Tag: tech

Microsoft has made it clear that any PC not meeting the required specifications will be ineligible to run Windows 11.

We can expect a new iPhone in just a matter of months with an iPhone SE 4. Here’s why it’s likely going to be a bigger deal than you think.

There’s a huge gap between serious racers like Gran Turismo and arcade-style stuff like Mario Kart. That’s where the soon-to-be-released My First Gran Turismo comes in. This is a streamlined version of the iconic Sony racing game that’s intended “for those who have yet to experience Gran Turismo.” The free-to-play title launches for both PS4 and PS5 on December 6.

Sony promises that the game is perfect for anyone aged “7 to 77.” I’m not sure what my 78-year-old dad would say about that, but whatever. There’s a trailer to help folks get the gist, which shows off a selection of real-world vehicles and graphics that don’t stray too far from the mainline games. It looks pretty fun.

All told, there are 18 cars to choose from and three tracks to race around. For comparison, the most-recent entry Gran Turismo 7 includes more than 400 vehicles and around 40 dedicated tracks. It’s also a full-priced game, though likely on sale for the holidays, whereas My First Gran Turismo is free as a bird.

The cars in this kid-friendly version have Mario Kart-style charts to show off various specs and there’s a nifty game mode called Music Rally. This makes players race along to the beat of a song. Other modes include time trials and license tests.

Sony

Finally, there’s PSVR 2 support for PS5, bringing the whole experience into virtual reality. Racing in VR is super fun, but remember to take copious breaks to avoid the dreaded nausea fairy.

This launch is part of PlayStation’s wider 30th anniversary celebration. The company released some retro-looking hardware, which sold out in no time, and digital themes from past console iterations. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-free-to-play-my-first-gran-turismo-comes-to-ps4-and-ps5-on-december-6-172344125.html?src=rss

OpenAI will start announcing new features and demos tomorrow for 12 days through livestreams. Sources familiar with the matter told The Verge that these new products will allegedly include OpenAI’s long-awaited text-to-video tool, Sora, and a new reasoning model.

The announcement for “12 Days of OpenAI”, as the company puts it, was made public on X yesterday. The first livestream will broadcast tomorrow, but the announcements themselves remain unconfirmed That said, in addition to the sources that spoke more recently with The Verge, the Wall Street Journal previously reported Sora was likely to come out before the end of 2024.

Sora was revealed early this year, and shared with a small group of testers. But 20 or so of those artists leaked the model to the public in protest of “unpaid labor,” The Washington Post reported. OpenAI has broadly been the subject of criticism regarding the provenance of data supporting its language models, and Sora has been no different. The company has yet to directly address if Sora has scraped public YouTube videos — something that YouTube’s CEO has said would be a breach of the platform’s terms of service.

OpenAI isn’t the only company working on text-to-video models. Google’s Veo is now available to Google Vertex AI users via private review. It was announced three months after Sora’s February unveiling.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-may-launch-sora-its-text-to-video-model-very-soon-171434280.html?src=rss

Washington, DC’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing Amazon for allegedly excluding certain ZIP codes from enjoying Amazon Prime’s speedy delivery. Schwalb claims that, beginning in 2022, Amazon stopped using its in-house delivery systems for Wards 7 and 8 while still charging those customers the same amount for a Prime subscription. According to Census Reporter, Ward 7 and Ward 8 are 83 percent and 82 percent Black, respectively.

According to the suit, instead of using its own trucks, Amazon relied on UPS and USPS carriers to make deliveries — a decision that resulted in longer delivery times. Only 24 percent of packages to these Wards were delivered within two days. Schwalb also alleged that Amazon didn’t notify any Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents about these changes.

Worryingly, this isn’t the first time Amazon has been called out for excluding majority-Black neighborhoods from the full benefits of a Prime membership. A damning 2016 report in Bloomberg indicated the practice was common across several metro areas. Amazon has since provided Prime Free Same-Day Delivery to Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, Chicago’s South Side and the Bronx in New York City.

Update, December 4 2024, 12:03PM ET: Amazon provided the following statement to Engadget: 

The claims made by the Attorney General, that our business practices are somehow discriminatory or deceptive, are categorically false. We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first. In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers. And we’re always transparent with customers during the shopping journey and checkout process about when, exactly, they can expect their orders to arrive. What we’d like to do, and have offered, is to work together with the Attorney General and their office in an effort to reduce crime and improve safety in these areas. Nevertheless, we will proceed in the process and demonstrate that providing fast and accurate delivery times and prioritizing the safety of customers and delivery partners are not mutually exclusive.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-sued-for-alleged-prime-delivery-disparities-in-two-majority-black-dc-neighborhoods-150049496.html?src=rss

As Rust Cohle famously put it in HBO’s True Detective, “Time is a flat circle.” So it’s maybe not a huge surprise that Max is the latest service to bring cable-style linear channels to a premium streaming service.

It’s starting to test such channels in the US. Some ad-free subscribers will see a Channels option on the homepage of adult profiles. This will take you to a selection of 24/7 feeds of HBO programming, including HBO and HBO 2 simulcasts. Other channels will showcase prestige drama, comedy and classic HBO shows, movies and documentaries.

The channels work pretty much like any linear TV network in the modern age. You can restart shows, rewind and fast-forward. On select devices, you’ll be able to switch between channels directly in the player, without having to go back to the channels hub.

This initial rollout lays the groundwork for more themed channels, which will start arriving next year. According to The Verge, Max may even offer personalized streaming channels down the road.

These channels could help you avoid wasting time instead of scrolling through Max while figuring out what to watch. If you’re in the mood to laugh, maybe just turn on HBO Comedy. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will surely be hoping that channels increase engagement and keep people using the streaming service. After all, lots of folks simply switch on the likes of CBS because they want to watch something and they trust the network’s brand enough to deliver a show that suits them.

Max already offers linear channels in Europe. Crave, a Canadian streaming service that has exclusive rights to the HBO library in that market, offers HBO and HBO 2 simulcasts as well. WBD notably pulled shows including Westworld and The Nevers from Max a couple of years ago. Roku and Tubi now offer free, ad-supported channels featuring HBO shows and other WBD programming.

Rivals also have their own linear channels, including Disney+, Paramount+ and Peacock. Amazon, meanwhile, is shutting down Freevee and moving its programming to Prime Video.

As if it weren’t already evident enough that media conglomerates are trying to bring back the heady success that cable saw for decades, they’re teaming up with each other through streaming bundles. One gets you Max, Disney+ and Hulu for $30 per month, while Comcast offers a package of Netflix, Peacock and Apple TV+ for $15 per month.

Saving you money (compared with subscribing to these services separately) while dumping a ton of programming you don’t care about into your lap? This is all really just cable 2.0.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/streaming-is-just-tv-all-over-again-165115834.html?src=rss

Google has begun rolling out private access to its Veo and Imagen 3 generative AI models. Starting today, customers of the company’s Vertex AI Google Cloud package can begin using Veo to generate videos from text prompts and images. Then, as of next week, Google will make Imagen 3, its latest text-to-image framework, available to those same users.

With Veo’s rollout, Google says it’s the first hyperscale cloud provider to offer an image-to-video model. To that point, OpenAI’s Sora model is still only available to select artists, academics and researchers — though that could change quickly with the company teasing 12 days of product demos starting December 5.  

Of Veo, Google says the model creates 1080p footage “that’s consistent and coherent” and can run “beyond a minute.” The tool is also capable of working with both text prompts and images. In the latter case, it’s possible to use either AI-generated or human-made pictures as the starting point for a video.

Looking at the sample footage Google shared, it’s evident Veo, like all AI models, can struggle with cause and effect. For example, in the clip of the roasting marshmallows, the treats don’t yellow and char as they’re exposed to the heat of a campfire flame. Artifacting is also an issue, as is apparent if you look closely at the hands in the concert footage.

Google

As for Imagen 3, Google says the model generates “the most realistic and highest quality images from simple text prompts, surpassing previous versions of Imagen in detail, lighting, and artifact reduction.” Here again, however, you don’t have to look too closely to see Google has more work to do. 

In the first example of a group of friends sitting on the trunk of a car, the original prompt includes mention of “flash photography,” but the subjects are clearly backlit. One could argue that a flash was used to create intense backlighting, but if the idea behind the prompt was to create something representative of flash photography from the 1960s, this image isn’t it.

Still, Google is keen to get more of its enterprise customers using generative AI. Citing its own research, the tech giant says among companies using generative AI in production, 86 percent report an increase in revenue. However, a recent Appen survey found return on investment from AI projects fell by 4.6 percentage points from 2023 to 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-generative-ai-video-model-is-available-in-private-preview-160055983.html?src=rss

I don’t know about you but I plan to spend the next three months tucked away watching movies, reading books and playing games under a warm blanket. Black Friday and Cyber Monday might have come and gone, but there are still plenty of worthwhile deals out there that I will be perusing in pursuit of my gaming goals.

If you have the same idea then let me point you toward a great sale currently on: The three month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is down to $29 from $50 on Woot. The deal comes courtesy of a 32 percent discount and an additional $5 off at checkout with the code GAMEPASS. The Xbox Game Pass is one of our favorite Xbox accessories and comes as a digital code. 

The Xbox Game Pass is a good deal with or without a sale (though we’ll take the discount happily). It gives you access to hundreds of Xbox and PC games. You can play games the day they come out and play online multiplayer through your PC, Xbox or the cloud. The sale is on for ten days or until Woot runs out of stock. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/three-months-of-xbox-game-pass-ultimate-is-on-sale-for-29-right-now-143059157.html?src=rss

We’re live in Las Vegas, and ready for AWS re:Invent 2024 day two.

Popular tech educator died in his office within hours of claiming retaliation for filing NCSU ethics reports.