Before Barbie tiptoed her way into theaters, 2023’s number one movie was an animated kid’s flick based on a video game about a plumber taking mushrooms, a primate with daddy issues, and a giant fire-breathing turtle crooning about peaches.
Source: LifeHacker – 20 Great Nintendo Switch Games for Little Kids (That Don’t Star Mario)
Enlarge / Porsche is the first automaker to expose car functions like climate and lighting via Apple’s automaker toolkit for CarPlay. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
The introduction of Apple CarPlay in 2016 was a game-changer. Until then, connecting your phone to your car meant bothering with Bluetooth, and if you wanted to use a smartphone navigation app, you probably needed some kind of phone holder clipped to an air vent or suction-cupped to the dashboard. Being able to cast your phone’s screen to the car’s infotainment system turned out to be extremely popular, and by 2020, it was a feature that almost half of all new car buyers wanted.
This has not sat well with every automaker; in March of this year, General Motors made headlines—and generated a lot of comments—when it announced it was killing off support for casting interfaces (both CarPlay and Android Auto) from its future products. But where GM saw a threat, Porsche saw an opportunity. And now it has built a new iOS app, making use of an Automaker toolkit provided by Apple. This little-known feature is only offered to OEMs and allows them freedom beyond the restrictive user interface guidelines laid down by Apple.
Porsche’s customer research found that the overwhelming majority of its customers have iPhones and prefer using them for things like navigation. “Obviously, you have to switch back and forth to control some features around media, for example, some more specific features around climate,” explained Cyril Dorsaz, principal product manager at Porsche Digital. “And ultimately, we learned through customer research that this is something that our customers are not really happy with.”
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Source: Ars Technica – As some carmakers run from Apple CarPlay, Porsche embraces it
Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop PC (Starts at $1,299, as tested $1,949) Alienware’s latest Aurora R16 desktop has a new look, the latest PC gaming technology, and cooling that’s both quiet and efficient. Good performance for the price Very quiet under load Plenty of external connectivity High-performance liquid cooling Legend…
Source: Hot Hardware – Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop Review: A Civil Redesign
Redox OS, the open-source Rust-written operating system led by developer Jeremy Soller, has been drafting some exciting plans for the rest of this year and moving into 2024…
Source: Phoronix – Redox OS Planning A Server Version, Stable ABI & Better Performance
Enlarge / Then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal walks to a morning session during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 7, 2022, in Sun Valley, Idaho. (credit: Getty Images | Kevin Dietsch )
Elon Musk’s X Corp. has to pay $1.1 million in reimbursements for legal fees to former Twitter executives that he fired, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, a judge reportedly ruled yesterday. Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled against Musk’s firm during a hearing yesterday, Bloomberg reported.
The former Twitter executives said that after being fired by Musk, the company now known as X refused to reimburse them for expenses related to federal investigations and civil lawsuits. The former executives’ lawsuit filed in April said the company “has breached its obligations… by refusing to advance Plaintiffs’ Expenses.”
“After hearing arguments, McCormick noted Delaware courts lean in favor of granting executives’ request to have legal fees covered when tied to their actions on behalf of companies. She said she didn’t see any reason to deviate from the norm in the case,” Bloomberg wrote.
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Source: Ars Technica – Musk can’t dodge payments to ex-Twitter execs he fired, judge rules
Chucky’s back—and if you’ve caught any of the season three marketing, you’ve seen that he’s seized upon potent, real-life national anxieties by infiltrating the White House. But what’s his motivation? Without spoiling anything, all is not what you might think in the first half of Chucky’s new season.
Source: Gizmodo – Chucky Season 3 Delights in Spraying Gore All Over the White House
Cyberpunk 2077’s first and only expansion, Phantom Liberty, introduces a new ending to CD Projekt Red’s sci-fi RPG, and it’s one I have a hard time reconciling with the game as it already exists. Sure, it’s certainly definitive and ends the story in a pretty profound, subversive way, but it also reflects so directly…
Source: Kotaku – Phantom Liberty’s New Ending Is The Perfect Coda To Cyberpunk 2077
Google formally unveiled Android 14 today in New York City at its Made By Google event. With that, Google has also published the Android 14 Open-Source Project (AOSP)…
Source: Phoronix – Android 14 Open-Source Project Released
After closing its 3DS and Wii U eShops earlier this year, Nintendo will shut down online services for those consoles in “early April 2024,” it announced. From a report: That will put a halt to multiplayer features, along with “online co-operative play, internet rankings and data distribution,” Nintendo wrote. Nintendo’s Badge Arcade that allowed users to decorate their Nintendo 3DS home menu will also disappear. The date isn’t fixed in stone yet, and Nintendo said it may even discontinue services “earlier than planned.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Nintendo Will Take 3DS and Wii U Services Offline in ‘Early April 2024’
Sombra, Overwatch 2’s hacking, harassing, stealthy damage hero, has been one of my favorite characters on the hero shooter’s roster since I started playing in 2019. Her cloaking and hack-based kit is distinct, and even after her rework leading into Overwatch 2, I’ve still had a lot of fun with her hit-and-run style.…
Source: Kotaku – Sombra’s New Overwatch 2 Rework Is Here, And I Hate It
You can get a BirdBike on sale for 60% off right now with free shipping. This A-frame e-bike is designed for riders at least 5′ 8″ and has a max weight capacity of 265 lbs. It has a 500W motor, manual throttle, and a range of 20 miles (or 50 miles with pedal assistance). It comes with an app and security system, and…
Source: LifeHacker – This BirdBike A-Frame E-bike Is On Sale for 0 Right Now
It was Google’s turn on Wednesday to announce a litany of devices and updates. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro were the headline acts, though there was lots of interest further down the bill including the reveal of the Pixel Watch 2 and the public version of Android 14 making its way out into the world.
You can catch up on everything by watching the Made by Google event yourself or checking out our liveblog for real-time insight and analysis. Alternatively, we’ve rounded up all the major announcements for you right here.
The stars of the Made by Google show are, of course, the company’s latest smartphones. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro run on the Tensor G3, which Google says is its most powerful chip yet.
Because it’s 2023, the two devices offer a string of generative AI features powered by the latest chipset. Google says the Pixel 8’s biggest machine learning model is 10 times more complex compared with the Pixel 6 from two years ago.
Google says it has been able to expand its AI tech to more areas of the device beyond the likes of image processing. The Tensor G3 can help the Call Screen function detect and filter out more spam calls. Improved Clear Calling, oddly enough, should enable clearer phone calls. An audio version of Magic Eraser will let you remove unwanted sounds from videos too.
Google Assistant can summarize text from websites and break down the highlights into bullet points. Similarly, you’ll be able to get summaries of whatever you capture in the Recorder app. Those who use Assistant to compose written messages with their voice should find that feature much faster on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
The Pixel 8 has a 6.2-inch Actua display that can deliver sharp colors and vivid details, Google says. The screen supports a higher refresh rate of up to 120Hz as well, which should make scrolling through web pages and playing games a smoother experience. You’ll get up to 1,400 nits of brightness for HDR content and up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness.
The rear camera array is getting an upgrade on the Pixel 8. There’s a 50-megapixel wide main camera, with Super Res Zoom up to 8x and a 2x optical quality zoom. The second camera is a 12-megapixel ultrawide with autofocus and a 125.8-degree field of view. The front-facing camera is a 10.5-megapixel lens with a 95-degree field of view and fixed focus.
The Pixel 8 Pro has similar main and front-facing cameras (albeit with autofocus on the front-facing lens). Opt for that device, though, and you’ll get a 48-megapixel Quad PD ultrawide with autofocus lens and 48-megapixel Quad PD telephoto lens on the rear array. With the help of Google’s image-processing and image-editing knowhow, the device should help you to capture quality photos and videos.
Everyone should be able to take great a photo using #Pixel 📷💖
Made together with people with vision impairment, #GuidedFrame now works on both the front & the rear camera.
And it recognizes more than just human faces. Like your pet, your food & even documents.#MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/xDqySLEnd2
— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 4, 2023
The 8 Pro’s display is larger at 6.7 inches. Google says it will deliver up to 1,600 nits of brightness for HDR content and up to 2,400 nits of peak brightness. The Super Actua screen has a higher resolution than the Pixel 8 (1344 x 2992, compared with 1080 x 2400), and 489 PPI vs. 428 on the smaller device. The Pixel 8 Pro weighs 7.5oz (213g), while the Pixel 8 comes in at 6.6oz (187g).
Google is placing a bigger onus on security this year. For one thing, the company is promising seven years of OS, security and feature drop updates. Both phones have camera and mic toggles, a Google One VPN included at no extra cost and a Titan M2 security coprocessor. Google notes that there’s anti-malware and anti-phishing protection, and support for passkeys.
As for battery life, Google is promising “beyond 24-hour battery life” on both phones. With Extreme Battery Saver enabled, they may run for up to 72 hours before you need to recharge. There’s fast charging support, of course, with Google claiming they’ll reach around 50 percent of capacity within around 30 minutes.
One other intriguing thing about the Pixel 8 Pro is that it includes a temperature sensor. That’s an interesting feature that could come in handy for a host of use cases, such as checking whether someone has a fever or if another device may be overheating.
Reading temperatures from your phone?#Pixel8 Pro has a new temperature sensor so you can conveniently check temps while cooking, warming bottles, and more.#MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/Q5DjFmC3Gi
— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 4, 2023
Both devices have 128GB of storage in the base versions. The Pixel 8 has 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM and the Pixel 8 Pro comes with 12GB of RAM.
Pre-orders are available starting today and the phones will be available on October 12. The Pixel 8 starts at $699. That’s $100 more than the Pixel 7. It’s worth noting that Verizon’s version of the Pixel 8 starts at $800, because it includes mmWave 5G support. The Pixel 8 Pro, meanwhile, will start at $999.
If you pre-order the Pixel 8, Google will toss in a pair of Pixel Buds Pro at no extra cost. Pre-order the Pixel 8 Pro and you’ll get the Pixel Watch 2 for free. Speaking of which…
The sequel to Google’s first own-brand smartwatch is here. The Pixel Watch 2 has been redesigned to offer an IP68 water protection rating. Google says there’s a lighter 100% recycled aluminum housing and the device is available in four color combinations: polished silver/bay, polished silver/porcelain, matte black/obsidian and champagne gold/hazel.
As for the functions, there are four pillars of personalization that Google has focused on with the Pixel Watch 2. Those are health, fitness, safety and productivity.
You’ll get the most advanced heart rate tracking the company has offered to date, Google says. A new multi-path heart rate sensor works with Google AI to power features such as sleep tracking, high and low heart rate notifications, and Daily Readiness Score. Stress management is a selling point too, as there’s a body-response sensor and skin temperature sensor.
Google says that when your Pixel Watch 2 detects a body response from things like stress, illness or the effects of caffeine or alcohol, the device (and the Fitbit app on your phone) will prompt you to log your mood and suggest things like taking a guided breathing exercise or a walk.
Automatic workout start and stop reminders can detect seven typical workouts, including running and outdoor cycling. Heart Zone Training will use voice and haptic prompts to guide you through personalized heart rate zones. The Pace Training feature uses the same cues to help you maintain pace or get back to your target pace when you fall behind.
You’ll get a six-month Fitbit Premium membership at no extra cost with the Pixel Watch 2. This includes access to workouts, your Daily Readiness Score and mindfulness sessions. Features like your Sleep Profile will also remain paywalled behind a Fitbit Premium subscription. In addition, Google is tossing in a one-month trial of YouTube Music Premium.
Speaking of Fitbit, Google showed off a new AI chatbot. It’s coming to the Fitbit app next year as part of the Fibit Labs initiative. You’ll be able to ask the chatbot things like how well you performed on a run and maybe gain a better understanding of why you might have found a workout particularly difficult.
Android’s Safety Check feature will be available on Pixel Watch 2. As with the Check In feature in iOS 17, this can share information such as your location with pre-determined contacts if you don’t confirm that you’re OK if you haven’t reached a specified location before a timer expires. Safety Check also lets users share medical info such as blood type, allergies and existing conditions with emergency services.
Google suggests Safety Check can help people have more peace of mind while doing things like running errands or coming home late at night. Google notes that Fitbit Premium members can access safety features even if they don’t have an LTE plan or their phone nearby.
Gmail and Calendar apps should help you to get things done from your wrist, while the At A Glance watch face delivers contextual information such as weather and traffic updates. The company also says there are new Google Assistant health and fitness queries that should make it easier for you to access real-time and historical stats.
If you have a Pixel phone, you can use the wearable as a remote shutter for your handset’s camera. There’s support for Find My Device and the Google Home app too.
When it comes to battery life — a major complaint about the original Pixel Watch — Google says the latest device should run for 24 hours even though it has an always-on display. After 75 minutes of charging, you should have enough juice for a full day of use.
The Pixel Watch 2 starts at $349. Pre-orders open today, and the wearable will be available on October 12.
The Pixel Buds Pro are available in two new colors — bay and porcelain — to match Google’s latest devices. Google is also continuing to roll out new functions for the earbuds as part of its feature drops.
For one thing, there’s a new low-latency mode that should reduce audio lag when you’re playing games on a compatible Pixel phone or tablet. Bluetooth Super Wideband support doubles the bandwidth for voices with the aim of making you sound clearer and fuller, Google says. The company has also enabled support for Clear Calling on Pixel, so when you’re using the Pixel Buds Pro for calls, you should be able to hear the other person more clearly.
A Conversation Detection can, strangely enough, detect when you’re speaking. When it does, playback will be paused and Pixel Buds Pro will switch to transparency mode. When you’re done talking to someone, your music will start back up and active noise cancellation will kick back in.
In the Pixel Buds app, you’ll be able to see how loudly you’ve been listening to music over a period of time. It will tell you when to lower the volume to help you take care of your hearing wellness.
Starting today, you’ll be able to install the public version of Android 14 on Pixel devices. The OS will be available on phones from other OEMs at a later date.
Android 14 places a big focus on customization. For instance, you’ll be able to use generative AI to whip up custom backgrounds for your phone (this feature will be exclusive to Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro at first). There’s also the option to enable a monochromatic theme — you know, in case you wish you had an E Ink phone instead.
Google is adding more accessibility settings, such as the ability to increase the size of a certain chunk of text and not everything on the page. You’ll also have more control over your data and privacy. For one thing, you’ll now find Health Connect options right in the OS settings.
Meanwhile, Google is rolling out the fall feature drop for Pixel phones and tablets. Those with a Pixel Fold will be able to take advantage of a nifty interpreter mode that translates a conversation across the dual displays. The camera interface is being updated on Pixel phones too.
As for Pixel Tablet, there’s a more streamlined navigation bar in the kids’ experience. When your tablet is docked and in Hub Mode, you can ask Assistant to play news and podcasts through it.
Although most of the announcements leaked in advance, Google had one surprise up its sleeve. It’s working on bringing Assistant and Bard AI together.
The aim is to bring information from different apps and services together to make Google Assistant far more useful. During a demo, Google showed the Assistant pulling details from a party invite in Gmail. Ask where the party is, and Assistant with Bard can tell you the location and tap into Google Maps to offer you directions.
You might also also ask Assistant with Bard to whip up a meal plan with a grocery list. You’ll be able to export that to Google Docs or Gmail. Assistant with Bard can whip up text to go along with a photo you snapped for a social media post too.
Google says Assistant with Bard is coming soon to Android and iOS, first to select testers. The company plans to expand access to the opt-in experience over the next few months.
Follow all of the news live from Google’s 2023 Pixel event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/everything-google-announced-at-its-pixel-event-pixel-8-pixel-watch-android-14-and-more-154030434.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Everything Google announced at its Pixel event: Pixel 8, Pixel Watch, Android 14 and more
What do you do if you’re coming off a $7.97 billion quarter and are forecasting next quarter’s revenue to be $8.2 billion? Well if you’re Netflix, apparently you raise prices (again) for your streaming service. Unfortunately, the cost of cutting the cord and relying on streaming services is becoming more expensive, especially if you’re juggling
Source: Hot Hardware – Sorry Cord Cutters, Your Netflix Streaming Bill Is About To Increase Yet Again
Meta’s continued experiments with piloting us into a half-baked future appear to be backfiring. After announcing more customer-facing AI features on Meta platforms in September, the company’s new sticker generation tool is letting some choice phrases and prompts go unchecked.
Source: Gizmodo – Meta’s AI Stickers Are Already Causing Trouble
During its Made by Google event on Wednesday, the company announced that it’s integrating its Bard AI chatbot into Google Assistant. The company describes the feature as combining Bard’s “generative reasoning” with Assistant’s “personalized help” to provide more contextually aware responses for mobile users. It will be available within the next few months. The feature was first rumored this summer.
“While Assistant is great at handling quick tasks, like setting timers, giving weather updates, and making quick calls, there is so much more that we’ve always envisioned a deeply capable personal Assistant should be able to do,” said Google VP of Assistant / Bard Sissie Hsiao during the keynote. “But the technology to deliver it didn’t exist until now.”
Similar to Amazon’s recently announced Alexa with generative AI, Assistant with Bard aims to provide a “more personalized helper” than the relatively simplistic smartphone assistants (also including Alexa and Siri) we’ve grown accustomed to over the past decade. Google says Assistant with Bard can help with tasks like planning trips, searching emails, creating grocery lists and sending messages. You can interact with it through text, voice or images — more conversationally and with more contextual info than with the standard Google Assistant.
“Say you all decide to go on a hike with your dog, but you reach a fork in the trail,” said Hsiao during the product demo. “Snap a photo of the trail marker and ask, ‘What path do you recommend for a group and my small dog?’ And just like that, you know the North Trail is the best.” The demo then showed the user using Assistant with Bard to write a cute social caption for their dog. “This conversational overlay is a completely new way to interact with your phone and lets Assistant with Bard meet you wherever you are,” summarized Hsiao.
Google says the feature is in its early developmental stages and will soon launch for early testers. Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro users will find out about expanded availability in the coming months, and the company adds that it will eventually be available on Android and iOS.
Follow all of the news live from Google’s 2023 Pixel event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-assistant-with-bard-will-use-generative-ai-for-personalized-answers-154756643.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Google Assistant with Bard will use generative AI for personalized answers
Google’s generative AI wallpaper maker. I get why the spaceship image is foggy and grainy, but why does the prompt of a house with flowers look like a washed out image from a horror movie? [credit:
Google ]
Android 14 is out today, along with a new Pixel phone. The OS is shipping to supported Pixel devices now, which means the Pixel 4a (5G) and every variant of the Pixel 5, 6, and 7, plus the Fold and Tablet.
The big feature this year is a somewhat customizable home screen. You can pick from several different lock screen clock styles and customize the two bottom app shortcuts. This feels like a response to iOS 16’s lock screen widgets (a feature Android used to have back in the 4.2 days) but not nearly as customizable. It’s honestly hard to highlight a second Android 14 feature because this is one of the smallest Android releases ever.
The first feature Google mentions in its blog post is a new wallpaper picker. On the Pixel 8, Android now has a built-in text-to-image AI wallpaper maker, presumably a feature that lets the Android team adhere to Google’s “mandatory AI” company mandate. There’s also a new monochrome theme if you’re tired of all those “Material You” colors.
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Source: Ars Technica – Android 14 officially releases for Pixel phones
Nintendo will discontinue online service for 3DS and Wii U consoles in April 2024, the company announced in a recent blog. After this point, the 3DS Pokémon storage app Pokémon Bank will be the only software accessible online.
Source: Kotaku – Nintendo Will Stop Supporting 3DS And Wii U Online In April 2024
The PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the October 2023 issue.
Source: LXer – The October 2023 Issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine
NASA is gearing up to start a crucial series of tests on the updated RS-25 engine, which will power the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon.
Source: Gizmodo – NASA’s Upgraded Megarocket Engines Ready to Fire in Critical Tests
Google’s hardware event has been chock full of information on new devices, like the Pixel 8 smartphone, but camera software has also gotten some TLC. The company announced a ton of Pixel 8 features exclusive for shutterbugs and video editors.
The new Best Take feature solves the issue of, uh, one person looking really gross in group photos. When enabled, the software takes a series of photos in quick succession and you can actually mix and match faces to create the perfect group shot, sort of a face-based riff on the pre-existing Magic Editor tech. Grab a face from one photo and slap it on the next. If you have a friend who truly relishes ruining group shots, they likely won’t be able to.
Speaking of Magic Editor, it’s getting a boost thanks to the power of generative AI. The new version now allows you to circle objects to reposition them in the shot and pinch to resize them. There are also a number of background presets that are accessible via a single tap. This technology’s advancing quickly and it won’t be long before you have absolute and total control over every aspect of your photos after the fact.
The Guided Frame feature has been enhanced and now operates via both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras. This tool is great for capturing centered shots of important subjects, like faces, pets, dinners and documents. It works rather simply, with the phone emitting a series of vibrations to let you know when an object is perfectly in frame, even if you aren’t looking at the display.
Magic Eraser is dipping its toes into the world of video. The new Audio Magic Eraser helps you delete unwanted sounds from videos. It looks to work as quickly and simply as its image-based cousin, splitting a video’s audio track into layers and allowing you to delete individual sounds. For instance, if there’s an ambulance blaring in the background at your kid’s birthday party, just get rid of that ambulance. We were impressed by this feature, though we noted that it didn’t entirely eliminate unwanted audio artifacts, instead significantly reducing them in volume.
Finally, there’s a new feature called Video Boost that upscales footage using HDR technology. Basically, it sends the entire footage to Google’s servers where it’s split into individual frames. Each frame gets the HDR treatment before being recombined into a video and sent back to your phone. This won’t be available until a software update launches in December.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-pixel-8-gets-more-nifty-ai-powered-editing-tools-for-photo-and-video-153528797.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Google Pixel 8 gets more nifty AI-powered editing tools for photo and video
