Latest News - Page 1623

Facebook doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to privacy, safety, and security. Sometimes errors that Facebook makes impact apps from companies that aren't owned by Facebook. That is precisely what happened with popular iPhone apps like Spotify, Venmo, Tinder, TikTok, DoorDash, and Pinterest this week. All of those apps experienced persistent crashes due to a bug in the Facebook SDK earlier this week.

Reports of the crashes began pouring in around 6:30 PM Eastern on May 6. Facebook has since resolved the issue. A Facebook spokesperson issued a statement that said a new release of Facebook included a change that triggered crashes for some apps using the Facebook iOS SDK. According to the spokesperson, Facebook identified the issue quickly and resolved it.

The Facebook SDK is used by app developers for multiple reasons, including the ability for users to sign on using their Facebook account. The apps that experienced the persistent crash issues were attempting to communicate with Facebook servers and crashing as a result. The apps were reportedly crashing even if users were not logged in to Facebook and didn't have apps made by Facebook installed.

As digital superiority is becoming a foregone conclusion, it's honestly rather embarrassing that we so stubbornly hold on to something so impractical, and by something, I mean physical discs. I love DVDs and have a huge collection. That said, for years, I have to settle for the inconvenience of carrying piles of DVDs around with great care. Therefore, it may not come off as much of a surprise that I can hardly contain my excitement when I come across a perfect DVD to MP4 solution to fit in the new status quo.

If you want to convert your DVDs, you have a few options to choose from. For example, the famous Handbrake may well rule the roost in home DVD converting. Or if you need a specialist who can handle brittle, decade-old discs from various studios, just like me, turn to WinX DVD Ripper, the free but powerful DVD video conversion program for Windows.

First, the DVD ripper accepts almost all the DVDs I throw to it (I'm a big movie fan, so I have a motley crowd of discs). Unlike Handbrake, which requires Libdvdcss to be installed to circumvent CSS used on DVDs, it has no problem reading DVDs with 99 titles, region DVDs, homemade DVDs, damaged & old discs, non-standard DVD, TV series, new releases, etc.

Tile is a company best known for creating small tags that allow users to find things they've lost, such as laptops, bags, and car keys. Tile has announced that it will be collaborating with Intel to bring the Tile "finding power" to PC OEMs. The collaboration means that coming Intel-powered laptop and notebook computers will be findable if misplaced or stolen.

Tile says that the updated Intel solutions are expected to be available later this year for OEM adoption. The technology will allow PC users to find their laptop or notebook even if the device is in sleep mode. Both the Tile and Intel teams are working closely with PC manufacturers to determine the best Tile experience for their customers.

"This collaboration with Tile is an exciting addition to our world-class wireless connectivity solutions. We are always looking for ways to further enhance PC platform experiences and in this case, we enable new capabilities including enhanced security by simplifying device tracking and recovery for both consumer and commercial PCs," said Eric McLaughlin, Vice President, Compute Client Group, General Manager Wireless Solutions Group, Intel.

Capcom plans to start leaning out and trimming the fat from its books with a new digital diet.

Capcom just reported its third straight year of record profits, and digital sales helped spark the milestone. Now that Capcom has had a taste of digital, it wants more. The company confirms it will double-down on digital games in an effort to reduce costs.

The plan is simple: Capcom wants to reduce overall expenses by reducing physical media costs. Selling retail games requires manufacturing costs, shipment costs, and warehouse costs--all of which add up fast. Capcom won't stop selling physical games, and retail games won't simply dry up, but it's making a conscious effort to lean into digital.

Microsoft has gone official with its latest set of headphones called the Surface Headphones 2. They are offered in light gray or matte black colors for $249.99 with the release date set for May 11. The next-generation Surface Headphones support voice, touch, and fingertip controls with 13 levels of active noise cancellation.

The levels of noise cancellation are controlled using a mechanical dial on the left ear cup that can control the noise cancellation between blocking out and being able to hear the outside world. The headphones promise omnisonic sound with volume controlled by the dial on the left side ear cup. Each ear cup has its microphone to ensure clear calls.

Microsoft promises all-day battery life with up to 20 hours of listing per charge and almost an hour of run time with only a five-minute charge. Details on the Surface Headphones 2 were leaked ahead of the official unveiling. The Surface Earbuds were also unveiled and will also launch on May 11 for $199.99. The Surface Earbuds promise a comfortable and stable fit with four anchor points that sit inside the ear to hold them securely. The earbuds come with three sets of interchangeable silicone tips for the perfect size.

Capcom just reported its third consecutive year of record profits, raking in a strong $150 million in net income in FY2019.

Although Capcom only released a few games last fiscal year, its total FY2019 earnings have once again beat expectations for the third year running. The Resident Evil maven generated a total of $767.3 million in net sales, down nearly 20% year-over-year. Capcom says this drop was the result of lower packaged sales in the year, which makes sense considering Monster Hunter: World was the only game Capcom released in FY2019. Less games means less purchases in the critical holiday period. Digital sales of key games helped offset the thin slate.

Operating income and total profits both spiked by over 25%, though. Operating income jumped to $214.7 million, up 25.8% YoY, driven by continued strong monetization in Monster Hunter World as well as digital purchases of hits like Resident Evil 2 Remake (remember, RE3 Remake released in April, outside of the fiscal year cutoff period).

One of the biggest challenges that people around the world face right now due to the coronavirus is helping kids to learn and stay occupied. People without children in the home don't understand how difficult it can be to get any work done with a rambunctious child wanting attention. Another challenge for parents is helping their kids to learn while at the same time trying to focus on their work so they can pay the bills.

Google has a new app that's available for Android users called Read Along by Google: A fun reading app. The app is designed to keep children entertained with short stories and other learning games. The key component of the app is that it has an in-app reading buddy that listens to the young reader as they read aloud and offers assistance when they struggle.

When the young reader does well, they are rewarded with stars. The app is aimed at kids who already have basic knowledge of the alphabet. Google has made the app for offline use without the need for an Internet connection after the initial download. Kids will be greeted with a fun game-like experience that features hundreds of stories and word games available in nine languages.

Here at TweakTown we've hyped up next-gen consoles quite a bit. With the impressive 8-core Zen 2 CPU specs, high-end RDNA-powered Navi 2 GPUs, ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs, and 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, it's hard not to get excited. But it could be a while before we see proof of amazing third-party games running on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

Today's Inside Xbox event drove one point home for me: Developers aren't ready to show off their major next-gen game innovations just yet. And until they are, it might be harder to get totally excited about next-gen.

Every single game shown at the event came with a disclaimer warning consumers that hardware hasn't been finalized, and the footage wasn't actually captured on an Xbox Series X console. "Game and console in development, footage representative of expected Xbox Series X gameplay," reads the disclaimer.

Things changed significantly for iPad Pro users when Apple announced it's very expensive Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 11-inch iPad Pro. The cool thing about those keyboards is that the iPad Pro attaches magnetically and makes it more like a laptop complete with a trackpad. Microsoft has announced that it will be updating Office for iPad with support for the latest iPadOS that brings trackpad and mouse use to the tablet.

Work is reportedly underway right now to update Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications that support trackpad functionality. The updated functionality is expected to ship for the iPad by this fall. With Microsoft saying "by" the fall, it could turn up earlier. No specific date or timing has been announced.

Microsoft has a history of supporting new features on iOS and iPadOS. It was quick in rolling out support for iPad Split View for Outlook on iOS last year. Microsoft also rolled out a new unified Office app for Apple devices earlier this year. That unified app rolled in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other office mobile features into a single app.

Google has announced my updates to its Google Lens app that allows people to be more productive and improve work and learning at home. One of the new features allows users to use Lens for more information on items and objects they see every day in their yard or home. One example Google gives is the ability to use Lens to take a photo of a flower seen on a daily walk to get more information.

One of the coolest new features is that Lens can now allow users to copy handwritten pages directly onto their laptops. When text is selected using Lens, there is an option that can be tapped titled "copy to computer" that allows the text to be pasted onto another signed-in device with Chrome. This is a way to copy handwritten notes for work or school and get them in digital form directly on a computer.

Google does say you have to write neatly, which rules out people with messy handwriting like myself. Both the smartphone used to photograph the text and the computer it's pasted to have to be signed into the same Google account. Lens updates also include the ability to allow Lens to translate words in Spanish, Chinese, and over 100 other languages by simply pointing the camera at the text.

Like every other publisher in the games industry, EA is currently ramping up for next-gen with a slate of new games and IPs.

EA is cooking up something special for next-gen. Madden NFL 21 will lead the charge, but Battlefield 6 will be the main spectacle on a newly revamped Frostbite, followed by Dragon Age 4. But there's also lots of new games in the pipeline, including fresh new IPs. This is a big deal for EA, a company that typically makes the bulk of its billions from annualized sports games like FIFA and Madden.

In its recent FY2020 earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson re-confirms new IPs are indeed on the way and that the upcoming slate is more exciting than ever. Bear in mind these new IPs might be wholly-owned titles, and as such, they'll be gateways to live service monetization. That's EA's bread and butter, after all (EA made $2.8 billion from microtransactions last year, or over half of total revenues).

If your mind wasn't exploded from the latest Rick and Morty episode, then you really need to go and watch it right now. After you have done that, come back here and watch the teaser for the next episode.

The new trailer has been released on the official Rick and Morty Twitter page, and shows that this new episode will be a rip-off the alien universe. Even from the name "Promortyus", we can already see that this next episode will contain numerous alien references, some of which can be seen in the trailer above.

The short clip features Rick and Morty ripping off face-huggers, and then Rick mentions that the last thing he remembers is that he was looking at some "wet egg". We also get a quick glimpse at an alien society, and Rick notices that they have an M&M store. Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 7 will release next this coming Sunday at 11:30 pm ET/PT.

Apple announced its Apple Card in 2019, and now its main competitor Samsung has announced its new Samsung Pay debit card.

The new Samsung Pay debit card was announced in a blog post by Sang Ahn, the vice president and general manager of Samsung Pay in North America. Samsung Pay will be backed by a cash management account, with Samsung teaming with personal finance company SoFi.

Ahn explained that Samsung is making a "mobile-first money management platform". The blog doesn't go into much detail about the money management platform, or what features Samsung Pay will have. Ahn did say that Samsung will unveil more details "in the coming weeks".

Elon Musk and his partner Grimes welcomed their new baby boy into the world on May 4, 2020 -- naming him X Æ A-12 -- but no one in the world knew how to pronounce it... until now.

Musk joined Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience, where they talked about Musk's new son -- X Æ A-12. Musk gave Rogan some advice on how to pronounce X Æ A-12, explaining: "X Ash A 12". The X in his name is just pronounce "X" while the A-12 is pronounced "A 12". Easy... I guess?

During the chat, Musk explained how he and Grimes came up with the name. He said that Grimes "mostly came up with the name". Grimes also tweeted out an explanation on the name, where she said:

Facebook has just announced the first 20 members of its new Oversight Board, which acts as an independent body that approves Facebook policies, helps out with content moderation, and discusses appeals on existing decisions.

The new Oversight Board even has the power to overrule Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but I think we'll have to wait and see how much they "overrule" Zuckerberg going forward. The Next Web reports that the new Oversight Board can "overrule Facebook's upper management in policy decisions and content moderation".

There are over 40 members in the Oversight Board, that come from all sorts of different backgrounds -- and none of them have any direct connection to Facebook. There will be a independently funded trust with $130 million in its kitty, where the board will take in 5-person panels to make final rulings, explaining that "Facebook must implement our decisions, unless implementation could violate the law".

The masters of horror behind Layers of Fear are at it again. This time Bloober Team brings their penchant for strikingly bizarre visuals and mind-bending horror to the spirit realm.

Today Bloober Team announced their new next-gen game The Medium, a new terrorfest that melds otherworldly Zdiszlaw Beksinski weirdness with a distinctly haunting ghost story feel. In the game you play as Marianne, a medium who can see and sense the afterlife, and you're constantly shifting between the ghost plane and the real world--it gets so bad you can't always tell what's real any more. This duality seems to freely ebb and flow, creating a distinct sense of mental disruption that's part of Bloober's signature style. It also reminds a lot of Alan Wake.

The Medium is set in Bloober's home city of Krakow, Poland, and takes place in the late 1990s. Marianne will have flashbacks and time travel to the Communist-ruled Poland in the 1980s via the spirit realm, creating all sorts of unique opportunities for horror. The score is also being composed by Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka, so expect enticing audio and music.

EA just reported strong FY2020 earnings on the backs of surging monetization revenues, and recorded a substantial 198% spike in year-over-year profits thanks to a tax benefit.

EA's FY2020 earnings report is packed with good news gaming's third-biggest publisher. EA managed to pull in $5.5 billion in total earnings during the year and its primarily digitally-driven business safeguarded it from big COVID-19 disruption.

Microtransactions and digital earnings once again stole the show. EA made 88% of its total revenues from digital, and just 12% from physical game sales. The company generated $4.052 billion in digital net bookings in the year, which is per usual. Live services, which includes microtransactions from big games like Apex Legends and FIFA, made $2.78 billion, roughly 68% of digital net bookings.

Scorn, one of the most hauntingly mesmerizing games in recent memory, will skip current-gen consoles. It's only coming to PC and Xbox Series X.

I'm beyond hyped for Scorn, Ebb Software's ultra-bizarre horror fest. It's like stepping into an HR Giger painting. Scorn was originally funded via Kickstarter in 2017 and has been knee-deep in misty weirdness since. This is our first update in a long, long time. And it's a big one.

Ebb confirms Scorn will be a next-gen Xbox Series X exclusive, and it's not coming to PS4 or Xbox One systems. The studio simply doesn't feel current-gen is worth it. And yes, the game is still coming. The developers just don't know when.

It hasn't been very long since Samsung launched its new Galaxy S20 family of smartphones. Despite them having been on the market for only a short time, the rumor mill is already looking to what Samsung will launch next. The device is believed to be called the Galaxy S21, assuming Samsung doesn't throw a curveball again and call the device the S30. Some rumors have surfaced that claim a change is being made to the camera specifications for the Galaxy S21 smartphone.

The rumor suggests that the laser autofocus is being dropped from the feature list. One of the S21 development models reportedly has a 150-megapixel primary sensor, a 64-megapixel telephoto sensor, a 16-megapixel wide-angle sensor, and a 12-megapixel macro sensor. Past rumors have suggested that Samsung was considering removing the time-of-flight sensor starting with the Note 20 expected this year.

However, this Galaxy S21 rumor suggests that the feature is still integrated. Two versions of the smartphone are claimed to be in testing. One of the smartphones reportedly has Optical Image Stabilization for the primary camera, the telephoto sensors, and the front selfie camera. The other unit in testing reportedly has optical image stabilization for the main, telephoto, and wide-angle cameras.

In a recent earnings call, EA said gamers can upgrade current-gen games to next-gen console versions for free. Turns out there's some limitations and fine print attached to that policy, and they hint EA could release two versions of their future games: a current-gen one, and a next-gen copy.

Today EA confirmed Madden NFL 21 would support Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X. That means you get access to the enhanced next-gen version even if you buy it on Xbox One. But there's a catch: The offer, as EA calls it, is only available for a limited time.

A recent press release outlines the details surrounding Madden 21's next-gen free upgrade: "To receive the offer, players must purchase Madden NFL 21 on Xbox One by December 31, 2020 and upgrade to Xbox Series X by March 31, 2021." The entire thing is head-scratching. By 2021, Madden NFL 21 will be obsolete and replaced by another annual NFL game. That's how EA operates.