Having pulled in more than six million players in less than a week, Starfield is Bethesda’s biggest game launch of all time. Some of those players are already poking at the game’s limits by creating mods and speedrunning it. One has found another way to break the game, namely by building a ship that enemies can’t figure out how to consistently hit.
The player, who goes by Morfalath, figured out that the enemy AI targets the center of your ship. By building a spacecraft that’s essentially a hollow cube with a few missing edges, they created what they claim is an “unbeatable ship.”
It’s as if the enemy AI thinks you have a glowing red weak spot in your ship’s midsection even if the vessel's "stomach" is completely missing. In a video of a dogfight that Morfalath shared, the unusual ship catches an errant shot or two on its frame, but the butt-ugly design appears to outfox even high-level enemies.
Meanwhile, even though Xbox execs claimedStarfield would be Bethesda's least buggy game launch ever (despite the publisher's long track record of its title having glitches when they first arrive), players have captured a litany of very strange moments. Perhaps you'll see characters who have a missing head save for their eyeballs and mouth, or maybe you'll encounter individuals who rudely butt into conversations. Starfieldmight not have had as disastrous a debut as Cyberpunk 2077 in terms of bugs, but some of them are pretty funny nonetheless.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/butt-ugly-starfield-ship-defeats-the-enemy-ais-perfect-aim-142746608.html?src=rss
Starfield is here! It’s just too bad we only like some of it. This week, Devindra chats with Senior Editor Jessica Conditt about Bethesda’s latest massive open world title, and why it just feels like Fallout 4 in space. Also, we dive into reports around Nintendo demoing the Switch 2 at Gamescom, and we dream up what our ideal sequel console could be. (Just call it the Super Switch!)
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Apple has released a critical iOS 16 security update for iPhones and iPads to patch a particularly malicious bug that could allow a hacker to take over your device with no action on your part. The "zero-click, zero-day" exploit allows attackers to install NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, which could let them read a target's text messages, listen in on calls, pilfer and transmit images, track their location and more.
The exploit (referred to as "Blastpass") was first discovered by Citizen Lab, which immediately disclosed it to Apple. It was reportedly used to install Pegasus onto the iPhone of an employee from a Washington DC-based organization. It's capable of compromising devices running the latest 16.6 version of iOS "without any interaction from the victim," the group wrote.
Apple has released iOS 16.6.1 to counter the vulnerability, stating simply that "a maliciously crafted attachment may result in arbitrary code execution." In addition, Citizen Lab even advised "all at-risk users to consider enabling Lockdown Mode as we believe it blocks the attack." It's believed that the attack involved PassKit (an SDK that allows developers to put Apple Pay in their apps), hence the Blastpass name, along with malicious images sent by iMessage. For obvious reasons, Citizen Lab didn't release any other details.
Lockdown mode is a recent iOS feature designed to severely restrict the functions of Apple devices and is aimed at a "very small number of users who face grave, targeted threats to their digital security," Apple has stated. The company has faced a number of threats of late, including a vulnerability from February 2023 that "may have been actively exploited," Apple said at the time.
The exploit also brings Pegasus back into the news, following a ban by the Biden administration earlier this year. Developed by the Israel-based cyber-arms company NSO Group, it created a furor after it was used by multiple nations to spy on journalists, activists and others. In one notorious case, it was reportedly used by Saudi Arabia to spy on journalist Jamal Kashoggi, who was later murdered in Turkey.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/update-your-iphone-now-to-patch-a-major-pegasus-vulnerability-114009683.html?src=rss
There’s no denying Nintendo’s Switch, at 6.5 years, is reaching the end. Nintendo is (finally) gearing up for what’s next and was reportedly showing tech demos of its next-gen system to developers at Gamescom last month.
According to Eurogamer, one of the Switch 2 demos was a beefed-up version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was apparently a tech demo, showing the world of Hyrule at a higher frame rate and resolution than the existing game.
VGC says another tech demo was The Matrix Awakens, running on the dev kit. The captivating tech demo was originally designed to highlight what Unreal Engine 5 can do on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but Nintendo got it working on an early version of its next system. The Switch 2 demo also featured NVIDIA’s DLSS upscaling tech, ray-tracing and visuals comparable to those on the PS5 and Series X. DLSS support is key, as that could help Nintendo run games at higher frame rates and resolution without having to use more powerful components.
Nintendo is expected to release its next console in 2024 – but what will be its unique trick?
– Mat Smith
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BMW is one of several automakers that have been nickel and diming customers, with a monthly subscription for heated seats (which already exist in these vehicles) in certain models and territories. The company has dropped that controversial practice to focus on paid software services — it no longer plans to charge drivers extra to use hardware features already in their cars.
Drivers didn’t take to the $18 per month heated seats subscription in the countries where BMW offered that, er, perk. “We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high,” Pieter Nota, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing, said.
We haven’t heard much about Apple’s mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, in recent weeks, but in the runup to Apple’s big event next week, the company has elaborated on the device’s app offerings. It’s announced every iOS app will automatically publish to the Vision Pro store by default, which the company says will give early adopters access to “hundreds of thousands of iPad and iPhone apps.” Most apps can easily run on Vision Pro, but you won’t get a full futuristic experience. Instead, you’ll see what you normally see on your phone or tablet, just blown up on a fake screen before you.
The company used to offer Theranos’ faulty blood tests in its stores.
There was a time when Walgreens championed Theranos’ blood tests and offered them at “wellness centers” in its stores. That was before it came to light that Theranos’ tests were faulty. Now, according to Bloomberg, Walgreens has agreed to pay $44 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by customers who received flawed Theranos blood tests. A court still has to approve the proposal, but based on the court filing by the plaintiffs, those customers will receive around double their out-of-pocket damages if the terms remain unaltered.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-nintendo-is-reportedly-showing-off-switch-sequel-console-to-developers-111620441.html?src=rss
Following Huawei's surprise launch of the seemingly 5G-capable Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro smartphones last week, the Chinese firm has today unveiled two more devices: the Mate 60 Pro+ and the Mate X5 foldable. Huawei was largely limited to 4G connectivity on its handsets since the US sanctions, but with this latest wave of smartphone launches, the company has been intentionally secretive about its choice of radio. Sources told Engadget that these are indeed 5G devices — as supported by Chinese blogger Vincent Zhong's speed test on the new foldable, which reached a download speed of over 1Gbps (you'll see that there is no 5G indicator on the screen).
It's likely that both phones are also powered by Huawei's mysterious HiSilicon Kirin 9000S, the 7nm process node of which has raised concerns on whether the local chip supplier, SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), has violated US sanctions to access foreign chip-making technology. Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comments about the specs of these new phones or the chip.
A recent Kirin 9000S teardown conducted by TechInsights for Bloomberg confirmed SMIC's 7nm process, which was thought to be impossible given the import ban on key manufacturing equipment — namely the EUV lithography machines from Dutch firm ASML (Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography). Before the US import ban, Huawei relied on TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) for its 5nm process, which was enabled by ASML's machines.
It is unlikely that SMIC procured such advanced machinery from ASML — at least not directly — without raising alarms. According to Bits & Chips, ASML CEO Peter Wennink recently expressed that "the Mate 60 Pro shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as the restrictions essentially forced the Chinese to double down on innovation." Thus implying that SMIC could well have developed its own high-end lithography machine.
Benchmarks conducted by Chinese tech blog Geekerwan suggest that the Kirin 9000S' performance is close to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888, meaning it's around two generations behind. The site added that the CPU here features one big core and three middle cores based on Huawei's own "TaiShan" architecture, in addition to four little cores based on Arm's efficient Cortex-A510. As a bonus, the Kirin 9000S is the first mobile processor to support multi-threading — running eight cores with 12 threads, though apparently apps will require further optimization to make use of this feature. As for the GPU, Huawei added its own Maleoon 910, which is allegedly on par with the one in the Snapdragon 888.
Huawei Mate 60 Pro+
Huawei
Much like the Mate 60 Pro, the higher-end Mate 60 Pro+ supports satellite call service by China Telecom and satellite messaging using BeiDou. The only notable differences (that we can see for now) are the different "nanotech metallic double dye process" and better rear cameras. As for the Mate X5 foldable, it's almost identical to the super slim Mate X3, except for the switch to Huawei's fancier Kunlun Glass on the external screen (hence a 2g bump in weight), as well as the slightly tweaked appearance of the rear camera island. Huawei has yet to reveal prices for either model, though pre-orders will start at 6:08PM local time today.
If all four of Huawei's latest smartphones are indeed powered by Kirin 9000S, it would suggest that Huawei is confident with its chip yield — potentially adding a further blow to the US sanctions. Rumors suggest that we'll be hearing more about these devices towards the end of September — conveniently avoiding the iPhone 15 rush.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/huaweis-new-foldable-provokes-scrutiny-over-chinese-made-chips-104105500.html?src=rss
One of the consequences of Brexit was that the UK was forced out of several key European Union science programs, including the Galileo satnav project and Horizon, the EU's flagship science research scheme. Now, the UK is set to rejoin Horizon as an associate country under what UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called a "bespoke deal."
The UK will also become an associate member of Copernicus, the EU's £8 billion (€9 billion) Earth observation satellite program. It won't be rejoining the Euratom nuclear research group, however, instead choosing to focus on its own nuclear fusion research. Under the terms of the deal, the UK will contribute almost €2.6 billion (£2.2 billion or $2.75 billion) per year on average for its participation in both Horizon and Copernicus.
"We have worked with our EU partners to make sure that this is the right deal for the UK, unlocking unparalleled research opportunities, and also the right deal for British taxpayers," said Sunak. "The EU and U.K. are key strategic partners and allies, and today’s agreement proves that point. We will continue to be at the forefront of global science and research," added von der Leyen.
Scientists in the UK who feared research isolation expressed relief. "Thank you to the huge number of researchers in the U.K. and across Europe who, over many years, didn’t give up on stressing the importance of international collaboration for science," biomedical researcher Paul Nurse told the Associated Press.
The UK was kept out of Horizon due to a dispute over the Northern Ireland Brexit trading agreement, despite positive negotiations in 2020. A deal was struck for a UK return in February 2023, but negotiations stalled over the UK's level of financial commitment.
A key tenet was that the UK would not pay for the years of absence, but the UK's opposition Labour Party also noted that Britain had missed out on a lot in that time. "Two years of global companies looking around the world for where to base their research centers and choosing other countries than Britain, because we are not part of Horizon," said Labour science spokesman Peter Kyle. "This is two years of wasted opportunity for us as a country."
Horizon Europe "tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth," according to the European Commission. It includes all EU member states and 17 associate nations as of January 2023, and boasts a budget of €95.5 billion ($102 billion).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uk-rejoins-the-european-science-research-program-it-brexited-out-of-100001243.html?src=rss
Tesla and Hilton have struck a deal to make EV charging more accessible while attracting guests to the latter's hotels at the same time. The companies have announced that starting in 2024, they will install 20,000 Tesla Universal Wall Connectors at 2,000 Hilton properties across the US, Canada and Mexico. This deal expands a previous partnership between the two and will see each chosen property get at least six new chargers.
Matt Schuyler, Hilton's chief brand officer, told CNBC that the second most searched attribute for its hotels is EV charging. Using the "EV charging" filter on its website, we found that there are 1,148 Hilton hotels with EV chargers in the US at the moment, along with 67 properties in Canada and 22 in Mexico. That's but a fraction of what this expansion entails — according to The Points Guy, it would put Hilton ahead of Los Angeles County for having the most chargers in the continent by the time the project is done.
While the companies didn't give a timeline for the installations, their deal has the potential to assuage a lot of people's range anxieties, especially since Tesla's Universal Wall Connectors are designed to work even with EVs from other brands. According to the automaker's website, the wall connector has the capability to add up to 44 miles of range per hour. It's also not exclusively available to big companies like Hilton. Tesla is selling the device for $595, and orders for it will start shipping in October.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-is-installing-20000-chargers-across-hilton-properties-in-north-america-090753306.html?src=rss
There was a time when Walgreens championed Theranos' blood tests and offered them at "wellness centers" in its stores. That was before it came to light that Theranos' tests were faulty, leading to a bitter breakup between the two companies. Now, according to Bloomberg, Walgreens has agreed to pay $44 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by customers who received flawed Theranos blood tests through its centers in Arizona and California.
Lawyers for both sides struck a deal after a US district judge ordered the case to go to trial, and they filed a notice for a tentative settlement back in May. A court still has to approve the proposal, but based on the court filing by the plaintiffs, those customers will receive around double their out-of-pocket damages if the terms remain unaltered.
The lawsuit accused Walgreens of being "willfully blind" to its partnership with Theranos, alleging that it had good reason to be suspicious of the latter's fingerprick testing method. Bloomberg says the plaintiffs' lawyers have acknowledged, however, that Walgreens had a "potent" defense argument when it said that it was also defrauded by the blood-testing company.
Walgreens took Theranos to court in 2016 for a reported $140 million shortly after it formally ended their relationship. They eventually settled the lawsuit in a way that "resolve[d] all claims," but details about that agreement were undisclosed. As for Theranos, well, the company is now dead, with company founder Elizabeth Holmes currently serving time in prison with a scheduled release date of December 29, 2032.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/walgreens-agrees-to-pay-44-million-to-theranos-blood-test-customers-054227666.html?src=rss
The Steam store will soon tell you if a game supports Sony’s DualSense or DualShock controllers. Valve posted an update for developers this week, announcing that the feature would go live in Steam’s store and desktop app starting in October. Valve hints that more controller-friendly features could be on their way to Steam. “This is the first step toward helping players find games that support the most commonly-used PC video game controllers,” the company wrote.
Developers should now see a new questionnaire in Steamworks, Valve’s game creation tools for its ubiquitous digital storefront. The survey lets devs specify whether their game offers full or partial support for Xbox, DualShock and DualSense controllers. Valve says the filters will also display each PlayStation controller’s usage level, helping gamers learn which gamepads people use the most.
Valve
Valve chalks up the decision to rising numbers of players using PlayStation controllers. It says Sony controller usage has grown from 11 percent of sessions in 2018 to 27 percent today. The company adds that, since 2017, over 87 million Steam users have played at least once using a controller. Among that group, 69 percent have used “some version of Xbox controllers,” while the remainder used “a mix of PlayStation controllers, Switch Pro Controllers, and hundreds of other devices.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/steam-will-soon-show-which-games-support-playstation-controllers-213038795.html?src=rss
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have developed an implant, notably as small as a grain of rice, that can test the effects of drugs on a patient’s brain tumor in real-time during surgery. Currently, monitoring the effects of drugs on a brain cancer patient during surgery is limited to intraoperative brain imaging and tissue sampling after a drug has been administered. The technique known as microdialysis currently stands as one of the more minimally invasive sampling options for testing the impact of drugs on brain tumors, but even that requires an entire catheter to be inserted into the patient’s skull cavity.
During development, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital designed the device specifically to help test treatments in patients with brain cancers or gliomas, a type of tumor that originates in the brain or spinal cord. The device is designed to only remain implanted in a patient for about two to three hours while it delivers microdoses of the respective drug that is under observation. It can observe the impact of up to 20 drugs on the market for cancerous tumors, according to the researchers. Once the device is removed (sometime before the surgery ends), the surrounding tissue is returned to the lab for analysis.
In a statement published Wednesday, Pierpaolo Peruzzi, co-principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said that knowing the impact of cancer drugs on these tumors is critical. “We need to be able to understand, early on, which drug works best for any given patient,” he said.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
During the development process, researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital ran a clinical trial to observe the actual impact of the implant on real patients. The study found that none of the patients in the trial experienced any adverse effects. The researchers were able to collect biological data from the devices, such as what molecular changes happened when each drug was administered. While the study demonstrated that the implant could be easily incorporated into surgical practice, the researchers are still determining how the data it can gather should be used to optimize tumor therapy.
The researchers are now conducting another study that focuses on implanting the device through a minimally invasive procedure 72 hours before their main surgery. Advancements in the cancer treatment space continue to expand, with new iterations of drug cocktails and viruses that can fight cancer cells emerging in the biotech space. Implants like the one developed by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital bring scientists one step closer to better being able to use tools and data to provide more personalized care treatment plans for cancer patients.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-experimental-rice-sized-implant-monitors-how-drugs-affect-tumors-210038580.html?src=rss
