Hasta La Gadget!

Starting today, you can stream a free demo of Resident Evil Village from Capcom’s website, with no need for a fancy gaming PC, Xbox or PlayStation. The demo is similar to one that’s available on other platforms, which allows players to explore parts of the village and castle. This appetizer for one of last year’s biggest-selling games is powered by Immersive Stream for Games, a version of Stadia tech that Google is licensing to others.

The demo will work on just about any computer, as well as iOS and Android phones and tablets, as long as the device can handle high-definition video and you have a sturdy enough internet connection (with a download speed of at least 10Mbps). It runs on Chrome on Windows, macOS and Android. On iOS, you can try it on Safari. The resolution tops out at 1080p and there’s no HDR mode.

PlayStation DualShock 4 and Xbox One controllers are officially supported, but other peripherals might work. Alternatively, you can use touch controls on mobile or a mouse and keyboard. 

Capcom

As with Stadia’s click-to-play trials, there’s no need to register to play the demo. It’s worth noting that you’ll be disconnected after 10 minutes of inactivity. There’s no save function, so you’ll need to restart from the beginning if you disconnect. You can play as many times as you like and there’s no time limit, unlike previous versions of the demo.

Capcom is Google’s second partner for Immersive Stream for Games. AT&T started offering its wireless customers free access to Batman: Arkham Asylum last October and Control: Ultimate Edition last month. Capcom seems more of a natural bedfellow, though.

In February, Insider reported that Google was looking to secure deals with Capcom, Peloton and others to build the licensing aspect of its game-streaming business. It was suggested that Capcom might use the tech to stream demos from its website, which turned out to be the case. This could even be a precursor to Capcom running its own game streaming storefront.

In other Resident Evil Village news, Capcom is bringing the game to Mac later this year. It’s also working on a version for the upcoming PlayStation VR2 headset.

A big change to iPadOS 16 will leave many HomeKit users frustrated, especially those who built the tablets into walls to use as smart home control hubs.

Razer is upgrading its Kishi mobile gaming grip for 2022. The Razer Kishi V2 is redesigned around a more-solid sliding bridge, which will allow for wider device compatibility compared to the original pad’s flexible bridge. The rubber inserts that hold your phone snug can also be removed, which Razer helpfully says will support “some phones with phone cases.” Good luck figuring out if that includes yours.

While the main inputs look unchanged, the V2’s switches — the things underneath the buttons that actually register that you’re pressing them — have also been reworked, swapping out membranes for the microswitches found in Razer’s Wolverine console pad. There are also tweaks to the function keys, with a dedicated ‘Share’ button added at the front and a pair of programmable bumpers situated next to the shoulder triggers.

Razer

The Share button will only work with Razer Nexus, the company’s new companion app for Android that it hopes you’ll launch your games from. Nexus will also help you discover compatible games, stream your gameplay to YouTube or Facebook, tweak controller settings and program those new bumpers. 

As with the original pad, the Kishi V2 connects over USB-C, avoiding the latency of Bluetooth options. The Android version is available today for $99.99, and an iOS version will hit the market this fall. 

A 2018 change in Facebook’s algorithm resulted in significant boosts in engagement for local Republican groups even though their Democratic counterparts posted more often, according to newly published research. The findings, first reported byNBC News, line up with one of the major revelations of the Facebook Papers. Namely, that a change meant to emphasize content from family and friends wound up making News Feed more divisive by incentivizing negative posts.

The latest research, published in Research & Politics, used CrowdTangle data to measure engagement with posts from local Democratic and Republican groups on Facebook and Twitter between January 2016 and August 2021. The researchers found that by the fall of 2018, several months after Facebook announced its algorithm change, there was a significant uptick in engagement with Republican pages on Facebook that didn’t occur on Twitter.

“We conclude that it seems possible that changes in how Facebook rated content led to a doubling of the total shares of local Republican party posts compared to local Democratic party posts in the first half of 2019 even though Democratic parties posted more often during this period,” the paper’s authors write.

The researchers say it’s “difficult” to know for sure what caused the shift toward the end of 2018. But they note that their findings broadly align with what we know about Facebook’s algorithm change, and the reaction to it, thanks to the Facebook Papers. The company had announced a major change to News Feed’s ranking systems in January 2018, in order to emphasize “meaningful social interactions” or MSI. But documents disclosed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen indicate that by early 2019 publishers and political parties were raising questions about whether MSI was incentivizing negativity.

“Of course without the actual algorithm we cannot say what caused the change in 2018,” Kevin Reuning, one of the paper’s authors wrote on Twitter. “We can say there was a change, specifically on Facebook, and that it impacted a large number of local Republican parties. We can also say the timing lines up with what others saw for FB’s changes”

In a statement to NBC News, Meta called the researchers’ findings “implausible,” saying differences in engagement could be attributed to other factors. “It doesn’t add up with what MSI actually did, which was reduce the amount of public content — like that of political parties — on the platform,” a company spokesperson said. “The trends here instead seem to coincide with a divisive election cycle, and since the differences between political parties in the U.S. have been growing for decades, the idea that a change to Facebook ranking would fundamentally shift how people choose to engage with political parties is implausible.”

LEGO has just announced a 3,756 Loop Coaster build set as part of its LEGO Fairgrounds Collection. The $400 set includes a gravity-driven roller coaster complete with one train, a boarding station with opening and closing gates, a control panel, and an elevator for the train to return to the top of the ride. I can’t wait to build it! Probably incorrectly, with a bunch of important pieces left over.

The set can be upgraded with an electric motor so you don’t have to crank the train back to the top yourself. That’s a great addition for someone who hates cranking, like myself. Thank God I don’t have to draw up buckets of water from a well at home, or I’d probably be chronically dehydrated.

Did I just add the set to my birthday list? Of course I did. Will I get it? Of course I won’t. But that won’t stop a man from dreaming. You want to know what I got for my birthday last month? Nothing. Turns out my so called “friends and family” refuse to honor me changing my birthday so I can celebrate one every month. And they pretend to love me!

[via TechEBlog]