Новости за 07.12.2022

Mindfulness app Calm has a couple new audioscapes to help people relax and drift off, and they're both from first-party Xbox games. Starting today, folks with a Calm Premium membership can chill out to the ocean vibes of Sea of Thieves or the ambient alien noise of Zeta Halo from Halo Infinite. It's the first time Calm has added game-themed soundscapes, so let's hope they're not interrupted by yells from pirates or the Covenant.

Atari is revivingAkka Arrh, a 1982 arcade game canceled because test audiences found it too difficult. For the wave shooter’s remake, the publisher is teaming up with developer Jeff Minter, whose psychedelic, synthwave style seems an ideal fit for what Atari describes as “a fever dream in the best way possible.” The remake will be released on PC, PS5 and PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Atari VCS in early 2023.

One of the companies behind text-to-image AI system Stable Diffusion is hosting a film festival exclusively for shorts that were made with AI. Organizers of Runway ML's AI Film Festival are accepting films with a runtime of between one and 10 minutes that either include AI-generated content or were pieced together with AI-powered editing techniques.

In the aftermath of the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush that killed at least 158 people, North Korea’s APT37 state-sponsored hacking group took advantage of a previously unknown Internet Explorer vulnerability to install malware on the devices of South Koreans who were trying to find out about the tragedy, according to Google’s Threat Analysis Group. The team became aware of the recent attack on October 31st after multiple South Koreans uploaded a malicious Microsoft Office document to the company’s VirusTotal tool. Читать дальше...

It may be more difficult for hackers to grab your iCloud data — and even Apple is rethinking its access to sensitive content. The company is introducing a raft of security measures that run the gamut from expanded end-to-end encryption to a reversal of a controversial program intended to identify possible child sex offenders. The launch is headlined by Advanced Data Protection, an optional feature that applies end-to-end encryption to more iCloud data. While Apple was already protecting 14 data categories... Читать дальше...

Amazon is facing more legal trouble for allegedly robbing delivery drivers of their tips. The District of Columbia has sued Amazon over claims the company was "stealing" tips from Flex drivers. As the Federal Trade Commission argued last year, DC claims Amazon changed its policies in 2016 so that it would use large portions of drivers' tips to cover base pay and operational costs. The company not only used "misleading" language in its response to worried couriers but falsely told customers that 100 percent of tips would go drivers... Читать дальше...

Construction has forced Formula E to relocate its US race next summer from the Red Hook terminal in Brooklyn to Portland, Oregon. The all-electric racing series filled the final spot in its Season 9 calendar on Wednesday as the 2023 slate of races is set to kick off in Mexico in mid-January. The Portland event will take place on June 24th, sandwiched between doubleheaders in Jakarta (June 3-4) and Rome (July 15-16).

Instagram’s latest update aims to help creators better understand one of the most frustrating aspects of the app: the dreaded “shadowban.” The app is updating its account status feature to help creators “understand if their account’s content is eligible to be recommended to non-followers.”

It’s been a bumper year for gaming on the go. For a spell, it kinda felt like Nintendo was the only name in town, but it’s since become one of the more exciting corners of gaming. Today, there are handheld options for everything from AAA to Indie to retro and beyond. Whatsmore, the current generation of mobile processors means we’re seeing surprisingly capable hardware. The main problem, now, is that the software side of things hasn’t quite caught up. There’s perhaps no better demonstration of this than the Ayaneo Air Pro... Читать дальше...

Blue Origin has made another attempt to secure a contract to build a lunar lander for NASA's future Artemis missions. It teamed up with several other companies for the proposal, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Draper. Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics are also involved.

At its core, Mario Kart is a game about trolling your friends. So what better way to ratchet up the hijinks than by allowing players to decide what power-ups spawn during races? Nintendo has released a free update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe that adds custom item selection for offline VS races and select online modes. Want to be a monster and force blue shells on all your friends? Go right ahead. It’s even possible to set specific items for each team in team races and battles.

A US government attempt to compensate publishers for web links has fallen apart, as Congress has cut the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) from the annual national defense spending bill. The measure would have made temporary exceptions to antitrust law letting media outlets negotiate revenue sharing deals, such as receiving a cut of ad money from links to news articles in search results and social media posts.

About three hours into my preview of Diablo IV, I stumble upon the body of a dead priest. The discovery adds a quest to my journal to visit nearby Margrave. A short while later, I find a small village worn down by constant snowfall and all the monsters and bandits that lurk outside its palisade walls. Despite the town’s desperate state, there are signs of warmth and humanity everywhere.

If you've been looking to pick up a smart display, today looks like a decent time to take the plunge, as Walmart has our favorite option on the market, Google's Nest Hub, down to $39. That's the lowest price we've seen to date for the second-gen model. Notably, the discount includes a basic Philips Wiz smart bulb for no extra cost. For context, the 7-inch smart display technically has an MSRP of $100, though we frequently see it on sale for $50. The deal covers both the "chalk" and "charcoal" versions of the display... Читать дальше...

Epic Games is rolling out a new type of account for younger players that will require parental consent before they can do things like make purchases from Fortnite's in-game store with real money or use voice chat. Epic says these so-called "cabined accounts" will provide a "tailored experience that is safe and inclusive for younger players using the store or launcher."

Meta's bitmoji-style 3D avatars have made their way to WhatsApp. As of today, you can use your digital persona either as your profile photo or as part of a 36-sticker pack that mimics popular emoji and actions. If you want to show that you love someone or aren't sure about an idea, you can now use your virtual face instead of a generic icon.

Orion just made its final pass around the moon on its way to Earth, and NASA has released some of the spacecraft's best photos so far. Taken by a high-resolution camera (actually a heavily modified GoPro Hero 4) mounted on the tip of Orion's solar arrays, they show the spacecraft rounding the Moon then getting a closeup shot of the far side. 

Microsoft Teams is now useful for organizing more than just your company meetings. Microsoft has introduced a communities feature on Android and iOS that effectively offers an alternative to Facebook groups for more personal uses — think of your softball team, a carpooling group or the local parent-teacher association. You can chat and make video calls, of course, but you can also arrange events, post messages and share documents.

Amazon's Echo Show 15 is now useful as a tiny TV. The company has released a promised free update that brings the Fire TV interface to the smart display. As on other devices, you can stream from a range of apps (including Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube) with an on-screen carousel that helps you find content and resume shows. This will be familiar to anyone who's used even a basic Fire TV Stick, but the Echo Show's design offers a few interface twists.

The Echo Show 5 is one of Amazon's most versatile Alexa devices thanks to its 5.5-inch display, it's relatively solid sound quality and it's compact size. The online retailer discounted the smart display to $35 for the holiday shopping season, but it also has a deal on a bundle that would make a good smart-home starter kit. You can pick up the Echo Show 5 with a Blink Mini for a total of $50, which is 58 percent off the normal price of the bundle.

You can get Shark's AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum at a deeply discounted price today at Amazon. As of this writing, you have less than 19 hours to grab the robotic vacuum for $350 only, or for 46 percent less than its retail price of $650. That's the lowest price we've seen for this particular model on the website. This vacuum uses LiDAR technology to map your house, so you can set up cleaning areas and zones it can't go to using its accompanying app. Its AI-powered navigation system also enables it... Читать дальше...

GM has installed its first Level 2 charging stations in Wisconsin and Detroit as part of a community charging initiative unveiled last year. A dealership in Marshfield, Wisconsin put up stations at locations including parks, a library and a sports complex, while another installed them at a healthcare/wellness center in Owosso, Michigan. The aim is to help dealers install up to 40,000 chargers in community locations (including underserved rural and urban areas) across the US and Canada. 

Apple Music has introduced a Sing feature, best described as a karaoke mode. Not only can you adjust the voice levels, but you can also use multiple lyric views if you’re looking to share a duet or even just wail harmonize in the background. Apple has tweaked existing lyric views, so they’re now cued to the beat and light up slowly.

Many smartphones these days offer artificial bokeh in their portrait photography modes, but with the help of a retractable camera, you can achieve true optical bokeh without missing any edges. Chinese brand Tecno is now bringing such a feature to its latest flagship device, the Phantom X2 Pro 5G, which packs a "world-first" pop-out portrait lens. This is just a little over two years after Xiaomi showed off a retractable 120mm-equivalent wide aperture lens, but it never left the prototype stage.

Uber has launched public robotaxi rides in Las Vegas using Motional's Hyundai Ioniq 5 autonomous EVs with the aim of offering a full driverless service to the public in 2023. It will eventually expand to Los Angeles, where the two companies have been testing autonomous Uber Eats deliveries since May 2022. It's all part of a 10-year agreement between Uber and Motional to offer autonomous ride-hailing and deliveries.