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Apple's much-maligned Studio Display webcam gets manual framing
Apple has released a firmware update for its Studio Display to improve its much-maligned 12MP ultrawide webcam.
Signal lets you see more info before you accept a message from a stranger
Signal lets you see a sender's profile before you accept, delete or block a message or call.
Google’s next Wear OS update will bring more speed and a weather app
A Wear OS update rolling out this fall will bring improved performance and a new weather app.
'Madden 21' arrives August 25th with new player controls
EA's 'Madden 21' arrives on PS4, Xbox One and PC on August 25th.
Windows 10 preview adds COVID-19 info to the search box
The latest Windows 10 preview build includes more coronavirus info and Your Phone media controls.
Facebook gives parents more control over Messenger Kids chats
Facebook launched its Messenger Kids app back in 2017, designed to get younger kids on board with digital literacy while giving them a safe space to connect and chat with their friends. It's seen a few security blips since, though, leading senators to question whether Facebook is doing enough to protect kids' privacy. Today, the company appears to have answered that call, as it rolls out a raft of new parental controls and safety features.
Google is testing a global video play/pause button for Chrome
Google could soon add a button to its Chrome browser that would make it possible to pause or play video from any tab. A recent release of Chrome's Canary development version has a new feature called Global Media Controls, as seen by Techdows, ZDNet and others. Once enabled, a play icon will appear next to the URL (beside the bookmark star) if you have a video playing in any tab. By clicking on it, a larger control pops up that lets you pause, play, or skip forward/backward without actually going to the video itself.
Facebook explains how it will comply with the EU's GDPR
After a lot of scandal and a great deal of confusion, Facebook has finally made clear what its privacy settings will look like in the wake of Europe's forthcoming GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation). In a news release, the company said that everyone, no matter where they live, will be asked to review information on the way Facebook uses their data. The options will roll out in Europe first, ahead of GDPR implementation on May 25.
Tesla puts Model 3 Autopilot controls on the steering wheel
Tesla has rectified one of the biggest Model 3 issues that cropped up during early reviews from Engadget and others. Until now, operating key vehicle functions like the Autopilot required tapping on the center display, effectively pulling the driver's eyes off the road. With a new update, however, drivers can adjust the Autopilot's cruise speed and follow distance via the steering wheel scroll buttons.
Bloomberg: Google improving controls for Android app permissions soon
It's always a little concerning when a battery management app needs access to your location and contacts. According to Bloomberg, Google's poised to ease that anxiety by improving control over what apps can access in Android. According to its sources, an update to the operating system -- possibly coming ant Google's I/O event this month -- would allow users to switch off access to things individually, similar to how app management in Facebook works. Features like those described were discovered in Android, hidden, as far back as 2013. If you're using one of Android's most famous forks, you've had them since 2011. Google eventually removed the hidden controls, perhaps to prevent incomplete tools from interfering with apps not primed for the change, but now it seems they're ready for prime time. How will your torch cope without knowing all your friends' names, and where you are? We'll just have to wait and see.
How to make your dumb home smarter without spending a fortune
If you go all out connecting your house, you can end up spending as much upgrading a smart home as it costs to build a dumb one. But you don't need a ton of proprietary gear to pimp your crib with 21st-century tech. Your smartphone and tablet already serve to consolidate your digital life, and they can do the same with your lights, power outlets, air conditioning and nanny cam -- even your door locks and Crock-Pot can be app-controlled, if you so please. Join us below to explore affordable options for your entire home, all of which can be installed yourself.
Roberts on Star Citizen's work-in-progress flight model
If you're keeping up on Star Citizen current events, you probably know that there's been quite a debate brewing amongst the game's backers with respect to the controls and the flight model in the recently released Arena Commander module. Cloud Imperium has heard the feedback, and Chris Roberts has responded with a huge post that clarifies his goals for the game's Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) as well as the flight model going forward. If you're a flight sim fan, you'll likely find it fascinating reading. If not, the primary takeaway is that Roberts and CIG are confident in the direction of the model despite community concerns. As Roberts says, "a portion of our community clearly feels the current flight model is 'wrong.'" "We actually allow for a lot more variation and nuance in flight and combat than a simplified Wing Commander/X-Wing-style flight model," Roberts counters. "Like learning to drive a car really well... it requires some learning. You have to anticipate where you want to be and plan for it." He goes on to explain how most space games use an atmospheric flight baseline with predefined pitch, roll, and yaw rates as well as capped speeds and linear acceleration applied to a simplified mass point. "Star Citizen doesn't do that," he writes. "We model what would be needed on an actual spaceship, including correct application of thrust at the places where the thrusters are attached to the hull of the ship -- in our model moment of inertia, mass changes and counter thrust are very necessary. Star Citizen's physical simulation of spaceflight is based on what would actually happen in space."
The Nexus Telegraph: Preparing for WildStar's launch
When you read this, dear reader, you will be less than two weeks away from early access to WildStar. Unless you've come here just to let everyone know you don't want to play the game, in which case you might want to find slightly more joyous hobbies? Just a thought. The obvious thing to do pre-launch, of course, is to reserve your name, but that didn't work out for everyone so well, and I'm betting that if you were going to do that by now, you would have done it. (Still have a little time if you haven't, though.) What else can you do? Open beta is over. It's just getting into the meat of the game and maybe taking a day or two off of work first, right? Obviously not; there's more stuff you can do to prep yourself for the launch psychologically and otherwise. So step into my metaphorical office, and I'll give you some suggestions about things to do before the game starts and once early access kicks off.
Daily iPhone App: League of Evil 3 stays on the high-quality path
When it comes to virtual controls on a touchscreen, it's hard for developers to pull them off right. Either they're just not responsive enough, or they block the touchscreen, or your finger ends up sliding off of the "touchable" area at just the wrong second. The League of Evil is an example of touch screen controls done right. This game started out as one of the best platformers on the iOS App Store, and it's only gotten better. The latest version, League of Evil 3, just arrived last week. Unfortunately, it doesn't really offer any new moves. You can still jump, wall-jump and double jump as before, and each level has plenty of obstacles to sneak past and a special briefcase to collect. But the graphics have been updated to look better than ever, and if nothing else, this sequel offers over 80 new levels to play through. There are also new ways to watch replays, including ghosts and an Everyplay tie-in. This release also comes with iCloud saves (to track your progress across multiple devices) and a new bit of story told with hand-drawn cutscenes. Plus, the controls are smooth as silk, as you'd imagine. League of Evil 3 is yet another excellent platformer by Ravenous Games, and you can grab it right now for US$1.99.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown now available for iOS
The long-awaited XCOM: Enemy Unknown has finally arrived on the App Store for a premium price of US$19.99. This is Firaxis' turn-based strategy hit from last year (in my opinion, one of the best games of 2012), translated to the iOS platform in full. The controls have been tweaked just a bit to work with the iOS touchscreen, but otherwise this is the full game, featuring a base that you can upgrade at will, soldiers that you can outfit with bleeding-edge technology and terrific turn-based skirmishes against aliens of all kinds. The graphics, I believe, have been slowed down just a bit, and Firaxis does recommend that you use an iPad 4 to play (and they even say to turn off other apps that might take up cycles in the background). So that could be a pain, especially if you have an older device. Still, this is a modern PC game, and we're getting it here in full form on iOS, so it's hard to complain about that. It's nice that this is a full premium release. You spend one price and get all of the game's content with no IAP or freemium twists at all. XCOM is a great game from a company that is well worth supporting.
Stitcher Radio announces a Car Mode, but it's not quite what I want
I use my iPhone a lot to listen to music and podcasts in my car -- I connect it right up to my car stereo, and it's my main listening source while driving around LA. As a result, I really wish there were more options to control my music while driving around. Music- and podcast-streaming app Stitcher has introduced a new feature along these lines they're calling Car Mode, which is basically just a simplified interface with large, clear controls, so you can choose and play your music easily. There are also some other new features added into the app, including a new front page and faster playback. You can download Stitcher Radio for free on the App Store. Unfortunately, this isn't really what I'm looking for -- this layout still requires you to pick up your phone and press buttons to use it, and that means that you'll still have to pull over to the side of the road to choose your music. (Because as we all know, using your cell phone while driving is illegal; just ask the LAPD.) What I'd really like to see from these streaming apps is Siri integration. I often will be driving around and get an urge to listen to a specific song or artist, and it'd be nice to use Siri to say something like, "Siri, play me some Rolling Stones," or "play me 'Bohemian Rhapsody,'" and have it automatically start playing. I'm not sure that's entirely possible just yet, as Apple's API for Siri can be limited for some developers -- at this point, I think about all you can do is open an app. But hopefully that will change soon. The first streaming-audio app to let me start up and control songs in the car with just my voice will definitely have me interested in switching over to it.
Diablo III devs talk about creating console controls
Diablo III, as you (savvy, informed reader that you are) surely know, is being released for the PS3 and PS4 at some point. Bringing the game over to a new platform has been an exciting challenge for the devs, which they discuss in this shiny new dev diary video. The crucial part of porting the experience, they say, is the controller. It acts as your connection to the character and really your agency in the game world. Skip below the cut to hear the devs talk about giving console gamers dodging, a quick equip option, and use of the touchpad.
EVE Evolved: Could EVE use twitch controls?
A few weeks ago, the EVE Online community went nuts for EVR, CCP's exciting new virtual reality dogfighter developed for the upcoming Oculus Rift gaming headset. The game demo was produced by a team of just a handful of developers in just seven weeks using nothing but their spare time, but attendees and press at EVE Fanfest 2013 were nevertheless blown away during test sessions. Though EVR isn't going to be integrated with the EVE universe, Senior Producer Andie Nordgren stated in her Keynote address that CCP will be looking into more immersive flight and combat mechanics for some the game's ships. This comment has sparked a lot of discussion over the possibility of finally getting some direct flight controls in EVE. The lack of direct twitch-based controls in EVE is often cited by gamers as a big part of the reason they can't get into the game. There's no active dodging of missiles, manual ship targeting, or really complex tactical maneuvers in EVE, but that's kind of the point. Most ships in EVE are colossal lumbering hulks more akin to today's seafaring battleships than fighter planes, and combat with them is more a game of strategy and teamwork than a battle of reaction speeds. But that isn't exactly true of all ships; interceptors and fast microwarpdrive frigates move at several kilometres per second and are so agile that pilots can already pull off some interesting tactical maneuvers. So isn't it about time we made the combat for those ships a bit more visceral and immersive? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the fast-paced world of interceptors and explore how twitch controls and weapon aiming could possibly be implemented without killing the server.
Daily iPhone App: House of the Dead Overkill - The Lost Reels is gross but innovative
There are some really excellent apps arriving on the App Store tonight (including Firaxis' great Haunted Hollow), but before we tackle that new crop, I did want to mention this app, released last week by Sega. House of the Dead, if you're not aware, is an arcade shooting game, where you take on a whole haunted house full of zombies and demons with a light gun (and usually a friend, if you're playing in an arcade with quarters). House of the Dead: Overkill was a version of the game that came to Nintendo's Wii system a little while back, and this version, sub-subtitled The Lost Reels, is a revamp of that game, made specifically for iOS devices. Now, this game is gross, and if you've not into gory zombies and bad guys (and girls), then you probably won't get much out of this -- like I said, stay tuned for Haunted Hollow and a few other big releases tonight. But the main reason I wanted to mention this one is that it has one of the best control schemes for a first-person shooter on the App Store I've ever seen. Most FPS games don't end up quite making the jump over to a touchscreen interface without stumbling. There's two routes devs have gone so far: Either they just go all-in on clumsy and not-so-precise virtual controls, or they try something really nuts (Zynga's The Drowning and Industrial Toys' Morning Star are two upcoming FPSes with innovative control schemes). House of the Dead does have a pretty lame virtual control scheme, if you want to try things that way, but the game also has an accelerator-based control scheme, and that one's really fun. You tilt your iDevice around to guide your target, tap to fire, and the whole thing actually feels very intuitive. It's one of the best ways to play a game like this I've ever seen implemented on iOS. Unfortunately, the rest of the game is kind of a mess. To stay under the download size limit, Sega has cut off a lot of the in-game dialogue and cutscenes that made the original Overkill as charming as it was, and while the game costs $4.99, you actually have to buy extra levels and content via in-app purchase -- why Sega chose to do these things the way they did, I have no idea. Honestly, I can't really recommend this one at full price, though it's worth a try for a buck or two. All that said, however, that control scheme is very impressive. If someone can lift that scheme out of this game and put it in a game worth playing, I'd really appreciate that. House of the Dead: Overkill: The Lost Reels is available right now.
Jack Lumber now available on Steam
Jack Lumber is an excellent game that arrived on iOS last year. It's reminiscient of Fruit Ninja, in that you drag your finger around the screen to chop through wood, though I think it's an improvement on Halfbrick's formula -- it's got a more complex meta game, and the mechanic is a little deeper as well (the action slows down when your finger touches the screen, allowing for different types of cuts and slashes). Jack Lumber is still available on iOS, but just in case you'd rather use a mouse than your finger, the game has just arrived on Steam as well. The Steam version will work on your Mac, or on PC or Linux as well, and it's SteamPlay-enabled, so if you buy for one platform you own them all. Currently, the game is on sale for just $5.02, and while there's no new content, the game has been re-tweaked to work with a mouse (though it will also work with a stylus if you'd rather do that). Jack Lumber is a great title, so definitely grab it on Steam if you're interested in that, or just give it a look on iOS if you didn't before. Update: I was wrong -- the game does have a new "Infinitree" mode to play. So go enjoy that!
