Новости за 15.09.2022

The long-teased Blade Runner sequel series is real. Variety has confirmed Amazon has ordered production of Blade Runner 2099 for Prime Video. Original movie director Ridley Scott will serve as an executive producer alongside Silka Luisa (Halo and Shining Girls), who will also be the showrunner. The premise of 2099 isn't yet clear beyond its setting 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, but Amazon's global TV head Vernon Sanders claimed the follow-up would preserve the "intellect, themes, and spirit" of the movies. Читать дальше...

See, the problem is that people simply aren't buying enough. To rectify this issue, Amazon announced on Thursday that it is introducing a new Alexa feature, dubbed "Customers Ask Alexa," wherein "expert brands" provide answers to customer questions like “How can I remove pet hair from my carpet?” that also just so happen to prominently feature that brand's particular product.

Call of Duty is doubling down on mobile play with Warzone Mobile, a battle royale heading to Android and iOS devices in 2023. Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile will feature 120-player matches with operators, weapons, locations and combat familiar to existing Warzone fans. The game will support a shared Battle Pass, social features and cross-progression with Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0, both of which are due out at the end of 2022. The base game will be free.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 will officially land on November 16th, bringing Modern Warfare II environments, gameplay and technology to a large-scale battlefield. This release date has been floating around the internet for a few months now, and Activision confirmed it today during a showcase about the new, connected future of Call of Duty.

Microsoft might want to abandon the hope of a speedy merger with Activision Blizzard. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is referring the takeover for an "in-depth" (Phase 2, in CMA lingo) investigation. The regulator is still concerned the buyout could lead to a "substantial lessening" of competition in the country after launching a basic inquiry in July. 

You might know Apogee for its pocketable headphone or guitar interfaces. Or maybe its microphones. But ask a bedroom producer and most will tell you they know the company for its audio interfaces and software tools. Today, the company unveils the Boom ($300), a new 24-bit/192kHz desktop audio interface with both studio and mobile creators in mind.

Blizzard just clarified how Overwatch 2's switch to a battle pass system will work in practice. When the team shooter debuts on October 4th, there will be both free and $10 premium battle passes like you see in other free-to-play titles. You'll similarly deal with a virtual currency, Overwatch Coins, that you use to buy the pass and other items. Unlike some games, though, you can earn those coins for free simply by playing frequently. If you play often enough (grouping and weekly challenges will accelerate this)... Читать дальше...

If you couldn't join a must-attend Zoom meeting this morning, you weren't alone. Zoom is recovering from a major outage that prevented users from starting or joining meetings. The company didn't yet have an explanation for the problem, but said it had "identified" the cause and continue investigating the fault. It also vowed to monitor the situation.

Sony and developer Naughty Dog confirmed today that its excellent bundle of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy are coming to the PC on October 19th. As announced last year, the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection will bring these two games to the PC for the first time, following the collection's release for the PS5 this past January. 

Instagram isn't the only one hoping to capitalize on the daily photo sharing trend. TikTok has unveiled an experimental Now feature that, much like BeReal, asks you to post either a photo (using front and back cameras) or 10-second video to tell friends what you're doing each day. You'll have a limited window to share content after you receive a randomly-timed prompt. Effectively, it's a visual status update.

Adobe just made a big move into team-based creative work. The company is acquiring the online collaborative design platform Figma for roughly $20 billion in cash and shares. That's the largest buyout of a private software company to date, according to Bloomberg's Katie Roof. Adobe hopes the deal will "accelerate" web creativity and put more of the Creative Cloud suite's technology on the internet. You can expect to see Adobe's visual editing features find their way into Figma's platform.

Snapchat's messaging and video chat features first made their way to browsers back in July, but only in select markets and for Snapchat+ subscribers. Now, Snapchat for Web is finally available for all the messaging app's users worldwide. It could be the better choice for users who have a lot of typing to do and messages to send, since they'll be looking at a bigger screen and have access to a real keyboard. 

The Series 8 is the middle child of Apple’s 2022 Watch lineup, and unfortunately it might be the easiest to overlook. With its main updates being crash detection and a new skin temperature sensor that allows for ovulation tracking, the Series 8 feels like a small update to last year’s Series 7. At $399, it also faces stiffer competition from the Watch SE, which not only saw a price reduction this year to $250, but also shares the same processor as the Series 8, among many other features. And with the high-end Watch Ultra arriving soon... Читать дальше...

Bose is no stranger to true wireless earbuds. The company’s first model debuted in 2017 and it has refined its take on the product segment multiple times in the years since. Bose made a big leap in 2020 with the QuietComfort Earbuds, bringing its active noise cancellation (ANC) expertise to an updated true wireless design. Now the company has made another big jump with a new look and a host of upgrades thanks in part to its CustomTune technology,

Apple Watches are starting to look mostly the same. The new Series 8 and Watch SE look so much like last year’s Series 7 that I struggle to tell them apart. But in fact the new models Apple unveiled last week bring some less obvious changes. The most notable of these is a new temperature sensor that’s currently being used for ovulation tracking, as well as an onboard high-g accelerometer that allows for crash detection.

When Walmart launched its virtual fitting room back in March, it gave you 50 models with various body types and heights to choose from. It was up to you to find the model you resemble the most, so you can see what a piece of garment would look like on you. Now, the retailer is leveling up the experience by letting you virtually try clothes on your own photos. 

It was a big day for tech reviews. Alongside the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, there are also new action cams from both GoPro and DJI – and we’ve got detailed reviews on all of them.

Ethereum has completed its much-anticipated "Merge" to a far more energy efficient method of minting new tokens, the cryptocurrency's co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted. Ether will no longer be minted by "proof-of-work" that uses powerful computers to solve cryptographic tasks. Instead, they'll be created using "proof-of-stake" methods that require users called validators to stake tokens for the chance to approve transactions and earn a small reward. 

After first teasing it way back on January 2021, Korg has released the much-anticipated Drumlogue, a hybrid drum machine with a digital multi-engine and expandability via the logue SDK used in its Minilogue XD and other products. It has both analog and digital drum synths and can also play back samples, with the unique ability to add third-party plug-in effects and more — making it one of the more versatile drum machines out there.

Samsung has made a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions for the whole company by 2050 and will spend KRW 7 trillion (US$5 billion) over the next seven-and-a-half years to make that happen. While its plans are likely not as aggressive as Microsoft's, which previously promised to be carbon negative by the end of the decade, it intends to implement changes soon so that its Device eXperience (DX) Division is producing net zero carbon by 2030. 

Top executives from Meta, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok just wrapped up a three-hour hearing in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The hearing, which featured Meta CPO Chris Cox, YouTube CPO Neal Mohan, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas and Twitter’s GM of consumer product (known as “Bluebird”), was meant to be focused on how their services impact national security issues.