Google is feeling the smart home heat. Shortly after Amazon announced its dirt-cheap $50 Blink video doorbell, Nest VP Rishi Chandra announced that Google also has a competing second-generation Nest Doorbell coming next year. And unlike the recently launched battery-powered Nest Doorbell, the new device will be hardwired like the original Nest Hello. That opens the door for 24/7 video recording, something the battery-powered cameras can't handle due to thermal issues (plus you'd likely have to recharge them often).

Chandra also says Google plans to launch a web view for the Home app next year as well, which will allow you to control cameras and other devices from your computer. Honestly, it's a shock Google still hasn't managed to build that, especially when competitors like Arlo and Ring have offered them for years. Google also plans to bring older Nest devices into the Google Home app eventually, but for now, Nest customers will have to juggle between two separate apps.

Bungie split from Activision a long time ago, but that isn't stopping the company from distancing itself from the sexual harassment scandal affecting its former publisher. The Destiny 2 creator is implementing a number of reforms that it hopes will foster diversity and inclusion, prevent harassment and clamp down if abuse takes place. Most notably, it's joining other tech companies in dropping the mandatory arbitration clause in employee agreements. It should be easier for harassment targets to sue and otherwise make their complaints public.

The company has also hired inclusion-oriented leaders, including a Chief People Officer and an as yet unnamed but "deeply experienced" director. Bungie is further reviewing its hiring practices to prevent biased selections, and is adding a third-party anonymous reporting tool (on top of existing options) to reduce the reluctance to flag harassment. CEO Pete Parsons added that half of Bungie's board, and four out of nine executives, were either women or from underrepresented demographics.

Parsons stressed that there was "more that can be done," and that there was no ideal ending. He felt it was important for Bungie to set an example for others, though, and was hopeful the game industry as a whole would improve its practices.

Bungie hasn't faced harassment allegations like Activision, Riot Games or Ubisoft. This appears to be a proactive step rather than a reaction to internal turmoil. All the same, the move illustrates the pressure on developers to rethink their anti-harassment strategies — studios like Bungie want to prevent incidents long before they lead to lawsuits and protests.

Sony's latest big PlayStation sale is underway with discounts on hundreds of games. As the name of the Blockbuster Games sale suggests, you'll be able to save on a ton of major PS4 and PS5 titles. The sale runs until October 13th.

Some Sony exclusives are on the list, including Returnal (which is down from $70 to $49.69), Sackboy: A Big Adventure ($34.79, usually $60), The Last Of Us Part II ($26, saving you $14) and God of War ($10, half off). The deluxe edition of Days Gone ($30) is actually less expensive than the $40 regular version at the minute. 

Third-party titles on sale include Cyberpunk 2077 ($33.49, usually $50), Mortal Kombat 11 (down from $50 to $12.49) and Outriders ($36, typically $60). A bunch of Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed games are included as well. Among them are 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (half off at $30) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which is down 25 percent to $45. 

If you didn't pick up Star Wars: Squadrons when it was in the PlayStation Plus library a while back, you can buy it now for $16 (usually $40). Star Wars: Battlefront II, meanwhile, is 70 percent off at $6.

In some cases, you'll save more if you're a PlayStation Plus member. Speaking of which, Sony has announced the next batch of games subscribers can snag at no extra cost. New tactical shooter Hell Let Loose (PS5), Mortal Kombat X and PGA Tour 2K21 (both PS4) will be available to claim starting on October 5th. Until then, you can add Predator: Hunting Grounds, Overcooked: All You Can Eat! and Hitman 2 to your library.

Twitch might have another way to deter "hate raids" and similar abuse: make it impractical to create a troll account. The livestreaming service has introduced an option that lets streamers and moderators require one-time phone or email verification for chatters. Broadcasters can either require it for everyone or set exemptions based on account age, follow duration or status. A streamer can require verification only for first-timers, for example, or waive the requirement for subscribers and VIPs.

The company will allow as many as five accounts to verify through one phone number for the sake of businesses. However, trolls can't rely on this to evade bans. Twitch will ban every account linked to a phone number if one of them faces a ban, whether it's one channel or across the entire service. You also can't use VOIP or landline numbers

Twitch said it would gauge the impact of verification after launch. It also teased plans for another tool to fight ban evasion in the "coming months."

This might not spook the most determined harassers. They may create new email addresses or borrow phone numbers. It might reduce the dependence on moderators to curb bad behavior, however, and could discourage 'casual' harassment from those who were previously unafraid to lose their accounts. Don't be surprised if you see fewer hit-and-run incidents the next time you're watching a stream.

Compared to what we were driving just a decade ago, today's connected cars and trucks are practically computers on wheels. From content streaming infotainment systems to the background processes that interpret sensor data and power the advanced driver assist features, software has become a fundamental component in modern vehicles. To better manage those countless lines of code, GM announced on Wednesday that it has developed an end-to-end software platform, dubbed Ulfiti (rhymes with "multiply").

GM's latest vehicles already enjoy features like OTA software updates and on-board internet connectivity thanks to the company's Vehicle Intelligence Platform (VIP). the Linux-based Ulfiti is designed to sit on top of that existing architecture and serve as a central hub for select software systems, separating them from the vehicle's core operations. 

"In all of the embedded controllers, we refactored them and extracted the software from the hardware out of them, making them available to our SOA layer," Scott Miller, Vice President of Software Defined Vehicle. at General Motors, said during a recent teleconference. "Basically we're abstracting them and making them available for a powerful hub for all the vehicle's systems."

"Then we're adding this service oriented layer on our high performance computing that we have in the vehicle for infotainment and safety," he continued. "And we're going to organize those abstractions as services."

This will enable GM to more quickly develop and deploy updates, new features and apps to customers. In essence, Ultifi will serve a similar function as Android does on smartphones — an API layer sitting between the underlying hardware and the end user. GM did note that Ultifi will run in conjunction with existing automotive OSes, such as Android Automotive, which GM announced in 2019 it would begin supporting. 

"Android Automotive is a certain subset of functionality in the car," Darryl Harrison, GM's Director of Global Product Development, explained. "Ultifi is more of an umbrella overall strategy. Some vehicles will have Android Automotive and some will have other infotainment apps and services."

In essence, GM wants to treat your vehicle like a rolling smartphone, offering users continuous OTA updates, cloud-based personalization options that drivers can transfer between GM vehicles, and smart home connectivity. The company is also considering pushing out various safety and comfort upgrades through via OTA, such as using the vehicle's onboard cameras to automatically engage the child locks when they detect children in the back seat or remotely closing the vehicle's sunroof if you parked outdoors and the weather forecast calls for rain.  

GM is also considering using Ultifi to offer subscription services to users, such as on-demand Supercruise that drivers can enable on long road trips but cancel once they reach their destination. Ulfiti could also allow for improved V2V (vehicle to vehicle) and V2X (vehicle to everything) applications including near-real time traffic and road hazard updates. Expect to see Ulfiti in select GM vehicles — both internal combustion and EV — starting in 2023.            

You no longer have to point your phone at your computer screen if you want to use Google Lens on your computer. As part of a string of updates, Google has revealed that Lens will be available for Chrome on the desktop in the "coming months." You just have to right-click on a website, choose to search with Lens and select the part of the page you want to examine. After that, you'll get results relating to the content you highlighted. Needless to say, that could be helpful if you're trying to identify an animal or a hot new jacket.

There are some upgrades coming to Lens on your phone. An update in early 2022 will let you ask a question after snapping a photo. If you need to know how to repair a part on your bike, for instance, you'll get results even if you don't know what that part is. The Google app for iPhones, meanwhile, will let you search for products within images.

This is a not-so-subtle effort to boost Google Shopping. You might be more likely to buy apparel or bike parts if you can identify them, after all. Even so, the expansion could make Lens more useful as a general search tool, not just for special circumstances.

There are many places in the world that don't have an address system, which can restrict the opportunities available for people who live and work in those areas. Without an address, you can't get mail or packages, nor can you vote or sign up for bank accounts, for example. Emergency responders can't even find you easily if you don't have an address. Google's open-source Plus Codes system has been around since 2015 to help assign addresses to places, matching a series of letters and numbers to a set of latitude and longitude coordinates.

But, according to Google, "previously, creating addresses for an entire town or village could take years." The company is releasing a new tool today called Address Maker that would make mass generation of these codes easier for governments and organizations. Google said that governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) in Kenya, India, South African and the US are already using Address Maker, "with more partners on the way."

Anyone can enter one of these codes, which look like "P2J5+7C," into Google Maps and see where that place is or get directions. For people who already have existing addresses that are long or complicated, these could be helpful in making sure your contacts find you at the correct spot. If you've ever tried to send a package to an industrial area in a country you're not familiar with, you'll probably find Plus Codes helpful, too.

Google

Address Maker is a free Android app and shorted the previously years-long process to a few weeks, Google said. Based on an animated render, it appears you can outline segments on a map and add addresses for multiple structures within the area at once. You can check out Google's page for more help, especially if you're part of a local government or NGO.

At the start of the year, Google added a feature to its search engine called About This Result. By tapping on the three dots icon located next to most results, the tool allows you to find out more about a website before you navigate to it. With the initial rollout of About This Result, Google displayed information from Wikipedia, and, if that wasn’t available, it pulled what it could from one of its services. The panels also included details about the website like when it was first indexed by the company, and if you could expect a secure connection.

Today, Google is making those panels more robust by adding to the diversity of information they display. To start, in addition to a description from Wikipedia, you’ll see what each website has to say about itself in its own words. You will also see what others have had to say about them — be that through reviews or a simple news article. In the “about the topic” section, Google will include other coverage or results from different sources.

As before, the idea behind the About This Result feature is to save you an extra search when you want to find out more about a website you’re about to visit. Google also sees it as a way to help people make more informed decisions about how they use the internet and provide peace of mind if you’re looking for important information related to important topics. 

Aside from these "Information Literacy features," the company also announced new features coming to its results pages during its Search On event today. They're called Things to Know, Refine This Search, Broaden This Search and Related Topics to its results to make it easier to learn more about different topics. Things To Know, for example, will pull up the basics you'll need to understand a new subject, while refining and broadening your search can help you explore related issues.

Google Search users in the US will see today's expansion roll out over the coming weeks and months.

Google has introduced a wildfire layer for Maps, allowing users around the world to keep a close eye on multiple fires at once. The tech giant says this new feature builds on the wildfire boundary map it rolled out in the US last year and it's meant to help people "make quick, informed decisions during times of emergency." With the layer enabled, users will be able to see the wildfires raging in their location — tapping on any of them will bring up links to emergency websites, helpline numbers and evacuation details provided by local government. 

If available, the tool will also show details about the fire, including its containment, the acres it has already burned and the time that information was last reported. The wildfire layer will start its global rollout to Android devices this week and to iOS devices and PCs in October. While it will display most major fires — the kind that necessitates evacuations — around the world, it'll have the capability to display smaller incidents in the US, thanks to data provided by the National Interagency Fire Center. Google is planning to offer that level of detail in more locations, starting with Australia in the coming months. 

Google

In addition, Google is expanding the information available through its Tree Canopy tool. At the moment, it can only provide data for 15 cities in the US, but it'll be able to show information for 100 cities around the world in 2022. Google's Tree Canopy Insights combines AI capabilities with aerial data to determine the parts of a city with the greatest risk of rapidly rising temperatures. It could help local governments figure out where to plant trees and where to focus any project they may have to fight climate change. Los Angeles authorities, for instance, are already using the tool to help them increase the city's tree canopy by 50 percent by 2028. While Google didn't say which cities are getting access to the tool by next year, it said Guadalajara, London, Sydney and Toronto are in the list.

Folks in the UK looking for a show or movie to stream have even more options at their disposal. IMDb TV is now available in the country.

The free, ad-supported service offers a mix of originals and popular movies and shows from elsewhere, as Variety notes. Alongside IMDB TV's own projects such as Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary, Moment of Truth and Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers, you can watch the likes of Pulp Fiction, Anger Management, The English Patient, Person of Interest, Community and 2 Broke Girls.

You can access IMDb TV through the Prime Video app, even if you aren't an Amazon Prime member. A Fire TV app is on the way in the coming weeks. Standalone IMDb TV apps for Android and iOS hit the US last month, so perhaps they'll be available in the UK later as well.