Sep 28
Sep 28
You won’t have to wait until November 19th to learn whether or not Battlefield 2042 is any good. DICE and EA have revealed the open beta for the massive-scale team shooter will take place between October 8th and October 9th. As is sometimes the case with blockbusters like this, pre-order customers and EA Play members can start playing early, on October 6th.
The beta is limited to the classic Conquest mode on a single map, Orbital (the one from the trailer, pictured above). You can choose from one of four Specialists (read: player classes). The game supports as many as 128 players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, but you’ll be limited to ‘just’ 64 players on PS4 or Xbox One.
A two-day public test isn’t exactly extensive. It might give you a feel for the game, though, and could help you decide whether or not it’s worth $60 (on PC and older consoles) or $70 (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S). If nothing else, this suggests the developers are confident enough in the game to give everyone a brief sample.
Sep 28
After four delays spanning nearly a year and a half of missed release dates, New World is finally here. You can download the MMORPG from Steam and Amazon’s own marketplace. At launch, the title is available through a $40 Standard Edition or $50 Deluxe Edition. The latter comes with the game, a digital artbook and a collection of bonus items. Beyond the cost of entry, you don’t need to pay a subscription fee to play New World.
If you buy the game and you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can claim the Pirate Pack for free until November 1st. It comes with a corsair-themed skin and emote, as well as $5 worth of in-game currency. It’s the first of seven Prime Gaming drops Amazon has planned for New World in 2021.
⚠️no more alphas
⚠️no more betas
⚠️no more character wipes⏰ it’s time to make your mark on Aeternum PERMANENTLY!!
— New World (@playnewworld) September 28, 2021
Now that it’s finally out, New World is a critical test for Amazon. The company got into gaming on the belief it could dominate in the space much like it’s done in other verticals. After the very public failure of Crucible, it’s fair to say things haven’t gone according to plan for the company. And it’s hard to see Amazon investing more money into game development if New World isn’t at least a commercial success.
Sep 28
Adobe has revealed some new masking upgrades that are coming to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw (or ACR, Photoshop’s raw photo processing tool). The company calls it the “biggest change to providing control over selectively enhancing photos” since it released Lightroom 2 in 2008.
The Adobe Research team wanted to bring AI-powered selection tools such as Select Subject and Sky Replacement from Photoshop into Lightroom and ACR, but the image processing engine used in the latter two was incompatible. The team had to make some big changes under the hood, which gave it a chance to change how selections are handled in Lightroom.
Until now, ACR, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic have only supported vector-based selections (which are recorded as mathematical expressions), but the AI-powered masks need bitmap (or image-based) support. So, to bring the AI-based tools to those apps, Adobe had to make both approaches work together. It’s still able to use vector-based selections for brush, gradients, and range masks to minimize the storage space needed, while the select subject and select sky tools (which can create a mask for a subject or sky with a single click) use bitmaps.
As it figured out how to make those two kinds of selections work together, Adobe developed new features for ACR, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic across desktops, mobile devices, tablets and the web. One such upgrade is mask groups, which will let you combine any mask tools. For instance, you’ll be able to use a gradient vector-based tool in concert with an AI-powered feature such as select sky. It’ll be possible to separate a mask from another masking tool as well. You’ll be able to invert selections and there’ll be more options for range masks, such as targeting the entire image.
Adobe
A new masking panel should help you keep these masks organized. If you’re using one of the desktop apps, you can move the panel around. In addition, you can name each mask to help keep track of what you’re doing. You’ll be able to preview masks in a variety of different ways with the help of overlay visualizations Adobe brought over from Photoshop.
Elsewhere, Adobe wanted to ensure the tools were available across apps and devices. It says the AI-powered tools work just as well on mobile devices as they do on desktop, while it’s bringing range masks from ACR and Lightroom Classic to Lightroom’s desktop and mobile apps. The company’s also promising better in-app support to help you get the most out of all these tools, such as a step-by-step tutorial in Lightroom.
The feature parity means that no matter which device or app you prefer for image editing, you should have access to the same tools. These masking upgrades will be available in ACR, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic starting on October 26th. Adobe says its Research and Design Research teams are working on more AI-powered tools and other improvements it plans to announce in the near future.
Sep 28
Amazon has already released updated versions of the 5, 8 and 10-inch Echo Shows earlier this year, but it’s not done with smart displays just yet. Today, at its annual fall event, the company announced the Echo Show 15, its largest one to-date. With a 15.6-inch 1080p display, the Echo Show 15 almost looks like a large picture frame. It can be wall-mounted or placed on a stand, in either portrait or landscape orientation. The Echo Show 15 will retail for $249.99.
Since it has such a large display, Amazon has introduced a redesigned home screen to go along with the Echo Show 15. You can configure it so that part of the screen has the usual rotating array of ambient content like headlines and weather updates (those who already have an Echo Show will be familiar with this), while the rest of it can be customized with various Alexa widgets. Think of the whole thing as a multifunctional family bulletin board.
Those widgets include useful applications like a family calendar, a shared shopping list, sticky notes, to-do lists, reminders, recipe recommendations from sources like Allrecipes and Epicurious, restaurant delivery options and more. There’s a Blue Apron widget that helps you order meal kits and shows you step-by-step recipe instructions. A connected home widget helps you view and control your favorite smart home devices. You can also enable picture-in-picture live camera viewing so you can keep an eye on your kids while you’re cooking dinner. There’s also a widget to help you track package deliveries.
Amazon
According to Amazon, these Alexa widgets will also be available on the other Echo Shows, but you’ll have to swipe the screen to see them. On the Echo Show 15, however, they can be arranged to appear on the home screen, which can’t be done on smaller-screened Echo Shows. In the event you have guests over and don’t want them to see all of your calendars and personal information, you can enable a picture frame mode on the Echo Show 15 so that it only shows photos or art work.
Additionally, the Echo Show 15 has a new visual ID feature that’s able to recognize your face, which will prompt it to show you personalized information such as your calendar appointments, reminders and notes. This is potentially useful in a multi-person household, as you can show sticky notes meant only for specific members of the family, for example. Additionally, if you enroll your child in visual ID, the device will show them age-appropriate content.
Amazon
For those who have privacy concerns, visual ID is entirely optional, plus all of the computer vision information remains on the device, with nothing going to the cloud. The microphone and camera have power toggles, and there’s a built-in camera shutter. Plus, you can always view and delete your voice recordings.
Much like the other Alexa-powered smart displays, the Echo Show 15 has a bevy of entertainment options that include Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu and more. All Echo Shows will soon support TikTok and Sling TV streaming as well.
The Echo Show 15 is powered by Amazon’s AZ2 Neural Edge processor, which powers a lot of the device’s on-board machine learning and computer vision capabilities. It enables the aforementioned visual ID feature, and it also lets you teach Alexa your personal preferences. For example, you can tell Alexa you’re a vegetarian, and the next time you ask Alexa for recipes, it’ll remember that and only show you vegetarian recipes.
One particularly intriguing new feature is that you can also teach Alexa to recognize sounds. So for example, if your refrigerator beeps when it’s open for too long, you can teach Alexa to recognize that sound, and then notify you that you need to close your fridge door. You can teach it to recognize the doorbell, the microwave ding, the washing machine tune and various other household alerts. This sounds potentially very helpful, especially for those who are hard of hearing.
Amazon says that the Echo Show 15 will be available later this year. Countertop stands and under-cabinet mount accessories will be sold separately at a yet-to-be-determined price.
Follow all of the news from Amazon’s fall hardware event right here!
Sep 28
Amazon is challenging Google’s Nest with a $60 Alexa-powered Smart Thermostat. The thermostat is Energy Star certified and enables users to control their home’s temperature and use Alexa to set custom routines for heating and cooling.
Amazon partnered with Honeywell on the device, which is designed to work with “most” existing 24V HVAC systems, according to the company. Additionally, some people may be eligible for rebates via their utility provider, which could bring the price down to as low as $10, Amazon said.
The Smart Thermostat is available now for pre-order, though it’s not clear when it’s expected to ship.
Developing…
Follow all of the news from Amazon’s fall hardware event right here!
Sep 28
Andy Serkis’ Long Road to Venom Began With Reading Comics and an Unexpected Journey Through the Shire
Posted in: Today's ChiliVenom: Let There Be Carnage may seem like nothing more than the expected, logical follow-up to the 2018 hit Venom, but in reality, its roots reside in Middle Earth. Andy Serkis, the actor best known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films (and Caesar in the recent Planet of the Apes films, Snoke in the …
Sep 28
Last year’s iPhone 12 was a meaningful upgrade from the iPhone 11 and felt more premium than its $799 price tag. I was less sold on the $699 iPhone 12 Mini, which was a perfectly sized phone for those of us with small hands, but it had tragic battery life made worse by 5G connectivity. With the iPhone 13, Apple has…
Sep 28
The Witcher's Lauren Schmidt Hissrich Explains Why a Spinoff for Kids Can Work
Posted in: Today's ChiliThough we knew that the world of Netflix’s The Witcher franchise would be expanding with Nightmare of the Wolf, an animated prequel about Geralt’s mentor Vesemir, and Blood Origin, a live-action series detailing the origins of witchers as a whole, Netflix surprised everyone this past weekend with the announcement of…
Sep 28
Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’ Samsung Remix Is the Cringiest Greenwashing Campaign I Have Ever Seen
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe brands are at it again, folks. Tech giant Samsung enlisted Vanilla Ice—yeah, that Vanilla Ice—in an energy conservation campaign that is part greenwashing and all cringe.
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