Amazon Game Studio head and longtime employee Mike Frazzini is stepping down, he announced in a LinkedIn post. Frazzini cited the desire to spend more time with family and the fact that the studio is finally having some success. “While there’s never really a perfect time to step away from a great role, now is a good time,” he wrote. “We’ve launched two top 10 games in the past six months, and have a growing portfolio of promising new games in the pipeline.”
Amazon Games has struggled over the past few years, notably with the cancellation of its Lord of the Rings MMO and fiasco with its first AAA game, Crucible. The company was also criticized for its policy of claiming ownership of employees’ personal games that one engineer called “draconian.” One former Game Studios manager said some of Amazon’s issues may have come about because Frazzini had no previous experience in gaming, according to the same Bloomberg report.
However, the company has had hits of late with New World, one of 2021’s biggest money makers on Steam. It has also had ongoing success as the publisher of Lost Ark, made by South Korean developer Smilegate RPG. Frazzini didn’t say what he planned to do next.
Navarro says he won’t talk unless “President Trump” waives executive privilege. The actual president, Joe Biden, says it’s not in the national interest.
Almost precisely three years after it launched, Apple TV+ has claimed the Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA. In another historic moment, Troy Kotsur became the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. Apple paid $25 million for the distribution rights to the film, which had a limited theatrical run and is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
It beat Netflix’s favorite in the category, The Power of the Dog, which picked up Best Director for Jane Campion. And while Netflix registered a record 27 nominations for this year’s Oscars, losing out to Apple for arguably the biggest prize probably smarts after years of campaigning for its movies and shows.
Many, many years in the making, the interesting elements of Halo are somewhat outweighed by the show’s simplistic writing, stiff acting and sometimes dodgy special effects. If it came out in 2015, when we first expected it to arrive, it would have been more impressive. But with The Mandalorian and other shows like Foundation on Apple TV+, there’s a lot of premium sci-fi TV to get into — and that’s before we even touch all the myriad Star Trek shows filling up Paramount+, the home of Halo.
The tablet will reportedly feature a new chip and MagSafe charging.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman expects Apple will release its next-generation iPad Pro sometime this fall. Gurman anticipates the new tablet will feature MagSafe charging and Apple’s long-rumored but as yet unannounced M2 chip.
Apple only just updated the iPad Pro last year, adding 5G, Thunderbolt connectivity and its first-generation Apple Silicon system-on-a-chip. Details on the M2 remain sparse, but it has reportedly gone into production.
The extension ends a long-running spat with city regulators.
Following a years-long dispute with the city’s transit regulator, Uber has earned a 30-month license to continue operating in London. Transport for London (TfL) said the ride hailing service had been granted a London private hire vehicle operator’s license” for a period of two and a half years.”
Uber’s dispute with TfL dates back to 2017 when the agency said the company wasn’t “fit and proper” to operate in the city and revoked its taxi license. Among other issues, TfL said Uber had failed to properly conduct driver background checks and report serious criminal offenses.
The former employee estimates “a minimum of $200 million each year.”
In an essay published on the whistleblower platform Lioness, former Microsoft manager Yasser Elabd alleged Microsoft fired him after he alerted leadership to a workplace where many regularly engaged in bribery. He further alleges that attempts to escalate his concerns resulted in retaliation within Microsoft and eventual termination from his role.
Elabd claims in his essay that he worked for Microsoft between 1998 and 2018 and had oversight into a “business investment fund ” — essentially a slush fund to “cement longer-term deals” in the Middle East and Africa. But he grew suspicious of unusual payments to seemingly unqualified partners.
The collection is meant to document the history of the war.
Ukraine’s Ministry for Digital Transformation has launched an NFT collection to help fund its military. The project was first announced in early March, but the NFT collection of illustrations by Ukrainian and international artists, called “Meta History Museum of War,” is now live. The collection is meant to be an “NFT museum” documenting the history of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The collection currently comprises 54 NFTs documenting the events of the first three days of the war.
There are many gaming controllers available for mobile, but since usually these controllers try to appeal to as many gamers on as many platforms as possible, sometimes you do lose out on certain OS-specific features.
For Android and Chrome OS gamers who are looking for a more dedicated controller, you might be interested to learn that SteelSeries has announced its new gaming controller, the Stratus+. This is aimed at both Android and Chromebook users and will come with features like Bluetooth LE connectivity, a phone mount so you have an easier way of hooking up your phone while you game, ALPS analog thumbsticks, and hall effect triggers.
According to SteelSeries, the controller also boasts a 90-hour battery life which means that you can game for days on end before needing to recharge it again. There is support for quick-charging where a 15 minute charge will give you 12 hours of play, so if you do run out of juice, you won’t need to spend too long charging it to get back into the game.
While it seems that the controller is aimed at Android and Chromebook users, SteelSeries says that it will also work with Windows PCs via a USB connection. The company also notes that the controller is an officially recommended NVIDIA GeForce Now controller, so you can use it while streaming games from the cloud.
If you’re keen on picking one up for yourself, it is priced at $70 and will be available for purchase via SteelSeries’ website.
One of the reasons why it has been suggested that if you take part in Google’s Android Beta program, that you do it on a device that isn’t your daily driver or your primary one. This is because first of all, there might be bugs and issues that could affect your experience and usage.
Secondly, when you exit the beta you will need to wipe your device, which obviously if this is your primary phone, will be troublesome especially if you forgot to backup. However, there is some good news on that front because according to Google, moving forwards when beta devices eventually receive the official stable release, they will be able to opt-out of the beta without having to wipe their devices.
However, it seems that this will only be offered temporarily, meaning that once the stable release has been made available, users in the beta program will have a window of opportunity where they can opt-out of the beta, but we suppose it’s better than nothing and could be useful for users who decide that they no longer want to take part in the beta.
The stable release of QPR3 is expected to be available this June, so if you are taking part in it and want to unenroll yourself, head on over to the Android website and opt-out once the public release is available.
Earlier this year, the Netherlands had ordered Apple to allow third-party dating apps to have the option of using third-party payment systems to collect fees/subscriptions from their users. Apple initially had until the 15th of January to comply, but it turns out that the company does not appear to be willing to do so.
According to a report from Reuters, it seems that Apple is still refusing to comply and has to date managed to rack up a whopping 45 million euros in fines. For those unfamiliar, for every week Apple does not give in to the court’s orders, they will have to pay 5 million euros in the form of a fine.
While 45 million euros is no small figure to sneeze at, it is possible that Apple could see this as being “worth it”. For starters, if they were to give in, it would set a precedent that could be applied in other countries. This would mean the potential loss of 15-30% from all app sales and in-app purchases, all of which would make the 45 million euro fine pale in comparison.
Take for example when Fortnite was still in the App Store, it was reported that the app generated $1.2 billion. Assuming Apple took a 30% cut, it meant that they earned $360 million from one app alone, so imagine how much they could stand to “lose” if all developers opted to use a different payment system.
Samsung’s latest Smart Monitor, which we first got a look at during CES, is now available to pre-order. The Smart Monitor M8 has support for streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. You won’t necessarily need to connect to external speakers, since two built-in 5W speakers and a tweeter will deliver 2.2-channel audio.
The display comes with a magnetic, detachable SlimFit Cam that you can use for video calls. The full-HD webcam has face tracking and auto zoom functions, so it can follow you as you move around and automatically focus on your face. There’s a far-field microphone as well, which will come in handy if you want to bark instructions at Alexa or Bixby from across the room.
What’s more, the M8 has an integrated SmartThings hub, which will allow you to control compatible smart home devices. You can connect wirelessly to a Windows PC or Mac and mirror your smartphone screen to the display as well. There’s also the option to browse the web, edit documents and work on projects without connecting to a computer, in part thanks to built-in Microsoft 365 support.
Samsung
The M8 is 11.4mm thick, which Samsung says is around a quarter of the depth of previous displays. The 32-inch display has a UHD resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 and HDR 10+ compatibility. It has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. There’s support for 1.07 billion colors, which covers 99 percent of the sRGB spectrum.
The refresh rate tops out at 60 Hz, which may not cut it for some folks, while the response time is 4ms. On the connectivity front, the display has a one micro HDMI port and two USB-C ports, along with WiFi 5, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 support. It comes with a height-adjustable stand for which you won’t have to pay an extra $400.
The Smart Monitor M8 starts at $700 for the white model. The spring green, sunset pink and daylight blue models will cost you a little extra at $730.
Apple’s AirPods Max offer excellent sound, solid active noise cancellation (ANC) and good battery life, but the regular $549 price is a bit hard to swallow. Now, you can pick a pair up at Amazon for just $439, or $110 (20 percent) off. That’s close to the lowest price we’ve seen at Amazon, and you can choose between three colors: Sky Blue, Silver and Pink.
The AirPods Max achieved a solid 84 Engadget review score and made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They offer a uniquely Apple-esque design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, are comfortable to wear. Once you get used to it, the rotating crown makes it easy to adjust sound.
Audio quality is more natural than other headphones we’ve tried with bass that’s accurate and not overpowering. Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones have more effective ANC, but the AirPods Max come close. Meanwhile, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC if you need to hear what’s going on. The biggest drawback is the lack of lossless audio support, but they work great with Dolby Atmos surround sound on most Apple devices.
The AirPods Max are ideal if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, with the H1 chip letting you quickly switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example. There’s no question that they’re very expensive at the regular $549 price, so Amazon’s latest discount presents a good buying opportunity if you’ve been eyeing a pair.
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