Maybe it’s early-onset dementia, or the fact that this 2021 BMW M4 Coupe is finished in handsome Portimao Blue Metallic and not the bilious green launch color, or perhaps Bavaria’s designers were right all along, but I find myself not hating the M4’s most controversial styling feature. Much has been said about the expansive snout on BMW’s enthusiast coupe, and … Continue reading
OnePlus USA decided they needed to re-promote the OnePlus 9 Pro in time for school opening across the United States. To do so, they’ve packaged up a set of 15 OnePlus 9 Pro units in some familiar graphics and materials. If you grew up in the United States in the 1990s, especially in the Midwest, you know what it is … Continue reading
While Apple may have released Siri before Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, in many ways its voice-activated assistant is the least advanced of the three. A lot of that has to do with the amount of data and training digital assistants need to understand different languages, dialects and speech patterns. In an effort to improve its digital assistant, Apple recently launched a study to collect speech data and feedback with the help of an app called Siri Speech Study.
“The Siri Speech Study app allows participants to send certain data to Apple for product improvement, as detailed in the informed consent form,” the company says in a listing spotted by TechCrunch. The software is available in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Taiwan. According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, Apple uploaded Siri Speech Study to the App Store on August 9th, and recently updated the software on August 18th.
Apple isn’t being exactly secretive about the app, but nor is it advertising its existence either. You can’t find the software by searching for it, nor is it listed as one of the apps published by Apple. Similarly, you can’t join the study simply by installing the software on your phone; you need an invite from Apple to participate. We’ve reached out to Apple for more information on the app.
Notably, the app allows those involved to choose what Siri requests they send to the company. That’s an important point. In 2019, The Guardian published a report that detailed an Apple program where third-party contractors listened to anonymized Siri recordings to analyze the assistant’s responses. A whistleblower told the outlet there had been “countless instances” where graders listened to private conversations, including some that involved criminal dealings and sexual encounters. Apple subsequently moved the program in-house, and switched to opt-in transcripts.
A year after it wowed many with its first gameplay video, Chinese developer Game Science Studio is back with an even more impressive look at Black Myth: Wukong. The studio has switched from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5 for the action RPG. According to NVIDIA, it’s the first peek at a UE5 game that uses Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), the company’s AI-powered upscaling tech.
The 12-minute preview, which you can watch in 4K at 60 frames per second, shows off much more action from the game. It features a couple of stunning boss fights, including one with an electric dragon on a frozen lake. The visuals here are eye-popping: expect buttery-smooth animations, gorgeous environments and dazzling snow and ice effects.
Black Myth: Wukong is based on the story of the Monkey King and the Journey to the West. Game Science Studio seems to have taken inspiration from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice here, but that’s hardly a bad thing. The gameplay and creature design certainly draw from the Souls-like approach popularized by From Software — for instance, you see the protagonist evading the terrible beasts’ attacks while looking for an opportunity to leap in with their staff.
The studio was formed by a group of former Tencent Games employees, according to prominent games industry analyst Daniel Ahmad. There’s no confirmed release window as yet for Black Myth: Wukong. Game Science Studio said last year it was aiming to bring the game to PC (which is a sure bet given the DLSS support) and consoles by 2023.
If you’ve wondered why you’ve been hearing about 5G for years but the actual rollout has been glacially slow, looking at the development of 6G (the next-next-generation wireless standard) should provide some answers. Today LG announced a new milestone with a record-setting 6G wireless data transmission. Are we talking…
Artists have always had to hype their work. Actors, directors, musicians, authors—everyone goes on press junkets to peddle their latest project. Some artists have perfected media stunts to drum up buzz in such an artful way that it almost eclipses the work itself. (See: Lil Nas X’s entire career, but specifically his…
“I worried you would look around and find me wanting. As my mother had. As my classmates had. As I had.”
A federal appellate court upheld a Trump administration policy forcing thousands to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum.
A federal judge in Nevada has issued a ruling with potentially broad implications for U.S. immigration cases.
Nicole Poole Franklin said she drove her SUV into two children in 2019 to try to kill them because of their race.
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