At the WWDC 2024, held in Apple Park, Cupertino, Apple demoed one of the most impressive updates that AirPods Pro has received in a while: Siri Interactions.
This upcoming iOS 18will allow for more seamless integration between AirPods Pro and Siri to let users control calls with head gestures. If you find yourself…
Apple and OpenAI’s partnership is only a few hours old, and Elon Musk is already going to war over it. The owner of Tesla, X, SpaceX, and xAI said he would ban Apple devices at his companies if Apple integrated ChatGPT at the operating system level, which the companies are very much planning to do. Musk, a founder of…
If you think Just Dance would be a great addition to your library of virtual reality games and experiences, then mark this date: October 15. 2024. Ubisoft is launching Just Dance VR: Welcome to Dancity that day for the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3. You’ll be able to customize your avatars for the game and choose your own body shape, facial expression, skin color, hair and outfit. Once you’re done creating a virtual version of yourself, you can enter the Dancity social hub to meet other players.
You’ll also have your own “apartment” in game, where you can dance with up to six players or do other interactive activities with the group, like play basketball. The game will let you send emote stickers to players who aren’t in your friends list, but you can do voice chats with dancers who are. Welcome to Dancity features 360-degree environments and what Ubisoft describes as an “all-new gameplay with two-hand scoring.”
You’ll be able to dance to 25 hit and original songs at launch, including Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen, Bad Liar by Selena Gomez, Starships by Nicki Minaj and Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. As UploadVR notes, the game was supposed to be exclusively available to Pico headsets. However, after the ByteDance-owned company laid off a big portion of its workforce, Ubisoft started working with a new partner (Meta) to develop the game.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/just-dance-vr-is-coming-to-meta-quest-headsets-in-october-043151830.html?src=rss
The Lord of the Rings can still make that precious, precious money. This past weekend, Fathom Events began a three-day marathon of Peter Jackson’s original trilogy, with screenings of the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on Saturday and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on…
The long-running Assassin’s Creed video game industrial complex has finally reached Japan – and I’ve been waiting. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set in feudal Japan, in the late 16th century, to be precise, at a time of political upheaval that birthed the ninja. While I didn’t get to play Shadows, at Summer Game Fest 2024, Ubisoft offered a hands-off gameplay demo, revealing how the game will play with two different but equal protagonists.
If you missed the initial reveal, Shadows’ protagonists are Yasuke, a powerful outsider samurai who can strike the armor off enemies, and Naoe, an assassin/ninja with a killer “sickle on-chain” kusarigama and those traditional AC killing methods — she has a wrist blade.
Instead of choosing a single character to play the entire game, you can switch between the characters for assassination runs and exploration segments. I prefer my assassinations stealthy, so I was surprised by how intrigued I was with the beastly Yasuke.
Yasuke is based on a historical figure: An African man who served as a retainer to the Japanese lord Oda Nobunaga for roughly a year. Naturally, this is Assasin’s Creed, so the team has taken some liberties with historical fact. Here, he plays the part of an outsider, a foreign-born samurai walking a path of honor. He’s also a powerhouse. What he lacks in parkour elegance and dive drops, he makes up in having the power to cut down powerful enemies, charge through doors and enemies and scare the crap out of locals. As Yasuke walked through a village in the demo, villagers rushed to get out of the towering samurai’s way, bowing respectfully at the side, while children just gawped, frozen still.
As the duo fight to end the corruption rife in Japan, they’ll learn hints and tips on where to find their next assassination target. These will narrow down where you need to search. Once you’ve identified where they are, the characters can then task NPC recruits to hoedown exactly where, although this mechanic wasn’t explained in any detail.
Later in the demo, Yasuke cuts down some abusive guards and goes head-to-head with another samurai, and I got a deeper look into how Yasuke fights. He’ll have a range of weapons, and this time, he was swinging a hulking club, cracking skulls and armor alike.
After Yasuke wins his duel with the samurai opponent – with swords – he’s joined by the other main character, Naoe, the assassin. She moves like an assassin, vaulting up walls and kicking off surfaces before launching her grappling hook into roof awnings directly above her. Like the most recent AC entries, she can utilize Eagle vision for a better view of enemies and obstacles. A new addition in Shadows is the ability to kill light sources like lanterns and fires, so Naoe can easily get up close and assassinate. She’s not the only one with upgrades – I also saw Yasuke wielding a musket-style single-use gun during the demo too.
The game is very pretty, too. I say this as a huge fan of the style of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. Ubisoft’s take is a more detailed one: there are more people simply living in this feudal Japan. The shifting seasons and weather make for even richer environments, too. In a later assassination attempt during the demo, Naoe had her infiltration interrupted by a torrential downpour. I’m not sure yet whether this will affect visibility dynamics, but hopefully, it will have some effect on how you play Shadows.
I’m intrigued. I’ve long carried a torch for the cult ninja series Tenchu. It offered its own takedown animations (in PS1 graphical glory), grapple hooks and stealth gameplay. It also offered two different characters: a speedy kunoichi assassin and a powerhouse ninja with samurai moves. Doesn’t that sound a little familiar?
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will land on November 15, coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac and iPad.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/assassins-creed-shadows-gameplay-demo-sgf-2024-200016644.html?src=rss
At WWDC 2024, Apple unleashed a blitzkrieg of software updates to put AI, or “Apple Intelligence,” front and center in your iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
After Samsung and Google pushed AI on phones, it’s now Apple’s turn to try and flip the script to make smartphones, tablets, and laptops “smarter” by introducing an AI…
At Apple’s WWDC presentation this year, the company said it was working with Blackmagic Design to make immersive videos for the Vision Pro easier to work with and capture. Turns out Blackmagic is currently developing a camera specifically to capture immersive films for Apple’s mixed-reality headset. The digital cinema company and manufacturer announced the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera on X/Twitter and made sure to add a few photos to give us a glimpse of what it would look like.
Introducing Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive! New camera in development, designed to capture content for Apple Vision Pro with 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye, 16 stops of dynamic range for 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content and more! Available later in 2024. Learn more! pic.twitter.com/5pbSDnJYuI
— Blackmagic Design (@Blackmagic_News) June 10, 2024
It didn’t share a lot of details about the device other than it’s “designed to capture content for Apple Vision Pro” with 8,160 x 7,200 resolution per eye and “16 stops of dynamic range for 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content.” Based on the images Blackmagic attached to its post, users will even be able to strap the camera to a drone for aerial videos.
The company is hoping to release the camera sometime later this year, though it didn’t say how much the device would cost. In the past, Blackmagic released a camera that can shoot in 12K for $9,995, which is much lower than what other comparable models cost. Last year, it unveiled its first full-frame model that can shoot video in 6K for $2,595.
Apple showed off the new lens Canon is working on for its R7 camera at WWDC, as well. The 7.8mm f/4 dedicated spatial lens is also meant to capture content for the Apple Vision Pro. While the brand has previously released lenses for virtual reality, it said that none of its current cameras are fast enough to offer video that matches Apple’s headset. Like Blackmagic’s announcement, Canon’s was light on details, though we’ll most likely hear more information the nearer we get to the lens’ release date.
Catch up here for all the news out of Apple’s WWDC 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/blackmagic-is-developing-a-camera-for-immersive-apple-vision-pro-videos-022834820.html?src=rss
The long-running Assassin’s Creed video game industrial complex has finally reached Japan – and I’ve been waiting. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set in feudal Japan, in the late 16th century, to be precise, at a time of political upheaval that birthed the ninja. While I didn’t get to play Shadows, at Summer Game Fest 2024, Ubisoft offered a hands-off gameplay demo, revealing how the game will play with two different but equal protagonists.
If you missed the initial reveal, Shadows’ protagonists are Yasuke, a powerful outsider samurai who can strike the armor off enemies, and Naoe, an assassin/ninja with a killer “sickle on-chain” kusarigama and those traditional AC killing methods — she has a wrist blade.
Instead of choosing a single character to play the entire game, you can switch between the characters for assassination runs and exploration segments. I prefer my assassinations stealthy, so I was surprised by how intrigued I was with the beastly Yasuke.
Yasuke is based on a historical figure: An African man who served as a retainer to the Japanese lord Oda Nobunaga for roughly a year. Naturally, this is Assasin’s Creed, so the team has taken some liberties with historical fact. Here, he plays the part of an outsider, a foreign-born samurai walking a path of honor. He’s also a powerhouse. What he lacks in parkour elegance and dive drops, he makes up in having the power to cut down powerful enemies, charge through doors and enemies and scare the crap out of locals. As Yasuke walked through a village in the demo, villagers rushed to get out of the towering samurai’s way, bowing respectfully at the side, while children just gawped, frozen still.
As the duo fight to end the corruption rife in Japan, they’ll learn hints and tips on where to find their next assassination target. These will narrow down where you need to search. Once you’ve identified where they are, the characters can then task NPC recruits to hoedown exactly where, although this mechanic wasn’t explained in any detail.
Later in the demo, Yasuke cuts down some abusive guards and goes head-to-head with another samurai, and I got a deeper look into how Yasuke fights. He’ll have a range of weapons, and this time, he was swinging a hulking club, cracking skulls and armor alike.
After Yasuke wins his duel with the samurai opponent – with swords – he’s joined by the other main character, Naoe, the assassin. She moves like an assassin, vaulting up walls and kicking off surfaces before launching her grappling hook into roof awnings directly above her. Like the most recent AC entries, she can utilize Eagle vision for a better view of enemies and obstacles. A new addition in Shadows is the ability to kill light sources like lanterns and fires, so Naoe can easily get up close and assassinate. She’s not the only one with upgrades – I also saw Yasuke wielding a musket-style single-use gun during the demo too.
The game is very pretty, too. I say this as a huge fan of the style of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. Ubisoft’s take is a more detailed one: there are more people simply living in this feudal Japan. The shifting seasons and weather make for even richer environments, too. In a later assassination attempt during the demo, Naoe had her infiltration interrupted by a torrential downpour. I’m not sure yet whether this will affect visibility dynamics, but hopefully, it will have some effect on how you play Shadows.
I’m intrigued. I’ve long carried a torch for the cult ninja series Tenchu. It offered its own takedown animations (in PS1 graphical glory), grapple hooks and stealth gameplay. It also offered two different characters: a speedy kunoichi assassin and a powerhouse ninja with samurai moves. Doesn’t that sound a little familiar?
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will land on November 15, coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac and iPad.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/assassins-creed-shadows-gameplay-demo-sgf-2024-200016644.html?src=rss
Apple’s spin on AI is finally here, and it already seems smarter than Microsoft Copilot and Google Bard. Apple Intelligence focuses on privacy and “personal intelligence,” with a bit of an assist from ChatGPT. While we haven’t tested it ourselves yet, Apple appears to be avoiding the pitfalls of Microsoft’s Recall feature, as well as Google Bard’s unfortunate early gaffes. The company isn’t trying to capture everything you’re doing on your computer, and it’s being careful about how it’s using larger AI models like ChatGPT.
Shortly after the WWDC 2024 keynote ended, Engadget’s Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar discussed why they think Apple is taking a more thoughtful approach to AI.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-apple-intelligence-could-avoid-microsoft-and-googles-ai-mistakes-000751533.html?src=rss
At WWDC 2024, Apple unleashed a blitzkrieg of software updates to put AI, or “Apple Intelligence,” front and center in your iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
After Samsung and Google pushed AI on phones, it’s now Apple’s turn to try and flip the script to make smartphones, tablets, and laptops “smarter” by introducing an AI…
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.
