Wednesday, 25 September 2024

The Morning After: Get ready for Meta Connect

Meta’s annual VR / AR shindig kicks off a few hours after this newsletter hits your inboxes. As usual, it’ll lay down the direction of travel for the next year of strapping stuff to your face. So, before the awkward stage banter begins, it’s worth reading up on what’s to come. We’ve prepared our usual roundup of all the rumors, scuttlebutt and leaks about what we’ll see.

That includes Orion, a pair of Buddy Holly glasses offering augmented reality in a more user friendly package. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already hinted about its potential, but he added we’ll only see the prototype today. We can also expect a cheaper version of the Quest 3 and some more AI doodads to come to the Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Once you’ve studied up, you can point your browser at our liveblog to get a blow-by-blow of the show the minute it happens. Everything kicks off at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, but the color commentary will start long before then.

— Dan Cooper

Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research and advisor to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has been sentenced to two years in prison. Ellison pled guilty at the end of 2022 for her role in the FTX fraud and was a key witness in Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial. Ellison will spend a further three years on supervised release once she has left prison. In a statement, the disgraced crypto executive expressed remorse for her conduct.

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Image of not a Drowzee with its own minigun.
Pocketpair

Depending on your loyalties, Palworld is either an exciting spin on the adventure genre or a shameless rip-off of Pokémon, but with guns. Developer Pocketpair is being sued in Japan by Nintendo, who is firmly in the latter camp, but that isn’t yet slowing Palworld’s progress. The title was just surprise-launched for the PS5 in 68 countries, with Japan an obvious exception.

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Image of the Duolingo Piano
Duolingo

I’ve been a fan of cute pianos that teach you how to play for a long while and have reviewed a few for Engadget. Now, Duolingo is getting in on the action, teaming up with baby digital piano makers Loog to produce its own learning piano. It’ll integrate with Duolingo’s app, which has music courses to teach folks how to grasp the basics of playing. And, did I mention that I really want to play with one of these?

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Image of the TikTok Music announcement, saying it will close November 28
TikTok Music

TikTok has announced TikTok Music, the company’s streaming service to rival Spotify and Apple Music, is closing down. The platform announced it’ll cease operations on November 28 and delete all user data and login information soon after. It has advised subscribers to reach out to their payment platforms of choice to get refunds before that date. Don’t worry though, I’m a technology journalist and even I didn’t know TikTok had its own standalone streaming service.

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X just released its first full transparency report since Elon Musk took over

X has published its most detailed accounting of its content moderation practices since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. The report, X’s first in more than a year, provides new insight into how X is enforcing its rules as it struggles to hang on to advertisers who have raised concerns about toxicity on the platform.

The report, which details content takedowns and account suspensions from the first half of 2024, shows that suspensions have more than tripled since the last time the company shared data. X suspended just under 5.3 million accounts during the period, compared with 1.6 million suspensions during the first six months of 2022.

In addition to the suspensions, X says it “removed or labeled” more than 10.6 million posts for violating its rules. Violations of the company’s hateful conduct policy accounted for nearly half of that number, with X taking action on 4.9 million such posts. Posts containing abuse and harassment (2.6 million) and violent content (2.2 million) also accounted for a significant percentage of the takedowns and labels.

While these numbers don’t tell a complete story about the state of content on X — the company doesn’t distinguish between posts it removes and those that it labels, for example — it shows that hateful, abusive and violent content are among the biggest issues facing the platform. Those are also the same issues numerous advertisers and civil rights groups have raised concerns about since Musk’s takeover of the company. In the report, X claims that rule-breaking content accounted for less than 1 percent of all posts shared on the platform.

Numbers shared by X.
X

The numbers also suggest there have been significant increases in this type of content since Twitter last shared numbers prior to Musk’s takeover. For example, in the last half of 2021, the last time Twitter shared such data, the company reported it suspended about 1.3 million accounts for terms of service violations and “actioned” about 4.3 million.

X previously published an abbreviated report in a 383-word blog post last April, which shared some stats on content takedowns, but offered almost no details on government requests for information or post removals. The new report is a significant improvement on that front. It says that X received 18,737 government requests for information, with the majority of the requests coming from within the EU and a reported disclosure rate of 53 percent. X also received 72,703 requests from governments to remove content from its platform. The company says it took action in just over 70 percent of cases. Japan accounted for the vast majority of those requests (46,648), followed by Turkey (9,364).

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Tuesday, 24 September 2024

Remasters of Beloved PS1/PS2 Classics Leaked by Sony, Out Soon

PS5 remasters of PS1, PS2 classics

Sony has leaked PS5 remasters of beloved PS1 and PS2 classics ahead of tonight’s PlayStation State of Play. The PS Store page has since been removed, but not before it confirmed the existence of the long-rumored Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered, developed by Aspyr Media.

Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 PS5 remasters release date also leaked

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered originally leaked in July at the San Diego Comic-Con. References to the unannounced remaster bundle were spotted next to Legacy of Kain merchandise.

As spotted by X user Wario64, a PS Store blooper not only confirmed the game’s existence, but it also leaked its release date of December 10, 2024. We’re not going to embed the trailer or screenshots here ahead of an official announcement to avoid a potential copyright strike, but you can check them out in the tweet below:

Wario64 didn’t say which platforms were listed on the PS Store page, but it’s safe to assume that Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered will be available on the PS5. We’ll find out tonight whether the games will be available on the PS4 or not. They’re unlikely to be graphically intensive, so we don’t see why they won’t be cross-gen, but don’t take our word for it yet.

The post Remasters of Beloved PS1/PS2 Classics Leaked by Sony, Out Soon appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.



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PS5 Pro Might Get Enhanced Version of Major New Game

PS5 Pro enhanced games

The PS5 Pro “might” get an enhanced version of a critically-acclaimed new game whose developer has revealed that it’s in talks with Sony regarding its next steps. We say “might” because the studio — Saber Interactive — is making no promises, but its engineers are mulling over a potential PS5 Pro patch for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

When to expect Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 PS5 Pro enhanced patch, if it happens

Speaking to IGN, Saber Interactive’s chief creative officer Tim Willits expressed hope that Space Marine 2 will benefit from PS5 Pro’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which offers automatic improvements without the need for a patch.

At the moment, Space Marine 2 suffers from more performance issues on the PS5 compared to Xbox Series X and PC, and Willits admits as much. “What I hope is with the PS5 Pro, with the AI upsampling, that players will be able to play Space Marine 2 in Performance [Speed] Mode, and it’ll look better, hopefully… hopefully, I don’t know — it’ll look better than it does in Quality Mode now,” he said.

Willits added that although Sony is happy with Space Marine 2, Saber’s engineers are in discussion with the PlayStation maker to figure things out. However, he said that the PS5 Pro is still new and so is Space Marine 2, so if an enhanced version happens, it’ll be a while before it’s out.

“We’re just trying to catch up, so we just have to be patient with our official plans,” Willits concluded.

The post PS5 Pro Might Get Enhanced Version of Major New Game appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.



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The Morning After: Elon blocks blocking

At some point, we’ve all encountered someone who just doesn’t get boundaries. They get too deep into our personal space, oblivious — or all too aware — of our discomfort. This problem is magnified online where there’s instant access to someone’s broader digital footprint, which can be a vector for abuse. It’s why most platforms have some sort of block feature, enabling people to limit some user’s access to their lives.

Now guess which platform is ending the ability to block people. Yup, that one.

Elon Musk announced a change to X’s policies to enable users you’ve blocked to see your posts. They won’t be able to interact with you, but they will see what you’re posting to the platform. Musk has railed against the block feature before, saying users could already get around this by switching to a non-blocked account. Which is true, in the sort of tell-on-yourself way that suggests he’s got form not respecting someone’s boundaries.

Obviously, the reasons this is a terrible, dreadful, no-good and generally bad idea are so long we’d be here forever trying to list them. But it’s a good reminder that X is a place that thinks trust and safety are four-letter words.

— Dan Cooper

Logitech MX Creative Console review: An affordable entry point into edit panels

How to watch Meta Connect 2024

Image of an iPhone mirrored on a Mac
Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

There’s a new macOS out, and this one is actually rather nifty, according to Devindra Hardawar. The new operating system’s killer feature is the ability to mirror your iPhone on your Mac, which helps you keep your eyes on one screen instead of two. Now, Dev uses it to play mobile games during meetings, but we don’t recommend you do the same.

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced the messaging app will now hand over the IP addresses and phone numbers of users when law enforcement requests it. It’s amazing what a short stay in a French prison can do to change someone’s long-held beliefs about privacy.

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Generic image of a car ICE unit from a BYD vehicle.
BYD

The White House has a plan to ban Chinese (and Russian) hardware and software from any internet-connected car in the US. Given the integrations necessary to make most EVs run, it’s likely the move would act as a de-facto ban on Chinese EV imports.

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Monday, 23 September 2024

God of War Ragnarok Isn’t Doing Well on PC

God of War Ragnarok PC

God of War Ragnarok‘s PC launch hasn’t been well-received, if player response on Steam is anything to go by. Not only is the game being review-bombed, thanks in no small part to its PSN integration requirement, it debuted to a significantly lower concurrent player count than its predecessor did.

Why God of War Ragnarok’s PC launch is a mess on Steam

According to data tracker SteamDB, God of War Ragnarok peaked at 35,615 concurrent players on Steam, which is a far cry from the 2018 game’s 70,000+ concurrents. One of the main differences between the two titles is that the original didn’t force players to link PSN to Steam, and it doesn’t help that PSN isn’t available in a number of countries.

We’ve also seen widespread reports of Sony’s games installing PSN-related software on PC that’s tanking systems.

That said, Ghost of Tsushima launched with the PSN requirement and that didn’t stop the game from topping charts, so it’s confusing to see Ragnarok being review bombed over it. Bear in mind that games with poor reviews on Steam have lower visibility, so unlike Metacritic, the review bombing in this case may actually have an impact.

It’s unclear how/if Sony will respond, but players have already taken matters into their own hands. As reported on ResetEra, modders have found a way to bypass Sony’s PSN requirement.

The post God of War Ragnarok Isn’t Doing Well on PC appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.



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The Morning After: SpaceX gets a surprising new enemy

If events in the last few years have felt like a higher power playing Mad Libs with our lives, then it looks as if it’s running out of options. “SpaceX,” you imagine it pulling out “gets sued by…” and then the sounds of paper rustling until it says, “Cards Against Humanity.” Turns out the silly game jokesters own an acre of land near to SpaceX’s facility in Texas, which the latter has been using for its own purposes.

Cards Against Humanity has filed a lawsuit against SpaceX, alleging the rocket company has been trespassing on land it bought back in 2017. The lawsuit says the previously pristine land has been turned into an ersatz staging ground and parking lot for nearby construction work. It asks for $15 million compensation for the trespass and damage. If successful, it says it’ll share the win with the crowdfunding backers who coughed up to buy the land.

If the higher power in question wants some help with some suggestions, it could do worse than suggesting Engadget’s humble newsletter writers win a billion pounds each on the same day in completely different competitions.

— Dan Cooper

Microsoft is bankrolling the partial reactivation of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Those with short memories may not know it was the site of a 1979 meltdown that helped halt the development of nuclear energy in the US.

Now, I’m not mad the plant is being reactivated, since nuclear offers safe, clean and abundant energy. TMI reactor one remained in operation from 1985 until 2019, so it’s got a healthy track record too. But I am mad at the reason Microsoft’s cutting the check: to power its AI data centers!

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Image of a B&B Theatres with its own pickleball court.
B&B Theatres

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of reasons I rarely visit movie theaters:

  1. The cost

  2. Not being able to pause the movie to visit the restroom

  3. People talking during the movie

  4. People checking Facebook on their phone during the movie

  5. People making phone calls during the movie

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of things movie chains will do to lure me back:

  1. Spend $2.2 billion to install zip wires, pickleball courts and bowling alleys

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Open AI Logo
OpenAI

OpenAI is reportedly ditching its increasingly recognizable hexagonal flower logo in favor of something a bit more sinister. Staff members were apparently shown a stark black O icon that lacks the warmth of the existing identity. At the same time, a new profile of Sir Jonathan Ive reveals the long-rumored partnership between him and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is real. The iPhone designer’s firm, LoveFrom, is working on some sort of AI hardware tool, but that’s all we know right now. Let’s hope it does better than the Humane Pin, the last AI hardware tool cooked up by a storied designer with Apple on their resume.

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