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Google TV is about to get a heavy dose of NFL Sunday Ticket. The service, which Google won the bidding rights for last year, will soon be available (and likely promoted with gusto) on the platform. Google also offers the NFL subscription service on YouTube and YouTube TV.Starting this football season, NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV will be fully integrated into Google TV in the U.S.," Google TV product managers Nick Staubach and Sal Altayyar wrote in an announcement blog post. This means you can now access live out-of-market Sunday afternoon games, see top highlights and get recommendations for top games of the week, all right on your Google TV home screen." The authors added that YouTube TV subscribers who add an NFL Sunday Ticket subscription would soon see the service in the app's live tabs.Google won the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, reportedly outbidding Apple and Amazon in late 2022 after DirecTV held the rights for nearly three decades. Annual packages for the service currently start at $399 through YouTube or $299 when bought alongside a separate ($73 / month) YouTube TV membership. Packages that include the NFL RedZone channel (for whip-around coverage of every game on Sunday afternoon") add an extra $40 onto each plan.Google also announced today that it's adding more than 25 new free channels to Google TV. The company (strangely) didn't specify the channels, but it mentioned that it would include shows like Top Gear and Baywatch. The unknown networks will join Google TV's lineup of over 800 FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-tv-is-integrating-nfl-sunday-ticket-ahead-of-the-new-season-190358886.html?src=rss

WhatsApp will now let you create small groups without first naming them. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature in a Facebook post (viaTechCrunch). You previously had to choose your group's name when setting it up.TechCrunch reports that unnamed groups have a cap of six members instead of the named groups' limit of 1,024 participants. In addition, WhatsApp will reportedly auto-generate placeholder names for unnamed groups based on their members. (For example, Rocco & Li-Chen" for a chat between them in Zuckerberg's sample image below.) Depending on how they've saved members' contacts, the group name will also appear differently for each member.Meta / Mark ZuckerbergWhen joining an unnamed group that includes people who haven't saved your contacts, it will reportedly display your phone number to the group. This suggests the feature is designed more for established friends, family or colleagues and less for strangers.TechCrunch reports that the feature will roll out globally over the next few weeks."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-lets-you-create-groups-without-naming-them-174420165.html?src=rss

Dr. Mario did not prepare us for this. In a pioneering effort, researchers from UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, in partnership with Edinburgh-based Speech Graphics, have devised a groundbreaking communications system that allows a woman, paralyzed by stroke, to speak freely through a digital avatar she controls with a brain-computer interface.Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are devices that monitor the analog signals produced by your gray matter and convert them into the digital signals that computers understand - like a mixing soundboard's DAC unit but what fits inside your skull. For this study, researchers led by Dr. Edward Chang, chair of neurological surgery at UCSF, first implanted a 253-pin electrode array into speech center of the patient's brain. Those probes monitored and captured the electrical signals that would have otherwise driven the muscles in her jaw, lips and tongue, and instead, transmitted them through a cabled port in her skull to a bank of processors. That computing stack housed a machine learning AI which, over the course of a few week's training, came to recognize the patient's electrical signal patterns for more than 1,000 words.But that's only the first half of the trick. Through that AI interface, the patient is now able to write out her responses, much in the same way Synchron's system works for folks suffering from locked-in syndrome. But she can also speak, in a sense, using a synthesized voice trained on recordings of her natural voice from before she was paralyzed - same as we're doing with our digitally undead celebrities.What's more, the researchers teamed up with Speech Graphics, the same company that developed the photorealistic facial animation technology from Halo Infinite and The Last of Us Part II, to create the patient's avatar. SG's tech reverse engineers" the necessary musculoskeletal movements a face would make based on analysis of the audio input, then feeds that data in real-time to a game engine to be animated into a lagless avatar. And since the mental signals from the patient were mapped directly to the avatar, she could express emotion and communicate nonverbally as well.Creating a digital avatar that can speak, emote and articulate in real-time, connected directly to the subject's brain, shows the potential for AI-driven faces well beyond video games," Michael Berger, CTO and co-founder of Speech Graphics, said in a press statement Wednesday. Restoring voice alone is impressive, but facial communication is so intrinsic to being human, and it restores a sense of embodiment and control to the patient who has lost that.BCI technology was pioneered in the early 1970s and has been slowly developing in the intervening decades. Exponential advancements with processing and computing systems have recently helped reinvigorate the field, with a handful of well-funded startups currently vying to be first through the FDA's regulatory device approval process. Brooklyn-based Synchron made headlines last year when it was the first company to successfully implant a BCI in a human patient. Elon Musk's Neuralink entered restricted FDA trials earlier this year after the company was found to have killed scores of porcine test subjects in earlier testing rounds.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/university-of-california-bci-study-enables-paralyzed-woman-to-speak-through-a-digital-avatar-172309051.html?src=rss

Epic Games is trying to secure more exclusive titles for its PC storefront with its latest proposals to third-party developers. The company is offering the makers of eligible games and apps 100 percent of net revenue for six months. After the exclusivity window ends, developers and publishers will still take away 88 percent of their projects' revenue, with Epic receiving a cut of 12 percent.An Epic spokesperson clarified to Engadget that net revenue the developers and publishers receive doesn't include things like taxes and refunds. Epic covers payment processing and CDN fees, as well as other marginal payments.The company, which says its launcher and store has 68 million monthly active users, will also give participants of the Epic First Run program extra exposure to get their wares in front of more eyes. The games and apps will receive "exclusive" badging and spots on the homepage. Epic will include them in various collections and promotions too.The program will be open to developers and publishers who are releasing eligible products on or after October 16th. A product will be eligible if it hasn't appeared on another third-party PC store or subscription services on said storefronts. Games and apps that already have exclusivity deals with Epic aren't eligible.Developers and publishers will still be able to sell games and apps that are included in the program directly to users via their own launchers and websites. They can also list their products on stores such as Green Man Gaming and Humble Store via the Epic Games Store's keyless redemption program.Epic already offered developers and publishers a more generous split of game and app sales than the likes of Valve, which takes a 30 percent cut of Steam sales. The promise of vacuuming up all net revenue for six months and getting extra promotion on the Epic Games Store might be compelling enough for more developers and publishers to take the exclusivity plunge there.Update, August 23rd, 2023, 3:13PM ET: The story has been updated with a clarification from Epic as to what net revenue entails.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/epic-offers-devs-100-percent-of-net-revenue-for-six-months-of-egs-exclusivity-171021764.html?src=rss

Don't tell anyone, but the Nintendo Switch emulation scene has been thriving pretty much since day one, due to an early hardware vulnerability. It's relatively simple to pirate Switch titles and play them on PCs, portable consoles like the Steam Deck and even lower-powered Android phones. This is a problem for the big N, and it's addressing it by partnering up with cybersecurity company Irdeto and its anti-tampering software suite Denuvo.Denuvo is one of the more popular software suites to minimize tampering and associated emulation. This is a middleware that developers pay for and integrate into the actual game code, thus making it much harder to emulate on other devices. The tools are common with PC titles but, until now, were unavailable for Switch developers.Though Denuvo is useful beyond the prevention of emulation, that seems to be the primary intent here, with Irdeto touting a new dev portal called the Nintendo Switch Emulation Protection program. The company calls it a revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy." It also notes that Switch piracy hurts PC sales as well, as the games pirated from Nintendo's console are playable on PC, bypassing Steam, Epic and other official online retailers.Now, this might be good news for Switch devs, but Denuvo has a spotty track record, despite boasting that it has protected more than 1,000 games from emulation. This is DRM software, plain and simple, so it's known to slow down performance when installed, leading some publishers to actually remove the middleware post-launch. Additionally, there's been some high-priority misfires with the software, with hackers cracking Middle-Earth: Shadow of War in less than a day, and that's with Denuvo installed. It's also known for being quite expensive, likely putting the software out of reach for smaller studios and development teams.The Nintendo Switch is over six years old, with a successor expected in the nearish future. In other words, why did this take so long? Nobody knows. Like it or not, the developers portal goes live this week.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-switch-developers-can-now-use-denuvo-to-curb-piracy-170254484.html?src=rss

Apptronik unveiled a new workforce robot today. Named Apollo, the machine is designed to work in environments designed for, and directly alongside, humans." The android is initially intended to move and carry cases and totes in logistics and manufacturing settings. But the Austin-based Apptronik sees Apollo expanding into construction, oil and gas, electronics production, retail, home delivery, elder care" and more. Apollo follows Xiaomi's reveal of the CyberOne robot last year, which looked remarkably similar to the still-unreleased Tesla Bot.The 5-foot-8, 160-lb Apollo can lift up to 55 lbs. (Apptronik says it optimized efficiency by making its arms lighter than the weight they can lift.) It uses swappable batteries - running up to four hours per pack - which should provide more flexibility than robots that require wall charging before springing back into action. In short, this battery-based approach means greater work output for Apollo and greater operational efficiency for customers," Apptronik wrote in a press release today.ApptronikApptronik views Apollo as a robot that can adapt to the job. The company says it built modularity into Apollo's design, empowering users to decide whether Apollo is best used for their applications as a true bi-pedal walking humanoid, a torso that operates on wheels or one mounted in a stationary location." The robot has digital panels on its face and chest to provide a friendly, human-like countenance" to make workers feel comfortable working alongside it (as it potentially moves towards automating their jobs).Apptronik hasn't announced public pricing for the robot. You can read more about Apollo on the company's product page.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apptroniks-apollo-is-the-latest-humanoid-robot-to-beat-tesla-to-market-164246161.html?src=rss

Solo Stove might just come to your aid if you're hoping for a smoke-free fire in your backyard (or at the beach) this Labor Day weekend. The company is steeply discounting its fire pits ahead of the holiday, both for devices and bundles. The core Bonfire 2.0 is down to just $240, or 40 percent off. If you need more gear to improve portability and protection, the Backyard Bonfire Bundle 2.0 is nearly 50 percent off at $425 (normally $840) with an included lid, shield, stand and weather shelter.The Bonfire 2.0 is one of our favorite pieces of outdoor tech for the fall. You can burn virtually any wood you have in a clean, smokeless fire pit that's compact enough to fit on a patio. It's ideal if you're hoping to stay warm outside as the evenings get cooler, or to roast marshmallows without making a conventional pit. The Backyard bundle includes what you need to use the Bonfire on heat-sensitive surfaces, guard against stray embers and keep the fire going in less-than-pleasant conditions.The Bonfire is the medium pit, so you'll want to look at the Ranger 2.0 for greater portability or the Yukon 2.0 if you want the largest possible option. For most uses, though, Solo Stove's mid-tier model is more than enough.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/solo-stove-cuts-up-to-40-percent-off-the-price-of-its-fire-pits-for-labor-day-155628784.html?src=rss

Former OpenSea employee Nathanial Chastain has been sentenced to three months in prison over an NFT (non-fungible token) insider trading scheme. Chastain, who was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering, used "confidential information about which NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSea's homepage for his personal financial gain," according to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.Back in 2021, an X (then known as Twitter) user claimed that Chastain was buying NFT drops before the public could get their hands on the digital items. Chastain, who selected which NFTs would appear on OpenSea's homepage, was accused of selling the tokens he bought in advance for a profit after they became broadly available and interest in them soared. OpenSea admitted that Chastain had carried out such a scheme and said it would ban employees from using confidential information to trade NFTs.The incident caught the attention of federal prosecutors, who treated the case in a similar fashion to regular insider trading. The US Attorney's Office noted that Chastain sold the NFTs for between two and five times the original purchase price.Along with his prison sentence, Chastain must serve three months of home confinement and three years of supervised release. He also needs to pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit the Ethereum he obtained from his illicit NFT trading."Nathanial Chastain faced justice today for violating the trust that his employer placed in him by using OpenSea's confidential information for his own profit," US attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "Today's sentence should serve as a warning to other corporate insiders that insider trading - in any marketplace - will not be tolerated."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ex-opensea-employee-receives-prison-sentence-for-nft-insider-trading-153628983.html?src=rss

In 2004, a young Hidetaka Miyazaki joined FromSoftware. Before becoming a household name in gaming circles, he cut his teeth working on the studio's long-running Armored Core series, serving as a planner on 2005's Armored Core: Last Raven and then as director on Armored Core IV and Armored Core:For Answer.Following the success of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, FromSoftware went on to release two more Armored Core games, though Miyazaki wasn't directly involved in those projects. Since then, the studio has been busy building on the Souls series, culminating with the runaway success of Elden Ring. Now, for the first time in nearly a decade, From is revisiting its mech franchise. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon also marks the directorial debut of one of the studio's most promising up-and-coming talents - Masaru Yamamura the lead game designer on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and a designer on Bloodborne. Armored Core VI is not a Soulslike, but a lot of its best ideas feel informed by Sekiro and Bloodborne. And if it's any indication of what's to come, Yamamura has a long career ahead of him as one of the studio's premier directors.If you're reading this review, there's a good chance that, like me, you haven't played an Armored Core game before. Even at its peak, the series never enjoyed the kind of global popularity Dark Souls achieved in the span of five years. But if you're curious if there's something here for you, the short answer is a resounding yes. However, as with almost all of From's games, a little - okay, a lot - of patience goes a long way.Here's the thing you need to know about Armored Core VI: It is uncompromising. Like Sekiro before it, prepare to be frustrated until you wrap your head around how Yamamura wants you to approach combat. I'll admit, I died about a dozen times to Armored Core VI's first boss, which appears at the start of the game before I managed to eke out a victory. Even then, it took me several more hours before I felt like I had a narrow grasp of AC 6's interlocking weapon, piloting and mech assembly systems.Part of what makes From's latest sointimidating is that there's so much going on all at once. To give you a sense of the complexity involved, the game's mechs - called Armored Cores - can carry up to four weapons, and fire them independently of one another. Moreover, there are dozens of different weapons archetypes, each with its own set of tactical considerations. Missile pods, for instance, fire a salvo of rockets either at a single target or multiple enemies simultaneously. Since most feature a lengthy reload or cooldown animation, you can't rely on any one weapon alone to win an encounter. Each requires thoughtful consideration and use, all while keeping a hulking robot skillfully evading fire.Movement is everything in AC6. Armored Cores have three different boosts available: one to increase their regular traversal speed, one to dash away from attacks and one that allows them to catapult themselves at enemies and quickly cover a lot of ground. They can also jump, and ignite their boosters to fly.All of an AC's more advanced movement abilities consume energy, which is represented by a bar along the bottom of the interface. Landing on the ground will begin to quickly replenish that resource. Most enemies don't have anywhere near the mobility of the player's mech, but some can hit hard if they're allowed to land a shot. There's also a stagger mechanic within the game that applies to both the player and opponents. One difference between AC6 and From's Soulsborne games is that dashing doesn't give invincibility frames. As a newbie to the series, the need to consider spacing on top of reacting quickly added to the game's learning curve.Since you're not tied to the ground like you would be in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, combat is far more vertical than in any of From's other recent games. A lot of enemies have access to wide, horizontal sweeping attacks that you can't avoid through lateral movement. Conversely, gaining the high ground on opponents is often the most effective way to dispatch them. Knowing when to take to the air is probably the most important skill to grasp in AC6, and, if you're a Soulsborne veteran, likely the most difficult to learn as well.How nimble an Armored Core is depends on the parts it's built from, and with hundreds of options to choose from, there's a lot of room for creativity. Some offer simple stat boosts while others change how a mech travels across the battlefield. For example, a set of quadruped legs allow an AC to hover in the air without consuming energy, a feature that's useful for missions that require a lot of aerial combat. By contrast, a mech with tank treads isn't great at getting off the ground, but it can drift after dashing and charge up a weapon without stopping.Like I said, there's a lot to learn and unpack. Thankfully, Armored Core VI is also one of FromSoftware's more accessible games. After the initial hurdle of the first boss, the first few missions that follow are smaller in scale, and feature less formidable enemies. At the same time, the game offers training missions that are there to illuminate the finer points of Armored Core VI's mechanics. At most, these take a few minutes to complete, and provide useful mech parts as rewards. It's a structure I felt eased me into the game before throwing harder challenges my way.Yamamura and company have also wisely done away with some of the series' more hardcore elements. Past games featured a system that allowed the player to go into debt if they didn't play well. That's not something that's present in AC6. I found I always had spare funds to modify my mech, thanks to the amount of credits the game doled out for completing missions and the ability to replay them for even more money. It also helps that every component available to purchase can be sold for the same price it costs to buy it. As a result, I found I was free to experiment with different loadouts to find the combination that suited my playstyle without having to consider a punishing in-game economy.AC6's mission structure also does a lot of heavy lifting to make the game more approachable. The inclusion of a checkpoint system meant I never lost much, if any, progress when I died (and I died a lot in my early hours). It's also possible to modify a mech between deaths without restarting a mission. Unless I was chasing an S' ranking when replaying a mission, that meant I was free to use one mech to reach a boss and another to defeat it. In fact, the game encouraged me to do exactly that after dying multiple times in a row to one boss I encountered midway through chapter one.Still, there were some frustrations. Boss battles felt overly difficult relative to every other enemy, perhaps to balance the game's checkpoint system. Most opponents - including opposing Armored Cores - have a limited pool of attacks. Bosses throw out that script. To give you one example, Balteus, the final boss of the game's first chapter, starts with a moveset that consists of about a dozen attacks, a few of which flood the arena with homing missiles. When the battle enters its second phase, Balteus's moveset doubles and the boss becomes even more aggressive. It's a punishing encounter and a brick wall of an early-game skill check.Sometimes the controls also don't feel up to the task of what AC6 is asking you to pull off. It's especially noticeable if you go with what's known in-game as a double trigger" build, which involves equipping an Armored Core with a pair of weapons that ideally should be fired in unison.By default, Armored Core VI maps all of a mech's weapons to left and right triggers, alongside the bumper buttons. The right analog stick, meanwhile, controls the camera and the square or X button is for dashing. The game includes a target assist mode that locks the camera to a single target, but it's not ideal to use when fighting more than one enemy. When I felt I struggled the most, it was because I had to give up control of the camera to boost away from an attack. It's possible to remap the controls, but I didn't find a configuration that worked as well as the default setup.Those frustrations aside, I never felt like Armored Core VI was anything short of compelling. Even in its most challenging moments, the game gave me little victories to celebrate. It is an incredible achievement in game design and thematic cohesion, and, I think, a promise of what we can expect from FromSoftware's next generation of talent.Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon arrives on PlayStation, Xbox and PCon August 25th.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/armored-core-vi-fires-of-rubicon-review-fromsoftware-mech-game-150015742.html?src=rss

Several months back, Sony teased a dedicated remote play device for the PlayStation 5 as well as new gaming earbuds. Now, the company has revealed more details about the device. It's called the PlayStation Portal remote player.The handheld looks a bit like a tablet wedged between two halves of a DualSense controller. It can stream games from your PS5 console, so when someone else is using the TV or you're in another room (or even travelling), you can still play remotely via WiFi without having to use your phone, tablet or computer. Sony says the snappily named PlayStation Portal remote player has an eight-inch LCD screen that delivers 1080p visuals at 60 frames per second. The device also benefits from DualSense features such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.There is a 3.5mm headphone jack too. That should come in handy as, according to IGN, there's no Bluetooth function. You'll either need to use Sony's new earbuds or headphones, or plug in a wired headset.Perhaps unsurprisingly, there's no support for PS VR2 games. You'll still need to hook your headset up to your PS5 directly to play VR games. Unfortunately, Sony says cloud game streaming through PlayStation Plus Premium isn't supported either. You'll have to install a game on a PS5 to play it remotely on the PlayStation Portal. That's disappointing, especially considering that the company is testing the ability to stream PS5 games to the console.In addition, you better hope your WiFi stays up. As IGN notes, the PlayStation Portal doesn't run any apps locally at all. Everything goes through your PS5 - you can watch movies and TV shows on the handheld via the console's media apps - so if your WiFi network's down, the PlayStation Portal will essentially be useless.Streaming-focused handhelds such as the Razer Edge are able to run Android apps locally. You can use third-party devices such as that, the ASUS ROG Ally or a Steam Deck to play your PS5 remotely too.The PlayStation Portal remote player will arrive later this year. It will cost $200 in the US, 200 in the UK, 220 in the rest of Europe and 29,980 Yen in Japan.Sony Interactive EntertainmentOn top of that, Sony has revealed more about its first wireless earbuds for PS5 and the PlayStation Portal remote player, as well as new headphones it designed for both systems. It says the Pulse Explore earbuds and Pulse Elite headset both support low latency lossless audio from PS5 and the handheld thanks to its new PlayStation Link tech.A USB adapter is needed to connect the earbuds and headphones to PS5 via PlayStation Link. The tech will also be supported on PC and Mac. The Pulse Explore earbuds and Pulse Elite include multipoint connectivity as well. You can connect them to both your PS5 and a Bluetooth device (such as your phone) simultaneously, so you can easily answer a call while playing a game.The earbuds and headset also each have custom-designed planar magnetic drivers (the first PlayStation audio devices to include them). Sony claims that it's one of the first companies to offer consumer earbuds with this tech, which it says delivers "an audiophile-level listening experience normally found in premium headphones for professional sound engineers."Sony Interactive EntertainmentThe Pulse Explore earbuds have dual mics and "AI-enhanced noise rejection" to filter out background noise. Naturally, they come with a charging case. The Pulse Elite has similar tech for handling background audio, along with a retractable boom mic. Sony is bundling in a charging hangar for the headphones too.The company hasn't announced a release date for either device, other than to say it will announce those details soon. Be warned, though: the Pulse Explore earbuds are fairly pricey. They cost the same as the PlayStation Portal remote player in the US, UK, Europe and Japan. The Pulse Elite, meanwhile, will set you back $150 in the US, 130 in the UK, 150 in the rest of Europe and 18,980 Yen in Japan.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-playstation-portal-remote-player-is-a-200-handheld-just-for-ps5-game-streaming-140704336.html?src=rss

Qualcomm has announced its follow-up to the Snapdragon G3x chip that powers the Razer Edge - along with two other platforms that serve as the first models to the company's new dedicated lines of Snapdragon gaming chips. Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 is the latest product under the flagship tier, which Qualcomm describes as something "purpose-built for enthusiast features and performance" and can handle the "most demanding cross-platform gaming titles."The company said G3x Gen 2's CPU performance is 30 percent faster than its predecessor's, while its GPU performance is twice as fast. It's capable of powering a handheld device with cross-platform gaming capabilities, as well as devices used for Android, PC, cloud and remote console gaming. The chip is also powerful enough to support ray tracing and to enable a user to livestream while they game. To ensure smooth cloud and remote gaming sessions, the chip comes with WiFi 7 and 5G mmWave connectivities.For less intensive games on devices with lower specs, Qualcomm created the Snapdragon G1 Gen 1 platform. It's meant for cloud gaming, as well as for remote console and PC gaming, on fanless dedicated handhelds. The chip supports images up to 1080p in resolution at up to 60 FPS, and it uses WiFi 5 for connectivity.Finally, the chipmaker has launched the Snapdragon G2 Gen 1 platform to serve as a middle ground between the two lines. It's also meant for use on fanless gaming devices, but specifically for those with higher specs to enable full-featured mobile and cloud gaming. The chip can power handhelds used for cloud and remote console gaming, through WiFi 6/6E and 5G mmWave, but also those used to play Android and PC games.In hopes of seeing high-end dedicated gaming devices powered by its new chip make it to market as soon as possible, the company has given select manufacturers access to a Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 Handheld Gaming Reference Design. It didn't reveal the company's names, but it promised that customer-specific product announcements will follow, which sounds like we're going to see more travel-friendly gaming devices like the Edge in the near future.Mithun Chandrasekhar, Qualcomm's senior director of product management, said: "Dedicated handheld gaming devices are the best way to experience mobile games. But gamers want to be able to play all their favorite games across devices and ecosystems, be it their console, PC, or on a cloud service. The new generation of Snapdragon G Series powered devices will be the best place for gamers to play their favorite titles, offering them the ability to choose from the cloud, console, Android, or PC while on-the-go."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/qualcomms-new-snapdragon-g-series-chips-are-built-for-handheld-and-mobile-gaming-140046277.html?src=rss

India just made spaceflight history in more ways than one. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's Vikram lander has successfully touched down on the Moon, marking the country's first successful landing on the lunar surface. It's just the fourth country to do so after the Soviet Union, US and China. More importantly, it's the first country to land near the Moon's south pole - a difficult target given the rough terrain, but important for attempts to find water ice. Other nations have only landed near the equator.The landing comes four years after Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander effectively crashed. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) designed the follow-up with a "failure-based design" that includes more backup systems, a wider landing area and software updates.

The logical next step for widescreen gaming monitors is a model that can display the equivalent of two UHD (3,840 x 2,160) screens - and Samsung teased just such a thing earlier this year at CES 2023. Now, the Odyssey Neo G9 model has a price and release date, arriving in October 2023 for $2,500, Samsung announced.That's about what you'd pay for two really nice 4K monitors, but the price seems justified. It's a mini-LED with HDR 1000 support, meaning it offers 1,000 nits of peak brightness (or around 450 nits total on average) and 10-bit color processing, along with a 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, two HDMI 2.1 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port and a DisplayPort 2.1 input. Buyers will also get AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro variable refresh rate and of course an incredibly wide 57-inch (32:9) 7,680 x 2,160 aspect ratio with a fairly extreme 1000R curvature.It comes with picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture, giving you multiple inputs at a glance. Other features include an ergonomic stand, plus Core Lighting+ and CoreSync that offers ambient lighting working in unison with games and other visuals.Samsung talked up the value of DisplayPort 2.1, which has three times the bandwidth of DisplayPort 1.4 and allows for 4K 240Hz gaming. It has only been announced or seen on a handful of displays to date. The only way to make use of it so far, though, would be with AMD's latest Radeon RX 7900XT and RX 7900XTX GPUs (or its pro W7000 cards) - as the standard is nowhere to be found on NVIDIA's latest RTX 4000 series cards.As such, driving such a display at anywhere near the top specs for gaming would require an expensive PC setup. The monitor would be useful for other purposes, though, like as an incredible multi-tasking productivity display or a versatile content creation monitor (if you can handle the curve). As mentioned, it arrives in the US in October for $2,500.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-57-inch-ultrawide-dual-4k-gaming-monitor-arrives-in-october-for-2500-121840286.html?src=rss

For Apple users, you know what you're going to get each new model of iPhone. Android users on the other hand have a ton of makes and models to consider. So when you get a new Android device, it's not always clear how to take a screenshot. For most, you can either use the physical buttons on the handset, or ask your handy virtual assistant to take one for you. Whether you have a Samsung, Google, Motorola or phone, here's how to take a screenshot on (almost) any Android device.How to take a screenshot using physical buttonsMost Android devices have a power button and volume key - phones and tablets alike. In order to take a screenshot on most of these, press the Power button and Volume Down button at the same time. The screen will flash and a preview of the screenshot will appear at the bottom right corner. The image will go straight to your designated screenshots folder.How to take a screenshot using gesturesWhile your Android phone may not have them turned on by default, you can use hand gestures to take a screenshot on many devices. On Samsung devices, turn on Palm Swipe to capture and then run your hand across the screen to take the screenshot.Google Pixel phones (starting from the Pixel 4a 5G and newer) have a gesture called Quick Tap. This allows you to perform certain tasks just by double tapping the back of the handset. To find it, go to Settings, scroll down to System and select Gestures. Hit Quick Tap to start actions" and toggle the switch to activate Quick Tap. This feature will default to taking screenshots, but you can change it to a number of other actions if you want.Photo by Julia Mercado / EngadgetHow to screenshot using a virtual assistantSamsung's Bixby and the Google Assistant can take screenshots for you. Just say Hey, Google" or Hi, Bixby" and instruct them to take a screenshot. On Google devices, you will automatically get the option to share the image on any app of your choice. For Bixby users, you can instruct the assistant to share via a specific app by saying Hi, Bixby. Take a screenshot and share it on Instagram," and the like.How to take a scrolling screenshotBoth Samsung and Google have built-in ways to take a scrollable screenshot. This means you no longer have to take multiple images of one, long webpage to share with your friends. To take a scrolling screenshot, press the Power button and Volume Down at the same time, then a preview of the screenshot will appear at the bottom left.On Google devices, it will give you the option to capture more." On Samsung phones, there will be an arrow pointing down. When you tap that, you will get a preview of the entire page where you can adjust the edges to include what you want.Photo by Julia Mercado / EngadgetA bonus for Samsung usersSamsung devices that come with an S Pen can take a screenshot using the stylus like a remote. Take out the S Pen, press and hold its button for at least three seconds and wait for the screen to flash. From there you can edit your image, annotating it with the pen or cropping it to your liking.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-take-a-screenshot-on-android-120035005.html?src=rss

There are desks with just enough room to put a coffee next to your laptop without the risk of it spilling over the edge, and then there are desks that are big (and complex) enough that you could practically open up your own coffee stand. The upcoming Corsair Platform:6 Modular Computer Desk falls firmly in the latter category thanks to its six-foot wide surface, additional one foot by two and a third feet in extensions and further customizable options.Corsair's Platform:6 is a good option if you want a variety of features all from the same place - no cobbling around parts from different companies. Seriously, this desk might as well team up with Hasbro and learn to defend the planet because it would fit right in. It seems to have something for gamers, workers and creatives alike, with the last group getting flexible mounts for any 3D printing accessories they might want to use. The flagship Platform:6 Creator Edition also exclusively offers the new Elgato Multi Frame top-mounted pegboard for mounting anything from cameras to controllers.Every Platform:6 has a modular rail system, which brings an aluminum T-channel crossbar, side rails and a top-mounted rail. You can also opt to include dual electric motors for any Platform:6, adjusting the height using an LCD controller fitted with memory presets. Plus, each desk has plenty of wire storage, including a Corsair RapidRoute wire management tray that's big enough to hold power strips and a smaller in-desk cubby with USB Type-A and Type-C charging ports.The Platform:6 is available in sturdy black laminate or a more environmentally friendly classic dark walnut-stained rubberwood. You can pick one up sometime in Q4 of this year for a yet-to-be-revealed price (though our guess is this transformer won't come cheap).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/corsairs-first-standing-desk-is-a-huge-and-expandable-all-in-one-113519907.html?src=rss

Atari is launching another retro home console, after its last effort. The Atari 2600+ pays homage to the original Atari 2600, launched in 1977, but this remake echoes the four-switch model from 1980. (Of course, we're going to get specific.)AtariThe console has been lovingly recreated to the same specifications as the original" but is only 80 percent of its size. The console's plus features are the HDMI output and widescreen support. It'll have 10 titles in the box, but Atari die-hards will want to track down physical cartridges if they want to play the big hits of the era, like Pac-Man or Pitfall! The mini console also has a remade Atari CX40 joystick. The Atari 2600+ will launch worldwide on November 17 for $130, and pre-orders are already open. Now, to find a copy of E.T. the video game...- Mat SmithYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missedThe best iPads for 2023Tekken 8 will arrive on January 26, 2024NBA 2K24 introduces a LeBron era and more updates The Apple Watch Ultra falls to a new low of $700 Microsoft will bring PC Game Pass to NVIDIA's GeForce Now on August 24 Meta's new multimodal translator uses a single model to speak 100 languagesNVIDIA's DLSS 3.5 makes ray-traced games look better with AIHalf-Life 2 is getting an unofficial RTX remasterThe community is using an NVIDIA toolkit to modernize the classic shooter.NVIDIAFrom cartridge games to ray tracing. NVIDIA has unveiled a community-led Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project that, as the name implies, will remaster the classic shooter for PCs with GeForce RTX graphics. The team isn't just adding ray tracing, though - this is an attempt to modernize the overall look and feel of the game.The ray-traced lights are the star attraction, of course, but the modders are also using an early version of RTX Remix to add extra model detail (through Valve's own Hammer editor) and rework materials with physical-based rendering properties. The RTX port, so far, looks moodier and far more detailed, with light sources bouncing and diffusing in a far more realistic manner. Existing RTX conversions, like those for Portal and Quake II, are pretty but limited by either the age of a game or its relative scale. Half-Life 2 is a much bigger challenge.Continue reading.X plans to remove news headlines and text in shared articlesElon Musk said it's his idea.According to Fortune, X (formerly Twitter) is planning to implement major changes to the way shared articles appear on a tweet, by removing their text elements and leaving just their lead images with an overlay of the URL. Musk confirmed the incoming change, saying it came directly from him, adding it would greatly improve the esthetics." It's the latest big change, following news that user-blocking will soon go. I'm taking bets on what the social network will strip out next.Continue reading.Microsoft will sell Activision Blizzard streaming rights to Ubisoft to win UK approvalIt said the deal makes for a 'substantially different transaction under UK law.'Microsoft is significantly restructuring its Activision Blizzard merger proposal by selling cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to rival Ubisoft, it wrote in a blog late yesterday. That would address a key concern of UK regulators, who blocked the deal in part because of Microsoft's potential dominance in cloud gaming. The UK regulator will now examine the restructured deal and deliver a decision by October 18.Continue reading.Facebook and Instagram will offer chronological Stories and Reels to comply with EU lawUsers will also be able to see search results not personalized to them specifically.Meta will soon offer Stories and Reels in chronological order to comply with the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The changes were expected after the European Commission announced it had agreed in April to create new rules, demanding social media platforms offer alternative systems "not based on profiling." Starting later this month, Meta will offer Reels, Stories, Search and other parts of Facebook and Instagram unaffected by Meta's existing AI recommendation process.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-ataris-new-miniature-console-plays-2600-and-7800-game-carts-111530150.html?src=rss

Meta is considerably expanding Messenger's encryption feature, rolling it out to "millions more people's chats" starting today, the company announced. The end-to-end encryption (E2EE) standard, which first arrived a year ago, will be available as standard to all users by the end of 2023. Meta also described how it made the transition, calling it "an incredibly complex and challenging engineering puzzle."The system keeps conversations safe from eavesdropping and interception using public key cryptography - meaning no one, even law enforcement, can access conversations. At the same time, your message history will also be encrypted. Meta first focused on WhatsApp, which now offers full E2EE, but Messenger will have the same level of protection by year's end.Getting there wasn't easy though, apparently. "It quickly became apparent that transitioning our services to E2EE would be an incredibly complex and challenging engineering puzzle," the company wrote. "We not only needed to transition to a new server architecture but to rewrite our code base to work on multiple different devices, rather than just the server."Citing an example of a rich preview from YouTube, Meta said its servers currently pull the URL data and then show the video preview in a Messenger chat. With E2EE, though, the app itself visits the shared URL, pulls the relevant image and text information, then sends it. That slows the process down a touch, but it means users still get a full feature set but with the privacy of encryption.Meta said it's also testing on-device recovery for encrypted chats, requiring users to set up a PIN or generate a code. It's also trialing an option to save chats on cloud storage services like iCloud. Meanwhile, Meta will complete its E2EE trifecta by also enabling it for Instagram DMs by the end of 2023.That will effectively catch the company up to services like Signal, bringing end-to-end encryption fully into the mainstream. It might also draw the ire of nations like Spain, which has advocated banning encryption within the European Union, ostensibly as a way to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and other criminal activities.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/messengers-encrypted-chats-expand-to-more-users-ahead-of-full-rollout-later-this-year-085324605.html?src=rss

Blizzard Entertainment has released the trailer for the second season of Diablo IV along with the announcement that it's arriving on October 17th. According to IGN, Rod Fergusson, who oversees the development of the franchise, players will get vampire powers and will face against a vampire lord in the new questline during the opening night of Gamescom 2023. Season 2 of the online action role-playing game is called "Season of Blood," because yes, it does feature vampires.Gemma Chan, actor and producer who starred in Eternals and Crazy Rich Asians, voices the vampire hunter companion Erys, who leads the fight against the new threat in the game's universe. The new season will also feature five new and returning endgame bosses, as well as updates to renown rewards, gem and stash storage, making it so that gems no longer take up space, as well as to resistance and status effects.The main Diablo IV storyline that came out earlier this year featured a tale that takes place decades after the end of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. It puts the player in the shoes of a wanderer who, due to certain circumstances, must now go after Lilith. That's the daughter of Mephisto, who was prominently featured in Diablo II as one of the Prime Evils the player must defeat. Diablo IV became the best-selling game in June when it came out, and Fergusson said the game, with the first season that's still ongoing, boasts 12 million players.We'll have to wait and see if the second season will add more players to that number. For now, fans can watch the trailer for it below:This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-second-season-of-diablo-iv-arrives-october-17th-065859953.html?src=rss

Hyper Light Breaker, the action rogue-lite previously scheduled to enter Steam Early Access this fall, has been delayed a second time. The launch window for the spiritual successor to 2016's Hyper Light Drifter is now rescheduled for early 2024.So we need just a bit more time on Hyper Light Breaker before we launch into Early Access," Alx Preston, founder and Creative Director for developer Heart Machine, said in a video announcing the delay. This means we'll be pushing our date to early next year in 2024." He said the additional time will allow us to bring the game to its full potential." Preston thanked fans for their patience and support, promising a new adventure that lives up to what fans expect from a Heart Machine title."Heart Machine / Gearbox PublishingHyper Light Breaker shifts gameplay from 2D to 3D while adding up to three players for co-op play. While the 2016 original honored elements from classic top-down Zelda games, the upcoming open-world installment incorporates some Breath of the Wild basics. These include exploring open countrysides scattered with ruins while soaring through the air with a glider and surfing down hills. However, Hyper Light Breaker uses procedurally generated environments, which should help with replayability. Its combat also appears to depart from Nintendo's modern Zelda games. The game's first trailer gives you a closer peek.We have a lot of wild ideas we want to put into the game, which is exciting and thrilling since the format and tech we've created allows so much possibility," said Preston. This short push will give us the best chance for a stronger first step into open development in early access next year."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hyper-light-breaker-early-access-pushed-back-to-early-2024-205056875.html?src=rss

Internet retailers are receiving questions over their approaches to recalled products. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has sent letters to Amazon, Ebay, Meta, Walmart and other online shopping portals asking about their efforts to thwart sales of recalled and banned goods on their platforms. They're particularly concerned that Meta allegedly failed to stop Facebook Marketplace sales of two recalled child products, the Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play sleeper and Boppy Newborn Lounger.The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled the Rock 'n Play in 2019, and the Newborn Lounger in 2021. However, it says the takedown request rate (an average of 1,000 per month) hasn't slowed, and that there haven't been any "proactive measures" to bar sales. The Rock 'n Play has been linked to roughly 100 baby deaths. The members of Congress, including committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, are concerned that online marketplaces may be putting children and all users at risk by doing too little to stop these sales.The House representatives ask all the companies to detail their current efforts to block sales of recalled products, including the presence of dedicated staff. The politicians also want to know what the companies will do in the future and whether there's any legal uncertainty about how to tackle the problems. The letters ask if the companies are willing to work with the committee on a solution to the problem. The companies have been told to respond no later than August 31st.In a statement to Engadget, a Meta spokesperson says that sales of recalled goods aren't unique to Facebook Marketplace. The representative says Meta takes the issue "seriously" and pulls listings that violate its rules. Ebay tells Engadget it takes recalls "very seriously" and uses a combination of AI and investigators to spot potentially unsafe listings. It hoped to work with the House committee on these issues.The enquiries come just as Amazon is facing a potential antitrust lawsuit over its sales practices, and amid greater effort to scrutinize tech giants' behavior. Meta has also been scaling back some of its shopping features, including the shutdowns of live shopping on Facebook and Instagram. Those closures are cost-cutting efforts, but they also leave the company's remaining commerce initiatives in a more fragile position.Update 8/22 5PM ET: We've updated the story with a statement from Ebay.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-meta-and-others-face-scrutiny-for-allowing-sellers-to-list-recalled-products-202005944.html?src=rss

We'll soon learn if India will be the first nation to nail a soft landing on the moon's south pole. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission, which launched on July 14th and entered lunar orbit on August 5th, will attempt to touch down on Wednesday at around 8:34AM EDT. It follows Russia's attempt to beat India to the punch that ended badly. The ISRO's live telecast (watch below) is scheduled to begin at 3:50AM EDT.The Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander will try to touch down near the Moon's south pole, which is believed to contain water ice. It could provide crucial water, oxygen and fuel for future lunar missions and bases. However, touching down could prove challenging as the region is known for rugged terrain and shadowy craters. This mission's immediate predecessor, the Chandrayaan-2, crashed in 2019 as it descended to the lunar south pole.Chandrayaan-3 uses a failure-based design" to incorporate lessons from the 2019 hard landing." The new version includes an expanded landing area, software upgrades and more redundant systems to back up potential outages.The IRSO's X (formerly Twitter) account posted early Tuesday morning, The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks. Smooth sailing is continuing." It also posted pictures of the Moon's surface taken from orbit.You can tune in here early Wednesday morning (US time) to view the Indian lander's descent.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-indias-chandrayaan-3-try-to-land-on-the-moon-here-at-834am-et-200053930.html?src=rss

Fighting game fans are eating well this year with the likes of Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1 and Guilty Gear Strive all arriving. The beat 'em up bonanza is set to continue at least into early 2024, as Bandai Namco announced at Gamescom 2023 that Tekken 8 will hit PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on January 26th. Pre-orders open today.The tenth overall entry in the long-running series includes 32 unique fighters (King is thankfully among them). The latest trailer notes that the game marks the beginning of "a new Tekken saga," while the series' long-term antagonist Heihachi Mishima is dead.Tekken 8 will also introduce a brand new single-player mode called Arcade Quest. You'll create a character and it appears as though they can go to a virtual arcade and compete in Tekken tournaments. It all seems quite meta.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tekken-8-will-arrive-on-january-26th-2024-191513374.html?src=rss

Not only does Little Nightmares III exist, but it's also bringing two-player co-op to the series for the first time. Little Nightmares III is due out in 2024, and it's heading to PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Developers from Supermassive Games announced the new entry in the horror franchise at the very beginning of Gamescom Opening Night Live today.Little Nightmares III looks like the stuff of dreams, if you're a twisted horror fiend. The game's reveal trailer showcases two shrunken, puppet-like characters named Low and Alone navigating an oversized world filled with terrors - it's kinda like the grimdark version of It Takes Two, at least in this initial video. Players have to make their way past vicious creatures and murderous monsters, and finally make their way out of The Nowhere.Here's how publisher Bandai Namco describes the new game on the PlayStation Blog: "Low and Alone are each equipped with their own iconic items that will allow you to solve various puzzles and defend yourself against the new and dangerous challenges that await you. You'll be able to interact with the world using Low'sbow and arrowsand Alone's wrench, but you'll also need your wits, tenacity, and creativity to survive your trip across the Spiral."The game isn't co-op only - it also has a single-player mode, complete with an AI companion. The co-op is online, specifically (sorry, couch pals).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/little-nightmares-iii-will-let-you-drag-a-friend-through-the-nowhere-in-2024-184913722.html?src=rss

If there's one thing we can count on as a species is that people will figure out ways to squeeze ads into every single thing we look at. Case in point? TikTok is integrating ads into search results, so you'll get branded content every time you look for a hashtag, a specific user or anything else. These ads are pulled from sponsored videos hosted on the platform and exist as a way to further power brand discovery."Some users may find this annoying, but the announcement makes it clear that ads will be relevant to the search query and will be clearly labeled as a sponsored post. Ads will also likely be culled from your interests as represented by prior search queries and all of your various actions on the social media platform. In other words, the algorithm will do what the algorithm already does, but in a new location.Clicking on a sponsored post will not interrupt your search, which is nice. The ad mirrors the in-feed experience and allows users to continue scrolling through the search results, whether you click on an ad or not. There's likely to be no shortage of advertisers as TikTok says the feature is automatically enabled for pre-existing merchants. In other words, advertisers have to opt-out of appearing alongside search results.Having an ad-free search bar was fun while it lasted, but this move has been a long time coming. It was something of an inevitability, as competitors like Instagram started doing the same thing earlier this year. It's worth noting that ads already appear in the regular TikTok feed, nestled between videos posted by folks you actually follow. Don Draper's search-bar fever dream is rolling out now to global TikTok users.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-search-results-are-about-to-get-infested-with-ads-184446557.html?src=rss

Atari is teaming up with Plaion on a new retro home console after finally taking a mulligan on its last one. The Atari 2600+ pays homage to the original Atari 2600, which delighted children of the disco era starting in 1977, although this remake is based on the four-switch model from 1980. It plays both Atari 2600 and 7800 games. However, most buyers will want to track down physical cartridges as the retro system, which requires them to play, is only bundled with a collection of 10 titles that lacks system standouts like Pac-Man, Frogger, Space Invaders and Pitfall!The throwback console has been lovingly recreated to the same specifications as the original," although it's only 80 percent of the size. The console's plus" features come in the form of an HDMI output and widescreen support. The company says the system has an enlarged cartridge socket to reduce cartridge sticking. The Atari logo also lights up when powered on.Atari / PlaionThe system includes a modern remake of the classic Atari CX40 joystick, the CX40+. Although it supports two players, only one stick is bundled. (You can order an extra for $25.) The company says a CX-30 Paddle Controller remake is on its way as well.The system's free games are bundled on a 10 Games in 1" cartridge, including Adventure, Combat, Dodge Em, Haunted House, Maze Craze, Missile Command, RealSports Volleyball, Surround, Video Pinball and Yars' Revenge. Atari posted a complete list of compatible cartridges. Prospective buyers may want to consider that hunting down physical games (and potentially paying a premium for some) will be part of the journey.If the entire affair sounds familiar, that's because the classic video game maker launched the long-delayed Atari VCS just over two years ago. But consumer interest in that model seemed to fall off a cliff after the initial excitement, and the company discontinued the retro console in favor of reorganizing its hardware business while eyeing a new commercial strategy." We can only assume we're seeing the fruit of that today as it partners with Plaion.The Atari 2600+ launches worldwide" on November 17th for $130. (An optional second joystick adds another $25 onto that.) Starting today, the latest mini-retro system is available for pre-order on Atari's website.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ataris-2600-is-a-miniature-console-that-plays-2600-and-7800-game-carts-171014464.html?src=rss

It's that time of year again. The annual Gamescom trade fair opens its doors today, but you don't have to be in Germany to participate in the reveals and updates. All of the good stuff is being streamed live, beginning with the opening night event, hosted by Game Awards guru and former Spike TV personality Geoff Keighley. For those of us far from Europe, the event starts streaming at 2PM ET. Watch it right here.So what can we expect from the stream? We don't have to wonder, as Keighley took to Twitter/X and dropped a laundry list of titles that'll receive the spotlight during the event. Expect trailers or updates on forthcoming titles like Alan Wake 2, Sonic Superstars, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1 and more. You can also expect some information on upcoming DLC content, like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.Of course, these high-profile gaming conferences are all about generating buzz, so there should be a surprise or two, beyond the titles mentioned by Keighley. For instance, last year's opening night showcase dropped a new trailer and opened up pre-release orders for Dead Island 2. That title had been stuck in development hell for a decade, so nobody expected that kind of info-dump at Gamescom.Gamescom 2023 extends far beyond the opening night. There are more events and streams throughout the week, though many are intended for folks involved in the development side of things, via the affiliated Devcom sibling event. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming trade fair, measured by exhibition space and the number of visitors.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gamescom-2023-opening-night-stream-watch-it-here-at-2pm-et-170020656.html?src=rss

After nearly a decade, the main Destiny story arc is nearing its conclusion. Bungie has revealed that Destiny 2: The Final Shape will be available on February 27th, 2024. You're tasked with nothing less than stopping The Witness from remaking the universe, and have to enter the Traveler itself to save the day. As you might guess, this involves both an amped-up story (Bungie has already confirmed the return of Cayde-6) as well as new gameplay mechanics.To start, your proximity to the Traveler gives you access to new Light powers, including some that augment the abilities of nearby players. You'll also see new weapons, such as a support rifle that can switch to healing teammates. Enemies can use new powers of their own, too. The company is also rethinking how it tells stories with The Final Shape - instead of four seasons, you'll see three large episodes divided into a trio of smaller acts. There could be a stronger incentive to stick around as the story unfolds, in other words.Bungie is still committed to finishing the current phase, and is kicking off the Season of the Witch this week. It sees Eris Morn take on Hive attributes to deal with a mounting threat. There are a few new systems to enhance your talents, and you can even craft hard-to-get exotic weapons after they've been unlocked through missions.Season 23 (that is, the season starting in November) will make it easier to complete cooperative events. There will be a dedicated Fireteam Finder to locate buddies for a mission, and everyone can boost to the Light level of the most advanced player in the team.The Final Shape isn't necessarily the end of Destiny 2. It does tie together many of the loose ends that have emerged since 2014, however. It also reflects Bungie's determination to evolve its brand - it's moving past Destiny to produce a Marathon follow-up and other projects.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/destiny-2s-main-storyline-comes-to-an-end-with-the-final-shape-on-february-27th-165616802.html?src=rss

The Game Awards has grown enormously and has become a much-awaited annual year-end celebration for video game fans around the world since it first took place in 2014. If you're looking forward to watching it this year, you can now fire up your calendars and add a reminder: The 10th annual show is scheduled to stream live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 7th, 2023. Just like in the previous years, the event will stream for free across various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok Live, Steam and X, the website formerly known as Twitter.Last year's show was the biggest one yet, with an estimated 103 million viewers tuning in, which was almost 20 million more than 2021's numbers. It also introduced the Best Adaptation category, reserved for projects that translate video games into popular media, like movies, TV shows and books. Plus, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, stars of The Last of Us, which fans were still looking forward to and had yet to premiere back then, attended the event to present an award. The organizers haven't revealed just yet whether they'll have big stars guesting again this year, but they did say that the event will feature musical performances by The Game Awards Orchestra and other artists. Of course, you can expect to see new game trailers and announcements for launch dates and expansions, among other things.Geoff Keighley, creator and executive producer of The Game Awards, said: "Each year, we look forward to hosting a show that honors the stand-out games of the year, while also announcing and previewing some of the world's biggest and most anticipated video games. With so many beloved video game franchises exploring new mediums and developers creating new experiences across platforms, whether in games, television, movies, and beyond, the industry continues to expand in many surprising ways, and we can't wait to honor the year's best games and to show viewers around the world what's next."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-game-awards-2023-will-stream-live-on-december-7th-160040230.html?src=rss

Microsoft is acting on its promise to bring PC Game Pass to NVIDIA's GeForce Now service. The companies have announced that Game Pass and Microsoft Store titles will be available to stream on GeForce Now starting August 24th. Not every title will be playable right away, but this will give Game Pass subscribers access to releases like Deathloop and No Man's Sky through NVIDIA's platform.The two companies have been forging a partnership for a while. Microsoft struck a deal with NVIDIA in February to bring Xbox games to GeForce Now for 10 years, and the first title (Gears 5) arrived in May. Bethesda's first games, including Doom Eternal and the Wolfenstein reboots, surfaced earlier this month. In that sense, PC Game Pass just expands the selection further.The pact was announced as part of Microsoft's bid to get regulatory approval for its purchase of Activision Blizzard. In theory, this shows that Microsoft won't have unfair dominance over cloud gaming. The company also plans to sell Activision Blizzard game streaming rights to Ubisoft to address UK officials' concerns, and has been signing smaller cloud deals in recent months.It may seem odd to access one streaming service's games through another, but there may be advantages. GeForce Now is aimed at enthusiasts who want maximum visual quality and reduced lag, with the Ultimate tier supporting 4K at 120 frames per second. If your PC and internet connection are up to the task, Game Pass might shine on GeForce Now where it would otherwise be limited.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-will-bring-pc-game-pass-to-nvidias-geforce-now-on-august-24th-151526248.html?src=rss

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what would be the next vintage synth to get the Arturia emulation treatment. At this point the company has tackled many of the most iconic synths in history, and spent much of last year focused on its original creations like the Augmented series, Pigments, Fragments and Dist Coldfire. We did get a version of the Korg MS-20 in May of 2022 as part of V Collection 9, but otherwise things have been pretty quiet. Well, I feel slightly embarrassed because there was a pretty obvious gap in Arturia's lineup I had overlooked: The Roland TB-303.Arturia Acid V is probably one of the simpler instruments the company has made in recent years. In part because the original 303 is a reasonably simple instrument. It's a bass machine - monophonic with a single oscillator, a 24db lowpass filter and an envelope generator to manipulate the filter. That's kind of it. What made it special was its odd squelchy sound that, when paired with the slides in its sequencer, produced something totally unique and became the core of acid house, hence the name Acid V.ArturiaAs usual the company does a solid job bringing the TB-303's physical interface into a virtual space. But we all know Arturia can't stop there. There's the customary advanced tab. This is where you'll find the three modulation sources which go well beyond your standard LFO, the dedicated effects section (where you can combine up to four effects) and the sequencer.The sequencer on the 303 is part of what granted it squelchy super powers, it was also notoriously annoying to program. Thankfully Arturia recognizes that it's 2023 and there's no need to saddle its VST with some arcane 16-step logic puzzle in the name of authenticity. There's a pretty straightforward piano roll interface, with toggles under each step for slide, accent and vibrato. Across the top you can shift individual notes down an octave, up an octave or up two octaves, to get that signature jump that almost any good 303 bassline has.ArturiaOn the left you can lock the sequencer into a particular scale to simplify things, add swing, change the sequence length (up to 64 steps) and even generate random sequences. You can easily shift sequences up or down a note chromatically or to the left and right to change the note order. And there's even a polymetric option that allows you to change the sequence length of the notes, slides, vibrato and accents individually. This gives you a lot of power to build something that's constantly evolving, especially if you're taking use of the full 64 steps. Oh, and if that's not enough there are different playback modes so you can pingpong through a sequence, play it backwards or just bounce around randomly.Arturia didn't save all the upgrades for the advanced tab, though. The main instrument has added a few welcome amenities, including a sub oscillator with three selectable waveforms which gives the Acid V more oomph than the original ever had. Next to that you'll find the vibrato controls and then the dedicated distortion circuit. One of the most common tricks used on the 303 was to overdrive it into oblivion, and Arturia puts 14 algorithms at your fingertips for doing that. Some are better than others. For example, the crusher is fine, but there's a better bit crushing option in the effects section. And the destroy algorithm fails to live up to its name. Still, the tape, soft clip and overdrive are excellent.ArturiaAcid V goes a step beyond typical modern amenities. There's a little arrow over the name of the instrument in the top right hand corner, and if you click that you're in effect "opening" the machine. Here you'll find virtual trim pots for adjusting things like the pulse width of the square wave, the cutoff range of the filter, the pitch tracking off the filter, clipping level and even a bass boost knob.Of course, all the features in the world don't matter if the instrument sounds terrible. But, there was never much concern about that, honestly. Arturia has been in the game for a long time now delivering excellent quality plugins that a misstep would be a true shock at this point.I've never played an original TB-303, but I did briefly own a Behringer clone and I've tested the Roland Boutique TB-03. The Acid V compares pretty favorably to those. Being an actual analog synth, Behringer's TD-3 does sound slightly warmer than Acid V and the TB-03, but in the context of an actual song I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the three. And, as much as I love a good piece of hardware, if I had to choose between the three I'd probably opt for Arturia's plug in just because it's so much easier to use and has infinitely more sequencing versatility.Arturia Acid V is available now at an introductory price of $99. Or you can get it free when you buy the entire V Collection for $599, though, you're probably better off waiting for that to go on sale.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arturias-acid-v-is-a-roland-tb-303-without-the-headaches-150035249.html?src=rss

Basketball season is fast approaching, and so is a new opportunity to virtually get in on the action: NBA 2K24 New Gen. 2K shared preliminary information about the game in July but has just announced new details about September 8th's NBA 2K24, including adding a LeBron Era. This new mode follows LeBron James' 2010 journey of leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat and leads into the already existing Modern Era. NBA 2K23 also introduced the Magic vs. Bird Era, Jordan Era and Kobe Era to the game.Another potentially exciting eras update (if you like being reminded about the passage of time) is an aging feature, which shows the athletes growing older as you play across a person's career. Other new era additions include curated reactions from spectators and journalists, depending on the time period you're in. After a game, you'll also see an article sharing a summary of your match - initially as a newspaper and, as time passes, a social media webpage.NBA 2K24 should also reflect aspects of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) reached by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association and currently in place through the 2029 to 2030 season. These include each NBA team being positionless and shifting the Restricted Free Agent Right of Refusal Period to 24 hours.MyNBA online has some updates as well, including a range of roles for you to take on: commissioner, admin, gameplay tuner, time manager, designer, appearance editor or attribute editor. Each position has specific tasks, such as the designer, who can make and change logos, arenas and jerseys. Plus, there's now MyNBA Lite which removes some of the steps typically required for gameplay, such as CBA restrictions and scouting.WNBA gameplay also has new features coming on NBA 2K24, such as the ability to start as either a college basketball star or an up-and-comer. There's also "In Pursuit of Greatness," which has you play against rival players to be the best. These games, and those against a veteran of your team or a historic all-star player, allow you to earn badge perks. You can use these rewards to get updated 2K Breakthrough Skins and MyTEAM Jersey Cards.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nba-2k24-introduces-a-lebron-era-and-more-updates-140015258.html?src=rss

Now's a good moment to get a smartwatch that can easily handle your end-of-summer hikes. Amazon is selling the Apple Watch Ultra with a green Alpine Loop at a new all-time low price of $700, or $100 off, after a checkout voucher. That's the same price as a 45mm Series 8 in steel, making it the obvious choice if you want more rugged Apple wristwear.The Apple Watch Ultra remains the company's most powerful smartwatch, and it's the clear pick if you're an outdoor adventurer. The large, extra-bright screen makes it easy to read even in direct sunlight, and the added water resistance is helpful for recreational dives. The action button also comes in handy for marking hike waypoints or starting the next leg of a run. And it's hard to ignore the extra battery life - this watch can last an entire weekend without a charge, depending on how you use it.You'll need an iPhone to even consider the Apple Watch Ultra, of course. Its size may also be off-putting if you have thin wrists or simply prefer sleeker timepieces. There's also the question of timing - Apple might introduce a refreshed Ultra at an event that could be just weeks away. If you're more interested in value than having the absolute latest model, though, this discount is hard to top.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-apple-watch-ultra-falls-to-a-new-low-of-700-133522809.html?src=rss

Though it's not quite ready to usher in the Doolittle future we've all been waiting for, modern AI translation methods are proving more than sufficient in accurately transforming humanity's roughly 6,500 spoken and written communication systems between one another. The problem is that each of these models tends to only do one or two tasks really well - translate and convert text to speech, speech to text or between either of the two sets - so you end up having to smash a bunch of models on top of each other to create the generalized performance seen in the likes of Google Translate or Facebook's myriad language services.That's a computationally intensive process, so Meta developed a single model that can do it all. SeamlessM4T is "a foundational multilingual and multitask model that seamlessly translates and transcribes across speech and text," Meta's blog from Tuesday reads. It can translate between any of nearly 100 languages for speech-to-text and text-to-text functions, speech-to-speech and text-to-speech supports those same languages as inputs and outputs them in any of 36 others tongues, including English.In their blog post, Meta's research team notes that SeamlessM4T "significantly improve[s] performance for the low and mid-resource languages we support," while maintaining "strong performance on high-resource languages, such as English, Spanish, and German." Meta built SeamlessM4T from its existing PyTorch-based multitask UnitY model architecture, which already natively performs the various modal translations as well as automatic speech recognition. It utilizes the BERT 2.0 system for audio encoding, breaking down inputs into their component tokens for analysis, and a HiFi-GAN unit vocoder to generate spoken responses.Meta has also curated a massive open-source speech-to-speech and speech-to-text parallel corpus, dubbed SeamlessAlign. The company mined "tens of billions of sentences" and "four million hours" of speech from publicly available repositories to "automatically align more than 443,000 hours of speech with texts, and create about 29,000 hours of speech-to-speech alignments," per the blog. When tested for robustness, SeamlessM4T reportedly outperformed its (current state-of-the-art) predecessor against background noises and speaker style variations by 37 percent and 48 percent, respectively.As with most all of its previous machine translation efforts - whether that's Llama 2, Massively Multilingual Speech (MMS), Universal Speech Translator (UST), or the ambitious No Language Left Behind (NLLB) project - SeamlessM4T is being open-sourced. "we believe SeamlessM4T is an important breakthrough in the AI community's quest toward creating universal multitask systems," the team wrote. "Keeping with our approach to open science, we are excited to share our model publicly to allow researchers and developers to build on this technology." If you're interested in working with SeamlessM4T for yourself, head over to GitHub to download the model, training data and documentation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-new-multimodal-translator-uses-a-single-model-to-speak-100-languages-133040214.html?src=rss

Last year, NVIDIA unveiled DLSS 3 with frame interpolation, which used its AI-driven rendering accelerator to add extra frames to games. Now at Gamescom it's introducing DLSS 3.5, which adds Ray Reconstruction, a new feature that will use the company's neural network to improve the quality of ray traced images. It'll be available for all RTX GPUs-unlike DLSS 3's frame interpolation, which only works with RTX 40-series cards.NVIDIA says Ray Reconstruction will replace "hand-tuned denoisers with an NVIDIA supercomputer-trained AI network that generates higher-quality pixels in between sampled rays." That's similar to NVIDIA's original pitch for DLSS - making low-res textures look better thanks to AI - and it could potentially lead to better ray tracing performance as well. In images shown to media, Ray Reconstruction appears to deliver sharper reflections and textures in supported titles. (See comparisons below.)According to the company, Cyberpunk 2077 in Overdrive Mode (its most powerful ray tracing offering) hit 108 fps with DLSS 3.5 and Ray Reconstruction, while the same system reached 100fps with DLSS 3 alone, 63fps with DLSS 2 (which lacks Frame Generation) and 20fps without any DLSS help.Just like previous DLSS releases, developers will have to manually implement support for Ray Reconstruction. Cyberpunk 2077 (and its expansion Phantom Liberty) will be the first DLSS 3.5 title in September, followed by Portal RTX and Alan Wake 2. NVIDIA will be showing off Ray Reconstruction at Gamescom this week, and hopefully we'll get a look ourselves sometime soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidias-dlss-35-makes-ray-traced-games-look-better-with-ai-130012143.html?src=rss

Valve may not have touched the Half-Life franchise in over a decade apart from releasing its VR-only game Alyx, but that isn't stopping enthusiasts from giving the game a visual overhaul. NVIDIA has unveiled a community-led Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project that, as the name implies, will remaster the classic shooter for PCs with GeForce RTX graphics. The team isn't just adding ray tracing, though - this is an attempt to modernize the overall look and feel of the game.The ray-traced lights are the star attraction, of course, but the modders are also using an early version of RTX Remix to add extra model detail (through Valve's Hammer editor) and rework materials with physical-based rendering properties. The result is what you'd expect. Where the original Half-Life 2 graphics look flat and otherwise dated, the RTX port is moodier and far more detailed. You might want to spend extra time inspecting Dr. Kleiner's desk or the pet headcrab Lamarr. Not surprisingly, the refresh makes use of additional NVIDIA tech like DLSS 3 upscaling, Reflex anti-lag and RTX IO GPU-accelerated storage.The project is only just getting started, and there's no tentative release date. Right now, this is more of a marketing showcase than a practical release. It comes alongside news of DLSS 3.5, which uses AI to improve ray-traced light quality by generating pixels between sampled rays. Titles like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty will support the feature on launch.The unofficial port is notable all the same. Existing RTX conversions like those for Portal and Quake II are pretty, but limited by either the age of a game or its relative scale. Half-Life 2 set a new standard for modern first-person shooters between its tightly integrated story, expansive (and seamless) world and physics-driven gameplay. Now, it's getting an upgrade that could keep it relevant on modern PCs.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/half-life-2-is-getting-an-unofficial-rtx-remaster-130006917.html?src=rss

After voicing Mario for 27 years, Charles Martinet will no longer play the plumber. Nintendo announced in a tweet yesterday that he'll move into a newly created Mario Ambassador role and "continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario," the company said. Martinet also voiced Luigi, Wario, Waluigi and several other Nintendo characters over the years, with a few cameo roles in the recent Mario movie, where Chris Pratt voiced Mario.Nintendo has confirmed to Kotakuthat he is not involved in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which comes out on October 20. It's the end of a gaming mascot era.- Mat SmithYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missedThe best PS5 accessories for 2023Judge rules AI-generated art isn't copyrightable, since it lacks human authorshipTesla's iPhone app can now control your car through Siri Threads web app could arrive this weekOfficial Xbox Series X console skins are coming soon, starting with Starfield and camo options The cozy cat game that escaped from Valve Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into the MoonThe country's last attempt to reach the moon was in 1976.RoscosmosOver a week after its August 10 launch, Russia's state-run space agency, Roscosmos, confirmed its Luna-25 spacecraft had spun out of control and rammed into the Moon. "The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," Roscosmos explained in a statement. Luna-25 was heading to the south pole to find water ice and spend a year analyzing how it emerged there, and if there was a link with water appearing on Earth.Continue reading.Tesla says data breach was an inside jobThe leaks detail thousands of Autopilot complaints over the past years.A Tesla data breach earlier this year affecting more than 75,000 people was caused by "insider wrongdoing," according to a notification on Maine's Attorney General website. The 75,735 people impacted were likely current or former Tesla employees. In the employee letter, Tesla provided more information about the incident, confirming the May 10 breach date and that Handelsblatt had obtained Tesla confidential information. "The investigation revealed that two former Tesla employees misappropriated the information in violation of Tesla's IT security and data protection policies and shared it with the media outlet."Continue reading.Hard sail test aims to reduce cargo ship emissions by 30 percentWith 123-foot solid sails.BARA cargo ship equipped with rigid sails, each the height of a 10-story building, has departed on its inaugural journey. The Pyxis Ocean vessel will test WindWings sails, designed to harness old-school air power to help reduce fuel use - and the shipping industry's CO2 emissions. The sail's creators estimate the technology could decarbonize cargo ships by about 30 percent. The rigid sails are made from the same materials as wind turbines and can be added to cargo ships' decks, providing an option for upgrading older, less fuel-efficient vessels.Continue reading.YouTube wants to benefit from AI-generated music without the copyright headachesThe platform and Universal have unveiled principles for handling the emerging category.YouTube and partners like Universal Music Group (UMG) have unveiled a set of principles for AI music. In theory, the aim is to encourage adoption while keeping artists paid. YouTube also says AI music must include "appropriate protections" against copyright violations and provide "opportunities" for partners who want to get involved. While the video giant hasn't detailed what this will entail, it suggests it'll build on the Content ID system that helps rights holders flag their material. It's all rather vague at the moment, but at least the video service is aware of the incoming challenges of AI. Even if others aren't quite getting it.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-voice-of-mario-is-stepping-away-from-games-after-nearly-three-decades-111640482.html?src=rss

Meta will soon offer Stories and Reels in chronological order, among other changes, to comply with the European's Digital Services Act (DSA), the company announced. The changes were expected after the European Commission announced that it had reached an agreement in April to create new rules that would require platforms like Facebook to offer alternative systems "not based on profiling" as a key requirement.Meta said it has mobilized over 1,000 people to "develop solutions to the DSA's requirements." Some of the changes will increase transparency about how its systems work and provide users more options to tailor their experiences on Facebook and Instagram. At the same time, it's establishing an "independent compliance function" to ensure it meets ongoing regulatory obligations.Starting later this month, Meta will offer Reels, Stories, Search and other parts of Facebook and Instagram that are unranked by Meta using its AI recommendation process. "For example, on Facebook and Instagram, users will have the option to view Stories and Reels only from people they follow, ranked in chronological order, newest to oldest," wrote Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg.It's not clear how Meta will implement the change. The main Feed on Instagram already allows users to sort by Following instead of using the algorithm-based approach. However, the "Following" feature is effectively a secondary page on Instagram, and the app always defaults to the algorithmic "For You" option when first opened. Facebook is even more of a hassle, forcing you to select a menu, go into Feeds and tap "Friends" rather than "All."Users will also be able to view Search results based only on the words they enter, rather than results personalized specifically to them based on their previous activity and personal interests. The company is also providing more information about how its AI systems rank content via 22 system cards for Facebook and Instagram, adding to its "Why Am I Seeing This" feature."These cards provide information about how our AI systems rank content for Feed, Reels, Stories, and other surfaces; some of the predictions each system makes to determine what content might be most relevant to people; and the options available to help customize an experience on Facebook and Instagram," Meta said.Meta is also expanding its Ad library to display and archive all ads (for one year) that target EU users, including date run, parameters used for targeting (age, gender, location), who received the ad and more. It's also rolling out two new tools for researchers that include publicly available content from Pages, Posts, Groups and Events.The company said that it "welcomes the principles of transparency, accountability and user empowerment at the heart of the DSA," adding it has "long advocated for a harmonized regulatory regime." However, Meta previously expressed extreme displeasure when Apple introduced changes that allowed users to easily opt out of targeted advertising starting with iOS 14. To that end, observers will no doubt be keenly interested in how the changes are implemented and whether they follow the letter, if not the spirit, of the new law.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/facebook-and-instagram-will-offer-chronological-stories-and-reels-to-comply-with-eu-law-103612256.html?src=rss

Microsoft is significantly restructuring its Activision Blizzard merger proposal by selling cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to rival Ubisoft, it wrote in a blog post late yesterday. That would address a key concern of UK regulators, which blocked the deal in part become of Microsoft's potential dominance in cloud gaming - but nothing is likely to be approved until October 18th."As a result of the agreement with Ubisoft, Microsoft believes its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard presents a substantially different transaction under UK law than the transaction Microsoft submitted for the CMA's consideration in 2022," Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote.If the merger goes through, Microsoft would transfer "cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years to Ubisoft Entertainment SA, a leading global game publisher. The rights will be in perpetuity," Smith added. That means Microsoft wouldn't be able to make Activision Blizzard games exclusive for Xbox Cloud Gaming, nor have any say on how they're released on rival services. It will also allow Ubisoft to offer Activision Blizzard cloud gaming services on Apple and other non-Windows systems.As for the terms of the transaction, "Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft for the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard's games through a one-off payment and through a market-based wholesale pricing mechanism, including an option that supports pricing based on usage," Smith said.

Those who follow publications like Engadget on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will know that the articles they share on the platform appear with a text snippet, an image and a sometimes-truncated version of their headline. That may not be the case in the near future. According to Fortune, the company is planning to implement major changes to the way shared articles appear on a tweet (or a post, as it's now called) by removing their text elements and leaving just their lead images with an overlay of the URL. In a reply to a post about the update, Elon Musk has confirmed that X is working on the new format and that the idea came from him directly.

It might not be an overstatement to say Rode's original Wireless GO microphone system changed how a lot of YouTubers work. It wasn't the first wireless mic system, not by a long long shot, but its focus on creators made it incredibly popular. That success would inspire a lot of competing products - such as DJI's - which have since won over fans in a category that Rode arguably defined. Today, Rode fights back with the Wireless Pro - its new flagship wireless microphone system for creators.The headline feature is the inclusion of onboard 32-bit float recording which means you should no longer have to worry about setting mic gain levels (though it's probably best that you do). This feature means the onboard recording will be almost impossible to "clip" or distort through being too loud. Effectively you should always have a useable recording if things went a bit too loud on the audio in your camera, which will be a great anxiety reducer to anyone who's ever had a production ruined thanks to bad audio.The Wireless Pro could arguably help bring 32-bit float into the mainstream. There are specialist audio recorders out there that already offer this feature. And Rode already included it on its NT1 hybrid studio microphone, but given that you can plug a lot of different microphones into the Wireless Pro transmitters, this opens the door for recording a wide variety of audio content in 32-bit float - as long as you can feed it into a 3.5mm jack.In a further attempt at streamlining the creatory process, the Wireless Pro also has advanced timecode capability so you won't need an external device for this. Though you will need to set this up via Rode Central, the companion app for the mic (there's no option on-device for this setting).Photo by James Trew / EngadgetThe Wireless Pro borrows a few features from alternatives or aftermarket accessories by including a charging case as standard (Rode currently offers one as a standalone purchase). That case is good for two total charges of the entire system according to the company and comes as standard with the new model. The stated battery life for the transmitters and receiver is around severn hours, meaning the Wireless Pro should be good for at least 20 hours total recording onto the 32gb storage (good for 40 hours of material apparently).Another key upgrade is the improved range. The Wireless GO II, for example, has an approximate range of 656 feet (200 meters). The new Pro models expands that to 850 feet (260 meters) which is, coincidentally, a shade more than DJI's stated 820 feet (250 meters).When Rode unveiled its more affordale Wireless ME kit, it introduced the idea of the receiver doubling as a "narrator" mic via a TRRS headset in the headphones/monitoring port. That's a feature that carries over to the Pro meaning you can record up to three different speakers albeit one of them will be wired, rather than cable free.There are a couple of minor, but welcome quality of life updates, too, such as locking 3.5mm jacks so you won't rip your lav mic out and plugin power detection so the system can detect when the camera its plugged into is active, using that info to optimize power usage.At time of publication, DJI's dual-mic product retails for $330. The Rode Wireless Pro will cost $399. That's obviously a slice more, but the company decided to include two Lavalier II mics as part of the bundle. The Lavalier II costs $99 on its own, so from that perspective the entire bundle represents a decent value if you're looking for complete solution.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rodes-wireless-pro-mic-kit-lets-you-forget-about-clipped-audio-000028417.html?src=rss

Over the weekend, many X users noticed that older Twitter images had mysteriously disappeared from the site. Now, the company has confirmed that an unspecified bug" is responsible and it's working on a fix.The issue first cropped up Saturday, when older tweets that had originally included images began to show as un-clickable t.co URLs instead. X now says the bug affected images from before 2014," but as The Verge previously pointed out tweets from 2014 - including the iconic Oscars selfie from Ellen DeGeneres - were also at least temporarily affected.The 2014 Oscars photo has since been restored but other older tweets still seem to have missing photos for now. We fixed the bug, and the issue will be fully resolved in the coming days," X said in a statement via its support account.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured extraordinarily detailed images published today of the Ring Nebula. The gaseous cloud, also called M57 and NGC 6720, contains 20,000 dense globules rich in molecular hydrogen. It sits about 2,500 light years away from Earth.The first image (above) was taken with the NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera), one of the Webb Space Telescope's primary sensors. It is designed to detect light in the near-infrared spectrum and can capture remarkably detailed images. NIRCam also took the equally hypnotizing updated image of the Pillars of Creation.Meanwhile, the second image (below) was captured using the JWST's MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument). It better highlights the nebula's (roughly) ten concentric arcs beyond its outer edge, likely formed from its central star's interaction with a lower-mass companion in its orbit. In this way, nebulae like the Ring Nebula reveal a kind of astronomical archaeology, as astronomers study the nebula to learn about the star that created it," the European Space Agency wrote in a press release.ESA / Webb / NASA / CSA / M. Barlow / N. Cox / R. WessonThe Ring Nebula was discovered somewhat serendipitously in 1779 by French astronomers Charles Messier and Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix while they searched for comets. It's a planetary nebula, named as such because early researchers mistook their appearances for distant worlds. The Ring Nebula formed from a medium-sized star that shed its outer layers as it exhausted its fuel and approached its demise.The colourful main ring is composed of gas thrown off by a dying star at the centre of the nebula," the ESA wrote. This star is on its way to becoming a white dwarf - a very small, dense, and hot body that is the final evolutionary stage for a star like the Sun."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/webb-space-telescope-captures-the-ring-nebula-in-mesmerizing-detail-213005773.html?src=rss

Two of the standout indie hits of the past few years are Cult of the Lamb and Don't Starve Together. Now, the pair of critically-acclaimed darlings are teaming up for a new game mode, unique in-game items and even some character cameos. This crossover impacts both games, though each receives different perks.The biggest draw here is a brand-new game mode for Cult of the Lamb that's directly inspired by Don't Starve Together. The appropriately-named Penitence Mode ups the stress factor by giving your lamb protagonist the same mortal needs as your cute and poop-obsessed followers. In other words, you have to eat and shelter yourself, in addition to providing for your cult. You are given the same options as the criticality-acclaimed traditional game, so you can eat meat and veggies, or go at it Yellowjackets style (cannibalism.)The games also now share some items to create a unique look, so you'll be able to unlock decorations in Cult of the Lamb from Don't Starve, like pig heads on sticks, and vice-versa. Look for new chest skins, tabernacle decorations and more.Finally, there's some characters making their way through a crossover portal." Webber, from Don't Starve's Reign of Giants DLC, is now an unlockable cult member, complete with a new never hungry" trait so you can save that grassy gruel for someone that actually needs it. Additionally, Don't Starve's lamb-like ewelet critter/pets are getting even, uh, lamb-ier, thanks to clothing and design options inspired by the other game.The update is available now for PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The developers also note that a major content update is coming soon to Cult of the Lamb and that Don't Starve Together will continue to receive more content in its ongoing From Beyond story arc.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cult-of-the-lamb-and-dont-starve-together-team-up-for-a-creepy-cute-crossover-184518173.html?src=rss

Imagine a game that might be described as the opposite of Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These are first-person shooters set in wartorn, post-apocalyptic cities, so their inverse might be a third-person game with no weapons at all, set in a warm, buzzing metropolis of friendly characters, maybe starring an adorable cat. Weirdly, the result could look a lot like Little Kitty, Big City, the first project from former Valve designer Matt T. Wood.In nearly 17 years at Valve, Wood helped build and ship the company's most notable titles, including Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2,CS:GO and both episodes of Half-Life 2. He was a founding member of the CS:GO project and worked on that series for six years; he was pivotal in crafting Portal 2's co-op mode, and he created choreography and combat scenes in Half-Life and Left 4 Dead. Level design was one of his specialties.Wood left Valve in mid-2019, and today he's the head of his own game development company in Seattle, Washington, Double Dagger Studio. He didn't plan on starting his own studio post-Valve, and he certainly didn't think he'd be building and self-publishing a game about an adorable cat. But, he is, and it's called Little Kitty, Big City.It really is more about cozy exploration," Wood told Engadget. The game has aspects of platforming, but it's very light platforming. It's more about exploring vertically, and exploring nooks and crannies. I've done a lot of things throughout my career, but one of the things I spent a lot of time doing was level design in video games, so I have a lot of personal interest in creating spaces that feel fun to explore, to sort of poke around in."Little Kitty, Big City has Saturday-morning-cartoon vibes, with hand-animated scenes and a clean, friendly art style. The main character, Kitty, has wide green eyes, inky fur and batlike ears, and they're on a mission to find their way home to an apartment complex in the center of a bustling downtown. However, procrastination is highly encouraged. Little Kitty, Big City is an open-world game filled with adorable animals to befriend, people to pester, quests to complete and hats to wear.The hats are embellished bonnets that come in various forms, including a fish head, a half-shucked corn cob, little devil ears, a cowboy situation, a hedgehog and even some root vegetables. Kitty's face endearingly pokes through the center of each hat, and they can be equipped at will throughout the game. Aside from a few unique cases, there are no stats attached to the hats - wearing the ladybug head doesn't grant Kitty movement speed, and the construction hat doesn't add bonus armor. Mostly, they exist to be cute.As a game designer, you kind of sit down and go, what is the purpose of this thing that you're doing?" Wood said. You always need a function, a purpose, a reason for doing the thing. I think 10 years ago, I would have said, OK, hats are gonna give you this ability, or, like, there's going to be all of this gameplay tied to all this stuff. And while that is true for some things regarding the hats, largely, they're cosmetic. It was refreshing to come to that conclusion to say, no, these are just for fun."Double Dagger StudioWood's long history at Valve contextualizes his current role as the founder of an independent studio, and his years inside the insular company have helped shape his approach to game design.Valve is a unique behemoth, even in the AAA space. It owns Steam, which functions as a bottomless bank; it's a private company, so it doesn't have shareholders to appease; and it's the steward of iconic franchises including Portal, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress and Dota 2 (many of which are on Wood's resume).Valve is not a typical large game studio," Wood said. You have a lot of autonomy and freedom to do things there. But, you still sort of live within that direction that Valve goes in."Valve's internal structure has long been the subject of myth and legend among video game fans, with the company's founder Gabe Newell in the role of messiah and the Valve Handbook for New Employees as its sacred text. The handbook made its way online in 2012 and went viral for its Libertarian-inspired corporate ideals - it outlined a flat hierarchy at Valve, suggesting employees had the ability to manage themselves and work on their dream projects at any given time. This cemented Valve's reputation as an ultra-rad, super-coolvideo game company in the public eye, and this perception persists today.In practice, this structure has resulted in an incredibly rich company that doesn't produce much. It's a running joke that Valve can't count to three: Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2 came out in 2007, Left 4 Dead 2 came out in 2009, and Portal 2 came out in 2011. In 2020, Valve debuted Half-Life: Alyx, a VR game exclusive to the studio's Index hardware, and after ignoring an extremely disruptive bot invasion, the company rolled out an update to TF2 this summer, largely comprising community-made maps and assets. Meanwhile, Steam has been printing money while maintaining Valve's deathgrip on the PC marketplace.Double Dagger StudioWhen Wood talks about the fun and freedom he feels building Little Kitty, Big City, he compares it with a top-down rigidity and complacent bureaucracy he experienced in Valve's production line. Here's how he described it:Valve talks a lot about, like, you can do anything you want. And it's like, well - that's never true. You know, Valve has a direction and they have a trajectory. And so, for me, it was realizing that the direction that Valve was going in was not a place that I wanted to be long-term. Because I'd been there for a long time and they were sitting on their laurels a little bit, and it's like they weren't really challenging themselves, taking risks or doing anything. Steam's making a lot of money so they don't really have to, but I was not OK with that. And after many years of trying to figure out how to manage that, I decided, you know, it's important for me to go and make my own decisions for a while."Wood made it clear that he appreciated the opportunities and stability that Valve provided him, and overall he called it a great company." It's easy to see why so many talented game developers are drawn to Valve, a studio with unlimited resources, a laissez-faire management style and a library of prestigious IP. Working at an established studio also means there are plenty of experts around to check your progress and offer advice, and these are fail-safes that Wood doesn't have any longer as an independent developer.That can be a bit scary," Wood said. But it's been great. I love working with a small team focused on a game where, to us, it's different. To me, it's a challenge."Double Dagger StudioWood said that even though he likely works more now, he also has more energy and passion for his projects than he did in his final five years at Valve. Little Kitty, Big City represents a litany of game-design firsts for Wood, including the fact that it's a mini open world and it has zero combat. There are now two full-time team members at Double Dagger, plus a handful of part-time developers and contributors, and they all found each other naturally, by Digital Age standards - Wood shared early ideas of Little Kitty, Big City on Twitter, and interested creators got in touch.At first I did reach out to some of my co-workers who had left Valve already and they were interested, but like - this was a common theme about reaching out to people who used to work at Valve, is that most people when they leave Valve, they're kind of done," Wood said.Despite the current surge of indie-focused publishers like Annapurna Interactive, Devolver Digital, Private Division, Humble, Netflix and Raw Fury, Wood is self-publishing Little Kitty, Big City under Double Dagger Studio. That's not to say he didn't explore a potential partnership - he actually made it all the way to final contract meetings with one publisher in particular, but in the end, he turned the deal down.It didn't make any sense," Wood said. Because what they were able to do, for me, absolutely did not justify the money that they were gonna take. And so it was really hard to find a publisher that made sense. I think that the difference between where I was in my career, and where someone maybe right out of school would be, is that I walked away from Valve with a chunk of money that I said, I'm gonna invest that into a company.' And so I didn't have to rely on a publisher to spend $100,000 on a year of development or whatever. I did have that freedom and space to say no."Double Dagger StudioThis year alone, Little Kitty, Big City was announced for Switch, it had a successful showing at Summer Game Fest, and it's getting some fresh swag in the form of a Makeship campaign offering an exceedingly cute Kitty plush and a salmon-shaped, zip-up catnip toy. The Double Dagger team is finishing the game while Wood oversees it all, no safety net in sight.When we first started talking, Wood described Little Kitty, Big City as something like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz, a game about a lost soul trying to find their way home and meeting a colorful cast of characters along the journey. This may be Kitty's story, but at this stage in his career, it feels a lot like Wood's, too.Little Kitty, Big City is on track to come out in 2024 for Switch and PC - via Steam, of course.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-cozy-cat-game-that-escaped-from-valve-180052174.html?src=rss

Sony has been offering custom PlayStation 5 plates for quite some time now, including a recent version that brings a Spider-Man 2 look to the console. Microsoft, which has given away several custom Xbox Series S units in contests, is getting in on the action by selling official wraps for the Xbox Series X.Along with two camouflage colors, Arctic Camo and Mineral Camo, a Starfield-inspired wrap will be available. Pre-orders for the wraps are open now. The $50 Starfield one will ship in the US, Canada and Europe on October 18th, while the $45 camo options will hit those regions on November 10th (though fans in Europe will miss out on the Arctic option for now).

A cargo ship equipped with rigid sails, each the height of a 10-story building, has departed on its inaugural journey. The Pyxis Ocean vessel will test WindWings sails, designed to harness old-school air power to help reduce fuel usage - and the shipping industry's CO2 emissions. The sail's creators estimate the technology could decarbonize cargo ships by about 30 percent as the maritime sector tries to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The estimated reduction could be higher if paired with alternative fuels.The ship has been retrofitted with two WindWings, each measuring 37.5 m (123 ft) tall. The rigid sails are made from the same materials as wind turbines and can be added to cargo ships' decks, providing an option for older vessels to reduce environmental impact. The ship's maiden voyage will chart a route from China to Brazil.The project is a collaboration between BAR Technologies (which developed the sails), Cargill Ocean Transportation, Mitsubishi Corporation and Yara Marine. The Maritime Industry is an extremely hard industry to decarbonize," said Cargill president Jan Dieleman. So there's not many tools that you have. So it's really important that we as users of the maritime industry are also going to get involved in some of the innovation and really move the industry forward."BAR TechnologiesThe shipping industry agreed in July to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by or around, i.e., close to, 2050." The nonbinding agreement is essentially toothless but meant as a signal to governments of where to benchmark their (binding) targets, according toThe New York Times. The agreement would have been even more lax if not for a strong last-minute push" from small island nations and other less economically developed coastal countries, which led to a plan that provides a chance at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That's the threshold climate experts agree the world needs to avoid to spare Earth from the worst climate-change scenarios.We fought tooth and nail for these numbers," Carlos Fuller, Belize's representative at the United Nations, told the NYT last month. They aren't perfect, but they give us a shot at staying within 1.5 degrees Celsius. And that's what we came here to do."Wind power has the potential to help reach those goals, but adoption is a challenge. We have the number of ships using this technology doubling over the past 12 months," Stephen Gordon, managing director at maritime data firm Clarksons Research, told the BBC. This is from a low base, however. In the international shipping fleet and new-build order book of over 110,000 vessels, we have records for under 100 having wind-assisted technology today."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hard-sail-test-hits-the-high-seas-aiming-to-reduce-cargo-ship-emissions-by-30-percent-172738236.html?src=rss

YouTube is quickly becoming a home for AI-generated music, and the service is trying to strike a balance between the technology's fans and the labels eager to protect their copyrights. The company and partners like Universal Music Group (UMG) have unveiled a set of principles for AI music. In theory, the approach encourages adoption while keeping artists paid.To start, YouTube maintains that "AI is here" and that it must have a "responsible" strategy. Accordingly, it's forming a Music AI Incubator that will influence the company's strategy. UMG and artists it represents (including Rosanne Cash, Yo Gotti and Frank Sinatra's estate) will help gather insights from YouTube's AI experiments.YouTube also says AI music must include "appropriate protections" against copyright violations, and must also provide "opportunities" for partners who want to get involved. While the video giant hasn't detailed what this will entail, it suggests it will build on the Content ID system that helps rights holders flag their material. On top of this, YouTube claims it will scale its content policies and safety structure to adapt to AI. The firm already has systems in place to catch copyright abuse, misinformation and other violations, but intends to pour more resources into those methods.The principles are currently vague and don't do much to change YouTube's stance. More details are due in the months ahead, however, including policies, particular technologies and monetization for creators.Generative AI is increasingly popular for unauthorized collaborations and mashups (including for UMG artists like Drake and Frank Sinatra), but it's also finding legitimate uses. The surviving members of The Beatles are using AI to create a 'final' song from a John Lennon recording, while electronic artist Holly Herndon covered Dolly Parton using an AI voice. UMG itself is exploring AI-made soundscapes. YouTube's principles could help it profit from legal productions while dodging lawsuits from artists and labels worried about ripoffs.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-wants-to-benefit-from-ai-generated-music-without-the-copyright-headaches-162247510.html?src=rss

As if October wasn't already going to be busy enough for new games. Publisher 505 Games has revealed that Ghostrunner 2, the sequel to a terrific cyberpunk platformer from 2020, will arrive on October 26th. It will be available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Pre-orders are open and those who snap up the Brutal Edition will get access 48 hours early.The latest entry in the series takes place one year after the events of Ghostrunner. You'll once again play as Jack, a cyberninja who has to slice and dice his way up through an imposing tower. Ghostrunner is a fast-paced, often-tough game in which you parkour around treacherous environments. Jack dies often, but instant respawns, frequent checkpoints and accessibility options are helpful.The sequel from One More Level seems to build on that foundation with new features such as a motorbike and dialogue choices. This is one of my most anticipated games of the year, so it's a real shame that it might get buried under the onslaught of blockbusters that are arriving in October.Ghostrunner 2 will be going right up against Alan Wake 2 (October 27th) - Epic Games and Remedy last week delayed their game by 10 days to get out of the way of major titles like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Also coming in October are games including Assassin's Creed Mirage(which also moved release dates to stake out its own spot on the calendar), Detective Pikachu Returns, Forza Motorsport, Lords of the Fallen and Cities Skylines II.On top of those, many people will still be knees deep in the likes of Starfield,Armored Core VI and perhaps Immortals of Aveum by the time Ghostrunner 2 arrives. Given the abundance of games coming out in the next couple months, perhaps waiting an extra few weeks wouldn't be a bad idea.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cyberpunk-platformer-ghostrunner-2-arrives-on-october-26th-160645966.html?src=rss

A federal judge has agreed with US government officials that a piece of artificial intelligence-generated art isn't eligible for copyright protection in the country since there was no human authorship involved. "Copyright has never stretched so far [...] as to protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand, as plaintiff urges here," Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in the ruling, which The Hollywood Reporter obtained. "Human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright."Dr. Stephen Thaler sued the US Copyright Office after the agency rejected his second attempt to copyright an artwork titled A Recent Entrance to Paradise (pictured above) in 2022. The USCO agreed that the work was generated by an AI model that Thaler calls the Creativity Machine. The computer scientist applied to copyright the work himself, describing the piece "as a work-for-hire to the owner of the Creativity Machine." He claimed that the USCO's "human authorship" requirement was unconstitutional.Howell cited rulings in other cases in which copyright protection was denied to artwork that lacked human involvement, such as the famous case of a monkey that managed to capture a few selfies. "Courts have uniformly declined to recognize copyright in works created absent any human involvement," the judge wrote.The judge noted that the growing influence of generative AI will lead to challenging questions" about the level of human input that's required to meet the bar for copyright protection, as well as how original artwork created by systems trained on copyrighted pieces can truly be (an issue that's the subject of several other legal battles).However, Howell indicated that Thaler's case wasn't an especially complex one, since he admitted that he wasn't involved in the creation of A Recent Entrance to Paradise. In the absence of any human involvement in the creation of the work, the clear and straightforward answer is the one given by the [Federal] Register: No," Howell ruled. Thaler plans to appeal the decision.According to Bloomberg, this is the first ruling in the US on copyright protections for AI-generated art, though it's an issue that the USCO has been contending with for some time. In March, the agency issued guidance on copyrighting AI-generated images that are based on text prompts - generally, they're not eligible for copyright protection. The agency has offered some hope to generative AI enthusiasts, though. "The answer will depend on the circumstances, particularly how the AI tool operates and how it was used to create the final work," the USCO said. "This is necessarily a case-by-case inquiry."The agency has also granted limited copyright protection to a graphic novel with AI-generated elements. It said in February that while the Midjourney-created images in Kris Kashtanova's Zarya of the Dawn were not eligible to be copyrighted, the text and layout of the work were.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/judge-rules-that-ai-generated-art-isnt-copyrightable-since-it-lacks-human-authorship-150033903.html?src=rss