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NASA has achieved a technological milestone, announcing the International Space Station's Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is now recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring onboard. Advanced dehumidifiers capture moisture from the station's crew breaths and sweats, while urine processor assembly recovers water from astronauts' urine through vacuum distillation.According to NASA, the distillation process produces water and a urine brine that still contains reclaimable H20. Now, a new device can extract the remaining water in the brine, increasing the water recovery rate from 93 to 98 percent. If the idea is making you gag, it shouldn't, says Jill Williamson, NASA's ECLSS water subsystems manager. The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth." I'll pass.- Mat SmithThe Morning After isn't just a newsletter - it's also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missedEngadget Podcast: Reviewing the Moto Razr+ and Pixel Tablet'Simpler Times' is the coziest game I've played in a long time The best Amazon Prime Day early access deals for 2023 'The Elder Scrolls VI' is 'likely five-plus years away,' says Xbox chiefYouTube is reportedly testing online games for mobile and desktopThe gaming product could be called Playables.Google is looking at online games as a new source of income for YouTube, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The video hosting platform has reportedly invited employees to test a new product called Playables, which gives users access to online games right on YouTube. Users can play them on the YouTube website on a browser or through the app, on an Android or an iOS phone. While the report insinuates there are currently several games available for testing, it only mentioned Stack Bounce, an ad-supported arcade game that gets players to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball. (It's not exactly Elden Ring.) Playables could be more akin to Netflix's gaming product, which gives paying users access to casual games on mobile.Continue reading.Apple's Vision Pro headset may not come with a top strap in the boxWill it cost as much as those Mac Pro wheels?EngadgetWhen we previewed the Vision Pro in early June, the prototype unit featured an extra Velcro strap not seen in any of Apple's promotional material. At the time, a company spokesperson said the handset would support additional straps if necessary.According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple created the strap, which goes over the wearer's head, after some employees complained the Vision Pro felt too heavy" after a couple of hours of use. In a move Apple has made a fewtimes in the past with other products, the company is now reportedly considering selling the strap as an optional accessory rather than including it in the box.The Vision Pro could arrive as late as May 2024, and Gurman says the company has already reassigned some employees to work on a more affordable headset and a second-generation Vision Pro.Continue reading.Moto Razr+ phone reviewFinally, some real competition for Samsung's Flip foldable.EngadgetThe Moto Razr+, a foldable phone like a standard 6.9-inch handset when open, has a large 3.6-inch screen closed. That addresses one of the most common complaints about the Galaxy Z Flip 4 - the size of its cover display. The Razr+, meanwhile, pretty much runs full Android with some tweaks.However, anyone thinking of getting the Razr+ should probably wait. Samsung has announced its next Galaxy Unpacked will be in Korea in late July, when it's widely expected to launch new foldables. If you can hold off, it's worth seeing what the next Z Flip will offer before picking your next-gen flip phone.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-nasa-is-recycling-98-percent-of-astronaut-pee-on-the-iss-into-drinkable-water-111541147.html?src=rss

Pokemon might be a Japanese franchise, but, like people around the world, South Korean conglomerate Samsung continues to show a kinship to the series with its latest Pokemon-themed products. The electronics company has announced the release of its new Pokemon Packs, with three new Galaxy Buds 2 cases designed to look like Jigglypuff, Ditto and Snorlax. Along with the adorable case, the packs feature corresponding stickers and a choice of the Galaxy Buds 2 for KRW 129,000 ($99) or the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro for KRW 199,000 ($152).Samsung had started off this series of sorts with a classic option, launching Poke Ball cases for its Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and standard edition headphones in May 2022. The limited edition item sold out within an hour, so it's no surprise the company wanted to release a few more Pokemon-themed options. The Pokemon edition of Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 3 foldable smartphone had a similar response, with the KRW 1,280,000 ($979) device selling out within minutes.The Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4 smartphone have also previously gotten the Pokemon treatment courtesy of a Poke Ball-covered watch strap and phone case. As for Jigglypuff, Ditto and Snorlax, these adorable cases are only available in Samsung's native South Korea and, like the Poke Ball edition, probably on eBay soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-latest-pokemon-themed-galaxy-buds-are-too-cute-105522706.html?src=rss

Aston Martin plans to build "ultra-luxury high-performance" EVs using Lucid's electric motors, batteries and other technology, Lucid announced in a press release. It's the first deal for Lucid to supply parts to other automakers - much like Rimac, which itself developed batteries and other components for Aston Martin, along with Koenigsegg and others. Lucid recently released its own debut electric car, the Air, in multiple versions starting at around $87,400."The supply agreement with Lucid is a game changer for the future EV-led growth of Aston Martin," said Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll. "Based on our strategy and requirements, we selected Lucid, gaining access to the industry's highest performance and most innovative technologies for our future BEV products."Aston Martin said it selected Lucid through a "competitive process" and will use Lucid's proprietary electric powertrain technology, including its ultra-high performance twin motor drive unit, battery technology, and onboard "Wunderbox" charging unit. The technology will allow for features like torque vectoring, heat exchanger tech and a battery system upgraded for higher power.In 2020, Aston Martin scrapped plans to manufacture an all-electric Rapide E, saying it wouldn't release any EVs until it's "financially stable." Stroll, a Canadian billionaire who also owns the Aston Martin F1 team, took a 25 percent ownership in Aston Martin back in 2020. Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, currently owns 9.4 percent of Aston Martin, and previously said it plans to increase that to 20 percent by 2023.As part of that deal, Mercedes-Benz granted Aston Martin access to its hybrid and electric powertrains, but it's not clear how Lucid and Mercedes will interact. Aston Martin's F1 team currently uses a Mercedes-Benz power unit, though it plans to switch to Honda in 2026. "Along with Mercedes-Benz, we now have two world-class suppliers [with Lucid] to support the internal development and investments we are making to deliver our electrification strategy," Stroll said.Rimac has supplied technology, including a lightweight battery system, to Aston Martin's 1,160 HP Valkyrie hypercar. Back in 2015, Aston Martin joined forces with LeEco to build an electric version of the Rapide, but LeEco bowed out with its own financial issues. To complete the circle, LeEco originally had a stake in Lucid, but founder Jia Yueting was forced to sell it due to a liquidity crisis.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lucid-will-power-aston-martins-future-evs-101040684.html?src=rss

Users in Canada are once again serving as involuntary first adopters of Netflix's new policies. Following its February decision to charge more for account sharing between houses in the country, the streamer has now announced its basic plan will no longer be an option for Canada's subscribers, The Winnipeg Free Press reports.Anyone already on a basic plan doesn't have to worry about being kicked off it, but if they choose to move to another option or close their account, they can't get back on that tier. New users can no longer choose the basic option, while current subscribers on other plans will lose the opportunity to switch over "in the near future." In Canada, the basic tier is $9.99 (CAD) per month, while the basic with ads tier is $5.99, the standard is $16.49 and the premium is $20.99.After claiming it would never offer an ad-supported option, Netflix did just that in November 2022, launching the new tier in Canada, the US and ten other countries. Now with the decision to remove its basic option, the streamer is pushing more of its customers towards an ad-filled viewing experience. The rationale is simple: Ad-supported plans can be highly beneficial to Netflix's bottom line. In the first quarter of 2023, across the US, Netflix saw its basic with ads tier bring in more money per user than its standard plan. This dichotomy held even though its ad tier is $6.99, compared to its standard plan costing $15.49.There's no indication that Netflix will remove the basic tier in the US anytime soon, but if you want to avoid paying more or watching ads, now might be the time to pick it. In the US, the basic plan is $9.99, and the premium is $19.99.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-is-removing-its-basic-plan-in-canada-092535002.html?src=rss

Despite our intrinsic distrust of AI in space taught to us by movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey ("I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave"), it offers large advantages to both manned and unmanned missions. To that end, NASA is developing a system that will allow astronauts to perform maneuvers, conduct experiments and more using a natural-language ChatGPT-like interface, The Guardian reported."The idea is to get to a point where we have conversational interactions with space vehicles and they [are] also talking back to us on alerts, interesting findings they see in the solar system and beyond," said Dr. Larissa Suzuki, speaking at an IEEE meeting on next-gen space communication. "It's really not like science fiction anymore."NASA aims to deploy the system on its Lunar Gateway, a space station that will orbit the Moon and provide support for NASA's Artemis mission. It would use a natural language interface that allows astronauts to seek advice on experiments or conduct maneuvers without diving into complex manuals.On a dedicated page soliciting small business support for Lunar Gateway, NASA wrote that it would require AI and machine learning technologies to manage various systems when it's unoccupied as well. Those include autonomous operations of science payloads, data transmission prioritization, autonomous operations, health management of Gateway and more.For instance, Suzuki outlined a scenario in which the system would automatically fix data transmission glitches and inefficiencies, along with other types of digital outages. "We cannot send an engineer up in space whenever a space vehicle goes offline or its software breaks somehow," she said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-is-creating-a-chatgpt-like-assistant-for-astronauts-081903604.html?src=rss

The New York City Department of Education has become the latest organization to disclose it had private data stolen as part of the far-reaching MOVEit file transfer software hack. In an email sent to parents on Sunday, the agency said the personal information of approximately 45,000 students, including in some cases social security numbers and birth dates, had recently been compromised. The Education Department said the personal information of staff was also accessed but did not share how many teachers and other personnel were affected.The safety and security of our students and staff, including their personal information and data, is of the utmost importance for the New York City Department of Education. Our top priority is determining exactly which confidential information was exposed, and the specific impact for each affected individual," the department said Sunday. When that determination is made, we will begin preparing notifications to individuals whose confidential information was compromised. Along with the notification, individuals will be offered access to an identity monitoring service."The Education Department is one of many organizations affected by the MOVEit hack. Clop, a ransomware gang with suspected pro-Russian ties, claimed responsibility for the cyberattack in early June. The group took advantage of a zero-day vulnerability in the enterprise file transfer software to breach the servers of hundreds of companies," including the largest US pension fund. The scale of the New York City Department of Education breach is small compared to some of the other victims caught up in the hack but is notable for including the personal information of minors. In an interview with Bleeping Computer, the Clop gang claimed it would erase any data it obtained from governments, the military and children's hospitals. It's unclear if the group includes student data in that final category.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/clop-ransomware-gang-obtained-personal-data-of-45000-new-york-city-students-in-moveit-hack-204655820.html?src=rss

NASA has achieved a technological milestone that could one day play an important role in missions to the Moon and beyond. This week, the space agency revealed (via Space.com) that the International Space Station's Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring onboard the station. Functionally, you can imagine the system operating in a way similar to the Stillsuits described in Frank Herbert's Dune. One part of the ECLSS uses advanced dehumidifiers" to capture moisture the station's crew breaths and sweat out as they go about their daily tasks.Another subsystem, the imaginatively named Urine Processor Assembly," recovers what astronauts pee with the help of vacuum distillation. According to NASA, the distillation process produces water and a urine brine that still contains reclaimable H20. The agency recently began testing a new device that can extract what water remains in the brine, and it's thanks to that system that NASA observed a 98 percent water recovery rate on the ISS, where previously the station was recycling about 93 to 94 percent of the water astronauts were bringing aboard.This is a very important step forward in the evolution of life support systems," said NASA's Christopher Brown, who is part of the team that manages the International Space Station's life support systems. Let's say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98 percent just keeps going around and around. Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement."If the thought of someone else drinking their urine is causing you to gag, fret not. The processing is fundamentally similar to some terrestrial water distribution systems, just done in microgravity," said Jill Williamson, NASA's ECLSS water subsystems manager. The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered, and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth."According to Williamson, systems like the ECLSS will be critical as NASA conducts more missions beyond Earth's orbit. The less water and oxygen we have to ship up, the more science that can be added to the launch vehicle," Williamson said. Reliable, robust regenerative systems mean the crew doesn't have to worry about it and can focus on the true intent of their mission."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-is-recycling-98-percent-of-astronaut-pee-and-sweat-on-the-iss-into-drinkable-water-184332789.html?src=rss

If you had hoped to play Diablo IVthis weekend, it appears someone was intent on ruining those plans. Since at least the early hours of Sunday morning, Blizzard's Battle.net online service had been the target of an apparent DDoS attack, making it difficult, if not impossible, to play Diablo IV,World of Warcraft and other Blizzard titles before the company eventually resolved the issue. "We continue to actively monitor an ongoing DDoS attack which is affecting latency/connections to our games," Blizzard's customer support account tweeted at 10:24AM after it originally said it was investigating an authentication issue.As of 12:30PM ET, the issue was unresolved. "We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack, which may result in high latency and disconnections for some players," states a notification that appears when you launch Battle.net on PC. "We are actively working to mitigate this issue." When I tried to log into Diablo IV, I was briefly able to play the game before I was disconnected. Over on Reddit, some players say they weren't able to play Blizzard's latest for at least 10 to 12 hours. At the very least, you can bet this incident will renew calls for Blizzard to add an offline mode to Diablo IV.Update 1:36PM ET: As of 1:18PM ET, Blizzard says the DDoS attacks it was experiencing earlier in the day are over. If you still can't connect, the company recommends following the troubleshooting advice on its website.

When Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar previewed the Vision Pro in early June, the prototype unit he tried featured an extra velcro strap not seen in any of Apple's promotional material. At the time, a company spokesperson told him that the handset would support additional straps if necessary.According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple created the strap, which goes over the wearer's head, after some employees complained the Vision Pro felt too heavy" after a couple of hours of use. In a move that feels reminiscent of the company's decision to sell the Pro Display XDR's stand as a separate $999 purchase, Apple is reportedly considering selling the strap as an optional accessory rather than including it in the box.Perhaps that shouldn't come as a surprise seeing as Apple said Vision Pro would start" at $3,499 when it arrives in 2024, but considering most previews mentioned the headset's weight as a potential concern, it feels strange to hear the company won't go out of its way to ensure consumers have a comfortable experience out of the box.Given the Vision Pro's hefty price, you might think the company will market the device only to developers, but Apple seems intent on selling it to consumers as well. Gurman reports the company plans to create dedicated areas within its retail stores where people will have the chance to demo the device. He adds Apple has developed an iPhone app that its retail workers will use to scan a customer's face so that they can ensure the person leaves the store with the correctly sized bands and light seal for their headset.With the Vision Pro not slated to go on sale until early next year, the headset could arrive as late as May 2024, giving Apple almost a year to alter its plans. In the meantime, Gurman says the company has already reassigned some employees to work on a more affordable headset and a second-generation Vision Pro.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-vision-pro-headset-may-not-come-with-a-top-strap-in-the-box-160601556.html?src=rss

As anyone who regularly games online can attest, DDoS (dedicated denial of service) attacks are an irritatingly common occurrence on the internet. Drawing on the combined digital might of a geographically diffuse legion of zombified PCs, hackers are able to swamp game servers and prevent players from logging on for hours or days at a time. The problem has metastasized in recent years as enterprising hackers have begun to package their botnets and spamming tools into commercial offerings, allowing any Tom, Dick, and Script-kiddie rental access to the same power.It's a big internet out there, and bad actors are plentiful. There are worse things than spammers and scammers swimming in the depths of the Dark Web. In his new book, Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks, Dr. Scott J Shapiro, Professor of Law and Philosophy at Yale Law School traces the internet's illicit history through five of the biggest attacks on digital infrastructure ever recorded.Farrar Straus GirauxFANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks by Scott J. Shapiro. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Copyright (C) 2023 by Scott J. Shapiro. All rights reserved.Crime as a ServiceNot all Denial of Service attacks use botnets. In 2013, the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA)-the online propaganda arm of the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime-hacked into Melbourne IT, the registrar that sold the nytimes.com domain name to The New York Times. The SEA altered the DNS records so that nytimes.com pointed to SEA's website instead. Because Melbourne IT contained the authoritative records for the Times' website, the unauthorized changes quickly propagated around the world. When users typed in the normal New York Times domain name, they ended up at a murderous organization's website.Conversely, not all botnets launch Denial of Service attacks. Botnets are, after all, a collection of many hacked devices governed by the attacker remotely, and those bots can be used for many purposes. Originally, botnets were used for spam. The Viagra and Nigerian Prince emails that used to clutter inboxes were sent from thousands of geographically distributed zombie computers. In these cases, the attacker reaches out to their army of bots, commanding them to send tens of thousands of emails a day. In 2012, for example, the Russian Grum botnet sent over 18 billion spam emails a day from 120,000 infected computers, netting its botmaster $2.7 million over three years. Botnets are excellent spam infrastructure because it's hard to defend against them. Networks usually use block lists": lists of addresses that they will not let in. To block a botnet, however, one would have to add the addresses of thousands of geographically disbursed servers to the list. That takes time and money.Because the malware we have seen up till now - worms, viruses, vorms, and wiruses.- could not work together, it was not useful for financially motivated crime. Botnet malware, on the other hand, is because the botnets it creates are controllable. Botmasters are capable of issuing orders to each bot, enabling them to collaborate. Indeed, botnet malware is the Swiss Army knife of cybercrime because botmasters can tell bots in their thrall to implant malware on vulnerable machines, send phishing emails, or engage in click fraud allowing botnets to profit from directing bots to click pay-per-click ads. Click fraud is especially lucrative, as Paras Jha would later discover. In 2018, the ZeroAccess botnet could earn $100,000 a day in click fraud. It commanded a million infected PCs spanning 198 countries, including the island nation of Kiribati and the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.Botnets are great DDoS weapons because they can be trained on a target. One day in February 2000, the hacker MafiaBoy knocked out Fifa.com, Amazon.com, Dell, E*TRADE, eBay, CNN, as well as Yahoo!, then the largest search engine on the internet. He overpowered these web servers by commandeering computers in forty-eight different universities and joining them together into a primitive botnet. When each sent requests to the same IP address at the same time, the collective weight of the requests crashed the website.After taking so many major websites off-line, MafiaBoy was deemed a national security threat. President Clinton ordered a countrywide manhunt to find him. In April 2000, MafiaBoy was arrested and charged, and in January 2001 he pled guilty to fifty-eight charges of Denial of Service attacks. Law enforcement did not reveal MafiaBoy's real name, as this national security threat was only fifteen years old. MafiaBoy later revealed himself to be Michael Calce. You know I'm a pretty calm, collected, cool person," Calce reported. But when you have the president of the United States and attorney general basically calling you out and saying, We're going to find you' . . . at that point I was a little bit worried." Calce now works in the cybersecurity industry as a white hat - a good hacker, as opposed to a black hat, after serving five months in juvenile detention.Both MafiaBoy and the VDoS crew were adolescent boys who crashed servers. But whereas MafiaBoy did it for the lulz, VDoS did it for the money. Indeed, these teenage Israeli kids were pioneering tech entrepreneurs. They helped launch a new form of cybercrime: DDoS as a service. DDoS as a service is a subscription-based model that gives subscribers access to a botnet to launch either a daily quota or unlimited attacks, depending on the price. DDoS providers are known as booter services or stressor services. They come with user-friendly websites that enable customers to choose the type of account, pay for subscriptions, check status of service, launch attacks, and receive tech support.VDoS advertised their booter service on Hack Forums, the same site on which, according to Coelho, Paras Jha spent hours. On their website, www.vdos-s.com, VDoS offered the following subscription services: Bronze ($19.99/month), Silver ($29.99/month), Gold ($39.99/month), and VIP ($199.99/month) accounts. The higher the price, the more attack time and volume. At its peak in 2015, VDoS had 1,781 subscribers. The gang had a customer service department and, for a time, accepted PayPal. From 2014 to 2016, VDoS earned $597,862, and it launched 915,287 DDoS attacks in one year.VDoS democratized DDoS. Even the most inexperienced user could subscribe to one of these accounts, type in a domain name, and attack its website. The problem is that this kind of firepower is available to literally anyone willing to pay thirty dollars a month," Allison Nixon, director of security research at business-risk-intelligence firm Flashpoint, explained. Basically what this means is that you must have DDoS protection to participate on the internet. Otherwise, any angry young teenager is going to be able to take you off-line in a heartbeat." Even booter services need DDoS protection. VDoS hired Cloudflare, one of the largest DDoS mitigation companies in the world.DDoS as a service was following a trend in cybercrime known as malware as a service." Where users had once bought information about software vulnerabilities and tried to figure out how to exploit those vulnerabilities themselves, or had bought malicious software and tried to figure out how to install and execute it, they could now simply pay for the use of malware and hack with the click of a button, no technical knowledge required.Because customers who use DDoS as a service are inexperienced, they are particularly vulnerable to scams. Fraudsters often advertise booter services on public discussion boards and accept orders and payment, but do not launch the promised attacks. Even VDoS, which did provide DDoS service, did so less aggressively than advertised. When tested by Flashpoint, VDoS botnet never hit the promised fifty gigabits/second maximum, ranging instead from six to fourteen gigabits/second.The boards that advertise booter services, as Hack Forums once did, are accessible to anyone with a standard browser and internet connection. They exist on the Clear Web, not on the so-called Dark Web. To access sites on the Dark Web you must use a special network, known as Tor, typically using a special browser known as the Tor Browser. When a user tries to access a website on the Dark Web, the Tor Browser does not request web pages directly. It chooses three random sites-known as nodes-through which to route the request. The first node knows the original sender, but not the ultimate destination. The second node knows neither the original source nor the ultimate destination-it recognizes only the first node and the third node. The third node knows the ultimate destination, but not the original sender. In this way, the sender and receiver can communicate with each other without either knowing the other's identity.The Dark Web is doubly anonymous. No one but the website owner knows its IP address. No one but the visitor knows that they are accessing the website. The Dark Web, therefore, tends to be used by political dissidents and cybercriminals-anyone who needs total anonymity. The Dark Web is legal to browse, but many of its websites offer services that are illegal to use. (Fun fact: the U.S. Navy created the Dark Web in the mid-1990s to enable their intelligence agents to communicate confidentially.)It might be surprising that DDoS providers could advertise on the Clear Web. After all, DDoS-ing another website is illegal everywhere. In the United States, one violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act if one knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization," where damage includes any impairment to the . . . availability of data, a program, a system, or information." To get around this, booter services have long argued they perform a legitimate stressor" function, providing those who set up web pages a means to stress test websites. Indeed, booter services routinely include terms of service that prohibit attacks on unauthorized sites and disclaim all responsibility for any such attacks.In theory, stressor sites play an important function. But only in theory. Private chats between VDoS and its customers indicated that they were not stressing their own websites. As a booter service provider admitted to Cambridge University researchers, We do try to market these services towards a more legitimate user base, but we know where the money comes from."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-how-hackers-turned-cybercrime-into-a-commercial-service-153050866.html?src=rss

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI five years ago at E3 2018, but the new fantasy RPG is still five-plus years away," according to Phil Spencer. The chief of Microsoft's Gaming division revealed the game's potential release timeframe during day two of the hearing where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking an injunction to block the company's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.I think we've been a little unclear on what platforms it will launch on given how far out the game is. It's difficult for us right now to nail down exactly what platforms that game will launch on," Spencer said in response to questioning by an FTC lawyer, as reported by IGN. "As I said with Elder Scrolls VI, it's so far out it's hard to understand what the platforms will even be at this point. It's the same team that's finishing Starfield, which comes out this September. So we're talking about it being likely five-plus years away."If you've been following any bit of news Bethesda has shared about The Elder Scrolls VI, the game's distant release date should come as no surprise. Back in 2020, Pete Hines, the publisher's senior vice president of marketing and communications, said Bethesda wouldn't have anything substantial to share about the title for another few years. "It's after Starfield, which you pretty much know nothing about," he tweeted at the time. So if you're coming at me for details now and not years from now, I'm failing to properly manage your expectations." Based on Spencer's comments, The Elder Scrolls VI may skip the current generation of consoles entirely. Last week, Bethesda Game Studios Creative Director Todd Howard said the Elder Scrolls VI may be the last game" of his career.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-elder-scrolls-vi-is-likely-five-plus-years-away-says-xbox-chief-220526727.html?src=rss

On Friday, a federal court sentenced Joseph James O'Conner to five years in prison for his involvement in the 2020 Twitter hack. Last month, the 24-year-old, known as PlugwalkJoe online, plead guilty to a host of cyber crimes, including carrying out a SIM-swapping attack that targeted a TikTok account with millions of followers. The 2020 Twitter hack saw O'Conner and his co-perpetrators obtain access to the company's backend and subsequently the accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and more than 100 other high-profile users. O'Conner netted $794,000 in the crypto scam that followed."After stealing and fraudulently diverting the stolen cryptocurrency, O'Connor and his co-conspirators laundered it through dozens of transfers and transactions and exchanged some of it for Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services," the Justice Department said. "Ultimately, a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency was deposited into a cryptocurrency exchange account controlled by O'Connor." In 2021, Graham Ivan Clark, the alleged teenage mastermind behind the breach, plead guilty in return for a three-year prison sentence. In addition to his five-year sentence, O'Conner also faces three years of supervised release after his prison term. He must also forfeit the $794,000 he defrauded during the hack.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-hacker-and-crypto-scammer-sentenced-to-five-years-in-prison-205649771.html?src=rss

If you're a Star Trek fan and haven't watched Prodigy yet, you may want to do so before next week. According to The Hollywood Reporter (via io9), Paramount+ has canceled the series alongside a handful of other shows, including Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and The Game. Taking a page from Disney and Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global is also removing Star Trek: Prodigy, and the other shows it canceled on Friday, from Paramount+ in exchange for a tax writeoff. Fans have until sometime next week to watch the series before its fate becomes uncertain.As we prepare to combine Paramount+ and Showtime later this month in the US, we are refining our content offering to deliver the best streaming experience for subscribers," a Paramount+ spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. This is consistent with our content strategy since launch and across our business, which ensures we make smart, efficient choices, informed by audience data and insights. We are removing select programming as we look to optimize Showtime's robust slate of premium originals."The cancelation comes after Paramount+ previously greenlit a second season of Star Trek: Prodigy. The show could find another home. The Hollywood Reporter notes Prodigy producer CBS Studios plans to complete postproduction on season two and shop both seasons to a new streaming platform. The announcement won't affect other Star Trek series, with Paramount+ set to remain the home of ongoing entries like Strange New Worlds.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-prodigy-will-be-pulled-from-paramount-next-week-191704393.html?src=rss

Apple makes some of the best earbuds you can use with an iPhone, and now you can buy a pair of AirPods Pro for less than you would typically pay for them. The second-generation model has dropped back to its all-time low price of $200, or $50 off the AirPods Pro's usual $250 price.Similar appearances aside, the 2022 AirPods Pro are a significant upgrade over the original 2019 model. Thanks to a more powerful H2 chip, the new AirPods Pro boast better audio quality and improved ANC capabilities. They also offer one of the best transparency modes on any set of wireless earbuds on the market right now. The AirPods Pro aren't perfect, however. Battery life is so-so and the new touch controls could be more intuitive. But for $200, you'll be hard-pressed to find another pair of Bluetooth headphones that offers the mix of features and convenience that the AirPods Pro do.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-second-generation-airpods-pro-are-back-on-sale-for-200-174134027.html?src=rss

Russian internet service providers have cut off access to Google News after President Vladamir Putin accused Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, of organizing an armed rebellion." According to internet monitor NetBlocks (via The New York Times), at least five Russian telecoms, including Rostelecom, U-LAN and Telplusl, are blocking web users inside the country from accessing the news aggregator. Google did not immediately respond to Engadget's comment request.

Google is looking at online games as a new possible source of income for YouTube, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. The video hosting platform has reportedly invited employees to test a new product called Playables, which gives users access to online games right on YouTube itself. Based on the internal email the Journal saw, it wouldn't even matter what device they're using: Apparently, the games are accessible both on mobile and on desktop.Users will be able to play them on the YouTube website using a web browser or on the app, whether on an Android or an iOS phone. While the report insinuates that there are currently several games available for testing, it only mentioned Stack Bounce in particular. It's an ad-supported arcade game that gets players to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball. As the publication notes, YouTube already earns money from gaming livestreams, but this product will give it another way to generate revenue from the industry in the midst of a decline in advertising spending.While Google failed to grow its defunct Stadia games streaming service and ultimately shut it down, this endeavor is a different thing altogether. YouTube already has a massive audience regularly visiting the site, so getting eyes on the new product wouldn't be a problem. Playables is perhaps more akin to Netflix's gaming product that gives its paying users access to casual games on mobile. Netflix has big ambitions for its gaming initiative, as well, and is reportedly working on an expansion that goes beyond mobile devices by testing TV games that use phones as controllers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-reportedly-testing-online-games-for-mobile-and-desktop-130105426.html?src=rss

Motorola clearly read reviews of Samsung's Z Flip series and took notes. The Moto Razr+, a foldable phone that's like a standard 6.9-inch handset when open, offers a large 3.6-inch screen when closed. That addresses one of the most common complaints about the Galaxy Z Flip 4 - the size of its Cover Display. It's a cramped 1.9-inch window with a limited selection of widgets that you can use. The Razr+, meanwhile, pretty much runs full Android with some tweaks. There's something about using the outer display that feels almost pager-like and sent me into nostalgic delight. The Moto Razr+, which goes on sale today for $999, might appeal to both old souls and early adopters alike.DesignCurrently in its fourth generation (if you count the 5G model released in 2020 as a second-gen), the Razr+ has two notable differences from its predecessors. The first is the larger display. The second is something only people over 30 might notice: The Razr+ doesn't have a chin cupping the bottom like on the iconic original Razr. I don't mind it, but it does cost it some nostalgia points.When folded, there is no gap between the two halves of the main screen. It's a squat square, and its matte back reminds me of the case that my dad's pager sat in. Sadly, only the Viva Magenta model comes with a vegan leather back, while the blue and black models use Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and rear. Our review unit is black, and the matte finish lends a more premium feel and helps fight smudges.The folded Razr+ is thinner than the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and fits comfortably in my palm, and it's slightly larger than the Samsung phone when open. The Razr+ has a slightly less rigid hinge than the Flip 4, too. The Samsung phone can hold itself up at pretty much any position, but Moto's hinge yields and opens all the way when you push it past 150 degrees.Finally, at 188.5 grams (6.6 ounces), the Razr+ is lighter than the iPhone 14 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Plus, which both have slightly smaller screens. It's just a tad heavier than the Z Flip 4, though. Both Motorola and Samsung's devices are rated for water-resistance, with the Razr+ meeting IP52 standards while the Flip hit IPX8.External displayNext to the Moto Razr+, using the Z Flip 4's Cover Display feels unusable, especially when trying to frame a selfie. Not only is there barely enough space to contain everything, but it's also hard to see. When shooting the video for this piece, our producer Joel Chokkattu struggled to get a usable shot of the camera preview on the Z Flip 4's exterior display in sunlight.Motorola's larger pOLED panel also allows for a more full-fledged Android experience, while Samsung is a glorified notification widget. On the Moto, you can swipe down from top to see all your quick settings toggles and the brightness slider, swipe up slowly to show your open apps and switch between them, and swipe in from the side to go back. In comparison, the Z Flip 4 only lets you swipe sideways to rotate through widgets, and dragging down from top shows you just a single row of toggles.Photo by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetThe main difference between Moto's external display and the complete Android experience is the home screen. Motorola has designed it so that you can only have the clock widget, date, weather info and a row of six shortcut buttons. Tapping each of the latter takes you to the respective panel. You can also swipe sideways to see them sequentially, and you can arrange them in the order you prefer.The widgets themselves are very similar to Samsung's offerings. You'll find an app launcher, dialer, calendar, games, media controls, steps tracker and the day's headlines. On the Moto, the latter two are supplied by Google services like Fit and News. Because the Razr+ has more real estate, it can display more information or use a larger font. Both of these are an obvious improvement over Samsung's teeny tiny panel, especially for those with bigger fingers, less dexterity or vision-related challenges.The widgets aren't the scene stealers here. For the most part, they're simple - a calculator, media controls, et cetera. The Spotify playback widget doesn't do more than let you pause, skip tracks, rewind and change playlists, which is frustrating. But even the fact that it offers that last option is already better than the Z Flip 4.You can't pick a specific song in a playlist, though. It's a mild annoyance and not a dealbreaker, especially since there are two viable alternatives here. One: I can just open the phone and use the main Spotify app to go to a different playlist and pick a song. Two - and this is where the Razr+ truly shines - any Android app can run on the outside screen, as long as you've enabled it. This is a continuity feature so you can keep running whatever you're doing on the main display on the outside panel after you close the phone.To use Spotify (or any other app) on the small screen, I'd open it on the inside, shut the device, and continue outside. Even if I go on to do something else, I can find the app on the exterior display by swiping up from the bottom to see open apps.You'd think that there would be issues with apps breaking and elements either not showing or being blocked by the two cameras on the bottom right of the screen. But Motorola has some workarounds. You can either have apps take up the whole screen and the sensors block parts of it. Or you can swipe up and select a layout that forces the content to sit within a rectangle above the cameras similar to how Android phones used to treat camera notches.This should work with any app, but there are some scenarios where the experience is broken. When you're navigating a drive with Google Maps and playing music at the same time, for example, you won't be able to see the directions or your route. And, just because you can see your Instagram feed on the 3.6-inch panel, doesn't mean you'll want to.Photo by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetEven better, because the screen is so small (basically the size of the original iPhone), it's easy to use with one hand. You can pull up a full QWERTY keyboard to reply to messages, and I was able to reach the letter Q or A with my thumb stretching across from the right.CamerasOne other advantage of a larger external screen is how much more useful it is as a viewfinder. Both Samsung and Motorola let you use the outside display to preview what you're shooting with the rear cameras, as well as show your subject what they look like. On the Z Flip 4, you can only see a portion of the scene and will have to guess where it will get cut off. With the Razr+, no guesswork is necessary - WYSIWYG.Both phones offer similar gestures like holding up your palm to trigger a countdown till the photo is shot, so you can step away and take your picture when you're ready and posed. You can also have the foldables bent at 90 degrees and placed on a surface with the inside screen facing out, and the layout will change so the top half is your viewfinder and the bottom shows controls.Unfortunately, on the Z Flip 4 you have to choose between a bigger viewfinder with an inferior 10-megapixel camera or a smaller window and better cameras. On the Razr+, you can use the roomy outside screen and the exterior cameras instead of having to sacrifice quality or visibility while shooting.Photo by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetMoto opted for a 32 MP sensor inside, with a 12 MP main camera and 13 MP wide-angle system. Initially, I thought the Razr+ delivered decent shots. But after comparing them to samples from the Z Flip 4 and a Pixel 7 Pro, Motorola's images are clearly washed out and less vivid. Samsung did a better job at exposure and retained the blue skies peeking through green leaves. In the same scene, the Razr+ blew out the sky. And when I snapped portraits of my friends' adorable dogs, it struggled to get a clear shot due to slower focus and overall lag.The Moto also struggled in low light and was susceptible to lens flares in my nighttime cityscapes and selfies. Though the Flip 4 fared slightly better, overall flip-style foldables lag flagship phones when it comes to camera performance.As a regular phone: Main screen, performance and battery lifeUnlike most high-end Android phones released this year, the Moto Razr+ uses a year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which is the same processor inside the Z Flip 4. It's worth pointing out at this point that the Flip 4 is also nearly a year old and presumably about to be replaced by a newer model. So if having the absolute latest specs matters to you, you shouldn't even be considering the Razr+.Photo by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetIf you're not picky about the exact generation of processor in your phone, you'll likely be satisfied with the Moto's performance. I played endless rounds of Solitaire, messaged friends, set up custom gestures, changed wallpapers and it never flinched. The few hiccups I did encounter, like not being able to hit the X button at the outermost corners of an ad in a game, had more to do with specific apps and bad design than horsepower.Thanks to its 165Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution, the Razr+'s main OLED display is a solid canvas for activities like scrolling through Instagram and Reddit. Pictures and Stories I looked at were vibrant, and yes, there is still a bit of a crease where the screen folds, but it's negligible. It doesn't get in the way of actually interacting with apps or websites, and I mostly forgot it was even there.When I needed to unlock the Razr+, it was as easy as using the fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button. Motorola also continues to offer nifty features that have been in its phones since the Moto X, like twisting your wrist or doing a chopping action while holding the handset to launch the camera or flashlight. It was also surprisingly easy to install the company's Ready For app to use the Razr+ on my PC. While I was initially put off by the amount of Moto-branded software, thankfully most of it was useful and didn't feel like bloatware.Though the company promises three years of OS upgrades and four years of bi-monthly security patch updates, historically it hasn't had the best track record on that front. And that's less than the four years of OS updates and five years for security releases that Samsung offers. That, together with Samsung's experience in foldables, gives me slightly more confidence in its devices' longevity.Photo by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetMoto managed to squeeze a 3,800mAh battery in the Razr+, which is slightly higher than the Flip 4's 3,700 mAh setup. I haven't had the time to run our video rundown battery test, which I want to do on both the 6.9-inch and 3.6-inch panels. But I've been able to play about five to eight hours of nonstop Solitaire on the internal screen so far before needing to plug the Razr+ in. It's also worth noting that since the exterior display is so much more useful, you can do more on the phone without having to tap the larger, more energy-intensive screen during the day. That way, the Moto actually manages to last longer than most phones.Wrap-upI am in love with that front screen - how it works, how easy it is to use with one hand, and how much more power efficient it is. It's almost like I want a small phone again. But the main thing preventing me from switching to the Moto Razr+ is camera performance. This isn't a problem unique to Motorola - any flip-style foldable today suffers from this.Anyone thinking of getting the Razr+ should also wait. Samsung has announced that its next Galaxy Unpacked will be taking place in Korea in late July, and it's widely expected to launch new foldables then. If you can hold off, it's worth seeing what the next Z Flip will offer before spending your money.Photo by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetI also want to point out that long-term durability remains a concern for any device with a flexible screen. Two of my colleagues have used a Z Flip 4 for a year and they've reported seeing cracks and bubbles in their displays and/or screen protectors. While the Razr+ uses a different panel from Samsung, there is still a possibility it won't stand up to the wear and tear of daily use.I can't tell you how well the Moto Razr+ will hold up over time. But I can say that, for the first time in the US, there is serious competition for Samsung's Z Flip 4. It's time to call it: Flip Boi Summer is here and I'm excited for it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/moto-razr-review-finally-some-real-competition-for-samsungs-flip-foldables-203033514.html?src=rss

Google Assistant vanished on many smartwatches when the Wear OS 3 update arrived, leaving just the Pixel Watch and Samsung's newer Galaxy Watches supporting the feature. Thankfully, you no longer have to switch brands just to talk to Google on your wrist. Fossil is rolling out an update this month that adds Assistant to Gen 6 watches running Wear OS 3. This includes both Fossil's own models as well as counterparts from Diesel, Michael Kors and Skagen, although you'll need to be paired with a phone running standard Android with Google apps (Android Go and many Chinese phones won't count).The functionality will be familiar if you've used either Google or Samsung wristwear. You can invoke the AI helper by saying "hey Google," holding a button or tapping a watch face complication. The feature lets you answer texts, control music or otherwise handle tasks that would normally require your phone. Unlike many alternatives, though, you'll also have Alexa on hand. You won't be locked into one ecosystem for speaking commands.This won't be much help if you're using a Wear OS 3 watch from another brand, like Mobvoi or Montblanc. Fossil is one of the most popular names in Google-powered smartwatches, though. Support here ensures that many more wearable owners can use Assistant and avoid tapping a minuscule screen.You might want to wait before purchasing if you're new to smartwatches. Fossil historically introduces new Wear OS models in late summer, with the exception being this year's mildly upgraded Gen 6 Wellness Edition in January. While there's no word on when Gen 7 will arrive or what it might entail, it's likely to be a significant upgrade if and when it appears - we wouldn't buy Gen 6 just because Assistant is ready. The update is more for existing owners who lost functionality last year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fossil-finally-gets-google-assistant-on-its-wear-os-3-smartwatches-194519611.html?src=rss

A group of Reddit volunteers who transcribe media from other subreddits are shutting down their community, in part due to changes the company is making to its API. The community, r/TranscribersOfReddit, will close its doors on June 30th, which is one day before Reddit starts charging for API access.The group transcribes media from around 100 subreddits. Its aim was to provide some temporary solutions for accessibility features that are missing from Reddit, such as alt text, while imploring the company to address such "inadequacies," according to Rebekah Ginsburg, a Transcribers Of Reddit moderator. As The Verge reports, Ginsburg (aka u/halailah) is also the chair of the Grafeas Group, a nonprofit that provides the technology powering much of the community's transcription work."In light of recent events, we now recognize that Reddit corporate has demonstrated a severe lack of willingness to fix core issues with the platform," Ginsburg wrote. "It is clear that these problems are coming from the top, and we do not believe they can be fixed. Unfortunately, while this was an extraordinarily difficult decision for us, these circumstances mean that we can no longer operate this project."Ginsburg added that "the API changes and the realistic limits on how much work we can take on and our lack of trust in Reddit as a platform and the clear disregard for accessibility from Reddit corporate" made it "impossible" for the team to continue the project.While Reddit has said it will exempt some third-party accessibility apps from having to pay for API access, members of the community say apps such as RedReader, Dystopia and Luna don't have "sufficient moderation functions" for blind and visually impaired moderators.Reddit declined to comment to The Verge on these issues. A spokesperson previously said the company was "exploring a number of things" related to accessibility across its platform. In the meantime, it seems that it'll soon be more difficult for some people to use Reddit.Some communities I'm a member of have volunteers that will add alt text for an image in the comments or transcribe a short video. Still, the loss of a larger, coordinated effort to make Reddit more accessible is a blow.Reddit said last month that it would start charging for access to its API, which third-party developers have used to build apps (such as ones for moderation and accessibility) that hook into the platform. The move caused an uproar in the community, and several third-party apps, including ones that tens of thousands of people use to access Reddit, are shutting down as a result of the changes.However, Reddit is pressingahead with the new policy. CEO Steve Huffman also said he was planning changes that would allow members of a subreddit to more easily vote out a moderator who makes unpopular decisions. Some moderators have taken similar comments from a Reddit administrator as a direct threat, after thousands of subreddits went private to protest the API changes.Reddit also reportedly removed moderators from subreddits that were suddenly labeled as not safe for work. Not only did those communities allow porn for the first time in protest against the API changes, making them NSFW meant Reddit was unable to monetize them due to its ad policies.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-reddit-transcription-community-will-shut-down-over-a-lack-of-trust-in-the-platform-191008889.html?src=rss

Those who run fan accounts on YouTube will soon have to make it clear to viewers their channels are not affiliated with the original artist, creator or brand. If it's not already evident from the channel name or handle that they're running a fan account, they'll have to update that information. Adding fan account" to the channel description alone won't cut it. The rule will take effect on August 21st.The directive was announced as part of broader changes to YouTube's impersonation guidelines. As TechCrunchnotes, channels that claim to be fan accounts but instead mimic another channel and upload the same content are prohibited, as are channels that appear almost identical to another only with a minor name change (such as adding a space). Users are not allowed to comment on videos while pretending to be another person, nor can they impersonate an existing news channel.These new guidelines for fan accounts should help YouTube clamp down on impersonators. This update should also ensure that viewers won't be misled by the channels they interact with and follow, and creators won't have their name and likeness used for malicious purposes," a YouTube blog post reads.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-fan-accounts-will-soon-need-a-disclosure-in-the-channel-name-or-handle-035015131.html?src=rss

Warm afternoon sunlight streams through the bay windows. A tree beyond the panes throws shadows across a plush rug, partially covered by an open cardboard box. The bedroom is compact and bright, and it's filled with the remnants of youth: books and family photos line the walls, and the desk drawers are stuffed with drawing paper and school supplies. A skateboard pokes out from under the bed and stuffed animals are tucked into the room's spare spaces. The record player spins soothing, lo-fi music, and you have a long, lazy afternoon to sit in this room, box up its memories, and move on.Simpler Times provides this peaceful environment and invites players to get lost in it. There's a story to unravel just by picking up objects, interacting with them and putting them away for good - the protagonist, Taina, is moving on from her childhood home, onto the next phase of her life, and her past and future come into focus as players explore her bedroom.Even if Simpler Times' idyllic setting doesn't accurately reflect your own childhood bedroom, the developers at Transylvania studio stoneskip have designed a supremely comforting space. Everything about Taina's room feels welcoming and safe: safe to explore, safe to get lost in, safe to fall fully into your thoughts.Simpler Times is a first-person game with an emphasis on music and mood. The soundtrack is a series of original, lo-fi pieces that players control on the room's record player, in a ritual familiar to vinyl owners. Each album runs for a set amount of time before it has to be reset or swapped out: Move the needle to the side, lift the record and carefully put it away, and then reverse the process with a new album. It's a series of intentional actions designed to ground players in the moment, highlighting the beauty of anticipation and slow gestures. It's an effective sequence and emblematic of the game's pace overall.iam8bitSimpler Times' soundtrack is composed by George Pandrea and it includes moments of lyrical poetry written and performed by Taina's voice actor, Maeve Kroeger. There are other static points of interaction around the bedroom, including an instant camera and a scrapbook that provides backstory and suggests areas to clean next, advancing the larger narrative. There is no fail state in Simpler Times and no clock on any action. Dialogue floats in and and out as players explore, the rolling music encouraging reflection as Taina's story passively unfolds.On the surface, Simpler Times sounds similar to Gone Home, the original indie walking simulator," but this comparison isn't quite accurate. For starters, there's no walking in Simpler Times; the bedroom is small and players navigate by looking around and clicking on points of interaction. The game itself was conceived during the pandemic, when developers found themselves trapped in small spaces, with ample time for self-reflection. Simpler Times is a contained, meditative game that actually feels closer to a calming, repetitive experience like Threes than a narrative adventure.iam8bitThe full game takes place over four seasons, in four time periods of Taina's life, but the demo I played at Summer Game Fest was an introduction to her bedroom in present-day, just as she's starting to pack up. The demo left me relaxed and intrigued, and it was a welcome, cozy break from the chaos of a large (but not, like, E3-large) video game event.Simpler Times is being published by iam8bit and it's due to hit Steam in 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/simpler-times-is-the-coziest-game-ive-played-in-a-long-time-173000140.html?src=rss

If the ease of repairs influences your choice in handheld gaming PCs, you might want to consider the ROG Ally. iFixit just finished a teardown of ASUS' machine, and it's noticeably easier to open than Valve's Steam Deck. For one, the battery is much less painful to remove - it mostly involves removing screws where Valve's power pack is glued in. It's also relatively trivial to remove the thumbsticks and their circuit boards on the Ally, so you might have a solution if stick drift becomes a problem. As on the Steam Deck, SSD upgrades are simple if you find a sufficiently tiny drive.The only truly repair-hostile component is the display, iFixit says. There's a lot of adhesive that could make removal difficult without the right tools. That's not a major issue if the entire screen breaks, but may be a hassle if you're trying to put a screen in a new cover.There's one catch: ASUS hasn't committed to offering replacement parts for the ROG Ally. We've asked the company for comment. For now, at least, you'll have to source parts from other users willing to give up working components from otherwise broken devices. iFixit currently sells some official Steam Deck parts, such as screens, button assemblies and storage.While teardowns indicate that the Steam Deck is easier to maintain than you'd expect, Valve discouraged repairs early on. It was concerned that merely opening the system created risks, and that third-party components could cause problems. ASUS isn't inviting do-it-yourself repairs as of this writing, but the modularity may be useful when right to repair policies are becoming more commonplace.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ifixit-teardown-reveals-asus-rog-ally-is-easier-to-pry-open-than-the-steam-deck-165911557.html?src=rss

If younger generations are more likely to feel the effects of climate change, shouldn't they have a say in related government policies? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thinks so. It's officially forming its "first-ever" National Environmental Youth Advisory Council. The agency is inviting 16 people aged 18 to 29 to have them influence the agency's approach to environmental issues that affect youth communities.In keeping with the EPA's increasing focus on environmental justice, at least half of the council's overall membership will come from, live in or do most of its work in "disadvantaged" communities where clean air, land and water aren't guaranteed. Youth interested in the panel will have until August 22nd at 11:59PM Eastern to apply, with webinars for would-be applicants on June 30th and August 7th.Agency head Michael Regan argues that it's not practical to address environmental issues without the help of younger people who are often at the "forefront of social movements." The council makes sure that youth play a role in decisions, the administrator adds.Plans for the council were originally unveiled in June 2022, and come several months after the EPA created an Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. That new division is meant to include "underserved communities" in the regulatory process, Vice President Kamala Harris said at the time. In that light, the youth council is an extension of last year's strategy.The Biden's administration has made the environment a key element of its policy. The wide-ranging Inflation Reduction Act includes $3 billion in environmental justice grants as well as revised (if sometimes stricter) EV tax credits. The youth council won't necessarily lead to major changes in policy, but it makes sense when young adults are more likely to deal with the most severe effects of rising global temperatures than the official rule makers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/epa-creates-youth-council-to-advise-the-agency-on-climate-change-policy-154558548.html?src=rss

Learn to code." That three-word pejorative is perpetually on the lips and at the fingertips of internet trolls and tech bros whenever media layoffs are announced. A useless sentiment in its own right, but with the recent advent of code generating AIs, knowing the ins and outs of a programming language like Python could soon be about as useful as knowing how to fluently speak a dead language like Sanskrit. In fact, these genAIs are already helping professional software developers code faster and more effectively by handling much of the programming grunt work.How coding worksTwo of today's most widely distributed and written coding languages are Java and Python. The former almost single handedly revolutionized cross-platform operation when it was released in the mid-'90s and now drives everything from smartcards to space vehicles," as Java Magazine put it in 2020 - not to mention Wikipedia's search function and all of Minecraft. The latter actually predates Java by a few years and serves as the code basis for many modern apps like Dropbox, Spotify and Instagram.They differ significantly in their operation in that Java needs to be compiled (having its human-readable code translated into computer-executable machine code) before it can run. Python, meanwhile, is an interpreted language, which means that its human code is converted into machine code line-by-line as the program executes, enabling it to run without first being compiled. The interpretation method allows code to be more easily written for multiple platforms while compiled code tends to be focused to a specific processor type. Regardless of how they run, the actual code-writing process is nearly identical between the two: Somebody has to sit down, crack open a text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and actually write out all those lines of instruction. And until recently, that somebody typically was a human.The classical programming" writing process of today isn't that different from the process those of ENIAC, with a software engineer taking a problem, breaking it down into a series of sub-problems, writing code to solve each of those sub-problems in order, and then repeatedly debugging and recompiling the code until it runs. Automatic programming," on the other hand, removes the programmer by a degree of separation. Instead of a human writing each line of code individually, the person creates a high-level abstraction of the task for the computer to then generate low level code to address. This differs from interactive" programming, which allows you to code a program while it is already running.Today's conversational AI coding systems, like what we see in Github's Copilot or OpenAI's ChatGPT, remove the programmer even further by hiding the coding process behind a veneer of natural language. The programmer tells the AI what they want programmed and how, and the machine can automatically generate the required code.Building the tools to build the tools allowing any tool to build toolsAmong the first of this new breed of conversational coding AIs was Codex, which was developed by OpenAI and released in late 2021. OpenAI had already implemented GPT-3 (precursor to GPT-3.5 that powers BingChat public) by this point, the large language model remarkably adept at mimicking human speech and writing after being trained on billions of words from the public web. The company then fine-tuned that model using 100-plus gigabytes of GitHub data to create Codex. It's capable of generating code in 12 different languages and can translate existing programs between them.Codex is adept at generating small, simple or repeatable assets, like a big red button that briefly shakes the screen when clicked" or regular functions like the email address validator on a Google Web Form. But no matter how prolific your prose, you won't be using it for complex projects like coding a server-side load balancing program - it's just too complicated an ask.Google's DeepMind developed AlphaCode specifically to address such challenges. Like Codex, AlphaCode was first trained on multiple gigabytes of existing GitHub code archives, but was then fed thousands of coding challenges pulled from online programming competitions, like figuring out how many binary strings with a given length don't contain consecutive zeroes.To do this, AlphaCode will generate as many as a million code candidates, then reject all but the top 1 percent to pass its test cases. The system then groups the remaining programs based on the similarity of their outputs and sequentially test them until it finds a candidate that successfully solves the given problem. According to a 2022 study published in Science, AlphaCode managed to correctly answer those challenge questions 34 percent of the time (compared to Codex's single-digit success on the same benchmarks, that's not bad). DeepMind even entered AlphaCode in a 5,000-competitor online programming contest, where it surpassed nearly 46 percent of the human competitors.Now even the AI has notesJust as GPT-3.5 serves as a foundational model for ChatGPT, Codex serves as the basis for GitHub's Copilot AI. Trained on billions of lines of code assembled from the public web, Copilot offers cloud-based AI-assisted coding autocomplete features through a subscription plugin for the Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains integrated development environments (IDEs).Initially released as a developer's preview in June of 2021, Copilot was among the very first coding capable AIs to reach the market. More than a million devs have leveraged the system in the two years since, GitHub's VP of Product Ryan J Salva, told Engadget. With Copilot, users can generate runnable code from natural language text inputs as well as autocomplete commonly repeated code sections and programming functions.Salva notes that prior to Copilot's release, GitHub's previous machine-generated coding suggestions were only accepted by users 14 to 17 percent of the time. Which is fine," he said. "It means it was helping developers along." In the two years since Copilot's debut, that figure has grown to 35 percent, and that's netting out to just under half of the amount of code being written [on GitHub] - 46 percent by AI, to be exact."[It's] not a matter of just percentage of code written," Salva clarified. It's really about the productivity, the focus, the satisfaction of the developers who are creating."As with the outputs of natural language generators like ChatGPT, the code coming from Copilot is largely legible, but like any large language model trained on the open internet, GitHub made sure to incorporate additional safeguards against the system unintentionally producing exploitable code.Between when the model produces a suggestion and when that suggestion is presented to the developer," Salva said, we at runtime perform [...] a code quality analysis for the developer, looking for common errors or vulnerabilities in the code like cross-site scripting or path injection."That auditing step is meant to improve the quality of recommended code over time rather than monitor or police what the code might be used for. Copilot can help developers create the code that makes up malware, the system won't prevent it. We've taken the position that Copilot is there as a tool to help developers produce code," Salva said, pointing to the numerous White Hat applications for such a system. Putting a tool like Copilot in their hands [...] makes them more capable security researchers," he continued.As the technology continues to develop, Salva sees generative AI coding to expand far beyond its current technological bounds. That includes taking a big bet" on conversational AI. We also see AI-assisted development really percolating up into other parts of the software development life cycle," he said, like using AI to autonomously repair a CI/CD build errors, patch security vulnerabilities, or have the AI review human-written code.Just as we use compilers to produce machine-level code today, I do think they'll eventually get to another layer of abstraction with AI that allows developers to express themselves in a different language," Salva said. Maybe it's natural language like English or French, or Korean. And that then gets compiled down' to something that the machines can understand," freeing up engineers and developers to focus on the overall growth of the project rather than the nuts and bolts of its construction.From coders to gabbersWith human decision-making still firmly wedged within the AI programming loop, at least for now, we have little to fear from having software writing software. As Salva noted, computers already do this to a degree when compiling code, and digital gray goos have yet to take over because of it. Instead, the most immediate challenges facing programming AI mirror those of generative AI in general: inherent biases skewing training data, model outputs that violate copyright, and concerns surrounding user data privacy when it comes to training large language models.GitHub is far from alone in its efforts to build an AI programming buddy. OpenAI's ChatGPT is capable of generating code - as are the already countless indie variants being built atop the GPT platform. So, too, is Amazon's AWS CodeWhisperer system, which provides much of the same autocomplete functionality as Copilot, but optimized for use within the AWS framework. After multiple requests from users, Google incorporated code generation and debugging capabilities into Bard this past April as well, ahead of its ecosystem-wide pivot to embrace AI at I/O 2023 and the release of Codey, Alphabet's answer to Copilot. We can't be sure yet what generative coding systems will eventually become or how it might impact the tech industry - we could be looking at the earliest iterations of a transformative democratizing technology, or it could be Clippy for a new generation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/natural-language-programming-ais-are-taking-the-drudgery-out-of-coding-140015594.html?src=rss

Google's entry-level Pixel phone is already a good value, but it's now a much better deal if you're also looking for wireless audio. Amazon is selling a bundle that combines the Pixel 7a with free Pixel Buds A-Series for the same $499 you'd pay for the phone by itself. The promo doesn't cover the Sea blue model and lasts until July 9th at 2:59AM Eastern, but there are otherwise no catches - this may be just what you need to soundtrack your commute or a long summer walk.The Pixel 7a is our favorite midrange Android phone, and it's not hard to see why. You're getting nearly the same capabilities as the standard Pixel 7 for $100 less, including the Tensor G2 chip, a smooth 90Hz display and wireless charging. While the cameras aren't quite on par, you'll still get exceptional photo quality that beats some more expensive rivals. Add a healthy OS update policy and long battery life and you might not need anything more. The only catches are the slow wireless power and the lack of storage options beyond 128GB.The Pixel Buds A-Series, meanwhile, are surprisingly impressive even at their usual price. They provide well-balanced sound, a comfortable fit and tight Google Assistant integration (such as translating conversations). There's no wireless charging or active noise cancellation, but that's expected in this price class. For free, they're virtually unbeatable.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/google-pixel-7a-bundle-with-pixel-buds-a-series-is-100-off-at-amazon-132623671.html?src=rss

The original free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone (now known as Warzone Caldera) will shut down definitively on September 21st. That will allow developers to focus on "future Call of Duty content including the current Warzone (originally called Warzone 2.0) free-to-play experience," Activision wrote in a blog post.All gameplay, player progression, inventories and online services will expire on that date. However, any Caldera content purchased in Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War or Vanguard will still be accessible in those games.Warzone came along in 2020, featuring two gameplay modes (battle royale and plunder) plus a single map called Verdansk that supported up to 150 players at a time. It shared a battle pass, weapons and cosmetics with 2019's Modern Warfare. It was an immediate success, reportedly hitting 30 million players just 10 days after launch.The game was renamed Call of Duty: Warzone Caledera (after the 2021 Caledera map) following the release of Warzone 2.0 in November of 2022. Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 was recently renamed simply to Warzone, and Activision is encouraging original Warzone players to jump ship to that title. "Expect a vast amount of gameplay choices across three Battle Royale maps (including Season 04's new map Vondel), as well as Ranked Play, the DMZ Beta featuring five different Extraction Zones, BlackCell offerings, and more," it wrote.Some players aren't pleased, though, citing the fact that earlier battle royale games like Blackout from Black Ops 4 still have operating servers, while the original Warzone won't. Others are displeased that resources are being shunted to Warzone: Mobile, and some have pointed out that they'll lose all their Warzone cosmetics, according to Kotaku.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-original-call-of-duty-warzone-battle-royale-will-shut-down-in-september-125949437.html?src=rss

This episode, Cherlynn is joined by senior reporter Jess Conditt and special guest Michael Fisher to talk about the week of reviews. From the Moto Razr+ to the Pixel Tablet, we look at how these devices fit into our lives and make them better (or worse). Then, we go over the highlights from Summer Games Fest and dig into that Titanic situation.Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!Subscribe!

The July 4th weekend is a time to stand around outside, eating and watching distant fireworks from a backyard. A fire pit is a mighty fine accessory for these festivities, and industry leader Solo Stove just announced a major sale on its line of products to celebrate Independence Day. The sale covers the popular Bonfire 2.0, the extra-large Yukon 2.0, the portable Ranger 2.0 and a whole bunch of bundles and standalone accessories.This is the best sale to-date for Solo Stove fire pits, beating a previous 45-percent off discount back in May to celebrate that other big summer holiday. The sale extends to sets which typically include a fire pit, a stand, a cover or shield, a handle, a lid and various tools for roasting and grilling over an open flame. You'll find the steepest discounts on the Bonfire Backyard Bundle and the Bonfire Ultimate Bundle, both of which are just about half off. Solo Stove products are consistently well-reviewed, so if you want to stand around an open flame this summer, this might be your best bet.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-fire-pits-and-accessories-are-up-to-50-percent-off-for-july-4th-123018163.html?src=rss

You may be able to pay for purchases and get into train stations without having to physically touch your phone to an NFC terminal in the future. The NFC Forum, which defines the standards for NFC, has revealed a roadmap for key research and plans for near field communication through 2028. Apparently, one of the main priorities for the future of the technology is to increase its range. At the moment, NFC only works if two enabled devices are within 5 millimeters from each other, but the group says it's currently examining ranges that are "four to six times the current operating distance."That's 30 millimeters or 1.18 inches at most, but it could enable faster transactions and fewer failed ones overall, seeing as a longer range also means there's a lower precision requirement for antenna alignment. In addition, the forum is looking to improve the current NFC wireless charging specification of 1 watt to 3 watts. The capability will bring wireless charging to "new and smaller form factors," the forum said, but didn't give examples of what those form factors could look like.Another potential future NFC capability will support several actions with a single tap. Based on the sample use cases the forum listed - point-to-point receipt delivery, loyalty identification and total-journey ticketing - we could be looking at the possibility of being able to validate transit tickets or venue tickets for the whole family with just one tap or a single device. NFC-enabled smartphones could have the power to serve as point-of-sale devices in the future, as well. Apple's Tap to Pay feature already lets iPhone owners use their phones as payment terminals. But a standardized capability would allow more people, especially in developing countries where Android is more prevalent, to use their devices to offer payments for their small businesses and shops.These plans are in varying stages of development right now, with some further along than others. The forum doesn't have a clear timeline for their debut yet, but it said that the timeframe for its plans spans two to five years.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nfc-tech-could-get-faster-and-go-fully-contactless-within-the-next-five-years-120519452.html?src=rss

It's something that's drilled into you from the first essay you write in school: Always check your sources. Yet, New York attorney Steven Schwartz relied on ChatGPT to find and review them for him - a decision that's led a judge to issue a $5,000 fine to him, his associate Peter LoDuca and their law firm Levidow, Levidow and Oberman, The Guardian reports. Schwartz used it for a case in which a man was suing Colombian airline Avianca alleging he was injured on a flight to New York City. In this case, ChatGPT produced six cases as precedent, such as "Martinez v. Delta Airlines" and "Miller v. United Airlines," that were either inaccurate or simply didn't exist.In the decision to fine Schwartz and co., Judge P Kevin Castel explained, "Technological advances are commonplace and there is nothing inherently improper about using a reliable artificial intelligence tool for assistance. But existing rules impose a gatekeeping role on attorneys to ensure the accuracy of their filings." Basically, you can use ChatGPT for your work but at least check its claims. In not doing so, the lawyers had "abandoned their responsibilities," including when they stood by the fake statements after the court questioned their legitimacy.Examples of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots inaccuracies are widespread. Take the National Eating Disorder Association's chatbot that provided people recovering from eating disorders with dieting tips or ChatGPT wrongly accusing a law professor of sexual assault using a non-existent article from The Washington Post as proof.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-lawyers-fined-5000-after-including-fake-case-citations-generated-by-chatgpt-114041179.html?src=rss

Would you watch two billionaires tussle in a cage match? What if it was the owners of Facebook and Tesla? This all started when Elon Musk said he was "up for a cage match if he [Zuckerberg] is," in response to tweets about Meta's incoming Twitter rival. Musk responded. Mark Zuckerberg posted a screenshot of the exchange as a story on his Instagram account with the note: "Send Me Location." Zuckerberg has been training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for around a year now, and his efforts have been well documented - he even competed in a tournament back in May and won gold and silver medals. Musk: he said he has a great move called The Walrus. Hmm.- Mat SmithThe Morning After isn't just a newsletter - it's also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missedHow to make the most of that Instant Pot you just boughtThe best iPhone accessories for 2023 Nintendo's new WarioWare game wants you to move your whole bodyMeta pulls news content from Canadian Facebook and InstagramGoogle's Duet AI can generate custom templates in Sheets E3 2024 and 2025 aren't canceled (yet)An LA commission said the in-person shows were done, but the ESA says otherwise.The Electronic Entertainment Expo hasn't been held in person since 2019. Now, it may not be returning for 2024 or 2025 - at least not at the Los Angeles Convention Center. According to an LA City Tourism Commission planning document shared on ResetEra, the video game trade show has canceled its live event for the next two years.The Electronic Software Association (ESA) seems hesitant to confirm the entire event is canceled: "ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond)," the group told Engadget. You can still catch up on everything not-E3 from this year at Summer Game Fest, including our first impressions of Sand Land.Continue reading.The next version of Stable Diffusion won't produce spaghetti hands in AI imagesIt was a bit jarring.The next version of the prompt-based AI image generator Stable Diffusion will produce more photorealistic images and be better at, well, making hands look less like a horror show. The announcement appeared in a since-deleted blog post. SDXL 0.9, a follow-up to Stable Diffusion XL, produces massively improved image and composition detail over its predecessor," the blog post read. SDXL can be run locally on your PC if you have a powerful enough machine. It requires a minimum of 16GB of RAM and a GeForce RTX 20 (or higher) graphics card with 8GB of VRAM.Continue reading.Sony plans to keep making smartphones for at least a few more yearsQualcomm has a deal to power Sony handsets in a multi-year deal.SonyYou might not be buying them, but Sony will continue to make them. Sony has struck a multi-year deal with Qualcomm to use Snapdragon platforms to power its handsets. This is an extension of an existing agreement. Sony revealed its latest phone, the Xperia 1 V, just last month. The smartphone's target audience is, once again, photographers and vloggers. Those are relatively niche use cases, though Sony can tap into its camera technology to offer something at least unique. The Xperia 1 V even works as a monitor for compatible Sony Alpha cameras.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-zuckerberg-v-musk-the-cage-fight-111558709.html?src=rss

The United States government has reaffirmed its commitment to move EV production to its shores instead of relying on foreign entities. The US Department of Energy's Loan Program Office (LPO) has announced a conditional $9.2 billion loan for BlueOval SK (BOSK) - owned by Ford and South Korean battery producer SK On - to build three battery manufacturing plants, Bloomberg reports.The loan is the biggest the LPO has given out yet - almost four times the size of last year's $2.5 billion loan for Ultium Cell - a joint venture between General Motors and LG. The loan's scale is thanks, in part, to last year's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which led to the LPO's lending budget increasing to $400 billion. For context, in the previous 14 years, the LPO has dispersed about $33 billion. The extra capital will certainly be necessary to achieve the Biden-Harris administration goal for EVs to make up half of US car sales by 2030.There will be two plants in Kentucky and one in Tennessee, with all three producing batteries for Ford and Lincoln's upcoming EV. The car manufacturer also announced plans for a Michigan-based LFP battery plant earlier this year. The production ramp-up comes as Ford aims to roll out two million EVs by 2026, with the All-Electric Explorer, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit already available and an EV lineup in the works for Lincoln. In comparison, Ford produced about 132,000 EVs in 2022. Ford also recently secured its EV drivers access to 12,000 Tesla's charging points across North America.The LPO stresses that the loan will also bring career opportunities to the areas, creating 5,000 construction jobs and another 7,500 operation jobs once the plants start running. The investment also aligns with President Biden's Justice40 Initiative that 40 percent of specific federal investments (including LPO loans) go to disadvantaged communities.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ford-secures-92-billion-loan-from-us-department-of-energy-to-build-ev-battery-factories-102520341.html?src=rss

YouTube has plans to go beyond translated subtitles by allowing creators to dub videos in other spoken languages. At VidCon, the company announced yesterday that it's testing an AI-powered dubbing service called Aloud, developed at Google's Area 120 incubator, The Verge reported. The tool would eliminate the time and often great expense required to dub the usual way (with human translators and narrators), allowing creators to reach a wider global audience.Aloud promises a "quality dub in just a few minutes" using AI. The tool first creates a text-based translation that creators can check and edit, then generates a dub. Users can choose different narrators, how to publish and more. Best of all, the service is available for "no charge," Aloud's website states.YouTube is currently testing the tool with "hundreds" of creators, YouTube's VP of product management, Amjad Hanif, told The Verge. It's currently available in English and lets you dub in Spanish and Portugese with "more languages coming soon," according to Aloud.From a user perspective, the setting appears as an "Audio track" toggle in the gear icon, just below subtitles. An example of that is from the Amoeba Sisters science channel trailer, which uses English as a native language, with a dubbed Spanish language option created by Aloud's AI.The ability to easily dub languages can expand a creator's reach without the need to do anything else, Google said in its keynote. There's no mention yet as to when Aloud's dubbing tool will be available more widely. In the future, though, YouTube will "make translated audio tracks sound like the creator's voice, with more expression and lip sync," Hanif said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtubes-new-tool-can-automatically-dub-videos-into-other-languages-093624288.html?src=rss

The US government is asking qualified members of the public for help in figuring out how to seize opportunities and overcome challenges associated with generative AI. Gina Raimondo, the US Secretary of Commerce, has announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a public working group for AI technologies that can generate content, including text, images, videos, music and code. The group will also help the agency develop key guidance that organizations can follow to address risks brought by generative AI tech.According to the agency, the group will be composed of volunteers with technical expertise from the private and public sectors and will work together via a collaborative online workspace. To start with, the group will gather input on how the NIST AI Risk Management Framework - the framework the agency developed to "better manage risks to individuals, organizations and society associated with artificial intelligence" - may be used to support the development of generative AI tech. Then, the group is expected to support the agency's AI-related tests and evaluations. Its long-term goal, however, is to explore opportunities on how generative AI can be used to solve the most pressing issues of our time, such as problems related to health, climate change and the environment as a whole.Raimondo said in a statement:"President Biden has been clear that we must work to harness the enormous potential while managing the risks posed by AI to our economy, national security and society. The recently released NIST AI Risk Management Framework can help minimize the potential for harm from generative AI technologies. Building on the framework, this new public working group will help provide essential guidance for those organizations that are developing, deploying and using generative AI, and who have a responsibility to ensure its trustworthiness."The government has been scrambling to keep up with the rapidly advancing pace of generative AI technology. In April, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration asked for public comments on possible regulations that would hold AI creators accountable. The White House also invited American workers to share how automated tools are being used in their workplaces. Then in June, Representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ken Buck (R-CO) introduced legislation that would establish a 20-person commission to study ways to "mitigate the risks and possible harms" of AI while also "protecting" America's position as a global technology power. The legislation came after Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith spoke at Washington, DC and called on the US federal government to establish a new agency that's focused on regulating AI.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-calls-upon-volunteer-experts-to-help-address-generative-ai-risks-063956572.html?src=rss

The Electronic Entertainment Expo hasn't been held in person since 2019. Now, it may not be returning for 2024 or 2025 - at least not at the Los Angeles Convention Center. According to an LA City Tourism Commission planning document shared on ResetEra, the video game trade show has canceled its live event for the next two years. The document's Convention Sales data specifically notes that its data includes E3 cancellations for 2024 & 2025."Although the city document suggests that E3 2024 won't be hosted at the LA Convention Center, the Electronic Software Association itself seems hesitant to confirm the entire event is canceled. "ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond)," the group told Engadget. "No final decisions about the events have been made at this time."It's unclear what this means for E3 itself. Although the Electronic Software Association hasn't hosted a live trade since the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of E3 2020, the group did put together a digital only event in 2021. Neither the in-person or digital versions of the show returned in 2022.When the show was canceled again in 2023, ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis told GamesIndustry that the trade show may need to change to survive. "E3 will iterate to ensure it's meeting the needs of companies that want to market on this global platform." Pierre-Louis said. "That means it will iterate in how people engage with E3. We want to meet the needs of players who view this as an important platform and that's going to evolve over time."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/e3-2024-and-2025-arent-canceled-yet-222141813.html?src=rss

A rainy weekend threatened to delay the reopening of a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. But officials called in reinforcements: a giant jet dryer from a nearby race track, according toBillyPenn. The dryer is expected to ensure the highway opens this weekend as promised by PA Governor Josh Shapiro.The jet dryer, used to prevent wet tracks at nearby Pocono Raceway, consists of a modified helicopter turbine attached to the back of a Chevy Silverado. PA Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll, who had worked with racetrack officials when he held office in the area, knew who to call when stormy conditions threatened to delay the reopening. We've known Mr. Carroll for a number of years, he was a representative here in Northeast Pennsylvania," said Ricky Durst, Pocono Raceway senior marketing director. He knew the raceway well, knew that we often had to deal with weather circumstances during our events, and knows that we have the ability and the tools to dry asphalt." The track also reportedly brought a Chevy Camaro pace car to the scene, although its utility during the asphalt drying is less clear.Last night, workers paved the six-lane segment reconnecting the highway around the collapsed section ahead of the planned weekend reopening. The jet dryer's arrival should be welcome news for Shapiro, who said yesterday, I can confidently state right here, right now, that traffic will be flowing here on I-95 this weekend... We have completed every phase of this project safely and way ahead of schedule." A section of the overpass collapsed last weekend when a tanker truck exploded in flames underneath, killing the driver and closing traffic for the entire workweek.Meanwhile, Twitch streamer Brent Schooley saw an opportunity for fun as area residents eyed the I-95 reconstruction progress. The Philadelphia-based software developer began broadcasting a live view of the work - accompanied by LoFi beats. Schooley told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he started his FIX THAT JAWN!" stream to provide a much-needed chatroom for memes" as people check in on the progress. Although some people speculated it was a clever youth-outreach move from the Governor's PR team, the project arose organically. It's another example of how this has truly taken a life of its own," said Manuel Bonder, press secretary for Gov. Shapiro.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pocono-raceways-jet-drier-credited-with-keeping-i-95s-reopening-on-time-211512444.html?src=rss

It's no secret that Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax was bound to affect cross-platform releases, but there are now hints gamers might be missing out on some major releases. Under questioning from a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawyer seeking an injunction against the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal, Bethesda VP Pete Hines has revealed that Disney had a deal with ZeniMax to release MachineGames' Indiana Jones title on multiple consoles. After Microsoft bought ZeniMax, however, the deal was amended to make it an Xbox console exclusive.The FTC also believes Bethesda's sci-fi epic Starfield was headed to the PlayStation 5 before the Microsoft buyout. Bloomberg previously reported that Bethesda axed the PlayStation version of Redfall, although that's not as worrisome given the vampire shooter's lousy reception.Indiana Jones was made an exclusive due to the nature of the Disney license, Hines claims. Disney had a "ton of feedback" on the project that limited development time, and an Xbox exclusive would keep the game on track while providing a "degree of clarity," the Bethesda executive says. Games like Starfield and Redfall are originals.We've asked Bethesda for comment. In 2021, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said Microsoft's control of ZeniMax would deliver "great exclusive games." Some titles still in progress at the time, such as Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, were still headed to PlayStation due to contractual obligations.The revelations won't necessarily cement the FTC's effort to block Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. However, they don't look good - they suggest that some players are losing out on high-profile games that were previously destined for their console of choice. Microsoft has promised to release Call of Duty on multiple platforms for years to come in a bid to secure regulatory approval, but that might not help if officials are still concerned about other exclusives.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-indiana-jones-game-became-an-xbox-exclusive-after-microsoft-bought-zenimax-210157957.html?src=rss

At the start of the month, Facebook's parent company Meta announced via blog post its intent to remove availability of all news content from FB and Instagram in Canada, should the government pass its proposed Online News Act. On Thursday, Canadian Parliament did just that and, within hours, Meta confirmed it will make good on its threat."Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect," the company posted. "We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada."The Online News Act is designed to address the precipitous drop in advertising revenue Canadian news organizations have experienced over the past two decades. It does so by requiring big tech companies like Google and Meta to negotiate reimbursement plans with those outlets for running said stories on their respective platforms.Earlier in June, Meta announced that it was working to develop a software-based solution to its C-18 issue. As of Thursday, those efforts remain ongoing "and currently impact a small percentage of users in Canada." Aside from the loss of news functionality, Meta assures its users that no other aspects of the Facebook experience will be impacted.This isn't the first time that Meta has picked up its toys and gone home in response to attempted government oversight. In 2021, the company removed its news features from the Australian market after the country passed similar compensation legislation - even going so far as to prevent publishers from linking to their posts on the social media platform. That move negatively impacted the pages of multiple Australian government agencies as well as numerous nonprofit organizations from the region before being reversed."This legislation sets a precedent where the government decides who enters into these news content agreements, and ultimately, how much the party that already receives value from the free service gets paid," William Easton, Facebook's managing director for Australia and New Zealand, wrote in a blog post at the time. "We will now prioritize investments to other countries, as part of our plans to invest in new licensing news programs and experiences."Google, which would also be affected by the bill's implementation, has not yet announced any plans to officially cut service in the nation. It did begin testing a means of blocking news access in Canada in February.Google spokesperson Jenn Crider told Engadget:"We're doing everything we can to avoid an outcome that no-one wants. Every step of the way, we've proposed thoughtful and pragmatic solutions that would have improved the Bill and cleared the path for us to increase our already significant investments in the Canadian news ecosystem. So far, none of our concerns have been addressed. Bill C-18 is about to become law and remains unworkable. We are continuing to urgently seek to work with the government on a path forward."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-pulls-news-content-from-canadian-facebook-and-instagram-204431447.html?src=rss

Google testers now have the chance to check out another new Duet AI feature in Google Workspace. Starting today, they'll see a new sidebar for Google Sheets. They can describe what they want to do and Duet AI can create a custom template to help them get the ball rolling.According to Google, this could come in useful for those looking to carry out tasks that involve complex organization and tracking. The company suggests product roadmaps, company retreats and team budgets as potential use cases. If the feature works as intended, it could help save users a ton of time. It's available in Workspace Labs for the time being.GoogleGoogle has been quickly expanding the AI's toolset since it announced Duet for Workspace at its I/O conference last month. When testers enter a prompt in the web version of Docs, Duet can generate text for them. It can automatically insert smart chips too.In Gmail, the AI can draft emails on both the web and mobile. It can offer contextual suggestions for replies as well. As for Slides, testers can generate images from text prompts.Google plans to bring more generative AI features to Workspace Labs in the coming months. Meanwhile, Google's Bard AI can now export the data that it creates to Sheets, where users can organize and modify it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-duet-ai-can-generate-custom-templates-in-sheets-185527176.html?src=rss

Twitch just announced a chat-pinning feature similar to those found on YouTube and other platforms. Hype Chat, beyond sounding like something from 2006, offers a new revenue stream for both streamers and the platform itself. Here's how it works. You pay $1 to $500 and compose a message that rests atop the chat until someone with deeper pockets comes along and knocks you from the spotlight.The more you pay, the longer the message stays up top and the more characters you can use to compose the missive. Big spenders also get access to various design options to help that notice me senpai" message garner the attention of your favorite streamer.Streamers set the price here and Twitch takes 30 percent of the cut, leaving the remaining 70 percent for the creator. At launch, only high-profile streamers, aka Partners, will have access to the feature. Twitch says this is because pinned chats are meant to allow messages to stand out during fast-moving conversations with plenty of participants. Oddly, these Twitch partners are unable to opt out of the service, according to The Verge.Of course, whenever you mention pinned messages you must contend with the reality of hateful and discriminatory language. This is the Internet, after all. To that end, Twitch is beefing this feature up with safety tools. Just like regular Twitch chat, there's a host of banned words and phrases at the sitewide level and set by individual creators. Also, if you say something nasty and get banned from a chat, your pinned message flies away with you. All messages sent via this feature are screened by the company's AutoMod system and human moderators can delete messages whenever they want.The feature is rolling out right now, but only for approved partners and only on the web app. It'll launch for smartphone and tablet apps in the near future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitch-announces-chat-pinning-feature-for-those-with-robust-bank-accounts-182356052.html?src=rss

The next version of the prompt-based AI image generator, Stable Diffusion, will produce more photorealistic images and be better at making hands. SDXL 0.9, a follow-up to Stable Diffusion XL, produces massively improved image and composition detail over its predecessor" according to Stability AI. The announcement appeared in a since-deleted blog post and was reported byBloomberg.Stability AI describes the new model as providing a leap in creative use cases for generative AI imagery." Sample images included in the blog post revealed advancements when using the same prompts in Stable Diffusion XL beta and SDXL 0.9. The images generated with the newer model - including aliens, a wolf and a person holding a coffee cup - appear to show finer detail and more convincing hands. Hands were an easy tell" to spot AI-generated art - at least until Midjourney v5, a rival platform that runs on Discord, launched in March.Stability AIDespite its ability to be run on a standard home computer, SDXL 0.9 presents a leap in creative use cases for generative AI imagery," Stability AI said. The ability to generate hyper-realistic creations for films, television, music, and instructional videos, as well as offering advancements for design and industrial use, places SDXL at the forefront of real world applications for AI imagery."Stability AI writes that the new model's significant increase in parameter count (the sum of all the weights and biases in the neural network that the model is trained on)" allows for the improved results. Running SDXL 0.9 locally on a PC will require a minimum of 16GB of RAM and a GeForce RTX 20 (or higher) graphics card with 8GB of VRAM. It supports Windows 11 / 10 and Linux.Left: SDXL Beta, Right: SDXL 0.9Stability AIAccording to the deleted blog post, the model will soon be available on Stability AI's Clipdrop web tool and will be added to the startup's DreamStudio app. The startup says the open-source version of SDXL 1.0 will arrive in mid-July.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-next-version-of-stable-diffusion-wont-produce-spaghetti-hands-171552952.html?src=rss

Over 100 music artists, including Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, have banded together to announce they are boycotting concert venues that use facial recognition technology, as originally reported by Rolling Stone. The artists cite a number of concerns, including privacy infringement and increased discrimination.The boycott was organized by a digital rights advocacy group called Fight for the Future and its ultimate goal is the elimination of face-scanning technology at all live events. Beyond the two founding members of Rage Against the Machine, other participating artists include Speedy Ortiz, Anti-Flag, Boots Riley and Deerhoof, among more than 80 others. The full list is available right here.In addition to artists, some venues are getting in on the action, pledging to not use this type of technology for their events. These include House of Yes in Brooklyn, the Lyric Hyperion in Los Angeles and the infamous Black Cat in Washington D.C. In recent months, over 40 big-time music festivals, like Coachella and SXSW, also vowed to stop using facial recognition technology.Fight for the Future said in a statement that facial scanning companies are morally corrupt" and that facial recognition tools are so inaccurate" that they actually create more harm and problems than they solve." While the organization says this tech is rife with inaccuracies, for now, it dreads a future world in which privacy is non-existent, where we are identified, watched and surveilled everywhere we go."Nobody wants a Minority Report-esque police state, but proponents of facial recognition tech tout some of the positives. For instance, Taylor Swift recently employed this technology to root out potential stalkers during concerts. However, it's already being used to do some pretty foul stuff. Madison Square Garden has begun employing the technology to identify and ban lawyers involved with suits against the venue and affiliated companies.Several attorneys have been forcibly removed from both MSG and Radio City Music Hall in recent months, prompting New York Attorney General Letitia James to issue a formal inquiry. The New York State Liquor Authority also recently initiated proceedings to strip the parent company, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, of its liquor licenses, as reported by the New York Post. MSG sued the state over this decision and doubled down, saying we understand this policy is disappointing to some, but we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment."MSG has received the lion's share of scrutiny here, but other large venues throughout the country have also gotten their Orwell on, from New York's Citi Field to Cleveland's FirstEnergy Stadium and Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, among many others. So this is definitely a thing.Fight for the Future, along with Morello and artists like Speedy Ortiz, have found success with similar boycotts in the past. In 2022, Denver's Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver stopped using Amazon's palm-reading technology following a protest from the organization.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/over-100-artists-boycott-venues-that-employ-face-scanning-tech-164554404.html?src=rss

If you think your kids should have a smart display of their very own, this might be a good time to grab two of them from Amazon. In advance of Prime Day, you can get two Echo Show 5 Kids for the price of one. The displays came out in 2023 and typically go for $100 each. By using the code SHOW5KIDS at checkout, you'll get two for a total of $99.98. You can also press the "Redeem" button on the product page and the discount will automatically show up.We covered the standard version of the Echo Show 5 in our smart display guide. We said it would work well on a nightstand as a display-enabled alarm clock, given that the 5-inch screen is on the smaller side. That diminutive size might work well for kids. The kid version of the display has a space-themed exterior and includes a number of software differences that makes it more kid-friendly, particularly with the offered parental controls.Like other Alexa-enabled devices, kids can use their Echo Show to control connected smart home devices, like smart bulbs or plugs in their room. Kids can also ask Alexa questions and get audio and visual answers or play music from Spotify, Amazon Music or Apple Music just by asking. Unlike a regular smart display, however, this one is designed to give kid-friendly responses and filter out explicit lyrics. The connected parent dashboard gives you control over time limits and which contacts can be called, while letting you see what your kids are up to by reviewing their activity. If you, understandably, don't feel comfortable sticking a live camera in your kids' rooms, the physical camera shutter on the device can be shut off whenever they're not actively video calling grandma.Recently, Amazon and Disney partnered up to bring character voices such as Olaf from Frozen or C3PO from Star Wars to Echo devices. Saying, "hey, Disney" can do things like having Mickey read the weather or launching interactive trivia games. The feature comes with an Amazon Kids+ subscription, which also grants access to kid-focused shows, movies, audiobooks, games and ebooks that kids can access from their display. A year of the subscription comes with the purchase of the kid's Echo Show, after that it's $8 per month or $5 monthly if you're a Prime member.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/amazon-is-selling-two-echo-show-5-kids-smart-displays-for-the-price-of-one-163034320.html?src=rss

Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, Google, Xiaomi... Those are names that likely spring to mind when you think about smartphones. Sony perhaps won't be the first company that most people consider in that regard. However, the company is still beavering away on its own phones and it plans to keep doing so for the foreseeable future.Sony has struck a multi-year deal with Qualcomm to use Snapdragon platforms to power its handsets. This is an extension of an existing agreement between the two sides. Qualcomm chipsets will be used in Sony's upcoming premium devices, along with high- and mid-tier smartphones.Sony revealed the awkwardly named Xperia 1 V just last month. The smartphone runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 Mobile Platform and it's geared toward photographers and vloggers. Those are relatively niche use cases, though Sony is able to tap into its camera technology in the aim of helping users capture high-quality photos and video. The Xperia 1 V can be used as a monitor for compatible Sony Alpha cameras, for one thing. Still, Sony continues to command a premium for its high-end Xperia smartphones - the 1 V starts at $1,400.The company also showed off the mid-range Xperia 10 V for the first time in May. It boasts a Snapdragon 695 chipset and a 60Hz, 1080p OLED display. Sony started selling the phone in Europe this month for 399 or 449 (around $500).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-plans-to-keep-making-smartphones-for-at-least-a-few-more-years-160051473.html?src=rss

Google will soon make it easier to interact with PDFs if you have low vision. The company is adding OCR (optical character recognition) technology to Chrome that can convert PDFs to text that makes them more accessible, particularly if you want a screen reader to read them aloud. The tool will also provide image descriptions.The feature will be available in the "coming months," Google says. The company also plans to expand the functionality beyond Chrome later this year, although it hasn't said which platforms might receive the upgrade. We've asked Google for more details and will let you know if we hear back.GoogleThe introduction comes as part of a broader education push that includes app licensing for school Chromebooks and free access to Adobe Express in the US. Administrators will also have tighter control over what students and faculty can access on their Chromebooks - they can ban students from copying and pasting text from certain websites, such as generative AI tools that could help them cheat on tests. Users, meanwhile, will have an easier time turning off their camera or microphone regardless of where they are in Chrome OS.The read-aloud PDF feature is mainly intended for classrooms, where students with vision issues will have an easier time reading scanned class material or necessary research articles. However, this will also make the internet more accessible for the public at large. It's not uncommon for websites to put terms of service or other important information into PDFs. The upgrade puts that info within reach of more people.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chrome-can-soon-convert-pdfs-into-text-it-can-read-aloud-154428591.html?src=rss

This is a good time to buy a tablet for summer reading or road trip entertainment. Amazon is once more selling Apple's 10.2-inch iPad at a record low price of $250 (normally $329) after an instant $20 discount at checkout. You'll need to buy a 64GB WiFi model to get the full savings, but there are also price drops for some 256GB and cellular variants.The 10.2-inch iPad may be nearing two years old at this point, but it's still our pick for the best budget Apple tablet even at its official price. It's still reasonably speedy for games and casual tasks, and it's the device to get if you still want a headphone jack or a physical home button. On sale, it's an easy choice - you're getting the core iPad experience at a much lower cost. That could make it a great option for reading in bed, and you might not worry quite so much if your kids are less than gentle with it.There are reasons you might want to spend more, of course. The 10.9-inch iPad from 2022 offers more screen real estate, brisker performance and a USB-C port, not to mention a front camera better-suited to video calls. With a price gap as large as $200, though, it's harder to justify the newer version unless you absolutely insist on its updated design.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-102-inch-ipad-drops-back-to-a-record-low-of-250-141931820.html?src=rss

Bandai Namco knows what to do when it turns anime or manga series into video games. Revealed at Summer Game Fest last week, Sand Land is the latest addition, with a big punchy poster on the show floor in Los Angeles, conveniently right next to an established hitmaker for the publisher, its Naruto (now Boruto) Ultimate Storm fighting series.Sand Land, though? You may never have heard of it, but don't let that put you off, because it's a 2000s comic penned by legendary manga artist, Akira Toriyama. Yes, Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama. The man who created the character designs for Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon and the Dragon Quest series. And Toriyama's creations have never looked better.Sand Land is an action-adventure game where you'll play as the rambunctious prince of the Devil, capital d', Beelzebub, as he explores a desert-themed world where water is a rare and costly resource. Demons and humans coexist in this world, with the human Sheriff Rao and the demon Thief accompanying Beelzebub on his adventure to solve the water crisis.At SGF 2023 last week, I played a 15-minute demo that showcased a few parts of the game, including melee combat, exploration and two vehicles: a tank and, er, a golf cart. The demo kicked off with the trio fleeing a desert dragon, and after having steered the cart away from relentless attacks, the gang eventually had to cast off their supplies of water to escape.Apparently, this is a beat-for-beat replication of how Sand Land plays out in the manga, and you can expect the game to follow the same storyline beats. That's sometimes frustrating for games where you already know the story. For example, I know who dies in Dragon Ball's Frieza saga, so it's not a surprise when it happens in one of the several Dragon Ball video games. With Sand Land, however, many of us will be hearing the tale for the first time.During my demo, the game split into two play styles. You'll explore the desert, outposts, and towns with your vehicles but also set out on foot when you need to brawl with someone or interact with things appropriately. Bandai Namco has teased that you can customize vehicles within the game, adding different weaponry and components to improve performance or offer tactical advantages. I loved using the armor-piercing rounds. Sure, they had a low fire rate, but they obliterated almost anything. Vehicle controls are simple enough but vary depending on the type and whether they feature weapons or not. Don't forget: my first Sand Land vehicle was a golf cart. There was no artillery option.Bandai NamcoWhen not rolling around in a tank (which can be repaired if it takes damage), Beelzebub himself can go toe-to-toe with enemies in melee combat. He has a mix of weak attacks, dodge rolls and super attacks that will charge up as you battle enemies. If it sounds a bit... simple, well, it is. Bandai Namco isn't reinventing the wheel here. More moves and support characters could help deepen the combat sections, so I'll hold judgment for now, but it's also worth remembering that this game is likely aimed at gamers younger than I. You will only ever control Beelzebub himself, but both of his aforementioned companions will eventually be able to assist in fights, although this wasn't apparent in my demo.The highlight of this early demo was confronting a gang of bandits. They gave off a mild Ginew Force vibe, which I wasn't mad about. Each wielded different weapons and attacked differently, offering a nice opportunity to test out little devil's combos, sending enemies high with a punch, only to jump up and slam them back to the ground.Ensuring even these secondary characters are interesting is proof that, hopefully, the developers are ensuring Toriyama's characters, and his offbeat humor and charm, make it onto consoles.While there are some questionable lip-sync moments (at this point, all the voiceovers are Japanese), this generation of consoles and PCs offer more than enough power to replicate Toriyama's detailed drawings. I gawped at the tank during my playthrough just because it looked so good. Imagine how long I'd stare at a tank I customized myself.Sand Land will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sand-land-first-impressions-an-akira-toriyama-manga-brought-to-life-140023184.html?src=rss

Owlet and its baby monitoring devices are back in the good graces of the FDA. The company received clearance from the US regulator for its product BabySat, a medical-grade pulse-ox monitor designed as a wireless sock" for newborns and babies. The win comes after the FDA ordered the Utah-based biotech company to stop selling its smart sock almost 18 months ago.The FDA objection was based on the fact that the wearable had the capacity to relay a live display of a baby's heart rate and oxygen levels, which is critical data that a doctor should interpret, especially in vulnerable populations. The tumultuous approval demonstrates our technology is medical-grade," Kurt Workman, Owlet CEO and co-founder said of the company's path to getting FDA approval. We conducted several side-by-side accuracy comparisons to hospital monitors and that demonstrated Owlet is accurate." The device can alert a provider if any metrics are out of range, which can help to diagnose and prevent complications.Owlet stripped out the blood oxygen tracking feature and returned to the market just a few months later with the Dream Sock. It later added in an average oxygen level' readout through a software update. The $299 wearable is available direct from the company and through a number of other retailers without a prescription, but it lacks the advanced features that set it apart from the rest of its rivals. Instead, it's a pretty straightforward sleep tracker.BabySat, on the other hand, is a prescription device. It integrates medical-grade pulse oximetry technology into a discreet wearable. It's a noninvasive tool to measure how well oxygen is circulating to extremities in babies from 1 to 18 months.

UK broadcaster Sky has unveiled a webcam device called Sky Live designed to add features like watch parties with friends, fitness and gaming features, the company announced. It attaches magnetically to the top of the company's Sky Glass smart TVs via USB-C and HDMI, and supports motion tracking for games and workouts, along with video calls, group chats and more."Sky Live makes your TV much more than just a TV, by introducing new entertainment experiences for the heart of your home," said Sky global chief product officer Fraser Stirling in a statement. "Get active with motion control games, work out with body tracking technology, video call on the big screen and watch TV with loved ones - even from afar. And [with] our powerful Entertainment OS ecosystem, it will keep getting better with every update."The 12-megapixel webcam looks a bit like a mini Xbox One Kinect, with a rectangular design and lens on the right. Video is captured at up to 4K with an ultrawide 106-degree field of view (equivalent to a 14mm lens in 35mm camera terms). It has a white status LED, four microphones on top and a privacy button that turns it off (but no privacy shutter). There's an auto-framing feature to keep you in the center of the shot, along with background noise suppression to ensure you're heard during noisy broadcasts.A key feature pitched by Sky (owned by Comcast since 2018) is called "Watch Together," letting you do watch parties with up to 11 other households remotely. Friends' video feeds appear to the right of the main feed and it works with all live channels and Sky's own on-demand programs - but not Netflix or other third-party streaming services. Playback is supposed to be synchronized among all call participants, so you shouldn't hear your friends cheering before you actually see a goal scored.On top of looking like one, Sky Live also acts like a Kinect. It comes with a Mvmnt fitness app offering 130 interactive workouts, with the motion control tech tracking and your form, reps and more. It also supports motion-controlled games like Fruit Ninja and an multiplayer version of Monopoly controlled with the TV's remote. You can make Zoom calls, with participants shown in full HD and centered in the frame thanks to the auto-tracking feature.Sky Live requires a Sky Glass smart TV to work and costs 290 ($370) as a standalone purchase, 6 per month over 48 months, or 12 per month on a 24-month contract. Sky is also offering introductory discounts if purchased with a Smart Glass TV. Th latter, launched back in 2021, comes in 43-, 55- and 65-inch version and starts at around 14 per month.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sky-uk-releases-a-motion-tracking-webcam-for-tv-watch-parties-131458526.html?src=rss