Google Doodle is featuring something special for gamers today: A tribute to Pac-Man’s 45th anniversary, just in time for Halloween. For today and tomorrow, you’ll be able to play four haunted-house mazes especially designed for the event by Pac-Man’s parent company, Bandai Namco Entertainment. Like other games in the franchise, you’ll have to control Pac-Man and eat all of the dots in a maze without being caught by a ghost. 

Yes, the Ghost Gang, with Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, is back for this event. The maze’s design reflects the ghost’ personalities, so you can move according to how you think each one will try to get you. Blinky the red ghost, for instance, tends to actively chase Pac-Man, while the others would corner him. If you grab a Power Pallet, you’ll be able to activate a time-limited event wherein you can chase and eat the ghosts, as well. 

To play the game, simply go to the Google homepage on desktop or fire up the Google app on mobile, whether on Android or on iOS. On a PC, you control Pac-Man with your keyboard’s arrow keys, while on mobile, you’ll have to swipe or press and move your finger to change directions. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/google-celebrates-pac-mans-45th-anniversary-with-a-halloween-doodle-133034299.html?src=rss

WhatsApp is rolling out passkeys for backups, which is great news for anyone who has been on the platform for years. This will add another layer of security to anything that’s been backed up, including chats, photos, voice notes and more.

It’s also convenient because passkeys don’t force users to keep track of yet another password or encryption key. For the uninitiated, passkeys allow users to access personal data via biometric markers like fingerprints and face scans. However, these particular passkeys will also work with screen lock codes on certain devices.

The feature is rolling out today, but it’ll take a few weeks to reach every user. WhatsApp is a gigantic global platform. Once updated, folks can get started by heading to the Settings tab.

This is just another layer of security for WhatsApp users, as these backups are already end-to-end encrypted. The platform has been doing that since 2021. It began offering passkey support just last year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/whatsapp-will-let-you-use-passkeys-for-your-backups-130022640.html?src=rss

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Even though the newer Hero13 Black is out, the Hero12 Black still nails the fundamentals that made GoPro the go-to name for action cameras. And right now it’s available at a solid discount—$299.95 at Walmart, down from $349.99, and cheaper than Amazon’s current $369 listing.

GoPro Hero12

$299.95
at Walmart

$349.99
Save $50.04

$299.95
at Walmart

$349.99
Save $50.04

It’s waterproof, tough enough to survive crashes and splashes, and compact enough to mount just about anywhere. PCMag gave it an “outstanding” rating upon its launch, praising its stability, image quality, and ease of use, while Lifehacker’s own Stephen Johnson called it one of his favorite products ever.

Performance-wise, the Hero12 Black can shoot up to 5.3K at 60 frames per second, offering 91% more resolution than 4K, and the stabilization makes handheld shots look like they came from a gimbal. Plus, you get both front and rear displays, which make framing easy, whether you’re filming yourself or capturing what’s in front of you. The Hero12 also shoots in an 8:7 aspect ratio, making it easy to crop videos for both widescreen and vertical social content. That versatility is a big deal for creators who want to repurpose the same clip for YouTube and Instagram without reshooting. Footage is stored via a microSDXC card, and you get Bluetooth, wifi, and USB-C connectivity for quick transfers.

One of the biggest changes in this generation is what GoPro removed. There’s no built-in GPS, which means you won’t get automatic speed or route overlays, but you also won’t burn through battery as quickly. That said, the battery still won’t last a full day if you’re recording continuously, so a spare is worth having on hand. On the bright side, it’s waterproof down to 33 feet (10 meters) without a case, which makes it great for beach trips, pool footage, or even rainy hikes.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac: A mother with court-ordered custody of her children has described how Apple’s Family Sharing feature can be weaponized by a former partner. Apple support staff were unable to assist her when she reported her former partner using the service in controlling and coercive ways… […] Namely, Family Sharing gives all the control to one parent, not to both equally. The parent not identified as the organizer is unable to withdraw their children from this control, even when they have a court order granting them custody. As one woman’s story shows, this can allow the feature which allows it to be weaponized by an abusive former partner.

Wired reports: “The lack of dual-organizer roles, leaving other parents effectively as subordinate admins with more limited power, can prove limiting and frustrating in blended and shared households. And in darker scenarios, a single-organizer setup isn’t merely inconvenient — it can be dangerous. Kate (name changed to protect her privacy and safety) knows this firsthand. When her marriage collapsed, she says, her now ex-husband, the designated organizer, essentially weaponized Family Sharing. He tracked their children’s locations, counted their screen minutes and demanded they account for them, and imposed draconian limits during Kate’s custody days while lifting them on his own […] After they separated, Kate’s ex refused to disband the family group. But without his consent, the children couldn’t be transferred to a new one. “I wrongly assumed being the custodial parent with a court order meant I’d be able to have Apple move my children to a new family group, with me as the organizer,” says Kate. But Apple couldn’t help. Support staff sympathized but said their hands were tied because the organizer holds the power.” Although users can “abandon the accounts and start again with new Apple IDs,” the report notes that doing so means losing all purchased apps, along with potentially years’ worth of photos and videos.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI has rolled out the capability to create character cameos of your pets, doodles, original personas or even objects in the Sora app, which you can put in your videos. You can start the process by going to your profile page in the Sora app, tapping on the “Create cameo” button and then uploading a video of the character (or pet) you want the model to generate. The company says just a few seconds of footage are enough, and you can even use old Sora-generated videos as reference. 

You can then give your character a display name and describe how you want the model to animate it. In the example OpenAI uploaded, for instance, the description for a wicked green witch character reads: “She glides with a mysterious, whimsical grace, speaks in rhymes when casting spells, and her pointed hat always tilts as if listening to secrets on the wind.” You can choose permissions for each character you create. Under the “Who can use this” permissions section, you can choose between several options: Only me, People I approve, Mutuals, Everyone and Everyone (excluding specific sets of users). Whenever you want to generate a Sora video with a cameo in it, you can just tag a specific character.

Sora 2 launched with a cameo feature that lets you create an avatar of yourself, but this is a new application of the capability. Cameo, the app that allows users to buy videos from celebrities, just sued OpenAI over trademark violation by using the “cameo” name. It said that OpenAI’s use of the word is likely to cause consumer confusion and dilute its brand. OpenAI disagreed “that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo.'”

In addition to character cameos, OpenAI has introduced “stitching,” allowing you to stitch several clips together and connect videos. There’s now also a leaderboard that shows the most cameod and most remixed videos.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-character-cameos-will-let-you-put-pets-and-original-personas-in-sora-videos-123043189.html?src=rss

As part of an AI-focused reorganization, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told employees that it will offer voluntary buyouts, according to an internal company memo. At the same time, he emphasized that there would be no specific role eliminations as part of new structure.

“Looking to the future, the next frontier for YouTube is AI, which has the potential to transform every part of the platform,” Mohan wrote. “We also understand some of you may be ready for a new challenge, so we’ve decided now is the right time to offer a voluntary exit Program.” 

The restructuring is designed to help YouTube focus on fast-growing areas like AI while “driving faster decision making and execution,” the memo states. To that end, the platform is organizing into three separate product organizations: viewer products, creator and community products, and subscription products. 

Viewer products will focus on the viewer experience by making improvements to search & discovery, engagement, the living room experience and “our foundation of responsibility.” Creator and community products, meanwhile, is “driving creation through genAI tools, Shorts, Live and creator support. Subscription products, as you’d expect, will operate around subscription growth across Music, Premium and OTT (YouTube TV) platforms. 

Mohan noted that YouTube has been the number one streamer in the US for the last two years. So far, it has signed up 125 million Premium and Music subscribers, along with 8 million YouTube TV subs. The platform has paid out $100 billion to its ecosystem (presumably, creators and recording artists). 

YouTube isn’t the only tech giant reducing headcount while citing AI as an impetus. Amazon recently announced that it had laid off 14,000 people, while citing the need to be “lean” due to transformative technology like AI. Meanwhile, YouTube parent Alphabet announced its first-ever $100 billion quarter, largely on the strength of cloud services and search.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/youtube-is-offering-employees-buyouts-as-part-of-an-ai-focused-reorganization-120047466.html?src=rss

It looks like Meta’s Vibes feed is just the start of the company’s pivot toward AI slop. In an earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “we’re going to add yet another huge corpus of content” to Meta’s recommendation system, via AI’s ability to create and remix content — so you’re likely to see even more AI generated posts on Facebook and Instagram. 

“Social media has gone through two eras so far. First was when all content was from friends, family, and accounts that you followed directly. The second was when we added all the creator content,” he said, seemingly suggesting that AI content will be the third era.  

Zuckerberg added that recommendation systems that “deeply” understand AI content are “increasingly valuable” since they can “help you achieve your goals.” 

He then nodded to Vibes, calling it an example of a new type of content enabled by AI. Retention on the feed “is looking good so far, and its usage keeps growing quickly week over week,” he proclaimed. Furthermore, there are more opportunities to build “many more novel types of content aheads, as our new models become ready,” Zuckerberg added. To put some numbers to Vibes takeup, Meta CFO Susan Li said that users have generated over 20 billion images in the feed to date. 

Meta has already introduced a number of AI features across its social media platforms. Those include in-app photo and video editing via text prompts directly in Instagram Stories, AI chatbots across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, and a standalone Meta AI app that includes an AI assistant and discovery feed. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-add-a-huge-corpus-of-ai-content-into-its-recommendation-system-113027353.html?src=rss