrose, but the catacombs stands out as the only area of any real difficulty. It tripped me up for a good minute, which made me feel all the more clever once I figured out how to crack it.Penrose beautifully captures the complicated nature of nostalgia, and there are multiple possible endings to the game that play right into that complexity. Penrose is available on itch for Playdate and the Playdate Simulator on PC, Mac and Linux.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/in-the-playdate-game-penrose-your-past-has-come-back-to-haunt-you-214104554.html?src=rss
NASA engineers have managed to get the long-running Voyager 1 space probe fully back in working order after some seven months of technical difficulties. In November 2023, the spacecraft - which is more than 15 billion miles from Earth - started sending back strange, unreadable data, and the team has been working ever since to get to the root of the issue. While Voyager 1 seemed to be receiving and executing commands just fine, none of the science and engineering data it sent home made sense.In April, the team traced the problem to some corrupted memory in the probe's flight data subsystem (FDS) computer and was later able to get two of its instruments sending science data again. Now, all four of Voyager 1's instruments are back to sending readable data, NASA says. Voyager 1 launched in 1977, so the fact that it's still going in any capacity is incredible. But now, it can resume its duties directly studying interstellar space.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-47-year-old-voyager-1-probe-is-back-in-action-after-months-of-technical-issues-192057182.html?src=rss
Just how thin can a Macbook Pro get? We may soon find out. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's mission to make its thinnest product ever won't stop at the iPad Pro - the company also has plans for a skinnier Macbook Pro, Apple Watch and, as The Information also reported last month, iPhone. According to Gurman, Apple is on the cusp of ushering in a new class of Apple devices that should be the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry." Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also shared his belief that the new Apple Watch Series 10 will get a thinner chassis than its predecessor -plus a larger screen (45mm and 49mm, compared to 41mm and 45mm).Adding further fuel to the earlier iPhone rumors, Gurman says he too has been told the slimmed-down iPhone could come as early as 2025 with the introduction of the iPhone 17 line. There's no timeline yet on the rest of the products named in the report. The upcoming thin iPhone is expected to be pricier than the current iPhone Pro Max, and have a screen sized somewhere between that of the Pro Max and the standard iPhone.Update, June 17 2024, 5:26AM ET: This article has been updated to include analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's insight on the Apple Watch Series 10.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-reportedly-has-plans-for-a-thinner-iphone-macbook-pro-and-apple-watch-171137550.html?src=rss
Hate it or love it, Lollipop Chainsaw is so back. Developer Dragami Games announced this week that its remastered version of the game, Lollipop Chainsaw RePop, comes out on September 25 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Steam. The polarizing cult classic was first released in 2012 and follows the zombie-hunting cheerleader, Juliet, as she tries to fend off the apocalypse.There were originally plans for a full remake, but last year it was revealed that this had been scaled back to a remaster. Ever since its return was announced, fans of the original have expressed concerns that the intentionally trashy, over-the-top hack-and-slash game might get the censorship treatment in order to appease modern sensibilities, but it looks like there will be a way to experience Lollipop Chainsaw just the way you remembered it.The trailer states that Lollipop Chainsaw RePop allows players to select Original mode, which is based on the original release, or RePop mode, which has less violence and uses pop-art damage effects." The announcement also says RePop leaves the story unchanged, with the focus on quality of life improvements and additional gameplay content."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-lollipop-chainsaw-remaster-comes-out-on-september-25-152207999.html?src=rss
MGM+ has ordered an eight-episode series based on Stephen King's 2019 novel, The Institute, Deadline reported this week. The novel follows the plight of 12-year-old Luke Ellis and a group of other children with telepathic and telekinetic abilities who have been kidnapped and held captive at a facility deep in the Maine woods, where their powers are being exploited. Their story becomes intertwined with that of an ex-cop Tim Jamieson. I really enjoyed this one when it came out, and as a lifelong King reader who has become hardened against the disappointment of terrible adaptations, I'm choosing to remain hopeful.So far, all we know about the cast is that it includes Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone) as Jamieson and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) as the villainous Mrs. Sigsby, according to Deadline. The show has Benjamin Cavell on board as writer and executive producer. Cavell helmed 2020's The Stand miniseries remake, which... well, it happened. Again, we're staying hopeful here. Production starts later this year in Nova Scotia.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/one-of-stephen-kings-best-recent-novels-is-being-made-into-a-show-for-mgm-203220393.html?src=rss
Some Cybertruck buyers who were scheduled to receive their new trucks this week have been told they'll have to wait a little while longer as the company addresses a safety issue with the windshield wiper motor. Tesla hasn't publicly confirmed any such problems or issued an official recall, but numerous commenters on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum and Reddit said they were notified that deliveries have been halted and their pickup dates were pushed back a week.This follows reports from Cybertruck owners who have said that the windshield wiper failed on them, in some cases almost immediately after the truck was picked up. Tesla previously had to pause Cybertruck deliveries this spring, when it issued a recall over faulty accelerator pedals that could get stuck. The problem affected around 3,878 Cybertruck vehicles. In this case, the fix was fairly simple (installing a rivet) and deliveries resumed soon after.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybertruck-buyers-say-theyve-been-told-deliveries-are-paused-due-windshield-wiper-problems-173804018.html?src=rss
The US military used fake social media accounts to spread propaganda that was designed to discredit China's COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines during the height of the pandemic, according to a bombshell report from Reuters. The anti-vax campaign ran from spring 2020 until mid-2021, and was intended to counter what [the Pentagon] perceived as China's growing influence in the Philippines," the publication found in its investigation. The Philippines saw low vaccination rates through 2021 even months after China's Sinovac vaccine arrived in the area, and recorded nearly 50,000 COVID deaths by November of that year.In one example of the US's anti-vax messaging cited by Reuters, an account in 2020 tweeted, COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don't trust China!" The campaign also pushed the narrative that China's vaccines were haram" - or forbidden under Islamic law - because of a pig derivative in the ingredients.Former military officials who spoke with Reuters said the Pentagon had propaganda accounts on X, Facebook and Instagram, and was warned in late 2020 by Facebook executives that the accounts had been identified and were acting in violation of the platform's policies. Some of these accounts, however, ultimately weren't taken down after the Pentagon said it would stop using them for its anti-vax campaign. Reuters notified X of at least 300 accounts it found during its investigation that appeared to be part of the operation. These were determined to be bots and removed.According to Reuters, the campaign was launched after the Chinese government made unfounded claims that the COVID-19's spread could be traced back to the US. In a statement to the publication, a Pentagon spokesperson brought up China's disinformation campaign, and said the military uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the U.S., allies, and partners."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-military-reportedly-used-social-media-to-spread-anti-vax-propaganda-in-the-philippines-160357361.html?src=rss
The following contains spoilers for The Legend of Ruby Sunday."In an episode full of misdirection, the biggest one has to be its title, given we've learned very little about what Ruby Sunday's legend actually is. Instead, the first part of the series' two part finale is essentially an hour to build a sense of dread that spills over in its final moments. I could cheat and say The Legend of Ruby Sunday" is just Army of Ghosts" - the first half of the 2006 season's finale - with a bigger budget. Except the big bad that reveals itself at the end is a villain from a far deeper cut than the usual corners of Doctor Who's history.The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT HQ to ask about the mysterious woman - Susan Twist - following them around the universe. UNIT, meanwhile, has been monitoring someone named Susan Triad, a British tech billionaire who will announce her gift to humanity later that day. Even the goofballs at UNIT work out that S.TRIAD is an anagram of TARDIS and the Doctor thinks Triad, or the mysterious woman more generally, could be his granddaughter.But there's also the matter of Ruby's parentage to uncover, giving the Doctor a reason not to just confront Triad. The Doctor, Ruby and a UNIT soldier enter the time window - a low-grade holodeck - to try and see who left Ruby on the steps of the church. But the history's a bit wonky, and Ruby's faceless mother - unlike what we saw in The Church on Ruby Road" - turns and ominously points toward the TARDIS. Not long after, the TARDIS is engulfed in a black cloud of swirling evil that nobody's sure what to do about.The Doctor then meets Triad just before she gets on stage, prompting her to remember all of her other selves. Whenever Triad dreams, she's somehow aware of those myriad alternate selves. And while she takes to the stage, the Doctor asks the team at UNIT HQ to scan the TARDIS. It is similarly engulfed in an invisible cloud of malevolent stuff that's threatening everyone in the area.Bad Wolf / BBC Studios[ASIDE: This is the second time in four years that Doctor Who has tried to parody an Apple Keynote. And this is the second time that they've totally misunderstood how to stage one that looks even remotely evocative of what they're parodying. I know the conventions of the tech keynote have mutated since the Steve Jobs era, but they're not even trying.]A UNIT staffer, Harriet Arbinger (Wait... H. Arbinger?) starts muttering about a dark prophecy while Triad goes off script. The Doctor, standing close by, watches as she turns into a skeleton monster while the TARDIS is menaced by a giant animal head surrounded by Egyptian iconography. Turns out Susan isn't the Doctor's granddaughter, or even a key component of the story, but an innocent. An innocent who has been co-opted by Sutekh, an all-powerful Egyptian God we first saw in 1975's Pyramids of Mars." Cue the credits.It's a slender synopsis, mostly because these scenes are played slowly as the tension ratchets up. The Legend of Ruby Sunday" takes its time, letting the screw turn gently until you're almost happy when the big reveal happens. It's a gripping ride on a first watch, although I imagine it'll not have too much value when you go back to it a third or fourth time. But, then again, that's often been an issue with episodes penned by Russell T. Davies. It's also a good way to juice bookings for next week's finale which will get a UK cinema release on June 21.Was it easy to guess that we'd be getting Sutekh back after his one outing in Pyramids of Mars?" The rumor mill certainly pulled in that direction over the last month or so, and it's not as if we didn't get a clue or two along the way. Longtime Davies fans will recall that Vince watches the part one cliffhanger at the end of the first episode of Queer as Folk. And we've already had a whole scene from Pyramids of Mars" lifted - the jump into a ruined future - in The Devil's Chord."Bad Wolf / BBC StudiosIf you are unfamiliar, Pyramids of Mars" is a classic, and another blockbuster from the pen of the series' best 20th century writer, Robert Holmes. At the time, Holmes was the series' script editor and had commissioned a story from writer Lewis Griefer. But Griefer's material was so poor that Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe decided a replacement was needed. So Holmes was tasked with writing a whole new episode in a tiny amount of time. The finished episode was credited to pseudonym Stephen Harris, but it's all Holmes under the hood. Sadly, because of various rules around writing credits, The Legend of Ruby Sunday" end credits actually give credit to Lewis Griefer as Sutekh's creator and omit Holmes, which feels pretty rough.But that one minor injustice aside, let's bring on the finale.Susan Twist Corner
PlayStation Productions and Screen Gems have announced the cast for the upcoming movie adaptation of the interactive horror game Until Dawn. According to Deadline, the ensemble will include Ella Rubin, who stars alongside Anne Hathaway in Amazon Prime's The Idea of You, and Michael Cimino, who played Victor Salazar in Hulu's Love, Victor. Expats' Ji-young Yoo and Sitting in Bars with Cake's Odessa A'zion have also signed on to play characters in the game revolving around eight young adults who have to survive the night at a remote mountain lodge while being hunted by a killer.Supermassive Games got some pretty well-known actors to provide motion capture and voice acting for the game's characters, including Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere. They're no longer the right age to play their original roles, so it doesn't come as a surprise that they're not involved in the project. But since they're not unknown motion capture actors, the filmmakers are dealing with a unique situation in that famous people's faces are tied to the characters other people will now portray."At PlayStation Productions, we are always looking to find creative and authentic ways to adapt our beloved games that our fans will enjoy," Asad Qizilbash, head of Sony's production company, told Deadline. "Alongside Screen Gems, we've assembled a fantastic cast of new characters that builds upon our already stellar filmmaking team and their vision for the adaptation."The game itself is getting a remake for the PS5 and for PC. It was built in Unreal Engine 5 for the newer console, and it will add a third-person camera mode, new locations and new interactions to the original. Until Dawn's remake is coming out sometime this fall.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/until-dawns-original-actors-will-not-star-in-its-film-adaptation-110036254.html?src=rss
If you regularly stare at the Steam charts to see if there's anything new and exciting to play, you may have noticed an odd little game" called Banana. It has quickly become a huge success and, as of this writing, sits at the number three spot with over 400,000 concurrent players. It's a simple idle clicker game, like many before it, so what's making players flock to what amounts to a static screen of a huge banana?The promise of sweet, sweet cash, that's what. It's an extremely bare-bones title that has you repeatedly clicking on a banana. That's pretty much it, though there's a twist. As you click and click on the tropical fruit, there's a chance of a banana sticker dropping into your Steam inventory. These bananas come in all different designs, from silver-encrusted variants to one that looks like it's glitching out from a hack. aaladin66, Pony, Sky, AestheticSpartanBecause the bananas show up in your inventory, they can be sold on the Steam Marketplace. Rare bananas have already gone for as much as $1,400, though the average payout is somewhere in the $0.02 range. One of the developers called it a legal infinite money glitch" in an interview with Polygon. Users make money out of a free game while selling free virtual items," he continued.The money earned goes into a Steam wallet, which can then be used to purchase games. So these bananas are basically NFTs, only without the blockchain. People are buying and selling them like crazy, like weird fruit-based trading cards. Forget the banana stand: it looks like there's money in just the facsimile of a banana.If the idea of spending all day clicking on a fake banana in front of a vomit-green background doesn't do it for you, the developers sell inventory bananas outright for $0.25 a pop. The game itself, however, is free to play. The devs deny allegations that the clicker is some sort of scam or a Ponzi scheme, simply saying that it's pretty much a stupid game." Idle clickers, after all, are nothing new.As for the future, the designers have teased updates, including a way to use inventory items to change the way the plain in-game banana looks. There also might be a minigame coming down the pike, as well a shop upgrade that lets players exchange multiples of the same banana for a unique drop. One thing is a near certainty. The massive popularity of Banana is sure to inspire a whole bunch of copycats. May I humbly suggest a pizza slice as something to click over and over.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/one-of-the-biggest-games-on-steam-right-now-is-a-clickable-banana-190058749.html?src=rss
Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a long time in the making. It was announced in 2017 as Project re Fantasy through a weird long video that said very little. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Project for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate to find a cool way to say fantasy.' It's also made a giant fantasy JRPG - and after rolling through a demo at Summer Game Fest last weekend, I'm dying to play it.ReFantazio is the first original title by Studio Zero, a relatively new Atlus division headed up by Katsura Hashino. As the director of the third, fourth and fifth Persona game, Hashino is responsible for the Persona series' pivot towards social simulation elements. After finishing up Persona 5, Hashino left P-Studio to work on all-new titles unrelated to Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series.Atlus and Hashino are both known more for (semi-) grounded urban fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents a big departure. This is an epic, sprawling story covering a whole nation, the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The Euchronian king has been assassinated, and the people of the land must elect (!?) a new one.Euchronia is home to eight tribes" (fantasy races) and our hero is trying to reunite them. There's also a cursed prince who everyone thinks is dead, a royal tournament for the throne in six months and monsters everywhere. To make matters worse, Euchronia is being invaded by hideous, Hieronymus Bosch-inspired creatures called humans, which function as the game's bosses. Humans, huh? Wonder if it's a... metaphor?Given Atlus' storytelling history, the broad strokes of ReFantazio will probably make more sense than the moment-to-moment beats. Best to just let it wash over you.The game takes place over the course of six months, and you'll be traveling across Euchronia in a Gauntlet Runner (a cool ship designed by the Evangelion mech guy) trying to rally support for your entry into the royal tournament. Each town in the game has a tavern where you can grab a bite and gather information, a recruitment center where you can accept quests, various shops and an inn where you can rest. Completing quests and making friends along the way will gain you supporters among the various tribes, which is key to both the overarching story and the combat.AtlusAtlus' Summer Game Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The first was a training sequence of sorts, story-heavy and light on combat. This felt mostly like a showcase for ReFantazio's cinematics, which were gorgeous, despite the TVs in the demo area being set to interpolate frames. Atlus has a tradition of showcasing top-quality anime in its games, and the demo clips were among the best I've seen. What I appreciated more than the quality of the animation was how closely the character designs and vibe of the game matched the cinematics.Also memorable is the voice acting. For the English-speaking cast, Atlus is taking the United Kingdom" of Euchronia very seriously, as everyone I ran into had a totally over-the-top British accent. As the owner of an English accent, I found the characters beyond theatrical but nonetheless enjoyable. At one point in the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat girl that could've been auditioning for Oliver.AtlusIn another segment, I fought alongside an adorable floppy-eared fellow from fantasy Liverpool who sounded like he was analyzing a soccer game. If none of this excites you, the Japanese voice cast seems to be shooting for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can't imagine playing this game in anything other than English at this point.Not everything is voiced - as in a lot of JRPGs, key lines and conversations play out in full, but many interactions will be confined to text, with the voice actors emoting a little along the way for flavor. As a speed reader, this is absolutely fine by me.AtlusSegment two was all about dungeon-crawling combat - time for the Persona comparisons! The setup here will be familiar to fans of Atlus games: It's a turn-based JRPG, with various types of physical and magical attacks, status effects and ailments. ReFantazio's version of the classic JRPG class system is Archetypes - there are 14 lineages containing over 40 unique Archetypes, including some familiar roles like Mage, Thief, Knight and Healer.There's also a tactical element to party composition, with a front and back row playing a part in combat, and Synthesis moves that allow you to combine your party's Archetypes for stronger attacks. Everything has a little Persona and SMT to it - you manage Archetypes in an Akademeia (similar to a Velvet Room), they can evolve through experience, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond with your supporters.AtlusA twist on the classic turn-based formula - and one I'm very pleased about - is the Fast battle system. When you come across an enemy, you'll be able to gauge their strength before initiating combat. The Fast system lets you target a particular enemy and strike them; this can insta-kill underpowered foes, which allows you to avoid turn-based battling entirely when grinding low-level enemies. For stronger foes, you can use Fast to butter them up and start a squad battle with advantage, but if you mess up this engagement you could start the turn-based combat on your ass. Other Atlus games have a similar risk-reward system to allow players to gain an advantage, but this is more nuanced and satisfying.The interface for all of this is a typically gorgeous menu system and UI that feels more refined than ever. Simple actions are assigned a face button on the controller, which means less time spent in menus. It's all pretty intuitive, and towards the end of my short demo I was already speeding through the turn-based combat without wondering what button did what. Taken as a whole, the combat system feels like a natural evolution to the classic formula Atlus is known for.AtlusThe final demo section starts inside the Gauntlet Runner. It's a claustrophobic space, more submarine than super yacht, but filled with things to do. There are people to talk to, activities to partake in, and routes to choose. Similar to Persona, the game occuring over a fixed period means you likely won't be able to do everything you want to, and instead need to decide how best to spend your time each day. You might try to level up one of the main character's five traits - courage, wisdom, tolerance, eloquence and imagination - or perhaps focus on fighting monsters or earning cash. I played to type and read a book, which was sadly not enough to raise my courage from craven."My cozy book session led immediately into the main show: a face-off against a giant human. This began with an anime sequence, which gave way to classic four-on-one combat. The human designs in this game are buckwild. This one was called, Sea Horror Homo Sabara" and here are the Cliff's Notes:
Neva is going to make me cry. It very nearly did at Summer Game Fest, as the game's introductory cinematics faded to black, literally just one minute into my time with the demo. I won't divulge what happens in those initial frames, but it shattered my soul. It also perfectly primed me for the heart-pounding danger and devastating beauty that I would get lost in for the next 45 minutes, alongside my new best friend, Neva the wolf.Nomada StudioEvery aspect of Neva is breathtaking. It plays like a living watercolor illustration: Alba, the protagonist, has long, slender limbs, a cloud of silver hair and a flowing red cloak that drapes behind her elegantly with each leap and fall. Neva is a young white wolf, fluffy and energetic, and the two share an intense bond that's repeatedly reinforced and tested in the demo.The world of Neva feels slightly more grounded than that of Gris, the game that put Nomada Studio on the map in 2018, but it's still filled with layers of magic. The landscapes beyond the 2D plane that Alba and Neva traverse have incredible depth - dense forests hiding secrets and mountain ranges towering above wide valleys, sharp peaks piercing the sky in the far distance. The demo has lush glades draped in vines and weeping branches, sunlight streaming through the gaps in the leaves, as well as cave systems with dark, tight corridors. At times Neva takes the Frank Lloyd Wright approach to design, squeezing players through claustrophobic thickets that suddenly burst onto fields of thick green grass, the camera pulling back to show how small Alba and Neva really are in this space.Nomada StudioTrees, leaves, rocks and roots compose the game's sidescrolling playground, with sloping platforms and floating islands built mainly out of stone. Touches of fantastical alien technology appear with increasing frequency as the demo progresses, as do hordes of inky-black enemies with round white faces, mouths open in silent screams.Platforming in Neva is intuitive. There's minimal on-screen text in the game, and instead direction comes from the environment, soft highlights and sunkissed glows marking the proper paths in a way that feels completely natural. I flowed through most areas of the demo, leaping onto ledges with almost-subconscious impulses, knowing that I could trust the game's subtle instructions. There are areas of spiky blackness that Alba has to clear for Neva to be able to progress, and at times it's necessary to leave the little wolf behind for a moment, generating instant separation anxiety. Neva yelps and squeaks as she learns how to traverse the world, and they're heart-wrenching sounds. I was keenly aware of Neva with each jump, making sure she could follow my path, lingering to watch her complete big leaps, petting her after each success, and consistently calling out her name.Alba's voice is fairy-like and the way she says, Neva? Neva. Nevaaa!" has become an earworm I can't shake. In the days since coming home from Summer Game Fest and reuniting with my two small dogs, I've been walking around the house saying, Neva?" as if it were their names. It's been a very confusing time for them, but they've gotten a few extra treats, so all's well.Combat in Neva feels as intuitive as platforming, with simple inputs that land satisfying hits of Alba's sword. The enemies, long-limbed creatures that appear out of dark pools in the ground, slash at Alba with their spiky fingers and throw lethal blobs at her, but one-on-one, they're fairly easy to dispatch. Alba is able to get incredibly close to each creature before she takes damage, and this generous proximity makes the fight scenes feel like dance, with constant action and minimal interruptions. I didn't die until I reached the boss fight at the end of the demo, where Neva and I had to fight off a giant creature, double jumping around it to slash at its legs and back, avoiding its attacks. I defeated the boss after three deaths, and the scene felt like an appropriate escalation of everything I'd learned so far.Nomada StudioI'm convinced that every preview of Neva (including this one) will mention how quickly and easily the game will make players cry, and I want to take a moment to recognize the magnitude of this achievement. The bond that Nomada Studio have built between Neva and Alba is incredibly powerful, and this type of emotional connection doesn't just happen when you put an animal and a human in the same scene. Neva is a constant source of anxiety and joy: The cub must be protected, at all costs, and she feels like a physical part of Alba's being, necessary to the protagonist's survival. Neva establishes their shared trauma and every following mechanic reinforces their partnership - protect, pet, repeat. Neva and Alba need each other, and their shared love resonates from each frame of the game.Guaranteed, Neva is going to make me cry.Neva is due out on PC and PlayStation 5 this year, developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital.Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/neva-hands-on-a-grand-achievement-in-emotional-game-design-180516649.html?src=rss
The Google Pixel Tablet with charging speaker dock is $130 off right now via Woot. This is a discount of 26 percent and a record low for the tablet. That's a pretty good deal for a device that's still under a year old.It's worth re-emphasizing that this sale is for the tablet and the charging speaker dock. It's the latter accessory that was largely responsible for the positive review we gave the tablet last year. The dock lets the tablet double as a smart display. It charges the tablet quickly and provides a sturdy base for touch gestures. The speakers are also much louder than one would expect, given the size. The combination of a useful dashboard, an easy-to-read interface and impressive audio make it one heck of a smart display.We were a bit cooler on the tablet itself, though it's perfectly serviceable. The nano-ceramic coating and glass-like backing makes it feel more expensive than it actually is and the low weight, at just over one pound, ensures you won't cramp up while streaming the latest hit TV show. It is, however, slightly heavier than the iPad Air.There's also a neat little kickstand-hanger combo that lets you place the tablet just about anywhere. This is useful, for instance, when following a recipe in the kitchen. You can just hang it right on a cabinet knob. The 2,560 x 1,600 LCD panel isn't as vibrant as a modern OLED, but it gets the job done.The Pixel Tablet is the first of Google's tablets to be a Chromecast receiver, so you can control it from your phone. This comes in especially handy when watching streaming apps, though it only works when docked.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-tablet-with-charging-speaker-dock-is-130-off-right-now-165101833.html?src=rss
It might be too late to get a big tech gift to ship in time for Father's Day, but if you're looking to upgrade your own setup, you can still take advantage of a few sales that are still kicking ahead of the weekend. The 13- and 15-inch versions of Apple's latest MacBook Air are each down to all-time lows, for instance, as are both versions of the newest MacBook Pro. Beats' new Solo 4 headphones are $70 off, too, while Solo Stove has a sale on some of our favorite smokeless fire pits. Several other gadgets we recommend are also on sale, including Amazon's Echo Buds, the Backbone One mobile game controller and Lenovo's IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-macbook-air-m3-hits-a-new-low-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-160638174.html?src=rss
Getty has partnered up with Picsart, a popular photo-editing platform, to build an AI image generator that's entirely trained on licensed stock images. The companies are calling it a responsible, commercially-safe" alternative to current platforms. Images created by the model will have full commercial rights, which should address concerns about AI-generated images violating copyright laws.The service will only be available to paid Picsart subscribers and the whole thing recalls Adobe's Firefly AI model. That generator is also trained on stock images, though not exclusively. Adobe recently outraged users by updating its terms of service to indicate that it could access and use people's work to train AI models. The company quickly amended the terms of service once the backlash started spreading.Picsart and Getty hope to avoid any backlash by sticking to fully licensed stock images, so regular Picsart users won't be at risk of having their creations snatched up by the model for training and generation purposes. It allows creators to bring their visions to life while maintaining the highest standards of commercial safety," Grant Farhall, CPO at Getty Images, wrote in a blog post.It also looks like Getty is playing fair with this one, for those worrying about the work of professional photographers being co-opted. We reached out to the company and a rep said that it is "compensating creators included in the dataset on an annual basis." That's something at least!The Picsart x Getty Images model releases later this year, though there's no concrete launch date. It'll be accessible via Picsart's API services.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/picsart-and-getty-are-making-an-ai-image-generator-entirely-trained-on-licensed-content-154058696.html?src=rss
For years, the iPhone's two-tiered texting system has been a hot topic. iPhone-to-iPhone texts in the Messages app are blue, and enjoy full encryption and more robust media features, like animations. But messages to and from Android devices are merely standard SMS texts, and marked with a green tint. Apple's segregated messaging platform has been the subject of a Google-funded shaming campaign, and even sparked chatter of regulatory intervention. But with Apple's recent confirmation that it will begin supporting the newer RCS texting standard in iOS 18, is the iPhone messaging playing field about to be leveled? Or are we just exchanging one acronym for another?Confused? Don't worry. We're about to lay out what could change with Apple's adoption of the GSMA's next-generation messaging protocol.What is SMS?Short Message Service (SMS) is one of the most ubiquitous messaging protocols on the planet. It dates back to the early days of mobile technology. In December 1992, Neil Papworth, at the time an engineer at Vodafone, sent the first SMS text message when he wished his boss Merry Christmas." By the start of 2011, approximately 80 percent of all mobile phone users globally - an estimated 3.5 billion people - were sending SMS messages every month.Today, however, the standard has some notable drawbacks. SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, and texts you send can't include photos, videos, audio or GIFs. For that, cell phones have long turned to a supporting protocol known as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), but it too has its share of technical limitations, including woefully small message size limits. SMS also doesn't support end-to-end encryption.But for all the ways SMS feels dated in an era dominated by instant messaging platforms, it has one defining advantage: SMS messages are routed through your carrier's mobile network, meaning a data plan isn't necessary to use the technology. That fact has meant SMS has often served as a fallback for more advanced protocols, including Apple's iMessage.What is RCS?RCS is short for Rich Communication Services, though sometimes it is also marketed as Advanced Messaging." Either way, it's often positioned as a next-generation replacement for SMS and MMS. RCS allows users to take advantage of many features that were previously exclusive to over-the-top messaging platforms like WhatsApp.For instance, the RCS Universal Profile includes full support for read receipts and typing indicators. It can also facilitate proper group chats, and allow users to send high-resolution images, video and audio clips. As of earlier this year, Google's implementation of RCS also offers by default end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for both one-on-one and group chats.Unlike SMS texts, RCS messages are routed over a mobile data connection or Wi-Fi link, with SMS functioning as a fallback. For that reason, the older protocol likely isn't going anywhere anytime soon.One thing that's important to remember about RCS is that it is not and has never been envisioned as a replacement or competitor to instant messaging apps. At its heart, RCS is a communication protocol between mobile telephone carriers and between a phone and carrier. Taking advantage of RCS does not require signing up for a new service. As long as your phone and carrier support RCS, and you're using a compatible app such as Messages by Google, you can take advantage of everything the protocol has to offer - provided, of course, the person or people you're messaging meet those same requirements.How does iMessage fit into all this?Apple announced iMessage in June 2011, a few short months before Steve Jobs died later that same year. Unlike RCS, iMessage is a proprietary messaging protocol controlled exclusively by Apple and available (barring some occasional, unofficial workarounds) only on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac devices. Starting in 2024 with the iOS 18 update, Apple plans to integrate support for RCS in its Messages app. As of writing this article, the two protocols do not communicate with one another. As such, Apple's Messages app will default to SMS/MMS when users attempt to send texts and media files to someone with an Android phone.From the perspective of an iMessage user, it can feel like Android users are stuck in a bygone messaging era - even though the latter is not at fault for the situation. Due to iMessage's reliance on SMS/MMS for Android communication, media files end up pixelated, there aren't any read receipts or typing indicators and forget about trying to involve multiple iPhone and Android users in a single group chat.How did we get here?Although work on RCS began before Apple announced iMessage, the protocol had one major disadvantage that doomed it to a slow rollout. RCS is a multi-stakeholder project that includes the involvement of the GSMA, a trade body that represents the interests of the mobile communications industry at large. In 2015, Google took a more active role in the proliferation of RCS when it acquired Jibe Mobile. With Jibe's technology as a base, it's effectively Google that provides the glue that binds the RCS ecosystem together, but for a long time, the company did a poor job of aligning everyone involved in RCS toward a shared goal.In fact, the early days of RCS were marked by false starts, with some carriers, including a group made up of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon forming a short-lived joint venture to push the protocol forward before eventually aligning themselves with Google. Even Samsung did its own thing for a while before it too eventually agreed to make Messages by Google the default messaging app it ships on phones in the US.For that reason, Apple has had little reason to adopt RCS. After all, why would it give a bumbling competitor a freebie? And as recently as 2022, it seemed there was little to no chance the situation was going to change anytime soon. "I don't hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy into that," Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Code Conference that year when he was asked about RCS messaging. Buy your mom an iPhone" was his final word on the matter.But it was also last year that the European Union passed its landmark Digital Markets and Services Act (DMA). The legislation requires gatekeepers" to not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications. Apple, according to the law, is one such company.Ultimately, the EU ruled in 2024 that Apple's Messages app did not constitute a monopoly (though European regulators had plenty of other directives for other aspects of Apple's empire). Despite being in compliance, however, Apple had pledged to adopt RCS support months earlier. Per noted Apple pundit John Gruber, Apple's bigger motivation may have been to placate regulators in China. But whatever the reason, it appears to be a done deal: Apple reaffirmed RCS support is coming to the iPhone as part of iOS 18.Does Apple's support of RCS mean the end of green text bubbles on iPhone?Alas, green bubbles are likely here to stay. The company noted in its original comment on RCS that iMessage will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users." That said, even if you take that statement to mean iMessage will continue to display texts from non-Apple devices differently from those sent from an iPhone, iPad or Mac, Apple's adoption of RCS should lead to a better user experience for both iOS and Android users.Again, Apple needs to provide specifics, but it's easy to envision a future where its Messages app, thanks to RCS, properly displays high-resolution images and videos sent from Android phones, and allows both iOS and Android users to take part in group chats without something breaking. Apple also said in its original November 2023 announcement it would work with GSMA members to improve the existing Universal Profile protocol, with a focus on adding end-to-end encryption to the standard.Of course, whether that interoperability ends the stigma around green bubbles is harder to answer.Editors' note: This story was originally published in November 2023 and has been updated to reflect new information.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-is-rcs-and-how-is-it-different-from-sms-and-imessage-202334057.html?src=rss
Controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI has agreed to an unusual settlement to a class action lawsuit, The New York Times reports. Rather than paying cash, the company would provide a 23 percent stake in its company to any Americans in its database. Without the settlement, Clearview could go bankrupt, according to court documents.If you live in the US and have ever posted a photo of yourself publicly online, you may be part of the class action. The settlement could amount to at least $50 million according to court documents, It still must be approved by a federal judge.Clearview AI, which counts billionaire Peter Thiel as a backer, says it has over 30 billion images in its database. Those can be accessed and cross-referenced by thousands of law enforcement departments including the US FBI and Department of Homeland Security.Shortly after its identity was outed, Clearview was hit with lawsuits in Illinois, California, Virginia, New York and elsewhere, which were all brought together as a class action suit in a federal Chicago court. The cost of the litigation was said to be draining the company's reserves, forcing it to seek a creative way to settle the suit.The relatively small sum divided by the large number of users likely to be in the database means you won't be receiving a windfall. In any case, it would only happen if the company goes public or is acquired, according to the report. Once that occurs, lawyers would take up to 39 percent of the settlement, meaning the final amount could be reduced to about 30 million. If a third of Americans were in the database (about 110 million), each would get about 27 cents.That does beg the question of whether it would be worth just over a quarter to see one of the creepiest companies of all time to go bankrupt. To cite a small litany of the actions taken against it (on top of the US class action):
This week has felt like a month worth of news, now that we've wrapped up Apple's WWDC 2024 and Summer Game Fest in LA. In this episode, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss their final thoughts on Apple Intelligence and the company's upcoming software, and they chat about some of our coverage highlights from the pseudo-E3 Game Fest. Also, we dive into X making likes private (what is Elon hiding?!) and the news around Sony buying the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain.Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!Topics
Microsoft has belatedly cottoned on to the whole using AI to watch someone's screen might be a bit creepy" thing. It has announced it will limit the launch of Recall, which was due to arrive alongside the first batch of Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs on June 18. Instead, it will limit previews to just members of its Insider program to better focus on their feedback. We all know what that means, right? It's just going to fade into the ether until everyone forgets it ever happened.- Daniel CooperThe biggest stories you might have missedTesla shareholders have approved Elon Musk's unfathomable' pay packageOverwatch 2 resurrects Pink Mercy cosmetic for a charity fundraiserWhatsApp rolls out enhanced video callingSo long, Jabra earbuds, it's not your faultHow Messages via Satellite will work on iOS 18 and how much it will costLinkedIn's AI job coach can write your cover letters and edit your resumeSkate Story hands-on: Kick, push, shatterYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Samsung's Galaxy Watch FE arrives on June 24It's a $200 cut-down version of the flagship.SamsungSamsung's Galaxy FE lineup offers a lot of what's available in its flagship products with a much lower price. The latest to join the gang is the Galaxy Watch FE, which gets much of the same health tech as the Galaxy Watch in a more modest package. The tradeoffs are sensible enough to make the price of $200 pretty darn compelling for some people.Continue Reading.Segway's robot mower spared me from my least favorite choreThe Navimow i105 means my lawn has never looked better.Photo by Daniel Cooper / EngadgetRobomowers are expensive, require a lot of effort to install and aren't exactly the set-and-forget dream you expect. Or at least, they used to be: Now, Segway's Navimow i105 uses GPS instead of a fiddly ground wire, removing a lot of the hassle of installation. It's not perfect by any means, but it's an easy way to turn a patch of ground into a manicured lawn without much effort on your part.Continue Reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-microsoft-pauses-its-creepy-recall-ai-feature-111539438.html?src=rss
Microsoft's Recall AI feature won't be launching with the first batch of Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs on June 18. In an update on the Windows Blog, the company said that Recall will shift from being a "preview experience broadly available for Copilot+ PCs" next week to a preview that's only available in the Windows Insider Program. It will only release the feature for all Copilot+ PCs after it receives feedback from its Insider Community of testers.The company added that it's adjusting Recall's release to "ensure the experience meets [its] high standards for quality and security." Microsoft has faced a lot of criticism related to Recall ever since it announced the feature at an event in May. Recall gives users a way to find anything they've ever looked at on their computer - web pages, images, documents, emails, presentations, chat threads, so on and so forth. It works by taking screenshots of a user's activity every few seconds and then storing them in the "Recall timeline."Microsoft assured users when it launched that Recall processes data locally and will keep their information secure, but that wasn't enough to assuage critics' privacy concerns. The company announced more privacy and security changes to Recall earlier this month, including making it opt-in. When a user sets up a Copilot+ PC, its Windows OS will ask them whether they want to enable the feature. Users will also need to verify their identities through a Windows Hello authentication method, such as facial recognition or fingerprint scan, before they can access the encrypted Recall timeline. That's not a foolproof method, however, since anybody who knows their PIN will still be able to see their Recall snapshots.Despite those changes, Microsoft has chosen to delay Recall's launch. Maybe the company realized that there's room for improvement and that it's better to be absolutely sure that the feature won't end up becoming a massive privacy and security nightmare. At the moment, it doesn't have an exact date for Recall's availability in the Windows Insider Program yet. It will be accessible to testers in the coming weeks, though, and the company will publish a new blog post on how to get its preview version when it comes out. Testers will need a Copilot+ PC to be able to access it, though, since the feature will only work with advanced CPUs that come with neural processing units (NPUs) for AI tasks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-postpones-the-launch-of-its-controversial-recall-ai-feature-031554596.html?src=rss
Tesla shareholders have again approved Elon Musk's multi-billion dollar pay package several months after a Delaware court invalidated it. During the electric car maker's annual shareholder meeting, the company's stockholders signed off on a proposal to reinstate Musk's pay package, currently worth about $48 billion, according to Bloomberg.Judge Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware's Chancery Court previously called the Tesla CEO's pay, worth $56 billion when it was first approved in 2018, an "unfathomable sum." Musk responded by threatening to move the company's state of incorporation to Texas. During Tesla's meeting, shareholders officially signed off on the move.The approval of Musk's compensation doesn't guarantee that his eye-popping pay will be reinstated. As Bloomberg points out, the vote doesn't invalidate the judge's initial ruling, but Tesla will almost certainly appeal and point to the latest shareholder vote as evidence that the company's stockholders have approved it.Unsurprisingly, Musk seemed pleased with the vote. I just want to start off by saying, hot damn. I love you guys," he said after taking the stage at the shareholder meeting. He later said that the reinstatement of his pay wouldn't affect his short-term commitment to Tesla. It is worth emphasizing that it's Tesla stock that I have to own for five years. It's not actually cash, and I can't cut and run, nor would I want to."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-shareholders-have-approved-elon-musks-unfathomable-pay-package-230401086.html?src=rss
Finally, something the whole Overwatch community can get behind! For a limited time in 2018, Blizzard sold the Pink Mercy skin as a fundraiser in support of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. That was back in the day when Overwatch cosmetics only came in loot boxes, so the chance to directly purchase a skin while supporting a worthy cause was a big deal for the player base. Sales of the legendary look during that drive generated $12.7 million for the BCRF. And later this month, you can be pretty in pink once again.The original Pink Mercy skin will be available for $14.99 starting June 25. Blizzard is also boosting its charity game with a brand new Rose Gold Mercy bundle for $19.99. For both items, 100% of the purchase price (minus any platform fees and taxes) will go directly to the BCRF. Players can buy these items through the Overwatch 2 in-game shop, or from the digital storefront on their platform of choice, such as the Battle.net shop, Microsoft Store, or PlayStation Store.Activision BlizzardThe preview Blizzard shared shows that the Rose Gold Mercy skin has a slightly different color scheme than the original, giving the support hero some rosy hair instead of her signature blonde. It also includes a heroic weapon skin, so that you can apply the pink look for her Caduceus Staff to any Mercy skin. The rest of the bundle includes three name cards, three sprays, and three player icons, all themed - you guessed it! - pink.The BCRF charity drive will run from June 25 through July 8. It's a good time to get back into the game, especially since Blizzard has unlocked all new heroes and has made changes to reduce mid-match quitting.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/overwatch-2-resurrects-pink-mercy-cosmetic-for-a-charity-fundraiser-225022341.html?src=rss
A class action lawsuit filed by two women against Apple seeks damages for 12,000 current and former female employees for allegedly underpaying them. The complaint says the tech giant systematically" paid them a lower wage than their male employees over a four-year period.The lawsuit filed in a California state court in San Francisco County on Thursday claims Apple's systematic behavior of sexual discrimination stems from a policy that set employees' salaries based on their previous employment, according to the Wall Street Journal.Prior to fall of 2017, the complaint states that Apple used job applicants' provided prior pay rates to set their starting salaries. The following year, Apple asked applicants for their pay expectations. The lawsuit alleges that both of these practices led to lower pay rates for women in the workplace. It also claims the latter policy of asking prospective employees for their pay expectations is highly correlated with prior pay; studies show that persons asked for pay expectations generally provide a number slightly higher than the pay at their current or last job."The pay policy for job applicants created a pattern of lower pay for female employees, the lawsuit alleges: Apple's policy or practice of collecting information about pay expectations and using that information to set starting salary has had the effect of perpetuating past pay disparities and paying women less than men performing substantially similar work."The lawsuit goes even further by suggesting that Apple regularly punishes female employees because of scored categories" of job performances that drive pay bonuses and increases.Apple's performance evaluation system is biased against women because for scored categories such as teamwork and leadership, men are rewarded and women are penalized for the same behaviors," the complaint reads.The class action lawsuit seeks payment for damages and declaratory relief" as well as repayment of low earnings and benefits due to the alleged discrepancies by Apple. The plaintiffs are also asking the court to hold a jury trial to hear their complaint.In 2022, reporters for the Financial Times talked with several female Apple employees who alleged they were the victims of sexual abuse and bullying on the job. Then when they filed complaints with human resources, they alleged that their cases were either minimized or ignored, or they received retaliation for filing their complaints.One of the most jarring examples came from Apple's former legal department director Jayne Whitt who says a colleague hacked into her devices and issued death threats. She filed a complaint with HR and was assured action would be taken. Whitt claims that Apple's HR team not only failed to even reprimand the employee but they eventually fired her. She blew the whistle on Apple in an online essay describing the situation that prompted a wave of support and similar stories from other female Apple employees.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-hit-with-lawsuit-for-allegedly-underpaying-female-employees-214538519.html?src=rss
HBO has announced that House of the Dragon will be back for a third season. The network confirmed the renewal of the Game of Thrones spinoff series in a press release just three days ahead of its Season 2 premiere.George [R.R. Martin], Ryan [Condal] and the rest of our incredible executive producers, cast and crew have reached new heights with the phenomenal second season of House of the Dragon," Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming and head of HBO Drama Series and Films, said in the press release.HBO hasn't revealed any details about the third season of House of the Dragon, nor has it given a release window. Still, it's not uncommon in the streaming era for networks like HBO to renew shows for future seasons before upcoming seasons go live, like The Last of Us.Last year, Orsi told Deadline that House of the Dragon may have more than four seasons. She added that Martin, whose book Fire & Blood inspired the spin-off series, and showrunner Condal were going to discuss where to end the show before the writers' strike started. That strike ended on September 23, 2023 with the Writers Guild of America reaching an agreement on protections against generative AI.The renewal also comes two days after Martin confirmed in a blog post that HBO is moving forward with another Game of Thrones spin-off, Ten Thousand Ships. He wrote that playwright Eboni Booth is working on a new pilot" for the prequel about Queen Nymeria and the Rhoynar after the show was previously scrapped.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/house-of-the-dragon-renewed-for-season-3-ahead-of-season-2-premiere-203425819.html?src=rss
My task for our AI overlords was simple: help me crack the New York Times Spelling Bee.I had spent a large chunk of a Saturday evening trying to shape the letters G, Y, A, L, P, O and N into as many words as possible. But three hours, 141 points and 37 words - including nonapology", lagoon" and analogy" - later, I had hit a wall. A few more words was all I needed to propel myself into Spelling Bee's "genius" echelon, the title reserved for those who unscramble 70 percent of all possible words using the given letters, and the point at which the puzzle considers itself, effectively, solved. (100 percent solvers are bestowed the rank of "queen bee," but even I have limits.)My human mind was clearly struggling, but this task seemed like child's play for AI, so I fired up ChatGPT, told it I was trying to win the Spelling Bee, gave it my letters and laid out the rules. Give me a list of every word that can be formed with them," I typed. You're allowed to repeat letters, but each word must contain 'N'."When I hit enter, this is what ChatGPT spat back:
Spotify has once again drawn the ire of the music industry. The National Music Publishers' Association has called on the Federal Trade Commission to examine the streaming service's addition of audiobook content into all of its paid subscription plans. According to the group's FTC complaint, Spotify's recent actions are part of "a scheme to increase profits by deceiving consumers and cheating the music royalty system."This requires some backstory. In November 2023, Spotify announced that it would include 15 hours of audiobook content as part of all its Premium subscription plans. A few months later, the company unveiled a new audiobook-only subscription, offering the same number of listening hours for $10 a month. The publishers' organization claims that Spotify's recent price increases are based on offering that extra audiobook content, and that paying customers are automatically being charged for a service they didn't choose and can't opt out of without switching to the free, ad-supported listening experience.And the additional revenue from the higher Premium subscription costs may not go to the music composers. According to the FTC complaint, Spotify will pay about $150 million less in music royalties over the first year of these new bundled Premium plans.The NMPA letter goes so far as to call the new audiobook-only plan "a sham" that "exists solely to allow Spotify to claim that audiobook content is a significantly and independently valuable aspect of its 'bundled' Premium Plan, as the Audiobook Access Plan costs only $1 less than the Premium Plan with the exact same audiobook content and music."A Spotify spokesperson provided Engadget with the following statement:Spotify's approach to expanding its offering and raising prices is industry standard. We notify users a month in advance of any price increases and offer easy cancellations as well as multiple plans for users to consider. In short, we categorically reject the NMPA's baseless accusations and will continue to provide consumers incredible value and a best-in-class experience."At this early stage, it's hard to say whether this issue will impact Spotify's planned overhaul of its royalty model. Both artists and publishers have routinely criticized the streaming ecosystem at large and Spotify in particular for underpaying the creatives behind the music.Update, June 13 2024, 3:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include Spotify's statement on the NMPA's claims.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/music-publishers-accuse-spotify-of-bait-and-switch-subscription-scheme-235255614.html?src=rss
WhatsApp is upgrading its video-calling chops. The Meta-owned platform is enhancing its calls with a new screen-sharing feature, a higher participant count and a speaker spotlight to try to make the platform a more viable competitor to Zoom, FaceTime and Google Meet.Screen sharing could be handy for watching videos together, sharing content that isn't easily shareable or troubleshooting your parents' devices. It also allows for audio sharing, so you can easily chat with others while looking at their screen.WhatsApp also expanded its participant count to 32 people on video calls. The new cap applies to all platforms. It's a significant boost from the previous limit of eight people, first rolled out in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns kicked into full gear.Speaker spotlight is another tweak in WhatsApp's update (which is already a standard feature on many other calling platforms). In a group call, the person talking appears first in the row of participants, and their picture is highlighted, making it easier to identify who has the proverbial mic.WhatsApp also highlighted its recent switch to the MLow codec for clearer calls. The new compression should clean up noise and echo cancellation, which is handy for noisy environments. Also, video calls will stream in a higher resolution if your network is fast enough to support it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-rolls-out-enhanced-video-calling-191519808.html?src=rss
Jabra has been a mainstay in the true wireless earbuds category since 2018, but it won't be any longer. Shortly after revealing two new products in its Elite lineup this week, parent company GN announced that it was shutting down its consumer earbud business to focus on other audio devices. The news was a shock given the timing and quickly put a damper on any excitement around the second-generation Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active.This announcement by GN is in an effort to concentrate resources and efforts on Jabra's enterprise products within audio, including enterprise-grade true wireless earbuds, as well as video and OTC hearing devices," a Jabra spokesperson told Engadget. While this puts a stop to the long-term development of the Elite and Talk product lines, it does not mean product names will cease to exist and the existing products will continue to be available. Customers will be able to buy them in the usual online and retail channels, as well as Jabra.com, and products will be supported throughout their lifetime, as normal."Jabra wasn't the first company to make true wireless earbuds, but it was among the first to make a lasting impression. In 2018, it debuted the Elite 65t, the first set of its kind that I felt was truly compelling. Jabra's version was smaller and therefore more comfortable than its rivals. They also offered better sound quality and more reliable connectivity than a lot of their existing competition.With subsequent releases, the company revised its formula, assisted consistently by its parent company. GN's decades of expertise in hearing aids provided helpful insights for Jabra's true wireless products, especially when it came to ergonomic design. Jabra was among the first to drastically reduce the size of its buds, while some of the competition still struggles to balance size and fit even today.Jabra Elite 75t and Elite 65t.Billy Steele for EngadgetJabra seemed to carve out a niche for itself with earbuds that offered a full set of features at prices below its main rivals like Apple, Bose and Sony. And until around 2020, the company was successful in offering a compelling alternative to the big-name brands. At that time, many earbud companies were still trying to fine-tune their formulas to offer the most complete set of buds with the best performance. Jabra's follow-up, the Elite 75t, was what I described as the leap from good to great." But even then, the 75t lacked active noise cancellation (ANC) despite a smaller, more comfortable design, improved sound and longer battery life.Ultimately, Jabra could never quite match the likes of Bose and Sony on ANC performance and overall audio quality. Despite this, Jabra was positioned fourth in the earbud market at the end of 2023, according to Global Market Insights. This put it behind Apple, Samsung and Sony in terms of overall market share.Jabra continued to expand its lineup with affordable alternatives that went as low as $80. Perhaps this extension contributed to its downfall: the company currently offers five different models as part of its lineup with significant overlap between some of them.GN explained this week that its re-focusing" towards more premium true wireless products in 2023 with the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active had led to a stronger profitability than before." However, it saw the writing on the wall: the earbud market is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive. The company knows that the investment required to develop enough future innovation" that would maintain its position wasn't sustainable. So, even on the heels of its latest Elite product launch, Jabra is bowing out.We have demonstrated that we can compete in even the most challenging categories," CEO of GN Store Nord Peter Karlstromer said in a statement. The markets, though, have changed over time, and it is today our assessment that we cannot generate a fair return on investment compared to the many other opportunities we have within our hearing, enterprise, and gaming businesses."Jabra Elite 10 (2nd gen)JabraIn what should be an exciting time for the company following the introduction of new models, Jabra is instead heading towards the end. The company has committed to supporting the products for several years," but I wouldn't expect any new features. Instead, we're likely to see subtle updates aimed at maintenance rather than significant improvements. It's going to be a tough sell for your newly announced product when you're already packing up shop.Now, the company will focus on enterprise, over-the-counter hearing assistance and gaming devices. But that doesn't mean Jabra will stop making earbuds entirely. The company still believes in true wireless earbuds, even though it has realized the consumer market isn't a sustainable area for future investment. True wireless innovation is still at the core of many of Jabra's products, so the company will remain in the earbuds market through other product lines," a spokesperson explained.But, it's time for the company to move on. Several releases after the Elite 65t, Jabra still isn't on par with Bose and Sony when it comes to noise-canceling abilities or overall sound quality. Not that it was ever far off, but it wasn't nipping at their heels either.Jabra may have been one of the first to actually deliver a reliable set of true wireless earbuds, but it squandered that lead by failing to surpass the competition. It introduced conveniences like multipoint Bluetooth connectivity way ahead of its rivals, a feature that is now common among new products. Even its latest two models come with an LE Audio-transmitting case that will allow you to send sound from devices with a USB-C or 3.5mm jack. Not an industry first, but another area where the company is an early adopter.At some point along the way though, Jabra's earbuds went from great to good. Not because they actually declined in quality, but because they just no longer stand out from the competition.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/so-long-jabra-earbuds-it-wasnt-your-fault-190039565.html?src=rss
Discord and Sony have announced that they're rolling out the ability for PlayStation 5 owners to start Discord voice chats directly from their consoles. Discord was available on next-gen Sony consoles previously, albeit through a somewhat clunky process that required players to use the app on their phone or PC to manually transfer the call.When you want to start a Discord call, go to the Game Base in your PS5 Control Center and select the Discord tab. Once you're in, you'll see a list of servers you're a part of, see who's in a voice channel and join it straightaway. Likewise, if someone else is trying to start a Discord call with you, you can join the call the minute your PS5 sends you that notification.Sony and Discord collaborated to bring the chat platform to PS5 and PS4 two years ago. Back then, users could only see what games their friends were playing.The new Discord voice chat feature will gradually roll out to PS5 consoles over the coming weeks, starting with Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. The Americas will be the last region to get it, but when that will be is unknown.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/discord-calls-on-ps5-will-soon-be-far-less-convoluted-174650032.html?src=rss
The Yahoo News app is now AI-assisted, thanks to the company's purchase of Artifact. Yahoo rolled out an update to its news aggregation app on Thursday with AI-powered personal feeds, key takeaways and the ability to flag clickbait headlines.In April, Yahoo (Engadget's parent company) bought the remains of Artifact, the AI-fueled news and recommendation app from Instagram's co-founders that shut down earlier this year. Today's update showcases how the technology can improve Yahoo's news feed, which brings in over 180 million unique visitors every month in the US.The new Yahoo News, available now on mobile and later on desktop, starts by letting you pick topics and publishers of interest for its algorithms to customize your feed accordingly. One noteworthy feature is the ability to quickly glance at the Key Takeaways" of a given story: a short bullet list of main ideas that (if you request it) appear at the top of an article to help save time. This is Yahoo's version of Artifact's Summarize" feature.You can further customize your feed by blocking keywords you want to avoid (like, say, NFT") or publishers whose content you don't like. Maybe the most intriguing feature is its ability to flag clickbait, which prompts the AI to rewrite headlines that are misleading, overly sensational or withholding critical information in hopes that you'll click. (Yes, please.)In addition to the app, Yahoo is revamping its homepage layout. The updated UI emphasizes top news, personalized recommendations, and real-time trending topics" and is designed to evolve over time. The company says you can opt in to receive access to new features (presumably, many AI-powered) as they're introduced.If you're in the US, you can download the new Yahoo News app for iOS or Android today.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yahoo-news-gets-an-ai-powered-overhaul-171507596.html?src=rss
I'm sure some of you have looked at robo mowers as Roombas for your yard but, sadly, many of them require you to install a boundary wire around the perimeter of your lawn. And any product that requires you to dig a trench is the opposite of what low effort" means to me. That's why I was interested in trying Segway's Navimow i105, its 945 (around $1,200) GPS-equipped mower which eliminates that busywork. And keeping your lawn neat and tidy is a job that's all busywork.Ask a gardener and they'll tell you the secret to a great lawn is to seed a piece of flat land and then mow it into submission. Regular, militant mowing kills off all the other flora, ensuring only grass can grow until everything looks well-manicured. But that relentless mowing requires a lot of time, a luxury I've never had. It's the sort of job a robot mower was born to do, given it can scuttle around and trim grass without you there.Segway's i Series is the company's latest, more affordable offering compared to its pricier S Series. The new units have a smaller battery and range, with the i105 able to handle areas up to 500 square meters. Unlike some GPS mowers, the i105 is equipped with a forward facing HD camera with a 180-degree field of vision. So while it relies on satellites for positioning, it'll have enough sense to stop before it clatters into an obstacle. It's not packing sophisticated computer vision smarts, but it'll play safe lest it charge into a pet, inattentive family member or prized flower.I wanted to test the Navimow because I have whatever you'd call the opposite of the platonic ideal of a Good Garden(TM). My house sits at the base of a hill, with the garden built into tiers along its height, and the lawn 1.5 meters above ground level. There's a sheer drop down its nearest edge and a foot-long drop along the side where the pathway has been cut into the ground. It's a high-stakes test to see how accurate the unit's positioning is, given what would happen if things went wrong. Plus, I'm not green-fingered and my lawn is usually overrun with an orgy of Borage that grows faster than I can cut it down.Setup requires you to plant the Navimow i105's docking station and connect it to a mains power and standalone GPS antenna. Once the unit is paired with the app, you'll use your phone as a remote control to drive it around the perimeter of your lawn. You'll also quickly learn that what you thought was a flat lawn has plenty of hidden bumps and dips. Which meant my first few mapping runs left with me a very wonky edge that I had to keep tweaking.Photo by Daniel Cooper / EngadgetYou'll also need to give your lawn a good mowing before you run the Navimow, because it's obviously not built to clear masses of unkempt grass. Spare a thought for me, as I was testing this during a typical British April, where we get torrential rain and bright sunshine in equal measure. And that will give your lawn - and the weeds lurking therein - time and opportunity to spring back. The unit's obstacle avoidance made it skirt even just a sprightly patch of grass and weeds, leaving me with a patchy cut that meant I had to get the lawnmower out again.Setup took about half an hour, which didn't feel too onerous given there's a fair chunk of stuff to do. Staking the GPS antenna into the ground, running the cables and locking down the charging station are all easy enough. I'm fortunate enough to have no tall buildings or obstacles blocking my GPS signals, either. Once it was all working, all I had to do after the initial run-around was let it work its magic without supervision. And, on flat ground in fair weather, Navimow does all you could ask it to do.Bear in mind that the Navimow will have the same limitations as any other robotic domestic aid (like a robovac). The cutting blades sit underneath the center of its body so it can't do edges unless you opt to have the machine ride beyond its boundary. If you can't do that, then you'll need to get a weed wacker to trim the unreachable edges of your turf. But I'll admit, I'm very much an edge case compared to most folks.I was deeply concerned about leaving the Navimow out in the weather, but the company said its IP66 rating for water- and dust-resistance meant I shouldn't worry. The company will sell you a canopy that can sit on top of the charging station to protect it from the elements. You'll have to bring the unit indoors from the end of fall to the start of spring each year, but that's hardly a shock.That's a relatively minor gripe, however, and I've enjoyed the ability to set this thing to run out on a regular basis. Once the inclement weather and weed growth subsided, the unit showed its worth eliminating around 90 percent of the busywork I would otherwise have to do. The fact I have a neat lawn that only needs a quick trim around the edges has been a delight. And I've spent more time in the garden now than I would otherwise given that it's nice by default, rather than needing a mow.Fundamentally, if you have a patch of ground you'd like to see become a lawn and don't have time to do it yourself, take a look at this. It may not be the set-and-forget solution you could hope for, but it'll reduce the amount of effort to almost nothing. And, while it costs a grand, if it lasts more than a couple of years, it'll work out cheaper than hiring a gardener to do the same job.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/segways-robot-mower-spared-me-from-my-least-favorite-chore-163659951.html?src=rss
Roomba Essential robot vacuums are on sale via Amazon right now and there are some great deals. The iRobot Roomba Vac Essential Q0120 is on sale for just $180, which is a discount of nearly 30 percent.The Vac Essential line is a slightly-upgraded rebrand of the fantastic Roomba 694, which topped our list of the best budget robot vacuums. The Q0120 boasts three different levels of suction to handle different types of messes and excels on both carpets and hard floors. It also features the same smart navigation algorithms as other iRoomba products, with sensors to help it avoid furniture and stairs.Just like its pricier cousins, it'll even return to the dock for juice on its own when running low on power. It can spot clean, handle corners and slide into tight spots like underneath beds and sofas. As a bonus, your cats will be absolutely terrified of or entranced with the thing.One task the Q0120 can't do, however, is mop. That's where the iRobot Roomba Essential Y0140 comes into play, which is on sale for $200 instead of $275. This model can do everything outlined above, but it vacuums and mops in a single pass. You'll never have to lift a finger ever again, except to empty debris from the robot. These models don't come with self-emptying bins.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/roomba-essential-robot-vacuums-are-on-sale-for-as-low-as-180-right-now-161359265.html?src=rss
Looking for more games to play this summer? You can pick up three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $35 via Woot, which is a discount of $10 and close to a record low price. Single months are also on sale for $12, instead of $17. It's a veritable cornucopia of digital subscription codes.Game Pass Ultimate is, well, the ultimate way to access the service. You can play hundreds of games on Xbox consoles, of course, but this membership also allows for cloud gaming on other devices like PCs and tablets. It even includes a free EA Play membership, which opens up even more games.The reason why Game Pass has been so successful is that the catalog isn't filled with shovelware and ancient relics, like the gaming equivalent of $1 Blu-Rays in the back of a Walmart somewhere. The catalog is overstuffed with actual games, from AAA exclusives to indie gems. Wanna check out the expansive JRPG Octopath Traveler and its sequel? They're both on Game Pass, in addition to the indie equivalent Sea of Stars. The same goes for Minecraft, Forza Horizon 5, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and just about every EA sports title. It's a pretty deep bench.Game Pass is also the home to Xbox first-party titles, and most of these release on the platform at launch. This means the catalog includes Bethesda games like Starfield and the Rare pirate-sim Sea of Thieves. This also means that subscribers will be able to play upcoming titles the day they release, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and a little war sim named Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox just had a fantastic showcase of upcoming games and many of the announced titles will be day one Game Pass exclusives.There are no two ways about it. Game Pass is the best subscription service around. PlayStation Plus Premium is decent and does its own share of day one launches, but the catalog just isn't as exciting. Nintendo Switch Online is, uh, great for people who want to play a middling SNES port once every three months.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/get-three-months-of-xbox-game-pass-ultimate-for-only-35-151745145.html?src=rss
Take me to Phoenix Springs.I didn't make it all the way to the remote desert oasis and its mysterious community of misfits while playing the Phoenix Springs demo at Summer Game Fest, but after spending a brief time in Iris Dormer's neo-noir world, I'm desperate to get there. I want to find out what happened to Iris' brother, a man I've only heard about in strange, sad tales. I want to hear Iris' voice articulating in my ear, providing brusque context for every scene. I'm ready to get lost again in the game's sickly green shadows. I'm wildly curious to find out what awaits me in the desert. Take me back.Calligram StudioPhoenix Springs is a point-and-click detective game starring Iris Dormer, a reporter who's looking for her estranged brother, Leo. Her search eventually leads beyond the city's crumbling skyscrapers and across the desert, to an oasis community called Phoenix Springs. Iris investigates the area and its people using an inventory of mental notes, collecting ideas instead of physical objects as clues.The Summer Game Fest demo covered the game's initial stages, featuring Iris on a train and in the city, only teasing the oddities that might be hiding in the desert community of Phoenix Springs. Each scene in the game is a work of art and Iris is its historian, revealing threads of relationships and storylines as she reads documents and picks up information from strangers. In any situation, she has three options for interaction: talk to, look at, use.Calligram StudioIris' mental inventory fills with names, dates, places and obscurities as she unpacks boxes, searches the net and tries to speak with her brother's former neighbors. Leo's last address is a building that's been boarded up, abandoned by its landlords mid-remodel, and here she encounters the people that have been left behind. There's a young boy making a plant dance with some kind of electronic box, and a middle-aged man sprawled, unconscious, on top of a shipping container. They're called the orphans and neither of them are up for conversation. On the other side of the building, an intercom houses a separate voice that shares the history of the area, filling Iris' inventory with words. Selecting an idea allows Iris to investigate her surroundings with that information, narrowing her focus and often unlocking solutions. It's a clean and familiar investigation mechanic presented in a starkly beautiful format.Phoenix Springs is gorgeous. Undeniably. Its canvas is menacing - dark green backgrounds are striped with even-deeper shadows, while pops of yellow, red and blue define the edges of important set pieces. The inventory bursts onto the screen as a bright white screen with black text, individual ideas separated by delicate thought bubbles. There's a papery sheen to the entire experience, as if it's an interactive interpretation of a mid-century sci-fi novel cover.Calligram StudioWhere the game lacks color, Iris provides it via narration, and her verbal palette is just as stark as the game's appearance. She speaks dispassionately and with a posh nihilism that would feel at home in an Orson Welles detective noir. Her voice is comforting and foreboding, and it's a welcome, near-constant companion in the demo.In the middle of a busy trade show packed with compelling games, I wanted to keep playing Phoenix Springs, and that's pretty much the highest praise I can give. Phoenix Springs feels utterly unique. It's coming to Steam on September 16, developed and published by London-based art collective Calligram Studio.Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/phoenix-springs-offers-breathtaking-beauty-in-a-desolate-neo-noir-world-130046288.html?src=rss
If you're looking for a discreet action camera that can take Dolby Vision-ready 4K resolution videos, Insta360's latest model is a great candidate. The Insta360 GO 3S is an updated version of the GO 3 action camera the company released last year, and it comes with several upgrades in addition to its capability to capture 4K 30fps footage. It's equipped with a chip that has 50 percent more computing power than its predecessor's, and it has a new wide-angle lens that enables videos with less distortion and straighter edges. The model can also take smoother slow-motion footage with a 1080p resolution at 200fps or a 2.7K resolution at 100fps.Insta360's new action-camera is compatible with Apple's Find My network, which sounds incredibly useful for such a small device that could be easily misplaced. It also has native waterproofing for up to 33 feet, or twice that of the GO 3. If you want to switch from horizontal to vertical shooting, you can simply twist the camera. And if the device is out of reach, you can use its new hand gesture feature to start or to stop shooting, as well as to take photos.Insta360For hands-free shooting, you can set a recording frequency and length if you want the camera to automatically record your day, thanks to its new Interval Video mode. Plus, you can use its app's new Auto Edit function to get an AI to combine several clips into one long video, with scoring, in case you'd rather not edit your footage manually.The model's Action Pod serves as its all-in-one housing, remote control and charger, and you can still preview your shots on its 2.2-inch touchscreen that you can flip up or down. Aside from the Action Pod, the Insta360 GO 3S standard bundle also comes with a magnet pendant and an easy clip that you can use to attach the camera to your cap, clothes, your pet's collar or anywhere else you want to. It also ships with a pivot stand and a lens guard. The standard bundle is now available for purchase around the world via the Insta360 website and retailers like Amazon. You can choose between the 64GB and the 128GB variant, which will set you back $400 and $430, respectively.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/insta360s-go-3s-is-its-new-tiny-wearable-camera-with-4k-video-130044121.html?src=rss
Last year, LinkedIn began experimenting with AI-powered tools for job seekers on its platform. Now the company has added a bunch of new capabilities for its premium subscribers who are #OpentoWork, including personalized resume, AI-assisted cover letters and more conversational job searches.The changes are meant to speed up some of the most tedious aspects of looking for a new role. For example, the revamped job search feature now allows you to look for roles with queries like find me a marketing job that's fully remote and pays at least $100,000 a year," or find business development roles in biotech." Those are all relatively simple descriptions but anyone who has searched for jobs on LinkedIn (without the help of AI) knows that it can often be a struggle to narrow down job listings with keywords.Once you find a role you're interested in, the built-in assistant can give you feedback on your qualifications and help with your application. You can upload a copy of your current resume and LinkedIn's AI will provide tips on what to update based on the job description. This can include suggestions on specific experiences to highlight or the ability to rewrite entire sections of the document. Likewise, LinkedIn can generate cover letters based on your experience and the job you want to apply for.LinkedInThe company gave me a preview of these tools and I thought it did a surprisingly decent job for a first attempt at a cover letter. It incorporated specific details from my profile and the tone didn't feel as robotic as much of the AI-written text I've encountered. Of course, as a journalist, I like to believe I can still write a better cover letter than an AI. But, I can see how the tool could be useful for people applying to dozens of jobs at once, especially since many companies use AI software to whittle down applications anyway.LinkedIn product manager Rohan Rajiv says that these tools are meant to be more of a jumping off point for users rather than an all-in-one solution. What we want to do is make it easy for folks who have a difficult time telling their story, have a difficult time staring at a blank screen trying to put something together to at least get started," he tells Engadget.But he also notes that the company is still in the relatively early stages of its AI push and it could eventually automate more of the job application process. The next horizon is going to be ... can you just do that for me," he says. You can almost imagine people thinking about it from an agent standpoint, and helping you get things done."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/linkedins-ai-job-coach-can-write-your-cover-letters-and-edit-your-resume-130033553.html?src=rss
Apple is slowly turning the iPhone into a fairly capable satellite communications device. It first rolled out Emergency SOS via Satellite on the iPhone 14 lineup. While you were previously limited to relying on the spacecraft for communications only when dialing emergency services, in iOS 18 this capability will apply to all situations where you're away from cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. I got to check out the updated experience at Apple Park, here's how it will work with iMessage or SMS messages.When you've been disconnected from cellular or Wi-Fi for some time, an alert will appear to say you'll need to hop on satellite communications to send messages. Tapping this notification brings up the new connection assistant, which contains all your satellite-powered tools, like Find My, roadside assistance and emergency SOS.You can start a chat from this page or just go to the Messages app, where a prompt will appear in the Dynamic Island to instruct you on how to find an overhead satellite. You can also go to the Satellite option in Settings or in the Control Center to get set up when cellular or Wi-Fi signals aren't available.The connection experience here isn't much different from before - you'll be told what direction to point your iPhone, as well as suggestions to avoid obstructions. Once you're linked, an indicator in the dynamic island shows a green check mark and it'll continue to change colors and shapes if your connection begins to weaken.To prevent networks getting congested with promotional SMS messages, Apple has made it so the person that's off grid is the one who can initiate SMS chats over satellite. That is, except for people who are listed as your emergency contacts or your iCloud family members. Their messages will still come through when you're on a satellite connection. Regardless of whether you're using iMessage or SMS, you'll only be able to send texts, emojis or tapback reactions. Compressing these into packages small enough to convey over satellite is already challenging, not to mention images and video.In my demo on an iPhone that was tweaked so it couldn't connect to Wi-Fi or cellular, I watched an Apple rep connect to an available satellite via the Dynamic Island's interface, then send a text to another person. On the sender's phone, the words iMessage. Satellite" appeared above the blue bubble, and the same showed up on the recipient's phone over the gray bubble. Read receipts aren't supported over satellite, so I only saw the delivered" and sent" status labels under the bubbles.It's nice to see both SMS and iMessage supported over satellite, even if only the latter is end-to-end encrypted. Apple's decision to include SMS is thoughtful, and though I'd like RCS to be covered as well, that platform's messages are too large or complicated to compress effectively. They are, after all, going to satellite infrastructure over 800 miles away from Earth, and targeting spacecraft that are moving at 15,000 miles per hour.The company still hasn't shared details on the pricing for satellite connectivity and related features after its free trial is over, but for now, those with an iPhone 14 and newer will be able to use these features for free. Apple's provision here is a little confusing at the moment, but basically you get two years of free satellite service from the time you purchase your new iPhone, and in November 2023 the company added another year to its free trial. In theory that's a window of a total of three years, though it might depend on when you bought your iPhone, since Apple didn't initially offer a two-year period.iOS 18 is expected to come to iPhones this fall, and we'll undoubtedly find out more about Messages via Satellite before then. We'll update this article with more information as and when we get it.Catch up here for all the news out of Apple's WWDC 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-messages-via-satellite-will-work-on-ios-18-and-how-much-it-will-cost-130020976.html?src=rss
Push. Push. Push, push, push, jump -All four wheels reconnect with the glowing pavement in a slap of crisp plastic and crunching wood.Push, push, push, push, jump kickflip -Another slam, a quick screech.Push, push, push, ju -A shattering crash. The world flips on its head in an explosion of glittering blacks and iridescent pinks. I let out a small laugh, adjust the controller in my hands, and lean forward. Reset.Push.In a hyper-chilled demo space at Summer Game Fest, Skate Story creator Sam Eng drew a picture of a flaming skateboard on a business card while I played his game, occasionally lifting his head to giggle at my crashes and answer my questions. He described Skate Story as an attempt to capture the feeling he often has while skateboarding, invincible in one moment and utterly vulnerable the next. Fragile, like glass.Skate Story absolutely crystallizes this feeling. You play as the glass skater, a demon made of translucent pain, and your goal is to skate to the moon, eat it, and escape this hell. The game takes place in a series of surreal playgrounds in the Underworld, offering long catwalks for gaining speed, winding pathways lined with lethal red shards, and open areas dotted in concrete ramps, gaps and waxed ledges. The Devil and his minions are your enemies, and their only weaknesses are your sweet tricks.Sam EngSkate Story is coming to PC and I played the demo with a standard Xbox controller: Press Y to hop on the board, A to gain speed, X to powerslide and B to ollie. Holding A pushes the glass skater forward in a steady rhythm, holding B does a higher ollie, and combining the trigger and bumper buttons with a jump executes a trick. I leaned heavily on ollies, kickflips (left trigger + B) and grinds (near a ledge + B), but I also landed a few moves that included these inputs plus a nudge of the right analog stick, swapping stances.As I ollied my way through the Underworld, I encountered a variety of floating stone heads - some friendly, some vicious - and I collected items to unlock new progression areas, slamming my board into the ground to solve little puzzles. There was a shop with custom decks and parts for sale, and wide-open spaces for practicing tricks. The demo's concluding boss fight, versus a giant stone philosopher's head no less, provided a concrete arena for me to perform tricks and deal damage with my rad skateboarding prowess.Sam EngI'm craving a few uninterrupted hours with the game, ideally at home and after a few edibles, so I can perfect its mechanics, unlock upgrades and learn new moves. I crashed a dozen times in my 45-minute demo, often in the same spot repeatedly and always with a magnificent, shattering explosion - but resets were swift and not too punishing. The crash always hit harder after I'd found a flow state, holding down A to push and jumping smoothly over neon spikes embedded in the shimmering black asphalt, taking a risk and landing a kickflip, reaching peak velocity, feeling completely free. And then I'd clip a sliver of concrete and the ride would be over, sudden and harsh. In Skate Story, sidewalk-high edges are just as dangerous as glowing-red obstacles, and the game requires a constant buzz of situational awareness. A lot like skateboarding in real life, I'd wager.Skate Story induces a limbo-like haze through its mechanical rhythm, VHS-filtered visuals and the constant, low whoosh of the glass skater's wheels rolling across the Underworld's concrete. Strategy becomes impossible and the only option is to feel your way through the brutalist, pearlescent landscapes. The game's soundtrack is provided by New York artist Blood Cultures and it's a soothing, lo-fi vibe fest, like OlliOlli's flow music but with a distorted edge. It feels like a perfect fit.Skate Story encourages you to enter a peak state early on, only so you can chase that feeling the rest of the game. It's an incredibly compelling loop, with room for payoff or failure in every push.Sam EngThe Underworld is so much larger than the slice I explored in Skate Story'sSummer Game Fest demo. The full game has more than 70 tricks to learn, fresh gear to acquire and a leveling system to unlock. Skate Story feels like a game that will easily swallow hours upon hours of my time. As easily as eating the moon, at least.Skate Story is due out this year (not 2023, as suggested by the top trailer) on Steam, developed by Sam Eng and published by Devolver Digital.Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/skate-story-hands-on-kick-push-shatter-120051976.html?src=rss
Samsung is expanding its lineup of Galaxy FE devices, which offer many of the features of flagship devices at a more budget-friendly cost, with a new smartwatch. The company says the Galaxy Watch FE includes the sensor tech, performance and health and fitness features of mainline Galaxy Watch devices with an all-new look. Naturally, though, there are some tradeoffs.The Galaxy Watch FE doesn't have the physical rotating bezel of the Watch 6 Classic, for instance, and it's limited to one size: 40mm. There are three color options of black, pink gold and silver and there are new one-click watch bands with blue and orange stitching. The watch has sapphire crystal glass, which Samsung says will help protect it against scratches in day-to-day use.The device has a wide range of health and fitness features, including the ability to help you track more than 100 workouts. There's an advanced running analysis feature that aims to provide insights and guidance to help prevent injury, while the personalized heart rate zone tool will help you set your own goals based on your physical abilities.The Watch FE also offers electrocardiogram monitoring and can look for signs of irregular heart rhythms and atrial fibrillation. Additionally, it has sleep tracking and body composition features, while it can deliver motivational messages to help you along your wellness journey.Other features include Find My Phone and Samsung Wallet. You'll be able to control the camera of your compatible Samsung smartphone remotely with the help of the Camera Controller tool.The Bluetooth version will cost $200 and will be available in the US on June 24. The $250 LTE variant will arrive in October.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-galaxy-watch-fe-arrives-on-june-24-120050782.html?src=rss
Netflix is taking advantage of some high drama in the hot dog-eating world with its next live-streaming event. A couple of days ago, Joey Chestnut was banned from Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Content over his apparent partnership with a plant-based brand, as pretty much every major news site in the world inexplicably reported.Cue Netflix, which leaped in with its own frank-eating event called Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef, set to be live-streamed on Monday, September 2. It features two of the best-known (only-known, for most people) hot dot-eating personalities in the form of Chestnut (40) and Takeru Kobayashi (46), with the latter coming out of semi-retirement for the occasion."Through all of my years in competitive eating, Kobayashi stands out as my fiercest rival," Chestnut said in a Netflix press release. "Retiring for me will only happen after I take him down one last time," added Kobayashi.
A number of former SpaceX engineers are suing Elon Musk for sexual harassment, retaliation and creating a hostile workplace environment. The suit comes in the wake of a blockbuster WSJ report that lifted the lid on Musk's treatment of SpaceX employees. This same group penned an open letter in 2022 highlighting Musk's behavior which, they say, caused them to be fired. They have also filed complaints against SpaceX with the NLRB, another government agency Musk is waging war against.- Dan CooperThe biggest stories you might have missedChinese EV makers face additional tariffs of up to 38 percent in the EUMusic publishers accuse Spotify of bait-and-switch subscription scheme'Sony Pictures is buying Alamo DrafthousePlayStation Plus June offerings include Monster Hunter Rise and three Lego gamesAstro Bot is a supremely silly and incredibly smooth platformerChromeOS will lean more on the same tech that powers AndroidJabra says it's exiting the consumer headphones business just as it announces new earbudsYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Apple seems to have persuaded OpenAI to work for exposureEven Sam Altman bowed to Tim Cook.
At Apple's recently concluded annual conference for developers, the company announced that it teamed up with OpenAI to bring its technology to the iPhone and its other devices. It's easy to imagine a huge amount of money changing hands in a deal between a massive corporation and a fast-rising tech firm. But according to a new Bloomberg report, nobody paid anybody in that partnership. Apple is reportedly not paying OpenAI, because it believes that putting its technology in front of hundreds of millions of users is equal to or even better than any kind of monetary payment.Apple will use OpenAI's GPT-4o model to power AI tasks on iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. Siri, for instance, will tap into ChatGPT's capabilities if users ask it to create menu ideas, to summarize articles or to find photos based on a description of what they contain. Apple's writing tools can also use ChatGPT to write stories, as well as to rewrite and proofread existing text. Users will be able to enjoy these features without having to log into or pay for ChatGPT, but they do get access to extra perks if they pay for a Plus account.As Bloomberg points out, OpenAI could make money from the deal by convincing Apple users to pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus. And if those users sign up on an Apple device, then the iPhone-maker will also get a commission. In the future, Apple intends to generate more earnings from AI by getting into revenue-sharing agreements with its partners, the news organization says. It's aiming to get a cut of what those partners will earn from monetizing results in chatbots on Apple's operating systems, in particular, because it believes more and more users will turn to AI over search engines. That means it could earn less money from its long-standing (and lucrative) search deal with Google.Apple has yet to reveal its future AI partners, but it's reportedly in talks with Google to offer Gemini integration to iOS users as soon as later this year. It's also reportedly talking to Anthropic to offer its Claude AI chatbot as another option.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-seems-to-have-persuaded-openai-to-work-for-exposure-033636236.html?src=rss
We don't know if OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is actually making any money so far. But thanks to a Wednesday report in The Information, what we do know is that the company doubled its annualized revenue - a measure of the previous month's revenue multiplied by 12, as the publication helpfully explained - in the last six months.OpenAI's annualized revenue was $3.4 billion, CEO Sam Altman reportedly told staff. That's up from $1.6 billion around the end of last year, and $1 billion a year ago. Most of this revenue came from a subscription version of ChatGPT, which offers higher messaging limits to people who pay at least $20 a month, as well as from developers who pay the company to use the company's large language models in their own apps and services. About $200 million on an annualized basis comes from Microsoft, which gives OpenAI a cut of sales of OpenAI's large language models to customers using Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform aimed at businesses.Notably, an OpenAI spokesperson told The Information that the financials were "inaccurate" but did not explain which details it disputed. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Engadget's request for comment.Earlier this week, Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI. The company plans to hook ChatGPT right into its operating systems for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, letting Siri reach out to ChatGPT to answer questions. The financial terms of that deal, however, are still unknown.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openais-revenue-is-reportedly-booming-230324957.html?src=rss
If you're looking for a birthday gift for the Pokemon fan who has everything (and we mean, every toy, card, item of apparel, game, Happy Meal collectable, etc.), the jewelry brand King Ice may have the solution.King Ice posted a photo on X and its website Wednesday teasing a new line of Pokemon jewelry pieces. The photo features the familiar face of Pikachu with a Poke Ball on his head decked out entirely in jewels. The X caption reads: Collection dropping 6/14/24."This is not the first time the jewelry and clothing brand have collaborated with a big video game franchise. King Ice also sells a line of bejeweled Xbox themed necklaces, rings and earrings. It's also made necklaces and other keepsakes featuring characters from games like PAC-MAN, Sonic the Hedgehog and Halo with a completely blinged out Master Chief full figure and helmet. King Ice has also made necklaces and rings for other pop culture icons such as Batman, Chucky and Tiffany from the Child's Play horror movie and TV show franchise, Looney Tunes characters based on the Space Jam movies and Ren and Stimpy.This also won't be the first time that Pokemon has been honored with its own jewelry line. Tiffany & Co. released a line of Pokemon jewelry pieces in November designed by Daniel Arsham featuring characters like Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, Jigglypuff, Cubone and Mew. The Tiffany necklaces came in 18K yellow gold with diamonds or sterling silver and even have their own Tiffany Blue Poke Balls, according toWomen's Wear Daily.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/king-ice-teases-bejeweled-pokemon-bling-222344432.html?src=rss
Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that it has acquired Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a beloved independent theater business. Alamo Drafthouse won scores of loyal fans over the years for its well-enforced policy of no talking and no texting during showings, as well as its dine-in experience with food and beverage menus.At least for now, the Alamo experience for viewers may not feel different under the new management. Alamo Drafthouse will continue to operate its 35 cinemas and run its Fantastic Fest film festival. And current CEO Michael Kustermann will remain at the helm and report to the head of a new Sony Pictures Experiences division.It's the end of an era for the indie theater chain, which was founded in 1997 by Tim and Karrie League. But given how hard the COVID-19 pandemic crushed the movie-going experience, at least this isn't the end of the Alamo Drafthouse story. The business made a valiant effort to keep viewers' support with its Season Pass streaming service in 2020, but the Texas-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021 and began approaching potential buyers in March of this year.There's no dollar figure attached to the announcement, but Sony's press release notes that Alamo Drafthouse is the seventh-largest theater chain in North America. Even with their struggles, the company attracts an annual audience of 10 million and posted a 30 percent increase in box office revenue last year. Maybe this sets the Alamo theaters up to host special Crunchyroll anime marathons in the near future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/alamo-drafthouse-is-being-bought-by-sony-pictures-204934280.html?src=rss
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