Have you ever wished you could keep a work meeting going as you leave for home? No? Too bad, you're getting that option regardless. Cisco has introduced seamless transition features that 'help' you continue Webex meetings on your iPhone and through CarPlay. Move to Mobile lets you move a call from the desktop to your iPhone by scanning a QR code, while CarPlay can now continue a meeting the moment you plug your iPhone into your ride.
An update due in August will give you the option to listen to historical Webex recordings. You can catch up on a meeting you missed while you're stuck in traffic, in other words. No matter what meeting you're listening to, you'll see your schedule after the call is over. You can join a meeting directly from CarPlay if you're running late.
There are practical advantages to these updates. If you're a remote worker, you can run errands instead of being locked to your computer. And if you're back to working in the office, you can still leave early when the team holds a last-minute chat. Still, it's difficult to imagine many people getting excited about seamless Webex calls. After all, there's a good chance you consider your car a refuge — you probably don't want work following you on the road.
Microsoft made a lot of western JRPG fans happy on Sunday when it shared it was working with Atlus to bring the Persona series to Xbox Game Pass. Outside of Persona 4 Golden, the franchise’s main entries have been exclusive to PlayStation consoles, limiting their accessibility. The good news is that expansion isn’t limited to Game Pass.
On Monday, Atlus said it would bring Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden andPersona 5 Royalto PlayStation 5. Additionally, P3P and P5R will join P4G on Steam, according to a press release the company shared with Eurogamer. Atlus didn’t announce a release window for the PS5 and Steam versions of those games. P5R heads to Xbox Game Pass on October 21st, with the other two games to follow sometime in 2023.
The expanded availability means a lot more people will have the chance to experience the Persona series. Before Sunday’s announcement, you had to go out of your way to play most of the games in the franchise. For instance, it was previously only possible to play Persona 3 Portable, which originally came out on the PSP in 2009, on PlayStation Vita. Persona 4 Golden, meanwhile, was only available on Vita before its PC release in 2020. As such, a lot of people turned to emulation to check out those games after the mainstream success of Persona 5.
Thank you, Street Fighter 6. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t embarrassed to play a fighting game in front of strangers on the show floor of a video game convention, and it was all because of the updated control scheme in Street Fighter 6. The modern control type adds simplified inputs to Capcom’s storied fighting game franchise, turning button mashing into an effective art. I’ve never felt so capable playing Street Fighter, at home or on a large screen in front of a bunch of gaming nerds.
The modern control type unleashes special moves by pressing a direction and a face button, and simplifies behaviors like throws and the game’s new Drive moves (more on that in a moment), activating them with a single button press. When playing Ryu, it’s possible to Hadoken with just one button. This is the Smash Bros.-style gameplay I’ve personally been trying to shoehorn into Street Fighter titles for years, and man, it feels good.
I tried out Chun-Li, Jamie, Luke and Ryu with the modern control scheme, and threw out special moves and parried attacks so smoothly that at one point, I actually turned up the difficulty settings for my PC counterpart (impressed gasp). I was promptly beaten, but it took three rounds and I put up an actual fight.
Chun-Li is my favorite Street Fighter character – which usually doesn’t end well for her – and in 6 with the modern control type, she feels faster and more powerful than ever. I ended up using her Tensho Kicks move often, charging toward my opponents and pressing triangle to lift them up with a series of spinning feet to the face, but all of her specials came easily and hit hard.
The Drive Gauge is new to Street Fighter 6 and it’s responsible for all of the graffiti-style visuals you see in trailers. In action, Drive abilities feel just as explosive as they look, and the bursts of color they add to fights are eye-catching without being distracting. The Drive Gauge steadily charges while fighting and players can use it to parry, counter, rush into and absorb attacks, and add extra spice to their special moves. That last ability is called Overdrive Art and is a direct replacement for the EX Special Moves from previous Street Fighter games.
Capcom
Not that I could tell you how to access EX Special Moves in previous Street Fighter games off the top of my head – but playing Street Fighter 6 made me feel like, maybe, I’d be able to figure all of it out. The modern control layout is a fantastic entry point for newcomers to the franchise and folks like me, who have historically relied mainly on button mashing and luck. The modern controls helped me slow down and appreciate each move, and made it easier to connect my inputs with the actions on-screen. I feel like I understand Street Fighter a little better now. I might even try out the classic control type when I pick up Street Fighter 6 – in my living room, not a show floor.
Street Fighter 6 is due to come out in 2023 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series consoles and PC via Steam.
Google will allow other advertising intermediaries to run ads on YouTube, according to Reuters. The company currently requires advertisers to use its Ad Manager to place ads on YouTube, which has caught the attention of European Union antitrust officials.
The European Commission opened a probe into Google's ad tech in 2021 after two years of informal consultations. Competition officials also cited concerns about potential restrictions on how rival ad platforms can run YouTube ads and the fact advertisers need to use the Display & Video 360 and Google Ads services. The investigation centers around whether Google, a division of Alphabet, gave itself an unfair advantage in the digital advertising space by limiting the user data that advertisers and rival ad platforms can access.
Reuters reports that Google's concession could help allow it to settle the case and avoid a fine of as much as 10 percent of its global turnover. Alphabet generated revenue of $257 billion in 2021. However, it's believed that Google will need to address other concerns to resolve the investigation.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is also looking into the company's ad tech practices. In the US, senators last month filed a bill with bipartisan support that would break up Google's ad business were it to become law. Engadget has contacted Google for comment.
In 2013, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company was working on 30-minute drone deliveries. At the time, Bezos said the service wouldn’t launch until 2015 at the very earliest. Now, nearly a decade later after that first reveal, Amazon says its Prime Air service is nearly ready.
Starting later this year, the company will begin making drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, Amazon announced in a blog post spotted by The Verge. The pilot program will see the company’s UAVs carry “thousands” of different items directly to the backyards of Amazon customers in the area. “Their feedback about Prime Air, with drones delivering packages in their backyards, will help us create a service that will safely scale to meet the needs of customers everywhere,” Amazon said.
Before the pilot can get underway, Amazon still needs to secure Part 135 certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. On that front, the company is playing catchup with competitors like Walmart and Wing, both of which announced recent expansions to their respective pilots. Amazon also hasn’t said what products it will offer through the service. It’s likely to share those details soon.
According to Amazon, part of the reason it has taken it so long to get Prime Air to this point is the more complex drone service it wants to build. The company notes it has spent much of the last decade developing an “industry-leading” navigation system that will allow its drones to avoid both static and moving objects. Developing that system hasn’t been without its challenges. In 2021, for instance, five of the company’s drones crashed over a four-month period, according to reporting from Bloomberg. But today’s announcement would indicate Amazon is confident enough in the system to begin using it out in the real world.
Microsoft has formally agreed to respect the right of Activision Blizzard workers to unionize in a pact with the Communications Workers of America. The agreement will be applied 60 days after Microsoft closes its acquisition of the video game publisher. The $68.7 billion takeover requires approval from regulators in various markets and is expected to close by the end of June 2023.
“This agreement provides a pathway for Activision Blizzard workers to exercise their democratic rights to organize and collectively bargain after the close of the Microsoft acquisition and establishes a high road framework for employers in the games industry,” CWA president Chris Shelton said in a statement. “Microsoft’s binding commitments will give employees a seat at the table and ensure that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard benefits the company’s workers and the broader video game labor market. The agreement addresses CWA’s previous concerns regarding the acquisition, and, as a result, we support its approval and look forward to working collaboratively with Microsoft after this deal closes.”
The agreement follows Microsoft announcing a set of "principles for employee organizing" earlier this month that did not contain much in the way of actual substance. The CWA pact is legally binding and centers around five core provisions. Microsoft laid those out as follows:
First, Microsoft will take a neutral approach when employees covered by the agreement express interest in joining a union.
Second, covered employees will be able to easily exercise their right to communicate with other employees and union representatives about union membership in a way that encourages information sharing and avoids business disruptions.
Third, employees will have access to an innovative technology-supported and streamlined process for choosing whether to join a union.
Fourth, employees can maintain confidentiality and privacy of that choice if they wish.
Fifth, if a disagreement arises between the CWA and Microsoft under the agreement, the two organizations will work together promptly to reach an agreement and will turn to an expedited arbitration process if they cannot.
“Earlier this month, we announced a set of principles that will guide our approach to labor organizations, and the Activision Blizzard acquisition is our first opportunity to put these principles into practice,” Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith said. “We appreciate CWA’s collaboration in reaching this agreement, and we see today’s partnership as an avenue to innovate and grow together.”
This is huge! Our hard work is paying off. Thanks to Microsoft for committing to neutrality! https://t.co/PadA3cDKFR
— Game Workers Alliance 💙#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) June 13, 2022
Microsoft and the CWA also agreed to explore other forms of collaboration. Among those are "joint opportunities for the US workforce to benefit from new technology and skill building programs that will enhance the country’s competitiveness."
The arrangement formalizes much of Microsoft's rhetoric about Activision Blizzard workers' attempts to organize. Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox chief Phil Spencer reportedly said in an all-hands meeting in late May that "we would absolutely support [an] employees’ organization that’s in place." Microsoft corporate vice president Lisa Tanzi previously said the company "respects Activision Blizzard employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a labor organization and we will honor those decisions.”
Last month, quality assurance workers at Activision studio Raven Software voted to form the first union at a major video games company in North America. Activision Blizzard did not formally challenge the result of the election with the National Labor Relations Board. The company affirmed last week it would enter negotiations with the CWA, which is representing the workers.
Activision Blizzard is bound to conduct good faith negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement, though CEO Bobby Kotick warned that "may take some time to complete." The company, which the CWA hasaccused of union busting, said in April it would hire 1,100 QA workers as permanent employees with higher minimum pay and benefits. However, it did not extend the same offer to the Raven workers who have organized as the Game Workers Alliance.
Microsoft might soon mitigate some of the worst nuisances in video chats. The Vergenotes Microsoft is rolling out AI-based voice quality upgrades that should help every call participant hear each other clearly. New machine learning models can not only cancel echoes, but even reduce the chances of awkward interruptions by eliminating echo-related overlaps. This won't stop rude people from hijacking the conversation, but it might help you raise an important point without completely disrupting someone else's train of thought.
The machine learning technology counters echoes by using a combination of roughly 100,000 simulated rooms and training from 30,000 hours of speech. Microsoft also paid regular Teams users to record their voices to help recognize thousands of different devices. And crucially, the processing happens on your device. This helps Microsoft cut costs, of course, but also makes sure the echo reduction happens quickly and across a wider range of users.
The feature is live now following months of testing. It comes in tandem with a few other upgrades, including AI improvements for bandwidth-limited video calls and optimizations for displaying text. This by itself probably won't make you choose Teams over rivals like Zoom or Google Meet, but it might tip the balance if virtual meetings are commonplace at your workplace.
The situation is this: Plans for the primary launchpad SpaceX wants in Boca Chica, Texas for the upcoming Starship rocket is already facing lengthy regulatory delays (though the review phase is expected to wrap up next week). The Army Corps of Engineers in April also denied the company's application to expand Galveston-area launch site after SpaceX failed to provide required documentation.
The company has also been rapidly constructing a secondary launch pad at its Cape Canaveral facility but those plans are now on hold. The problem is that SpaceX's new Starship launch pad sits just a few hundred feet from NASA's launchpad 39A, you know, the only NASA launch pad currently in existence that SpaceX's Dragon Crew is approved to launch from. Should another Starship — which relies on an mix of liquid nitrogen and methane as fuel that is unfamiliar to regulators — go kablooey, the explosive force and ship shrapnel could damage launch complex 39A. And with no 39A, we have no more crewed missions to the ISS until it gets fixed.
"We all recognize that if you had an early failure like we did on one of the early SpaceX flights, it would be pretty devastating to 39A," Kathy Lueders, NASA's space operations chief, told Reuters.
SpaceX, which has already invested heavily in the construction of its now-paused platform, has offered to try to "harden" pad 39A against the forces imparted by both successful and unsuccessful Starship launches as well as build up launch complex 40, located about 5 miles away, with crew launching capabilities. Both of those options would still require agency approval as well as months if not years of construction to get ready.
This weekend's Xbox and Bethesda showcase was jam-packed with news, trailers, updates and announcements about games that are already on Xbox or coming to the platform over the next year. If you don't have a spare hour and 40 minutes or so to watch the entire event, don't worry. You can catch up on the highlights with our supercut, which runs less than 20 minutes.
Spotify's string of recent acquisitions now includes a potentially huge text-to-speech upgrade. The streaming music service is acquiring Sonantic, a startup that uses AI to produce "stunningly realistic" voices from text. While Spotify didn't divulge its exact plans for the purchase, it teased multiple potential improvements.
Sonantic's tech could provide context for upcoming recommendations even when you aren't looking at your screen, Spotify said. The AI voice platform could also "reduce barriers" for new audio experiences. We'd add that this could help with accessibility. You might have an easier time navigating Spotify without relying on the visual interface.
Spotify didn't say when it expected the deal to close. The move makes sense in light of broader trends, however. Social networks like Instagram and TikTok already use text-to-speech for robotic voiceovers. Meld this with Spotify's TikTok-style discovery feed and the company may have a better chance of reeling in listeners used to finding their tunes on social networks.
