Sep 19
Las Vegas Authorities Want to Know How Much Water Companies Use Before Letting Them Move In
Posted in: Today's Chili
If a business wants to move or expand to Las Vegas, it’s going to have to shell out information on its proposed water usage.
Sep 19
Unity Backpedals on Its Horrible Plan for Game Install Fees Amid Developer Backlash
Posted in: Today's Chili
Less than a week after the cross-platform game engine maker Unity announced its big plan to charge developers based on the number of installations and revenue, the company said it’s rolling back its plans to some extent, though developers may already be too burned to even consider what limp olive branch the company…
Sep 19
Leaked Microsoft documents detail 'cloud hybrid' next-gen Xbox for 2028
Posted in: UncategorizedA massive leak from the FTC v. Microsoft court battle showed Microsoft’s roadmap for a mid-generation Xbox Series X console, but that wasn’t the only news. The same document also revealed Microsoft’s tentative plans for the next-generation Xbox — what it calls a “hybrid game platform.” The system would combine local hardware and cloud computing to create an “immersive game & app platform” arriving around 2028, according to a leaked May 2022 presentation hidden inside another PDF.
“Our vision: Develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences,” one of the slides reads. “Optimized for real time game play and creators, we will enable new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone.” In a slide, Microsoft projects the next gen arriving in 2028 with “cloud hybrid games” and an “immersive game & app platform.”
Microsoft
On the hardware side, Microsoft foresees things like next-gen DirectX raytracing, dynamic global illumination, ML based super resolution, micropolygon rendering optimization and more. The system could allow for different types of devices, ranging from relatively powerful consoles to “Thin OS… $99 consumer or handheld devices” that rely on xCloud computing.
“Hybrid compute” would presumably differ from regular cloud gaming by using hardware and cloud computing to display in-game elements simultaneously. For instance, primary characters would run on your local GPU, while NPCs, background elements and more would be generated remotely.
Microsoft
Microsoft also sees heavy use of AI and machine learning (ML) in next-gen gaming. From a performance vantage, neural networks would power super resolution, frame rate interpretation and latency compensation, for instance. They would improve game experiences (AI agents, codex, matchmaking, player ranking) and player services (safety & toxicity, personalization & discovery, support services). It would also aid on the creator side via AI game testing, procedural content, physics, NLP dialogue and live ops (engagement & retention management, monetization, cloud resource optimization).
One slide suggested Microsoft was seeking to forge deals with AMD for Navi 5 graphics and Zen 6 CPU cores, but another stated that the company needs to make an “Arm64 decision.” In any case, it may have already begun its plans. Another slide titled “The journey has already started” shows a full roadmap: hardware design and hybrid game design starting in 2024, with dev kits available by 2027 and shipping by 2028.
Microsoft
The slide appears to be part of a conversation, and not a fixed roadmap by any means. Preceding the slideshow are documents showing a conversation between CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox’s Phil Spencer, and others. Saying that the company is working on four types of computers (cloud everything, a hybrid Xbox, hybrid Windows, and hybrid HoloLens), Nadella notes that “we need to bring the company’s systems talent together to align on a unified vision,” adding that “we can’t go from big idea to big idea. We need to bring the company’s systems talent together to align on a unified vision.”
Other ideas revolve around a “mobile controller,” whereby the “controller becomes the hero.” That makes it seem that Microsoft was still working out its vision for next-gen Xbox at the time of the presentation — so it may have changed course completely since then.
Microsoft
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/leaked-microsoft-documents-detail-cloud-hybrid-next-gen-xbox-for-2028-110309102.html?src=rss
Sep 19
Yes, Amazon’s Prime Day already happened in July, but the company’s members-only sales events are apparently not done. Amazon now plans to hold Prime Big Deal Days, another Prime Day of sorts, on October 10 and 11, something it did the same month last year.
Prime Day is two days long, and that’s the pattern Amazon is following here, even hinting at a few early deals on Amazon devices. You can save up to 65 percent on a three-pack of eero Pro Mesh Wi-Fi, select Fire TV devices, Kindles and more. Amazon also promises a $15 credit to Prime members who download its Photos app and upload their first photo, between now and October 7, just ahead of its Big Deal Days.
If you want to know what devices to keep an eye on — check out our Prime Day primer right here.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
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Anker charging gear and power banks are up to 50 percent off right now
iOS 17’s release date is upon us, here’s how to update your iPhone
watchOS 10 has arrived, bringing widgets back to the Apple Watch
Intel seems pretty excited about glass substrates
Unity apologizes and promises to change its controversial game install fee policy
Microsoft’s Panos Panay leaves after nearly 20 years
And he’s reportedly heading to Amazon.
Associated Press
Panos Panay is leaving Microsoft. After heading the development of the initial Surface line of tablets and hybrid laptops, he became the company’s chief product officer in 2018. His rise continued in 2021 when he moved to executive vice president after a successful Windows 11 launch. He’s also been a mainstay of Microsoft’s livestreams, press events and product launches alongside CEO Satya Nadella.
There’s been no reason given by either party, but Panay said he has “decided to turn the page and write the next chapter” when he announced the move on X. However, Bloomberg subsequently reported he has been poached by Amazon. Panay will apparently replace Dave Limp, the Amazon executive previously in charge of Alexa and Echo, who announced his retirement last month. What makes this more unusual is that Microsoft has a livestream event this Thursday, which will almost certainly focus on the new Surface products.
MS Paint just got two killer features for a ’90s graphics editor
Microsoft is rolling out layers and transparent PNG support.
Associated Press
iOS updates? Pschh. Tell me more about MS Paint. The ’90s and ’00s distraction is finally getting support for layers. It’s an exciting time to be alive.
AirPods Pro Adaptive Audio preview
Automatically adjusting to your day.
Alongside the arrival of iOS 17, a firmware update to Apple’s AirPods Pro adds a few new features, most of which will automatically adjust to your environment or activity, so you don’t have to touch the earbuds or reach for your phone. The headline addition is Adaptive Audio, a tool that automatically and “dynamically” blends transparency mode and active noise cancellation (ANC) based on your surroundings. Adaptive Audio gradually starts tweaking the blend of ANC and transparency. So if you enter a loud coffee shop, AirPods Pro gently increases noise cancellation to combat the distractions. Engadget’s Billy Steele tests out all the new features.
The Google Nest Hub Max is losing some of its video call functionality
It’ll still support Meet, in a more limited capacity.
Google is discontinuing support for Zoom and Google Meet meetings on its Nest Hub Max. Some users have received notifications that they can no longer join meetings from the device beginning September 28. The news follows Zoom’s July announcement that Nest Hub Max support will end for the video calling service on September 30. Google said in a statement that “support for joining meetings via meeting codes and links in Meet” is going away, but also noted, “There is no change to making 1:1 and group video calls to friends, family and businesses with Google Meet.”
Sonos Move 2 review
Better sound and battery life come at a cost.
When Sonos released its first portable speaker, the Move, four years ago, it was an anomaly. Portable and connectable through Bluetooth, this was a different Sonos product. In 2023, these tricks have proliferated across the Sonos lineup. The more affordable Roam speaker brought the Move’s feature set to a much smaller device, while recent home speakers, like the Era 100 and 300, both support Bluetooth, as well. The Move 2 doesn’t suggest a new direction for future Sonos products, but it does bring the company’s latest tech and design cues to an existing product.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-amazons-plans-for-yet-another-sales-event-111551729.html?src=rss
Sep 19
‘This Is A Mess’: Former Prosecutor Rips Trump Over New Classified Docs Bombshell
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe development could be used against the former president, suggested Charles Coleman Jr.
Sep 19
Unity Backpedals on Its Horrible Plan for Game Install Fees Amid Developer Backlash
Posted in: Today's Chili
Less than a week after the cross-platform game engine maker Unity announced its big plan to charge developers based on the number of installations and revenue, the company said it’s rolling back its plans to some extent, though developers may already be too burned to even consider what limp olive branch the company…
Sep 19
Just in time for the iPhone 15 to go on sale later this week, Apple has officially released iOS 17 today. The new operating system version is compatible with every device released after the iPhone XR, including the iPhone SE (2nd-gen or later). If you buy the new iPhone 15, it will arrive with iOS 17 preloaded right…
Sep 19
John Carpenter has high hope for the Christine remake. Get ready for spooky season with a trio of horror trailers. Plus, what’s coming on FLCL Grunge. Spoilers, away!
Sep 19
Google announced a supercharged update to its Bard chatbot Tuesday: The tech giant will integrate the generative AI into the company’s most popular services, including Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube, and more. Together with a new feature that tells you when Bard provides potentially inaccurate answers, the new…
Sep 19
A Microsoft AI research team that uploaded training data on GitHub in an effort to offer other researchers open-source code and AI models for image recognition inadvertently exposed 38TB of personal data. Wiz, a cybersecurity firm, discovered a link included in the files that contained backups of Microsoft employees’ computers. Those backups contained passwords to Microsoft services, secret keys and over 30,000 internal Teams messages from hundreds of the tech giant’s employees, Wiz says. Microsoft assures in its own report of the incident, however, that “no customer data was exposed, and no other internal services were put at risk.”
The link was deliberately included with the files so that interested researchers could download pretrained models — that part was no accident. Microsoft’s researchers used an Azure feature called “SAS tokens,” which allows users to create shareable links that give other people access to data in their Azure Storage account. Users can choose what information can be accessed through SAS links, whether it’s a single file, a full container or their entire storage. In Microsoft’s case, the researchers shared a link that had access to the full storage account.
Wiz discovered and reported the security issue to Microsoft on June 22, and the company had revoked the SAS token by June 23. Microsoft also explained that it rescans all its public repositories, but its system had marked this particular link as a “false positive.” The company has since fixed the issue, so that its system can detect SAS tokens that are too permissive than intended in the future. While the particular link Wiz detected has been fixed, improperly configured SAS tokens could potentially lead to data leaks and big privacy problems. Microsoft acknowledges that “SAS tokens need to be created and handled appropriately” and has also published a list of best practices when using them, which it presumably (and hopefully) practices itself.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-ai-researchers-mistakenly-leaked-38tb-of-company-data-094659079.html?src=rss
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