Sony is finally ready to share early details of PlayStation VR2's software experience, not just the hardware. The company has previewed a few key features for its PS5 VR headset, including livestreaming support. If you have a PS5 HD Camera, you can broadcast both gameplay and a view of yourself. As you might guess, that could be helpful for Twitch streamers, YouTubers and others who want to share their PSVR2 footage without relying on capture cards and green screens.
The company also explained how it will handle non-VR content. The PSVR2 headset will offer a 1080p "Cinematic Mode" that displays the PS5 interface and conventional games on a virtual screen at refresh rates between 24Hz and 120Hz. This is a very familiar experience if you've used VR before, but it will still be helpful if you'd rather not remove your headset to change system settings. Native VR content displays at 4,000 x 2040 with a 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate.
Other known features exist primarily to prevent accidents. A "see-through" mode lets you quickly peek at the room to avoid a collision or find your controllers. You can also define a customized play area that will warn if you're too close to the couch or TV. This also isn't a novel concept, but it could prove crucial to apartment dwellers and anyone else with limited space for walk-around VR experiences.
There are still many more unknowns, such as the VR-native interface. Sony has promised that developers will "soon" have access to this latest experience, though, and it has teased upcoming details for the release date and more games. Don't be shocked if you hear considerably more about PSVR2 in the near future.
In 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman revealed the country's plans to build The Line, a smart linear city that will be constructed vertically, have no roads or cars and run purely on renewable energy. Now, the Saudi government has released image renders of what The Line could look like once it's done. The city was designed to only be 200 meters (656 feet) wide, but 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall and 170 kilometers (105 miles) long. It will house multiple communities encased in a glass facade running along the coast and will eventually be able to accommodate up to 9 million residents.
The Line's designers envision a city wherein facilities are just a five-minute walk away from people and where residents can organically bump into each other as they go about their daily errands. While it will have no roads and won't be able to accommodate cars, it will have a high-speed rail for end-to-end transit that will take 20 minutes. It will also rely on a natural ventilation system to make sure residents enjoy the ideal climate all year round.
The Line
The Saudi Crown Prince said in a statement:
"The designs revealed today for the city's vertically layered communities will challenge the traditional flat, horizontal cities and create a model for nature preservation and enhanced human livability. THE LINE will tackle the challenges facing humanity in urban life today and will shine a light on alternative ways to live."
The Line is part of Saudi's $500 billion Neom mega-city project being built in the country's Tabuk Province. It's a divisive initiative that's been beset with controversy from the time it started, because around 20,000 people will be forced to relocate by its construction. The residents facing eviction belong to the Huwaitat indigenous tribe, who can trace their lineage before Saudi was even founded.
According to Al Jazeera, a prominent Huwaitat activist was arrested and imprisoned in 2020 in relation to the tribe's refusal to relocate. Another Huwaitat activist also told the news organization that year that at least 15 other tribe members were abducted and imprisoned. Two of them were reportedly taken after criticizing the Saudi government and the Neom project on social media. In addition, expats recruited to work on the initiative criticized its management for making unrealistic demands and turning a blind eye to discrimination, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The controversies surrounding Neom had compelled Riot Games to quickly go back on its decision to enter a sponsorship agreement with the mega-city project. Neom was supposed to be a main partner for Riot's LEC esports championship in Europe two years ago until backlash from fans caused the company to end the sponsorship deal a mere 24 hours later.
The head of Russia's space program says the country will withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024. It will instead focus on building its own space station as a successor to Mir, Roscosmos administrator Yuri Borisov said, according to the Associated Press. The country made the call at a time of heightened tensions with the West following Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
Russia and its cosmonauts will remain on the ISS for at least next two and a half years in order to fulfill obligations to partners. Earlier this month, NASA and Roscosmos signed an agreement to swap seats on flights to the ISS starting in September. For the time being, NASA astronauts will once more join Soyuz flights, while Russian cosmonauts will travel on SpaceX Crew Dragon trips.
Meta started removing COVID-19 misinformation early into the pandemic, but it's now wondering if it should take a gentler approach. The Facebook owner has asked the Oversight Board for advice on whether or not it should continue its existing coronavirus policies now that the pandemic has "evolved." The company provided multiple options for the Board's consideration, ranging from the status quo through to significantly softer approaches.
The social media giant suggested that it might temporarily stop the immediate removal of false COVID-19 claims and either limit its distribution, submit it to independent fact-checkers or apply labels steering users toward accurate information. Meta was also willing to continue removing at least some misinformation, but said it would stop pulling content when it no longer represents an "imminent risk of harm." The Board would provide guidance on how Meta would make that decision.
Global Affairs President Nick Clegg characterized the advice request as an attempt to strike a balance between "free expression" and safety. The Board's decision would not only help shape that balance, but would aid Meta in responding to future health crises. Clegg noted that Meta had removed 25 million instances of bogus COVID-19 content since the pandemic began, and that it now had resources including its own virus information center as well as guidance from public health authorities.
The Board is also tackling multiple potentially important cases in other areas. A transgender non-binary couple is appealing Instagram's decision to remove two images of (covered-up) nudity despite some moderators determining that the convent didn't violate the site's pornography policies. Meta stood behind its decisions to remove the posts, but the couple said the company didn't provide an adequate answer and shouldn't censor transgender bodies at a time when trans rights and healthcare are under threat.
Another dispute challenges Instagram's decision to remove a video playing a snippet of Chinx (OS)' drill music tune "Secrets Not Safe" after UK law enforcement claimed the rap song's lyrics (referencing a past shooting) could promote real-world harm. A fourth case, meanwhile, concerns an appeal from a Latvian user who allegedly promoted violence with a post accusing Russia of fascism and referencing a poem that called on people to kill fascists.
While all of the cases could have a significant effect on Meta's policies, the possible changes to the firm's COVID-19 misinformation response may draw the most attention. Critics have repeatedly argued that Meta wasn't doing enough to fight misinformation, pointing to evidence that people who lean heavily on Facebook for news are more likely to believe false claims about vaccines and the coronavirus. Meta's request for advice runs counter to that criticism, and could raise fears that misinformation will spread rapidly.
Rollerdrome is essentially the video game version of Rollerball, the fabulous 1975 sci-fi film starring James Caan. In Rollerball, monolithic corporations control society and the least powerful citizens are compelled to compete in lethal roller-skating competitions, in the name of entertainment and classism. (Yes, dystopian fiction existed far before The Hunger Games.) The movie is a slow burn of brutality, odd human rituals and shirts with huge collars, and it’s a brilliant time capsule whose themes remain relevant today.
Rollerdromebuilds a similarly rich, unsettling world through set pieces, costuming and audio cues, pulling a 1970s aesthetic firmly into the 21st century in the process. It takes place in 2030, in a world controlled by massive companies — the Matterhorn corporation is at the center of a new bloodsport called rollerdrome, where participants are challenged to shoot their way through enemies while completing ridiculous roller-skating tricks. Rollerdrome comes from Roll7, the studio behind the skateboarding series OlliOlli — it just has four more wheels and a lot more guns than those games.
I played a preview of Rollerdrome on Steam, using a controller as recommended. The entire game features bold, comic book-style visuals, with the main character wearing a red jumpsuit and striped white helmet, skates on their feet and a handful of firearms at their disposal. It’s a third-person, single-player shooter with environments ranging from abandoned malls to desert canyons, each one lined with ramps, walls, gaps and breakable windows, offering plenty of opportunities for tricks.
Roll7
Tricks are essential to Rollerdrome, and not just because they look and feel super cool. Completing tricks is how you refill ammo, so it’s critical to keep the moves coming. The game supports the classics, like ollies, grinding, flips and grabs, allowing you to spin every which way mid-air to change things up. Roll7’s expertise with fast-moving action is on full display here — it’s fun enough to simply skate along the ramps, building up speed and trying out new tricks, but this is just one aspect of gameplay.
While rolling and flipping through the maps, you have to dodge incoming shots from enemies, manage your health and ammo, and murder every character you see. Killing enemies leaves behind gems of health, there’s a lock-on option for all firearms, and you’re able to slow down time in bursts. All of these factors combine to turn each level into an action movie with a hand-drawn '70s filter: The main character flips in slow-motion high above the battlefield, shooting down a sniper before landing back in real time, dodging missiles and rolling at full speed into another jump. Dramatic scenes like this play out again and again, as the time-slowing ability refills rapidly and completing tricks quickly becomes second nature, in the name of collecting ammo.
Roll7
Enemies have a range of weapons, including sniper rifles, bats, handguns and rockets, while the main character gets firearms like dual-wielded pistols, a shotgun and a grenade launcher. There are tokens hovering around the maps indicating trick challenges, but otherwise each environment is an open, dangerous playground. It’s possible to skate off the edge of platforms and mountainsides, and this results in a time penalty, but it doesn’t stop the round. For the completionists of the world, there are specific time- and skill-based challenges in each level, each one raising your overall score at the end.
Once you start moving in Rollerdrome, there’s no need to continually press forward to accelerate, freeing up the mechanics for turning, dropping, flipping and shooting. Dodging is one of the coolest parts of the game, especially when multiple enemies have you in their sights — incoming fire is displayed by a blue line that turns white when the shot goes off, and timing a dodge perfectly results in a satisfying sound effect and the opportunity for a temporary damage boost. It’s a thrill to dodge, dodge, dodge and then leap into the air, slow down time and take out the people shooting at you, refilling ammo and collecting health in the process. And all the while, an original synth-forward soundtrack keeps the energy high.
There are multiple things to keep track of at any given time in Rollerdrome, but the abundance of stimuli never feels overwhelming. Dying in Rollerdrome isn’t the result of poor design; it’s simply a sign that you dropped focus for a second, forgot to dodge or collect health or do a trick for more ammo. It’s a sign that you should strap on those skates again and give it another go.
Rollerdrome feels endlessly replayable, especially with online leaderboards and a challenge mode for an all-encompassing test of skill. Plus, behind the smooth mechanics and retrofuturistic filter lies a dystopian mystery with themes that (unfortunately) feel right at home in 1970 or 2030.
Rollerdrome is due to hit PlayStation 4, PS5 and Steam on August 16th.
Amazon's smallest smart display is back on sale at one of the best prices we've seen. If you missed the chance to pick up the Echo Show 5 on Prime Day, you can get it now for only $40. That's 53 percent off its normal price and only $5 more than it was during Amazon's two-day shopping event. You're getting the most up-to-date model here, which is the 2021 version with a 2MP camera for video calls. The kids version of the gadget has also been discounted to $50, which is nearly half off its regular rate.
We've recommended the Echo Show 5 many times in the past as a solid, compact smart display that also works well as a smart alarm clock. You may not have a ton of space for another gadget on your desk, nightstand or countertop, but the Show 5 should be able to fit even in the most cramped spaces. It has a 5.5-inch, 960 x 480 resolution display that will show things like weather forecasts, calendar events, photos and more. The 2MP camera can be used to video chat with friends and family, but it can also be used as a makeshift security camera of sorts. When you're out of the house, you can access the camera to check out what's going on in your home. And if you prefer not to use the camera at all, the Show 5 has a built-in camera shutter (along with a mic mute button) to give you more privacy.
We were impressed by the Show 5's audio quality as well. While you won't get as rich sound as you would on a dedicated speaker, the Show 5 pumps out good audio and gets pretty loud, too. If you have the Show 5 on your nightstand, you can use it as a smart alarm clock and make use of the gadget's tap-to-snooze feature, which lets you silence the alarm with just a touch to the top of the device. Ultimately, the Echo Show 5 is one of the most affordable ways to get Alexa into your home when it's on sale like this. It's currently the same price as the Echo Dot, so if you prefer to have a screen to see certain information or to do things like check security camera feeds, follow along with recipe videos and the like, the Echo Show 5 is the better buy.
The Echo Show 5 Kids is essentially the same as the standard smart display, but it comes in fun colors and gives you one year of access to Amazon Kids+. It's the company's subscription service that includes a bunch of child-friendly videos, games, books and more, and a lot of them can be accessed directly on the Show 5. Also, the kids version has more advanced parental controls, so you can set usage limits and bed times, review activity and otherwise keep track of how your child can use the gadget.
If you'd rather skip the display and opt for a gadget with even better sound quality, the full-sized Echo remains on sale for $60. That's a record low and a return to its Prime Day price. It's been one of our favorite smart speakers since it came out in 2020 thanks to its great audio quality, 3.5mm jack for optional input and output, plus its ability to play stereo sound when you pair two of them together.
Coinbase is facing a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into whether it allowed users to trade digital tokens that should have been registered as securities, Bloomberg has reported. Coinbase, involved indirectly in another probe by the SEC and state of New York, recently caught the regulator's eye after expanding the number of tokens it offers for trading.
After taking a conservative approach to listing cryptocurrencies, Coinbase now lets Americans trade more than 150 tokens, according to Bloomberg. If any of those are considered to be securities, it would need to register as an exchange with the SEC. A token is considered to be a security if it involves investors putting up funds for a company in order to profit from the work of its leadership.
Last week, the commission accused a former Coinbase employee of violating insider-trading rules by helping his brother and a friend buy dozens of different types of tokens before they were listed on the platform. Coinbase itself wasn't accused of any wrongdoing, but the SEC said it considered nine of the dozens of digital tokens traded by the men to be securities, including seven listed by the exchange.
In a response by chief legal officer Paul Grewal, Coinbase said that it "does not list securities on the platform. Period." As evidence of that, it said that the US Department of Justice "reviewed the same facts [as the SEC] and chose not to file securities fraud charges against those involved."
Coinbase has previously complained that there's no regulatory framework for digital asset securities. As it happened, the company filed a petition for rule making to clarify those rules just before the SEC filed charges. "Instead of crafting tailored rules in an inclusive and transparent way, the SEC is relying on these types of one-off enforcement actions to try to bring all digital assets into its jurisdiction, even those assets that are not securities," Grewal wrote.
Ahead of its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event in August, Samsung is unveiling a new color variant of the flagship S22 it launched earlier this year. Called "Bora Purple" after the Korean word for purple, the new hue will be available only for the smallest S22, not the Plus and Ultra versions, though Samsung said the color will launch on "exciting new Galaxy devices later this year." You'll be able to buy the Bora S22 on August 10th for the same $800 as the original model, which also comes in violet, green, pink, white and black.
We've seen Samsung launch purple gadgets before, like the "Orchid Gray" Galaxy S8, "Lilac Purple" Galaxy S9 and the lavender Z Flip 3. The S22 series itself is already available in violet, but the Bora edition's contour cut camera housing is color-matched to the rest of the phone, while this part on the older handset is gold.
Samsung's obsession with the color purple is evident in the press release it issued to announce the launch of Bora. "[P]urple is for everyone, whether you’re a global pop sensation, someone with a playful sense of style or a teen who wants to stand out from the crowd," the company wrote. "In that sense, the purple stands for the same things as Samsung Galaxy: embracing diversity, pushing boundaries, and relentlessly innovating under the philosophy of openness."
The company's executive vice president and head of marketing Stephanie Choi also said in the statement “With its pastel and neutral tones, Bora Purple embodies optimism and a sense of calm. It will unfold your world with the power of choice." Choi added “You don’t need to be a K-pop star or a mythical creature to embody mystery or power, you just need to be yourself."
That is all technically true, with or without a purple phone. During my brief hands-on with the new Bora S22, I did not feel like a K-pop star or a mythical creature. I did not feel like I embodied mystery or power. I did not feel more optimistic or calm, though the phone is indeed quite pretty.
We're expecting Samsung to launch five new Galaxy products next month, including the next-generation Z Fold, Z Flip, Watch and Buds. Judging by the hint in today's announcement, it's likely that Bora Purple will be a launch color for these devices.
Sometimes the headline says it all: A chess-playing robot accidentally broke the finger of its seven-year-old opponent during an exhibition match in Moscow. The child apparently moved his piece too soon, and the robot grabbed his finger and squeezed it, resulting in a fracture.
A video shows the robot grabbing the boy's finger and holding it for several seconds before a group of people come to free him.
The boy competed the next day, finishing the tournament. His parents, however, have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor's office. Russian chess official Sergey Smagin downplayed the incident, calling it "a coincidence" and saying the machine was "absolutely safe." Which I’m not sure is true.
The initial line-up of GaNPrime devices: 5 products and a power bank.
Anker has revealed its third-generation gallium nitride (GaN) chargers, barely a year after the previous batch. The company is branding the new line-up of power bricks and portable chargers as GaNPrime. Anker said it worked with several partners to create products that last longer and are more sustainable. It claims GaNPrime is the "most intelligent, most powerful and greenest multi-device charging system ever created."
Its foundries will add 'significant capacity' for MediaTek in North America and Europe.
Intel and MediaTek have formed a strategic partnership to build chips. The aim is to ensure MediaTek has a "more balanced, resilient supply chain," with added capacity in the US and Europe. It looks like Intel won’t be building chips for smartphones but for less glamorous devices used in industrial computing, medical devices and internet-of-things applications.
NFL+ gives you access to live football streams and ad-free library content through the NFL App and the web, starting at $40 per year or $5 per month. Spend $80 per year or $10 per month on NFL+ Premium and you also get ad-free match replays. There are some catches, however. While you'll have live audio for every game regardless of device, live video is only available for live local and primetime games on phones and tablets — you can't use this to watch a playoff run on your TV.
To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Google is… unveiling a new logo. No, no free games or trials, but you can get extra points if you’re signed into the app store’s rewards program. Which apparently exists.
Funko, which is best known for its Pop vinyl figurines, is about to venture into new territory. It's making video games with the help of developer 10:10 Games. The studio is led by Jon Burton, the founder of Traveller's Tales and TT Games. Funko says its first game will have "major third-party studio integration," which probably shouldn't be a big shock given the high-profile licensing deals.
Meta is putting its considerable weight behind the tech industry's push to do away with the leap second. In a post on the company's engineering blog, Meta production engineer Oleg Obleukhov and research scientist Ahmad Byagowi talked about how a leap second can wreak havoc on a network, along with the solution Meta implements to prevent outages and any issues it could cause.
The leap second was introduced back in 1972 as a way to adjust Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and make up for the difference between the International Atomic Time (TAI), which is measured by atomic clocks, and imprecise observed solar time (UT1). They sometimes don't match due to irregularities and slowdown in the Earth's rotation caused by various climate-induced and geological events, such as the melting and refreezing of ice caps on the tallest mountains.
As Obleukhov and Byagowi note, the offset a leap second creates can cause issues all over the industry. In 2012, for instance, it took Reddit out for 40 minutes when the time change confused its servers and locked up its CPUs. A time leap added in 2017 also affected Cloudflare's DNS service.
To prevent unwanted outages, Meta and other tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, use a technique called "smearing." These companies "smear" a leap second by slowing down or speeding up the clock throughout a number of hours. Meta smears a leap second throughout 17 hours, while Google uses a 24-hour smear technique that lasts from noon to noon and encourages everyone to follow suit. That way, a leap second doesn't create any weird time stamps that could throw networks off.
But Meta isn't advocating for the adoption of its smearing technique — its new post's purpose is to lend its voice to the movement that's calling for the leap second's retirement. The body responsible for deciding whether to adjust UTC, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, has added 27 leap seconds since 1972. Meta believes that's enough adjustment for the next millennium.
The company's post comes over a year before the fate of the leap second is decided. Back in 2015, the International Telecommunications Union discussed the leap second at its World Radiocommunication Conference and came to the conclusion that further studies are needed to figure out the impact of dumping it. The union is expected to examine the studies' results and to consider the proposal to retire the leap second at its next conference in 2023.
Meta said in its post:
"Leap second events have caused issues across the industry and continue to present many risks. As an industry, we bump into problems whenever a leap second is introduced. And because it’s such a rare event, it devastates the community every time it happens. With a growing demand for clock precision across all industries, the leap second is now causing more damage than good, resulting in disturbances and outages."
