Новости за 09.02.2022

Samsung's reputation for occasionally strange product introductions is alive and well in 2022. The company unveiled the Galaxy S22 at its Unpacked event with a Bridgerton crossover you can watch below. Yes, the Netflix tie-in is exactly as odd as it sounds. The S22 is introduced at an "inventor's ball" where creators try to impress the queen, who approves after demanding a dance to showcase a handset that won't ship until 210 (sorry, 209) years in the future.

Splitting a restaurant bill or dividing the costs of a group trip can be tedious. Meta is attempting to make this easier by rolling out its Split Payments feature to all Facebook Messenger users. The feature, which was previously in testing, will likely be perfect for occasions when you are dividing the cost of something with two or more people. For example, dividing the purchase of a new microwave with your three roommates, the cost of a new birthday gift for grandma with your siblings, or even this weekend’s Super Bowl party. Читать дальше...

Ubisoft reportedly plans to repurpose an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion into a standalone release. According to Bloomberg, the company is working on a game codenamed “Rift.” What started life as DLC for the latest entry in the company’s long-running historical franchise apparently morphed into a full game sometime late last year.

The Wolf Among Us 2 finally has a release window. The revived Telltale Games team has announced that its long-in-the-making sequel will be available sometime in 2023. There's a new trailer to match, and this clip sheds more light on where this precursor to Bill Willingham's Fables is headed.

Nearly a year after introducing Reddit Talk, the company is expanding its live audio chats to desktop and adding several new features to make the conversations easier to find and participate in.

Four Democratic senators and House representatives have called on several government departments to stop using Clearview AI’s facial recognition system. The Government Accountability Office said in August that the Departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security and the Interior were all using the contentious technology for “domestic law enforcement." Sens. Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Ayanna Pressley urged the agencies to refrain from using Clearview's products and other facial recognition tools. Читать дальше...

In 1955, Harry Olson and Herbert Belar created the world’s first electronic synthesizer. Little could they have known then how much their invention would change the way people make music. From a song like Blue Monday from New Order to Midnight City from M83, so many era-defining tracks from the past few decades wouldn’t have been possible to record without synths in all their various forms. In honor of that legacy, Moog Music is launching a new documentary series. Dubbed Giants, it will tell the... Читать дальше...

Hyper-capable AIs have been beating us at our own games for years. Whether it’s Go or Jeopardy, DOTA 2 or Nethack, artificial intelligences have routinely proven themselves superior competitors, helping advance not only the state of gaming arts but also those of machine learning and computational science as well. On Wednesday, Sony announced its latest addition to the field, GT Sophy, an AI racer capable of taking on — and beating — some of the world’s best Gran Turismo players.

On Wednesday, Samsung held its first Unpacked of 2022. The event saw the company spend approximately an hour talking about updates to its Galaxy S and Tab S product lines. While it was mostly a by-the-numbers affair spoiled by pre-release leaks, Samsung still came out swinging with one of its strongest device lineups in recent memory. Here's everything the company announced at Unpacked.

Dark Souls fans on PC will have to wait until after the release of Elden Ring before developer FromSoftware reactivates player-versus-player servers. The announcement comes after a hacker identified a vulnerability within Dark Souls 3 that allowed them to access the computers of multiple streamers remotely. When news of the exploit first broke, FromSoftware and Dark Souls series publisher Bandai Namco shut down the multiplayer servers of Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls to investigate the issue. Читать дальше...

Spotify isn't the only streaming service to face a dispute with comedians. Both Puck and The Verge have learned the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin have sued SiriusXM's Pandora for allegedly streaming the comedy legends' jokes without full licenses. The late comedians' representatives claim Pandora only has the licenses to stream the recordings, not the jokes themselves — and it supposedly doesn't have "any copyright."

Call of Duty fans who've been worried what Microsoft's pending $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard means for the future of that franchise on PlayStation can breathe easy. That series and other popular Activision Blizzard games won't be exclusive to Xbox — even after Sony's existing agreements with the publisher expire. 

In a few short hours, Nintendo will host its first Direct of 2022, and it’s one you won’t want to miss. The company has promised to spend approximately 40 minutes talking about games that will debut on the Switch throughout the first half of 2022. You can watch the entire presentation starting at 5PM ET through YouTube and Twitch, as well as right here.

Grindr is tightening privacy controls for the Olympic Village in Beijing. Bloomberg has learned the gay dating app is blocking people outside the Village from using the location-based Explore feature to find athletes in or near the area. The move is meant to protect athletes from harassment or persecution so they can "feel confident" connecting with each other during the Winter Olympic Games, Grindr for Equality director Jack Harrison-Quintana said.

The Galaxy S22, S22 Ultra and Tab S8 aren't just hardware upgrades — they'll also represent improvements to Samsung's update policy. The company has promised the whole S22 and Tab S8 families will receive "up to four generations" of Android OS updates — not just security patches, as announced last year. S21, Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 owners are eligible, too. The exact number of upgrades will depend on the combination of model and market, but this could mean the S22 you buy now will remain current by early 2026. Читать дальше...

Today Samsung showed off its latest large flagship phone, the S22 Ultra. But users with smaller hands and smaller pockets need not fear being left out, as the company also debuted two smaller phones with the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and triple-camera array. These 6.1- and 6.6-inch handsets will be facing off against powerful phones from Apple and Google — check out all the specs below to see how they stack up, and be sure to check out our hands-on!

It’s February, which means it’s time for Samsung to drop its new flagship phones for the year. This time we’re looking at three handsets, all powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. The biggest of the lineup is the massive 6.8-inch Ultra, which packs in two telephoto cameras in addition to the now-standard wide and ultra-wide. But is that enough to raise it above a rarified pack that includes 6.7-inch devices from Apple, Google and OnePlus? Check out the specs below for a sneak peek of what the Ultra has to offer against the competition... Читать дальше...

Don’t say goodbye to the Galaxy Note yet. When Samsung launched the Galaxy S22 Ultra today, it said the new flagship merges “the best of two smartphone legacies,” bringing together the S Pen, camera and other power-user features into one device. With its onboard S Pen slot, distinct rectangular shape and premium specs, it’s easy to think of the S22 Ultra as a Note replacement. And in many ways it is. But does that mean Samsung is done with the Note altogether? According to Samsung’s vice president of product management Drew Blackard... Читать дальше...

Samsung spent the morning revealing its latest smartphones and tablets, and all of those new devices are available for pre-order today. The top-of-the-line Galaxy S22 Ultra combines the flagship features of the company's S-lineup and its Note family, while the Galaxy S22+ and S22 look similar to last year's models and come in at slightly more affordable prices. The latest Android tablets from Samsung include the premium Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, a 14.6-inch slab with WiFi 6E support and an included S Pen, and the Galaxy Tab S8+ and Tab S8. Читать дальше...

On Wednesday, Samsung finally took the wrapping off the industry's worst-kept secret and announced the S22 Ultra at its first Unpacked of 2022. And in all but name, it’s the successor to the Note 20. Compared to its S22 siblings, it features a flat design that comes complete with built-in storage for Samsung’s S Pen stylus. And of the three phones the company announced today, the S22 Ultra is the only one that includes that feature.

A new Note wasn’t the only thing missing from Samsung’s lineup last year. The company also didn’t release an update to its Galaxy Tab S series, which is a shame because it’s arguably the best premium Android tablet line around. (Or rather, the only one left standing.) The Tab S7 was launched in 2020, and it featured impressive hardware that was held back by limited software. With Android 12L on the horizon promising to improve the tablet experience, though, it seems Samsung is ready to deliver a capable 2-in-1 again... Читать дальше...

The Galaxy S22 Ultra might be the star of Samsung's Unpacked event, but the regular models will be the company's bread and butter — and it's good to see they've received substantial upgrades of their own. The 6.1-inch Galaxy S22 and 6.6-inch S22+ may look similar to the S21 family they replace, but they include a 50MP main rear camera with a sensor 23 percent larger than in the 12MP shooter from their predecessors. Your night photos should fare much better, to put it another way. You can also... Читать дальше...

You’d be forgiven for thinking the newly announced Galaxy S22 looks a lot like last year’s phone. It does. But after being able to go hands-on with the S22 and S22+, it’s clear that, as with many things, it’s what’s inside that counts. And for 2022, Samsung has packed in some major upgrades for the S22’s display, performance and cameras that really separate it from last year’s device.

Along with announcing the Galaxy S22 lineup, Samsung has refreshed its range of tablets — which some folks already had an inkling about after earlierleaks. For the first time, Samsung is introducing an Ultra tablet, which aligns with the Ultra branding the company slaps on its highest-end phones.

Today's Samsung event leaned heavily on new hardware, but Google's bringing some software updates to those new devices that will make it easier to view content with friends. The Galaxy S22 smartphones and the S8 laptops will support the new live sharing feature in Google Duo. Much like how SharePlay works in FaceTime calls on iOS devices, this feature will let you and whomever you're chatting with view the same notes, photos, videos and more at the same time.