Posts Tagged: three

A new Google Pixel 8a leak just revealed three huge upgrades

The Google Pixel 8a just leaked again. This time, we have new details on its chipset and two possible display upgrades.
Digital Trends

A Rumor Says The Low-Tier Galaxy Z Fold 6 Will Cost Three Digits

If you’ve always wanted a book-style foldable but the prices send you scurrying, this year might see Samsung release a sub-$ 1,000 Z Fold, according to a rumor.
TalkAndroid

New and returning subscribers can get three months of Disney+ for just $2/£2 a month

If you’ve trimmed your outgoings by cancelling your Disney+ streaming subscription you can snag a 3-month sub for less than it usually costs for a single month. As part of Disney’s latest promotional offer to tempt both new and former subscribers back to its stable, you can get 3 months access for a total of […]

Come comment on this article: New and returning subscribers can get three months of Disney+ for just $ 2/£2 a month

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BMW reveals three new EVs for its summer 2023 lineup

BMW announced new EVs today as part of its summer 2023 lineup. The new models include the i4 xDrive 40 (an all-wheel-drive variant of the i4), the single-motor i7 eDrive50 and the hybrid 750e xDrive. In addition, the automaker revealed an updated infotainment operating system for some models.

The 2024 i4 xDrive40 is an all-wheel-drive, 396-horsepower variant of the popular Gran Coupe. The all-electric vehicle has dual motors that provide an estimated 307-mile range using the standard 18-inch tires (it drops to about 282 miles with optional 19-inch wheels.) In addition, the EV can accelerate from zero to 60 in 4.9 seconds. The i4 xDrive40 will start at $ 61,600 with an added $ 995 destination fee. BMW expects US-based deliveries to begin in the third quarter of 2023.

Meanwhile, the rear-wheel-drive i7 eDrive50 is powered by a single GEN5 motor, supplying 449 horsepower. BMW will announce range and performance details “closer to market launch” this fall, but we know the model will start at $ 105,700 (plus destination fee). Finally, the 750e xDrive combines a 308-horsepower six-cylinder internal combustion engine with a 194-horsepower electric motor. It also offers 483 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. In addition, the plug-in hybrid’s purely electric range is rated at 35 miles. The 750e xDrive will start at $ 107,000 and the same $ 995 destination fee. It also launches in the US this fall.

Screenshot of BMW's updated Operating System 8.5 infotainment home screen. On the left, it includes phone controls with navigation at the right and a taskbar (with shortcuts) at the bottom.
BMW

The automaker is updating its infotainment operating system “in certain models.” BMW Operating System 8.5 gives the home screen “clearly arranged functions” designed to work better on the company’s curved display. Ridding itself of sub-menus, it uses a “zero-layer principle” that keeps all relevant controls and information on a single level, using widgets arranged vertically on the driver’s side. In addition, it includes symbols to quick-access the climate control menu, app library, navigation and Apple CarPlay / Android Auto.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bmw-reveals-three-new-evs-for-its-summer-2023-lineup-210725344.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

One iPhone 14 feature just saved three people’s lives

Emergency SOS via Satellite is a helpful feature that may have saved three people’s lives over the weekend after a canyoneering trip went wrong.
Digital Trends

Ubisoft is bringing ‘Far Cry 6’ and three other recent games to Steam

Ubisoft is about to bring another handful of games to Steam in the coming months. As spotted by PC Gamer, Far Cry 6, Riders Republic, Rainbow Six Extraction and Monopoly Madness will arrive on the storefront on May 11th, June 8th, June 15th and June 22nd, respectively. On PC, all four games are currently only available through the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft’s own Connect marketplace.

Following a three-year absence from the platform, Ubisoft began releasing its games on Steam again in the winter of 2022. The first batch of titles included Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Anno 1800. At the start of 2023, the company then released The Division 2 and Watch Dogs: Legion, among a handful of other titles that were previously unavailable on Steam. When Ubisoft left the storefront in 2019, it said the decision led to pre-orders for The Division 2 increasing by six times on its own storefront (where Ubisoft did not have to pay Valve’s up to 30 percent cut of sales). As for the company’s decision to return to Steam, Ubisoft has only said it’s “constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are,” a statement that suggests the size of Valve’s userbase may outweigh the value of sharing a smaller portion of sales with a partner like Epic.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisoft-is-bringing-far-cry-6-and-three-other-recent-games-to-steam-204545630.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Three Samsung employees reportedly leaked sensitive data to ChatGPT

On the surface, ChatGPT might seem like a tool that can come in useful for an array of work tasks. But before you ask the chatbot to summarize important memos or check your work for errors, it's worth remembering that anything you share with ChatGPT could be used to train the system and perhaps even pop up in its responses to other users. That's something several Samsung employees probably should have been aware of before they reportedly shared confidential information with the chatbot.

Soon after Samsung's semiconductor division started allowing engineers to use ChatGPT, workers leaked secret info to it on at least three occasions, according to The Economist Korea (as spotted by Mashable). One employee reportedly asked the chatbot to check sensitive database source code for errors, another solicited code optimization and a third fed a recorded meeting into ChatGPT and asked it to generate minutes.

Reports suggest that, after learning about the security slip-ups, Samsung attempted to limit the extent of future faux pas by restricting the length of employees' ChatGPT prompts to a kilobyte, or 1024 characters of text. The company is also said to be investigating the three employees in question and building its own chatbot to prevent similar mishaps. Engadget has contacted Samsung for comment.

ChatGPT's data policy states that, unless users explicitly opt out, it uses their prompts to train its models. The chatbot's owner OpenAI urges users not to share secret information with ChatGPT in conversations as it's “not able to delete specific prompts from your history.” The only way to get rid of personally identifying information on ChatGPT is to delete your account — a process that can take up to four weeks.

The Samsung saga is another example of why it's worth exercising caution when using chatbots, as you perhaps should with all your online activity. You never truly know where your data will end up.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/three-samsung-employees-reportedly-leaked-sensitive-data-to-chatgpt-190221114.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Don’t watch ‘Star Trek: Picard’ season three, it’ll only encourage them

The following article contains spoilers for earlier Star Trek properties but doesn’t reveal specific spoilers about Star Trek: Picard season three, not that you should be watching it anyway.

It’s 2034 and Warner Bros. decides it needs to wring more cash out of Friends, the decade defining cultural juggernaut and sitcom behemoth. Imagine what that show would be like; A warm and cozy three-decades-later check-in on characters you know intimately well. After all, you probably spent your formative years watching them mature from young single New Yorkers to a series of families. Maybe it’ll tickle those nostalgia glands, reminding you of when you watched the show with your own family as a kid.

Unfortunately, the hotshot creator of the age decided they want to go in a different direction this time. This needs to be a dark and gritty miserycore grief orgy that better reflects our more rough-and-tumble times. After all, TV these days can’t be gentle or comforting, offer escapism or posit a better world, not since Trump, Brexit, Bolonosaro, January 6th and Ukraine. The creative team have got that quote on a poster in their office, the one about thetriumph of evil, and they’re not going to sit idly by, they’re taking a stand.

In the sequel, Rachel’s famous for her wellness TikTok that often makes allusions to “reclaiming” the US as a white ethnostate. Joey lost an arm while filming a movie and is now in prison after a failed heist to pay off his life-ruining medical debt. Monica’s got a crippling adderall addiction and slips away most nights to murder the neighborhood cats and dogs. Everything’s shot in ultra gloomy vision, and there’s no laugh track, jokes or a studio audience, just unrelenting misery.

This revival is dense with references to the Friends backstory as well as the broader Friends universe. Remember that Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe’s twin sister Ursula on Mad About You, right? If not, you better get yourself to Wikipedia to study up. I mean, it won’t be relevant to the plot, but it’s something you remember, so clap, go on, clap.

You might be wondering why such a project would be allowed to happen, given that it wouldn’t be fun for fans of the original series. Times change, characters age, but you can’t turn a cozy sitcom into Breaking Bad overnight and expect that to be satisfying. You’d hardly think it’d be a big pull for newbie viewers either, who’d probably steer clear if they weren’t already familiar with 236 episodes of intricate backstory. Nostalgia revivals don’t need to be slavish to their source material, but it’s hard to see the appeal for something so grim and unpleasant.

Apropos of nothing, let’s talk about the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard.

Image of Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn from 'Star Trek: Picard' in the USS Titan transporter room.
Trae Patton / Paramount+

Season three was sold as something of a course correction for Picard after its first two deeply unpopular runs. It ditched all but Raffi from the roster of original characters created for it, and instead pulled in the stars from Star Trek: The Next Generation. As well as the returning Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner, we’ll see LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn back in action. And, in the six of ten episodes I’ve been permitted to watch under strict embargo, I’d say only one of them feels like the character we know and love.

Unfortunately, while we have the other TNG stars, the creative team of Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman and showrunner Terry Matalas didn’t bother to grab any of that show’s lightness of tone. Picard remains a grimdark slog, shot on perpetually underlit sets and featuring a succession of increasingly-bleak setpieces. The plot is stretched so thin that the first four episodes turn out to be little more than an extended prologue for the rest. A prologue that could, I should add, have been an efficient, and possibly more enjoyable, hour. The story is so obvious, too, that you’ll be ahead of the characters pretty much non-stop as they stumble from one idiot plot to the next.

It’s maddening that we can see how much of the plot is blocking itself to ensure things can’t move forward too quickly. There’s a whole episode of gosh-isn’t-this-tense tension that could have been eliminated if anyone in Starfleet pulled out a tricorder and used it as God intended. In this utopian future, where science and technology really are advanced enough to look like magic, why does nobody employ the tools hanging from their waistband? Mostly because Paramount ordered ten episodes, and ten episodes is what we’re going to give them. Another episode has a time-filling punch fight runaround because it’s now somehow impossible for a serving officer to use a Federation ship’s intercom system to call the bridge and warn them of impending danger.

Picard is one of those series where you often find yourself shouting at the screen as the next stupid moment unfolds in front of you. Even worse is that the show’s creative team seem to think that it’s us, the audience, who are deficient in the thinking department. There is scene after scene in which characters repeat the same lines back to each other because the crew assume we’re not paying attention. Because of the limits on spoilers, I’ve re-written a scene to match the sentiment, if not the words verbatim, so you can get a sense of what to expect:

CREW 1: The ship is being pulled closer to the black hole’s gravity well.

CREW 2: We do not have enough power to pull ourselves away, sir.

RIKER: Are you saying that we’re dead in the water?

CREW 1: We will be passing the black hole’s event horizon in 17 minutes.

RIKER: We’re dead in the water and we’re sinking.

PICARD: We’re going to be dead in 17 minutes, Will, unless we can find a way to solve this.

RIKER: We’re sinking into quicksand, and there’s no time to grab a helping hand.

The irony is that this run is so thicket-dense with references that the show basically assumes that you’ve already seen pretty much everything produced during Trek’s gold, silver and bronze ages. But, to make sure nobody’s left behind, everyone has to speak in exposition so hamfisted that, now that this is over, I think Michelle Hurd deserves personal injury compensation. Raffi gets saddled with so many cringe-inducing lines where she states, and restates and re-restates the obvious that I started grasping fistfuls of my own hair to relieve some of my discomfort.

And as for the storyline, what can I say? It’s clear that Alex Kurtzman is only comfortable writing in a single register. His go-to is usually a militaristic, testosterone-fuelled paranoid Reaganite fantasy in which the real villain was our own government all along. He did it in Into Darkness, Discovery season two and even the first season of Picard – to the point where Starfleet is now so lousy with double agents that all of their schemes fail because the saboteurs are all too busy sabotaging each other’s plans instead of that of the wider Federation.

If Picard is nothing else, it’s nearly pornographic in its use and misuse of franchise iconography. I always felt that Jeff Russo’s Picard theme sounded more like the library music for a corporate advert than the makes-your-heart-soar theme a Star Trek deserves. And here, it’s been ditched in favor of Jerry Goldsmith’s sumptuous, nectar-for-the-ears score for First Contact. The first title card is a direct pull from Wrath of Khan, and pretty much every element therein is an elbow to the ribs, reminding you of older, better Star Trek movies and TV series.

An early scene has a character “hijacking a starship” under false pretenses while it’s in spacedock. You know, the mushroom-shaped megastation orbiting Earth from The Search for Spock onwards. And because we’re already going beat-for-beat for a sequence xeroxed from 1984, said starship even jumps to warp as soon as it’s past the exit doors. Despite the fact that the sort of hardcore Trek fans who would spot the reference would also note that you’re not meant to jump to warp while inside a solar system when there’s no urgent need to do so.

I’ll admit, this is postgraduate degree-level Star Trek nerdery, but you can’t have it both ways: If you’re trying to placate hostile viewers with the excessive fan service, you can’t then complain when they point out that you’re doing it all wrong.

The show’s teaser trailer already revealed we’re getting an overstuffed roster of villains to round out the run. Amanda Plummer’s captain of an enemy ship that shares a design with the Narada from Star Trek ‘09. Then there’s Daniel Davis’ holographic Professor Moriarty, as well as Data’s evil twin brother Lore. Both of these sorta make sense in the context, but there’s a hell of a lot of narrative scaffolding to explain away the fact that Brent Spiner is now 74 years old. (The dude looks good for it, but it’s hard to play an ageless android when time marches on and the de-aging CGI budget is spent on smoothing out Patrick Stewart’s face for a single flashback and the pointless needle-drops that open every episode.)

Now, before you scurry off to Memory Alpha to confirm that Moriartywas locked away in a holobox at the end of “Ship in a Bottle,” and Lorewas disassembled at the end of “Descent Part 2,” yes, they were. Try to remember that showrunner Terry Matalas and executive producer Alex Kurtzman treat Star Trek’s continuity less as something which informs storytelling and more as a series of shiny objects to keep us all amused when the plot sags or anyone has any time to think about what’s going on.

I’ll also add that the trailers and promotional material have very intentionally kept a lot of material back. There are more classic-era heroes and villains crowbarring their way into the story in the way that, if it were fanfiction, would seem excessive. But, if I’m honest, the second or third time someone, or something, familiar popped up, I wasn’t whooping and cheering, I was sighing. The Star Trek universe is vast and broad and deep, but Picard makes it feel like a puddle where everyone knows each other, and everyone under the age of 30 has grown up watching The Next Generation. If you’re serving in the US Navy, for instance, how likely is it that you’d know the ins and outs of every exploit of even the most well-traveled combat vessel?

Now, I don’t have the language or experience to discuss this properly, and I’m aware of others who do feel differently. This is just my opinion, but I think the depiction of drug and alcohol use in Picard has always felt off. And since I can’t talk about the third season, I’ll talk about the first, where something very similar happened and is just as vexing here as it was back then. Raffi deals with her son’s rejection by relapsing, but then mere hours later, she’s back at her station and advancing the plot. I don’t recall a sense that her use clouded her judgment and I don’t think it was discussed subsequently – so despite the portentiousness in the build-up, it was depicted almost like someone just having a bad day and knocking back some drinks. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, because there are plenty of people who use drugs and it doesn’t impact their professional lives at all. (Read any Making-Of book about The Original Series and you’ll notice how more than a few references to the production team’s drug use.) But if you’re going to write a plot where scenes hang on the will-she-or-won’t-she tension of relapse, but it all turns out to be hunky dory straight after, what was the point of depicting any of this in the first place?

Then there’s the violence, and the casual way that it’s doled out, especially in the show’s numerous interrogation scenes. I’m not advocating for forced confessions, but given Starfleet’s advanced science, and the Federation has a planet of literal telepaths at its disposal, why are we always punching people in the nose with a butt of a phaser pistol? I mean, I know why: It’s a nerdy sci-fi show play acting as a muscular basic-cable drama, but that doesn’t mean it works. I’ve often theorized that many modern-day Star Trek creators would much rather be over the hall making their own Star War instead. Maybe I’m wrong, and the Picard crew is really nostalgic for the hamfisted Bush-era politics of 24.

Image of Amanda Plummer and some aliens in a dark corridor in an unnamed location during 'Star Trek: Picard's third season
Trae Patton / Paramount+

It was always going to be hard to pull Picard out of its creative slump that started back when the show was greenlit. If there was ever a character who we’d seen grow, change, mature and treat his own life with more kindness, it was Jean-Luc Picard. Some of TNG’s best episodes forced Picard to consider his own life, his history, his mortality, his motives, including the series’ grand finale. “All Good Things” isn’t just good Star Trek, it’s one of the best series finales ever made, encompassing the entire breadth and depth of The Next Generation in one glorious sweep. And between seven years of TV and four less essential but still important movies, he was done.

I wrote somewhere, I forget where, that a smarter idea would have been to center the action on a less-well served member of the Enterprise D crew. I’d have been second in line to watch a Geordi LaForge spin-off (behind uber fan Rihanna, of course), and there’s plenty to explore there. Or a Beverley Crusher spin-off, as she solves people’s problems as a simple country space doctor back on Earth or on some far-flung planet. Maybe a sci-fi version of In Treatment fronted by Marina Sirtis could have worked, and would have certainly cost less than this.

All of which would be preferable to what we got, which despite initially having a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist at the helm, was two years of go-nowhere, do-nothing bore-a-thons. Its brief moments of cleverness drowned out by the baffling character decisions, tin-eared dialog and ligneous acting. And both had plots which would have struggled to fill a movie stretched out across a painfully slow ten hour runtime.

And that’s before we get to the moralizing, which had characters pointing at a bad thing and saying “thing bad.” I don’t think the second season’s 26 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes is because the (inexplicably) conservative wing of Trek fandom was outraged that a show about happy space communists solving problems while remaining friends suddenly “got woke.” Good, old-fashioned Star Trek at least had the good grace to cloak its progressivism in allegory that could slide past the otherwise closed minds of some of its viewers. By comparison, Picard felt like the first draft of a high school theater production made the term after the teacher had explained agitprop.

Maybe that’s why I feel so annoyed by Picard, because all of the things that are wrong with the show, and its kin, are examples of amateurishness. Amateurish plotting, amateurish dialogue, a lack of thoughtfulness about the material, what it says, or what it’s doing. Just an endless parade of big, dumb, brash, po-faced melodrama used in place of some sort of maturity or integrity. I don’t expect Star Trek to be brilliant all the damn time, but I do expect a minimum standard of something to be upheld. And this falls so far below it, it’s hard to call it Star Trek. Some people will call that gatekeeping, but Star Trek can be anything it damn well wants to be, so long as it’s competently made and halfway entertaining. 

The constant callbacks got me thinking about the period when Nicholas Meyer was, directly or indirectly, the major creative force behind Star Trek. It’s been 32 years since his 1991 swansong, The Undiscovered Country, and it remains a high-water mark of cinematic Trek. Drawing to a close the story of The Original Series crew, Meyer didn’t go for nostalgia, but savaged his characters, exposing their flaws, their bigotries, their failings. There was redemption, and heart, and it never needed Meyer to stage endless close-quarters phaser-fu fights in unlight rooms.

But that was a filmmaker with a clear vision, and the good graces to really drag his characters in the dirt before washing them clean. Imagine what would happen if Picard encountered any of the same level of subtext – they’d probably spend an hour running from it before beating it over the head with the butt of a phaser rifle and then spend the next hour feeling glum about it. If nothing else, I’d say don’t even watch Picard for ironic kicks, lest Paramount think it’s somehow a runaway hit and continue to produce crap like this.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

This AI cloned my voice using just three minutes of audio

My Own Voice certainly isn’t the only voice-cloning tool out there, but what’s impressive about it is that it only needs a tiny amount of input.
Digital Trends

Nikola founder Trevor Milton convicted on three charges of fraud

Trevor Milton, the founder and former executive chairman of Nikola, has been found guilty on three counts of fraud for misleading the electric vehicle company’s investors about its business and technology.

In total, he was found guilty on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He was acquitted on one charge of securities fraud. His sentencing has been scheduled for January 27th. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Milton was indicted by a federal grand jury on the charges last year, with prosecutors citing numerous alleged lies, including many made on Twitter, in podcast interviews and other media appearances. Prosecutors alleged he had lied about “nearly all aspects of the business” in an effort to boost the stock of the EV maker.

The SEC began investigating the company in 2020, after Hindenburg Research publicly accused Nikola of staging an “elaborate ruse” to mislead the public about the status of its electric semi, Nikola One. While the company had published a video purporting to show the truck “cruising on a road at a high rate of speed,” Hindenburg said the truck had actually been “towed to the top of a hill on a remote stretch of road and simply filmed it rolling down the hill.” The company ultimately paid $ 125 million to settle civil charges with the SEC in 2021.

During the trial, Milton’s defense lawyer argued that the video was merely “special effects” and that “it’s certainly not a crime to use special effects.” But prosecutors raised several other false claims by Milton, who was extremely active on Twitter. According to The Times, prosecutors said Milton also lied about having “binding contracts with trucking companies” that in reality were cancelable reservations for vehicles. Prosecutors also cited Milton's claims about making “green hydrogen” when the company had not yet produced any.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

‘Star Trek: Picard’ season three trailer teases return of ‘The Next Generation’ cast

Paramount has shared a new trailer for the upcoming third season of Star Trek: Picard. And while we already knew Picard’s final adventure would reunite Patrick Stewart with most of the principal cast of The Next Generation, it’s still good to see some characters we haven’t seen in a while. The minute-long clip Paramount released during San Diego Comic-Con features voiceovers from nearly all of Picard’s season three cast, including LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn. It’s not much more than what Paramount had to offer back in April, but at least this time we get to see the former crew of the USS Enterprise in their new uniforms.

That’s not the only Star Trek news to come out of Comic-Con. Paramount also announced that season two of Strange New Worlds will feature a crossover episode with Lower Decks. Jonathan Frakes will direct the episode, which will feature a combination of live-action and animated footage. Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid will also reprise their roles as the voices of Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler. Season two of Strange New Worlds doesn’t have a release date yet, but Star Trek fans can look forward to watching a new season of Lower Decks starting on August 25th. On that note, Paramount also shared a new trailer for the animated show, which you'll want to watch through to the end if you're a Deep Space Nine fan. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Rivian opens its first three ‘Adventure Network’ fast charging sites

When Rivian drivers do eventually get on the road, they’ll have their pick of charging networks including a brand new one from the EV truckmaker itself. Rivian announced on Monday that the first three sites of its burgeoning “Adventure Network” of Level 3 fast DC chargers are coming online and will be accessible to nearly every other EV on the road, regardless of who makes it. 

The first station opened in Salida, Colorado with four chargers capable of delivering 200 kW of power — that’s about 140 miles of range for an R1T in 20 minutes — in addition to the existing set of Level 2 chargers. Rivian will officially open the other stations in Inyokern and Bishop, California, later in the week. 

You’ve probably never heard of any of these towns unless you frequent Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Mammoth Lakes or Death Valley National Park. Similar to Jeep’s efforts to install charging stations at trailheads, Rivian’s Adventure Network seeks to add fast charging capabilities along both popular cross-country routes and also near national parks and other out-of-the way locations.  

NO RIVIAN FOR YOU, MANITOBA
Rivian

“We designed Rivian charging to support electrified adventure, and these first sites demonstrate how we’re enabling drivers to responsibly reach some of the nation’s most breathtaking natural spaces,” Trent Warnke, Rivian’s Senior Director of Energy and Charging Solutions, said in a statement. “In addition to scenic or off-the-beaten-path destinations, our fast charging rollout is designed to ensure travelers have places to charge along major transportation corridors coast to coast.” To that end, the company hopes to install some 3,500 chargers at 600 sites nationwide.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Microsoft opened Activision acquisition talks three days after CEO harassment report

When Microsoft announced it would spend $ 68.7 billion to buy Activision Blizzard to bolster its Xbox gaming division, the news came as a surprise to many. For months, the troubled publisher had been in headlines stemming from the workplace sexual harassment lawsuit filed by California’s fair employment agency in July. The bad press hit a fever pitch on November 16th after The Wall Street Journal published a report that asserted Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had not only known about many of the incidents of sexual harassment that had occured at the company but had also acted to protect those who were responsible for the abuse.

Days after that article came out, Xbox chief Phil Spencer reportedly told employees he was “distributed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” that allegedly took place at Activision Blizzard and that Microsoft would re-evaluate its relationship with the publisher. It’s one day after that email that Spencer called Kotick to start the process that would end with Microsoft announcing plans to buy Activision Blizzard some two months later, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing first spotted by CNBC.

Starting on page 31 of the document, Microsoft devotes nearly 10 pages detailing the timeline of its talks with Activision. According to the filing, Spencer told Kotick during their November 19th phone call that “Microsoft was interested in discussing strategic opportunities” between the two companies and asked if he had time to talk to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the following day. That Saturday, November 20th, Nadella made it clear Microsoft hoped to purchase the publisher, stating the company was “interested in exploring a strategic combination with Activision Blizzard.”

It turns out the quick pace at which the talks moved was mainly due to all the other companies interested in buying up Activision Blizzard after its stock dived in November. At least four other companies contacted the publisher about a possible acquisition. None of them are named in the SEC filing. However, one notably wanted to just buy Blizzard. Activision didn’t move forward with that option because the company’s board of directors deemed the sale would have been too difficult to pull off.

The document also details the terms of the purchase agreement. If the deal doesn’t go through due to antitrust complications, Microsoft has agreed to pay Activision Blizzard a termination fee of up $ 3 billion. A few years ago, that’s a possibility Microsoft probably wouldn’t have had to worry about too much, but 2022 finds the company in a very different regulatory environment. At the start of the month, NVIDIA abandoned a $ 40 billion bid to buy ARM after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the purchase. President Biden appointed Lina Khan, the Commission’s current chair, to the position on the strength of her experience in antitrust law. When the NVIDIA-ARM deal fell through, the agency specifically noted it was "significant" because it "represents the first abandonment of a litigated vertical merger in many years." 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Three reasons Apple’s anti-sideloading rant misses the point

Apple Craig Federighi tackled sideloading at this week’s Web Summit 2021 with a misleading rant. Here are three reasons he’s wrong.
Mobile | Digital Trends

Three classic Grand Theft Auto games will be re-released on modern platforms

One of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming world has been confirmed: Rockstar Games is re-releasing three more Grand Theft Auto games. The bundle includes Grand Theft Auto III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas.

The clunkily named Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC later this year. The bundle will also land on iOS and Android in the first half of 2022.

Rockstar says the revamped games will have upgraded visuals and "modern gameplay enhancements" while retaining the look and feel of the originals. More details about the changes will be revealed in the coming weeks. Although all three games are classics, their visuals perhaps don't hold up too well in 2021. Updated graphics might make them worth revisiting, while some fans will appreciate being able to play them on Switch.

Meanwhile, Rockstar will remove the original versions of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas from digital storefronts starting next week. You'll still be able to download the games if you bought them previously.

Elsewhere, the publisher plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of GTA III later this month (sorry, it is that old). Some special events and commemorative gear are coming to GTA Online this fall.

The PS2-era games aren't the only GTA titles that Rockstar is reworking. An expanded and enhanced version of Grand Theft Auto V is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in March.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Three things the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 needs to succeed

Microsoft plans to release the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 on September 22. Here are three things it needs to succeed.
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Google One Subscribers will soon get three months of Stadia Pro as a freebie

It looks like Google One subscribers could soon be getting their hands on a freebie from the search giant in the form of a three-month trial for Stadia Pro, which brings it into alignment with Chromebooks and Pixel handsets. There hasn’t been much in the way of benefits for Google One subscribers of late, so […]

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Chromebook users get three free months of Stadia Pro

Google is giving you an extra incentive to buy a Chromebook: a whole lot of cloud gaming that could make your laptop shine. The tech giant has introduced a perk that gives Chromebook owners a free three-month trial of Stadia Pro. You’ll need a system…
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Plex makes live TV free for three months

Plex is joining the chorus of companies handing out freebies to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The media app makers are offering their Live TV feature free to all users for three months through June 30th. You'll still need a tuner and an over-the…
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Google offering three months of Disney+ on new Chromebooks until February 2020

Disney has partnered with Google to offer a promotional subscription to their new video streaming service for all Chromebooks activated in the US in the next two months. Following the gargantuan advertising and promotion campaign for their new and extremely popular video streaming service, Disney has now partnered up with Google to offer a ‘taste’ […]

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Queen and YouTube Present Three New Fan Music Videos for ‘You Are the Champions’ Campaign

More Than 10,000 Fans From Over 120 Countries Helped Create New Fan Music Videos for Queen’s Iconic Songs: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and “A Kind Of Magic”
In celebration of “Bohemian Rhapsody” becoming the the first pre-1990s video to reach one billion views on YouTube, Queen and YouTube Music worked together with Universal Music Group and Hollywood Records to enlist the band’s loyal fans from around the world to help create brand-new, user generated fan music videos for three of the band’s most recognizable tracks: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and “A Kind Of Magic” as part of the You Are The Champions initiative.
More than 10,000 fans from over 120 countries around the world answered the call, submitting unique content via the YouAreTheChampions.com microsite, with each video focusing on one of three submission categories. The result is one of the world’s biggest musical collaborations: including a musician/singer performance-based video for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” an entire dance-based video for “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and a montage of bespoke work from visual artists for “A Kind of Magic.”
A true celebration of the band’s unique connection with their fans around the world, the videos show the band represented by multiple generations from every continent. To celebrate the launch of the videos, Queen’s Roger Taylor said, “Glad you could all join us. Welcome.”
Brian May said, “It’s one of the most rewarding things that can happen to an artist of any kind—to see that our work has inspired folk all around the world to create their own performances and visual art is a thrill. And the diversity of their vision is astonishing. Big thanks to everyone who participated.”
More below about the new fan-created music videos!
Don’t Stop Me Now”: Polly Bennett, the choreographer who worked with Rami Malek for the film Bohemian Rhapsody, created a unique dance for fans to learn and film for this classic Queen song. More than 1,800 videos were submitted from individuals, groups, ballerinas, ice skaters and a few Freddie Mercury impersonators as well. The final video resulted in a choreographed performance with fans from all over the world dancing together as one.
Bohemian Rhapsody”: Musicians and singers from around the globe were asked to submit footage of themselves performing the song and more than 5,400 from 110 countries answered the call, including harpists, classical musicians, a bassoonist and even a group of xylophonists! The result is a layering of performances from fans all over the world, playing and singing in unison to recreate the iconic track.
A Kind Of Magic”: Visual artists submitted individual artwork in the medium of their choosing to depict the lyrics and melody of this iconic song. 2,773 artists from 92 countries submitted for the video, and the end result is a visual symphony of fan art that pays homage to the song’s lyrics and diverse representations of the band’s members dreamed in paint, animation, graphic designs, sand, flowers, and more. Check out the final videos, along with Queen’s catalog of classics on Queen’s official YouTube channel.


YouTube Blog

‘Westworld’ season three teaser brings us to Silicon Valley

While the first two Westworld seasons were centered around the use of AI and robotics technology at a sort of vacation getaway, the teaser revealed tonight turns the lens back toward Silicon Valley tech giants. In a promotion linked to the Wired 25 e…
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Queen launches ‘You Are The Champions’ campaign, giving fans a chance to star in three new user-generated videos on YouTube

Queen — in partnership with YouTube Music, Universal Music Group and Hollywood Records —has launched “You Are The Champions,” a unique new campaign that gives fans an exclusive chance to become a part of Queen history with a starring role in three brand-new, user-generated videos for three of the band’s most celebrated tracks. The campaign launched to celebrate Queen’s iconic music video for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” becoming the first pre-1990s video to reach one billion views on YouTube.

Speaking from the band’s current sold-out North American tour, founding Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor said, “We are honoured that Bohemian Rhapsody has just hit one billion views on YouTube. We want to thank you all and celebrate with our amazing fans all around the world by creating three new music videos to our songs, all featuring you! Whether you are a musician, singer, dancer, visual artist or you just want to have some fun. Go to youarethechampions.com to find out more and we’ll see you on the road somewhere.”

As part of the campaign, musicians, singers, and instrumentalists can take on “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Visual artists will get the chance to design any word or phrase from the lyrics of “A Kind of Magic.” And, finally, dancers will be able to give their own interpretations for “Don’t Stop Me Now,” with a special instructional video created by Polly Bennett (Rami Malek’s movement coach from the hit film, “Bohemian Rhapsody”).

“I was so happy to be asked to choreograph for this initiative,” said famed movement director and choreographer, Bennett. “Rami (Malek) and I spent a lot of time moving to Queen’s music while filming ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ so I’m thrilled to encourage the world to do the same. Get dancing! I can’t wait to see what you make.”

In addition to the three music videos created by user content, a fourth video for “We Will Rock You” will re-create the song’s iconic BOOM BOOM CLAP using a collage of sporting event sounds. As a result, the new version will live as a sonic homage to the song’s energized relationship with sports.

Fans can visit youarethechampions.com to find out more and add their submissions* through August 18 by 11:59 p.m. ET. The final videos will be available on Queen’s official YouTube channel this fall.

*Terms and Conditions for UGC submissions here.


YouTube Blog

Three teams will compete for millions in DARPA’s rocket launch challenge

Despite all of the advancements in space travel, rocket launches are still hindered by the fact that they take months, if not years, to plan and execute. Because that could slow vital military operations, DARPA created the Launch Challenge: a call fo…
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Facebook reportedly took three years to tackle fake news in one country

Facebook is quick to tout its efforts to thwart misinformation campaigns in major European countries and the US, but its approach in other countries might not be quite so enthusiastic. Developers in Moldova told BuzzFeed News that they'd been asking…
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Galaxy S10 leak suggests a lineup with three variants

Prolific phone leaker Evan Blass has already posted an image that appears to show the front of Samsung's Galaxy S10, and now he's tweeted a family photograph showing off three variants wrapped in cases. Left to right, you're apparently looking at the…
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VLC reaches three billion downloads, will soon add AirPlay

VLC, the video player that'll crunch every format you've heard of, plus all the ones you haven't, is about to hit a huge milestone. Variety spotted an installation at VideoLan's CES booth that's counting ever-closer to the three billion download mark…
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Two of three Moto G7 logos appear – what does that mean?

Some new logos have surfaced for Motorola’s next iteration of their mid-range “G” line of smartphones. Only two logos were discovered by sources – one for the Moto G7 and one for the Moto G7 Plus. Normally Motorola has produced three variants of the G devices with the third one be the “Play” version. With […]

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US regulators charge three bitcoin operators with fraud

Today the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it has filed a federal civil enforcement action against three virtual currency operators. The details of one case remain sealed, but the other two companies facing charges are CabbageTe…
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‘Social robot’ Jibo reaches Indiegogo backers three years later

Three years after an astronomically successful crowdfunding campaign raised over $ 3.6 million, Jibo the robot is finally ready. The social bot is available to buy on its site for $ 900; Those who backed its Indiegogo have already started receiving the…
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Amazon gets Prime Exclusive flavors of the Nokia 6, Moto E4, and three Alcatel phones

With the arrival of this batch, Amazon is currently offering ten phones at a lower cost with its own services at the forefront alongside Google’s. Amazon added phones from Nokia, Alcatel, and Lenovo for a simultaneous release date next month. These are the new Prime Exclusive devices: Nokia 6 for $ 179 (21% off) Alcatel Idol […]

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NASA picks three potential drill sites for Mars 2020

When the Mars 2020 rover reaches the red planet, it will quickly begin drilling for samples from its surface. NASA hasn't picked the exact drill site yet, but it has narrowed its choices down to three during a workshop with scientists in Monrovia, Ca…
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Put a ring on it: three smart rings with plenty of beauty and brains

Smartwatches may be all the rage right now, but the the future of wearables may reside on your finger opposed to your wrist. Check out three of our favorite smart rings, whether you’re looking to make mobile payments or track your fitness metrics.

The post Put a ring on it: three smart rings with plenty of beauty and brains appeared first on Digital Trends.

Wearables–Digital Trends

The three 2016 U.S. presidential debates rank as the most-viewed political live streams of all time

This year, more news organizations live streamed the U.S. presidential debates on YouTube than ever before, and we saw record-breaking interest from the YouTube community. The 2016 presidential debates rank as the three most-viewed political live streams of all time. In total, these debates drove 8.5M live watch hours and averaged 1.7M live peak concurrent viewers.

Last night’s final presidential debate delivered:

  • 2.8M live watch hours, nearly five times higher than 2012
  • 1.7M live peak concurrent viewers, over four times higher than 2012
  • Over 140 million views on all debate-related videos

Elections-related YouTube searches are also at an all-time high. Searches for U.S. election content are up 547 percent compared to this time in the last presidential race.

Throughout the debates, millions of viewers tuned in and stayed engaged. The average live session duration was 22 minutes across all three presidential debates and concurrent viewership consistently peaked towards the end of the debate.

In true YouTube fashion, Americans weren’t the only ones involved. Have a look at who was watching the most around the globe:

With only 18 days until U.S. Election Day voters are preparing to head to the polls. If the voter registration deadline in your state hasn’t passed, register today! It only takes 1 min., 34 seconds.

Kurt Wilms, Product Lead, Live Streaming at YouTube, recently watched “The Third Presidential Debate.”


YouTube Blog

Nougat should see a total of three quarterly maintenance releases

Google is doing some interesting things with Nougat, and one of those will be regular maintenance releases. By pushing out maintenance releases every so often, this allows Nougat to see “continued refinement and polish.” Google didn’t offer any details on how many maintenance releases there would be, but thanks to new information from Evan Blass, […]

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Galaxy Note 7 to get Nougat in “two to three months,” Samsung mobile chief says

The Galaxy Note 7 could get Android 7.0 Nougat in “two to three months,” according to Samsung mobile head Koh Dong-jin. In other words, those who plan on picking up a Galaxy Note 7 are looking at getting the latest Android version loaded on their new smartphone by November at the latest. From Dong-jin: “It […]

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More renders of the Galaxy S7 Edge leak, shows off all three colors

galaxy s7 edge renderYep, we have more renders of the Galaxy S7 Edge. There’s really not much more to hide at this point, as we’ve seen images showing off the curved sides of the device and nearly every detail about the phone and its smaller sibling have been leaked at this point.

These renders do give a pretty good indication of the colors we can expect to see Samsung unveil this time around. We have the titanium silver that’s been popular on some of the company’s international models, as well as the solid black (no more blue-ish tint!) and the champagne gold that’s becoming increasingly popular. Everything else is in line with what we’ve seen, including the softer curves and stark resemblance of last year’s Galaxy S6.

Do any of these colors have you ready to throw down some cash on a pre-order later this month? Personally, I’m a big fan of white/silver phones, but the titanium gray might be a nice replacement if Samsung decides to drop a totally plain white phone this time around.

source: Evan Blass (Twitter)

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Android News, Rumours, and Updates

At CES 2016, Samsung’s going to show off three cool, secret tech projects

Three exciting tech projects from inside Samsung’s C-Lab innovation workshop will be on display at CES 2016. They include a cool smart belt that works like a fitness tracker, and a weird smart band that turns your finger into a speaker only you can hear.

The post At CES 2016, Samsung’s going to show off three cool, secret tech projects appeared first on Digital Trends.

Wearables»Digital Trends