In February, Meta introduced a feature called Personal Boundary to Horizon Worlds and Venues to combat harassment. The company gave every avatar a bubble with a radius of two virtual feet, making it so that no one could come within four feet of your personal space. At the time, Meta made it so that users could not disable the feature. In response to community feedback, however, the company is now updating the tool to give people more control over it.

Meta

You now have three options that allow you to decide who can get close to your avatar. The app will default to the first one, “On for Non-Friends.” As you can probably guess, this one prevents people who aren’t on your friends list from getting close to your avatar. Then there’s “On for Everyone” and “Off.” The latter option effectively returns your avatar to the standard Meta enforced before introducing Personal Boundary. In some contexts, such as when two people first meet, the software will switch to a more restrictive setting to ensure everyone is safe.

As much as things like groping have become a significant issue in VR social spaces, today’s update would suggest that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for helping people feel safe in virtual reality. Meta acknowledges as much in its latest blog post, noting these new options will make it easier for friends to high-five, first-bump and take selfies while in Horizon Worlds.

Nine months after Apple first showed off the Universal Control feature, it's now available after the company rolled out macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4. The tool, which is in beta, allows you to control a Mac and iPad at the same time with a single keyboard and mouse (or trackpad). You can enter text on either device and drag files between them. Apple initially said Universal Control would be available last fall, but in December it delayed the release until this spring.

Apple has enhanced spatial audio on M1-powered systems as well. Apple Music now has dynamic head tracking support for compatible AirPods. You'll find settings for fixed and head-tracking spatial audio in the Control Center.

You can express yourself in more ways with dozens more emoji. As Emojipedia notes, these include a melting face, troll, disco ball and hands forming the shape of a heart. The handshake emoji now has separate skin tone options for each hand too.

Also new in macOS 12.3 is a less-gendered voice option for Siri, more filters for the Podcasts app, optional notes for saved passwords and (Apple claims) more accurate battery capacity readings. In addition, the macOS update enables Italian and Traditional Chinese translation for webpages in Safari and support for adding, removing and querying tags with Reminders in Shortcuts.

Apple has begun rolling out iOS 15.4. The highly anticipated update adds a handful of features many iPhone users have been waiting to try out since the company first began testing them back in January. Among the most notable is the option to unlock your device while wearing a mask, making it so that you don't need an Apple Watch to unlock your phone without removing a face covering or inputting your passcode. Once you've installed iOS 15.4, you'll need to activate it manually in the Face ID and Passcode section of the Settings menu. iOS 15.4 also comes with a new voice option for Siri.

Apple has also released iPadOS 15.4. It introduces another highly anticipated feature: Universal Control. First announced at WWDC in June and then delayed at the end of the year, it allows you control multiple Macs and iPads with a single keyboard and trackpad or mouse. The two updates also with the 37 new emoji characters introduced as part of Unicode 14.0. That means you can use characters like the "melting face" in your text conversations, and add skin tones to the handshake emoji.     

To download the new updates, launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, then tap "General" followed by Software Update.  

Ford is quickly making good on its promise to go all-electric in Europe. The company now plans to introduce seven new EVs in Europe by 2024. The lineup will focus on crossovers, including an electric version of the compact Puma as well as a five-seat "medium-size" and "sport" models. You can also expect new editions of the Transit and Tourneo vans, including smaller Courier trims as well as Custom models.

The medium crossover will be the first mass-produced passenger EV from Ford's new Cologne facility and will include five seats and a claimed 310-mile range. Ford will formally reveal the vehicle later this year and start production in 2023.

The Transit Custom and Tourneo Custom are also slated to arrive in 2023, while the Puma, the sport crossover, the Transit Courier and the Tourneo Courier are due in 2024. The Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit are already part of Ford's European lineup. Ford hopes to move to an all-EV passenger range in Europe by 2030, and to completely eliminate gas and diesel from its stable by 2035.

This still leaves much of Ford's lineup dependent on combustion engines, and we wouldn't expect most (if any) of the roster to reach the US — the Puma hasn't ever been sold in the country, for instance. However, the strategy isn't surprising. Ford says the Puma is its best-selling passenger vehicle in Europe, and vans like the Transit are very common among European businesses. This roadmap fully electrifies some of Ford's best-known models in the continent, and even the completely new crossovers will tackle popular segments. Ford clearly wants its EVs to be seen as mainstream models, not to mention compete against the VW ID.Buzz (which will come in a Europe-focused cargo variant) and other rivals.

Borderlands spin-off Tiny Tina's Wonderlands will be released on March 25th and, in a first for the franchise, it will have full cross-play support. Those on PC, Xbox and PlayStation will all be able to play the fantasy-themed shooter together, Gearbox Entertainment CEO Randy Pitchford confirmed on Twitter.

Gearbox added cross-platform support to Borderlands 3 in 2021, two years after that game debuted. Although PC, Mac, Xbox and Stadia gamers can join forces in the looter shooter, PlayStation users are locked out of cross-play for now. Publisher 2K Games told Gearbox to remove cross-platform support from PlayStation updates to get certification, Pitchford said at the time. However, that could be about to change. Pitchford now seesBorderlands 3 cross-play support on PS4 and PS5 as "inevitable" and said more details will be announced later.

Many games have adopted cross-play across all platforms over the last few years after Epic Games helped pave the way with Fortnite. Developers of older titles have added cross-play as well — Ubisoft will roll out the feature in For Honor this week, a month after the game's fifth anniversary.

Months after announcing their purposed $43 billion merger, WarnerMedia and Discovery have answered what will happen to HBO Max and Discovery Plus once they form the imaginatively named Warner Bros. Discovery. Per Variety, Discovery chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said during a recent panel at the 30th Annual Media, Internet and Telecom Conference that the company plans to combine the two platforms into one unified streaming service.

“One of the most important items here is that we believe in a combined product as opposed to a bundle,” he said. “We believe that the breadth and depth of this content offering is going to be a phenomenal consumer value proposition.”

Merging the two platforms is something Wiedenfels said he expects will take a few months for Warner Bros. Discovery to “do it in a way that’s actually a great user experience for our subscribers.” In the meantime, HBO Max and Discovery Plus customers should expect at least some form of bundling. 

Wiedenfels suggested that could take the form of content sharing between the two platforms and the introduction of a single sign-on. One question the executive didn’t answer is how much it will cost to subscribe to the new combined service. Discovery Plus and HBO Max currently start at $5 and $10 per month, with both platforms offering more expensive ad-free tiers.

It’s not surprising to learn that Discovery and TimeWarner plan to unify their streaming platforms. When the merger was first announced last year, it was positioned as a move that would make the two companies better able to compete with Netflix, Disney+ and other rivals.

You'll soon get more than just a cursory look at Hogwarts Legacy. Sony and WB Games Avalanche have announced a State of Play stream on March 17th devoted solely to the open-world Harry Potter RPG. The 20-minute presentation will finally share more details for the title, including 14 minutes of PlayStation 5 gameplay. The stream starts at 5PM Eastern on PlayStation's Twitch and YouTube channels.

Hogwarts Legacy was originally slated to arrive in 2021 before the developers pushed the release to sometime this year. The game has you create a wizard who perfects spells, tames beasts (of the fantastic variety, of course) and otherwise explores Hogwarts in the 1800s, long before Harry and many other well-known characters rose to prominence. The game will also be available for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.

The single-game focus isn't a shock. Avalanche is keen to note people have viewed the Hogwarts Legacy debut trailer over 28 million times — there's clearly a lot of demand between Harry Potter fans and the gaming community at large. The State of Play could help Sony tap into that demand and spur more PlayStation sales.

Blue Origin's next crewed spaceflight is scheduled for March 23rd and, as reports suggested, Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson will be one of the passengers. It will be New Shepard's fourth flight with humans on board and its 20th overall.

The other passengers include SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle and her husband, Marc Hagle, CEO of real estate developer Tricor International. Angel investor and former Party America CEO Marty Allen, University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen and Commercial Space Technologies president Dr. George Nield are also taking the trip.

All of Blue Origin's previous crewed flights had a familiar face or two. Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and aviation pioneer Wally Funk were on the maiden trip last July. William Shatner took the record from Funk as the oldest person to reach space at 90 years old on the second flight. Good Morning America host Michael Strahan was on the third launch.

Riot Games has worked closely with Arcane animation studio Fortiche for years, and now the two are cementing their creative union. Riot has made an equity investment giving it a "significant" but non-controlling stake in Fortiche. It has also added two leaders, Chief Content Officer Brian Wright and Director of Corporate Development Brendan Mulligan, to Fortiche's board of directors.

The game developer didn't reveal the exact value or timing of the investment. The deal closed sometime "earlier this year," according to Riot.

You may have seen this coming. Riot and Fortiche first worked together on the 2013 video introducing Jinx to League of Legends, and they've collaborated on projects including K/DA's "Popstars," two Imagine Dragons team-ups and the music video for the 2018 LoL World Championship anthem "Rise." Throw in the success that prompted work on a second season of Arcane (the first season topped global Netflix charts for three weeks) and it's clear the two companies thrive on each other's successes.

Neither firm detailed just how the investment would help. However, Fortiche is partnering with Riot on "other to-be-announced projects" on top of more Arcane. The extra money could help Fortiche bring those efforts to fruition and give Riot more opportunities to promote its games — whatever Riot spends now could pay dividends with more players and esports viewers.

If you missed the sale last month, you have another opportunity to get Apple's AirPods Max for $100 less than usual. The green models are back on sale for $449, which is only $20 more than their record low. While still on the high end, a $100 discount isn't anything to scoff at — especially if you want a pair of headphones that will work seamlessly with the rest of your Apple devices.

It goes without saying that AirPods Max are really only a viable option for those that live in the Apple ecosystem, as you'll lose some of their key features if you're using them with an Android or Windows device. They have excellent sound quality with Adaptive EQ and spatial audio support, plus solid ANC that blocks out most surrounding noise. Onboard controls are reliable as well — there's a rotating crown that adjusts the volume, and a button dedicated to switching between ANC and Transparency mode.

The AirPods Max have Apple's H1 chip inside, which allows them to pair and switch between Apple devices easily, and enables things like hands-free Siri access. These will be some of the most convenient cans to get if you often go from listening to music on your Mac to taking calls from your iPhone. While there are comparable headphones out there for less — like Sony's WH-1000XM4 — the AirPods Max will be most enticing for those who already have a lot of Apple products and want the best sound headphones possible that also integrate seamlessly with the rest of their setup.

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