Destiny 2: Lightfall is just a few weeks away and Bungie finally pulled back the curtain on what players can expect from the expansion’s growing Exotic arsenal. A new trailer revealed three pieces of armor, three weapons, and a new catalyst for the Deluxe Edition exclusive, Quicksilver Storm.
The Tomb Raider franchise has been sold to Amazon for a reported $600 million, although it is assumed this figure includes a combination of rights to the IP and commitments to the previously announced TV series and future movies. While Embracer Group no longer own the IP, Amazon still wishes to create video games in the future too.
Amazon apparently wants to turn Tomb Raider into a connected world that includes a new feature film, the TV series from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and at least one game. Marvel has already managed to accomplish this, and Amazon is looking toward that franchise for its inspiration according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The rights to Tomb Raider were sold to Amazon for a reported $600 million “overall package”, claims Fellowship of Fans. While the meaning of “overall package” is unclear, it is unlikely to just include the rights to the IP. Multiple reports state these were sold for a lower figure than the $250 million Amazon spent on the Lord of the Rings franchise. Instead, the package is believed to include commitments to future media too and they have already vowed to publish Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming game. Amazon is yet to comment on the reports.
The post Tomb Raider Reportedly Sold to Amazon for $600 Million appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Samsung has revealed a sharp decline in profit for 2022, mainly due to the weak demand for its chips and smartphones, which are the company's main moneymakers. The Korean tech giant has posted KRW 302.23 trillion (US$245.4 billion) in annual revenue, which is a new record high for the company, in its latest earnings report. But it has also reported an operating profit of KRW 43.38 trillion (US$35 billion) for all of 2022, down KRW 8.5 trillion (US$6.9 billion) from the year before.
"The business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown," the company explained. While the tech giant's Foundry business posted an increase in profit due to customer and application diversification, its semiconductor business performed poorly as a whole. There was weak demand for its chips overall, as customers adjust and reduce their inventory in the face of economic uncertainties. Its chips' prices also dropped, mostly likely due to a surplus in unsold inventory, contributing to the business' decline in earnings for the year.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, Samsung's semiconductor business earned KRW 20.07 trillion (US$16.3 billion) in consolidated revenue but only KRW 0.27 trillion (US$219 million) in operating profit. For comparison, it posted a consolidated revenue of KRW 26.01 trillion (US$21.6 billion in early 2022's conversion rates) and an operating profit of KRW 8.84 trillion (US$7.35 billion) for Q4 2021. Samsung is bracing for this downward trend to persist throughout the next few months, though it expects demand for its semiconductors to pick up in the second half of the year.
Similarly, the demand for smartphones remained weak in the fourth quarter of 2022. Sales for Samsung's more affordable phones went down, and while flagship sales held up to market expectations, they're still lower than previous quarters'. The company expects demand for mass market smartphones to weaken even further in 2023 "due to persistent macroeconomic conditions." But since it also expects demand for premium devices to stay solid, it vows to strengthen "the competitiveness of its premium flagship products." To note, Samsung will hold its first Unpacked event of 2023 on February 1st where it will most likely unveil its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S23.
Sony’s PlayStation VR2 headsets don’t release for several more weeks, but the console manufacturer is already reportedly cutting inventory by half after receiving fewer preorders than expected. Some analysts are still skeptical the device will ever be more than an “expensive accessory for the PS5.”
A new month means new Essential games, with subscribers readying themselves to download the PS Plus February 2023 line-up of games. With leaks showing that Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Evil Dead: The Game, OlliOlli World, and Mafia: Definitive Edition will soon be featured, PS5 and PS4 owners are no doubt wondering when exactly they can claim the freebies. Here’s when the PS Plus February 2023 free games come out in ET and PT (US), GMT (UK), and CET (EU) time zones.
You can download the February 2023 PS Plus games on Tuesday, February 7 at the following times:
When looking to add the games to their libraries, subscribers will first want to make sure that the product listing doesn’t have a price and instead says “Free.” Sometimes it can take an extra bit of time before the game is made properly free, so it’s best to be certain before going through the checkout process.
The PS Plus February 2023 line-up will be available until March 6, so get them downloaded before time runs out.
As for last month’s PS Plus games, they’re currently available to download until January 2.
Wondering which games are leaving PS Plus Extra and Premium in February 2023? Here’s a rundown of the games that subscribers will lose access to.
The post PS Plus: Here’s When the February 2023 New Games Come Out appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Imagine that you’re forced into the emotionally turbulent situation of murdering your own evil parent. Right as you work up the nerve and give a heartfelt speech about it, some random ally kills them in front of your eyes. I should feel bad, but I haven’t stopped laughing. For a few unfortunate Fire Emblem Engage’s…
While The Last Of Us TV show has remained very faithful to the PlayStation, it’s occasionally deviated in significant ways. Episode three, which aired last night, showcased the biggest change from the source material yet, and co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have tried their best to explain why in a new…
There are five ‘Keys’ that the Disney theme parks teach their Cast Members. The Keys inform Guest relations, and they are ordered hierarchically, from most to least important:
The story of Bill and Frank in The Last of Us (and its remaster and remake) is a tragic one. Naughty Dog’s series is full of tragedy, but because it features a same-sex relationship to portray the danger of forming connection in the post-apocalypse, to some, it felt like another in a long line of stories about how…
Xbox head Phil Spencer says Microsoft remains committed to the Halo franchise and developer 343 Industries. In an interview following this week’s Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct showcase, Spencer told IGN “the heart and soul of Halo is with 343 and the team’s that there, and I have the utmost confidence in the team that's there and leading and the plan that they have going forward.”
Spencer’s comments come after 343 was reportedly “hit hard” by Microsoft’s recently announced company-wide layoffs. The number of employees Microsoft let go at the studio is unknown, but according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Halo Infinite’s campaign team saw significant cuts. The news prompted 343 to publish a brief statement on the layoffs last weekend. “Halo and Master Chief are here to stay,” studio head Pierre Hintze said. “343 Industries will continue to developer Halo now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great.”
According to Spencer, the layoffs were an effort by Microsoft to position 343 for the future. “What we're doing now is we want to make sure that leadership team is set up with the flexibility to build the plan that they need to go build,” he said. “Halo will remain critically important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is critically important to the success of Halo.”
Frustratingly, Spencer wouldn’t discuss the franchise's future beyond the broad strokes he offered. He declined to comment on whether Microsoft still has a 10-year support plan in place for Halo Infinite. “I'm going to let 343 talk about the plans that they have right now,” Spencer said when asked about the subject. However, he did offer reassurances for Halo fans left worrying about what comes next for Master Chief. “I expect that we'll be continuing to support and grow Halo for as long as the Xbox is a platform for people to play.” The rest of the interview is well worth reading if you're an Xbox fan. The piece covers a lot of ground, including the console’s lackluster 2022.
It looks the release date for the long-rumored Horizon multiplayer game isn’t too far off, and if a recent leak is any indication, it’ll feature cartoon aesthetics akin to Fortnite.
Horizon standalone multiplayer has been rumored for a number of years but Guerrilla Games has never officially announced it. However, official job advertisements and a number of leaks have confirmed its existence. The latest release date speculation and cartoon-inspired graphics are also courtesy of a Reddit leak. We’re not going to host the content here for obvious reasons, especially since Sony’s busy scrubbing the leaked footage and screenshots, but you can find copies on Reddit and ResetEra.
The cartoon aesthetics need no explanation if you’ve seen the footage and screenshots. As far as the release is concerned, fans are speculating that it’ll launch soon because the footage is apparently from a “very early” dev build dating back to 2020. Considering the state of the footage, it looks like Horizon multiplayer game was well into development between 2-3 years ago.
Sony has promised it’ll release a number of live service projects within the next couple of years so it all checks out. We’ll update our readers when we have more information.
The post Horizon Multiplayer Game Possibly Releasing Soon, May Feature Cartoon Aesthetics appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
There was a time in the last century when we, quite foolishly, believed incineration to be a superior means of waste disposal than landfills. And, for decades, many of America's most disadvantaged have been paying for those decisions with with their lifespans. South Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood, for example, is home to two medical waste incinerators and an open-air coal mine. It's ranked in the 95th percentile for hazardous waste and boasts among the highest rates of asthma and lung disease in the entire country.
The city's largest trash incinerator is the Wheelabrator–BRESCO, which burns through 2,250 tons of garbage a day. It has been in operation since the 1970s, belching out everything from mercury and lead to hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and chromium into the six surrounding working-class neighborhoods and the people who live there. In 2011, students from Benjamin Franklin High School began to push back against the construction of a new incinerator, setting off a decade-long struggle that pitted high school and college students against the power of City Hall.
In Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore, Dr. Nicole Fabricant, Professor of Anthropology at Towson University in Maryland, chronicles the students' participatory action research between 2011 and 2021, organizing and mobilizing their communities to fight back against a century of environmental injustice, racism and violence in one of the nation's most polluted cities. In the excerpt below, Fabricant discusses the use of art — specifically that of crankies — in movement building.
Excerpted from Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore by Nicole Fabricant, published by University of California Press. Copyright 2022.
As the students developed independent investigations, they discovered what had happened in the campaigns against toxins that preceded their own struggle against the incinerator. They learned that the Fairfield neighborhood, before being relocated to its current site, had been situated near to where Energy Answers was planning to build their trash-to-energy incinerator. At the time of the students’ investigations, this area was an abandoned industrial site surrounded by heavy diesel truck traffic, polluting chemical and fertilizer industries, and abandoned brownfield sites.
Students read that the City had built basic infrastructure in Wagner’s Point, the all-white (though poor and white ethnic, to be clear) community on the peninsula in the 1950s, nearly thirty years before doing so in Fairfield, which was located alongside Wagner’s Point but all (or almost all) Black. As Destiny reiterated to me in the Fall of 2019:
Wagner’s Point was predominantly white and Fairfield predominantly Black, but both communities were company towns, living in poverty, working in dangerous hazardous conditions, and forced to live in a toxic environment.... On the surface, this history can be read as a story of two communities, different in culture and race, facing the issue together. But this ignores the issue of racism that divided the two communities. For instance, Fairfield did not get access to plumbing... until well into the 1970s. This is an example of structural racism. It is also a story not told by our history books.
The students talked in small groups about systemic and structural racism and unfair housing policies. They investigated the evacuation of Fairfield Housing. They learned that former residents were forcibly relocated to public housing and were offered $22,500 for renters and up too $5,250 per household. They also received moving costs of up to $1,500 per household. When 14 households remained in Fairfield a decade later, then-Mayor Kurt Schmoke stated that he would prefer to move all residents out of Fairfield, but the city did not have any money for relocation. This history provoked Free Your Voice youth to think beyond their community to how structural racism shaped citywide decisions and policies.
Despite attempts to integrate school systems in the 1950s and the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s intended, specifically, to mitigate racism in housing policies, the provision of public education and the regulation of housing practices remained uneven in the 1970s (and into the present). Students learned that in 1979 a CSX railroad car carrying nine thousand gallons of highly concentrated sulfuric acid overturned and the Fairfield Homes public housing complex was temporarily evacuated. That same year, they read, an explosion at the British Petroleum oil tank, located on Fairfield Peninsula, set off a seven-alarm fire. All of this led the students to deeper inquiry.
Figuring out the ways in which structural racism shaped contemporary ideas about people, bodies, and space is something that Destiny often referred to when speaking publicly. Destiny explained that studying “history allowed us to see our community in a way that gave us the ability to build power or collective strength. So, how do you confront this history, this marketplace?” Building power within the school was about “re-education,” she said, but it was also about rebuilding social relationships across the community and helping residents to understand the structural conditions and histories sustaining inequities that others (especially white others) tried to explain away using racist stereotypes and tropes (e.g., Black youth as “thugs”; “they’re poor because they’re lazy”). These tropes subtly and not so subtly suggested racial and cultural inferiority.
As a group, the students worked to establish a presence in the community and to create spontaneous spaces for dialogue and discussion. They attended a Fairfield reunion in Curtis Bay Park during the summer of 2013, where approximately 150 former Fairfield Homes residents gathered to celebrate their history, reminisce, and have a cookout together. Gathered on the grass next to the Curtis Bay Recreation Center, former residents reminisced about what life was like in the projects. At one point, an elder participant shared with Destiny, “Fairfield was the Cadillac of housing projects.... We were all a family, we took care of one another.” The Free Your Voice students engaged with living history as they listened and learned.
For many of the students, the combined processes of reading texts and listening to elder residents’ stories moved them from numbness to awareness. Being able to discuss what they learned in sophisticated conversations with their peers and the experts they sought out helped to build their confidence as activists and adult interlocutors.
While analysis and study were key to building change campaigns, the students also recognized that building a sociopolitical movement of economically disadvantaged people required more than mobilizing bodies. To be effective, they were going to have to move hearts and minds.
In 2014, Free Your Voice students decided to strengthen the emotional and relationship building aspects of their campaign by adopting art forms, including performance and storytelling, into their communication efforts. Destiny began a speech she delivered at The Worker Justice Center human rights dinner in 2015 by quoting W.E.B. Dubois: “‘Art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows beauty, that has music in its being and the color of sunsets in its handkerchiefs, that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too’” (Watford 2015). Art — in the form of a vintage performance genre known as “the crankie” and rap songs — became a tool the students utilized to tell their stories to much broader publics and to boost emotional connections with their allies. Performances particularly allowed youth to be creative and inventive. Their productions were often malleable. Sometimes, Free Your Voice youth would rewrite a script based on audience feedback. As a result, their performances were often improvisational, and they invited residents to be a part of the storytelling. This allowed the student-performers to develop strong narrative structures and especially realistic characters.
Not only did students do art, but they also invited artists, including performers, to join the Dream Team to broaden both the appeal and impact of the Stop the Incinerator campaign. One artist at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Janette Simpson, spoke to me at length about the genesis of her commitment to Free Your Voice’s organizing, and how that commitment deepened and extended her work with other campaigns originating with The Worker Justice Center. Free Your Voice students approached Simpson, with their teacher Daniel Murphy acting as their mediator, about incorporating her work in theater into their campaign.12 They sent her a recent report on the environmental history of the peninsula and asked that she read it. That report became the hook that convinced Simpson to collaborate:
I had been thinking about how art and artists can serve social movements, and how artists also have agency in the making of their artwork. Or maybe thinking about autonomy. Free Your Voice youth suggested I read the Diamond report, which was written by a team of researchers from the University of Maryland Law School. I remember being like, Wow! What a story! All these visuals came to my mind... like the guano factories, the ships, these agricultural communities, this Black community versus the white community... the relationship to the water and the relationship to the city. So I decided I would try to illustrate a version of that report in a way. Like, what did people look like in 1800s, and what were they wearing? ... Then I realized that this is not my history, who am I to tell someone else’s story? I need to think more symbolically, and then it came to me to write this illustrative history as a fable or an allegory.
Which is what she did, alongside Terrel Jones (whose childhood lived experiences I detailed in chapter 2). Terrel and Simpson created a crankie, an old storytelling art form popular in the nineteenth century that includes a long, illustrated scroll wound onto two spools. The spools are loaded into a box that has a viewing screen and the scroll is then hand-cranked, hence the name “crankie.” While the story is told, a tune is played or a song is sung. Terrel and Simpson created a show for the anti-incinerator campaign that was performed throughout the city for audiences of all ages and walks of life. The Holey Land, as their show was titled, was an allegory about the powerful connection between people and the place they call home. In this tale, the Peninsula People and the magic in their land are threatened when a stranger with a tall hat and a shovel shows up with big ideas for “improving” their community. As storybook images scroll past the viewing screen, the vibrant and colorful pictures of a peninsula rich in natural resources, including orange and pink fish, slowly get usurped by those of the man with the shovel building his factories, and the Peninsula People are left to ponder the fate of their land. The story ends with a surprising twist, and a hopeful message about a community’s ability to determine their own future.
Ford has issued a recall for 462,000 vehicles worldwide over the possibility that their rearview cameras could suffer from faulty video output. According to the Associated Press and Reuters, the recall covers some 2020 to 2023 model Ford Explorers and Lincoln Aviators, as well as a bunch of 2020 to 2022 model Lincoln Corsairs. The affected vehicles come with 360-degree cameras that display live view footage on the in-car entertainment touchscreen console. The majority of the affected cars — over 382,000 — are in the US.
According to a document (PDF) from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the agency contacted Ford in late 2021 about allegations that the live view camera was showing a blue image instead of what was happening outside. That came after an earlier recall in 2021 for the same problem. Ford worked with suppliers to analyze those reports, but it wasn't until December 2022 that the automaker was able to replicate the issue in the laboratory and in-vehicle, which is most likely why Ford has only issued a recall now.
Apparently, 2,115 warranty reports had been submitted about this issue as of November 30th, 2022. Also, the automaker is aware of 17 minor accidents that allegedly occurred due to the vehicles' rear camera blue screen problem, but it hasn't heard of any injuries. Reuters said even the vehicles that were recalled in 2021 are part of this recall, so dealers can also update their image processing module software.
When Twitter quietly updated its developer policies to ban third-party clients from its platform, it abruptly closed an important chapter of Twitter’s history. Unlike most of its counterparts, which tightly control what developers are able to access, Twitter has a long history with independent app makers.
Now, the developers of some Twitter clients are turning their attention to another upstart platform: Mastodon. This week, Tapbots, the studio behind Tweebot, released Ivory, a Mastodon client based on its longtime Twitter app. Matteo Villa, the developer behind Twitter app Fenix, is testing a Mastodon client of his own called Wooly. Junyu Kuang, the indie developer behind Twitter client Spring is working on a Mastodon app called Mona. Shihab Mehboob, developer of Twitter app Aviary, is close to launching a Mastodon client called Mammoth.
The one-time Twitter developers join a growing group of independent app makers who have embraced Mastodon, the open-source social network that’s seen explosive growth since Elon Musk took over Twitter. The decentralized service now has more than 1.5 million users across nearly 10,000 servers. That, coupled with Mastodon’s open-source, “API-first” approach, has attracted dozens of developers eager to put their own spin on the service.
Paul Haddad, one of the developers behind Tweetbot and Ivory, says Tapbots started working on a Mastodon client late last year as they started to grow nervous about the future of Twitter’s developer platform.
“They [Twitter] had absolutely been making huge strides and opening up their API platform, but clients like ours were always going to be second- or third-class citizens,” says Haddad. “Whereas with Mastodon, that's absolutely not the case.”
Thomas Ricouard, the developer behind Ice Cubes, a Mastodon app that launched earlier this month, says that he had considered building an app with Twitter's API in the past, but decided against it because it was “looking more and more limited as the days passed.” At the same time, he says he noticed fewer and fewer familiar faces on his Twitter timeline. “Loving open source software,” he says, “I quickly saw the opportunity [for Mastodon].”
Today a new third-party #Mastodon app, Ice Cubes, launched on iOS. At least two more, Ivory from @tapbots and Mona from @theSpringApp, are being developed. Third-party apps are where the innovation happens!
— Mastodon (@Mastodon@mastodon.social) (@joinmastodon) January 20, 2023
Ice Cubes launched in the App Store January 19th, and it has already won the praise of reviewers and has dozens of contributors on GitHub. Even Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, who has been more active on Mastodon lately, uses the app.
On its part, Mastodon has welcomed developer interest even though it maintains its own mobile apps. “It's exciting because it means that a lot of very talented people are investing their time and resources into building on the platform and ecosystem that we have built up,” Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko tells Engadget. “Third party applications are incredibly valuable for a platform because that's where the power users go … it benefits everybody because the power users are the people who create the content that everybody reads.”
Developers’ contributions also have the potential to influence the direction of the platform itself. Just as Twitter’s earliest developers had an outsize impact on the service, some developers now see an opportunity to similarly influence Mastodon.
Both Ricouard and Haddad noted that official Mastodon apps currently don’t support quoting — the Mastodon equivalent of a quote tweet — but some clients, like Ice Cubes and Mona, do. “I think the client developers are able to implement that feature within the app, we're probably going to push it to go higher up on the radar of the Mastodon server developers,” Haddad predicts. Mastodon so far hasn’t publicly committed to adding quotes but Rochko, who was once adamantly against the feature, recently said he’s considering it.
Mastodon developers have experimented with other unique additions, too. Ice Cubes has Chat GPT-powered prompts that will spice up the text of your post (or "toot" as they are known to longtime Mastodon users). Wooly groups notifications in batches, similar to Twitter. Tapbots is working on a Mac app that will sync with Ivory’s iOS app, much like Tweetbot did across platforms.
I’ve experimented with integrating #OpenAI#ChatGPT right into my open source Mastodon client, I’ve added 3 prompts for now, to correct your toot, shorten and emphasise it! pic.twitter.com/41XEC3w8Bv
— Thomas Ricouard (@Dimillian) January 13, 2023
“Mastodon is in the [same] early phase Twitter was, where third party apps will have a big impact on the future product focus and development,” says Ricouard.
Rochko says that while he’s happy to see the growing number of Mastodon clients, he’s not in a hurry to try to replicate their features. Mastodon is still a nonprofit with a small team and a lengthy product roadmap. “It's definitely interesting to see different ideas tested out and experimented with and I think that long term, there's probably going to be influence over the official apps,” he says.
Still, not every former Twitter client developer is eager to start over on Mastodon. “I’m not sure if I want to create a Mastodon app but you should definitely check out those other developers who have,” Tweetings said in a farewell post on Twitter. Twitterrific’s developers are also unsure if Mastodon fits into their future plans.
Much will likely depend on if Mastodon is able to maintain its current growth and continue to attract new users. And as much as many former Twitter users see it as a replacement, Mastodon is structured very differently, and not everyone finds it as user-friendly as Twitter. Rochko, who started Mastodon in 2017, says he’s optimistic because the site continues to add influential users.
“What's exciting to me about the latest wave of users on Mastodon is not the numbers but the who. The people who have joined from various journalist organizations, media organizations, politicians, actors, writers, and just you know, famous internet people — like the olden days.”
At the moment, Amazon Prime customers can enjoy free grocery delivery via the company's Fresh service for checkouts worth $35 and above. It's a reasonable and pretty affordable minimum purchase requirement, even for those live alone. But starting on February 28th, people would have to add a lot more items to their cart if they don't want to pay extra to get their order delivered to their doorstep. As The Verge has noticed, the e-commerce giant has updated its Fresh grocery page to note that only orders worth above $150 will be delivered for free within a two-hour window by the end of next month.
Amazon will deliver orders between $100 and $150 for $4, while orders between $50 and $100 will incur a $7 service charge. If a customer's items come up to less than $50, they'll have to pay a whopping $10. Since the Fresh service is only available to subscribers already paying for Amazon Prime, which raised its annual fee to $139 from $119 last year, it will become a much pricier option by the time March arrives.
A company spokesperson told The Verge that it's "introducing a service fee on some Amazon Fresh delivery orders to help keep prices low in [its] online and physical grocery stores as [it] better cover[s] grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience." The spokesperson continued: "We will continue to offer convenient two-hour delivery windows for all orders, and customers in some areas will be able to select a longer delivery window for a reduced fee."
Based on that statement, Amazon could jack up grocery prices if it doesn't charge delivery fees. But as it is, customers will end up paying more anyway — a lot of people can't afford its $150 minimum requirement these days, and those who can may not be able to consume everything they bought before they go bad or are no longer, well, fresh. Amazon has started notifying customers via email about the new service fees, and some social media users are pointing out how outrageous the price jump is to get free delivery.
Customers have come to rely on Amazon Fresh for grocery deliveries when the pandemic started, including folks on the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program. People who have SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) debit cards can order via Fresh even without a Prime subscription, making it a good (and in some cases, the only) option for people with disabilities. But now they'd have to pay extra on top of their purchase. According to Amazon's website, they can't even use their EBT cards to pay for the shipping fee and will have to provide another form of payment.
"Customers with an EBT card will continue to receive free grocery delivery on orders more than $150."
— Megan E. Doherty, PhD (@MeganEDoherty) January 27, 2023
Uh, the average benefit a single person gets is only $197 *FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH*. This price-hike for delivery fees is going to hurt low-income disabled folks horribly.
We’ve finally got new gadgets to review! This week, Cherlynn, Devindra and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford dive into the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Max chip. Sure, it looks the same as before, but demanding users may appreciate the performance bump. Also, they discuss where the new M2 Pro-powered Mac Mini fits into Apple’s lineup. And of course, Cherlynn and Sam update us on everything they expect from Samsung’s Unpacked event next week. We’ll get the Galaxy S23, naturally, but rumors also point to new computers too.
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!
MacBook Pro M2 Max review and Mac mini thoughts – 1:26
Samsung Unpacked 2023 preview – 13:02
Other news: Hacker leaks 2019 No Fly list – 27:14
Microsoft announces multibillion dollar investment in OpenAI days after layoffs – 33:45
Scientists found a colony of Emperor penguins after tracking poop markings on satellite images – 43:10
Formovie Theater UST projector and LG CineBeam projector reviews – 47:30
Ayaneo 2 handheld review: Like a Steam Deck, but fancier – 59:00
Pop culture picks – 1:06:14
Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks
In a new study, University of Minnesota law professors used ChatGPT AI chatbot to answer graduate exams at four courses in their school. The AI passed all four, but with an average grade of C+. The University of Minnesota group noted ChatGPT was good at addressing "basic legal rules" and summaries, but it floundered when trying to pinpoint issues relevant in a case.
When faced with business management questions in a different study, the generator was "amazing" with simple operations management and process analysis questions, but it couldn't handle advanced process questions. It even made mistakes with sixth-grade-level math – something other AI authors have struggled with.
If you're unsure whether we're ready for robot lawyers, you're not the only one. DoNotPay is a free AI-powered chatbot that can draft letters and fill out forms for various legal matters, including appeals for parking tickets. Joshua Browder, the CEO of the New York startup, announced his company's bot would represent a defendant fighting a traffic ticket in the courtroom on February 22nd. However, he received multiple jail threats from state bar prosecutors if he was to go through with his plan. DoNotPay is postponing its court case. Browder told NPR "The truth is most people can't afford lawyers. This could've shifted the balance and allowed people to use tools like ChatGPT in the courtroom that maybe could've helped them win cases."
– Mat Smith
BuzzFeed is the latest publisher to embrace AI-generated content
Apple's Studio Display drops to a record low price at Amazon
Amazon's Blink Wired Floodlight Camera is now available for $100
Audi's Activesphere EV concept is built for off-roading and augmented reality
OnePlus teases its first tablet ahead of next month's official reveal
During a conference call discussing Tesla's latest earnings, company chief Elon Musk said mass production of the Cybertruck, its electric pickup, won't begin until 2024. He still expects manufacturing to kick off "sometime this summer" but warned output would be "very slow" early on. Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019.
For people intrigued by the Steam Deck but want something with a bit more performance, the Ayaneo 2 is a great little (pricey) portable gaming PC, says Engadget's Sam Rutherford. It features a newer Ryzen 7 6800U CPU that pumps out frame rates between 25 to 40 percent higher than the Steam Deck, while its sophisticated hall sensor joysticks deliver even more responsive controls. The Ayaneo 2 also features a seven-inch bezel-less LCD display with a higher 1,920 x 1,200 resolution and tons of connectivity, thanks to three USB-C ports. Crucially, it's based on Windows 11 instead of SteamOS, which means it should run practically any game you can think of. The main downsides are somewhat short battery life (about two and a half hours on a charge), the lack of built-in touchpads and a starting price $450 higher than the Steam Deck. Yeah, that's about double.
The US Department of Justice has spent months infiltrating and disrupting the Hive ransomware group, the agency announced on Thursday. The DOJ says Hive has targeted over 1,500 victims in 80-plus countries, extorting hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments. It first infiltrated Hive's network in July 2022, providing over 300 decryption keys to Hive's current victims and more than 1,000 keys to previous victims – preventing over $130 million in ransom payments.
Dutch authorities arrested a hacker for obtaining and trying to sell the personal information of nearly every Austrian citizen in May 2020 – and the defendant had also offered "similar data sets" from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia. Authorities say the hacker posted in an online forum the nine million data sets, which police say consists of "registration data" residents must provide to authorities: full names, addresses and dates of birth – but no financial info. "Since this data was freely available on the internet, it must absolutely be assumed that these registration data are, in full or in part, irrevocably in the hands of criminals," the police said.
Headsets have come a long way since the launch of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive six years ago. The Meta Quest 2 has already been around for two years, and it's proven to be a very capable portable VR experience. And if you're looking for a more immersive experience, high-end PC headsets are getting cheaper (and there's the new PS VR 2 to look forward to). Read on for our top picks.
At least two publications have confirmed that Far Cry 7 and a standalone Far Cry multiplayer game are both in development at Ubisoft. According to Insider Gaming, both games were one project but early on in development, they were split into two games. Kotaku has corroborated the report, adding that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot mentioned both games internally as recently as last week.
The next mainline Far Cry will apparently be a single-player game with no multiplayer elements like co-op. Instead, Ubisoft plans to release the multiplayer game that Insider Gaming recons will be set in Alaska. Insider Tom Henderson claims that Far Cry multiplayer game was pitched as an extraction-based shooter set in the Alaskan wilderness. Since both games were once the same project, Far Cry 7 will presumably maintain the Alaskan setting.
According to Kotaku‘s sources, Far Cry 7 will drop the Dunia Engine for Snowdrop – the engine used for The Division 2 and Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars game. Apparently, Ubisoft has been eyeing a Far Cry multiplayer game for a number of years, but those ideas were either cancelled or incorporated into other projects.
Insider Gaming claims to have seen screenshots of both games, and understands that Far Cry multiplayer game will feature loot chests and extraction zones.
The post Far Cry 7 Might Be Set in Alaska – Report appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
With the launch of the Galaxy Buds 2 last year, Samsung brought premium features like active noise cancellation (ANC) to its entry-level headphones, while keeping the same $150 price as the Galaxy Buds+. If that's still too much money, you can now grab a pair at Amazon in multiple colors for just $95, for a savings of $55 or 37 percent.
Buy Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 at Amazon - $95The Galaxy Buds 2 received a solid 84 Engadget Review score thanks to a number of big improvements. The biggest is the addition of ANC, along with an adjustable ambient sounds mode. While the ANC doesn't block external sounds as well as more expensive earbuds, it's a big improvement over simple passive noise cancellation They also offer improved sound quality, with ample base and balanced sound. It also offers EQ presets and the ability to control features using the Galaxy Watch 4.
They're 15 percent small and 20 percent lighter than the Galaxy Buds+, making them he company's smallest and most comfortable earbuds to date. Battery life isn't incredible at 5 hours (with ANC enabled), but the case holds an additional three full charges and it supports Qi wireless charging as well. Call quality is solid thanks to AI that helps reduce background noise.
All those features make the Galaxy Buds 2 a very solid buy, particularly at the $95 sale price that's just off the all-time low. They're designed to work best with Android devices, though so iPhone users will probably want to look elsewhere.
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Apple has "halted the development" of its own WiFi chip that was meant to replace Broadcom's in its devices "for a while," according to Ming-Chi Kuo. The notable analyst explained in a Medium post that he's basing this report on his latest survey of the semiconductor industry's foundries, equipment, packaging and testing. If you'll recall, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the tech giant was working on its own wireless chips meant for devices slated for release in 2025. While Apple has yet to confirm the report, it's not exactly hard to believe: The tech giant has been taking steps to design and manufacture more in-house components to lessen its reliance on outside companies.
Kuo said Apple chose to devote most of its resources to developing its next-gen A-series and M-series processors instead. That way, it can ensure that the processors for its iPhones, iPads and MacBooks can enter production over the next couple of years. The analyst also explained that it's riskier for Apple to use its own WiFi chips at a time when companies are switching their devices over to WiFi 6E. "Broadcom will be the biggest winner" in this situation, he said, since the iPhone 15 is expected to feature the new WiFi standard that allows access to the 6 GHz band.
(1/2)
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) January 26, 2023
Apple has halted developing its own Wi-Fi chips; Broadcom is the biggest winner of the iPhone 15’s upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E and the leading beneficiary of the Wi-Fi industry-standard upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E/7 with higher ASP.https://t.co/XEZ0bVV8A8
While it's unclear if Apple will ever release its own WiFi chip, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the company's wireless chipset ambition isn't entirely dead. In Kuo's Twitter thread about the report, Gurman chimed in and said that the tech giant is still working on a combined WiFi-Bluetooth chip. Gurman previously said that the tech giant is also working on a chip that combines Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi in a single component, but he didn't say if that one is still under development.
When The Information published a piece last week that said Apple is working on a cheaper mixed-reality headset, one of its sources claimed that the device could use the company's in-house Bluetooth and WiFi chipset. That would allow Apple to keep costs and the device's final retail price low, since it wouldn't have to deal with a third party company's pricing demands.
One of Amazon's home security companies, Blink, unveiled its first wired floodlight camera during the e-commerce giant's fall event last year. Now, the smart security camera is finally available, and you can get it from Amazon's website for $100. While most of Blink's products are small, battery-powered devices, this one connects to your home's existing outside wiring. Its LED floodlights are also much brighter (2,600 lumens) than the lights (700 lumens) that come with the brand's older wireless model.
The camera itself provides 1080p HD live view through the Blink app, as well as two-way audio, which gives you a way to talk to people or call any pets outside your house. Blink says the model features enhanced motion detection aided by Amazon's AZ2 Neural Edge Processor, and you can choose to get notifications on your phone if it detects any movement. The device also comes with the ability to sound a 105-decibel siren if you ever need it. And, yes, Blink's wired floodlight camera works with Alexa, allowing you to access its live view and other features with voice commands.
You can save and share video clips captured by the camera, as well, but it will cost you extra. To do so locally, you'll need a Blink Sync Module with a USB drive attached, both of which are sold separately. But you can store clips in the cloud instead through the $10-a-month Blink Subscription Plan, which will also give you access to the company's new person detection feature.
An analyst has said that more PSVR 2 first-party games are needed for the virtual reality device to be successful for Sony. George Jijiashvili, a principle analyst covering AR and VR at research agency Omdia, recons that the dozens of games revealed thus far aren’t enough for people to justify a $550 purchase.
When it comes to major first-party games, PSVR 2 will launch with Horizon: Call of the Mountain and Gran Turismo 7. Both are billed as full-fledged VR experiences rather than mere offshoots of their PS5 counterparts. Looking at the PSVR 2’s games list, there are plenty of noteworthy titles like Resident Evil Village and Rez Infinite, but Jijiashvili recons that it’s first-party games that’ll carry the device.
Speaking to EDGE magazine (issue 380, via GamesRadar), Jijiashvili opined that Sony needs to show its “own first-party commitment to this device.” He doesn’t believe that PSVR 2 first-year sales will match those of PSVR, which sold 1.9 million units in 2017. Jijiashvili expects PSVR 2 to sell about 1.6 million in 2023.
Jijiashvili expressed concerns over the lack of first-party games at launch, stating that the PSVR 2 is “kind of screwed” if Horizon: Call of the Mountain is the only main first-party day-one launch.
The post PSVR 2 May Be ‘Screwed’ Without More First-Party Games, Says Analyst appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
IK Multimedia has launched the iRig Stream Mic Pro designed to be more versatile than typical multimedia mics from Blue and others. It combines a multi-pattern condenser microphone with a 24-bit, 96 kHz audio interface for iOS, Android, Mac and PC. That lets creators do things like marry their voice with music from a phone or tablet or connect easily to a media player, keyboard or other device.
The company promises "crisp, clear and detailed" sound thanks to dual mic capsules that let you select from cardioid, figure 8, omnidirectional or stereo pickup patterns. The 24-bit, 96kHz converters allow for high quality output, which you can check through a headphone output with direct monitoring.
As for the audio interface, you can connect devices like a turntable, soundboard or keyboard directly using the stereo 3.5mm audio input. With the monitoring mix control, you can blend the director or recorded audio via the headphone output.
It also features the company's Loopback+ that lets you not only add music from a smartphone or other device, but route the mic signal to a separate app to add reverb, EQ or noise-reduction. From there, you can send the signal to an app like TikTok, allowing for easier output "on apps that don't normally allow audio processing or adding background music," IK Multimedia said in a press release.
Settings can be selected and operated with a single control knob, and levels monitored via LED level indicators. It can run in stereo or multichannel modes , and includes cables for iPhones, iPads, Android devices and Macs/PCs. It's powered by its host and is MiFi certified.
All of the features are reflected in the price. Where Blue's Yeti is $100 and there are a bunch of good streaming mics under $100, the iRig Stream Mic Pro costs $170. That could actually be cheaper than the cost of a mic and interface together, however. It ships with some free apps including iRig Recorder 3 LE for mobile devices as well as MixBox CS (iPad) and MixBox SE (Mac/PC). It's now available for $170 at IK Multimedia's online store and select retailers.
Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has revealed The Last of Us 3 or a sequel with a different name is not a certainty at the moment despite the success of the previous games and the ongoing HBO TV series. It will be up to the studio to decide whether they want to continue the franchise, which they will do if they “can come up with a compelling story”.
If Naughty Dog decides not to continue with a sequel like The Last of Us 3, Druckmann feels like The Last of Us 2 has “a very strong ending” and that it could serve as the conclusion to the franchise. He told BuzzFeed that the only way the franchise would continue is if they “can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love” and if they can’t do this then the franchise will come to an end:
With The Last of Us, it’s up to us whether we want to continue it or not. Our process is the same thing we did when we did Part 2, which is if we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love — just like the first and second game did — then we will tell that story. If we can’t come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part 2 and that will be the end.
Druckmann also clarified that Sony is not putting any pressure on the studio to deliver a sequel despite the success of the previous games. Rumors had previously claimed The Last of Us 3 was already in production at the studio, but these were swiftly debunked by Druckmann himself. Meanwhile, the HBO TV series has not officially been renewed for season 2 although the team is planning to tell the entirety of TLoU Part 2 if it is.
The post The Last of Us 3 Not a Certainty as TLoU2 Is a ‘Very Strong Ending’ appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Naughty Dog‘s Neil Druckmann has stated that the developer is “done” and “moving on” from the Uncharted series. Those hoping for an “Uncharted 5” made by the same developer will be disappointed to learn that Naughty Dog’s “final brushstroke” is done and that there has been no pressure on the developer to make a sequel.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Druckmann initially started answering a query about The Last of Us Part 3, but brought up Uncharted to compare to. He explained that, while Uncharted has been “insanely successful” there is no pressure from Sony to make a sequel.
He went on to confirm that Naughty Dog has been “able to put [its] final brushstroke on that story and say that [its] done. [It’s] moving on.”
For us, Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best selling games — and we’re able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we’re done. We’re moving on.
While Naughty Dog might be done with Uncharted, it’s possible that another developer will take the reins and lead Nathan Drake on new adventures. Recent rumors pointed towards an Uncharted reboot that wouldn’t be developed by Naughty Dog. With today’s news, these rumors become all the more interesting.
The post Naughty Dog Is ‘Done’ With Uncharted and ‘Moving On’ appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Honda has big plans for the new year and electrification will play a huge part of that, the company's recently-promoted SVP of Sales, Mamadou Diallo, told reporters on Tuesday. Expect to see a lot more Honda and Acura hybrids on the road this year, ahead of a major EV push come 2024.
Overall, Honda is officially aiming to move 1.2 million units in 2023, with Acura shooting for 160,000 units, a 20 - 25 percent increase over what they sold in 2022. And although the company managed to maintain a single-digit days' supply of vehicles throughout last year, it enters 2023 with a glut of cars and trucks and a 17-day supply. As such, dealers are going to be looking to move a lot of that inventory before this year's models start arriving so fingers crossed, we could potentially see some Tesla-level price cuts in the near future.
"In 2023, we will see the strategies we've been talking about, including growing sales of light truck models, increasing volume of hybrid-electric models and the start of digital sales at Acura," Diallo said in a Wednesday press release. "All this leads toward our vision of 100-percent electrified sales by 2040 to fulfill our ultimately goal of zero emissions by 2050."
The ZDX and ZDX Type S will be Acura's first full-EV offerings and serve as the harbingers of the company's new, exclusively online EV sales strategy. Diallo didn't have much additional information regarding how the system would work — such as whether haggling was allowed or how individual vehicle prices would be set — but assured the assembled journalists, "as we get closer to [the ZDX debut], we certainly will be discussing this a little bit more with our dealer body and the press in general. For right now we're still finalizing all those details." Acura joins Ford, Volvo, GM and VW in shifting its electrified vehicle sales to the digital marketplace.
For its part, Honda is planning a significant increase in its hybrid vehicle production in 2023, starting with the newly-redesigned Accord and Accord Hybrid (they'll also be Honda's first with Google Built-In). The company "will continue to increase hybrid sales through core models as an important step in bridging customers to full electrified vehicles while reducing GHG emissions," the Wednesday release reads. Honda anticipates a solid half of this year's CR-V and Accord sales to be of the hybrid variety and its efforts bolstered in 2024 with the introduction of a new Civic hybrid. Sales for the all-electric Prologue begin this year with deliveries set for 2024.
Justin Roiland is leaving Squanch Games just a month after comedic shooter High on Life became 2022’s most popular Xbox Game Pass launch. The studio co-founder who voices many of High on Life’s characters is currently facing two felony domestic abuse charges from 2020.
A complete doofus recently appeared on Faux (excuse me, Fox) News to claim that console energy saving modes are basically all “climate politics.” The PS5 and Xbox Series X have put a special emphasis on energy saving, which apparently means that the woke crowd at Sony and Microsoft are “going after your children.” You can’t make this stuff up.
Just listen to this guy talk. I don’t know who he is and I don’t care to find out. But he’s out there on a news channel spewing this utter nonsense:
Fox & Friends joins the new MAGA ‘Woke Xbox’ fake culture war talking point (they announced they are adding a power-saving shutdown mode): “They’re trying to recruit your kids into climate politics at an earlier age.” Host – “You’re right – they’re going after the children!” pic.twitter.com/M1ynsAVqmE
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 24, 2023
Dude’s apparently never heard of an electricity bill.
If you’re not familiar with consoles and somehow landed on this article, rest assured that there is no “agenda” and Microsoft faced no “backlash” over an energy saving mode. Your children are safe and so is your electric bill. I promise.
The post PS5, Xbox Series X Energy Saving Modes Are ‘Climate Politics,’ Says Fox News Goof appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
In November, millions of Taylor Swift fans logged on to Ticketmaster to grab tickets for her 2023 tour. However, the site crashed, rendering verified users unable to purchase. Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation, explained that while 1.5 million people had signed up as legit customers, over 14 million hit the site when tickets went on sale – many of which were bots.
Live Nation president and CFO Joe Berchtold told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the company "learned valuable lessons" from the Swift debacle. Three senators shoehorned in Taylor Swift quotes into their statements and questions – which I loved.
Berchtold called for Congress to expand the BOTS Act to "increase enforcement." Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal reminded Berchtold there are already legal options for going after scalpers using bots to procure tickets. "You have unlimited power to go to court," Blumenthal said. "Your approach seems to be that everyone else is responsible here."
– Mat Smith
LG's latest ultra short-throw projector is a dream – if you can afford it
The 2024 Polestar 2 will have better range, stronger motors and a SmartZone sensor suite
NASA is teaming up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to test a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, to use the technology for crewed missions to the red planet. The agencies hope to "demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. "With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever – a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars." There are, of course, risks involved with NTP engines, such as the possible dispersal of radioactive material in the environment should a failure occur in the atmosphere or orbit. Nevertheless, NASA says the faster transit times NTP engines can enable could lower the risk to astronauts – they could reduce travel times to Mars by up to a quarter. Nuclear thermal rockets could be at least three times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion methods.
Amazon has launched a new subscription service for customers in the US to get as many eligible medications as they need for $5 a month. The new service, called RxPass, is part of the e-commerce giant's Pharmacy business, which launched in 2020 as a two-day prescription drug delivery for Prime users. That makes RxPass a $5 add-on for Prime, which sets users back $139 a year or $15 a month in the US. Customers will need to pay $5 out of pocket, since the service does not take insurance, like Amazon Pharmacy does, for purchases outside of the program. People enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and any other government healthcare program will not be able to sign up for RxPass, either.
In Forspoken, you control the agile, angry Frey, slinging elemental attacks (and f-bombs) at multiple monsters before leaping off a cliff face and swinging from a molten outcrop. You keep moving, through the lands of Athia, through the adventure, because it's enjoyable and satisfying, but also because when you slow down, you start to see the cracks. Delayed twice, while the fighting system is generally solid, Forspoken has a lot of sub-quest padding, and most of it's pretty dull.
Mac users now have a native version of WhatsApp. The new app is optimized for Mac hardware and built with Mac Catalyst, so it should be faster and more efficient than the current web-wrapped Electron version. You also get a new interface with three panels to easily flip between chats, calls, archived and starred messages, while seeing contacts and interactions at a glance.
