mercredi 14 décembre 2022

The best deals on Nintendo Switch games right now

*Right now, there are discounts available on* Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope *and a handful of other essential Switch titles.* | Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular consoles ever released, one with an ever-expanding library of games to choose from. Odds are if a game is capable of working on the Switch’s hardware, it’s either already available, or it will be soon.

Thankfully, a number of games are currently receiving price breaks if you’re looking to expand your collection, including first-party offerings like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and remasters like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. However, if you want to add some less conventional titles to your collection, Portal Companion Collection and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim are also discounted right now.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the deals on Nintendo Switch games. In many instances, the Nintendo eShop is typically the best place to find deals on digital downloads, especially if you prefer the indie variety, but there are some exceptions where retailers will discount titles that would otherwise be full price on Nintendo’s storefront.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Taking place in a massive open world, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a much different take on the Zelda series, one that stresses exploration, experimentation, and emergent gameplay. BOTW is much tougher than previous entries in the franchise but presents multiple, unconventional ways to tackle the game’s more difficult challenges. Mastery of the game comes more from learning and exploiting the systems in the world rather than looting a bunch of sweet gear.

Years after its release, players are still discovering new wrinkles in the aging classic. While this isn’t the most recent title to feature Link, Breath of the Wild remains an essential entry in the franchise. It offers all of the hallmarks of a traditional Zelda title, including challenging combat and puzzles, but within a gorgeous, open-world design. Read our review.

New Pokémon Snap

New Pokémon Snap is the sequel to the hit Nintendo 64 game from 1999. In it, players traverse the Lental region taking pictures of pokémon thriving in their natural habitats, which is a refreshing change to the typical catch ’em-all gameplay loop. Read our review.

Pokémon Legends Arceus

A prequel to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Pokémon Legends Arceus has you exploring the large, standalone areas of the Hisui region in an effort to catch and study pokémon as you build out the region’s first-ever pokédex. It represents a fairly radical shift in the Pokémon formula. Read our review.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

If you’re into kart racing and love Mario, there’s no better mish-mash of the two than in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch. The popular racing title is packed with plenty of courses and characters, with even more available as paid DLC. This installment in the Mario Kart franchise is essentially a souped-up version of the original Mario Kart 8 that debuted on the Wii U, with better visuals, performance, and all the DLC from the Wii U version (and then some).

While the basics of this franchise have remained largely the same over its lifetime, Mario Kart 8 represented some of the best improvements the series has seen, and its remastered port only improves on the original with new modes, kart parts, and an adorable cast of drivers.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

A sequel to Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Luigi’s Mansion 3 sees players controlling the titular Luigi as he explores a haunted hotel in an effort to rescue his brother and friends. Despite only having text dialogue that’s supplemented by jibberish and pantomime, this 3D platforming adventure is surprisingly witty and comical, with plenty of Nintendo’s trademark charm to go around. And while some of the puzzles can be cumbersome and the controls overly complex, there are few games like it. Not nearly enough games star the taller Mario sibling, but Luigi’s Mansion 3 proves that Luigi is more than capable of holding his own. Read our review.

Yoshi’s Crafted World

Yoshi’s Crafted World, in a nutshell, is a yarn-and-cardboard-flavored platformer featuring everyone’s favorite green dinosaur. It’s one of the more charming titles to come from Nintendo, with levels and characters made from everyday objects, and a difficulty that serves as the digital equivalent of a weighted blanket — or in this case, a hand-knit scarf. It’s not the most crushing or inventive title, but many of the levels in Yoshi’s Crafted World introduce new mechanics and wrinkles to keep things fresh as you make your way through a variety of theme-based worlds. There aren’t many games that do exactly what it says on the box, but Yoshi’s Crafted World is definitely one of them. Read our review.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is best described as Dynasty Warriors by way of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This title shares a similar aesthetic to the 2017 hit but is drastically different in terms of its gameplay. In it, you’ll take control of a cast of familiar characters from Breath of the Wild, like Impa and Zelda, and guide them through a linear narrative that leads up to the events that precede Breath of the Wild.

You can swap between characters during battles to make use of their combos and special abilities, but you’re also responsible for directing legions of soldiers to assist you in completing your objectives. Age of Calamity provides fans of Breath of the Wild with more backstory in a game that feels wholly different but strangely familiar in the best ways. Read our review.

Mortal Kombat 11

Mortal Kombat 11 is a title synonymous with fighting games. The same gratuitously violent, combo-based gameplay is on display here, but the latest entry in the franchise builds on that legacy by fine-tuning many of the technical elements. This makes MK11 arguably the best entry in the franchise to date, with tight gameplay that’s easy to learn and difficult to master.

In addition to the roster of 25 characters from Mortal Kombat lore, MK11 includes DLC for fighters from some unexpected IPs. So if you were ever curious about how the Terminator would fare against Rambo, this is your chance to find out. Each fighter can also be customized with different moves and gear, meaning that you’re unlikely to fight against the same character twice.

Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition

Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition might just be the best platformer for the Nintendo Switch that isn’t part of the Mario franchise. The excellent title features a vivid art style, tight controls, and a soundtrack that’s sure to stick with you well after you’ve stopped playing. Plus, in addition to a surprisingly large cast of cute characters, the entirety of Rayman Legends can be played cooperatively with up to four players. If you’re a little tired of stomping Goombas, you might want to give Rayman Legends a spin.

Burnout Paradise: Remastered

Burnout has always been a series that’s about wrecking cars, going fast, and causing wanton destruction. Burnout Paradise continues that proud tradition by unleashing you on an open world that’s littered with stunts, races, and — of course — lots of crashes.

Burnout Paradise may be a couple of console generations old at this point, but it has never lost its charm. The nauseatingly fast game always has something for you to do, and while the lack of real-world cars is a bummer, you’ll never have a better time jack-knifing your sports car into a fuel tanker at 300 miles per hour.

Axiom Verge

Axiom Verge, an ambitious Metroidvania developed by a single person, has gone on to become an essential entry in the genre thanks to its clever level design, spectacular soundtrack, and awesome boss battles. And while the game is clearly inspired by classic entries in the genre like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it still manages to do its own thing.

Much like other games in the genre, Axiom Verge has you exploring a map that gradually expands as you defeat bosses and gain new abilities, allowing you to traverse previously inaccessible areas. A large part of what makes this game unique, however, is the title’s setting and aesthetic, which lies somewhere on the spectrum between hellish and surreal, leaving us with something that feels like the works of HR Geiger if he were given a 16-bit palette to work with.

While there are plenty of other contemporaries that draw on this same formula, including Hollow Knight and Metroid Dread, Axiom Verge is an excellent title that won’t disappoint fans of the genre.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 updates the core elements of the original Tony Hawk games into an experience fit for modern consoles. The collection is a faithful remake of the original two games, and everything from the levels to the collectibles has been translated with remarkable accuracy.

The gameplay experience is largely unchanged, but what additions have been made are certainly welcome. Some extra objectives have been added to THPS 1 levels to be more on par with what THPS 2 offers, and there are larger meta-objectives to accomplish if you want to unlock different cosmetic options. This collection is easily the best way to experience — or re-experience — these staples of gaming history. Read our review.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

If Pacific Rim didn’t have enough high school drama for you, then you might want to check out 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, a game that is equal parts visual novel and turn-based strategy game. In Aegis Rim, you play through the interconnected stories of 13 teenagers who also happen to be massive robots charged with defending humanity. It would be easy to dismiss the premise as silly if the voice acting and art direction weren’t so damn good, and while the story beats can get a bit muddled at times, the delivery on virtually every other aspect of Aegis Rim is spot-on. Read our review.

Hades

Hades, the latest hit from indie developer Supergiant Games, is a beautiful roguelike that burst out of early access and quickly accumulated a litany of praise. This snappy brawler changes things up every time you die, forcing you to adapt with the assistance of the thirstiest iteration of the greek pantheon we’ve ever seen. The closest analog to this title is the also-excellent The Binding of Isaac, however, Hades definitely upped the ante with an exceptionally balanced experience that has some of the best music and writing we’ve ever encountered in a roguelike. Read our review.

Immortals Fenyx Rising

Immortals Fenyx Rising is a game that takes the open-world gameplay and color palette from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and slaps it on the mythology from God of War. The design might be iterative, but the result is amazing. In true Ubisoft fashion, the massive, vivid environment is chock-full of collectibles, activities, and puzzles to strengthen your character.

One aspect that sets this title apart from its obvious inspirations is the combat, which combines simple, RPG-like skill trees with a variety of godly powers earned from aiding various deities. A decidedly more comical and lighthearted approach to the Greek pantheon, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a fun and witty open-world game that wears its inspiration on its sleeve. Read our hands-on impressions.

Persona 5 Royal

Make friends, fight your inner demons, and be home in time for dinner. Persona 5 Royal is the definitive version of Persona 5, one that adds a ton of new content and quality-of-life features. While the occasionally obtuse story beats and narrative aren’t going to change anyone’s mind about JRPGs, the game’s chill pacing makes Persona 5 Royal a great choice for the Nintendo Switch. Read our review.

Diablo III: Eternal Collection

Diablo III remains one of the best action RPGs available and is still supported by free seasonal content. The Switch version of this aging RPG may not be its prettiest iteration, however, it still runs remarkably smooth on the Nintendo console, even when playing with several others via local co-op. Being able to take this game with you wherever you go arguably makes the Switch version the best way to experience this fast-paced RPG.

Borderlands: Legendary Collection

Borderlands: Legendary Collection includes not only Borderlands 1 & 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, but all of the various pieces of DLC as well, making this a truly massive compilation of everyone’s favorite looter shooter. While the irreverent humor of the Borderlands franchise doesn’t always land, the core gameplay loop — which has you killing hordes of baddies in an effort to earn weapons that become exponentially more ridiculous as time goes on — remains strangely addictive.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Featuring an expansive cast, The Skywalker Saga is the definitive Lego Star Wars experience, tying together every mainline film from The Phantom Menace to The Rise of Skywalker. Just like other entries in the series, the title is chock-full of fan service and light-hearted humor that’s sure to appeal to fans, regardless of their age. It even includes characters from one-shot films like Rogue One and Solo.

Hot Wheels: Unleashed

Flames make everything faster in Hot Wheels: Unleashed. The racing title feels like a cross between the Burnout franchise and an adolescent power fantasy, putting you in control of immaculately rendered toy cars as you race across a set of neon-orange tracks strewn about an oversized living room.

In addition to the litany of ridiculous vehicles spawned from the Hot Wheels garage, you can also collect cars such as the Batmobile, the time-traveling DeLorean from Back to the Future, and a number of iconic automobiles from real-world manufacturers. The game even borrows track segments from real-world Hot Wheels sets, allowing you to thread the needle between a giant spider and a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Like a good friend, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game that’s always there for you. Like past entries in the series, New Horizons lets you go outside and enjoy life with neighbors, pick some flowers, catch a few bugs, and just relish the moment.

The game lets you build and grow your own persistent island and eventually handle the overall welfare of the cast of characters, all of which will call your island their home. By harvesting resources and trading with other islands, you can slowly turn your vacant island into something truly unique. Read our review.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

This whimsical retelling of the Game Boy classic updates the classic Zelda title with new music and graphics while keeping the core gameplay intact. Anyone who missed out on this excellent installment in the Zelda franchise when it was originally available should take the time to check it out. Read our review.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

A follow-up to one of the most unexpected pairings of the last decade, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a turn-based strategy game in the same vein as the XCOM franchise but with a cast of the Mario characters and the pure chaotic energy of the Rabbids. The combat blends fire-and-maneuver tactics with special abilities and frenetic movement, which provides an interesting departure from usual turn-based strategy titles.

Paper Mario: The Origami King

If you thought Mario couldn’t get any more whimsical, think again. Paper Mario: The Origami King offers an adorable, narrative-driven experience featuring the ubiquitous red plumber. More of an adventure game than a platformer, The Origami King pushes its story along with witty writing and a puzzle-based combat system. Read our review.

Portal Companion Collection

The original Portal and its sequel, Portal 2, are available on the Nintendo Switch through Portal Companion Collection. The series remains a hallmark of the puzzle-platformer genre, one that has you uncovering the secrets of Aperture Science, playing with lasers, and eating cake.

Tetris Effect: Connected

From Rez and Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi comes Tetris Effect: Connected, a game that elevates the classic Tetris formula to new levels of sensory excitement through unique visuals and eclectic beats. It’s similar to previous Tetris titles, yet it also allows for local and online multiplayer for both competitive and co-op play.

Google’s making code formatting a breeze in Docs

Code blocks in Docs. | Illustration: The Verge

Google Docs is getting a new feature that will make it easier to show code in an easy-to-understand way. The company announced that it’s adding code blocks to its “smart canvas” system, which will automatically add the proper spacing and color-coding for a variety of programming languages, such as Python, C, and Javascript.

Before this, getting code to look nice in Google Docs required workarounds or add-ons, which weren’t necessarily the most convenient. While that wasn’t the end of the world, making sure code displays properly is important for documentation, and having different parts of the code display in different colors makes it much easier to read if there’s more than a single line or two.

Gif showing someone formatting a few lines of code using Google Docs’ code blocks. — *Doesn’t that look so much nicer?*

Google says you’ll be able to access the feature by going to Insert > Building Blocks > Code Block and then selecting the relevant language. You’ll also be able to type “@project assets” into your document to pull up the menu, similar to how you’d summon the emoji picker.

The feature may take a while to roll out — Google’s blog post says some people may not even have it by January 18th, depending on their Workspace’s settings — and it’ll only be available to people with specific subscription tiers. If you’re using a personal Google account, a legacy G Suite account, or various Essential and Starter Workspace tiers, you won’t have access to it, according to the company’s press release. That’s a bit of a bummer for hobbyist coders trying to write instructions for their APIs, though I’ll admit that this feature does seem like it’d be most useful for bigger companies.

mardi 13 décembre 2022

TPG reveals emails of 15,000 iiNet and Westnet customers exposed in hack

Telecommunications company says hacker searched for customers’ cryptocurrency and financial information

Telecommunications giant TPG has revealed an email-hosting service used by up to 15,000 iiNet and Westnet customers has been breached, with the hacker looking for cryptocurrency and other financial information.

TPG said in a release to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Wednesday that cybersecurity firm Mandiant had found evidence of unauthorised access to a Hosted Exchange service used by iiNet and Westnet customers.

Jack Dorsey on Musk’s Twitter files: ‘There’s nothing to hide’

Jack Dorsey on a purple background — Laura Normand / The Verge

Jack Dorsey has responded to Elon Musk’s purported exposé known as “The Twitter Files,” and he’s done so in an essay that’s mercifully not written as a Twitter thread. In it, the social network’s co-founder and former CEO says that he believes the company has nothing to hide, contrary to how the files have been presented. He also says he wishes the information had been “released Wikileaks-style,” and asks that the internet not go after Twitter employees for perceived slights. Of course, his article also promotes his own social networking protocol and Bitcoin.

Dorsey’s response comes after Elon Musk has spent over a week promoting five selective document releases known as the Twitter Files, which show internal documents, Slack logs, and emails around things like Twitter’s removal of Donald Trump following the January 6th riots, moderation “blacklists,” and how the site dealt with news about Hunter Biden’s laptop. The threads, and Musk’s promotion of them, have largely taken on a conspiratorial tone, painting the old Twitter leadership and employees as being in cahoots with the government to silence Twitter users.

Dorsey clearly doesn’t agree, saying his his post that “mistakes were made” at Twitter, but that he believes the company had “no ill intent or hidden agendas, and everyone acted according to the best information we had at the time.”

Later in the post, Dorsey takes issues with how the files were handed over to specific journalists who then posted excerpts and reported on them. “I do still wish for Twitter, and every company, to become uncomfortably transparent in all their actions,” Dorsey writes, adding that he wishes the files got “many more eyes and interpretations to consider.” It’s an interesting request, as he’s essentially asking for receipts on his own company, as my co-worker Adi Robertson described while we were discussing the article — it seems likely Dorsey is fully aware of what kind of decision-making process a full document-dump would reveal, and doesn’t think it’d be all that damning.

While Dorsey talks a lot about how he thinks transparency and moderation should work in his post, it’s possible he wants a more transparent process because the cherry-picked documents have been used by Musk and others to attack former Twitter staff. He obliquely references this by saying that “the current attacks on my former colleagues could be dangerous and doesn’t solve anything,” but Dorsey’s description doesn’t quite describe how bad things have been. CNN reported on Monday that former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth had to leave his home after Musk implied that he supported pedophilia in now-deleted tweets. Musk has also accused specific other former Twitter employees of not doing anything to stop child trafficking on the platform.

The Twitter Files posts have also been damaging in other ways — in a few instances, incomplete censoring leaked contact info for politicians, Twitter employees, and Dorsey himself.

It’s not the first time Dorsey has apologized for what’s happened after he left Twitter — last month he said he was responsible for Musk’s initial wave of mass layoffs, saying they were necessary because he grew the company too fast. Earlier this year, Dorsey said he believed that Musk was the “singular solution” he trusted to run Twitter as a company and said that he trusted Musk’s “mission to extend the light of consciousness.” While he doesn’t seem to have fully walked back that statement yet, he has challenged a few of Musk’s statements outside of his latest post.

In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.
— jack (@jack) April 26, 2022

Dorsey’s post isn’t entirely about Twitter. He also uses it to announce that he’s giving a million dollars a year to encrypted messaging app Signal and asks for suggestions about other grants he should make in the areas of “social media and private communication protocols, bitcoin, and a web-only mobile OS.”

Dorsey himself is also working on a decentralized social media protocol called Bluesky, which gets several mentions in the post, alongside the founder’s ideas of how social media should work (which he says he wasn’t able to implement at Twitter due to its status as a public company). His tenets involve keeping governments and corporations from influencing conversations, making sure that moderation decisions happen on a “localized” basis, and either letting people choose their own ranking algorithms, or deciding to (somehow) not use one at all.

One particularly eyebrow-raising statement from Dorsey reads “any content produced by someone for the internet should be permanent until the original author chooses to delete it,” adding that “content takedowns and suspensions should not be possible.” He does admit that stance could create “significant issues” when it comes to things like “illegal activity” (what happens when this stance collides with someone posting child sexual abuse material, or revenge porn?), but says that the ideal would “allow for far better solutions than we have today.”

Tesla’s latest update adds Steam games and Apple Music

An image of the Steam Beta in a Tesla. — *The Steam Beta in a Tesla.* | Image: Tesla

Tesla’s new “Holiday Update” adds a few long-awaited new features, including the ability to play games from Steam in your car and support for Apple Music.

Tesla already offers a bunch of games for owners like Cuphead and Stardew Valley, and the official addition of Steam doesn’t come as a total surprise, as CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company was “making progress” with a Steam integration in July. But now that Steam for Tesla is finally here, owners could have a lot more games available to them.

Tesla says Steam will be available on “new” Model S & X vehicles. While that’s a somewhat vague description, it seems likely to refer to the “Plaid” versions of those cars, as those are equipped with an AMD Ryzen processor and a discrete AMD RDNA 2 GPU. The company says that Steam brings “thousands” of games to its cars, and while we’ll have to wait and see which ones work best, Tesla’s promotional video heavily features Cyberpunk 2077. (It’s not the first time Tesla has used Cyberpunk 2077 as part of its marketing.)

Steam isn’t the only major app coming to Teslas; the company’s cars are finally getting Apple Music as well. The app had reportedly appeared in a Model S in a museum exhibit last month, and now it’s officially rolling out as part of an official Tesla release.

The Holiday Update includes a lot of other features, too. An upgraded light show mode lets you schedule a show that will appear across multiple vehicles at the same time. The company put out a pretty ridiculous video to show it off:

Schedule your own Light Show on multiple vehicles simultaneously to create your own orchestra of light pic.twitter.com/mJdUcBmXLm
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 13, 2022

You’ll also be able to make Zoom calls from the cabin camera and view the inside of the car from the Tesla app while in Dog Mode or Sentry Mode. The update, officially numbered 2022.44.25, is rolling out now.

Tidal is testing a new DJ session feature for HiFi Plus subscribers

The now-playing screen shows a red DJ button that enables the live streaming-like function. | Image: Tidal

Tidal, the high-bitrate quality music streaming service, is testing a new feature that lets its HiFi Plus subscribers play DJ. Participants of the service’s Early Access Program can switch from playing music just for themselves to a DJ session, which then provides a link that can be sent to friends who can listen in.

Tidal DJ works like running your own live radio broadcast or a headphones-only silent party. It’s similar to remote sharing features from other streaming services, like Spotify’s remote group session or Apple’s SharePlay — except you don’t have to know who the listeners are. In that way, it’s more like Turntable.fm or the old Spotify add-on (when Spotify wanted to be the “OS of music”) SoundDrop.

The Tidal feature can let you play remote work office DJ; just send the link to your team — assuming they all pay for Tidal (none of my co-workers could join my session). It could also be an outlet for people who are always demanding the AUX cable during road trips with friends — but now without complaints!

*Start by tapping the DJ button, name the session, and then share out the link to people (in this case through Discord). Tidal paid subscribers who open the link can then stream on their mobile device.*

If you want to try out the new feature, first, you need to subscribe to Tidal’s top HiFi Plus feature (free for 30 days, then $19.99 per month). Then, sign up for the Early Access Program, which guides you to install a beta version of the app (either through Test Flight on iOS or join the beta in the Google Play store). Finally, open the app, play any playlist, then tap the DJ button to enable a session and get the share link.

The new feature is not to be confused with Tidal for DJs, which lets DJ performers and music producers get access to the Tidal library within “pro” audio software. While you might not be a real DJ using Tidal that way, at least now you can pretend to be.

Smart speakers help people living alone feel less lonely, survey finds

Research by Ofcom also found the devices give disabled people a stronger sense of independence

Smart speakers help people who live on their own feel less lonely and give some disabled people a stronger sense of independence, according to new Ofcom research.

During an in-depth survey of 100 owners and 15 non-owners who tested a smart speaker, some described their device as being like a companion and said they liked being able to talk to it.

Netflix is making a live-action My Hero Academia film

Izuku Midoriya in My Hero Academia — Image: Viz Media

Netflix is making yet another live-action anime adaptation, and this time, it’s taking on My Hero Academia. In an announcement on its website, the streamer says filmmaker Shinsuke Sato (I Am a Hero, Kingdom) will serve as director, while Obi-Wan Kenobi producer Joby Harold is penning the script.

My Hero Academia takes place in a universe where the majority of humans are born with superpowers — called quirks — and centers around the once-quirkless Izuku Midoriya (or Deku). When Midoriya’s granted super strength from the hero he idolizes the most, All Might, he’s accepted into the prestigious UA High School for heroes-in-training. There, meets other quirk-wielding students while working toward unlocking his true strength and coming face-to-face with powerful enemies.

It’s still too early to tell who will play the role of Midoriya and some of the other supporting roles, like the gravity-defying Ochaco Uraraka, the fiery Katsuki Bakugo, or the top hero All Might. But as is the case with other live-action anime adaptions, casting can make or break the remake.

Netflix doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to making live-action adaptations of anime; both its Death Note film and the now-canceled Cowboy Bebop didn’t really capture the essence of their source material. Hopefully, the streamer can take this feedback into account before it starts working on My Hero Academia and the several other live-action anime adaptions it has planned, including One Piece, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Yu Yu Hakusho, and (yet another) Death Note.

My Hero Academia is set to hit theaters in Japan and will land on Netflix everywhere else, although there’s no word on a release date.

Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

*Like Amazon’s Echo speakers, its various smart displays come in a range of sizes.* | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon’s current Echo lineup offers a broad selection of smart speakers and displays that can fit just about anywhere in your home. Whether you want to place a voice assistant in your living room, replace the bulletin board in your office, or pick up a touchscreen-enabled device to showcase recipes in the kitchen, there's an Echo device for just about every occasion and use case.

Regardless of why you might want one, there’s also always a way to save on Echo devices, from the last-gen Dot to the wall-mounted Echo Show 15. Even when they’re selling at full price, for instance, Amazon offers a 25 percent discount when you trade in select devices, meaning there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are on sale.

Below, we’ve rounded up the best deals available on each device in Amazon’s Echo lineup. The bulk of the discounts don’t rival those we saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but some models — including the third-gen Echo Dot and second-gen Echo Show 5 — are still available for their lowest price to date in the run-up to the holidays.

Best Amazon Echo deals

The best Echo Dot deals

In September, Amazon announced the fifth generation of the Echo Dot. It looks more like a sphere than an actual dot — much like its last-gen predecessor — but offers twice as much bass as the prior model and a temperature sensor; it also doubles as an Eero mesh Wi-Fi extender, though, said functionality will also be coming to the prior model at some point via a free over-the-air firmware update.

Despite the arrival of the new model, you can still pick up the third-gen Echo Dot, which retains the puck-like design of earlier models and is on sale for $14.99 ($25 off) at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. As for the fifth-gen model, it’s currently on sale for $27.99 ($22 off) at both Target and Best Buy, or at Amazon for the same price with a free Sengled smart bulb.

If you’re looking to upgrade, Amazon, Target, and Best Buy are also selling the latest Echo Dot with a built-in LED display that showcases the time, weather, and other info for $39.99 ($20 off). Like with the non-clock model, Amazon is also throwing in a free Sengled smart bulb with your purchase, at least for a limited time.

The best Echo Dot Kids Edition deals

Both the fifth- and fourth-gen Echo Dot Kids Edition are as spherical as the adult versions but designed to look like a variety of creatures, from pandas to dragons. They also come with a year of Amazon’s Kids Plus service, which provides access to a slew of kid-friendly content, including audiobooks and games. That said, the fifth-gen model features better sound, a temperature sensor, and other improvements found on the standard edition.

If you want to buy the latest, kid-centric Echo Dot, it’s available at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy right now for $29.99 (its best price to date). If you’re looking to pick up several Echo devices for your home, Amazon is also selling the latest Echo Dot Kids with either a second model or the standard, fifth-gen Echo Dot for up to $70 off when you use promo code DOT2PK at checkout.

The best Amazon Echo deals

The fourth-gen Amazon Echo also received a makeover in 2020. The latest model sports a sphere-shaped design like the newer Echo Dot models, but one that’s noticeably bigger. That said, it also touts a built-in smart home hub and produces better sound than the fifth-gen Dot thanks to a pair of 0.8-inch tweeters and a 3-inch woofer.

As of right now, the fourth-gen Echo is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $59.99 ($40 off), which nearly matches the speaker’s best price to date. Like with other Echo devices, Amazon and Best Buy are also pairing each purchase with a free Sengled smart bulb.

The best Amazon Echo Studio deals

If you’re interested in an Alexa smart speaker with better audio quality and Dolby Atmos support, the Echo Studio is the Amazon product to check out. Normally $199.99, the Echo Studio is on sale in black or white at Best Buy and Amazon with a free Sengled smart bulb for $159.99 — a price we’ve only seen a handful of times since the speaker’s initial debut in 2019. It’s also available at Target for the same price, though, without the added bulb.

The best Echo Show 5 deals

If you are looking for a compact Echo device that functions more as a smart clock than an entertainment speaker, the Echo Show 5 is the Echo device to consider. The latest edition, which launched last year, features an always-on microphone, an upgraded 2MP camera, a 5.5-inch display, and a physical shutter, allowing you to block the camera’s view.

Right now, the second-gen Echo Show 5 is available at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy in blue, black, or white for $34.99, an all-time low on the capable smart display.

The best Echo Show 5 Kids Edition deals

The Echo Dot isn’t the only Echo device with a kid-friendly design. The Echo Show 5 Kids Edition offers all of the same features as the standard, second-gen Echo Show 5, only with a vibrant print on the rear and a year of Amazon’s Kids Plus service, which grants your family access to a trove of videos, games, and other kid-friendly content. It even comes with a two-year warranty, providing a bit of protection from whatever your child might (literally) throw at it.

As far as pricing goes, the Echo Show 5 Kids is still matching its best price to date, likely as a result of Amazon’s recent sales push during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Regardless of the reason, however, you can pick up the compact smart display at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy for just $39.99 ($55 off).

The best Echo Show 8 deals

Like the Echo Show 5, the Echo Show 8 is typically available in two distinct models, both of which feature 8-inch displays and dual speakers. However, unlike the first-gen Echo Show 8, the latest model is equipped with a 13MP camera and some unique software tricks, one of which grants it the ability to keep the subject centered in the frame as they move around.

We recently saw the second-gen Show 8 drop to an all-time low $69.99 ($60 off), which is the smart speaker’s current price at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. Amazon is also offering the second-gen model with a free Echo Show 5 Kids or six months of Amazon Music Unlimited, though the retailer doesn’t stipulate how to qualify for the latter promotion.

The best Echo Show 10 deals

Last year, Amazon released a third-gen Echo Show 10. The device features a 10.1-inch HD screen and, unlike the Show 5 and Show 8, the 2021 model allows you to adjust the angle of the screen. It’s also mounted on a motorized, swiveling base that allows the display to follow you as you move. If you plan on doing a lot of video calling, this is the model to get.

We’ve seen the latest Echo Show 10 get discounted to as low as $169.99 ($80 off), which is just $15 less than the smart display’s current price at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. Like with other Echo devices, Amazon is also offering it to select customers with six months of Amazon Music Unlimited.

The best Echo Show 15 deals

Unlike other smart displays in Amazon’s Echo lineup, the new Echo Show 15 is a large, wall-mounted device with a 15.6-inch touch display. It’s designed to replace the likes of bulletin boards and calendars, and as such, it functions as a shared hub for families where everyone can see digital sticky notes, upcoming calendar appointments, shopping lists, and other reminders. It also features support for Alexa, meaning it offers the same functionality as other Echo displays and smart speakers, and you can even use it as a decent 1080p TV in your kitchen or to display photos and artwork. It’s compatible with an optional stand, too, though, we’d argue it remains a better fit for your wall than your countertop given its size.

Having launched at the end of last year, we’ve only seen a handful of discounts on the Echo Show 15. That said, you can currently buy it at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy for $184.99, which is only about $15 more than its sale price during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

lundi 12 décembre 2022

Twitter abruptly dissolves safety council moments before meeting

The firm’s turmoil appears to deepen since Elon Musk’s takeover with Yoel Roth forced to flee home amid personal attacks

Elon Musk’s Twitter abruptly dissolved its Trust and Safety Council on Monday night, just moments before it was scheduled to meet with company representatives.

The council was an advisory group of nearly 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform. But Twitter informed the group via email that it was disbanding shortly before the meeting was to take place on Monday, according to multiple members.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Parents Under Scrutiny in FTX Collapse

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Parents Under Scrutiny in FTX Collapse The FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother and father, who teach at Stanford Law School, are under scrutiny for their connections to their son’s crypto business.

Discord leans on linked accounts to verify who you are and what you can access

Screenshot showing a Linked Roles screen, displaying a “Tweeter” role that requires a connected Twitter account, an “eBay Seller” role that requires a connected eBay account, and so on. — *A list of Linked Roles on a server, along with icons for the connections they’ll require.* | Image: Discord

Discord is making the accounts you have linked to your profile a key part of the chatting experience. It’s introducing a system called Linked Roles, where admins and moderators can grant people access to certain channels and even entire servers based on which third-party apps and websites those people have connected to their Discord account.

In an extremely detailed blog post on Monday, the company says the feature, which will be rolling out over the next few weeks, will support connecting accounts from sites like Steam, Twitter, Reddit, DeviantArt, and more (there are “over twenty official Connections,” according to Discord’s blog post). Server administrators will then be able to set up certain filters based on those connections — for example, they could make it so only people with a linked Crunchyroll account can get into the “Anime-Fans” channel or that you have to have a linked eBay account to see the “Garage-Sale” chat.

Above: Discord’s video is a surprisingly clear illustration of what Linked Roles are.

Discord says that users won’t be automatically assigned these Linked Roles based on what accounts they have connected, as that could end up causing some privacy concerns. Instead, they’ll be able to see a list of the roles they’re eligible for based on what accounts they’ve linked and can choose if they want to accept them. You can see if a server offers linked roles by clicking on its name in the top left corner, and looking for a “Linked Roles” button.

Screenshot of a grid of app icons in the Add Connections screen. The icons include: Crunchyroll, PayPal, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, eBay, Steam, Instagram, Spotify, Xbox, Battle.net, Epic Games Launcher, Facebook, PlayStation, Github, League of Legends, Riot Games, YouTube, Twitch, DeviantArt, and Bloxlink for Roblox. — *Some of the connections that Discord will support for Linked Roles.*

As the name suggests, Linked Roles are kind of a mash-up between the connections system that lets you share info about your other accounts and the roles system that helps admins and moderators manage what parts of a server people can access, and what sorts of things they can do when they’re there.

But Discord is also pitching the improved connections as a way to verify yourself to other users — some of them will provide even more information and stats about the account that you’ve linked, so people will be able to see, say, your Reddit karma, or your seller rating on eBay. As an example of how this could be useful, Discord says that you’ll be able to make sure that the artist you’re chatting with about commissions actually does have a DeviantArt full of past work, and that it’s actually their account.

Screenshot of a screen that says “to get this role you must connect all of these: Steam, Bloxlink.” — *Truly, check marks are inescapable.*

Of course, those verifications will only really be as trustworthy as the sites they come from; if someone creates a fake eBay bot and verifies themselves with it, that’s not going to be particularly useful for users. To that end, Discord’s working on an “Official” designation for apps, which will give them a Twitter-style checkmark if they come from a “vetted developer.” As of Monday, there will be 22 apps with the badge, including PayPal, and the company will be opening up an application process next year.

Discord says the main purpose of Linked Roles is to “help bring a sense of security to your space” and to help automate the process of determining whether people are legit or not. If you want to set a few up on your own server, you can check out Discord’s help article on how to do it — and if you’re a Discord user trying to navigate a server with a bunch of new roles, the article aimed at community users may be of use.

Comcast’s symmetrical multi-gigabit internet test is a preview of next year’s ‘10G’ rollout

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Comcast announced in a press release it successfully tested a symmetrical multi-gigabit DOCSIS 4.0 connection on its live network, taking a major step toward “offering 10G-enabled services” in the second half of 2023.

In Philadelphia, where Comcast is headquartered, it connected service at an undisclosed business location using multiple cable modems and a DOCSIS 4.0-enabled 10G node. If you’re wondering what 10G means, the answer is — more than 5G. As we noted in 2019, the cable industry rolled out its marketing term just in time to have something that’s twice as many Gs as 5G wireless.

DOCSIS 4.0 tech should enable download speeds of up to 10Gbps with 6Gbps uploads, and Comcast said a lab test in January achieved more than 4Gbps speed in both directions.

It also potentially gives Comcast another way to earn more money from existing subscribers, which would align with Comcast’s new plan to increase revenue despite customer growth that’s stalled in recent quarters. Comcast has already announced to its customers it’s increasing its cable and internet prices this month, with the average nationally going up by 3.8 percent. One Verge writer’s bill shows a $3 bump for internet service and a TV subscription that will be more than $7 more expensive next month.

Earlier this year, Comcast announced it was working on rolling out multi-gig Internet speeds to more than 50 million residences and businesses in the U.S. by the end of 2025. The company planned on deploying 2Gbps speeds to 34 cities by the end of this month and has also given a slight bump to download speed on internet service in many areas.

The advantage of 10G tech is that it should make multi-gig speeds available for both downloads and uploads (currently, Comcast’s gigabit plans include upload speeds of just 200Mbps), just as it is with fiber optic internet connections. However, for anyone considering upgrading, we should note that you will probably need another new cable modem.

Ideally, this will increase speeds for those in places where fiber isn’t available, especially non-metropolitan areas. And in places that have competition, it measures closer against rivals that deliver fiber services, such as Verizon, AT&T, Google, and Frontier Communications, which are already offering some customers symmetrical multi-gigabit connections.

“We started this year with the announcement of our world-first test of 10G modem technology capable of delivering multi-gig speeds to homes and, as of today, 10G is a reality with the potential to transform and evolve the Internet as we know it,” said Elad Nafshi, EVP and Chief Network Officer at Comcast Cable. “It’s been an incredible year of progress, and we look forward to continuing to refine and harden our 10G technology as we work to make this service—and all its incredible benefits—available to all customers in the years ahead.”

Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

Anisotropy dependence of damage evolution and material removal during nanoscratching of MgF₂ single crystals

Anisotropy dependence of damage evolution and material removal during nanoscratching of MgF₂ single crystals The research team, led by A/Prof. Chen Li from the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System (HIT), Harbin Institute of Technology, China, has shown the anisotropy dependence of the damage evolution and removal behaviors involved in ultra-precision machining of MgF2 crystals in terms of stress field, slip deformation and cleavage fracture.

Twitter Blue is back, letting you buy a blue checkmark again

Would you pay for Twitter? | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Elon Musk’s $8-per-month Twitter Blue subscription with verification is officially available, and you’ll need a verified phone number to sign up.

In a thread on Twitter, the platform notes that Blue will cost $11 per month if you sign up on iOS and will grant you access to the ability to edit tweets, upload 1080p videos, reader mode, and, of course, the coveted blue checkmark. If you paid for the old $4.99 / $2.99 Blue package, then you’ll need to subscribe again to keep its benefits, while anyone who signed up on Apple at the old $7.99 per month price will be automatically renewed at $11 per month unless they cancel.

we’re baaaack! Twitter Blue is now available for $8/month on web or $11/month on iOS – we’ve made some upgrades and improvements pic.twitter.com/uRMuwCSElb
— Twitter Blue (@TwitterBlue) December 12, 2022

The revamped Blue originally launched on November 9th but was put on hold around a day later after a wave of people used it to (somewhat) convincingly impersonate high-profile brands and accounts, despite the platform’s rules against doing so.

This time around, Twitter is relying on a lightly described review process, as well as the phone number verification requirement, to limit any “verified” hoaxing:

We’re committed to maintaining integrity of accounts on Twitter and making the platform a place people can join and engage safely. Only Twitter accounts created more than 90 days ago can sign up for Twitter Blue.

All Twitter Blue subscribers will be required to confirm their phone number as part of sign up.

Once subscribed to Twitter Blue, changes to your profile photo, display name, or username (@handle) will result in the loss of the blue checkmark until the account is validated as continuing to meet our requirements, and no further changes will be allowed during this review period. Learn more about checkmark requirements here.

The company says the current price point is a “limited time offer” on the signup page and lists several features coming soon. Those include the ability to “rocket to the top of replies,” post “longer videos,” and see around half the number of ads.

Twitter says anyone with an existing blue checkmark won’t lose it “at this time,” although this is something Musk says will happen in “a few months.” It does note, however, that users who change their display name or profile photo will lose their checkmark until their account is reviewed.

Here’s where you can buy a PS5

A stock photo of the disc-based PlayStation 5

Getting a PlayStation 5 no longer has to be an uphill battle. Thanks to the increased availability of Sony’s next-gen console, there are multiple options for bringing home a PS5. While availability is sometimes limited to bundles that come packaged with a game, this is still a great opportunity to bring home a console relatively stress-free. We’re keeping a lookout across the web to find where, when, and how you can buy either the PS5 (with a disc drive) or the PS5 Digital Edition, as well as any bundles that are not price surged.

Demand for this console is still high, with no guarantees that inventory will remain available for long. Nevertheless, we’ll do our best to keep this article updated with the latest in-stock alerts and tell you where to look.

Where can I buy a PS5 right now?

If you’re looking to take a PS5 home today, your best bet is springing for the God of War Ragnarök bundle. The $559.99 bundle packages the disc-based version of the PlayStation 5 with a digital copy of the excellent God of War Ragnarök. Right now, it’s available direct from Sony and PC Richards, as well as in-store at Best Buy, Target, and Walmart locations.

Most major retailers restock consoles and bundles both online and in physical stores on an intermittent basis, but availability can fluctuate based on your local store. It’s important to note that some retailers won’t ship your console, too, so make sure the store you select is within a reasonable distance if you’re planning to pick one up. You’ll also need a verified account with these retailers in order to check out.

Restock events can happen at any time. Additionally, retailers like Best Buy are combatting the demand for this console by restricting access to Totaltech members. A similar program is in place for Walmart Plus members, with premium members getting the first stab at fresh stock. If you’re trying to go through Amazon to get a console, you’ll have to sign up for an invitation first, but you don’t need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to take advantage of said process. Being a member doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a console, though it can potentially improve your odds.

Opting for a bundle that includes games like God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West is a perfectly viable option for getting a console without having to pay a premium. Bundles are made available through the PlayStation Direct store and other retailers, with new bundles becoming available alongside the release of new PlayStation exclusives. Whether it’s due to their higher price or that they’re packaged with a game someone may not want, bundles tend to sell out less quickly than standalone consoles.

Below, we’ve collected the PS5 landing pages for various retailers if you want to check the available stock for standalone consoles or bundles.

*Every PS5 comes with one DualSense controller. You can use the DualShock 4 controller, but it’ll only work when you’re playing PS4 games on the next-gen console.*

What accessories do I need to buy for the PS5?

The PlayStation 5 includes all the basic things you need to get started (minus the games, of course). However, you might want to consider picking up a few additional accessories if you’re looking to get the most out of your new console.

First, there’s the controller. Every PS5 includes one DualSense Wireless Controller, but there are a few benefits to owning at least one additional controller, such as if you plan to play local co-op games with a friend or family member. Or, if you’re like us and want to keep playing your game but don’t want to be tethered to the charging cable, a second controller lets you continue playing while the other charges.

Sony’s official gaming headphones are a fantastic way to experience the spatial audio of the PlayStation 5. The Pulse 3D sports a clean, minimalist aesthetic and is still one of our favorite gaming headsets thanks to its comfortable fit and solid sound quality.

The PS5 HD Camera is a neat accessory for people interested in using their PS5 to livestream video games or broadcast their gameplay with friends. It includes dual 1080p lenses and allows you to remove the background of your camera’s feed and replace it with something else.

We strongly recommend subscribing to PlayStation Plus if you have not already done so; outside of taking advantage of some online gaming functionalities, PlayStation Plus provides a ton of additional incentives, most notably PS5 owners have access to the PlayStation Plus Collection, a digital library of some of the most impactful titles to release on the PS4. The service has changed substantially since it launched and now offers tiered memberships with different pricing.

An annual membership to PlayStation Plus Essential, the lowest tier, costs $59.99 and provides you with free games each month, exclusive discounts, cloud storage for saved games, and access to the PlayStation Plus Collection on the PS5. A year of PlayStation Plus Extra, on the other hand, will run you $99.99 and grants you all the Essential benefits, in addition to even more free games by way of the PlayStation Game Catalog.

At the top of the heap, we have PlayStation Plus Premium, which costs $119.99 for an annual subscription. It offers all of the same benefits as lower tiers but provides access to the PlayStation Classics catalog, in addition to the ability to stream games to your PC and mobile devices. Premium subscribers also get the perk of game trials for eligible titles, allowing for time-limited access to games for free.

The PS5 comes with 825GB of storage out of the box but is compatible with a variety of M.2 SSDs if you need more space. There’s no shortage of M.2 SSDs on the market, but they can vary wildly in terms of their performance. Also, not all M.2 SSDs come packaged with a heatsink, which is necessary if you’re planning to use this drive with your PS5. Here are a couple of options we can recommend based on their performance and price point.

Update December 12th, 5:30PM ET: Article updated with new availability and pricing information, a table of retailers, and new accessory recommendations.

Only a quarter of US iPhones are sold through Apple

A person holding the iPhone 14 — *September is now an unofficial free iPhone bonanza.* | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A new report from CIRP says that only about 24 percent of recent iPhones purchased in the US were sold directly by Apple. Instead, the most popular way to buy a new iPhone was through a wireless carrier, which accounted for 67 percent of sales. That’s certainly a perception shift from the time of lines around the block at the Apple store on launch day, but it’s not at all surprising given how aggressively AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile now promote iPhone giveaways every fall.

CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners) surveys iPhone buyers to find out which models they’re buying and where they’re shopping — information Apple doesn’t disclose. Outside of carriers and Apple retail, CIRP attributes 4 percent of iPhone sales to Best Buy and 5 percent to “other,” which includes Target and Walmart. Those are just tiny slivers of the pie compared to the gigantic piece wireless carriers are eating.

None of this is entirely surprising. In the US in particular, carriers have a lot of advantages when it comes to phone sales. For starters, there’s a wireless store on every street corner in this country, while Apple stores are far less easy to come by. It’s also likely that many people are just used to buying phones from their carriers, so that’s where most people start when it’s time for a new iPhone — not Apple’s website. So even though Apple and Best Buy offer deeply discounted iPhones with carrier activation, they struggle to overcome the inertia that carriers have accumulated.

Taking the free phone deal from their carrier seems to be the path of least resistance for most of us in the US. And who’s to blame anyone for taking a free phone when a loaf of bread costs roughly half your paycheck? If you do take your carrier up on an aggressive upgrade offer, just remember to read the terms carefully, know how long the repayment plan is, and be sure you’re happy sticking with that wireless company for the duration.

Xbox boss: Sony wants to ‘grow by making Xbox smaller’

Phil Spencer smiles at the camera. — Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge.

Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony’s opposition to the Activision Blizzard deal comes down to the PlayStation maker wanting “to protect its dominance” in consoles. “The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller,” said Spencer in a recent Second Request podcast (Via Eurogamer).

Sony has been opposed to Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, and has focused on the future of Call of Duty in filings with regulators. “Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so the thing they grab onto is Call of Duty,” says Spencer. “The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we’ve said will continue to ship on the platform.”

Spencer has repeatedly reassured Call of Duty fans recently that the franchise will remain on PlayStation, after months of debate. The Verge revealed in September that Spencer made a written commitment to PlayStation head Jim Ryan earlier this year to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for “several more years” beyond the existing marketing deal Sony has with Activision. Sony labeled Microsoft’s offer “inadequate on many levels,” and Microsoft now says it has offered a 10-year deal on Call of Duty, which Sony has yet to comment on.

Microsoft has reached a 10-year deal with Nintendo to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo consoles if the Activision Blizzard deal closes. That could potentially lead to Call of Duty releasing on Nintendo Switch for the first time.

Whether Call of Duty arrives on Nintendo consoles or Xbox Game Pass hangs in the balance right now, after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a legal challenge to try and block Microsoft’s plan to buy Activision Blizzard. Regulators in Europe are also closely examining the deal, with the EU on a March 23rd deadline to complete its in-depth investigation and issue a decision. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is also performing a deeper review of the deal.

WhatsApp’s ‘View Once’ feature might expand to include text messages

A photo of an iPhone running WhatsApp. — Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

WhatsApp’s “View Once” feature, which currently lets you send photos and videos that disappear after the recipient has viewed them, may soon also support standard text-based messages. WABetaInfo reports that it found evidence of the in-development feature in the latest beta version of WhatsApp’s Android app, which might one day let users send messages that are only viewable once before disappearing into the ether.

Much like the current “View Once” feature, the new functionality could one day be useful for sending sensitive information that you don’t want a recipient to have ongoing access to, like a password or credit card details. In fact, when WhatsApp announced the launch of View Once for photos and videos, it used the example of someone sending a photo of their Wi-Fi login details as a case where it might be useful. It’s not hard to imagine this same information being sent in the form of a disappearing text message.

WhatsApp already offers a disappearing messages feature which allows you to set every message sent in a chat to disappear after a set period of time. But the new “View Once” feature would only apply to a specific message rather than a whole conversation, and would have a message disappear after it’s been viewed, rather than after a set period of time.

As it stands, WABetaInfo reports that the feature may one day be accessible via a button in the app that has the traditional send message logo on it combined with a padlock. But since the feature is in-development, and currently isn’t even available to beta testers, this design may change before it’s officially released.

WhatsApp currently prevents recipients from being able to screenshot a piece of view once media if they’re using the most recent version of its app, but it’s unclear whether this same protection will be extended to text messages.

A spokesperson for WhatsApp declined to comment on WABetaInfo’s report on the upcoming feature, so it’s unclear when, or even if, it might be officially available.

The Game awards: three patience-testing hours of video game advertorials

By focusing on the near-future of the industry, the honours failed to adequately celebrate its present

The high point of the ninth annual Game awards arrived within its first 15 minutes. A charmingly unkempt Al Pacino arrived on stage to present the award for best performance, quickly admitting that he neither played “a whole lot of video games” nor could read the teleprompter especially well. Still, he managed to hand the gong out to actor Christopher Judge for his electrifying performance as Kratos in God of War Ragnarök. Dressed in a sparkling gold suit, Judge began his moment in the sun by hugging the Hollywood star. This was just the start of a further 10 heartfelt minutes on stage, the actor relaying the personal anguish he went through leading up to the game’s production. As the minutes wore on, the show’s producers seemingly began to fret about the night’s schedule, eventually playing orchestral music in an attempt to hurry him along. Yet this only made Judge’s words more epic – all the more affecting.

Judge’s time on stage was a rare moment of spontaneity and personality in a three-hour awards show otherwise sorely lacking these ingredients. Creator, host, and producer Geoff Keighley, had promised a “streamlined” runtime compared with its predecessors, and so Judge’s extended appearance left less time for other winners. However, this year’s glitzy event continued to show the extent to which the Game awards lack balance. The length of time given to the awards and their winners was dwarfed by that allocated for what the show calls “world premiere” trailers of new and announced games. The awards should be a celebration of the year’s interactive excellence yet the evening demonstrated the extent to which it remains fixated on a hype-filled future, often to the detriment of the creators it purports to recognise.

US agency moves to block landmark merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard

Regulators voted 3-1 to stop the biggest acquisition in video game history, citing concerns over thwarting of competition

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has moved to block Microsoft’s takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that the deal would thwart competition by denying rivals access to popular gaming content.

Microsoft, which owns the Xbox video game console system, said in January 2022 that it would buy Activision for $68.7bn, which would make it the biggest gaming industry deal in history. Activision is the maker of popular games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

Monday’s top tech news: (Twitter) Blue Monday

Elon Musk, with a background of Twitter badges — Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photo: Getty Images

Plus, Orion splashes back down to earth and Returnal’s PC RAM requirements are surprisingly high.

Ok, let’s try this again. Elon Musk’s Twitter will attempt to relaunch its premium Blue subscription today, allowing users to pay $8 a month ($11 if you subscribe on iOS) for early access to new features and, of course, a blue checkmark. The social media network had attempted to roll out the new subscription offering last month, but pulled it after a wave of fake-yet-verified accounts flooded the platform.

Elsewhere, NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully returned to Earth over the weekend, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. Although this Artemis I mission was uncrewed, NASA hopes that will change with an upcoming 2024 flight that’ll send a group of astronauts around the Moon.

Finally, although 16GB has long served as the default amount of RAM recommended for most PC games, Returnal’s upcoming port looks set to buck the trend if its Steam listing is to be believed. The listing lists 32GB of RAM as the recommended amount for decent performance, though you should be able to scrape by with 16GB as a minimum.

And now, here’s a silly tweet:

absolute madman has claimed his front and center solo seat for Avatar 2 the day it opens at the biggest IMAX in town pic.twitter.com/ZoCJ53TKLT
— miley (@MilesKlee) December 7, 2022

Stay tuned, as we continue to update this list with the most important news of today: Friday, December 12th, 2022.

dimanche 11 décembre 2022

Returnal is coming to PC, but you’ll need 32GB of RAM to play comfortably

A screenshot of Sony’s Returnal game on PC — Returnal *demands more RAM than even* Microsoft Flight Simulator. | Image: Sony

Sony’s Returnal is the latest PlayStation exclusive to make the jump to PC, but it comes with a hefty RAM recommendation (via WccfTech). While you’ll need a minimum of 16GB of RAM in your rig just to get it in a playable state, Returnal’s Steam listing recommends at least 32GB to get the most out of its gameplay and graphics.

To get an idea of how unusual this is, not even Microsoft Flight Simulator recommends this amount of RAM; it has a minimum requirement of 8GB of RAM and recommends 16GB. Meanwhile, other graphically-demanding PC games, like Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Dying Light 2, and A Plague Tale: Requiem, don’t suggest more than 16GB of RAM.

Returnal is a third-person roguelike shooter that features undeniably stunning visuals, but it’s still not clear why the game demands so much RAM to unlock its full potential. The rest of the system requirements seem pretty normal for a game ported from a next-generation console, as you’ll need at least an Intel i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, along with an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super or AMD RX 6700 XT GPU or better to meet its recommended specs.

However, a leaked video of the game (which has since been taken down) might shed some light on the high RAM recommendation. As noted by PC Gamer, the video suggests that Returnal could include support for both Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR upscaling technology, ray-tracing for both shadows and reflections, as well as unlocked framerates.

Mikael Haveri, the brand director at Returnal developer Housemarque, appears to hint at some of these perks in the Sony blog post announcing the PC port. “For our PC version there will be an array of PC specific tweaks and upgrades to make sure that the experience is as fluid as possible,” Haveri explains, while adding that more details about this will become available “later.”

Even if Returnal does support ray-tracing and upscaling technologies, it still doesn’t explain what it does differently for Sony to recommend 32GB of RAM as a baseline. Both Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered support ray-tracing and DLSS, but only their highest ultimate ray-tracing options require 32GB of RAM. Otherwise, you can still play both games comfortably with just 16GB of RAM.

In addition to Returnal, Sony also announced that it’s bringing the PS5 exclusive The Last of Us Part 1 remake to PC next year. Sony hasn’t revealed the required specs for this game yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if the company ups the RAM recommendation on this, too.