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Google’s March feature drop finally reaches the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
The Pixel 6's latest update includes Google's March feature drop along with a number of bug fixes and performance improvements.
Square Enix sharpens up Final Fantasy 14's charmingly blocky grapes
The low-poly fruit became a meme when the Endwalker expansion arrived in November.
Apple releases iOS 14.2.1 to fix bugs on iPhone 12 devices
The update resolves issues with MMS messages, hearing devices and the lock screen.
Apple re-approves Hey email app after last week’s standoff
Apple changes its stance and approves Basecamp's Hey iOS app.
Xbox One gamepads are getting updated, again
If you've been experiencing random disconnection with your Xbox One's controller, there may be relief in sight, according to a Major Nelson blog post. The latest preview features another (number three, if we're counting it right) controller update that's supposed to fix "(stability) issues submitted by customers and preview participants." We're not sure if that means it specifically addresses the disconnection problem, but we've asked Microsoft for more info. Meanwhile, the controller will also connect to the Xbox in around two seconds now instead of five, a boon only to the truly impatient. Preview members can get the fix by downloading the console update, then connecting their controller to the console with a USB cable and following the instructions here.
H1Z1 is going 'nuclear' on hackers
From the sound of it, the H1Z1 crew put in some serious overtime during this past weekend. SOE President John Smedley has been posting updates across Reddit, especially in reference to hackers and important patch fixes. Smedley said that the team is "extremely on top of" any hacking going on in the game and will only get better as time goes by. "What we have is extremely robust in terms of detection and prevention," he posted. "Now that we started with detection, you'll be seeing the prevention go nuclear." Patches that are coming soon to the game will cover many vital issues, according to Smedley. These fixes include more loot, frame rate fixes, the infamous G29 problem, the floating arrow bug, and a slower drain rate for hunger and thirst.
RIFT beefs up the minion system
RIFT's new minion system is arguably one of the more popular additions to the game in some time, with players sending out their loyal subjects to bring them back treasures and fame. However, Trion Worlds says it still has work to do, and in a new "State of the Minunion" post, the studio lists a few areas that it's improving with the game's next hotfix. The new Fae Yule minion mission pack, with a series of quests that tell a story, will have some of its minion rewards buffed up with better stats. The hotfix will also tackle a few bugs and add minion-releated achievements. Finally, adventure rewards are being fine-tuned and improved, although it has been difficult for the team to handle this as it has been "an extremely extensive change touching dozens upon dozens of loot tables."
Here's the root cause and a workaround for iOS 8 and Yosemite Wi-Fi issues
You know those pesky slow Wi-Fi issues that have been plaguing iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite? Well, co-founder and CEO of Colorado Springs-based Quantum Metric and all-around good guy Mario Ciabarra appears to have found the root cause and a workaround to keep your Wi-Fi running happily until Apple finally fixes the problem. He wrote up a trending post on Medium titled "WiFried: iOS 8 WiFi Issue" about his find and let us know so we could pass the info along to our readers. I won't go into the deep, dark details -- you should absolutely read Ciabarra's post. But the key points are these: the issue is due to the use of Apple's Wireless Direct Link (AWDL) that's used for AirDrop, AirPlay and gaming connections. To quote Ciabarra, "I'll go out on a limb and say the WiFi issues are because of Apple's choice of using Bonjour over AWDL and that, given the constraints of the WiFi hardware, this will be difficult to get right." Ciabarra has been able to reproduce the WiFi performance issues (see the video below) and even offers a way for readers to reproduce it themselves. The issue can also occur on nearby devices simply by waking an iOS device; doing so causes the device to browse for other devices and advertise itself to them, and that can slow down devices in the near vicinity. The solution is to disable AirDrop and doing AirPlay directly with other devices. Unfortunately, the fix that Ciabarra has created only works on jailbroken iOS devices but allows you to enable and disable your device-to-device Wi-Fi and Apple Wireless Direct Link under the AirDrop settings in Control Center. Hopefully Apple will choose to put this same fix into a future version of iOS 8 so that users who aren't using the features can get full-steam-ahead Wi-Fi. Ciabarra also discovered that this is the same root cause for the issue on Mac OS X Yosemite. Fortunately, you can resolve the Yosemite Wi-Fi issues with a quick Terminal command: sudo ifconfig awdl0 down That will take AirDrop and AWDL down, but hey, you'll have fast Wi-Fi. To restore AirDrop and AWDL, here's what you want to type into Terminal: sudo ifconfig awdl0 up We can only hope that Apple decides to really fix the problem for both iOS and OS X soon, or at least provides a way for users to toggle the services on and off. Many thanks to Mario Ciabarra for digging into the issue and finding a workaround.
iTunes 11.2.2 update released featuring podcast bug fix
Apple has just released iTunes 11.2.2, a seemingly minor update that fixes a bug that's been annoying podcast fans. In the previous version of iTunes, some podcast episodes would unexpectedly download after upgrading. Beyond the podcast fix, the update also brings a few new stability improvements. It's interesting to note that Apple has released three updates for iTunes in the past two weeks alone. iTunes 11.2 introduced enhanced podcast support on May 15, followed by the 11.2.1 update on May 16 that fixed a bug that hid the /users folder. Hopefully this latest update for iTunes doesn't turn off the glowing Apple logo on the front of your MacBook. You can download the update in the Mac App Store.
Western Digital SmartWare software update addresses data loss bug
Western Digital updated its WD SmartWare Macintosh software on Monday to version 1.3.6. This version is compatible with OS X 10.9, 10.8, 10.7, 10.6 and 10.5. When you download and install this new version, it automatically uninstalls the old version. The update addresses a nefarious rare issue in which WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications may cause data loss or cause a "repartition and reformat of their Direct Attached Storage (DAS) devices without customer acknowledgement." On its community board, Western Digital wrote on November 6 that, "A specific set of conditions and timing sequences between the OS and the WD software utilities has to occur to cause this issue." No other bug fixes were listed in the WD SmartWare v1.3.6 Release Notes. Background In late October, Western Digital advised customers via email and their community pages to uninstall their WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications before upgrading to OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital also advised customers who had already installed OS X 10.9 to remove those programs due to reports of data loss or a reformat or repartition of direct-attached storage (DAS) without customer intervention. Related Story on TUAW Western Digital warns customers of Mavericks external hard drive data loss issue. [via Macintouch]
Neverwinter kitchen sink update incoming
Are you singing the open beta blues when it comes to Neverwinter? Nasty bugs or class inconsistencies getting you down? Then cheer up, little soldier, for Cryptic has the cure for what ails you. The studio announced today that it's preparing a "major" update to address issues across the Neverwinter spectrum. While the patch notes for this update will probably be a doozy, here's the gist of it. All five classes will be rebalanced with changes to mechanics, powers, "and pretty much everything else." In addition to all of the class tweaks, the devs have improvements for PvP, queuing, the auction house, the Gateway portal, the UI, game performance, quests, dungeons, and rewards. Kitchen sink patches are a staple of beta and launch period MMOs, so we'll see if this one will shore up the title's weak spots.
Developer won't patch XBLA game because Microsoft would charge 'tens of thousands' of dollars
Seeing as how so much software is moving to online distribution, the significance of this controversy might extend far beyond gaming and XBLA. For now, however, the spotlight is firmly on Microsoft and the way it charges developers for testing their games and patches, after a well-known developer made an unusually public complaint. In a post on its official blog, Polytron said it would not patch a rare game-saving bug in its popular title Fez, because Microsoft would charge it "tens of thousands of dollars to re-certify the game." It added that "had Fez been released on Steam instead of XBLA," the problem would have been fixed "right away" and at no cost to the developer, which strongly hints that it'll jump to another platform as soon as its XBLA exclusivity expires. Responses to the story over at our sister site Joystiq are decidedly mixed, with some folks outraged that Microsoft's high maintenance attitude could hold back improvements in this way while others suspect Polytron of blame-shifting.
Chrome 20 browser released: exclusive 64-bit Linux Flash, fewer MacBook crashes
If your new MacBook is having kernel panics, or you're forced to run a 32-bit browser in Linux because you need Flash, Google's brought relief with version 20 of Chrome. While acting sheepish about "yet another release," the Chrome Blog said "hundreds of bugs" were fixed, including a MacBook resource leak issue which was temporarily patched by disabling some GPU features. Also, Linux users will finally get full 64-bit support for Flash with Adobe's PPAPI "Pepper" version, but since it was made exclusively for Chrome, Penguin users will be stuck with that browser if they want the feature. To get it, check the source after the br... oh, right, background update. Nevermind.
Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone: fixes AirPlay and network bugs, jailbroken already
Plugged your iDevice into an iTunes-equipped machine lately? You should. Apple has just let loose iOS 5.1.1, a seemingly minor point update that actually promises to fix quite a few (potentially) substantial quirks. Coming two months to the day after the iOS 5.1 software update, the extra 0.0.1 is said to improve reliability of the HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut, address bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks and solve a few issues that were affecting AirPlay video playback "in some circumstances." There's also improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List, and Apple has purportedly fixed an issue where 'Unable to purchase' alert could be displayed after successful purchase. Sucked the update down yourself? Let us know how it goes in comments below, and peek the full changelog just after the break. Update: Looks like iOS 5.1.1 has already been jailbroken. Huzzah! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
TomTom releases fix for leap year bug, gets GPS devices back on course
Not long after acknowledging that a leap year bug had borked a handful of its GPS devices, TomTom's releasing a fix to solve the problem. The company says some nav systems had tracking issues beginning March 31st, claiming the intercalary conundrum was mainly caused by a bug in the third-party software. Those whose GPS devices are acting a tad bit confused can head over to the source below, where deets on how to get things back to normal await you. [Thanks, Aryo]
SWTOR pushes out ability delay improvements with promises of more to come
BioWare wants to let you know that Star Wars: The Old Republic is sorry it hasn't been as responsive to your needs lately, and that after weeks of counseling (and back-room coding), its fledgling MMO is prepared to make up with you. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller announced today that the infamous ability delay should be clearing up nicely, thanks to an overnight 1.1.0b patch. He says BioWare didn't want to wait until the next big patch to roll it out, opting to instead deliver it as quickly to players as possible. However, Zoeller also notes that the team "is not done improving combat responsiveness" and has several other tweaks and fixes in the work for patch 1.1.1. Other areas of improvement that BioWare is investigating include UI clarity, making cast bars more accurate, and rectifying timing differences for specific abilities and animations.
SWTOR to get ability delay fixes but no Valor rollback [Updated]
Oh, happy day! BioWare's Georg Zoeller has posted a new entry on the Star Wars: The Old Republic official site addressing the incredibly frustrating ability delay that has had players up in arms. Zoeller states that the team has found a number of issues, including abilities on cooldown being displayed as usable, unreliable instant abilities, and significant input delay in "certain game situations, most notably (but not limited to) fast-paced PvP." The team has worked out the two former bugs and is scheduled to get the respective fixes onto the public test server in the next update. Work on the latter issue is in "the later stage of testing," and the team hopes to be able to roll it out onto the live servers "very soon." Here's to hoping that when Zoeller says soon, he means "soon" and not "soon™." [Update: A second dev blog, this one by BioWare's Jeff Hickman, explains the situation with Ilum PvP and why the team decided not to rollback Valor points in the wake of recent exploits. He does promise that the team will use game metrics to take action against the worst offenders if merited.]
Refresh Roundup: week of January 2, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
SWTOR goes bug hunting with 1.0.2 and prognosticates PvP improvements
With the abundance of bugs and glitches in Star Wars: The Old Republic, fans are looking to James Ohlen's promise of weekly patches to shore up the faults. Yesterday we saw patch 1.0.2 go live with some -- but certainly not all -- of these fixes, as well as an increase in the PvP lockbox rewards and allowing players to emote while mounted. In addition to yesterday's patch, today BioWare plans to roll out an emergency fix to address a few important issues: players crashing to desktop at character select, a problem with the chat channels in which they would stop functioning for some people, and the now-infamous /getdown bug. PvP Lead Gabe Amatangelo also emerged from the BioWare fortress to chat about plans for the future of the game's PvP combat. According to Amatangelo, the team is working on level 50 brackets for warzones, vastly improving open world PvP on Ilum, a new same-faction vs. same-faction warzone, team vs. team queuing, ranked warzone matches, and more. He says that to date, over a million warzone matches have been played, with 39% of those matches played being Huttball and the Empire winning 53% of every match fought.
Refresh Roundup: week of December 26, 2011
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
