Google is about to simplify its communication services. The company announced today it plans to merge Duo and Meet, its two disparate video calling apps, into a single platform. Starting over the next few weeks, Google will begin adding Meet features to Duo. Once that happens, you’ll be able to use the app, which up to this point was primarily designed for personal video calling, to schedule meetings. Other features that will make their way to Duo include support for virtual backgrounds, live-sharing content and in-meeting text chat.

At the same time, Google promises features Duo users know and love, such as the ability to apply filters and effects to your calls, won’t be going anywhere. Additionally, your call history, contacts and messages won’t disappear from the app. It’s all part of Google’s pledge to “carefully” integrate the two platforms and ensure it supports as many users as possible.

Once that process is complete, Google will rename the mobile versions of both apps, with Duo becoming Meet and the current Meet becoming Meet Original. The company told The Verge it plans to deprecate the latter eventually. If all that sounds confusing, there’s a good reason for Google’s approach. The company said it built a lot of sophistication into the Duo mobile app, and it sounds like Google doesn’t want to abandon that work.

As for Google’s reason for merging the two apps, the company believes that doing so will ultimately benefit users. “Over the last few years, Duo and Meet have continued to grow with the evolving needs of video calls and meetings, and now the experiences will be better together as Google Meet,” a spokesperson for the company told Engadget. Of course, the tricky part for Google will be finding a way to integrate the two apps without making the resulting service feel overwhelming. Many people love Duo for its simplicity, and a sudden influx of new features and added complexity may make them look elsewhere.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the next mainline entries in GameFreak’s long-running RPG series, will come to Nintendo Switch on November 18th, The Pokémon Company announced today. In addition to including new creatures to catch, the two games will feature four-player multiplayer, allowing you and your friends to experience the game’s new region together. That’s notable because developer Game Freak has promised Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will represent its first true open-world experience after the studio began dabbling with the format with the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus at the start of the year.

In another first for the series, the two games will feature different professors. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re both attractive and causing a stir among the Pokémon community. Typical. On top of Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly, the three new starters Game Freak revealed in February, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will add Smoliv, Pawmi and the pleasantly plump Lechonk to the franchise’s expanding roster. As for the new legendaries, they’re known as Koraidon and Miraidon, and they’ll grace the covers of the games. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are available to pre-order from the Nintendo eShop starting today.

Nearly four years after Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal to a mostly apathetic audience at Blizzcon 2018, the game is finally here. And if you’re like me, there’s a good chance you haven’t followed Immortal’s development since its first showing. Not knowing what to expect, I had a chance to play the game ahead of its official launch tomorrow and left the experience both excited and worried about what I saw.

Set five years after the end of Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, Immortal opens with your character arriving by boat in the town of Wortham, a location from Diablo 3. You find the hamlet under attack by Skarn, the self-styled Lord of Damnation.

I haven’t played the game’s story through to its end, but what unfolds following the introduction is a far more interesting narrative than what Diablo 3 had to offer. Immortal inherits some of its predecessor’s more annoying tendencies. Characters, particularly villains, talk too much, and the game is missing the atmosphere that made past Diablo games so memorable. But on the whole, Immortal serves as a more fitting sequel to its predecessors than Diablo 3 ever did.

Blizzard / NetEase

One early zone in the game sees your character venture to the Dark Wood, an area from Act One of Diablo 2. There, you’re reunited with characters like Akara and Kashya. The voice actors aren’t as memorable as their Diablo 2 counterparts, but the way Immortal pulls on the narrative threads established in its predecessor to continue that game’s story is satisfying and memorable.

But what is even more impressive is that Blizzard tells the story in the context of an MMO. As you go about your adventure, you’ll see other players doing the same, and you can freely group up to tackle the campaign – in addition to dungeons, raids and Immortal’s many other activities – as a party.

Even on a small display, the game features classic Blizzard polish. Controlling your character is similar to titles like League of Legends: Wild Rift. On the bottom left of the screen, there’s a virtual thumbstick for moving your character, while on the right-hand side, you have dedicated buttons for your different skills. Immortal includes controller support, and if you own a Razer Kishi or Backbone One, they’re the best way to play the game on mobile.

Blizzard / NetEase

You can use up to five skills at any one point. At first, combat feels simplistic, but once you have a full complement of abilities, there’s a fun rhythm to your demon slaying. The best part is encountering stronger enemies like elites and bosses. The latter involve multi-stage fights that reward you for learning their move sets. With Immortal, I can safely say the moment-to-moment gameplay is the best it’s ever been in the Diablo franchise.

But with only two primary and 12 secondary skills per class, it feels like there’s less build diversity than in past games. Unlike his Diablo 2 counterpart, I can’t play my Immortal barbarian as an ax-throwing ranged character or a singer who shouts his enemies to death. He’s strictly a dual-wielding melee character.

Modifying your skills also feels more limited than the system Blizzard had in place with Diablo 3. Instead of earning skill runes as you level your character, you find legendary items that tweak their abilities. For example, I found a piece of armor that made it so my barbarian’s whirlwind attack would send out gusts of winds as he spun about. You can equip a legendary weapon or armor piece in every one of your primary item slots, meaning you can add six modifications to your skills.

Blizzard

Most items drop with slots you can modify with stat-enhancing gems. Currently, there are two types of gemstones in Immortal. First, there are the “normal” ones you obtain primarily by completing hidden lairs. These are dungeons you can find in the game’s various zones. Each time one opens in the area you’re exploring, Immortal will notify you and you’ll have a few minutes to find it. You can earn up to six normals gems per day by completing hidden lairs. It’s also possible to obtain them as part of bundles you can purchase with real money, from other players via Immortal’s in-game auction house and a merchant who will trade you them in return for an in-game currency called Hilts.

And then there are the game’s legendary gems. They are the most powerful way to enhance your character, with each one adding new abilities to their attacks. For instance, one I obtained with my barbarian empowered him with lightning that would chain to nearby enemies.

You probably already have a sense of where this is going. Not all legendary gems are equal. Many of the one- and two-star ones are relatively easy to obtain, but if you want to outfit your character with the best-in-slot gems for their class, the sense I get is that you will have to spend money.

Blizzard / NetEase

That’s due to how Blizzard and NetEase designed the system for obtaining those gems. They drop exclusively through dungeons called elder rifts. You can play through one whenever you want and they take at most three to four minutes to complete. The catch is that you can modify the rewards you get at the end of an elder rift with rare and legendary crests. The former you can obtain through the merchant I mentioned earlier, and as part of one-time bundles you can buy for completing certain milestones with your character. The game also gives you one free rare crest per day.

Rare crests increase your chance of earning one-star legendary gems by five percent. Legendary crests, meanwhile, give you a 100 percent chance for a legendary gem to drop at the end of an elder rift. The catch here is that what one you will get is up to chance. Adding a further wrinkle to things is that five-star gems can be anywhere between one and five stars in quality when they drop, and you may need to use other gems to unlock their full potential.

There are a few ways to earn the odd free legendary crest, but you’ll be primarily buying them. A pack of 10 costs 1,600 of the game’s premium currency, or about $25. Legendary crests represent Immortal’s primary form of monetization, but you can also spend money on cosmetics, an enhanced battle pass and a few other things.

The gem system has enough similarities to loot boxes that Activision Blizzard won’t release Immortal in countries with laws against that kind of monetization. It’s also a setup that rewards “whaling.” In other words, the players willing to spend nearly endless amounts of money on the game will be the most powerful.

Blizzard / NetEase

How you will feel about Immortal’s monetization will depend on what you want to get out of it. You can safely ignore all the systems I mentioned if all you want is to play through the game’s story and level your favorite classes. But just how much you’ll need to spend to participate in the game’s endgame is hard for me to say. Going into tomorrow’s release, the consensus among Immortal’s community is that the answer is a lot.

Again, all of that may not matter to you, but if there’s an issue with Immortal’s monetization, it’s how counter it is to the spirit of the franchise. When Blizzard removed Diablo 3’s controversial gold and real-money auction houses in 2013, the studio said it did so because they ultimately undermined the game’s core gameplay.

It must also be said how easily Immortal could become addictive for some people. In the week Blizzard granted me early access to the game, I spent nearly every spare moment I could find playing through it because I was having so much fun. And when the game becomes officially available on June 2nd, I plan to spend money on things like the enhanced battle pass, but I won’t pay to buy any legendary crests because I think that system is predatory. Some won’t have that restraint.

Outside of Diablo 2: Resurrected, there hasn’t been a new Diablo game in 10 years, and, as of this June, it will be 23 years since Blizzard released Diablo 2. And I think that’s what makes Immortal so easy to be conflicted about. It shows the studio can still create engaging experiences when it gives its talented staff the time they need to work on a project, but it’s also a game that’s impossible to separate from its economics. It’s easy to see a scenario where Immortal is hugely successful for the studio and ends up informing its approach to Diablo 4 and future projects.

Retro console maker Evercade has just announced its latest device, a new handheld called the EXP. If you’re not familiar with Evercade, its products are a bit different from your standard retro fare. Instead of purchasing a device like the SNES Classic Edition that comes with a limited library of preloaded games or one like the Analogue Pocket that can play games from their original cartridges, Evercade sells cartridges that come with a selection of games. The company says this approach has a few benefits, one of which is that it enables license holders to be paid more fairly. It also means games load instantly.

Blaze Entertainment

The EXP builds on the company’s original handheld with a new, more mature design. Gone are the red “go faster” stripes of its predecessor. Additionally, the EXP features a new 4.3-inch IPS panel with a denser 800 by 480 resolution. It also comes with a 1.5GHz processor and 4GB of built-in memory, putting it on par with the company’s VS console. New to the EXP is a “Tate” mode that makes the handheld a better fit for playing games that were designed around vertical scrolling like classic shmups. The EXP features two buttons on its left-hand side to aid with playing games this way. Evercade has also added WiFi and USB-C connectivity to the device and redesigned the mini-HDMI port to make it more stable.

In the US, the EXP will cost $150. Evercade will begin accepting pre-orders for the console starting in September, with general availability to follow later this winter. Retail units will ship with the IREM Arcade 1 collection, which comes with six games from the Japanese publisher, including Moon Patrol and 10 Yard Fight. Evercade has promised to share more details about the device, including information on bonus content, in September.

TikTok is testing a new feature that allows users to scroll through content on the app without interface elements like usernames, captions and audio information cluttering the screen. “Clear Mode” was first spotted last week by former The Next Web editor Matt Navarra, with TikTok providing TechCrunch confirmation it was testing the feature on Tuesday.

The company didn’t say when users could expect Clear Mode to roll out more widely. As always, it’s also worth noting TikTok may ultimately decide against implementing the feature based on information the company gathers from users.

If you’ve enrolled in the test, you can access Clear Mode by long-pressing on a video and tapping the appropriate option. As TechCrunch points out, the feature, if implemented, would make the lives of creators easier since they would no longer need to re-upload clips people want to screenshot. You’ll often see TikTok users drop a “crop” comment on a video because a caption or button has obscured part of a video they want to share. TikTok has been testing more of these types of quality-of-life improvements in recent months. For instance, some users recently gained access to a watch history feature that makes it easier to rediscover videos you forgot to like.

If you use Amazon’s Kindle app on Android, you may have noticed the software doesn't offer the option to buy and rent ebooks or subscribe to the company’s Kindle Unlimited service anymore. Amazon announced the change last month and more recently began notifying customers of the move via email.

If you’re curious about what’s going on, the change puts Amazon in compliance with a policy Google will begin enforcing on June 1st. Starting next month, the company will require all developers to process payments involving “digital goods and services” through the Play Store billing system. Previously, Amazon was among a handful of developers Google allowed to use third-party alternatives to collect in-app payments. Rather than give Google a commission for every ebook it sells on Android, Amazon has decided to remove purchases altogether. It has done the same in its Audible and Music apps. In the US, Amazon doesn't offer Kindle in-app purchasing on iOS either.  

It’s worth noting Amazon isn’t the only company that has stopped sales on Android. In April, for instance, Barnes and Noble removed direct purchasing from the Android version of its Nook app. Some companies have legally challenged Google on the matter, with Tinder parent company Match Group filing a suit against the search giant in May.

There’s the possibility that direct purchasing could return to Amazon’s Android Kindle, Audible and Music apps at some point in the future. In March, Google partnered with Spotify to test third-party billing systems. However, how soon that pilot could expand to include other companies is unclear.

On Sunday, the final day of Disney’s Star Wars Celebration 2022 event, the company shared the first trailer for season two of The Bad Batch. And while we’ve known since last year that Disney planned to continue the series, the new season now has a release timeframe. It will debut on Disney+ this fall.

The trailer the company shared suggests the story will pick up following a time skip that leaves the members of Clone Force 99 looking older than they were in season one. Each one also is also seen wearing updated armor, with squad leader Hunter sporting a new scarf, for instance. As ever, it looks like the group has a tough journey ahead of them as they try to find a place in a changing galaxy. Oh, and there's a Wookie with a lightsaber. 

A release window for season two of The Bad Batch was one of a handful of announcements Disney shared during Star Wars Celebration 2022. We also got our first look at Rogue One prequel Andor and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Respawn’s Fallen Order, in addition to updates on The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.

In 1933, archaeologists excavating the remains of Pompeii found the bodies of two individuals, their skeletons almost perfectly preserved by the volcanic ash that buried their home in the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24th, 79CE. While many of Pompeii’s residents fled the natural disaster, these two did not.

Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità

In a photo from the early ‘30s (pictured above), you can see the residents of the “House of the Craftsmen” slumped over in the corner of their home’s dining room, almost as if they were eating lunch just as their lives were about to end. It’s a poignant scene archeologists have long sought to unpack, and now we have a better understanding of what may have happened to those two Romans, thanks to the latest advances in DNA sequencing technology.

In a paper published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, a joint team of researchers from Italy, Denmark and the US shared that they recently sequenced the genome of one of the House of Craftmen’s inhabitants – marking the first time archaeologists have decoded the mitochondrial DNA of a resident of Pompeii, according to The New York Times.

With genetic material pulled from his petrous, a dense, pyramid-shaped segment of bone that protects the inner ears, the team found that the male inhabitant of the house suffered from spinal tuberculosis, or what’s better known today as Pott diesase. Associated symptoms include back pain and lower body paralysis. “The condition would have forced him to have little mobility,” Dr. Pier Francesco Fabbri, one of the anthropologists who contributed to the paper, told The Times. It’s very possible the man, who was about 35 years old when he died, would have had difficulty fleeing Pompeii even if he wanted to escape the burning city.

We now also have a better idea of the man’s origins. Comparing his DNA against 1,030 ancient and 471 present-day West Eurasian individuals, the research team concluded that some of his ancestors came from Anatolia, which is now mostly part of modern Turkey. He also had links to the island of Sardinia. However, he had the most genetic similarities with people who lived in and around Rome during Pompeii’s destruction. That lends evidence to the suggestion that the Italian peninsula was a melting pot of racially diverse people at the height of the Roman Empire.

With so little left from that time, our understanding of the ancient world will always be imperfect, but thanks to advances in technology, we’re constantly learning more about what life was like thousands of years ago. It was only at the end of last year that researchers “unwrapped” one of the most pristine mummies ever found with the help of a CT scan. Professor Gabriele Scorrano, the lead researcher on the Pompeii study, told the BBC that future genetic studies could reveal more about the city, including information about the biodiversity of the surrounding area. "Pompeii is like a Roman island,” he said. "We have a picture of one day in 79CE."

At the start of the year, a handful of developers, including Steve Troughton-Smith, found references to “realityOS,” the operating system for Apple’s long-rumored virtual and augmented reality headset. Now, a little more than a week before the start of WWDC 2022, the name has resurfaced in trademark filings seemingly linked to the company.

On Friday, Vox Media product manager Parker Ortolani took to Twitter to share two United States Patent and Trademark Office filings he found registered by a company called Realityo Systems LLC. As Parker and others have pointed out, there’s evidence to suggest Realityo Systems is a shell company created by Apple to obscure its tracks.

First, there’s the June 8th foreign filing deadline for both trademarks, which falls just two days after the start of WWDC 2022. Additionally, as noted by 9to5Mac, Realityo Systems LLC shares the same address as Yosemite Research LLC, the shell company Apple used to secure trademarks for past versions of its macOS operating system, including macOS Monterey. One more interesting tidbit of evidence is that in some countries Realityo Systems submitted trademark filings that include a realityOS logo written in Apple’s signature San Francisco typeface.

The timing of the filings suggests Apple is getting closer to the day it will feel comfortable sharing details about its augmented and virtual reality ambitions. However, we would caution against expecting an announcement as early as next week. In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicts the company won’t hold “a full-blown presentation” on its mixed-reality headset at WWDC. In fact, he says he would be “wary of expecting” such an announcement from the company. Gurman previously reported that Apple was considering pushing the device's debut back to 2023 due to ongoing development problems. Still, the company is clearly moving forward with the project.

With WWDC 2022 little more than a week away, more details about what Apple could announce at its annual developer conference are emerging. In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggests the company will have a fair amount to share about iOS 16, including enhancements to the lock screen. Gruman says the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system will include wallpapers with widget-like capabilities.

Additionally, iOS 16 will reportedly include support for an always-on display feature that will be initially exclusive to the company’s next iPhone Pro models. The functionality would allow those devices to show you notifications and other glanceable information without the need to fully wake their displays. That’s a feature that’s long been available on many Android phones, and Apple had reportedly planned to add it to the iPhone 13 last year but later changed its plans.

Reiterating his previous predictions, Gurman says iOS 16 will also include enhancements to how the operating system handles multitasking and windowing. Gurman cites a recent tweet from developer Steve Troughton-Smith that shows Apple is likely working on a way to let iOS users resize app windows. That’s a feature that would be particularly useful on iPad. Gurman says he also expects the company to add new social network-like features within Messages. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to see what Apple has planned for iOS 16. WWDC 2022 kicks off on June 6th.