May 26
Ikea has taken the wraps off a new IoT hub that includes support for Matter, plus the company has a redesigned Home app that’s easier to use.
May 26
A jury in Oregon found Nancy Crampton Brophy guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Daniel Brophy, her husband of 26 years.
May 26
If you own a newer iPad, iPhone, or Mac computer, you have access to a great feature you’ve probably never heard of, and it only takes a tap to enable it.
May 26
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Game Grumps, the studio that gave us Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator in 2017. This week, the team announced its latest project. And it couldn’t be more different from its debut effort.
Game Grumps describes Homebody as a narrative-driven, psychological horror game. In designing the experience, it says it drew inspiration from ‘80s slasher films, though you can also see the influence of both modern and older gaming classics like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Hideo Kojima’s P.T. Part of what sells the atmosphere of the game is its slightly pixelated art style and effective use of lighting.
In the trailer the studio shared, we’re introduced to Homebody’s protagonist, Emily. You’ll need to help Emily and her friends escape a relentless killer by avoiding the assailant, solving puzzles and making choices. Homebody sees Game Grumps reunite with Rogue Games, the publisher it worked with to make Dream Daddy. The two companies plan to release Homebody later this year on consoles and PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam.
May 26
If you use Google Chrome on a regular basis, you’ve probably amassed a bunch of cookies. You can easily clear these small files with a couple of clicks.
May 26
Move over Discord, Niantic has its own messaging solution in mind for Pokémon Go players: a social AR app called Campfire. It’ll let you organize for events, discover new locations and share content with other players. Think of it like a hyper-local social network built entirely for AR—it’s “the ‘homepage’ of the real-world Metaverse,” as Niantic says (as if that makes things any clearer). Campfire is already live in Ingress, the company’s first AR game, and it’ll be headed to all of its titles starting this summer.
Niantic
Pokémon Go players have typically relied on Discord and other platforms to communicate with others. Given Nintendo and the Pokémon Company’s squeamishness around social networking, it likely would have been difficult for Niantic to build social features directly into the game. Ultimately, it makes more sense to release a separate app that can tie into all of the company’s experiences.
On top of Campfire, Niantic also unveiled Lightship VPS (virtual positioning system), a new platform that will let developers more accurately learn the position and orientation of users. They’ll also be able to anchor AR content in place with “centimeter-level” precision, according to Niantic. That’ll help devs produce better localization and persistence, which are the most important factors in any AR experience. To power VPS, the company has produced 3D maps in over 30,000 locations across six cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, London and Tokyo), based on short video contributions from players.
May 26
J.J. Abrams Adds to His Workload With Live-Action Speed Racer Series for Apple
Posted in: Today's Chili
As we’ve already discussed today, J.J. Abrams is a busy man. Between producing the next Star Trek and Mission: Impossible movies, along with whatever he’s got going on for Warner Bros., the man’s got quite a few projects he’s attached to serve as an executive producer on. Lest you think he would slow down, he’s now…
May 26
Police believe an overnight fire in Wyoming that damaged a building being renovated to house a new abortion clinic was deliberately set.
May 25
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a $150 million fine for Twitter over its”deceptive” use of user data for targeted advertising. The charge stems from the company’s admission in 2019 that it had for years used Twitter users’ phone numbers provided for two-factor authentication to also serve targeted ads. The company said at the time that its use of the phone numbers for ads was “an error.”
We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment.
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