Ubisoft has once again delayed its long, long-awaited pirate sim Skull and Bones. Last we heard, the game was scheduled to hit Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, Steam, Epic Games Store, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna and Ubisoft Connect on November 8th. That’s no longer the case, as the publisher has pushed back the release date to March 9th.

“We’re very eager for you all to get your hands on Skull and Bones and dive in headfirst to the dangerous and exciting world of building your own pirate empire,” the company wrote in a blog post. “To give you the best possible experience we’ve decided to take a little more time to make sure we can deliver exactly that.”

Skull and Bones was already four years behind schedule. We had our first hands on with it in 2017 and it was supposed to be out the following year. However, Ubisoft went back to the drawing board when the game was already deep into development to turn it into a more realistic pirating experience.

While the news of yet another delay will come as a disappointment to those who’ve already been waiting five years for the game, you still might be able to get your hands on it before March. Ubisoft is planning to run an open beta of Skull and Bones. It will share more details soon.

Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forum sites. The search engine is adding a new module that will surface discussions happening on forums across the web for queries that may benefit from crowd-sourced answers.

The “discussions and forums” module will surface relevant posts from sites like Reddit and Quora alongside more traditional search results. It’s not clear exactly how Google is determining what types of searches are best suited to forum posts. The company says the new “forum” results will “appear when you search for something that might benefit from the diverse personal experiences found in online discussions.”

The feature is already rolling out for mobile searches in the United States. Google didn’t specify when it may be available more widely, but said they will consider updates in the future.

Google is also adding a new feature to news-related searches that will make it easier to browse international headlines that are published in languages other than English. With the change, news-related searches will also turn up relevant local coverage translated by Google.

The company uses the example of the recent earthquake in Mexico. With the update, search results will also show “news from Mexico,” which will highlight coverage from local outlets originally written in Spanish, but translated into English. Of course, Google Chrome and other browsers are already able to translate web pages. But Google says that by elevating stories from international outlets directly in search will help provide “new global perspectives” on important stories.

The feature, which is labeled as being in beta for now, is starting off with the ability to translate headlines and stories from Spanish, French and German into English, though the beta designation means Google is likely to add more languages over time.

Source: Engadget – Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forums

When Amazon introduced its Fire TV Omni line last year, it mostly offered affordable sets oriented toward budget-conscious consumers. At its fall hardware event today, the company announced two new models with QLED panels. Priced at $800 and $1,100 for 65- and 75-inch 4K models, the Omni QLED TVs feature “up to” 96 local dimming zones, support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10 Plus Adaptive. Those are features that should significantly improve the picture quality the new sets can offer over their predecessors.

New presence and ambient light sensors also allow the Omni QLED TVs to offer a feature Amazon is calling “Ambient Experience.” Taking a page from Samsung’s Frame TVs, the Omni QLED TVs can display artwork when you’re not watching a TV show or movie. At any time, you can ask Alexa to tell you more about the piece or the artist who created it. The Ambient Experience automatically turns on when you enter the room and off again when you leave. 

If you want something more practical, the TVs can also display Alexa widgets with information on the news, weather and more. You can disable the built-in far-field microphones at any point if you don’t want Alexa listening, and it’s even possible to use the TV to play music without keeping the display on. Preorders for the Fire TV Omni QLED series open today, with orders shipping in October.   

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Source: Engadget – Amazon’s first QLED Fire TVs offer better picture quality and an ambient mode

You no longer need to join a queue to try OpenAI’s well-known image generator. The company has dropped the waiting list for the DALL-E beta, making the technology available to everyone. If you want to create art, you just have to sign up (if you can get past the authentication glitch that exists as we write this) and start describing the pieces you’d like to produce.

The wider release comes after OpenAI both expanded DALL-E’s features (such as “Outpainting” to expand beyond original image borders) and, importantly, some crucial safeguards. The firm claims it has “more robust” abilities to filter out policy-violating content, including some depictions of sexuality and violence. A developer framework currently in testing should also bring the AI picture maker to third-party apps.

This public debut comes without answers to some key questions. It’s not clear if AI-generated art is fair use or stolen, for instance — Getty Images and similar services have banned the material out of concern it might violate copyright. While this expansion will be welcome, it might test some legal limits.

Source: Engadget – DALL-E’s AI art generator is now (sort of) available to everyone