Tag Archives: author_name|Lawrence Bonk

More ads are coming to Amazon Prime Video

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Can you hear the soft, cherubic voices of corporate executives singing in unison? That can only mean one thing. They’ve figured out a new way to squeeze money out of our eyeballs. Amazon is adding even more ads to Prime Video, according to reporting by Financial Times. This uptick in corporate-sponsored splendor will go into effect early next year.

This comes less than a year after Amazon forced ads onto its streaming video platform, which is something all of the major streamers do now. We pay money to watch ads. It’s pretty darn cool. In any event, it remains unclear as to how many more ads will infest that next episode of Reacher or where they’ll be placed. Modern streaming shows aren’t made with advertisements in mind, so these ads just kinda pop up wherever.

Ads have turned into a serious revenue stream for Amazon because, again, they sit on top of our monthly Prime memberships that we already pay for. It costs extra to go ad-free. The company recently crowed that it drew more than $1.8 billion in advertising commitments at an upfront event in September. This exceeded the company’s own targets. Amazon also revealed that the ad tier of Prime Video reaches 19 million monthly users in the UK alone. This tier is used by over 100 million people in the US each month.

Kelly Day, vice-president of Prime Video International, told Financial Times that the platform launched with “a very light load” of ads at first, so as to prepare consumers for the coming onslaught. She said the initial rollout was a deliberate “gentle entry into advertising.”

“We know it was a bit of a contrarian approach to take,” she said. “But it’s actually gone much better than we even anticipated.” Day added that the company has not seen “a groundswell of people churning out or canceling" after it brought in advertisements. 

The company is also readying an interactive ad experience that will allow Prime Video watchers to add an item to their cart straight from the video stream. This will work with physical remotes and on the app. Sweet, sweet corporate synergy. Yay!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/more-ads-are-coming-to-amazon-prime-video-182906957.html?src=rss

Amazon tablets are getting AI tools, like writing assist and automatic website summaries

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Did you think Amazon Fire tablets were exempt from generative AI tools? Think again. The company just announced a spate of AI-centric features that are rolling out to the just-announced Fire HD 8 refresh and a bunch of older models.

None of these features are too surprising, but they seem useful and fun. There’s something called Writing Assist, which is exactly what it sounds like. This tool integrates with the on-screen keyboard and should be compatible with any app on the tablet. It provides grammar assistance and will transform copy into a number of pre-set styles. This is a quick way to turn “what’s up with my paycheck” into something a bit more professional.

The appropriately-named Webpage Summaries offers up automatic summaries of websites. This tool will “distill the key points in an article or on a web page” to give concise summaries. Amazon says it will catch readers up to speed “in a matter of seconds.” This kind of thing is generative AI 101, as there are plenty of pre-existing tools that mimic this functionality. Still, it’s nice to have it native on Amazon tablets.

The tool in action.
Amazon

Finally, there’s Wallpaper Creator, which brings a chat prompt into the mix. Just type in what kind of background you want and let the power-hungry magic of AI do the work. Amazon says users can “choose from one of the curated prompts” or let their “imagination run wild.” The company says the algorithm will create “unique, high-resolution” images that can be used as a tablet’s wallpaper.

All of these features will be available for the just-revealed Fire HD 8 refresh, but Amazon says they are also coming to other “compatible Fire tablets later this month.” As for compatibility, Writing Assist and Wallpaper Creator are coming to tablets released since 2022. Webpage Summaries goes a bit further back to Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 8 tablets from 2018 and newer. 

This isn’t Amazon’s only dip into the exciting world of artificial intelligence. The company recently unleashed a shopping-focused chatbot and is working on another chatbot which has been codenamed Metis. It has also been reported that Alexa will soon be getting an AI-centric makeover, powered by Claude AI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-tablets-are-getting-ai-tools-like-writing-assist-and-automatic-website-summaries-164809318.html?src=rss

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is 13 percent off less than a week after its release

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Nintendo hates discounting its first-party games when they are five years old, let alone five days old. Woot is selling the just-released The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom for $52, which certainly breaks from tradition. This is a discount of $8 or 13 percent. It’s unlikely you’ll find anything lower until the game starts showing up in used bins.

This is a physical copy of the new Zelda game that we called “both familiar and fresh” in our official review. It’s familiar because this is a top-down adventure that calls to mind The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, among others. It’s fresh because of, well, everything else.

This is the first game in the franchise that lets you control the titular princess (no I’m not counting the ancient Philips CD-i title.) This isn’t just a skin swap. Zelda is a completely different hero, with a unique moveset that changes just about every aspect of gameplay. Where Link is a standard sword-wielding warrior, Zelda is a mage/summoner.

She can summon (literally) hundreds of items, including nearly every monster in the game. This means you can roll into battle flanked by an army of bloodthirsty Moblins, though lately I’ve been going with crows. These monsters typically have a secondary use for puzzle solving and traversal, which is an absolute blast.

There’s also a whole lot of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in this game’s DNA. It looks like an old-school Zelda game, but kind of plays like a new one. There are traditional dungeons, which is great, but there’s no pressure to complete them. I’ve only done one and I’ve put in like 15 hours so far. Instead, I’m using wild and wacky mechanics to explore every nook and cranny of the (surprisingly) huge map, on the hunt for secrets and new summons.

There’s only one downside that most reviews have touched on. There are a lot of summons in this game, which are called echoes. Picking and choosing from over a hundred monsters and objects can require some cumbersome menu navigation. As for this sale, Woot is only allowing one copy per customer, with a shipment date of October 11.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-legend-of-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom-is-13-percent-off-less-than-a-week-after-its-release-151553553.html?src=rss

Devolver has a new publishing label for licensed indie games

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Devolver Digital puts out a lot of good games and it’s looking to spread that magic around to licensed content. The company just announced a sub-label called Big Fan Games that will specialize in developing indie titles based on pre-existing IPs.

Devolver describes Big Fan Games as “a brand new label giving developers license to create original game adaptations using the worlds and characters of iconic film, television, and comic properties.” To that end, the team is staffed with industry veterans who have worked with companies like Disney and Dark Horse Comics.

The label already has a few games in its library, all of them based on pre-existing IPs. These titles include Reigns: Game of Thrones, Hellboy Web of Wyrd and John Wick Hex. These games were already released before being moved to the new label. For instance, Reigns: Game of Thrones came out six years ago, but back then it was published by Devolver. John Wick Hex came out in 2019 and Hellboy Web of Wyrd hit digital store shelves last year.

Today’s announcement doesn’t bring any new games, but the company website currently features a big “coming soon” tab, though it’s currently empty. We should expect some reveals in the near future. Big Fan Games wrote in a press release that its goal “is to nurture fun and inventive games that stand on their own, rather than serving as marketing tie-ins for other media launches.”

Licensed games have been hit and miss since the dawn of modern gaming. For every DuckTales, there’s a Superman 64. Recent releases, however, have been well-received. Respawn’s Star Wars games were bona-fide hits, as was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.

While we don’t know what Devolver and Big Fan Games are cooking up, we do know of some upcoming licensed games. MachineGames will release Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on December 9 and Arkane Lyon is busy working on a game based on Marvel’s Blade.

I personally think it’s pretty great that Big Fan Games will give indie developers a chance to work on licensed properties. To that end, the company encourages developers to reach out with ideas for a licensed game. "Have a favorite game you’ve always dreamed of rebooting or a cult classic film or book you'd love to see adapted into a game? We’d love to hear from you," the studio writes on its website. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/devolver-has-a-new-publishing-label-for-licensed-indie-games-183352439.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals include an Echo Pop bundle with a smart light bulb for only $18

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Amazon Prime Day is getting really close now and the deals spigot has been turned on. Case in point? There’s an Echo Pop bundle that includes a TP-Link Tapo smart light bulb for just $18. This is a discount of more than 70 percent.

The Echo Pop is Amazon’s latest entry-level device in the smart speaker category. It typically costs $40 on its own, adding more luster to today’s sale. The semi-spherical speaker is a great fit for small spaces, like dorm rooms and bedrooms. The Echo Pop includes Amazon’s AZ2 Neural Edge processor for on-device machine learning tasks which, of course, allows full access to Alexa.

The speaker also pairs with Eero mesh routers to extend a home network’s range by “up to 1,000 square feet.” This is a decent smart speaker for beginners, with one caveat. The Echo Dot is available in multiple colors, and some are quite fetching, but this deal is only for the standard black/charcoal model.

Of course, this bundle also includes a Tapo smart light bulb. This is another entry-level device, though it’s not exactly bare-bones. The bulb can display 16 million different colors, which makes for unique lighting effects. Once connected, users can ask Alexa to dim the lights, raise the lights or change colors.

A single light bulb doesn’t make for a smart home, per se, but this will allow consumers to experiment with some adjacent features. It’s also a good way to gauge how much energy will be saved by going with smart appliances, as Tapo bulbs use around 60 percent less power when compared to standard bulbs.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/prime-day-deals-include-an-echo-pop-bundle-with-a-smart-light-bulb-for-only-18-163317796.html?src=rss

Microsoft kills HoloLens 2, with no plans for a follow up device

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It looks like Microsoft’s AR platform HoloLens is being sent to a nice tech farm upstate. The company just announced that it’s discontinuing production of its HoloLens 2 headset, according to reporting by UploadVR. Microsoft has no plans for a followup device, so this is the end of the road.

The company has told its customers and enterprise partners that this will be the last time to purchase the headset before stock runs out. However, HoloLens 2 headsets will continue to receive "updates to address critical security issues and software regressions" until 2028. That will mark the end of software updates. The original HoloLens headset will stop getting software updates on December 10. That's in two months. 

We reached out to Microsoft to ask about its decision to end production of HoloLens headsets and if there’s any chance for a hardware update at some point in the future. We’ll update this post when we hear back.

This move isn’t that surprising, considering Microsoft scrapped plans for a HoloLens 3 headset back in 2022. Alex Kipman, the company’s mixed reality chief, said that same year that the “HoloLens is doing great” and that any rumors regarding the demise of the platform were greatly exaggerated. What a difference two years makes.

The HoloLens 2 first launched in 2019, just three years after the original. It was advertised as a device for enterprise consumers, so it never really entered the mass market. This was before decent passthrough became the norm in the AR/VR industry, so it had a lock on the enterprise market for a few years. It looks like that wasn’t enough. Microsoft nixed its entire mixed reality software suite last year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/microsoft-kills-hololens-2-with-no-plans-for-a-follow-up-device-153319304.html?src=rss

Reddit policy changes make sitewide protests nearly impossible

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Reddit has just changed the rules so moderators of subreddits must get admin approval to switch from public to private, as originally reported by The Verge. This is being seen by many as an attempt to curb sitewide protests, as these requests must be approved by Reddit staffers. There will be no way for multiple subreddits to go private at once without Reddit having its hand on the lever.

The company put a little note on the support page that reads “if you’re changing your community type after community creation, you’ll need to submit a request.” This page doesn't offer any reasoning behind the decision. 

How to issue a request.
Reddit

We reached out to Reddit to inquire about this most recent policy change and the company pointed us to a post on the subreddit r/modnews written by VP of community Laura Nestler. She wrote that “the ability to instantly change Community Type settings has been used to break the platform and violate our rules.” 

So it looks like last year’s protests are absolutely connected to today's changes. Nestler also suggested that this is an issue of personal responsibility, writing that “communities should honor the expectations they set – public communities should remain accessible to all; private communities should remain private.”

On the topic of recent protests, switching from public to private is the exact way in which subreddits expressed dissatisfaction with last year’s API pricing changes. In that case, over 8,000 subreddits went private in tandem. This means that the subreddits became inaccessible to the general public, though they remained active for current members.

The site’s daily traffic suffered as a result. This allegedly had an impact on the functionality of Reddit itself, as there was a major site outage after all of those subreddits went private. The company blamed the protests for this outage, telling Engadget that "a significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues.”

Not all protests involve switching a subreddit from public to private. Some moderators protest Reddit by labeling a subreddit as NSFW. This disallows advertising on the subreddit and makes it harder to search for. The company also put the kibosh on this move, as that kind of switch also now requires admin approval.

It’s worth noting that last year’s protests didn’t work. Reddit went ahead with those API charges, which forced third-party apps like Apollo to shut down. The company also went in and took complete control of one of the larger subreddits that participated in the protest. Now, there’s today’s change that effectively bans sitewide protests altogether. 

Adding insult to injury, Reddit recently struck gold by licensing its content to train AI models. That deal will reportedly net the company around $60 million per year, but the users who actually created the content that’s being licensed will be getting approximately $0 per year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/reddit-policy-changes-make-sitewide-protests-nearly-impossible-183754240.html?src=rss

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is down to its lowest price for October Prime Day

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October Prime Day deals have brought a slew of discounts to Amazon devices, including the entire Fire TV lineup. The company's most powerful streaming stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, is arguably the best buy of the bunch at just $35. That's 42 percent off its normal price and a return of the discount we saw during July Prime Day. Elsewhere in this sale, you can find our favorite budget streaming device, the Fire TV Stick Lite, for only $18.

But the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a great streaming device as well, with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. As the name suggests, it can stream content in 4K Ultra HD. The stick also supports Dolby Atmos audio, for added immersion.

This streaming stick includes the company’s proprietary Fire TV Ambient Experience, which allows users to display art and photos on the screen. This mimics the functionality of something like Samsung’s The Frame TV. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max also boasts 16GB of storage, for downloads, apps and games.

Speaking of games, this thing doubles as a highly functional cloud gaming box. It can stream Xbox games via Game Pass Ultimate and integrates with Amazon Luna. We singled out this device as a great option for retro gamers, as it can easily run many emulation apps. Finally, it ships with an upgraded remote that offers Alexa integration.

While the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is arguably Amazon's best streaming dongle for most people that's on sale right now, the rest of the Fire TV device lineup is on sale, too.

  • Fire TV Stick Lite streamer for $18 ($12 off): This is already the most affordable Fire TV streaming stick, but it’s a steal at this sale price. It supports 1080p content and comes with a “lite” version of the Alexa Voice Remote.

  • Fire TV Stick streamer for $20 ($20 off): This dongle ups the ante on the TV Stick Lite by adding support for Dolby Atmos audio, plus it comes with the regular version of the Alexa Voice Remote. It also supports Wi-Fi 5 and comes with 8GB of internal storage.

  • Fire TV Stick 4K streamer for $25 ($25 off): This mode is the cheapest Fire TV Stick you can get to stream 4K content, plus it has support for Wi-Fi 6 and Dolby Vision and Atmos. With its live picture-in-picture feature, you can view security camera feeds right on your TV while you’re watching your favorite show or movie.

  • Fire TV Cube set-top box for $100 ($40 off): This model will provide the best performance of any Fire TV streaming device, and it supports 4K HDR content, Dolby Vision and Atmos and an enhanced version of the Alexa Voice Remote. Along with live picture-in-picture view and the Fire TV ambient experience, you can also hardware other devices to the Fire TV Cube including a cable box or a game console.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-fire-tv-stick-4k-max-is-down-to-its-lowest-price-for-october-prime-day-163133851.html?src=rss

DirecTV to acquire rival Dish Network for $1, subject to regulatory approval

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It’s always beautiful when two lonely corporations find one another. DirecTV has reached an agreement to acquire Dish Network, according to reporting by The New York Times. This would create a global behemoth in the satellite TV space.

It would also provide some financial armor for the struggling Dish Network. The company’s in debt to the tune of billions of dollars because, well, satellite TV isn’t exactly a growth industry anymore. Stream, baby, stream. All told, Dish has $2 billion in debt that’s due in November and only $500 million in available cash. That math don’t add up to anything but bankruptcy.

The specifics of the deal are pretty dang convoluted. It’s a multi-step transaction with a few players. First, the private equity firm TPG will acquire a majority stake in DirectTV from AT&T for $7.6 billion. Next, DirecTV will buy Dish Network for just a single dollar. However, it’ll also take on that $2 billion in debt. EchoStar, the parent company of Dish, will hold onto some parts of the business as part of the transaction, including over $30 billion in wireless spectrum investments. DirecTV will get the Sling TV video service as part of the deal.

The acquisition would create a massive pay-TV provider, with a combined total of around 19 million subscribers. As a counterpoint, cable TV leader Comcast has 13.2 million subscribers. Netflix is creeping up on 300 million subscribers, to show the stark contrast between pay-TV and streaming.

The companies say they expect the deal to close in the second half of 2025, though the whole thing is subject to regulatory approval. The Justice Department denied a similar merger back in 2002, but that was when the satellite TV industry was at its peak.

More recently, the federal government side-eyed a potential merger between the two companies in 2020 on the grounds that it would deprive rural customers a viable alternative to Dish and DirecTV when looking to purchase 5G wireless service.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/directv-to-acquire-rival-dish-network-for-1-subject-to-regulatory-approval-152041300.html?src=rss

Blizzard is trying to make a StarCraft shooter again (for the third time)

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Blizzard is diving into the StarCraft shooter well once again, after two previous titles were canceled. This information comes from a forthcoming book about the developer by games journalist Jason Schreier and was discussed during a recent IGN podcast.

This time around, veteran developer Dan Hay is leading the effort to translate the world of StarCraft into a shooter. Hay certainly has the right pedigree for the job. He’s been involved with the Far Cry franchise since Far Cry 3, eventually becoming creative director of the series. Hay joined up with Blizzard to oversee the long-gestating survival game Odyssey before it was unceremoniously canceled. This is the first we’ve heard of him since.

We don’t know anything about the game he’s working on now, beyond it being a StarCraft shooter. Past as prologue, it’ll probably be canceled sometime in 2029.

To that end, StarCraft-themed shooters have had a rocky history. First there was StarCraft: Ghost, which spent years in development limbo before being sent to the trash heap. The game eventually leaked online, a full 14 years after being canceled.

After that, Blizzard started developing something called Ares, which ended up being a StarCraft FPS. It was reportedly fairly far along in development before getting scrapped and, according to Kotaku, was shaping up to be “quite good.” Blizzard must have disagreed, as it went to a farm upstate back in 2019.

Who knows what will happen with this one. Best case scenario? It gets finished and we all have a great time blasting away swarms of arthropodal aliens sometime in the next few years. In the meantime, both StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II hit PC Game Pass on November 5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-is-trying-to-make-a-starcraft-shooter-again-for-the-third-time-153950275.html?src=rss