It's Christmas Eve Eve, so I've phoned in this week's TMA and shouted "Lost In Space!" to myself. What a time to be alive. I'm also stoking the flames of the console wars in 2023. Yes, Sony announced its sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far. Xbox doesn't offer its own official figures (because of this eventuality?) but analysts say, during this year, Sony outsold Microsoft consoles three to one.
There's also an outright ban on Apple Watches — at least the two newest models — over patent issues. Apple needs President Biden himselfto turn the ban around, but it doesn't look like he will before the ruling come into power.
We're wrapping up our year with a barrage of features and editorials on the year that was 2023. Want to know how X declined and declined and declined? How about the sudden pause on autonomous taxis and the many disasters in the last 12 months? Or how about a year of layoffs and acquisitions across a lot of gaming industry? There are more stories, of course, but you'll have to wait for next week to read those.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-apple-watch-ban-and-sony-seems-to-be-winning-the-console-war-140001621.html?src=rss
It's Christmas Eve Eve, so I've phoned in this week's TMA and shouted "Lost In Space!" to myself. What a time to be alive. I'm also stoking the flames of the console wars in 2023. Yes, Sony announced its sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far. Xbox doesn't offer its own official figures (because of this eventuality?) but analysts say, during this year, Sony outsold Microsoft consoles three to one.
There's also an outright ban on Apple Watches — at least the two newest models — over patent issues. Apple needs President Biden himselfto turn the ban around, but it doesn't look like he will before the ruling come into power.
We're wrapping up our year with a barrage of features and editorials on the year that was 2023. Want to know how X declined and declined and declined? How about the sudden pause on autonomous taxis and the many disasters in the last 12 months? Or how about a year of layoffs and acquisitions across a lot of gaming industry? There are more stories, of course, but you'll have to wait for next week to read those.
Like email more than video? Subscribe right here for daily reports, direct to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-apple-watch-ban-and-sony-seems-to-be-winning-the-console-war-140001621.html?src=rss
Along with a countdown showing the next Unpacked will be on January 17, leaker Evan Blass shared a spec sheet that purports to break down the components of the Galaxy S24 lineup. Just like the S23 (pictured above), expect three Galaxy devices: the regular model, an S24+ and an S24 Ultra. All three are slated to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The leak suggests Samsung will offer Space Zoom of up to 30x and dual telephoto zoom of up to 3x in the Galaxy S24 and S24+, while Ultra will probably have a beefier camera system. If the leak proves true, it will have a 200MP main lens, with up to 10x quad telephoto and 100x Space Zoom.
So far, the Samsung S24 lineup isn’t likely to have any terribly exciting upgrades in designs and pure specs. These are likely to include the company’s own Gauss generative AI systems, so as with Google’s Pixel series, the hardware may only tell half the tale. Let’s see what appears next year.
Hyperloop One had once dreamed of building a high-speed freight link between Europe and China, one that could take cargo from one end to the other in a single day. But the dream is pretty much dead. Hyperloop One is shutting down, a staff member has confirmed to Engadget after Bloomberg reported its closure. Which Hyperloop company was this again? From 2017 until 2022, it was known as Virgin Hyperloop One due to an investment from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Virgin quietly pulled its branding last year when the company abandoned its plans to transport passengers to focus on a cargo-only service. The company couldn’t secure a contract to build a working hyperloop system.
Beeper versus Apple has been our own little David and Goliath matchup, but it looks like the saga’s coming to a close. The Beeper Mini chat app, which lets Android users send iMessage missives to its iOS buddies, has issued yet another fix after Apple once again disabled access to the iMessage platform. The company says this will be the last fix released. Beeper wrote in a blog post today that it’s done “playing a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company” on the planet. Be warned: It’s… convoluted.
A London judge has sentenced the teenage hacker who infiltrated Rockstar Games, leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage, to an indefinite hospitalization. Arion Kurtaj breached Rockstar’s servers from a Travelodge hotel while under police custody, using only an Amazon Fire TV Stick, smartphone, keyboard and mouse. (He was promptly re-arrested.) Kurtaj was a central member of the Lasus$ international hacking group.
The two accomplices (the other is 17 so can’t be named) are the first Lapsus$ members to be convicted. Authorities believe others in the group (suspected to be primarily teenagers in the UK and Brazil) are still at large. It isn’t clear what kind of payoff the hackers got from the ransom requests, if any, as none of the affected companies have admitted to ponying up.
Microsoft is shutting down its Windows Mixed Reality platform, according to an official list of deprecated Windows features. This includes the garden variety Windows Mixed Reality software, along with the Mixed Reality Portal app and the affiliated Steam VR app. The platform isn’t gone yet, but Microsoft says it’ll be “removed in a future release of Windows.”
Microsoft first unveiled Windows Mixed Reality back in 2017 as its attempt to compete with rivals in the VR space, like HTC and Oculus (which is now owned by Meta.) We were fascinated by the tech when it launched as it offered the ability for in-person shared mixed reality. But uptake seemingly wasn’t big enough. Thank goodness I can still use MS Office on my Quest headset…
Along with a countdown showing the next Unpacked will be on January 17, leaker Evan Blass shared a spec sheet that purports to break down the components of the Galaxy S24 lineup. Just like the S23 (pictured above), expect three Galaxy devices: the regular model, an S24+ and an S24 Ultra. All three are slated to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The leak suggests Samsung will offer Space Zoom of up to 30x and dual telephoto zoom of up to 3x in the Galaxy S24 and S24+, while Ultra will probably have a beefier camera system. If the leak proves true, it will have a 200MP main lens, with up to 10x quad telephoto and 100x Space Zoom.
So far, the Samsung S24 lineup isn’t likely to have any terribly exciting upgrades in designs and pure specs. These are likely to include the company’s own Gauss generative AI systems, so as with Google’s Pixel series, the hardware may only tell half the tale. Let’s see what appears next year.
Hyperloop One had once dreamed of building a high-speed freight link between Europe and China, one that could take cargo from one end to the other in a single day. But the dream is pretty much dead. Hyperloop One is shutting down, a staff member has confirmed to Engadget after Bloomberg reported its closure. Which Hyperloop company was this again? From 2017 until 2022, it was known as Virgin Hyperloop One due to an investment from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Virgin quietly pulled its branding last year when the company abandoned its plans to transport passengers to focus on a cargo-only service. The company couldn’t secure a contract to build a working hyperloop system.
Beeper versus Apple has been our own little David and Goliath matchup, but it looks like the saga’s coming to a close. The Beeper Mini chat app, which lets Android users send iMessage missives to its iOS buddies, has issued yet another fix after Apple once again disabled access to the iMessage platform. The company says this will be the last fix released. Beeper wrote in a blog post today that it’s done “playing a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company” on the planet. Be warned: It’s… convoluted.
A London judge has sentenced the teenage hacker who infiltrated Rockstar Games, leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage, to an indefinite hospitalization. Arion Kurtaj breached Rockstar’s servers from a Travelodge hotel while under police custody, using only an Amazon Fire TV Stick, smartphone, keyboard and mouse. (He was promptly re-arrested.) Kurtaj was a central member of the Lasus$ international hacking group.
The two accomplices (the other is 17 so can’t be named) are the first Lapsus$ members to be convicted. Authorities believe others in the group (suspected to be primarily teenagers in the UK and Brazil) are still at large. It isn’t clear what kind of payoff the hackers got from the ransom requests, if any, as none of the affected companies have admitted to ponying up.
Microsoft is shutting down its Windows Mixed Reality platform, according to an official list of deprecated Windows features. This includes the garden variety Windows Mixed Reality software, along with the Mixed Reality Portal app and the affiliated Steam VR app. The platform isn’t gone yet, but Microsoft says it’ll be “removed in a future release of Windows.”
Microsoft first unveiled Windows Mixed Reality back in 2017 as its attempt to compete with rivals in the VR space, like HTC and Oculus (which is now owned by Meta.) We were fascinated by the tech when it launched as it offered the ability for in-person shared mixed reality. But uptake seemingly wasn’t big enough. Thank goodness I can still use MS Office on my Quest headset…
The European Union says three porn sites are now subject to stricter rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It has designated Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) after determining they each have an average of more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. This means they will face the same rules as Facebook, X, and TikTok. (Is the discourse in comments really worse than parts of X? Yes. Probably.)
The three porn sites have four months to comply with additional obligations. That includes measures to prevent the spread of illegal content, which includes “child sexual abuse material and content affecting fundamental rights, such as the right to human dignity and private life in case of non-consensual sharing of intimate material online or deepfake pornography.”
The penalties for failing to comply with the DSA’s requirements are severe. Platform holders can be fined up to six percent of their annual global revenue.
— Mat Smith
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After laying off nearly a quarter of its staff last year, e-scooter rental company Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bird launched in multiple cities in 2017, amid a lot of hype framing e-scooters as a sustainable urban mobility solution. The company continued to expand despite a lack of profitability (following the Uber model), but the COVID pandemic forced the company to halt operations in multiple locations around the world. Since then, cities have also become more hostile to e-scooter rentals. This filing doesn’t affect Bird Canada or Bird Europe, which are separate organizations. Unfortunately. So, I can expect to keep tripping over the e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.
ResearSo I can expect to keep tripping over e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.chers have developed an AI-powered robot they claim can beat Labyrinth, the physical marble game, faster than humans. The aim of these games is to guide a marble through a maze without falling into any holes, using two dials to angle the board. Thomas Bi and Raffaello D’Andrea of ETH Zurich created CyberRunner, which combines model-based reinforcement with the dexterity needed to beat the game. The joke is on AI, though — marble mazes are boring.
It’s estimated to have outsold the Xbox Series X and S by three to one this year.
The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, despite all the supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply. Oh, and a pandemic. Fun fact: It took the PS5 a week longer than PlayStation 4 to reach 50 million sales. According to the Financial Times, Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn’t release official Xbox sales numbers (I wonder why…), Ampere estimated Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year, while Sony’s sales reached 22.5 million units.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-pornhub-faces-the-same-strict-eu-rules-as-social-media-platforms-121520156.html?src=rss
The European Union says three porn sites are now subject to stricter rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It has designated Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) after determining they each have an average of more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. This means they will face the same rules as Facebook, X, and TikTok. (Is the discourse in comments really worse than parts of X? Yes. Probably.)
The three porn sites have four months to comply with additional obligations. That includes measures to prevent the spread of illegal content, which includes “child sexual abuse material and content affecting fundamental rights, such as the right to human dignity and private life in case of non-consensual sharing of intimate material online or deepfake pornography.”
The penalties for failing to comply with the DSA’s requirements are severe. Platform holders can be fined up to six percent of their annual global revenue.
— Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
After laying off nearly a quarter of its staff last year, e-scooter rental company Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bird launched in multiple cities in 2017, amid a lot of hype framing e-scooters as a sustainable urban mobility solution. The company continued to expand despite a lack of profitability (following the Uber model), but the COVID pandemic forced the company to halt operations in multiple locations around the world. Since then, cities have also become more hostile to e-scooter rentals. This filing doesn’t affect Bird Canada or Bird Europe, which are separate organizations. Unfortunately. So, I can expect to keep tripping over the e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.
ResearSo I can expect to keep tripping over e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.chers have developed an AI-powered robot they claim can beat Labyrinth, the physical marble game, faster than humans. The aim of these games is to guide a marble through a maze without falling into any holes, using two dials to angle the board. Thomas Bi and Raffaello D’Andrea of ETH Zurich created CyberRunner, which combines model-based reinforcement with the dexterity needed to beat the game. The joke is on AI, though — marble mazes are boring.
It’s estimated to have outsold the Xbox Series X and S by three to one this year.
The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, despite all the supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply. Oh, and a pandemic. Fun fact: It took the PS5 a week longer than PlayStation 4 to reach 50 million sales. According to the Financial Times, Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn’t release official Xbox sales numbers (I wonder why…), Ampere estimated Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year, while Sony’s sales reached 22.5 million units.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-pornhub-faces-the-same-strict-eu-rules-as-social-media-platforms-121520156.html?src=rss
If they feel brave and technically capable, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 owners can now fix their phones through the company’s self-repair service. The do-it-yourself program is also expanding to the Galaxy S23 series, Tab S9 series and the Galaxy Book2 Pro, all in collaboration with iFixit.
Neither the Flip 5 nor the Fold 5 show on iFixit yet, so we don’t know how much repairs might cost. For the sake of estimates, a repair kit for the Google Pixel Fold’s inner screen costs around $900.
— Mat Smith
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Teenage Engineering’s latest reveal (with timer and everything) turned out to be the K.O. II EP-133 sampler. Another lump of music technology, yes, but the real surprise was its (relatively) reasonable price. The K.O. II is an opportunity for Teenage Engineering to create a series of more capable instruments that don’t cost Field-series levels of money. Even if it’s still $299. As a sampler, it’s great for beginners or those who love a more performative style. It’s not nearly as detailed as rival samplers, but it was never going to be. Fadergate aside (many devices have issues with the sliders not working), this is a promising product.
You’ll still be able to buy it from other retailers — just not Apple.
Following yesterday’s news, Apple is scrambling to make software updates to its Apple Watch algorithms to avoid a ban on smartwatch sales in the US. Changing how the Watch measures oxygen saturation, Apple believes, could help keep the Watch on shelves during the crucial holiday season. The blood oxygen sensor, first introduced with the Apple Watch 6 in 2020, is at the heart of a patent dispute between Apple and Masimo, another California-based company that sued Apple in 2021. The tech company previously called the ITC’s ruling “erroneous” and plans to appeal the decision to the Federal Circuit.
505 Games, the publisher behind the iPhone (and Mac) port of Death Stranding, announced on X it needs “a little more time,” and it will have “a new release date in early 2024.” The Mac App Store now lists January 31, 2024, as the expected date. If you’re hoping to play it on iOS, you’re limited to the iPhone 15 Pro line with its A17 Pro chip. Resident Evil 4, however, is available to play, now.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-you-can-now-repair-samsungs-foldables-yourself-121548532.html?src=rss
Some holiday misery for Apple: It will soon pause sales of its latest Apple Watches in the US due to an International Trade Commission (ITC) ban. The company will suspend sales online this week and at Apple retail locations after December 24. Ho ho ho.
It’s all down to a patent dispute over the wearables’ blood oxygen sensor. Cast your minds back: Medical tech company Masimo sued Apple in 2021 for alleged violations of light-based blood-oxygen monitoring patents. In October, the ITC upheld a judge’s ruling from earlier this year that the Apple Watch did violate Masimo’s patents. The ITC’s order blocks all Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 imports to the US after December 25.
The case went to the White House for a 60-day Presidential Review Period. Although President Biden has one more week to decide whether to veto the ITC ruling, Apple has pre-emptively complied with the commission’s decision.
We test and review tons of gadgets every year, and (for some reason) we also buy a lot of things for ourselves. This year, those purchases included coffee-making upgrades, fancy keyboards and even pricey digital pianos. But there are plenty of other things we’ve bought and loved this year that have yet to make it on the site. Here, our staff looks back at the things that were worth the money.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a treat to celebrate the upcoming second anniversary of its launch: an image of the icy planet Uranus. The picture, resembling a glowing blue marble rippling in a black ocean, was funneled through the telescope’s infrared filters to capture wavelengths we wouldn’t see with the naked eye.
They asked an assistant attorney general to determine whether Apple violated antitrust laws.
More socks for Apple’s legal department this Christmas. A bipartisan group of US senators and representatives have urged the Department of Justice to investigate whether Apple violated antitrust laws by attempting to block Beeper Mini’s access to iMessage. Senators have asked an assistant attorney general to look into Apple’s “potentially anticompetitive conduct.”
Hopefully, senators will have learned lessons from the other times they’ve tried to grill technology companies without the technical expertise for their questions to make sense.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-pauses-apple-watch-series-9-and-ultra-2-sales-121539726.html?src=rss
Apple says it’s testing a new App Store feature called contingent pricing to lure customers into cheaper subscriptions based on their other purchases. This contingent pricing model will let developers offer discounts to customers who already have subscriptions to other services, be it those developers’ own apps or connected partner apps.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple says these bundled discounts will be highly visible to customers both on the App Store and “in off-platform marketing channels” — so elsewhere too. It’s starting with a select group of participants before rolling out to more developers “in the coming months.”
It’s been a year of increased scrutiny into Apple’s App Store and how it handles in-app purchases. Just this fall, Apple asked the Supreme Court to reverse the previous ruling that required it to allow developers to use outside payment systems, circumventing Apple’s 30 percent transaction fee. This is a way, of sorts, to get back in developers’ good graces.
According to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke in an interview with IGN, Game of the Year, Baldur’s Gate 3, won’t come to Microsoft’s Game Pass. Vincke also noted this was always the plan, and the title had never been considered for Microsoft’s subscription gaming platform. Vincke says Baldur’s Gate 3 is a “big game” available for a “fair price.” He also touted the title’s lack of microtransactions and its complete story, saying “you get what you pay for.”
Meta Quest users can now write reports, edit spreadsheets and create presentations — if they even want to do any of those tasks on a VR headset. Support for the basic Microsoft Office suite has arrived on the original Oculus Quest, the Meta Quest 2, the Quest Pro and the Quest 3. Users can now download Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the Meta Quest store for free. That said, typing on the Quest’s onscreen keyboard is not particularly easy, so you might want to bring your Bluetooth keyboard along for virtual office hours.
This week, Engadget Senior Editor Jessica Conditt joins Cherlynn and Devindra to talk about the death of E3 and what it means for the gaming industry. They also explore some of the highlights (and low points) of last week’s Game Awards, which couldn’t quite balance celebrating video games and functioning as a marketing tool. We’re particularly excited for Light No Fire, the next ambitious game from the folks behind No Man’s Sky. (Oh, you should check out Jessica’s video on the subject.)
Chinese manufacturer Nio is about to start selling an EV with a “semi-solid state” 150kWh battery (140kWh usable). That’s the biggest battery of any passenger EV so far. Nio CEO William Li drove a prototype version of the ET7 1,044km (650 miles) in 14 hours, a distance surpassing many gas-powered vehicles. The ET7’s 150kWh battery will only be available on a lease separate from the car, much as we’ve seen with some cars sold in Europe. We’re unlikely to see this specific battery pack in the US, however. With the Biden administration’s latest rules, some US cars, like Tesla’s Model 3 Long Range, that use specific Chinese battery components will no longer receive the full $7,500 tax credit.
It's Saturday morning and I'm still thinking about the end of E3, once the biggest gaming show on earth, and the teenage dream destination for many Gen Z / Millennial gamers, by which I mean: me. Will there be a gaming (or tech) show in 2024 that will match my enthusiasm (in the past) for E3? Probably not.
Apple is also testing out improved anti-theft software for iPhone users — just don't get your phone stolen before the feature gets out of beta.
Social media account takeovers continue to happen, and with many reliant on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for their income, an attack can derail everything. High-level hackers still tend to seek entities with deep pockets, targeting them with highly complicated attacks. But much of the cyber criminality today is social engineering jobs, aimed at mid-level creators with less experience (and resources). Katie Malone reports on how some victims have lost much to social engineering hacks.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-sad-end-of-e3-140035020.html?src=rss