Oil and gas companies regularly use flaring (that is, burning unwanted methane) to limit the amount of natural gas escaping into the atmosphere, but the practice might not be as kind to the planet as previously thought. Scientists at the University of Michigan, Stanford and elsewhere have discovered that flaring is much less effective than the industry assumes, and puts out five times more methane (a strong greenhouse gas) than predicted.
Companies and governments act on the belief flares are always lit and burn off 98 percent of methane. However, aerial surveys of three US basins (where 80 percent of American flaring takes place) have revealed that the flares aren't lit up to 5 percent of the time, and operate inefficiently when they're active. In practice, the flaring efficiency is just 91 percent. That may not sound like a big dip, but it signifies that there's a large volume of unaccounted-for methane contributing to climate change.
There is an upside to the findings. Flaring's problems are "quite addressable" with better management, lead researcher Genevieve Plant said, and a solution would offer an equivalent emissions reduction to removing 3 million cars. To put it another way, this could be one of the easiest ways to keep methane in check and limit global warming. The challenge is to have companies and governments work in harmony — that's not guaranteed, even if the fix is relatively straightforward.
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It’s nearly time for the new free PS Plus games to appear on the PlayStation Store ready for subscribers to download and enjoy. Though there are now three different subscription tiers, all members will gain access to this month’s Essential free PS5 and PS4 games. So whether you’re on Essential, Extra, or Premium, you’ll be able to play Hot Wheels Unleashed, Injustice 2, and Superhot. Here’s when the PS Plus October 2022 free games come out in ET and PT (US), BST (UK), and CEST (EU) time zones.
When can you download the October 2022 PS Plus games?
You can download the October 2022 PS Plus games on October 4 at the following times:
10 AM ET
7 AM PT
3 PM BST
4 PM CEST
Users are urged to wait until the games appear as “Free” when visiting the respective product pages. As it’s possible that there will be a delay while the PS Store updates across all regions, which can sometimes take up to three hours, it’s important to wait until it says “Free.”
The PS Plus October 2022 games will be available until October 31, so make sure you redeem them in time!
In 2022, Tony Hawk is a household name, skateboarding is an olympic sport and it’s possible to master digital laser flips in any number of video games on TV. It wasn’t always like this, though. Early skate screen media consisted mostly of skeptical documentaries or whimsical California dreaming-style chronicles. Things changed when, in 1983, Stacy Peralta – who managed the ragtag team of skaters that Tony Hawk was a member of – effectively invented the modern skate video. Thanks to its performative nature, skateboarding would soon form a symbiotic relationship with the technology that showcased it.
The VHS invasion
Peralta claims he hoped a few hundred copies of his first video might find their way into the new VHS players that were taking the US by storm. “From the get go, videos were more lucrative than they thought they were going to be: It's this sort of famous thing that Stacy [Peralta] says that the first Bones Brigade video, they thought they were just gonna write the costs off as a marketing cost, but actually they made a load of money on it.” Author, professor and skateboarder Iain Borden told Engadget. The success of The Bone Brigade Video Show, and the titles that followed, exposed skateboarding to many more new eyes along with an all new revenue stream for the struggling “sport”.
Al Seib via Getty Images
In the ‘80s Peralta and his Bones Brigade team dominated on-screen skateboarding, typically on vert ramps, including several moviecameos. But Peralta’s polished style and squeaky-clean team wasn’t for everyone. Right at the end of the ‘80s, H-Street – a more grassroots skateboarding outfit – released Shackle Me Not and Hokus Pokus with a focus on street skating. Not everyone had access to a ramp, but everyone lived on a street, meaning this new style was much more accessible with the videos almost serving as a how-to manual.
According to Borden, H-Street put cameras in skaters’ hands to film each other and the change of pace and dynamic in videos shifted away from Peralta’s more conventional approach. This new format – skaters shooting skaters – complete with slams, skits, music and pissed-off security guards would become the template for the next decade. Not least thanks to another new technology that was about to land.
The VX1000
In 1995, Sony released a camera that would define how the skate video looks (and sounds) right to this day. At around $3,000; the DCR-VX1000, was the first digital camcorder in Sony’s consumer lineup. The relatively affordable price, coupled with its small form-factor and new, digital tapes – MiniDV – made it the perfect camera for gonzo filmmakers seeking professional results. The fact that footage could be easily transferred to a PC with a nascent technology called i.Link (which you might know as “FireWire”) meant anyone with a computer could now make videos entirely at home.
The VX1000 only really solidified its legendary status among skaters once it was coupled with the Century Optics fish-eye lens. “The fisheye was amazing. The audio was incredible. The colors look great. It had a handle built into it so you can follow somebody while riding a skateboard,” videographer Chris Ray told Engadget. “There hasn't been another impactful camera in skateboarding like that. I don't think there ever will be.”
Sony
Ray says he still uses audio from the VX1000 on his modern productions. “I pull a library of VX audio and I add those to the snaps, the lands, the grinds, things like that into my skate films because nobody has made a camera that has audio that's even close to as good.” Ray clearly isn’t the only one to think so, as this $300 modern replica VX1000 mic just for skateboarding attests.
To complement the sound, the colors the VX1000 put out would also become something of a hallmark of a good skate video. The bright, punchy hues the camera produced were the perfect match for the blue Californian sky contrasted against the beige and asphalt found in strip mall parking lots and other urban, skate-friendly locations. Before long, footage shot with anything else felt passé. “People were still making skateboard videos on other cameras,” Ray said, “but this was, like, the one you were taking a lot more seriously.”
Ask any skater what the golden era of skate videos is and you’ll get a different answer, but objectively the year 2000 ushered in a period of where some of the most impactful, high budget skateboarding movies ever were made, and most of them were shot with the trusty VX1000.
Chris Ray
Menikmati, from shoe company éS and Modus Operandi by Transworld set the tone. Both came out in 2000 and heavily showcased the VX1000’s distinctive look and sound. Both are also very high profile releases in the skate scene, which only serves to fully solidify the camera’s status as the de facto tool of choice. Not to mention a badge of cool in its own right. “I mean, it's on skateboards. I've got skateboards on my wall with the camera on it. People make keychains, there's tattoos.” Ray said. “It's still iconic to this day.’
Redefining the standard
Of course, there’s a problem looming over the horizon. A 16:9, High-Definition problem to be precise.
For all the VX’s strengths, the whole TV industry was undergoing its biggest change in standards, perhaps ever. Widescreen TVs had been steadily replacing 4:3 CRTs and the new “HD” resolutions were making SD content look horribly outdated. Not everyone was a fan of the new aspect ratio, either. “I couldn't get myself to fully go HD because it was a lot harder. You're talking about a 16:9 image. You don't want to cut the wheels off and you don't want to cut their head off when you're filming skateboarding.” Ray said.
Worse, in 1999 Sony did release a follow-up to the much-loved camera, the VX2000, but it was a flop with skateboarders. Not only was the new aspect ratio harder to work with, the VX2000 had an inferior mic and, crucially, wasn’t compatible with the Century Optics fisheye (or specifically the “Mk1” of that lens that everyone wanted). Skateboard filmers needed to find a new sweetheart.
“It's funny because the Panasonic HVX200 came out. That was really hated by a lot of skateboarders. But now, today, the HVX200 is the preferred camera of HD by skateboarders.” Ray said. In fact, filmers weren’t pleased about having to give up their precious VX1000 at all. “I was working on a Transworld film, and we talked about how there's this transition between VX1000 and going HD. And skateboarding was not happy about it.” Ray added. (Years later a petition was also started to campaign for Century Optics to re-issue the Mk1 lens, which it ultimately did - albeit a limited run of 300).
Around the same time, a little gaming franchise known as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skateboarder was taking the gaming world by storm. The popularity of the PlayStation 2, and its ability to play DVDs, was the perfect way for a whole new generation to discover skateboarding. (Not to mention one of the goals was to “unlock” various bonus skate videos.)
Tony Hawk might have been luring in new blood, but in 2007, the hotly anticipated (in skate circles) film, Fully Flared, was about to signal another big change in skate video history. Renowned skate Director, Ty Evans, was still using the VX1000 but this would be its last outing in one of his productions, Ray said. Evans championed the VX from the start with Modus Operandi, but Fully Flared (which Ray also worked on) represented the passing of the camera baton. The send off was marked with explosions and effects never seen before in a skate movie.
For the ‘gram
There was another important event in 2007: The launch of the first ever iPhone. Within a few years, almost everyone had an HD camera in their pocket. Likewise, a whole other product category would come along to change how we record things – the action cam. Between the smartphone and the GoPro, suddenly everyone was a skate videographer. Or as we call them today, a “creator.”
Unlike many sports, professional skateboarding is mostly financed through individual sponsorship deals. Some skateboarders do compete for prize money, but brand deals are typically the primary source of income. This means that being on video is directly related to your standing among potential sponsors. Thanks to slow-mo on the iPhone and the popularity of GoPros, being in a skate video wasn’t reserved for the stars any longer, in fact, you’d have a hard time being noticed by sponsors at this point if you weren’t making yourself seen in videos.
The rise of the internet was transformative for most industries, but skateboarding is nothing if not adaptive. YouTube was first, but before long Instagram became the spiritual home for all things skate video. Now you can attract fans directly, see your stats in real time and record your best tricks without having to lug about a large camcorder or hit the editing suite. And thus, the 30+ minute skate video was swiftly usurped by short, often single-take clips or even individual tricks.
No longer did you have to wait months or even years between doses of on-screen skateboarding, now it was on demand, bite sized and in never-ending supply. But with this convenience and supply came a dramatic shift in focus.
The social media age hasn’t just changed how the media is made and consumed, it’s changing who gets to be seen and sponsored. “What I'm seeing now is kids are inspired by other kids, kids that are their age. I'm not seeing the like, 35 year old pros inspiring. The 15 year old kid, his favorite skater is this guy that's not even pro, that I've never heard of,” Ray said.
Like with other industries that fell foul to the internet, the age of big budgets and splashy releases might be gone, but other opportunities have filled their place. Two of the most followed skaters on Instagram right now are Nyjah Huston and Leticia Bufoni. Both are accomplished, exciting skateboarders who have cultivated their own personal brand and style over recent years. Bufoni, in particular, has played a hugely important role in making skateboarding more accessible to young women.
“I think the rise of female skaters has absolutely been aided by the fact that people can access and see people like them skating,” Borden said. But with new technology comes new pressures, especially for creators. “They have to produce something every day, every week. And we you know, I mean, the pressure to do that must be extraordinary.” Borden added.
The shift to Instagram also echoes how vert skating in the late ‘80s lost favor to the new and exciting urban skating that emerged in the early ‘90s. Just how street took place in spots that were accessible to the viewer, Instagram places videos from your skater friends neatly in between clips (or “parts”) from the pros, blurring the lines between you and “them” even further.
For many years, what tricks were cool, who was cool at doing them and what that coolness looked like was heavily influenced by what was in the skate videos of the time. Today, that has reversed and now we get to see skaters from different backgrounds and influences taking their favored pastime to new places.
This movement from the media fringes to social media platforms could have killed the “classic” skate video off, and some might argue it mostly has. In reality, it’s given directors and videographers more license to address broader issues in skateboarding culture. Skategoat (2021) for example follows Venice-native Leandre Sanders through his teenage years where the only thing stopping him following his siblings into gang culture is skateboarding and his journey to turning pro nearly a decade later. There’s no VX1000 audio samples or crunchy color or fisheye shots, just a sincere look at someone’s life being saved by their passion for skateboarding. Likewise, Netflix’s Stay On Board, follows trans-man Leo Baker as he navigates developing a career skateboarding with his own very public journey of self-discovery.
Of course, the more traditional video does live on, it just no longer holds the monopoly on what skateboarding should look like. Love for the past obviously lives on, meaning you can, of course, find VX1000s modded to bring them up to modern standards but the industry has realized there’s more to be gained from current tech than that of the past.
More than almost any other marginal entertainment genre, the skate video has repeatedly proven it's happy to reinvent itself. “I think technology has been nothing but helpful. I think that we have to embrace it,” Ray said. “There's more people out there filming, there's more people out there being noticed. There's more people skateboarding and there's more people buying skateboards. I think it's a win for everybody.”
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2022 is a great year to be an RPG fan, particularly of Japanese games. The holiday season is usually crowded with new game releases, but this year Square Enix appears to be releasing games like it’s Christmas all year round. With so many out already, and so many more to come, are SE’s profligate ways good or bad for…
Despite denials until mid-2022, Stadia is winding down. The technically impressive game streaming service, which delivered current-gen games through smartphones, PCs, tablets and even Chromecast, is the latest victim of Google’s long list of service casualties. Google said the service "hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected." That’s entirely true. Google closed its internal game development studios early last year, and the company sadly failed to turn things around, even as rumors swirled that Stadia wasn’t long for this world. It’s a shame, as the service worked incredibly well, especially at the nascent beginnings of cloud gaming.
The good news is if you invested in the standalone games, Google "will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store." This was outlined by Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison in a blog here.
If you subscribed to Stadia Pro and built up a catalog of games, there are no reimbursements. You’ll be able to play your games until January, but it’ll serve as a reminder that streaming services, if they go, can leave you with nothing. Except maybe a Chromecast.
The first time both telescopes observed the same celestial target at the same time.
NASA made history this week when it slammed its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft into an asteroid nearly seven million miles away. Now, we can see the test from afar, thanks to the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. JWST and Hubble picked up different wavelengths of light (infrared and visible, respectively), and NASA says that observing data from multiple wavelengths will help scientists figure out if big chunks of material left Dimorphos' surface or if it was mostly fine dust. This is an important aspect of the test: The ultimate aim is to develop a system that can divert incoming asteroids away from Earth. Like 1998’s Armageddon, just with less Bruce Willis and Aerosmith.
Finally, after only 10 years, Sonos has launched the Sub Mini, and at $429, it’s relatively affordable. It’s perfectly sized for apartments and small rooms, and it’s a simple upgrade to your Sonos Beam or Ray. Finally, you have a viable, moveable way of beefing up your sound, which isn’t obscenely expensive. Check out our full review.
Meta unveiled its Make-a-Scene text-to-image generating AI in July, which, like Dall-E and Midjourney, can create fantastical depictions based on written prompts. On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Make-a-Scene's more animated contemporary, Make-a-Video. Functionally, Video works the same as Scene – combining natural language processing and generative neural networks to convert non-visual prompts into images – it's just pulling content into a different format.
The Swedish brand, best known for electronic music toys and tools, has released the decidedly more analogue PO-80 Record Factory. As the name implies, it can cut vinyl records as well as play them back. The orange and white design is cute, as is the simplicity. You just need to plug an audio device into the 3.5mm jack and start recording. You're limited to monophonic sound, and you won't be cutting more than a single with a B-side. The Record Factory is available for $149.
Dorsey asked Musk to join Twitter's board long before he tried to buy the company.
A tranche of Elon Musk’s private messages has been made public as part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a court filing Thursday, shed new light on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter’s leadership, discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey, and how Musk talks with CEO Parag Agrawal quickly soured. The messages include the moment Musk tells Agrawal he wants to acquire Twitter and take it private, rather than join the board, as well as Agrawal confronting Musk about an April 9th tweet questioning if "Twitter is dying."
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new rules to address the growing risk of "space junk" or abandoned satellites, rockets and other debris. The new "5-year-rule" will require low-Earth operators to deorbit their satellites within five years following the completion of missions. That's significantly less time than the previous guideline of 25 years.
"But 25 years is a long time," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "There is no reason to wait that long anymore, especially in low-earth orbit. The second space age is here. For it to continue to grow, we need to do more to clean up after ourselves so space innovation can continue to respond."
Rosenworcel noted that around 10,000 satellites weighing "thousands of metric tons" have been launched since 1957, with over half of those now defunct. The new rule "will mean more accountability and less risk of collisions that increase orbital debris and the likelihood of space communication failures."
However, some US representatives don't necessarily agree with the decision. Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology said in a letter that such decisions are often taken by NASA. By acting unilaterally, the FCC "could create uncertainly and potentially conflicting guidance" for the space industry. They asked the FCC to explain the decision to Congress, saying "this would ensure that procedural measures such as the Congressional Review Act are not necessary."
NASA has said there are "23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth." It noted that China's 2007 anti-satellite test "added more than 3,500 pieces of large, trackable debris and many more smaller debris to the debris problem."
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Meta is done rolling out support for non-fungible tokens or NFTs in the US. The company first started giving select creators in the country the option to display their tokens on Facebook and Instagram earlier this year. But now everyone in the US can display their collections on both platforms, whether they're NFTs they've created and are selling or something they've purchased from creators. Those who have both social media apps can also cross-post their digital collectibles from either app so they don't have to share them twice.
In addition, the ability to post NFT collections on Instagram is now live for users in 100 countries. The social network first announced that it was going to expand the feature's availability back in August to countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. This probably doesn't sound like good news for people who aren't fond of NFTs or are concerned about their environmental impact. But it looks like Meta is set on making them a part of its platforms in its journey towards creating the metaverse it envisions.
To be able to display their collection, a user must have a supported digital wallet, which includes Rainbow, Trust Wallet, Dapper, Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask, installed on their device. They then have to link their wallet to either or both apps by going to the "digital collectibles" tab in their app settings. Once they've linked their wallets, they'll be able to view their collectibles through the Facebook or Instagram app and share their NFTs to their feed.
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Square has publicly launched its Tap to Pay solution for the iPhone after running an early access program these past few months. That means sellers across the US can now use the company's Point of Sale app to receive payments from customers using just their iPhones anywhere they are. Sure, they need to have a newer iPhone — the oldest model that can run the feature is the iPhone 11 — but they don't need to buy additional hardware to access the feature.
Like with any other point-of-sale system, sellers only have to ring up the sale on Square's app and then have the customer pay using contactless credit and debit cards or Apple Pay and other digital wallets. Square is hoping that the solution could provide even small merchants an easy way to conduct in-person business. In its announcement, the company also addressed a potential security concern and said that Apple doesn't store card numbers on the sellers' device or on its servers.
Square first announced that it was going to support Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhones, which the tech giant was seen testing at its visitor center in May, back in June. It opened its early access program at the same time to give select sellers and retailers the chance to try it out. One of the participants said it allowed their business to better accommodate younger customers who preferred paying with their digital wallets and contactless cards.
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The case for heating homes with hydrogen rather than natural gas appears to be dead. In the UK, hydrogen has become an important part of the debate around decarbonizing home heating. 85 percent of all homes use natural gas to heat space and water, with the oil and gas industry pushing hydrogen as something that can leverage the existing gas pipelines. And lawmakers with close ties to the industry have claimed that hydrogen is a “silver bullet” to help the UK reach its climate targets.
According to a new study from the Regulatory Assistance Project, an NGO, such claims are a big pile of old nonsense. The project ran an extensive meta-analysis of research into hydrogen technology overall, finding that the promises of easy retrofit don’t add up. It said that it wasn’t clear if the existing infrastructure was actually suitable to take hydrogen without major adaptation. That was, after all, one of the major selling points of using hydrogen over switching to heat pumps and other low-carbon methods.
It’s something that Engadget already covered in its extensive report on the UK’s home heating situation back in 2021. The suitability of infrastructure is only one part of the problem, however, since many experts also asked where all of this hydrogen was coming from. Supplying the UK with enough hydrogen to heat 85 percent of its homes, without any work to reduce demand, would require around 10 million tons of hydrogen.
In that report, Tim Lord, who was previously responsible for the UK’s decarbonization strategy, said that to generate that much hydrogen cleanly, you would need around 75 gigawatts of offshore wind. The UK Government’s most recent figures say that the country’s total installed offshore wind capacity is just 10 gigawatts. It’s hard to see the economic case for installing seven-and-a-half times the total offshore wind capacity just to generate hydrogen.
The Regulatory Assistance Project’s report also found that trying to use hydrogen for space and hot water heating is a waste of a vital material. Green hydrogen could be put to better use in agricultural processes, like making fertilizer or in heavy industry. And we’ve already seen that green hydrogen has a part to play in decarbonizing industrial transport, like shipping, and in the railways where mass-electrification isn’t viable.
In its conclusions, the report adds that greater emphasis on hydrogen will only serve to delay the take up of better technologies, like heat pumps. There’s a political dimension to this, too, with The Guardian reporting that hydrogen lobbyists were out in force at the recent Labour Party conference, and are expected to attend next week’s Conservative Party conference as well.
Another study, from the MCS Charitable Foundation in partnership with energy analysts Cornwall Insight, found that hydrogen’s cost to consumers would be nightmarish. It found that switching from natural gas to hydrogen would likely see the cost increase by between 70 to 90 percent on average. It also warned that, unlike electricity, hydrogen would be subject to the same market volatility as other fossil fuels.
As before, this study raises the question about how much we can rely upon hydrogen given that many of its key needs are still untested. For instance, steam reformation of methane would still require carbon capture and storage at a vastly larger scale than present. (Not to mention the fact that methane is a far deadlier climate gas than carbon dioxide, so any leaks or accidents would be significantly more damaging for the planet.)
Fundamentally, on this and all of the other evidence, it would seem like legislators should avoid the expensive distraction of hydrogen in favor of full-scale electrification. That, as we’ve already covered, would provide a significant, and swift, reduction in emissions (and a timely boost to the economy).
from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/8RzS9fq
Amazon’s barrage of new hardware included something many of you might have been waiting for: a Kindle e-reader with stylus support. Yes, the Kindle Scribe comes with a magnetic stylus and a 10.2-inch, 300ppi display. You won’t need to charge or sync the Scribe's stylus, and you can use it for jotting notes, journaling and annotating any books you're reading. Starting next year, you’ll also be able to send Microsoft Word documents to Kindle Scribe. Kindle Scribe will start at $340 and arrives November 30th.
Yesterday, Amazon also revealed an expanded Fire TV Omni line. It’s added two premium 65- and 75-inch QLED models, along with a redesigned Fire TV Cube. There’s a new sleep tracking gadget, more Echo speaker updates and refreshed Ring cameras, too. There was… a lot.
Sony says its loyalty program will debut in the Americas on October 5th, while Australians and Europeans will have access on October 13th. The program is free, but you’ll get some benefits if you're a PlayStation Plus member. You’ll be able to earn rewards by completing activities and campaigns ranging from the very basic (playing any game once a month) to the challenging (being one of the first to score a game's platinum trophy in your region). Those loyalty points can be put toward your PlayStation Network wallet, digital collectibles and, hopefully, real-world products.
Polestar's first electric SUV will get its official unveiling on October 12th. The company teased several premium features you can expect to see, including air suspension, active dampers and torque vectoring, putting it up against other SUV EVs, like the Mercedes-Benz EQS and Tesla’s Model X. The company said it's shooting for a 372-mile range on the European WLTP cycle (considerably less in EPA terms). It'll also include a semi-autonomous driving system for highway driving.
OpenAI's well-known image generator is now available to everyone. If you want to create art, you just have to sign up and describe the pieces you'd like to produce. You’ll get a finite number of credits that will get topped up monthly. It's still not clear if AI-generated art is fair use or stolen. Getty Images recently banned the material out of concern it might violate copyright.
After many years of trying, Oura has finally managed to sand out the flat edge from its smart ring. The company is updating the third generation of its ring, originally released at the end of 2021, with a perfectly round body. The Oura (Gen3) Horizon keeps the same suite of advanced sensors as the existing model. The new Horizon is available to order right now for $349, while the existing ring is still $299.
It was due to UK sanctions against Ukraine's sham referendums.
Russia has removed all iOS apps from VK, the second largest tech company in Russia. That included its social media app, which is the fifth most popular in Russia, and others like Mail.ru and VK Music. The move was made in response to UK sanctions against the Russian government. Apple confirmed it removed the apps and shut down VK's developer accounts. "These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government," a spokesperson told The Verge.
The hacker reportedly responsible for the GTA 6 leak allegedly sold the GTA 5 source code before being arrested, it has been claimed. Although the City of London Police promptly confirmed the arrest of the 17-year-old hacker after private data from Rockstar Games was leaked, evidence suggests that they were able to sell GTA 5’s code via Telegram before they were detained.
GTA 5 source code reportedly sold by GTA 6 hacker
The GTA 6 leaker reportedly took to the messaging app Telegram in order to field buyers for GTA 5’s source code, with an admin for the private group in which it was sold sharing what is said to be a censored screenshot of the contents sold (Reddit, via GameRevolution). The admin claims that the hacker — going by the name ‘teapot’ — used the group to sell the GTA 5 source code the day after the GTA 6 leaks went live, and that they found a buyer. However, the buyer is now allegedly attempting to sell the code, too.
According to a screenshot of a message with the admin, the Telegram group “is the only group where the leaker talked and he used it to sell the gta 5 source code,’ adding that “the leaker made sure to sell it before getting arrested.”
The GTA 6 hack is believed to be the work of the hacking group Lapsus$, with Uber also being the target of a similar attack. Since March 2022, at least seven Lapsus$ members in the U.K. have been arrested due to a series of similar attacks against the likes of Samsung, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
Amazon has announced that it's spending nearly $1 billion boosting wages for hourly workers in the US amid criticism of its labor practices and a pitched union battle. The increase will take the starting wage for most front-line warehouse and transportation employees to over $19 per hour, while pay in fulfilment and elsewhere will rise to $16 an hour. The company's minimum wage will remain at $15 per hour.
Amazon is also expanding its "Anytime Pay" program to all employees, allowing them to access up to 70 percent of their eligible pay at any time with no fee, rather than the usual once or twice a month. It also added a new development program that allows employees to advance to engineering roles after 12-14 months of training.
Amazon is the second largest employer in the US after Walmart, with a total workforce of over 1.5 million. Most of those are hourly workers in warehouses or delivery, or retailer workers at Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. The average hourly pay in the US is $32.36, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and $28.10 in the "transportation and warehousing" category.
In April this year, 8,000-plus workers at a Staten Island facility voted to unionize, and Amazon lost its initial appeal for a re-vote. It's also facing a House committee probe into a deadly warehouse collapse that killed six workers during a tornado. Last June, the panel accused Amazon of "obstructing" the probe by refusing to hand over key documents related to an internal review.
from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/GKz2M17
Overwatch 2 might feature Fortnite-esque collaborations, according to comments from the game’s VP. As Fortnite has made waves with its heavy implementation of brand collaborations, featuring Marvel, DC, Dragon Ball Z, and more, it’s understandable why the Overwatch team might want to emulate that success.
Overwatch 2 could feature brand collaborations
Speaking to GameInformer, Overwatch’s VP Jon Spector was very enthusiastic about the “fun examples out there of games working with other brands or other games.” He went on to explain how, as a “big anime nerd himself,” he thought it was “super cool” to “see Naruto appear in Fortnite.”
Bringing the focus back to Overwatch 2, Spector explained that “as [the team looks] at the Overwatch 2 space, those are things that we’re interested in exploring.”
Spector was keen to emphasize that “if and when [they do implement crossovers], one of [the team’s] key values is to do it in a way that feels like a great fit for the Overwatch franchise.”
As Overwatch 2 is going down the free-to-play route, with players able to play and unlock heroes for free, Blizzard will no doubt be weighing up each method of monetization. Brand crossovers would no doubt help to sell more skins and other cosmetics!
One of Shark's higher-end robot vacuums is on sale at Amazon, and you may want to check it out if you're looking for a model with a clean base. The Shark IQ RV1001AE robot vacuum is currently listed for $300, and the deal is only available today. That's half off the model's original retail price of $600 and just a dollar more than its all-time low on the website. The RV1001AE vacuum features powerful suction that can clean both bare floors and carpets, as well as a self-cleaning brush roll that can remove pet and human hair on its own. No more balls of tangled hair getting stuck and preventing the vacuum from being able to clean efficiently.
The machine cleans the floor row by row, and its IQ navigation capability means it can map your whole home so that you can select specific rooms to clean. If it runs out of battery, it can even go back to its dock, recharge and pick up from where it left off. When you want to the robot to start cleaning, you can get it to move by controlling it with your voice through Alexa and Google Assistant. And yes, the vacuum is also connected to the company's app, which you can use to schedule cleanings for your whole house or for certain rooms at specific hours of the day. The robot empties its bin into the clean base once it's done, and that bagless base can hold up to 45 days' worth of dirt.
In case you'd rather get a model you can manually use — maybe your pet is deathly afraid of robot vacuums or maybe you personally want to make sure no corner gets missed — Shark has another two models on sale at Amazon. The Shark IZ363HT has a self-cleaning brush roll, as well, and is listed for $230 at 34 percent off. Meanwhile, the Shark IZ483H is currently on sale for $300, or $200 off its regular price. It has a self-cleaning brush roll, a removable hand vacuum and a 120-minute battery life on a single charge.
Honestly, you need to grow up. It’s a worm! The latest Pokémon to be revealed for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a wiggly worm called Wiglett, and clearly related to that base set favorite, Diglett.
Russia has removed all iOS apps from VK, the second largest tech company in Russia, The Verge has reported. That includes not just the VK social media app that's the fifth most popular in Russia, but others like Mail.ru and VK Music. The move was made in response to UK sanctions against the Russian government.
VK confirmed that "some VK applications are blocked by Apple, so they are not available for download and update in the App Store," according to a (Google translated) press release. "Their core functionality will be familiar and stable... [but] there may be difficulties with notifications and payments. VK will continue to develop and support applications for iOS."
These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government. In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location.
Apple confirmed that it removed the apps and shut down VK's developer accounts. "These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government," a spokesperson told The Verge. "In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location. Users who have already downloaded these apps may continue to use them."
Earlier this week, the UK government imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs over the sham referendums held in Ukraine. Included in the list are executives from Gazprombank, a Russian bank with ties to VK. "Today’s sanctions will target those behind these sham votes, as well as the individuals that continue to prop up the Russian regime’s war of aggression," said UK foreign secretary James Cleverly in a statement.
Russia's Ministry of Digital Affairs told state media site RT that it's investigating the reasons for the removal. The apps are still available on Google Play — Engadget has reached out to Google to see if it plans to follow Apple's lead.
Earlier this year, Apple halted sales of all its products in Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion, while also limiting Apple Pay and pulling apps from outlets like RT and Sputnik. Last year, a Russian law went into effect that required Samsung, Apple and other manufacturers to pre-install Russian apps like VK and Yandex on devices sold there.
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Polestar's first electric SUV will get its official unveiling on October 12th a range target of 372 miles and an optional Performance Pack, the Swedish company announced. The Polestar 3 will launch with premium features like an air suspension, active dampers and torque vectoring, putting it up against other SUV EVs like the Mercedes-Benz EQS, Rivian R1S and Tesla Model X. Like those models, it'll be manufactured in the US at Volvo's factory in Charleston, South Carolina.
The company, co-owned by Volvo and Chinese parent Geely, revealed a fair bit of information about the Polestar 3. That includes a new glimpse from the back showing similar (but upside down) taillights to the Polestar 2. Polestar previously showed off the design from the side in June (below).
Polestar
The Polestar 3 will come with a rear-biased dual-motor powertrain similar to the one on the Polestar 2, with electric torque vectoring via a dual clutch system on the rear motor. The ride will be controlled by an adaptive dual-chamber air suspension and active dampers as standard, letting drivers switch between comfort and firm suspension dynamics. The dampers will adjust to suit road conditions "once every two milliseconds," Polestar said.
The optional Performance Pack will deliver 510 horsepower and 671 pound-feet of torque (compared to 670 horsepower for the Model X). It also includes Polestar Engineered chassis tuning for the active dampers and air suspension, along with interior details like gold seat belts.
Previously, the company has said that it's shooting for a 372-mile range on the European WLTP cycle (so considerably less in EPA terms). It'll also include a semi-autonomous driving system for highway driving, enabled by by NVIDIA tech and a lidar sensor — Volvo is likely to use similar tech on its next-gen EX90 SUV set to launch on November 9th. Rumors have pegged the Polestar 3's price at somewhere between $75,000 and $111,000 at launch.
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Almost exactly a year after Nreal unveiled its Air augmented reality glasses, the company is bringing the device to the US. Nreal Air, which the company is pitching as a device for streaming shows and playing games on, is available from Amazon starting today for $379. As with Nreal's $599 Light glasses, the Air will need to be tethered to a phone or other device. That could be a little easier if you snap up the new $59 Nreal Adaptor, an HDMI-to-Lightning dongle for iPhone.
In line with that peripheral, Nreal has upgraded the Air's iOS and Mac compatibility. At the outset, the Air will offer screen mirroring from iOS — Nreal's Nebula operating system doesn't run on iPhones yet. Still, you'll be able to watch streaming video services on a virtual 130-inch display.
That said, a version of Nebula will be available for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops, Nreal said. When you plug the Air into a Mac, a user interface called AR Desktop will open up. You'll be able to view multiple virtual displays at the same time, which could make the Air useful if you need more screen real estate while travelling.
Nreal
The company has also redesigned Nebula. In particular, the AR Space experience, which Nreal users see when they open Nebula, now has a borderless curved wall design and animated menu icons. Users will receive recommendations for content through a new widget, which offers the option of previewing apps without having to open them. The Spatial Browser offers a horizontal mode (for multi-window web browsing) and a vertical mode for sites that demand a lot of scrolling.
In addition, Nreal is adding more casual games and a pair of new apps. The first of those is called Teleport, which will allow you to explore 3D models of real-world objects that have been scanned with phones. You'll be able to leave photos for other users, as well as voice and text messages. Teleport will be available later this year. Meanwhile, Mirror Mode enables users to play PC and console games on a 200-inch virtual screen. Cloud gaming services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming are supported too.
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Meta has taken down a network of fake accounts from China that targeted the United States with memes and posts about “hot button” political issues ahead of the midterm elections.The company said the fake accounts were discovered before they amassed a large following or attracted meaningful engagement, but that the operation was significant due to its timing and because of the topics the accounts posted about.
The network consisted of 81 Facebook accounts, eight Facebook Pages, two Instagram accounts and a single Facebook Group. Just 20 accounts followed at least one of the Pages and the group had about 250 members, according to Meta.
The fake accounts posted in four different “clusters” of activity, Meta said, beginning with Chinese-language content “about geopolitical issues, criticizing the US.” The next cluster graduated to memes and posts in English, while subsequent clusters created Facebook Pages and hashtags that also circulated on Twitter. In addition to the US, some clusters also targeted posts to people in the Czech Republic.
During a call with reporters, Meta’s Global Threat Intelligence Lead Ben Nimmo said the people behind the accounts “made a number of mistakes” that allowed Meta to catch them more easily, such as only posting during working hours in China. At the same time, Nimmo said the network represented a “new direction for Chinese influence operations” because the accounts posed as both liberals and conservatives, advocating for both sides on issues like gun control and abortion rights.
“It's like they were using these hot button issues to try and find an entry point into American discourse,” Nimmo said. “It is an important new direction to be aware of.” The accounts also shared memes about President Joe Biden, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Utah Senator Mitt Romney and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to Meta.
Meta also shared details about a much larger network of fake accounts from Russia, which it described as the “most complex Russian-origin operation that we’ve disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.” The company identified more than 1,600 Facebook accounts and 700 Facebook Pages associated with the effort, which drew more than 5,000 followers.
The network used the accounts to boost a series of fake websites that impersonated legitimate news outlets and European organizations. They targeted people in Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and posted in several languages.
“They would post original articles that criticized Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, praised Russia and argued that Western sanctions on Russia would backfire,” Meta writes in its report. “They would then promote these articles and also original memes and YouTube videos across many internet services, including Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, petitions websites Change[.]org and Avaaz[.]com, and even LiveJournal.”
Meta notes that “on a few occasions” the posts from these fake accounts were “amplified by Russian embassies in Europe and Asia” though it didn’t find direct links between the embassy accounts and the network. For both the Russia and China-based networks, Meta said it was unable to attribute the fake accounts to specific individuals or groups within the countries.
The takedowns come as Meta and itspeers are ramping up security and anti-misinformation efforts to prepare for the midterm elections in the fall. For Meta, that means largely using the same strategy it employed in the 2020 presidential election: a combination of highlighting authoritative information and resources, while relying on labels and third-party fact checkers to tamp down false and unverified info.
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Skullcandy hasn't offered gaming headsets for the better part of a decade, but it's willing to give them another go — and it's eager to catch up in some respects. The brand has introduced revamped PLYR, SLYR and SLYR Pro headsets that promise budget-friendly game audio on console, mobile and PC with a few perks. The flagship PLYR (shown above) includes Bluetooth 5.2 wireless audio, while it and the wired SLYR Pro offer Tile tracking to help you find your headset (or the device it's connected to).
Both the PLYR and SLYR Pro (at middle) also use a hearing test to create a personalized sound profile, and offer background audio reduction whether you use the boom or integrated microphones. They can plug in through 3.5mm and USB, and an optional wireless transmitter for the PLYR promises low lag (down to 20ms) for PC- and PlayStation-based gamers. You can expect up to 24 hours of battery life in either model when you aren't connected through USB. The base SLYR is a no-frills wired design that drops the audio processing features and USB support.
Skullcandy
As with the old headsets, Skullcandy is counting on price as the main draw. The SLYR starts the line at $60, while the SLYR Pro and PLYR are relatively affordable at $100 and $130 respectively. The caveat, as you might guess, is that the gaming headset business hasn't been standing still. The Astro A10 offers a more flexible (and arguably more visually appealing) design for the same $60 as the SLYR, while brands like Razer and SteelSeries offer both price-competitive headsets and premium models with extras like spatial audio and RGB lighting. Your choice might come down to sale pricing and personal preferences.
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Developer People Can Fly has just received another blow of bad news. After learning earlier this year that the studio didn’t see a penny of profit from Outriders during 2021, it’s now been revealed that Rockstar and 2K Games parent company Take-Two has made clear its intent to abandon publishing PCF’s follow-up game,…
Naughty Dog has shared a fresh batch of The Last of Us meme GIFs showing Joel, Ellie, and the series’ other characters reenacting some of the internet’s best-loved memes.
Here are all the GIFs shared by Naughty Dog, along with the memes they’re replicating (thanks, Reddit!).
Above is a reference to the Jeremiah Johnson ‘nod of approval’ meme, taking from the 1972 film of the same name. The original GIF sees Robert Redford nodding while looking at the camera, and is used as a reaction meme.
This GIF is, of course, a reference to The Shining’s infamous “Here’s Johnny” scene, in which Jack Nicholson’s character terrifyingly bursts through a door with an axe.
The above GIF features a bit of a crossover between The Last of Us game series and the upcoming HBO show. In the GIF, TLoU’s Bill is shown reenacting a famous clip featuring Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson. In the HBO show, Bill will be played by Swanson’s actor, Nick Offerman.
This one’s another clever film reference, with Ellie taking the place of Ripley and a Clicker assuming the role of a Xenomorph in a scene lifted straight from Alien 3. This clip is typically used as a reaction meme to signify someone being creepy.
A pretty recent reaction meme, this GIF is lifted from Euphoria.
This one’s a deep cut. The dramatic chipmunk is an old-school meme, but did you know that the original isn’t a chipmunk at all, and is actually prairie dog? You learn something new every day.
A new FromSoftware job listing has hinted at the Armored Core 6, with the Elden Ring developer looking for a Character Designer to help work on designs for an as-yet-unannounced game involving mechs.
Armored Core 6 job listing asks for mecha designs
The new listing was posted on FromSoftware’s careers page (via Tech4Gamers), revealing details regarding the role that certainly point to the dev working on a new game in the sci-fi series:
You will be in charge of a wide range of designs related to characters and mecha.
Rather than simply drawing pictures and illustrations, my job is to dig deep into the concept and design the information to express it in pictures.
The last entry in the mainline Armored Core series was released all the way back in 2012, and since then FromSoftware has become one of the most popular developers in gaming, with Elden Ring being their most critically acclaimed and commercially successful release to date. It has been rumored that the next Armored Core will closely follow the Souls formula and that it will feature an “overwhelmingly scaled map” that certainly sounds like it borrows from Elden Ring.
Apple's MacBook air is the thin and light notebook to own if you're looking for the best mix of small size and performance, but the more desirable 512GB version is fairly expensive at $1,499. Fortunately, you can now grab that model Amazon for just $1,349 for a significant savings of $150 (10 percent) — the lowest price we've seen to date. And if you don't need that much space, the 256GB model is also on sale
With a 96 score on our Engadget review, the MacBook Air M2 is one of the best laptops we've ever test. For the first time since launch, Apple changed the design from a wedge to a uniformly thin form, making it not only thinner overall but more balanced. In fact, at 11.3 millimeters and 2.7 pounds, it weighs less than an iPad Pro with its smart keyboard.
The 2,560 x 1,664 Liquid Retina screen is also slightly larger at 13.6 inches, thanks to the bezels and the webcam tucked into the screen notch up top. You also get improved speakers, a Magsafe power adapter and a pair of USB-C ports with support for charging, external monitors and data transfers up to 40Gbps. The M2 processor significantly boosts performance over the Air M1, offering performance nearly comparable to the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2. It starts rapidly, loads apps quickly and offers snappy performance across the board.
The 512GB version is more desirable not only because of the extra space, but the faster SSD performance than the base model — and the $1,349 price tag is the lowest we've seen yet. If that's still not in your budget, the 256GB model is on sale at $1,099 for a savings of $100 (8 percent) — also an all-time low price.
After weeks of rumors, Amazon has officially announced that it plans to hold a second sales event this fall exclusively for Prime members. The second Prime Day of the year, dubbed "Prime Early Access Sale," will be held on October 11th and 12th in the US, UK, Canada and 12 other countries, following the same two-day format as the original event.
Amazon Prime Day has historically been an annual event in which Prime members have access to thousands of sales from the online retailer. It's been not only a way for Amazon to increase sales during the summer months, but also helps the company to drum up more subscribers for Prime. This year's Prime Day on July 12th and 13th brought a plethora of discounts on things like household essentials, clothing, electronics and more, and most of them were reserved for Prime members. However, like years past, there were select sales available to anyone on Prime Day as well.
Since Amazon has not had a second Prime Day in one year before, it's hard to anticipate what this new sales event will bring. Since it'll be held in the middle of October, we expect it to unofficially mark the start of the holiday shopping season for Amazon. It's also possible that the discounts available to Prime members only during this sales event may not come back around for everyone until Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That may encourage some shoppers to stock up on holiday gifts as early as they can snag them on sale.
Engadget will cover all of the best tech deals we can find during this second sales event, held in 15 countries including the US, Canada, the UK, much of Europe, and Turkey. If you plan on taking advantage of those sales, be sure to check Engadget for more information leading up to the event, and follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and sign up for our Engadget Deals newsletter so you never miss the latest news.
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Next year’s iPhone could introduce a change to Apple’s naming convention. According to Bloombergreporter Mark Gurman, the company could call its largest and most expensive device in 2023 the iPhone 15 Ultra instead of the iPhone 15 Pro Max as you would expect given its recent track record. The shift would reportedly coincide with the most significant redesign of the iPhone since Apple released the iPhone 12 in 2019. Gurman expects the iPhone 15 to feature USB-C, among other “bigger changes.”
Apple’s smartphone line has seen a couple of branding tweaks over the years. In the early days of the iPhone, when the company released a substantial update every two years, iterative models carried an “S” designation. Since 2019 and the diversification of the line to include separate mainstream and premium variants, the company has employed “Pro” and “Pro Max” designations to market its most advanced phones. Moreover, earlier this year saw the return of the Plus branding, which Apple had not used since 2017. Dropping Pro Max in favor of Ultra would make a lot of sense since the Apple Watch line now includes an Ultra model.
The iPhone 15 rumor mill has already produced a few interesting predictions. Gurman previously reported that Apple was testing USB-C iPhones ahead of the European Union implementing a law requiring all new smartphones made after 2024 to feature the port. More recently, display analyst Ross Young said the entire iPhone 15 line would feature the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island display cutout.
Looking to the more immediate future, Gurman also wrote today that Apple might not hold another event this fall. He says the company plans to announce new Mac mini, MacBook Pro and iPad Pro models before the end of the year. However, as those will be primarily iterative updates to existing devices, Gurman suggests Apple is “more likely” to share the existence of those products with the world through a series of press releases.
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NieR: Automata’s anime spinoff will arrive early next year. The adaptation, now titled NieR: Automata Version 1.1a, will debut in January 2023. NieR creator Yoko Taro shared the release window during Aniplex Online Fest over the weekend (via Gizmodo), revealing at the same time that the story of the anime would differ from its source material. The two will at least share the same premise. NieR: Automata opens with a ruined Earth and a proxy war involving human-made androids. "Nier: Automata was a story we created to be a game, so copying it as-is wouldn’t make an interesting story for an anime," Taro said during the panel.
A-1 Pictures, best known for its work on series like Erased, From the New World and Your Lie in April, is producing the project, with Ryouji Masuyama co-writing the script alongside Taro. Masuyama’s previous credits include Gurren Lagann and Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. "I'm the one going around and breaking things for [A-1 Pictures], so if anyone is dissatisfied [with the anime's story], it's likely to be my fault," Taro warned fans. Given that NieR: Automata features multiple endings, it’s probably for the best the anime won’t hew too closely to the game.
The panel didn’t mention details about distribution outside of Japan. However, since Sony owns both Aniplex and Crunchyroll, there’s a good chance simulcast rights will go to the streaming service. It will be interesting to see if the anime brings renewed interest to NieR: Automata, much like the recent release of Edgerunners on Netflix did for Cyberpunk 2077. Commercially, Automata performed better than publisher Square Enix expected, but the company has yet to announce a proper sequel – though we did get a mobile spinoff and remaster of the original NieR last year.
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