Disney and Marvel are holding what's shaping up to be a newsworthy gaming event today at the D23 Expo. The first Disney and Marvel Games Showcase (to give its official name) starts at 4PM ET and you'll be able to watch it below.
On top of those, rumors suggest the showcase will include a peek at an Iron Man game from EA. Maybe we'll finally learn a bit more about the Indiana Jones game Bethesda announced early last year or even get a look at Spider-Man 2 gameplay. In any case, we won't have to wait long to find out.
More Uber Eats customers would be getting their orders from vehicles with no delivery personnel in sight. That's because Uber has signed a 10-year partnership with Nuro to use its autonomous, electric vehicles to deliver food orders in the US. They'll start in Houston, Texas and Mountain View, California this fall before eventually expanding their service to the greater Bay Area.
According to TechCrunch, customers won't get to choose and won't even know if their order is being delivered by a Nuro bot when they make their purchase. That also means they'll be charged the same rates for delivery regardless of what the delivery method is. Also, they'll get a refund for their tip if they choose to give one via the app and a Nuro vehicle shows up instead of a human worker. They do have to walk outside to get their order themselves, though, and that could be quite a hassle in the rain.
Based on the video the companies released to show what a Nuro delivery would look like, customers would have to key in a code to open the vehicle door and get their order. Nuro introduced its third-gen delivery vehicle, which comes with an external airbag to protect pedestrians, earlier this year. Since it has yet to formally launch its new vehicle model, it will initially use its second-gen cars called the R2 for the partnership. The R2 was designed to be completely driverless and is equipped with 360-degree and thermal cameras, lidar and radar to effectively navigate roads on its own.
Nuro's vehicles have been making deliveries in Houston since 2019 for other companies like Walmart. In California, it was granted the state’s first Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit in 2020, giving it the authority to operate a commercial autonomous vehicle service. As TechCrunch notes, that would allow Nuro to receive a fee for every Uber Eats delivery in the state.
Bringing new meaning to grab-and-go! Meals and goods delivered by @nuro’s zero-occupant autonomous delivery vehicles. Select cities.
Nuro isn't the only autonomous delivery firm Uber Eats has an agreement with. The food delivery service launched a pilot with Motional in May for orders in Santa Monica, California, though those deliveries made by an autonomous vehicle will still have a safety driver behind the wheel. Uber Eats also launched a pilot service with sidewalk delivery firm Serve Robotics in the same month for short delivery routes in West Hollywood.
Electrify America has unveiled a redesign of its charging stations designed to make them more consumer friendly. The changes include labels that clearly indicate charging levels, a new "balanced charging" system that delivers the maximum charge possible to each vehicle and clearer payment options. The updates were made following EV driver surveys and are designed to create a more familiar "gas station"-like experience, the company said.
One of the biggest issues with charging stations, they found, is that consumers often don't know the charging speeds of their own EVs — so the current labeling (CCS and CHAdeMO) may not make sense. To that end, Electrify America will keep the CHAdeMo for low-level (up to 50kW charging), but use new labels above that: Ultra-Fast (up to 150 kW and Hyper-Fast (up to 350kW), not unlike mid-grade and premium gas options. It also shows one, two or three lightning bolts for charging levels, the type of plug, and CHAdeMO or CCS labeling up top.
Electrify America
"We want to help make the transition to EV charging easier by translating kilowatt ratings into simple names like Hyper-Fast and Ultra-Fast with corresponding colors to help them make a selection at the charger," said Electrify America's Robert Barrosa.
On top of that, the company is introducing something called "Balanced Charging" for each pair of chargers at a single power cabinet, to ensure your EV gets the maximum kilowatts possible. For instance, if a vehicle that can handle a 150kW charge pulls into a station, the charger will detect its capacity and deliver the maximum 150kW. If another with a 280kW capacity then pulls in, it will automatically deliver 200kW to the second vehicle until the first requests less than 150kW. Each charger supporting that system will be clearly marked as "Balanced."
Electrify America
Finally, it will make paying easier, too. You can charge at a station as a member (via NFC) or guest (credit/debit card terminal), but many users didn't know which to use. To that end, the company has created new labels to indicate that the NFC target area is where members should tap their phones. The credit card readers are more clearly labeled as well, so guests can more easily understand where to insert their card. The company also made it easier to access support in case of problems, making the phone number more prominent and adding a QR code.
Electrify America previously announced that it'll expand to 1,800 fast charging stations and 10,000 individual chargers across North America by 2026. Many of those chargers will accommodate the latest EVs like the Porsche Taycan that can handle up to a 270 kW charge. It also recently unveiled its charging station of the future, with customer lounges, solar canopies and more. The company will replace the speed, contact and payment labels on all charging stations, and said that any "new stations will feature balanced charging functionality."
For the past couple of years, Samsung has been putting out better and better wireless earbuds with every iteration. This year was no different with the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, which we consider to be the best Samsung buds yet. Normally priced at $230, you can pick up Samsung's latest buds for only $155 right now at Amazon. That's the first discount we've seen since they came out at the end of last month, making it a great time to pick up a pair if you've been eying them since launch.
Samsung refined the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro by making them 15 percent smaller than the previous versions, covering them in a matte coating and giving them an IPX7 water-resistance rating. Touch controls a little hard to get used to, but they work just fine once you get the hang of them. Sound quality is good and ANC is even better than it was on the previous versions, blocking out most environmental noises around you. You'll also be able to switch between ANC and ambient sound mode whenever you want.
The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro work with Samsung's Galaxy Wearables app for Android, and there's no real iOS equivalent. So while you can use the buds with an iPhone, you won't have access to all of the features that Android users will. In the app, you can control things like Voice Detect, the feature that will automatically pause sound when the buds detect you speaking, 360 Audio, earbud finder and more. The app also has customizable controls for EQ presets, hands-free Bixby access, ambient sound during calls and other more advanced features. There's a lot you can play around with, provided you're using a Samsung phone or another Android handset.
Battery life is pretty standard on the Buds 2 Pro. You'll get five hours of listening time, plus another 18 hours with its charging case. While it could be better, that battery life estimate is in line with other flagship earbuds from companies like Apple, Google and others. Overall, Samsung did a good job making significant updates to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro that push them well above their predecessors. If you have a Samsung phone and are in need of a new pair, these are the ones to get.
The first video game studio in the US to unionize is shutting down. On Wednesday, Beast Breaker developer Vodeo Games announced it had failed to secure funding to produce an additional release beyond its debut title. “Despite a year of avid efforts, we’ve been unable to secure funding for our next project from publishers and investors,” Vodeo Games said in a tweet spotted by Polygon. “As such, we’ve run out of funds and aren’t able to keep the team together — and there simply is no Vodeo without our incredible team.”
Vodeo Games was founded in 2021 by Threes! designer Asher Vollmer. The studio released its first game that same year. According to Vodeo’s website, it had been working on a new project before today’s announcement. The studio will complete work on the Steam version of Beast Breaker before closing shop.
At the end of last year, Vodeo’s all-remote team of 13 successfully unionized with Code-CWA, the Communication Workers of America's Campaign to Organize Digital Employees. Despite the management of Vodeo Games recognizing the studio’s union, the two sides never came to a bargaining agreement. According to Vodeo Workers United, negotiations came to an end when it became apparent the studio could not secure additional funding. The group said it would share what it learned with other industry workers to help them organize their workplaces.
Vodeo Games has announced that it has closed its doors. Vodeo Workers United (CODE-CWA) were in the process of collective bargaining but had not yet reached an agreement when it became clear the studio was no longer financially viable. Therefore we decided to halt bargaining.
Since workers at Vodeo unionized, employees at other studios have attempted to follow suit. Most notably, there’s the QA division at Activision's Raven Software, which voted in May to form the Game Workers Alliance. More recently, quality assurance staff at Blizzard Albany, formerly Vicarious Visions, filed for a union election.
With other virtual reality headset makers expected to bring face- and eye-tracking functions to their upcoming models, HTC is looking to keep pace with new accessories for its Vive Focus 3. The company says the add-ons will offer “more natural and immersive VR experiences” and enable accessibility functions such as gaze control.
The $99 Facial Tracker uses a mono camera to capture expressions from the wearer's lips, jaw, cheeks, chin, teeth and tongue. The idea is to replicate “lifelike facial expressions and mouth movements” from the user on avatars in real-time.
HTC says the Facial Tracker has a 60Hz tracking rate and can "synchronize lips to voice with minimal latency" — the system has a response time of under 10 milliseconds. The device plugs into the headset's USB-C port and weighs around 11.6 grams, so it shouldn't weigh your head down.
HTC
As for the $249 Eye Tracker, it has a dual camera system that can capture gaze direction and origin, blinks and your pupil size and position. It weighs around 54 grams and it attaches to the headset magnetically. HTC notes that "realistic" eye activity can improve non-verbal interactions in VR. What's more, the eye-tracking module can be used for research purposes.
The company suggests that presentation coaching, training and customer service management are good use cases. HTC, which released a wrist tracker accessory for the headset earlier this year, adds that eye and facial tracking could be helpful for fostering better engagement in virtual social settings, such as events, remote meetings and hanging out.
The attachments might even be employed for motion capture to help animate characters' faces in TV, film and games. HTC says developers can integrate users' biometric data into applications with the help of the Vive Wave SDK and upcoming OpenXR support. There's also Unity, Unreal Game Engine and Native integration.
HTC isn't the only VR company that's embracing face and eye tracking. Meta's next headset, which the company will reveal in October, will have eye and face tracking as well. Accessibility functions like gaze control are definitely welcome, but whether most users are comfortable with headsets monitoring their eyes and facial expressions remains to be seen.
Sony has rolled out the latest PlayStation 5 system update globally with a much-requested feature: 1440p video output. The feature, first previewed in beta last July, will finally provide an option between less-sharp 1080p and demanding 4K that can reduce framerates. It will be especially beneficial to users with PC monitors that natively support 1440p QHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution.
Your monitor or TV will need to support 1440p/60Hz or 1440p/120Hz, Sony said. You can select the setting from the "Screen and Video" menu in the settings, and a "Test 1440p Output" button lets you check to see if your monitor is supported. However, using 1440p will disable variable refresh rates (VRR) that sync game and monitor framerates. That means you may see screen tearing and other issues that reduce smoothness.
The update also includes Gamelists, essentially folders to store games. You can have up to 15 Gamelists with 100 games each that include a mix of digital and disc games. Other new features include the ability to request a Share Screen from a fellow party member, view new friends' profiles and receive notifications to help you join a friend's game from a party chat. A new feature in preview in the UK and US, meanwhile, lets you do YouTube searches using Voice Command from anywhere on PS5, including during gameplay.
Sony has unveiled an unusual mirrorless camera that essentially marries the FX6 cinema camera's tech with remote-controlled robotics. Called the FR7, it's the "world's first" pan-tilt-zoom full-frame interchangeable-lens camera with pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) robotic technology, according to the company.
Priced at nearly $10,000 without a lens, it's designed for professional productions including reality shows, concerts, dramas, music videos and more. For instance, it could be mounted on dolly tracks, a crane or a tripod and remotely follow subjects around without getting in the way. It could also be fixed to a vehicle, with the pan-tilt-zoom capabilities giving the director more interesting angles and shots.
Sony
The large sensor allows for a more cinematic image than typical robotic TV cameras, too. "The cinematic look and feel is rapidly becoming the norm in broadcasting and live production as it opens up new ways to tell a narrative," said Sony Electronics VP Yang Chen. "In parallel, over the last 2 years, we’ve seen a steep rise in content created remotely or in small locations where access is difficult."
The FR7 looks a bit like Sony cut the back off an FX6, leaving the mount and small body fixed to a compact motorized system. It's designed to smoothly pan and tilt at speeds ranging from .02 to a rapid 60 degrees per second, while moving from plus or minus 170 degrees (pan) and -30 to 195 degrees (tilt). You can store up to 100 camera presents and control it using a web app or the optional $2,625 RM-IP500 remote controller.
The 10.3-megapixel sensor is an unusual choice, as it may not be suitable for some high-end productions due to the 4K resolution limit. However, it does offer 4K recording at up to 120 fps or 1080p at 240fps. On top of that, it has a native ISO range up to 409,600 with 15+ stops of dynamic range, making it suitable for shooting in low light. It also comes with S-Log3 gamma, wide S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.Cine color spaces for HDR and enhanced color grading capabilities.
Sony
It offers the same autofocus capabilities as the FX6, including Fast Hybrid AF, Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking, with touch focus available via the web app. Sony promises fast and accurate eye-detect AF, which will be key for things like reality shows or live streaming with no physical operator. It also comes with a built-in electronic variable ND filter, dual SD/CFexpress Type A slots, an ethernet port for remote control (and power) and SDI/HDMI video outputs.
The FR7 costs $9,700 without a lens, or $12,200 with Sony's FE PZ 28-135mm f/4 cinema lens. It's set to go on preorder in the US on September 7th and Sony will show it off at IBC 2022 in Amsterdam later this week.
Finding a PlayStation 5 may be as difficult as ever, but that’s not stopping Sony from adding more customization options for those who already own the console. This fall, the company will release the Gray Camouflage collection. It consists of a new set of plates for the console, as well as a matching DualSense controller and Pulse headset.
“The PlayStation design team reimagined our camouflage pattern to reflect a fresher, more contemporary feel. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the iconic PlayStation Shapes have been subtly incorporated into the pattern,” Sony says of the new design.
Preorders for collection open on September 15th. The plates and DualSense controller will arrive on October 14th, with the Pulse headset heading to store shelves sometime in December. Sony did not announce pricing for the new accessories. They come after the company recently said it was increasing the price of the PS5 across much of the globe.
The days where Kiwi Farms is a functioning website appear to be numbered. After Cloudflare cut the forum off over the weekend, other essential internet services, including hCaptcha, followed suit. Kiwi Farms briefly moved to a Russian domain and DDoS-Guard on Sunday, but as of Tuesday morning, visiting the website returns an error page that says it can’t load.
“This meme about Russia being a free country is a joke,” Kiwi Farms founder Joshua Moon wrote on Telegram, adding that he could not see a future where the website would be able to operate normally. Moon’s post references 8chan and Daily Stormer, two websites that, while they continue to exist, are essentially inaccessible after public efforts to deplatform were successful.
“The campaign is over. We won,” streamer and political commentator Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti wrote in a statement she shared on Friday. Sorrenti was a recent target of a coordinated and vicious harassment campaign that originated on Kiwi Farms and saw her doxxed and swatted. Sorrenti started the DropKiwifarms hashtag to urge Cloudflare and other critical internet infrastructure providers to drop the website. The campaign gained critical mass after NBC News published a story about Kiwi Farms, detailing the forum's sordid past. Since its founding in 2013, at least three suicides have been linked to harassment campaigns that originated on the website.
“Many sites that have faced pressure campaigns to be deplatformed, like 8chan and Daily Stormer, are still online. They are nevertheless completely impotent," Sorrenti said. "Whether or not we are able to completely remove Kiwi Farms from the internet is irrelevant to the fact that the goals of our campaign have not only been achieved, but have achieved more than we could have ever expected.”
