FromSoftware’s Elden Ring launched last week to overwhelmingly positive reviews but a few issues have prevented some players from enjoying the game to its fullest. Over the weekend, one of those was resolved. If you’ve been playing through the title on Xbox, you likely saw that you couldn’t play Elden Ring online due to an error message that said “Network status check failed.” On Saturday, Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb said the issue had been resolved. 

Neither FromSoftware nor publisher Bandai Namco said what caused the problem, but it prevented people from doing things like summoning other players to help them with boss fights. At its core, Elden Ring is a single-player game, but those elements add a lot to the experience.

As for some of Elden Ring’s other issues, particularly those involving the PC version of the game, FromSoftware and Bandai are still working to resolve those. If you’re waiting to play the game on Steam Deck, the good news there is that Valve said it was working on optimizing the game for its new handheld and would update Proton this week to improve performance.

Fans of the fab four, take note. Apple has uploaded a new version of the band’s 1 compilation album that includes support for spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. First released in 2000, 1 brings together nearly every number-one single the Beatles released between 1962 and their breakup in 1970. Among the songs you’ll find on the album are “She Loves You,” “We Can Work It Out” and “Get Back.” Giles Martin, the son of legendary Beatles collaborator George Martin, produced the new spatial mix. And as before, the tracks are sequenced according to release order, so it provides some sense of the band’s musical evolution.

To get the most out of the mix, you’ll want to listen with a pair of AirPods or Beats earbuds or headphones with an H1 or W1 chip. The effect is most noticeable when you enable head tracking. You can do that by pulling down the Control Center shade in iOS, long pressing on the volume slider that appears and then tapping the spatial audio icon. The mix isn’t revelatory, but if nothing else, it’s an excuse to revisit some of the most influential songs in rock history.

Over the past few years, Qualcomm has announced 5G modems that have consistently pushed download speeds to new heights, culminating with the X65 in 2021, the company’s first 10-gigabit 5G modem. In 2022, the company is taking a different tack. The X70, its latest modem, is fast, but it’s also more consistent and power-efficient, and it’s all thanks to AI.

The X70 isn’t the first Qualcomm modem to use a machine learning algorithm to improve performance. Last year, the company leveraged the technology to make its X65 modem better at adapting its antenna tuning to changing hand grips. But what makes the X70 different is that includes a dedicated 5G AI processor – a first for a cellular modem, according to the company.

In addition to improving average speeds, Qualcomm claims the processor makes the X70 better at mmWave beam management, allowing it to establish a more robust link when using the notoriously finicky spectrum. It also utilizes that processor for network selection and antenna tuning, leading to better coverage and link strength. Qualcomm claims all of that makes the X70 capable of making the most of whatever spectrum resources a device has available to it at any one moment.

Naturally, the X70 is fast too. It’s capable of theoretical download speeds of 10Gbps. That said, you’re unlikely to see X70-equipped devices achieve those kinds of speeds in real-world use. A lot of that will depend on your carrier and the state of their 5G network.

Qualcomm expects to start providing Snapdragon X70 samples to commercial customers in the second half of 2022. The company didn’t name customers but did note it expects X70-equipped devices to launch by late 2022, suggesting its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 successor could integrate the modem. Once it becomes available, devices that come with the X70 will carry the company’s new Snapdragon Connect branding, a badge that indicates the product you’re about to buy comes with its latest and greatest connectivity technologies.

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2022 right here!

In a decision that could have a significant impact on how companies like YouTube moderate their platforms, the European Union announced it plans to ban Russian state media organizations. On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia Today (RT), Sputnik and their respective subsidiaries would “no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war.” The EU’s executive branch also plans to develop new tools to combat disinformation spread by those organizations. However, von der Leyen didn’t specify what those measures may involve.

At the same time, it’s unclear exactly how the EU will go about banning those organizations. Both RT and Sputnik maintain active YouTube channels. On Saturday, following a similar move from Facebook parent company Meta, the company said it would temporarily prevent a handful of Russian channels, including RT, from earning ad revenue from their content. So far, both YouTube and Meta have only restricted access to Russian state-run outlets in Ukraine, a decision Russia was quick to demand at least one of the companies reverse.

At the behest of the country's government, Meta took its most significant action yet against Russian state media organizations amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, Nick Clegg, the company’s recently promoted president of global affairs, said Meta was restricting some Russian accounts within the war-torn nation.

“We have been in contact with the government of Ukraine, and at their request we have also restricted access to several accounts in Ukraine, including those belonging to some Russian state media organizations,” said Clegg. We’ve reached out to Meta to ask the company to clarify how it’s restricting those accounts.

Clegg noted Ukraine also asked Meta to limit Russia’s access to Facebook and Instagram. For the time being, the company denied that request, claiming people in the country have used its platforms to organize anti-war protests and access independent information. “We believe turning off our services would silence important expression at a crucial time,” he said.

This most recent move comes after Meta blocked Russian state media outlets from accessing its advertising platform or using other monetization features. Russia’s Roskomnadzor telecom regulator threatened to throttle and restrict access to Facebook after company officials declined to stop fact-checking state-backed media organizations on the platform. Clegg said on Sunday the company would continue to label and fact-check content from those outlets. He also confirmed, following reports from internet monitoring organization NetBlocks, that the Russian government had started restricting access to its social networks.

Ukraine is recruiting international volunteers to carry out cyberattacks against Russia. On Saturday afternoon, Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s digital transformation minister, took to Twitter to announce he was assembling an “IT army” on Telegram. “There will be tasks for everyone,” he said. “We continue to fight on the cyber front.”

As of the writing of this article, the channel has more than 26,000 subscribers. In one post, translated into English by The New York Times, the Ukrainian government urges people “to use any vectors of cyber and DDoS attacks” on a variety of Russian targets. In a separate post, the country calls on people to report YouTube channels posting pro-Russian content, with the hope of getting them delisted. That call to action came at around the same time YouTube said it was temporarily barring Russia Today and other Kremlin-affiliated channels from earning ad revenue on the platform.

The call for volunteers also came after Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking down multiple Russian government websites, including those belonging to the Kremlin and Ministry of Defence.

The choice to manage the effort on Telegram is one that could hurt Ukraine in the long run. As Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Signal points out, Telegram isn’t encrypted in the way most people think it is. Unless you enable its Secret Chat feature, your conversations aren’t end-to-end encrypted, which means the company can unlock most messages at any time. In the current situation, that’s a problem because many Telegram employees have family in Russia, and, as Marlinspike notes, there’s a scenario in which the country's government could exploit that fact.

With everything that’s going on in the world right now, you may have glossed over the fact there’s a big tech conference underway in Spain. After the pandemic sidelined Mobile World Congress in 2020 and pushed it to June in 2021, the trade show returned to its usual timeslot as one of the first major tech events of the year. Huawei was one of the first manufacturers to present at the conference, announcing the MatePad Paper and a refresh of its MateBook X Pro ultraportable laptop. If you missed the keynote, fret not: we’ve condensed the company’s entire presentation into a video you can watch in under 10 minutes.

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2022 right here!

With Russia’s invasion causing significant damage to Ukraine’s internet infrastructure, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday his company would bring its Starlink satellite internet service to the country. “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” Musk said on Twitter. “More terminals in route.”

Musk’s pledge came after Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s vice prime minister, mentioned him in a tweet. “We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand,” Fedorov said.

While many were quick to praise Elon Musk’s announcement, others like Rebellion PAC executive director Brianna Wu noted Starlink is unlikely to help Ukrainians stay connected. For one, as The Verge points out in its review of the service, a Starlink dish requires a “near-perfect” line of sight with SpaceX’s constellation network. An urban environment is not a place you want to deploy the service since buildings (and, in this case, smoke from Russian artillery shelling) can easily obstruct a signal. There’s also the question of how you would get Starlink terminals to people in the city and other parts of the country. Kyiv, for instance, is surrounded by Russian forces.

Following four days of intense fighting, internet connectivity in Ukraine has been spotty at times, particularly in the parts of the country that have seen the most combat. On Saturday, NetBlocks told Reuters it saw connectivity to GigaTrans, Ukraine’s backbone internet provider, temporarily fall to below 20 percent of normal levels. While Ukraine hasn’t suffered a nationwide blackout yet, there’s worry the situation could change at any moment, potentially making it far more difficult for Ukrainians to stay in touch with their loved ones.

Pokémon fans won't have to wait long to play the next entry in their favorite gaming series. On Sunday morning, the Pokémon Company announced two new mainline titles, PokémonScarlet and Violet, and said it expects them to launch sometime in late 2022. Building on the recently released Pokémon Legends: Arceus, developer Game Freak said the games would offer an "open-world adventure" for players to discover. 

Judging from the teaser the studio shared, players can expect to explore a mix of pastoral countryside and bustling urban landscapes. You can see the three new starters at the end of the clip. From left to right, they're Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly. As you might expect, all three look adorable, and you might have trouble picking one over another. I know I will. 

While fans wait for Scarlet and Violet, they can look forward to a new "Daybreak" update for Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Available to download later today, the update adds a new quest for players to complete and additional opportunities to battle Legendary Pokémon. Oh, and a new anime based on the game's Hisui region is coming later this year. 

Following Western sanctions on Russia’s financial institutions in response to the invasion of Ukraine, customers of several of the country’s largest banks can no longer use their debit and credit cards in conjunction with Apple Pay and Google Pay. Among the affected organizations include VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, and Otkritie FC Bank, according to a press release from the Central Bank of Russia spotted by Business Insider.

Customers with those banks can still use their cards to make contactless payments, provided they support the feature. However, they won’t work overseas, and they can’t be used to make online purchases from retailers registered in countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia.

As The Verge notes, Apple Pay and Google Pay aren’t as popular in Russia as homegrown options like YooMoney. According to data from 2020, only 29 percent of Russians reported using Google Pay at the time, while 20 percent said they had used Apple Pay. As such, those restrictions aren’t likely to impact Russian consumers too much given they have access to alternatives. However, the possibility of excluding Russian banks from the SWIFT interbanking system could lead to things like currency volatility that would further hurt the country’s economy.