Tag Archives: author_name|Danny Gallagher

Cruise’s self-driving cabs are coming to Uber next year

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General Motors’ robotaxi service Cruise has inked a multi-year deal with Uber. The deal will let Uber customers hail a Cruise self-driving taxi from their smartphone starting next year, according to TechCrunch. This means that Cruise’s self-driving taxis will be back on roads for the first time since striking a pedestrian in San Francisco in October 2023.

Neither GM nor Uber gave a specific date or city for Uber’s rollout of Cruise’s robotaxis. A spokesperson told the website that the new partnership between Cruise and Uber would follow Cruise’s re-launch of its own driverless taxi service in 2025.

Cruise is currently testing cars with human drivers on roads in Dallas, Phoenix and Houston with plans to expand to more cities. Uber also has a partnership with the self-driving car fleet Waymo that’s currently operating in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Cruise also just reached an agreement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) following an investigation that started in December of 2022 over three rear-end crashes involving its autonomous driving vehicles. The company was under another investigation following an accident in October in San Francisco when one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian who was thrown into its path by a human-driven vehicle and dragged 20 feet causing further injuries.

A third-party report released by Cruise found that executives knew about the incident but failed to disclose it in meetings with city officials and federal agencies. Cruise fired nine of its executives at the end of last year following a probe. The company also agreed to pay a fine to the California Public Utilities Commission allowing Cruise to restart its operations in the state.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/cruises-self-driving-cabs-are-coming-to-uber-next-year-214734509.html?src=rss

A new AI support chatbot is available for hacked YouTube channels

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YouTube added a new AI assistant feature that allows users who have been hacked to recover their accounts and safeguard them from future invasions. An announcement for the new help feature appeared earlier today on Google’s support page for YouTube.

The new “hacked channel assistant,” available on YouTube, will allow “eligible creators” a way to troubleshoot their accounts when they’ve been hacked. The feature can be accessed in the YouTube Help Center.

The assistant will ask a series of questions to help affected users secure their Google login, undo anything the hacker may have done to their channel and secure their channel from further access to hackers. So far, the feature is only available in English and for a select group of “certain creators,” but Google says it’s working to make the features accessible to all YouTube creators.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/a-new-ai-support-chatbot-is-available-for-hacked-youtube-channels-222800979.html?src=rss

Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders makes its gameplay trailer premiere at Gamescom

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Better get out your winter parka and a thermos full of hot cocoa because the hit downhill mountain biking game Lonely Mountains: Downhill is getting a very snowy sequel. Megagon Industries’ released a gameplay trailer with commentary during Gamescom for its new blocky skiing game Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders.

The new downhill racing game will get a Steam release by the end of the year. If it becomes a big enough hit just like the first Lonely game, it could be ported to consoles.

The Lonely Mountains titles are racing games at their core but they aren’t loud and brash. They don’t even have any music. There are times and challenges to beat with rewards like new bikes and new trails and mountains to explore. The game’s real focus is more on the simple, serene experience of riding downhill through beautiful polygonal landscapes at the pace you want to go and finding new paths that can carve seconds off your best times. Just like your therapist always tells you, it’s more about the journey, not just the finish line.

Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders carries that same, simple gaming formula but with some added features. Snow Riders will offer a solo and live multiplayer mode with up to eight other players. The multiplayer matches can also be a simple race to the bottom of the mountain or a cooperative mode in which players must work together to complete certain milestone challenges and work towards getting the highest collective score, according to the trailer commentary.

The new downhill game will also have a special “Zen Mode.” This mode allows you to just go on a ride and explore the different paths on the mountain to uncover shortcuts and other secrets. You can even pause your snow session and just sit and take in the scenery with your block headed rider friend.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lonely-mountains-snow-riders-makes-its-gameplay-trailer-premiere-at-gamescom-210059169.html?src=rss

Starfield update offers a new vehicle and improved framerates for Xbox Series S

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A new Starfield update from Bethesda adds an off-road vehicle called the REV-8 to your garage and higher frame rates for players with a Xbox Series S. Bethesda announced the new features for Starfield on its X page and a new trailer on YouTube.

The REV-8 is a four wheeled, all-terrain beast with all sorts of interesting features for your universe-exploring needs. The new vehicle includes a mounted turret to blow away hostile enemies and a thick layer of armor to keep you safe from unfriendly fire. The REV-8 also has rear boosters for those moments when you need to flee the scene fast and undercarriage boosters to help you glide across chasms and canyons. There’s even a place for Vasco to sit so it can conveniently remind you when you’re driving too fast.

You can pick up your REV-8 from the ship technician. It will also appear near your ship after landing once you’ve purchased it.

The new Starfield update also comes with a bunch of display tweaks for players on the Xbox Series S console. There’s new options for your frame rate target at 30, 40, 60 or “uncapped” fps. If you don’t have a variable refresh rate (VRR) display that can run 120kz, the 30 and 60 fps options are still usable.

The update also allows you to choose between prioritizing visuals and performance in your game while maintaining your selected frame rate. Bethesda recommends making “performance” the priority if you're running 60 fps or higher.

The new graphics update also lets you toggle vertical synchronization (Vsync) on and off in your game. Vsync prevents screen tearing from occurring during the game by syncing the frame of the graphic cards with the refresh rate of the monitor. So if you turn off, you run the risk of screen tearing but it won’t limit your frame rate.

These same features were added to the Xbox Series X version of Starfield back in May. The May update also delivered a new design for surface maps to increase legibility across all of the game’s platforms.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/starfield-update-offers-a-new-vehicle-and-improved-framerates-for-xbox-series-s-182216898.html?src=rss

Fubo wins injunction to delay Disney-Fox-Warner’s live sports streamer Venu

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The sports streaming service Fubo has temporarily fended off a huge financial threat from Disney-Fox-Warner’s potential competitor Venu Sports and its collection of sports broadcasting licenses thanks to a recent court ruling. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York granted Fubo’s request for an injunction in its antitrust case against the joint sports streaming venture and its parent companies.

US District Judge Margaret Garnett wrote in an opinion issued earlier today such a concentrated collection of media power would eliminate consumers’ choices. The launch of Venu would also “hike prices on both consumers and other distributors” and create a “multi-year monopolistic runway” in the sports streaming sector for Disney, Fox and Warner.

“Even if the [joint venture] defendants swear that such price-hiking and competition excluding will not actually occur (though…there is good reason to believe that it will),” the opinion reads, “one purpose of antitrust injunctions is to prevent anticompetitive incentives from forming in the first place so that American consumers do not have to simply take their word for it and hope for the best.”

Garnett also wrote the injunction is needed because of “quintessential harms that money cannot adequately repair” if Fox-Disney-Warner’s Venu Sports moves forward.

Fox-Disney-Warner first announced its plans to launch a live sports streaming channel in February and later revealed the name and price for its Venu Sports streaming service. The joint sports streaming venture will cost viewers $42.99 a month with a seven-day free trial and promises 14 channels of live sporting events with access to ESPN+ and four of its spinoff channels, the Fox network and both of its Fox Sports channels and a handful of Warner Bros. owned cable networks such as TNT and TruTV, according to a press release.

Fubo filed its lawsuit a couple of weeks after Fox-Disney-Warner’s initial announcement. Fubo’s antitrust lawsuit accused the trio of media giants of staging “a years-long campaign” to weaken its sports streaming service. The suit also claimed the joint venture would concentrate too many entities in one service and would hinder competitiveness and jack up prices for viewers and distributors.

The injunction puts a temporary hold on Fox-Disney-Warner’s plans for Venu Sports. Its fate will ultimately be determined by the antitrust case in federal court.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/fubo-wins-injunction-to-delay-disney-fox-warners-live-sports-streamer-venu-215943713.html?src=rss

San Francisco aims to take down AI undressing websites in new lawsuit

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San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced he intended to shut down 16 of the most popular AI “undressing” sites at a press conference on Thursday.

The Verge reported that the City Attorney is accusing these sites of violating federal laws regarding revenge pornography, deepfake pornography and child pornography. Chiu’s office also accused the sites of violating the state of California’s unfair competition law because “the harm they cause to consumers greatly outweighs any benefits associated with those practices,” according to the complaint for injunctive relief filed in a California superior court.

The complaint focuses on a total of 50 defendants Chiu intends to prosecute for operating undressing websites. Some of the defendants’ and websites’ names were redacted but it also publicly identifies a few companies that operate “some of the world’s most popular websites that offer to nudify images of women and girls” such as Sol Ecom located in Florida, Briver in New Mexico and the UK-based Itai Tech Ltd. The only identified defendant in the complaint is Augustin Gribinets of Estonia, who is accused of owning an AI undressing site featuring unconsented images of women and children.

These websites have generated over 200 million visits in a six-month period. The nonconsensual images of women and children on these sites “are used to bully, threaten and humiliate women and girls” as they gain more visitors “and this distressing trend shows no sign of abating,” according to the complaint.

The city’s attorney cites one case in its legal complaint from February in which an AI undressing site generated images of 16 eighth grade students at a California middle school. The incident possibly refers to one that occurred at a Beverly Hills high school in which 16 students were circulating fake nude images of other students. The school district expelled five students for their involvement in disseminating the illicit images, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Deepfake technology has become a major legal concern especially on the federal level. Last month, the US Copyright Office published a report on digital replicas and concluded that “a new law is needed.” Just a few days later, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the NO FAKES Act that would institute a new law protecting individuals from having their voice, face or body recreated with AI without their consent.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/san-francisco-aims-to-take-down-ai-undressing-websites-in-new-lawsuit-185202792.html?src=rss

The adorable building game Tiny Glade is coming to Steam on September 23

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The castle construction game Tiny Glade that’s got the Internet uttering a collective “Awwwww, ain’t that cuuuute?” has a release date. Wholesome Games announced today in a new trailer that Tiny Glade will be released on September 23 on Steam. If you can’t wait that long or just wanna get a head start on your virtual village, a demo is available right now on the game’s Steam page.

Tiny Glade is a sandbox building game that seems to go against the competitive grain of most construction games. City building and construction games are fun, but maintaining a huge, virtual metropolis can get harrowing sometimes. You’re just trying to relax at the end of a hard day by playing a game and before you know it, you’re stressing over things like sewer taxes, industrial zones and giant monster attacks.

Tiny Glade is carving out its own space in the building game genre by eliminating all those annoying municipal obstacles and just letting you build something simply for the joy of building it. You can construct huge towering castles or just an adorable little British hamlet that would look like the perfect setting for an Elizabethan-era love story.

The level of detail that you can control is stunning as well. As you move your cursor to build a brick wall or tiled roof, you can see every individual piece pop out of thin air and gradually pile up into your imaginative creations. Everything you can click in your model village can be altered, added or decorated. There are tools to alter the terrain so you can create hills or smooth out the land and add a pristine pond with lily pads, trees and even wildlife like ducks.

Best of all, you don’t have to worry if your hours of creation are in danger of being sacked and torn down by invading hordes or warring factions. Based on this trailer, it looks like Tiny Glade is the relaxing gaming equivalent of taking a long, warm bath.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-adorable-building-game-tiny-glade-is-coming-to-steam-on-september-23-165958935.html?src=rss

Your Meta headset can now display the output of any HDMI or DisplayPort device

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Our lives are full of screens in this digital age but sometimes you can’t access them or you need a bigger one for your tired eyes. Meta announced a new app called Meta Quest HDMI Link for its Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro headsets that can connect any of your devices with HDMI or DisplayPort and send their output to your VR.

The HDMI Link app is available to download to your headset now from Meta’s App Lab.

HDMI Link lets you watch videos, look at your computer and play games on the headset in your Quest headset from any device with a HDMI or DisplayPort output. You’ll need a UVC and UAC compatible capture card to use the feature and connect it to the device you wish to view and a cable ending in USB-C male to connect the card to your headset.

Wireless options like Quest Air Link or Xbox Cloud Gaming are still available on the Quest headsets and a little easier to use. However, HDMI Link can be useful if you’re in a space where you don’t have access to a solid Wi-Fi connection and can link up to devices that wouldn’t normally play nicely with a Meta Quest headset.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/your-meta-headset-can-now-display-the-output-of-any-hdmi-or-displayport-device-230714344.html?src=rss

Two action movie simulators Action Hero and Vendetta Forever are headed to VR

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The first VR Games Showcase has delivered a deluge of new VR titles like the Arizona Sunshine Remake and Trombone Champ: Unflattened, but two new (and very similar) titles caught my eye: Action Hero and Vendetta Forever. They both appear to be slow motion action games like the brilliant Superhot VR that will let you live out your John Wick firefight fantasies without risking serious bodily injury or your health insurance premiums.

In Fast Travel Games’ Action Hero, you’re an action movie hero starring in a series of five fictional movies including an Indiana Jones-esque Nazi killing adventure, a high tech heist thriller and a Jurassic Park ripoff. Each movie has four different film sequences and you supply all the hot, gun flinging, boulder dodging, raptor punching (yes, you get to punch velociraptors in the face) action. The action moves slow so you can add some style to the scene like firing two high-caliber machine guns at once, pulling off some sweet hand to hand combat and not flinching during powerful explosions.

Vendetta Forever from Meta Space Interactive also puts you in the middle of slow moving action sequences against waves of anonymous enemies. It claims to have an “all-new lo-kill motion mechanic” so you can sidle up to the bad guys or dodge incoming fire like an Olympic gymnast. The style is a little closer to Superhot’s blank canvas scenes but with slightly more detail. 

Vendetta Forever proclaims itself to be an homage to “cult action” movies that are highly stylized and full of heart pumping music and moves like a virtual remake of the PC action sandbox Maximum Action. A demo of the game is available now on Meta’s game store for the Quest 2 and Quest 3.

Action Hero will be available sometime later this year on the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro. Vendetta Forever will be available in October on the PS VR2 as well as the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/two-action-movie-simulators-action-hero-and-vendetta-forever-are-headed-to-vr-214608480.html?src=rss

Arizona Sunshine Remake brings the undead back to VR with enhanced graphics

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It’s only been seven years since the “Fred” started to rise up in the VR zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine, but a remake is already lumbering your way and will land on VR headsets on October 17. Vertigo Games announced the upcoming release of Arizona Sunshine Remake at the first VR Games Showcase. It's slated to come to the Meta Quest 2 and 3, PS VR2 and Steam.

The Arizona Sunshine Remake will feature the same central story and multiplayer modes but with a noticeable graphics update. The zombies look more defined and real in the trailer, with an advanced mutilation system that looks bloody great (pun intended). The remake also comes with all five of the game’s DLC storylines and gameplay modes.

The game puts you in the shoes of an unnamed survivor who treats the presence of zombies the way you’d treat a noisy upstairs neighbor who can’t take a hint. The protagonist calls the shambling ghouls “Fred” as a way to mentally normalize the madness and mayhem unfolding around him as he treks across the titular state, following a radio signal in the hopes of finding other human survivors.

Arizona Sunshine was one of the first big breakout titles in VR that didn’t have a connection to another pop culture property like Marvel Comics or the Batman Arkham games. It came out the same year as other big VR hits like Superhot VR, the first I Expect You to Die puzzle game and Job Simulator. It’s part of a boom time of sorts for VR gaming when the medium was able to find its footing.

Arizona Sunshine is not just a mindless zombie killing machine even if it has multiplayer and endless swarming modes if that’s all you want to do. It’s got a great mix of VR gaming elements with puzzles to solve, strategies to plan as you prepare for a big wave of “Fred” and some genuine tense, immersive moments. It’s everything I always wanted from a zombie apocalypse and the remake sounds like a fun way to play with “Fred” all over again.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/arizona-sunshine-remake-brings-the-undead-back-to-vr-with-enhanced-graphics-194535362.html?src=rss