Tag Archives: author_name|Kris Holt

Beeper Mini is back, promising iMessage access on Android if you sign in with an Apple ID

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A battle to bring iMessage access to Android is not yet over, even though Apple recently closed a loophole that seemingly allowed Beeper and other third-party apps to tap into the service. The latest version of the Beeper Mini app for Android once again allows users to send and receive messages.

Beeper says its team has been working around the clock to restore iMessage functionality after Apple shut down the app's access to the service. Now, Beeper cofounders Eric Migicovsky and Brad Murray say the team has found a solution. There's one key caveat, however: phone number registration isn't working and you'll need to sign in with an Apple ID. You'll send and receive iMessages via your email address instead of your phone number. The Beeper team says it's working on a phone number fix.

In the meantime, the team says it's not comfortable with charging users while its service remains in flux. As such, Beeper is free to use for the time being. "As soon as things stabilize (we hope they will), we’ll look at turning on subscriptions again," Beeper wrote in a blog post.

Migicovsky and Murray added that, despite Apple's assertions to the contrary, messages sent via Beeper Mini are end-to-end encrypted and secure. In fact, they suggest that Beeper is a more secure way for iOS and Android to communicate with each other than regular SMS. Apple does not yet support the more secure RCS standard Google has embraced, but it plans to start doing so in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/beeper-mini-is-back-promising-imessage-access-on-android-if-you-sign-in-with-an-apple-id-182924774.html?src=rss

Google Messages APK suggests you may soon able to edit messages after they’re sent

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Android users may soon be able to edit texts after they're sent via the Google Messages app. TheSpAndroid dug around in an APK for a recent beta version of Messages and found multiple references to a message-editing feature.

The publication unearthed flags concerning aspects such as a message-editing UI, loading the edit history and processing incoming and outgoing edits. For the time being, enabling these flags doesn't seem to do anything, as The Verge notes. TheSpAndroid also found code suggesting that message editing would work with the RCS protocol.

Were Google to enable this feature (which users would surely appreciate), it would follow the footsteps of WhatsApp and iMessage. Over the last year or so, those services each added the ability to edit messages within a certain timeframe after they're sent.

Google recently introduced some other handy features to Messages, such as the ability to turn photos into reactions and for users to create a profile with their name and photo that's attached to their phone number. Users can also change the color of text message bubbles, including making them blue.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-messages-apk-suggests-you-may-soon-able-to-edit-messages-after-theyre-sent-155244187.html?src=rss

Google Messages APK suggests you may soon able to edit messages after they’re sent

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Android users may soon be able to edit texts after they're sent via the Google Messages app. TheSpAndroid dug around in an APK for a recent beta version of Messages and found multiple references to a message-editing feature.

The publication unearthed flags concerning aspects such as a message-editing UI, loading the edit history and processing incoming and outgoing edits. For the time being, enabling these flags doesn't seem to do anything, as The Verge notes. TheSpAndroid also found code suggesting that message editing would work with the RCS protocol.

Were Google to enable this feature (which users would surely appreciate), it would follow the footsteps of WhatsApp and iMessage. Over the last year or so, those services each added the ability to edit messages within a certain timeframe after they're sent.

Google recently introduced some other handy features to Messages, such as the ability to turn photos into reactions and for users to create a profile with their name and photo that's attached to their phone number. Users can also change the color of text message bubbles, including making them blue.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-messages-apk-suggests-you-may-soon-able-to-edit-messages-after-theyre-sent-155244187.html?src=rss

Microsoft is hiring dozens of ZeniMax QA contractors as unionized employees

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Game studios and publishers have collectively laid off an estimated 9,000-plus workers this year. Microsoft (which itself has laid off workers from Xbox teams in 2023) is bucking the trend to a certain extent by hiring dozens of ZeniMax quality assurance contractors as unionized employees.

The company agreed at the beginning of this year to formally recognize a union representing around 300 QA workers at ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda that Microsoft bought in 2021. As part of bargaining talks that have been ongoing since April, Microsoft has agreed to hire 77 temporary workers and incorporate them into the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA (Communications Workers of America) union.

Microsoft is hiring 23 of the workers as full-time, permanent employees with a pay increase of 22.2 percent. The other 54 workers are getting an immediate pay bump from $18 per hour to $20.75 an hour. Once the collective bargaining agreement is ratified, Microsoft will hire those workers as temporary employees.

According to the CWA, the new employees will now receive paid holidays and sick leave. The latter was previously only available if contractors lived in a jurisdiction that requires paid time off for illness. In addition, all of the workers will receive a copy of Starfield, the blockbuster game they had worked on. The CWA says it was not standard practice for contractors to get copies of the games they help to ship.

The CWA says the union will keep fighting for more contractors to have a pathway to permanent roles. “We look forward to continued good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement,” Microsoft vice president Amy Pannoni told Bloomberg.

“We are now stronger at the bargaining table and are working to secure a fair contract for all workers — direct employees and contractors," Chris Lusco, associate QA tester and a member of ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, said in a statement. "We are all a part of ZeniMax Studio’s success and we all deserve our fair share. We hope to set a new precedent for workers across Microsoft and the entire gaming industry so that all workers, regardless of their employment status, are able to improve their working conditions through collective bargaining."

Last year, while Microsoft was attempting to win regulatory approval to buy Activision Blizzard, the company said it would remain neutral when the publisher's employees wished to unionize. A pact it reached with the CWA to that effect is set to come into force on December 12, 60 days after the Activision deal closed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-hiring-dozens-of-zenimax-qa-contractors-as-unionized-employees-180047283.html?src=rss

Google’s AI-infused NotebookLM note-taking app is open to everyone in the US

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Google’s NotebookLM, a note-taking app that’s infused with a large language model, is now available to everyone in the US. The company built NotebookLM to only pull information from a custom dataset. So you might use it, for instance, to help write a paper based on a specific set of PDFs and only rely on details from those documents.

The idea is that, by sticking to a custom dataset, the information NotebookLM handles will always be relevant to your specific needs as opposed to a more general chatbot that might draw from the entirety of the public internet. Google debuted NotebookLM as Project Tailwind at I/O this year before rebranding it and it says the tech is based on its Gemini Pro model. 

Google also notes that personal data isn't used to train NotebookLM, so any sensitive or private details in your sources will remain hidden. That is, unless you share the sources with collaborators.

Along with making NotebookLM more broadly available (Google has been granting access based on a waitlist over the last five months), Google has announced a string of new features for the software. It plans to roll these out over the next few weeks with the aim of easing the transition between reading, taking notes and writing.

Among other things, the chatbot can format your notes into a newsletter, script outline or a marketing plan draft and export everything to Google Docs with one click. You'll be able to pin notes to a Noteboard space above the chat box, save and pin responses from the chatbot as notes and hide the source material if you want to focus on jotting down your thoughts with fewer distractions. You'll soon be able to ask the AI to focus on certain sources (of which you'll be able to have up to 100 in total) or jump to a citation from a chat response or saved note.

NotebookLM will also suggest some actions based on selected text or notes. At the outset, you'll be able to combine notes, summarize several of them or create an outline or study guide.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-ai-infused-notebooklm-note-taking-app-is-open-to-everyone-in-the-us-155239999.html?src=rss

Capcom’s next big Monster Hunter game is Wilds, coming in 2025

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Monster Hunter is one of Capcom's biggest franchises at this point, so of course the company has been cooking up another mainline entry. It's called Monster Hunter Wilds and it's coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2025. 

The trailer shows the player character and several creatures trying to escape a dust storm before lightning strikes. The air then clears to reveal a lush landscape teeming with wildlife. There wasn't a whole lot else to the announcement clip other than the appearance of a dragon, but hey, it looks pretty and it gives fans of the series something to look forward to. 

Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said at The Game Awards his team plans to show off much more of the game in the summer of 2024. In the meantime, fans can keep themselves occupied with the likes of Monster Hunter Now and a Monster Hunter crossover that's set to go live in Exoprimal next month. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/capcoms-next-big-monster-hunter-game-is-wilds-coming-in-2025-042312977.html?src=rss

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available now on Xbox Series X/S

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Xbox-only gamers have had to patiently bide their time until Baldur's Gate 3, one of the biggest titles of 2023, hit Microsoft's consoles. The RPG came out of early access on PC in August and it landed on PS5 the following month. However, technical issues held up the Xbox Series X/S version until now. 

Developer and publisher Larian Studios had pledged to release the Xbox version by the end of the year and said it would reveal the exact date at The Game Awards. True to its word, Larian announced that the Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 is out right now. 

Along with Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3 had the most nominations (eight) of any title at The Game Awards 2023. It ultimately won six: Best Performer, Best Role Playing Game, Best Community Support, Best Multiplayer Game, Players' Voice and the big one, Game of the Year.

The Xbox delay was due to a technical problem with the Series S. As Larian's director of publishing Michael Douse wrote in July, "We cannot remove the split-screen feature because we are obliged to launch with feature parity, and so continue to try and make it work.” However, Larian said the following month that, after meeting with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, it had found a solution that would allow it to support split-screen on Series X but not Series S.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-available-now-on-xbox-series-xs-040406055.html?src=rss

Ubisoft’s long-delayed Skull and Bones is finally set to arrive on February 16

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After what feels like countless delays (seriously, our first hands-on with it was in mid-2017), Ubisoft's Skull and Bones finally has a release date. As revealed at The Game Awards, the action-adventure game is at last set to land on February 16, 2024. Ubisoft+ subscribers and those who pre-order can hop in three days earlier.

As this name suggests, this is a game all about piracy. You can choose to set sail on a pirate ship by yourself or team up with a friend or two in co-op play. You'll battle settlements and other ships, "defy legendary pirate myths" and face off against fearsome creatures from the deep.

If you have a pirate-sized itch to scratch and Sea of Thieves isn't quite cutting it for you, you can register for the Skull and Bones closed beta, which will run from December 15 to 18. The game is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Amazon Luna. At one point, Skull and Bones was supposed to arrive on Google Stadia, but the cloud gaming platform has both debuted and died since the game's first delay.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisofts-long-delayed-skull-and-bones-is-finally-set-to-arrive-on-february-16-031617196.html?src=rss

God of War Ragnarok is getting a free roguelite expansion next week

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God of War Ragnarok is a game so large that it practically has a whole second game tucked away inside. And yet that still doesn't seem to be quite enough Norse action for Kratos. During The Game Awards, Sony revealed a Valhalla-centric expansion for the 2022 hit. 

Not only that, it's free. And it's coming next week, on December 12, to both PS4 and PS5 versions of the base game.

Much like with the No Return mode in the upcoming The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Sony is leaning into the roguelite format here. In the trailer, Kratos is shown getting slammed into the ground by a wyvern. He then wakes up to hear Mimir telling him there's "no shame in what just happened. It's all part of the process. Let's go again!"

On each run, you'll have to contend with fresh combinations of enemies and some surprises, according to the PlayStation Blog. The more enemies you take down, the more resources you'll earn to put towards permanent upgrades. While you'll have access to Kratos' skill trees from the main game, you'll need to stick with one shield and one Spartan Rage path on each run. You'll also unlock temporary perks as you progress through each attempt.

And don't worry too much if that all seems daunting. There are five difficulty settings to choose from and there will still be an extensive array of accessibility options at your disposal. 

It seems the DLC will dig into a new part of Kratos' story as well. "Embark with Kratos to Valhalla on a deeply personal and reflective journey towards a future he never thought possible," the trailer's YouTube description reads. That suggests the expansion will lead into the next game in the series. While you can jump into Valhalla at any time, the developer recommends finishing the base game's main story first. That's because the DLC acts as an epilogue.

There have been rumors floating around for a while that Santa Monica Studio was working on DLC for God of War Ragnarok. That it will be available at no extra cost (and so soon!) is a nice little holiday treat for fans.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/god-of-war-ragnarok-is-getting-a-free-roguelite-expansion-next-week-015012803.html?src=rss

God of War Ragnarok is getting a free roguelite expansion next week

Posted on by

God of War Ragnarok is a game so large that it practically has a whole second game tucked away inside. And yet that still doesn't seem to be quite enough Norse action for Kratos. During The Game Awards, Sony revealed a Valhalla-centric expansion for the 2022 hit. 

Not only that, it's free. And it's coming next week, on December 12, to both PS4 and PS5 versions of the base game.

Much like with the No Return mode in the upcoming The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Sony is leaning into the roguelite format here. In the trailer, Kratos is shown getting slammed into the ground by a wyvern. He then wakes up to hear Mimir telling him there's "no shame in what just happened. It's all part of the process. Let's go again!"

On each run, you'll have to contend with fresh combinations of enemies and some surprises, according to the PlayStation Blog. The more enemies you take down, the more resources you'll earn to put towards permanent upgrades. While you'll have access to Kratos' skill trees from the main game, you'll need to stick with one shield and one Spartan Rage path on each run. You'll also unlock temporary perks as you progress through each attempt.

And don't worry too much if that all seems daunting. There are five difficulty settings to choose from and there will still be an extensive array of accessibility options at your disposal. 

It seems the DLC will dig into a new part of Kratos' story as well. "Embark with Kratos to Valhalla on a deeply personal and reflective journey towards a future he never thought possible," the trailer's YouTube description reads. That suggests the expansion will lead into the next game in the series. While you can jump into Valhalla at any time, the developer recommend finishing the base game's main story first. That's because the DLC acts as an epilogue.

There have been rumors floating around for a while that Santa Monica Studio was working on DLC for God of War Ragnarok. That it will be available at no extra cost (and so soon!) is a nice little holiday treat for fans.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/god-of-war-ragnarok-is-getting-a-free-roguelite-expansion-next-week-015012803.html?src=rss