Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg will have to provide testimony to a federal court to discuss their alleged involvement in the company’s notorious Cambridge Analytica scandal, over half a decade since it first captured the world’s attention.
Deadline reports that Simon McQuoid will return to direct the Mortal Kombat sequel, which does not currently have a release date. The 2021 pandemic hit was McQuoid’s first feature film after a career spent working on video games and directing commercials for ad agencies. HBO used the film to gauge audience’s interest…
The new MacBook Air is an excellent laptop, but one considerable shortcoming might dissuade power users from purchasing Apple’s least expensive notebook. If you’ve been keeping tabs on the latest model, then you know the limitation I’m referring to: heat management. Under a heavy workload, the fanless MacBook Air with…
Mojang Studios, the makers of the ever-popular Minecraft, is taking a page from the old U.S. anti-drugs playbook, though it seems “Just Say No” seems to work much better for blockchain-based money making schemes than it ever did for narcotics.
Don’t expect to buy a creeper skin as an NFT (non-fungible token) and plug it into your Minecraft server in the near future. Mojang has taken a firm stance against the massively popular game’s involvement with NFTs and blockchain tech. “[To] ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our Minecraft client and server applications, nor may they be utilized to create NFTs associated with any in-game content, including worlds, skins, persona items or other mods,” the developer said in a statement. It will soon update the game’s guidelines accordingly.
Minecraft has a marketplace where people can sell their creations for others to use. Mojang notes that some companies recently started offering NFTs that are connected to the game. There are some NFTs associated with Minecraft skin packs and world files that people can buy. The studio said it might have been possible for players to earn Minecraft NFTs for activities completed inside the game or elsewhere. Mojang is not on board with any of that.
“Each of these uses of NFTs and other blockchain technologies creates digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which does not align with Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together,” it said. “NFTs are not inclusive of all our community and create a scenario of the haves and the have-nots.”
While Minecraft server owners are allowed to charge for access, Mojang rules state that everyone should have access to the same functionality and content. “NFTs, however, can create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft,” the studio said.
Mojang also expressed concern about the speculative nature of NFTs and noted that some have been sold at “artificially or fraudulently inflated prices.” Given that Minecraft has millions of young players, it probably wouldn’t be a great look for the game to support NFTs. “The speculative pricing and investment mentality around NFTs takes the focus away from playing the game and encourages profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players,” Mojang said.
The studio and its parent company Microsoft have good reason to be wary of NFTs and blockchain tech. For one thing, there has been an overwhelming backlash from the broader gaming community against those technologies. For another, cryptocurrency prices have plummeted and the NFT market has dried up. Even the erstwhile leader in the blockchain gaming space, Axie Infinity, was the target of a major hack (with victims losing out as a result) and its daily player numbers have plummeted by over two thirds in the last few months.
Some other major players in the gaming industry have already shied away from NFTs and the blockchain. Last October, Steam banned games that enable cryptocurrency and NFT trading. Sony recently announced a PlayStation rewards program that includes digital collectibles. However, it emphasized that these could not be traded and the program does not involve NFTs or the blockchain.
However, Mojang isn’t completely rejecting the blockchain. The studio said it will monitor the evolution of the technology to “determine whether it will allow for more secure experiences or other practical and inclusive applications in gaming.”
There’s something about mushrooms and fungi that’s inherently creepy. They can grow just about anywhere, feed on anything, and wiggle their weird little mycelia into the cracks, corners, and crannies of any house, home, or body. It makes for very good horror. I’m excited to show you.
January 6, 2021 will live in infamy as the day that right-wing protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol building under the false pretense that the 2020 election was stolen from lame duck president Donald Trump. While the investigations into the attack by a House committee started nearly a year ago, they’re continuing to…
Qualcomm introduced a new hardware platform destined to power wearable devices such as smartwatches. Two chips called Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 will take the slot previously occupied by the Snapdragon Wear 4100/4100+ found in watches from Mason, Zebra, TAG, or Louis Vuitton.
When new wearables arrive on the market, consumers can expect considerable speed improvements (up to 2X) and battery life (up to +50%). This is due to Qualcomm using an advanced 4nm (nanometer) semiconductor manufacturing process and an improved chip design.
The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is more advanced as it features an Always-ON (AON) unit optimized for voice recognition, media playback, positioning, and other tasks that don’t require the central processor to be ON.
The Qualcomm specifications show some “Power Islands” on the W5+ Gen 1. In chip-design terminology, it means that entire sections of the chips can be turned entirely OFF (no power at all) for maximum battery life. These sections are Audio, Wi-Fi, and GNSS.
Additionally, the same model has Deep Sleep and Hibernate power states that the W5 (non-plus) does not have. While power usage might not be zero, it is nonetheless significantly reduced to a trickle.
Without going into all the technical details, this new generation of wearable processors seems very promising and exciting from a user perspective. Speed and Battery Life have been two traditional pain points for wearables, and these W5/W5+ Gen 1 processors hit all the right points.
Lastly, Qualcomm has worked “very closely” with Google to optimize Wear OS for the new hardware. Hopefully, devices will feature near-maximum performance on day 1.
Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 And W5+ Gen1 Wearable Processors
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
