Author Archives: Mat Smith

The Morning After: Microsoft might be the latest company to violate antitrust laws

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Nearly a year after the European Commission opened its investigation into Microsoft, the European Union’s executive body’s preliminary findings say the company violated antitrust laws by tying Microsoft Teams to its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 business suites. (Microsoft pulled Teams for users in the EU back in October.)

This all kicked off in 2020 when Slack — rival work chat software similar to Teams — filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, claiming it broke the EU’s competition rules in bundling Teams.

The European Commission said Microsoft “may have granted Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice whether or not to acquire access to Teams when they subscribe to their SaaS productivity applications.”

If you think you’ve heard similar EU-versus-tech very recently, you’d be right: Apple could face a similar fine for its App Store. I wrote about that only yesterday.

— Mat Smith

Julian Assange pleads guilty to espionage but defends himself in court

UE’s Everboom speaker is a smaller, floatable version of its Epicboom

Tesla’s Cybertruck has been recalled again

Samsung’s next Unpacked event is set for July 10

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Engadget

Just like last year, Motorola’s foldable Razr line has two devices: the flagship Razr+, which starts at $1,000, and a more affordable foldable from $700. Both feature a 6.9-inch flexible OLED interior display, with a 165Hz refresh rate for the Razr+ and a 120Hz panel on the cheaper version. Both have an expansive front screen with cut-out spaces for the cameras. Now, you can open basically any app on the Razrs’ front display, with the only exceptions being apps that require more pixels and space. Both the Razr and Razr+ will be available for pre-order from July 10, with official sales slated for July 24. Oh, and the company unveiled its own Bluetooth tracker too.

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A 13-year-old boy with severe epilepsy has become the first person in the world to receive a brain implant that keeps seizures under control. In the United Kingdom, Oran Knowlson had a Picostim neurostimulator fitted into his brain to address Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a rare treatment-resistant form of epilepsy. Since receiving the implant, Oran’s daytime seizures have been reduced by 80 percent. Previously, his seizures were so severe he required constant care and, after some attacks, often needed resuscitating.

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Watch this creepy AI-generated origin story made by Toys ‘R’ Us

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Toys R Us

Toys ‘R’ Us’s current owner — the original company went bankrupt a few years ago — WHP Global, worked with the Emmy-nominated creative agency Native Foreign to create a short brand film called The Origin of Toys ‘R’ Us using OpenAI’s text-to-video creator Sora. It hits the rough beats of an earnest child dreaming, while surrounded by bikes and a tiny toy giraffe. The film premiered at Cannes, somehow.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-microsoft-might-be-the-latest-company-to-violate-antitrust-laws-111516739.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Apple may face another huge EU fine

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The European Union isn’t entirely happy with Apple’s approach to its Digital Markets Act and there could be financial consequences. In preliminary findings of its investigation, the European Commission says the company breached Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules by failing to let App Store developers freely tell users about alternate payment options outside of Apple’s ecosystem, what it calls anti-steering rules.

It has been investigating Apple’s behavior since March. Regulators added that although Apple is entitled to receive a payment for helping developers find new customers through the App Store, “the fees charged by Apple go beyond what is strictly necessary for such remuneration.”

Apple told Engadget in a statement, “We are confident our plan complies with the law and estimate more than 99 percent of developers would pay the same or less in fees to Apple under the new business terms we created.”

There are wider repercussions: Apple is reportedly planning to withhold those intriguing new AI features in Europe due to regulations and the possibility that they could affect privacy rules.

— Mat Smith

Paramount+ is raising prices again for all of the Tulsa King fans out there

Google is reportedly building AI chatbots based on celebrities and influencers

Uber is locking New York drivers out of its apps and blaming a city pay rule

New difficulty mod in Stardew Valley will purge your saves if you use a guide

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The US government has issued a warning to employees with Pixel phones, mandating a security update by July 4. It’s a high-severity firmware vulnerability in the Android operating system that could open up devices to “limited, targeted exploitation.” Government employees who do not install the security update by July 4 must “discontinue use of the product.” However, patch notes and comments aren’t specific about how it works.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison and has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act. According to a letter from the US Department of Justice obtained by The Washington Post, Assange is specifically pleading guilty to “conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States.”

He will return to Australia, his country of citizenship, right after the proceedings. The Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly recommending a sentence of 62 months, and as Assange already spent more than five years in a UK prison, he won’t be spending any time behind bars in the US.

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FromSoftware

Elden Ring’s giant Shadow of the Erdtree expansion dropped on Friday, and the first big bad you’ll face is the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, a fearsome creature that uses wind, lightning and ice attacks. But it’s not really a lion. It’s two giants in a costume, a la traditional Chinese dance lions. That information, however, probably won’t help you beat it. The DLC is even more punishing than the base game.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-may-face-another-huge-eu-fine-114236055.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Elon Musk deepfakes are pushing crypto giveaways

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It’s been a weekend of crypto scams, hacks and deepfake chaos. Late on Friday, someone hacked 50 Cent’s accounts to push memecoin GUNIT and made off with millions. The exact amount is unclear; Fiddy himself wrote on Instagram, “whoever did this made $3,000,000 in 30 minutes.” The rapper’s X account and website were hacked at the same time.

Then, multiple deepfakes of Elon Musk were spotted on YouTube, telling viewers to deposit their crypto on a suspicious website, promising free crypto in return. Now taken down, the looped video showed Musk at what looked like a livestream from a Tesla event, with an AI-generated version of his voice instructing viewers to visit a website and deposit their Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin to enter the competition. Over 30,000 viewers tuned into the stream at one point, pushing it to the top of YouTube’s Live Now recommendations.

Don’t take investment advice from rappers and social media network owners.

— Mat Smith

Doctor Who: Empire of Death review: Take your dog for a walk

Watch our BTS guide to Summer Games Fest 2024

Amazon Prime Day 2024: The best deals ahead of Prime Day

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Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who flew on the heavily delayed first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner craft, won’t be returning from the International Space Station until sometime next month, instead of, well, earlier this month. NASA announced last night that it’s pushing the date of their return trip even further to review problems with Starliner’s first flight.

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I love it when an Engadget writer solves a problem I have. You might be used to using VPNs to stream video content from other regions, but it falls apart a bit if you’re trying to view it on your TV. That’s where this guide comes in. Alongside guides for smart TVs and TV dongles, there’s a great tip I hadn’t thought of: using an HDMI cable to pipe video directly from your phone. Smart!

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Jetflicks once boasted visitors could watch just about any TV show or movie “Anytime. Anywhere.” A jury in a Las Vegas federal court found the people behind the site guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. Jetflicks used computer scripts and software to scour the internet for illegal copies of movies and television shows and posted hundreds of thousands of illegal copies as far back as 2007 from torrent and Usenet sites — back when illegally watching shows and movies was a little more challenging.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-elon-musk-deepfakes-are-pushing-crypto-giveaways-111500963.html?src=rss

The Morning After: How small claims court became Meta’s customer service hotline

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Did you know Meta has a customer services department? If you have a problem with Facebook, Instagram and the rest, you might find it hard to get some of that service. Instead, people have been taking Meta to small claims court to get some kind of response to their complaints. Engadget spoke with five individuals who have sued Meta in small claims court over the last two years. In three cases, the plaintiffs were able to restore access to at least one lost account, but all eventually got the attention of Meta’s legal team.

The company has argued that it is not liable for more than $100 in damages according to its terms of service. However, some plaintiffs were awarded thousands of dollars — which still might pale compared to lost earnings for those whose businesses revolve around their Facebook or Instagram presence. We chart the mixed results of these users and Meta’s logic in giving them so much attention.

— Mat Smith

The best SSDs in 2024

Apple reportedly has plans for a thinner iPhone, MacBook Pro, and Apple Watch

More than 1,000 students pledge not to work at Google and Amazon due to Project Nimbus

Netflix House will open two locations in Texas and Pennsylvania in 2025

The Webb Telescope’s dazzling nebula image supports a long-held theory

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You may have already noticed, but Amazon says it's reduced its use of plastic airbags included with its packages, shifting to compostable paper filler in most cases. It plans to eliminate using them by the end of the year. It’s a move in the right direction: In 2021, the nonprofit ocean conservation group Oceana estimated that the waste produced from plastic air pillows alone “would circle the Earth more than 600 times.”

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Ubisoft

Ubisoft has released a trailer for its remake of the cult classic game Beyond Good and Evil, adding that it will launch on June 25. The understated cult hit has been upgraded to 4K and 60FPS – it was initially released on the PS2, so you’ll see the difference. It will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with physical copies going on sale next month, too. What about the sequel that has been revealed, teased, promised, and… seen (by me!)? No word.

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The Biden administration has taken sweeping action to ban Kaspersky Labs from selling its antivirus products to US customers. A source told Reuters that the company's connections to the Russian government made it a security risk. In a statement included in the report, Kaspersky added that its activities did not threaten national security and that it would pursue legal options. The FCC put Kaspersky on its list of companies posing unacceptable security risks in 2022, while back in 2017, federal agencies in the US banned Kaspersky products. The company cannot sell to new customers starting in July.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-how-small-claims-court-became-metas-customer-service-hotline-111555251.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Congress’ clean energy bill passes with major focus on nuclear

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The Senate has passed a sweeping bill that includes a lot of incentives for nuclear energy. The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act passed in a vote, 88 to 2. The earlier version of the bill also garnered bipartisan support in the House of Representatives earlier this year.

Those incentives will include financial awards for the first companies to upcycle recycled nuclear waste. The bill will change the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, streamlining the application and regulatory process for new reactors. Following the bill's passage, US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chairman Tom Carper said in a statement: "The ADVANCE Act will provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the tools and workforce it needs to review new nuclear technologies efficiently while maintaining the NRC's critical safety mission and creating thousands of jobs."

Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey were the two opposing votes, with the latter arguing that the ADVANCE Act turns the NRC into a facilitator rather than a regulator. "This bill puts promotion over protection, and corporate profits over community clean-up," Markey stated.

Environmental groups have reacted strongly both for and against the bill. Dr. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said in a statement: “Make no mistake: This is not about making the reactor licensing process more efficient, but about weakening safety and security oversight across the board, a longstanding industry goal.”

— Mat Smith

Pornhub to leave five more states over age-verification laws

More than 1,000 students pledge not to work at Google and Amazon due to Project Nimbus

Sennheiser Momentum Sport review: Fitness earbuds that lack finesse

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Engadget

For just $80, Logitech’s Keys-To-Go 2 is a surprisingly versatile universal travel keyboard. Its battery lasts a long time, it has a handy built-in cover, and it is easy to use between multiple devices. It’s also incredibly thin. Niche, yes. Good, yes.

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Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has issued a statement supporting efforts to restrict the use of smartphones in schools within the state. He did so mere hours before board members of Los Angeles’ school district voted to pass a proposal for a school phone ban. Newsom said he will work with lawmakers "to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day" this summer, because children and teens "should be focused on their studies — not their screens." While LA's board members ultimately passed the proposal for a phone ban, two members voted against it. One told The New York Times that he voted no because teachers are already having difficulties imposing existing restrictions. He added that parents need to be able to contact their children during emergencies, like school shootings. And that is bleak.

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Wera

The march of big-budget Tolkien fantasy has hit gaming yet again. While ignoring Gollum’s misadventures, another game, Tales of the Shire, offers a gentler, low-stakes way to play in the universe of Bagginses, lembas bread, and Gandalf. Don’t expect fighting of any kind, but if you’re looking for a gentle Animal Crossing / Stardew Valley experience, this might hit the spot.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-congress-clean-energy-bill-passes-with-major-focus-on-nuclear-111554248.html?src=rss

Tales of the Shire is a cozy village sim where you can’t run, but you can skip

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The march of big-budget Tolkien fantasy has hit gaming yet again. While ignoring Gollum’s misadventures, another game, Tales of the Shire, offers a gentler, low-stakes way to play in the universe of Bagginses, lembas bread, and Gandalf.

Set somewhere between the end of The Hobbit, but before it all kicked off in Lord of the Rings, Tales of the Shire sees you settling into Bywater, helping fellow villagers achieve their tasks and dreams. That involves fishing, farming vegetables and cooking up a storm to improve your relationships and unlock new recipes and possibly other activities.

The game’s simple but effective home decoration system allows you to move a single book or an entire table (and everything on it). In fact, the whole of Tales of the Shire seems designed as a gentle introduction to cozy gardening game mechanics, with its cooking and general good-neighborly activities. A cute system of bluebirds helps you navigate the snug but packed hamlet. (If it’s not a village, it’s a hamlet, right?). And when you run – you don't run, you skip.

If anything, it’s a bit too familiar. You can fish, farm and cook some dishes, and these activities offer rewards that can all be tracked elsewhere in the village, just like countless other farming and village life sims. The overarching aim is to help turn Bywater into a bonafide village by helping your neighbors with their various projects and challenges. During a brief demo, I was tasked with developing a new menu for the local inn. I had to pick my ingredients and seasonings carefully to hit the right flavor profile of dishes representing the story of Bilbo Baggins’ adventures to steal treasure from a dragon. But Tales of the Shire isn’t reinventing the genre.

The Tolkien references are present but not overwhelming — this is another cute countryside village that needs a bit of help — just that everyone has hairy big feet. The development team told me their writing team included a “Tolkien expert” to make sure that sidequests, stories and characters still fit cohesively into the author’s vision. I think that generally means maximum whimsy. Expect lots of food-based chilling by the riverbanks and cozy errands.

Tales of the Shire
Weta

Even the relationship mechanism between your customizable character and the rest of the village is based on making dinner to forge bonds and deepen connections. Hosting a mean dinner party opens up more quests, and – just as crucial – more potent recipes for schmoozing and feeding other villagers. Meal crafting itself is a relatively short minigame in which you can riff off base ingredients to incorporate your guests’ favorite flavors. Some fish, for example, may have a salty or hot flavor profile, improving your odds of making a new friend. A little graph guides your cooking prep as you aim for the best consistency and texture for your culinary creations.

According to the team behind it, Tales of the Shire is intentionally slow-paced. It aims to be forgiving and doesn’t punish the player if they mess up a task or fail to complete it. Time passes slowly, giving the player enough time to walk (or skip) to other parts of the village. My demo was a relaxing, if predictable, jaunt around the Shire, but could be a tempting new game for Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley fans, all with the cultural pull of Tolkien.

Tales of the Shire will be released later this year for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tales-of-the-shire-is-a-cozy-village-sim-where-you-cant-run-but-you-can-skip-130027018.html?src=rss

The Morning After: The biggest announcements from Nintendo Direct

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Nintendo sidestepped sharing the spotlight with all the other gaming companies at Summer Game Fest last week, promising its own Direct later in June. And that happened yesterday, teasing a lot of new games with Nintendo favorites. Mario games, yes. Zelda games, yes, and even a new Metroid game, confirmed. (More on that below the fold).

The funny thing is the new Zelda game is all about… Zelda. You play as the princess in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It opens where most Zelda games finish, with Link defeating Ganon. But just as he frees Princess Zelda, our usual hero is sucked into an alternate dimension. The game is played top-down and borrows the art style of the Link’s Awakening remake. However, Zelda’s main weapon and tool is the trirod. With this, she can copy many items and use these “echoes” to navigate the world. You can even create echoes of monsters to fight for Zelda.

Nintendo’s 40-minute update also included release dates for the forthcoming Dragon Quest remake, a new Mario Party title and news that feline adventure Stray is coming to Switch.

Quick note: We're updating our newsletter distro, and we apologies for any formatting hiccups on the way. And if you're reading this on the site, why not sign up for this very newsletter? Subscribe right here!

— Mat Smith

Here are all of the just-announced Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X chips

Black Myth: Wukong is pretty, intriguing and as challenging as it looks

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Engadget

The Solo Buds cover the basics, but that’s about it. Audio quality is flat, unless you’re listening to Dolby Atmos content in Apple Music, but at least the earbuds are comfy with long battery life. Then again, they only cost 80 bucks.

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Fisker has officially declared bankruptcy. The US-based startup filed for Chapter 11 protections and plans to restructure its debt and sell its assets. This means the Alaska EV with a designated cowboy hat space — not a joke — will likely never happen. Fisker revealed in a recent report that it had produced 10,193 units of its sole EV available, the Ocean SUV, in 2023, but only delivered 4,929 vehicles.

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Habbo Hotel: Origins, on Mac today, revives the 2005 PC game in all its nostalgic glory. If you never played Habbo Hotel 20 years ago, the game is an online community, in the format of, well, a hotel. Your avatar can chat with your friends in the virtual hotel lobby and spend in-game credits on furniture and accessories.

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After 18 years and a complete reboot, Samus Aran will return in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, next year. We got our first glimpse of the game too, with Samus duking it out with aliens in typical Metroid style. The teaser ends with the reveal of a new big bad. It’s wearing a suit like our hero but is flanked by two floating metroids. Ominous? Yes.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-biggest-announcements-from-nintendo-direct-111547910.html?src=rss

Black Myth: Wukong is pretty, intriguing and as challenging as it looks

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Black Myth: Wukong is gorgeous. It’s built up a lot of momentum, feeding trailer after gorgeous trailer, and at Summer Game Fest this year, I finally got to play it. Is it just a gorgeous tech demo with a heavy dose of Chinese mythology or your next gaming challenge?

A Chinese folk story, Journey to the West, inspired Game Science Studio’s action RPG. You play as the “destined one,” a monkey hero wielding an extending bo-staff and a handful of magic spells. I was given the higher-specced (though undisclosed) PC rig to play on, ensuring all that Unreal Engine 5 eye candy had a fighting chance of running smoothly. While less than an hour with a game won’t give the definitive answer, Wukong ran smoothly despite my chaotic play style. The game has been held up as a major example of next-gen graphical tech, so I’m relieved it didn't chug during my demo.

I played a relatively early part of the game, starting with the Forest of Wolves and the Guanyin Temple. I fought my way through several typical wolf-humanoid enemies, a bigger mid-level boss and then a giant wolf creature. On the way, I unlocked the ability to transform into one of the monsters, summoning their flaming weapon and opening up new attacks and skills. Midway through the demo, an old man with a head like a ginseng root gave me an immobilization spell with its own cooldown meter and offered me a brief reprieve against more dangerous foes, like the final giant wolf. He also briefly transformed me into an insect, able to fly over enemies' heads. This was fun but will apparently only be available at certain points in the game — you won’t be able to dodge all the fights.

However, you won’t progress (or even stay alive long) unless you get a handle on the basics. Attacks are separated into light and heavy, with the ability to charge the heavy attack for even stronger blows. Given how stamina drains during attacks, you’ll need to keep on top of defense, too, with jumps and dodges. Dodge perfectly, and time slows a little, an extra illusion of yourself appears and you get to pull a few extra moves before an enemy realizes what happened.

As you progress, you earn points to unlock new skills from a talent tree, which teases three staff styles to switch between. I unlocked the ‘pillar’ style, so my character could vault up to the top of his staff and ‘grow’ it by holding the strong attack button. This way, you avoid ground-level attacks. But if enemies hit your staff, your stamina (but not your health) takes a hit.

Releasing the button unleashes an extra strong move that seems to daze enemies if it interrupts their attack. It’s high risk, high reward and, like the best action RPGs, there’s nothing more satisfying than nailing the timing and move choice. Wukong’s battle system means you can’t just spam attacks and dodge rolls, as both burn through a stamina bar, which sits next to your health bar. The destined one also carries a rechargeable health potion, but he has to pause to use it. More risk and reward: If you don’t use it in a timely way, you’ll die and get reincarnated a few minutes down the mountain and have to face (or run past) most of the enemies you’d already dispatched — the fundamental backbone of soulslike games like Wukong. The battle system seemed responsive, and the biggest challenges came from groups of warriors: I had to combine evasion with prioritizing, say, the archer, before other enemies.

Black Myth: Wukong
Game Science

It’s all elevated by how good the environment looks, the bizarre monster design and the quiet, unsettling soundtrack. The giant wolf boss I encountered was small potatoes compared to other enemies the developer teased in earlier trailers — I want to fight that dragon. While the protagonist was entirely taciturn during my demo, Game Science, the studio behind the game, says the player will “uncover the stories behind various characters, understanding their love and hate, greed and anger, past lives and present.” I’m intrigued to see how that goes.

Black Myth: Wukong is, finally, almost here. It launches on PC and PS5 on August 20, 2024.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/black-myth-wukong-hands-on-preview-sgf-2024-133059684.html?src=rss

The Morning After: US Surgeon General says social media needs warning labels like cigarettes

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The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, says social media should come with warning labels, writing in The New York Times that social media is an “important contributor” to the teen mental health crisis. Last year, he issued an advisory making similar arguments, saying social media posed a “profound risk” to teen mental health. In his latest op-ed, Murthy cited a study showing higher social media use was associated with an increased risk of anxiety and depression, as well as a survey where almost half of teens reported “social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.”

He also noted warning labels alone wouldn’t make social media safer — I mean, people still smoke — but would help better inform everyone. “There is no seatbelt for parents to click, no helmet to snap in place… there are just parents and their children, trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world.”

He’ll need support from Congress to make this happen, however. Cooperation in US politics has not been common this decade. However, there has been recent bipartisan support to curtail tech companies' powers — look at the TikTok saga.

— Mat Smith

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The next Nintendo Direct takes place later today

McDonald’s pauses AI-powered drive-thru voice orders

Neopets is back

The US has sued Adobe over its awful subscription rules

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TikTok

Oh, speak of the devil. TikTok has announced its new AI-created digital avatars for both creators and brands on the app.

According to TikTok, the AI personas should make it easier for creators and businesses to create branded content with a “human feel” — even if that human feel is an uncomfortable stranger staring at you from a bus stop across the road. There are two kinds of avatars: stock avatars based on paid actors and custom avatars based on existing creators and brand spokespeople. As Karissa Bell puts it, they give M3GAN vibes. At least, the company’s own rules require this kind of content to have prominent disclosures.

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Logitech has unveiled a mixed reality stylus for Meta Quest headsets — but not the Quest Pro. The MX Ink helps users craft more precise designs and illustrations — although I’m not sure how many pro-level artists are using consumer-grade VR headsets… But hey, maybe it will give Sony some competition.

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Nikon

Nikon’s $2,500 Z6 III has the world’s first “partially stacked” 24.5-megapixel (MP) sensor. That allows for high-speed shooting in features like RAW video and faster autofocus and both photo and video modes. In short, better than the several-years-old Z6 II. So, er, what is a partially stacked sensor? They’re rare (and expensive), having so far only appeared on Sony’s A1 and Nikon’s own Z8 and Z9. Circuits cover the entire sensor, so it can read pixel data far more quickly than regular CMOS sensors. On the Z6 II, circuits cover only the top and bottom parts of the sensor. So it’s faster than normal CMOS sensors, but cheaper than stacked ones.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-us-surgeon-general-says-social-media-needs-warning-labels-like-cigarettes-111538368.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Apple may be planning thinner iPhones, MacBooks and Watches

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According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s mission to make its thinnest product ever won’t stop at the iPad Pro — the company also has plans for a skinnier Macbook Pro, Apple Watch and iPhone. Gurman says the slimmed-down iPhone — also rumored by The Information — could come as early as 2025, with the introduction of the iPhone 17 line.

A thinner iPhone is likely to be more expensive than current generation devices, however. Remember 2017’s iPhone X, which ditched the home button but cost more? That, again.

Meanwhile, on Engadget, we’ve got even more Summer Game Fest news. Did the show end last week? Yes. Are there still embargoed games we’re itching to talk about? Definitely, yes!

— Mat Smith

Microsoft’s Xbox refresh can’t compete with its leaked roadmap

Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday review: What legend?

Cybertruck buyers say they’ve been told deliveries are paused due windshield wiper problems

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According to a Reuters report, the US military used fake social media accounts to discredit China’s COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines during the height of the pandemic. In one example of the US’s anti-vax messaging cited by Reuters, an account in 2020 tweeted, “COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” The campaign also pushed the narrative that China’s vaccines were “haram” — forbidden under Islamic law. In a statement to the publication, a Pentagon spokesperson brought up China’s own disinformation campaign, and said the military “uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks.”

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Atlus

Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a long time in the making. It was announced in 2017, but we finally got to play through a three-part demo last week at Summer Game Fest. Atlus and the game’s director, Katsura Hashino, are both known more for (semi-) grounded urban fantasy/school life simulations of Persona than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio, in that sense, represents a big departure. As do all the British accents. Expect cockneys, Liverpudlians, and more, all represented in fantasy equivalents. The gameplay of battles, however, is turn-based, strategic and tied to the strength of the bonds with your allies. And yep, that sounds very Persona.

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In this week’s Engadget podcast, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss their final thoughts on Apple Intelligence and the company’s upcoming software teased at WWDC, and they chat about some of our coverage highlights from the pseudo-E3 Game Fest.

Listen here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-may-be-planning-thinner-iphones-macbooks-and-watches-111531784.html?src=rss