Tag: tech

Hulu’s May 2024 lineup includes Elvis, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Mask, Cast Away, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Die Hard, Welcome to Wrexham, and more.

The four-pack of the Apple AirTag is available from Walmart with a $19 discount, so you’ll only have to pay $80 for this bundle of reliable Bluetooth trackers.

Looking to sail the ocean blue in Sea of Thieves, but don’t want to assemble a ramshackle crew of scoundrels? These tips will help you best other crews alone.

Starfield, the excellent Digipick puzzle game surrounded by 80 hours of sci-fi mediocrity, is getting a performance update on Xbox Series X that unlocks frame rates above 30 fps. Starfield‘s May update adds the option to target 30 fps, 40 fps, 60 fps or an uncapped frame rate — for displays that support VRR running at 120hz. Displays without VRR will have the choice of 30 fps or 60 fps. 

The May update also includes the ability to prioritize visuals or performance at each frame rate target. Visuals mode means the game will do its best to maintain a high resolution and full detail in lighting, special effects and NPCs, while performance lowers the resolution and clarity of those same details. Of course, both modes adjust the game’s base resolution alongside heavy on-screen action. 

Bethesda recommends performance mode when playing at 60 fps and above. For Xbox Series X players with 120hz VRR displays, Starfield‘s settings now default to 40 fps, prioritizing visuals.

The May 1 display updates bring the Xbox Series X version of Starfield closer to its PC counterpart in terms of customization options. The Xbox Series S edition remains capped at 30 fps. This is the version I played when I reviewed Starfield last year, and while a frame rate upgrade won’t make the game less bland, its combat scenes would definitely benefit from a boost to 40 fps, at least. It’s a shame that the most popular Xbox Series console isn’t seeing any frame rate love in today’s update.

Additionally in the May update, Starfield‘s surface maps have been overhauled in order to increase legibility on all platforms. The new design shows top-down 3D images of terrain, buildings, and objects like trees and rocks, which makes a lot of sense for, you know, a map. The original surface map tries to make landscapes out of white dots on a bright blue background, so this is a welcome improvement. The update also allows players to customize their difficulty options on the ground and in ship battles, and it adds navigation markers to the environment when walking around a planet.

This is Bethesda’s fourth and largest Starfield update since the game came out in September 2023. It’s all scheduled to go live by May 15.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/explore-starfields-barren-planets-at-60-fps-on-xbox-series-x-starting-this-month-185653374.html?src=rss

Sony just announced an interesting feature coming to the PS5 that should streamline the whole process of wrangling people into a multiplayer game. The new tool will let you invite people into a game even when they aren’t at a console or using the PlayStation app. The system generates a link, via the app, that can be shared anywhere online. When the recipient clicks the link, they will be able to hop into a multiplayer session. You don’t even have to be friends. Easy peasy. That sure beats having to send out a lengthy numerical code (side-eyes Nintendo.)

The obvious use case scenario here? You meet some people online via social media and want to jump into a game quickly, without having to pass usernames back and forth. Sony says you’ll be able to “start playing together right away.” The tool will also generate a QR code along with the link, which is something PS5 owners are already familiar with when it comes to multiplayer games. 

There are some caveats. This feature isn’t coming until later in the year and it’s only for PS5 games. Sony also warns that some titles may require an update before everything works seamlessly. Of course, most PS5 games require a PlayStation Plus subscription to use multiplayer, and those subscriptions went up in price last year.

Sony has even developed a custom live widget for multiplayer invites in Discord. When you share a link via Discord, the widget automatically refreshes to show whether or not a multiplayer session is active or not, so you won’t jump into an empty lobby to watch tumbleweeds roll by. Just like the forthcoming invite tool, the Discord widget is only available for PS5 games.

Sony

Finally, the company’s working on a related tool that will let people share their PlayStation Network profile on any messaging or social app by generating a link on the PlayStation app, similar to how the aforementioned feature will work. This is also coming later this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ps5-update-will-let-you-invite-people-to-multiplayer-games-through-your-smartphones-apps-184933903.html?src=rss

Block appears to be squarely in the government’s sights. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York are reportedly probing extensive compliance lapses at the parent company of Square and Cash App. NBC News says a former Block employee has handed over documents to federal authorities, painting a picture of how the company failed to gather required risk-assessment information from customers and subsequently processed illegal transactions.

The documents allegedly show that Block greenlit multiple crypto transactions involving known terrorist organizations. Furthermore, Square reportedly processed thousands of transfers involving nations under economic sanctions. “From the ground up, everything in the compliance section was flawed,” the whistleblower allegedly told NBC News. “It is led by people who should not be in charge of a regulated compliance program.”

Most transactions allegedly involved credit cards, dollar transfers or Bitcoin and weren’t reported to the government as mandated by law. In addition, Block reportedly refused to “correct company processes” when notified of the breaches.

The investigation follows a separate report from NBC News in February highlighting two different whistleblowers who flagged the same issues at Block. They cited “questionable Cash App transactions with entities under sanction by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, operations known to sell personal information and credit card data for illegal purposes, and offshore gambling sites barred to U.S. citizens.”

The practice allegedly spanned multiple years. NBC News says it reviewed around 100 pages of documents from the whistleblower involving people or organizations in countries under US sanctions, including Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Some of them were reportedly from as recent as 2023.

Block

The whistleblower claims Block’s management was aware of the alleged offenses. “It’s my understanding from the documents that compliance lapses were known to Block leadership and the board in recent years,” Edward Siedle, a former SEC attorney representing the whistleblower, told NBC News.

The whistleblower says that, besides senior management, Block’s board was told about the compliance issues. Coincidentally or not, several board members made unexpected exits recently, including former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, who resigned in February, and Sharon Rothstein, who had been on the board since 2022. Block told NBC News that they were leaving to devote more time to other activities and that their exits weren’t “a result of any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.”

Federal authorities have taken a greater interest in modern financial platforms in recent years after at least some of them had become something of a Wild West. Of course, FTX’s fraudulent practices and subsequent collapse led to a seismic decline in the cryptocurrency industry. Although it isn’t clear if the feds have gotten involved, Elon Musk’s X (the husk of what was once Dorsey’s Twitter) reportedly violated US sanctions by accepting blue-check subscription payments from terrorist organizations.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/block-reportedly-greenlit-transactions-involving-terrorist-groups-and-sanctioned-nations-181222712.html?src=rss

The bad news? It’s the beginning of the month, so rent is due. The good news? Sony just revealed the PlayStation Plus games lineup for May, and there are some serious standouts. The lineup includes Ghostrunner 2, Tunic, Destiny 2: Lightfall and EA Sports FC 24. Most of these games are available for both PS4 and PS5, except Ghostrunner 2 which is only for PS5 players.

So let’s start with Ghostrunner 2. It’s a brutally difficult, yet consistently engaging, first-person slasher with a fast-paced traversal mechanic that recalls games like Mirror’s Edge. You will die often, our reviewer died 164 times on one level, and you are likely to love every second of it. Perishing isn’t that big of a deal, as there are checkpoints just about everywhere and you can respawn instantly with the press of a button. It’s also a blast, offering a “satisfying gameplay loop that’s hard to walk away from.”

Tunic is somehow both critically-acclaimed and underrated. This top-down isometric adventure is an absolute gem, with gameplay that brings to mind old-school Zelda adventures. By old-school, we mean really old-school. Tunic is most similar to the very first Zelda game for the NES, as there are no objective markers, no towns filled with cute villagers and not much by way of a story. You are just plopped into the world and tasked with exploring. The puzzles are tough and the combat can be even tougher. It’s nearly as polished as a Nintendo title and the protagonist is a cute fox. What’s not to love?

EA Sports FC 24 is the latest entry in the company’s flagship soccer series. There are more than 19,000 fully licensed players, 700 teams and 30 leagues, including the men’s and women’s UEFA Champions League. This is actually the first time in franchise history in which men and women can be on the pitch together. That’s pretty neat. It features crossplay with Xbox Series X/S, PC and Xbox One.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is an expansion that adds grappling hooks to the game’s arsenal. There’s a new Darkness subclass called the Strand and plenty of updated perks, weapons, armor and more. It’s also set in a neon metropolis, which is a nice change of pace. This was actually the first Destiny 2 expansion released after Sony bought Bungie.

All of these games will be playable on May 7. Ghostrunner 2, Tunic and Destiny 2: Lightfall will be available for download until June 3, and EA Sports FC 24 until June 17. To that end, April’s PS Plus games are about to hit the chopping block. You only have until May 6 to download Immortals of Aveum, Minecraft Legends and Skul: The Hero Slayer.

May includes another treat for PS Plus subscribers. The sidescrolling Metroidvania Animal Well, the first game published by popular YouTuber Dunkey, is a day-one release on May 9. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mays-playstation-plus-games-include-ghostrunner-2-and-the-modern-classic-tunic-172000294.html?src=rss

Nvidia’s ChatRTX local PC data approach to AI chatbots could rid the world of AI training theft.

Repair State can confirm your identity as an iPhone owner without disabling important features like Find My and more.

Phishing, living off the land, and account manipulation were used extensively last year