Call of Duty developers are turning to increasingly creative ways to discourage cheaters in online matches. Eurogamernotes Activision is rolling out its kernel-level RICOCHET anti-cheat system to Call of Duty: Vanguard, and has simultaneously revealed that the countermeasure punishes cheaters with “Cloaking.” Any detected cheaters will find themselves unable to see or hear opponents, even down to incoming bullets. They’ll be the ones at a disadvantage — and, hopefully, frustrated enough to leave the game.
Cloaking joins other “mitigations” for cheaters that include Damage Shield, which prevents cheaters from landing critical damage on rivals. Activision also made clear that anyone banned for cheating will be removed from the leaderboard for a given game, and that it bans users both daily and in waves. Its most recent crackdown culled 54,000 accounts.
RICOCHET reached the multiplayer-only Warzone in 2021. Unlike the anti-cheat technology in Valorant, the kernel-level driver for Call of Duty titles is only active while those games are running. That theoretically minimizes vulnerabilities and potential problems with other software.
Anti-cheating measures like Cloaking aren’t guaranteed to work. Provided RICOCHET spots a cheater in the first place, it also assumes their hacks can’t auto-detect enemies. This nonetheless makes it harder for cheaters to prosper, and might be enough to discourage all but the most determined spoil-sports.
Amazon will permanently allow warehouse employees to keep their cellphones with them at work after temporarily permitting them during the pandemic, Vice has reported. “We recognize the desire for employees to keep their mobile phones with them inside facilities, and the last two years have demonstrated that we can safely do so,” an internal message seen by Motherboard stated. “Therefore, we are making the temporary phone policy permanent worldwide, in all of our operations facilities.”
Amazon planned to reinstate the mobile device ban following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when its Edwardsville, Illinois warehouse collapsed in a tornado, killing six people, angry associates demanded permanent cellphone access for safety reasons. They delivered a petition to six Amazon warehouses in December, saying “taking our phones away isn’t about safety, it’s about controlling us.” Workers who voted to unionize at Amazon’s Staten Island facility also made cell phone access a key demand.
Amazon subsequently backtracked on the idea “until further notice,” and has now permanently removed the ban. Meanwhile, 1,500 workers at another Staten Island warehouse are voting on whether or not to unionize, with the vote counting set to start on May 2nd. Amazon avoided penalties in the warehouse collapse, but the US safety watchdog OSHA asked the company to review its procedures after discovering issues with its Emergency Action Plan (EAP).
As it prepares itself for the possibility of becoming wholly owned by Elon Musk, Twitter is today revealing that it previously overstated its user figures between 2019 and 2021. In its newest financial reports, the platform says that users with multipl…
You can grab the newly launched 2022 Apple iPad Air for just $559 right now. While the device dropped to as low as $550 on Amazon for a grand total of eight hours last week, this latest deal shaves $40 off its retail price of $599. That’s a decent discount for a device that only became available in March. The catch is that only the purple version is on sale for $559, though you can still get the other colors for $20 less than retail at $570.
The 2022 iPad Air gets a huge performance boost over its predecessor from its M1 chip, which also powers the tech giant’s Mac computers and the considerably more expensive iPad Pro. We gave it a score of 90 in our review, mostly thanks to how significantly faster it is at both single- and multi-core tasks than the previous versions of the tablet when we ran Geekbench 5 on it.
We also praised the device for having an excellent battery life despite the chip upgrade — it even lasted close to 12 hours during our test instead of just 10 like the company’s claim. Apple also upgraded its front cam and gave it a 12-megapixel ultra wide angle camera that enables Center Stage. That’s the tech giant’s feature designed to follow you around and keep you in the frame during video calls.
The version that’s currently on sale for $559 is the WiFi-only variant, but you also have the chance to grab its 5G-capable counterpart at a discount. Its purple version has been available for $700 at Amazon over the past week: That’s $49 less its retail price and the lowest we’ve seen for the 2022 cellular Apple iPad Air so far.
YouTube and Gmail ads are about to get a little less annoying for some. Google today is adding parenting and pregnancy, weight loss and dating to its list of “sensitive categories” on user ad controls. Users will be able to restrict ads from these categories on both YouTube and Google Display. The ad filters won’t apply to Google search results or Google Shopping, but a spokesperson confirmed that this could happen in the future.
“Providing transparency and control has always been a priority for us so we’re expanding our tools, enabling the choice to see fewer pregnancy and parenting, dating, and weight loss ads. We’ll continue to listen to user feedback and study which categories to expand this feature to in the future,” said Karin Hennessy, group product manager for ad privacy at Google in a statement.
Targeted ads have come under fire for being particularly intrusive and even harmful for certain users. For example, alcoholics or gambling addicts could be triggered by ads for tequila and online casinos. Those who suffer from eating disorders or body dysmorphia could experience something similar with weight loss ads, and so platforms are trying to strike a delicate balance that keeps their users happy while not alienating their advertisers.
In response to accusations of discriminatory ads, Meta this year removed the ability for advertisers to target users based on sensitive topics, such as health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion or sexual orientation. Twitter has also banned political ads and climate change denial ads from its platform. Both Facebook and Instagram block ads featuring weight loss products and cosmetic surgery targeted to minors. Instagram users can set their ad topic preferences so they’ll see fewer ads from certain categories. Google has already blocked targeted ads for users below the age of 18 years old, and in 2020 allowed users to limit how many ads they would encounter on the topics of gambling or alcohol.
Given the sizable share of the online ad market it currently holds, Google’s decision to let users opt out of additional sensitive ad categories means those who might be harmed (or just annoyed) by them will hopefully be exposed to them less frequently.
Apple’s Self Service Repair program is now available in the US. If you have an iPhone 12, iPhone 13 or third-generation iPhone SE, you can buy replacement batteries, cameras and displays from a dedicated store and use the company’s official repair manuals to fix it yourself. You can even spend $49 to rent a toolkit for a week if you’d rather not buy tools.
The program will expand to other regions later this year, starting in Europe. If you’re looking to repair your Mac, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Like iPhones, currently only the very latest models — powered by Apple Silicon — will be self-repair friendly.
Conveniently, for Apple, it timed the launch alongside a new white paper, which says the company has “nearly doubled” the size of its repair network, and eight out of 10 of its American customers live within 20 minutes of an authorized repair provider. The company also outlined the rationales, again, behind its design and repair decisions, including its emphasis on using official parts — to protect your privacy and security.
It’s not a flawless repair scheme. To buy a part, you need to enter your iPhone’s serial number at checkout and get that part activated through a pairing software tool.
As iFixit points out, other parts will come with an “unable to verify” warning, which could limit (or put off) people thinking of repairing their device.
The revamped PlayStation Plus service will include hundreds of games from older generations.
Kim Kyung Hoon / reuters
Talking of preservation, Sony is trying to ensure games from decades ago will live on. When Sony’s expanded PlayStation Plus service starts rolling out next month, it’ll fold in PlayStation Now, which offers access to hundreds of games from older console generations. Sony has hired at least one engineer to work on a new game preservation team.
Sony has struggled to preserve games over console iterations. Many PS1 games worked on PS2, and the original PS3 models could run many PS1 and PS2 games, but you were unable to play discs from older generations on PS4.
It’s still facing multiple lawsuits and a House Oversight committee probe.
CNBC reports Amazon won’t face fines and other penalties following the collapse of an Illinois warehouse that killed six workers during a tornado. However, the US Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) asked Amazon to review its procedures after discovering issues with its Emergency Action Plan. Despite tornado warnings from the National Weather Service 36 hours ahead of the event, Amazon continued to operate the Edwardsville, Illinois, warehouse. It was in the middle of a shift change when the tornado touched down with wind speeds up to 150 MPH, destroying the south side of the building.
While Amazon avoided penalties from OSHA, it’s facing a separate probe in Congress and multiple lawsuits.
Bloombergsources say Twitch is considering multiple proposals to rethink payment structures, including one that would cut top streamers’ share of subscriptions from 70 percent to the usual 50 percent. Another would establish multiple pay tiers with different requirements.
The reported proposals come after Twitch implemented multiple efforts to boost long-term profits and satisfy its parent company, Amazon. The service recently introduced a program that motivates frequent streamers to run more ads.
You can go fishing with Goofy and help Anna and Elsa restore their memories.
Disney
Disney’s latest video game,Dreamlight Valley, appears to be a blend of a life sim and an adventure game packed with Disney and Pixar characters. In metaverse style, you’ll be able to customize your character with T-shirts, dresses, hats and other gear you design yourself. There’s also the option of kitting them out with Mickey Mouse streetwear or a ballgown inspired by a Disney princess. (Why not both?)
Disney Dreamlight Valley will be available on PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. It’ll formally launch in 2023 as a free-to-play game.
For anyone building a PC or looking for accessories like monitors, storage or keyboards, Amazon is having a one-day sale that might be of strong interest. A host of desirable items are significantly marked down, including keyboards, headsets, power supplies, displays, cases and storage, with discounts as high as 48 percent.
There are a few standout deals, but lots of other choice as well. First on the list is the 31.5-inch 2,560 x 1,440 Acer Nitro XV322QU IPS gaming display, with features like DisplayHDR 400, AMD FreeSync, up to a 170Hz refresh rate, 0.5 millisecond lag and 90 percent DCI-P3 color accuracy. With a large size and extreme speed, it’s a highly desirable model and is at or near an all-time low of $299, for a savings of 45 percent or $250.
Razer
Speaking of speed, Razer’s Huntsman V2 TKS Tenkeyless gaming keyboard (above) offers that in spades, with the “fastest linear optical switches with sound dampeners and an 8,000Hz polling rate,” the company says. In other words, it’s fast and quiet while offering great durability thanks to the Doubleshot PBT keycaps. It’s now on sale for $100, saving you $60 or 38 percent over the regular price.
Finally, you’ll appreciate this deal if you’re a PC builder. Corsair’s HX850 platinum-certified, fully modular power supply is on sale for $120, for a savings of 35 percent of $65. That 850-watt category is the sweet spot for most enthusiasts, and the $65 savings might let you upgrade your CPU or RAM.
CNN is pulling the plug on its streaming service today, April 28th, instead of on April 30th like previously reported. The company has sent out emails to subscribers, and as Digital Trends reports, it clearly states that CNN+ streaming “will come to an end on April 28th.” The service launched just a month ago on March 29th, but it was only pulling in 10,000 daily users who were willing to pay $6 a month for live and on-demand news programming, according to CNBC. New CNN president Chris Licht was reportedly the one who recommended its closure, which might come with hundreds of job cuts.
CNN invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the project and recruited talent from other networks to host shows for the platform. While the service was short-lived, CNN itself reported that the network is committed to finding new roles for the hosts of its shows.
Discovery CEO Jean-Briac Perrette informed employees about the closure in a meeting where he said that the situation was avoidable, but that “prior leadership decided to just keep going” with its planned March debut despite the impending merger between his company and CNN owner WarnerMedia. The merged company, Warner Bros. Discovery, had a different strategy in mind — it’s also billions in debt as a result of the merging process.
In addition to informing subscribers in an email about the earlier-than-expected closure, CNN has also updated the service’s help page. The company stated in the page that all subscribers will receive a full refund. It didn’t say why CNN+ is shutting down a couple of days earlier than announced, but Digital Trends notes that it might be because subscriptions are about to renew. Some early adopters were able to sign up on March 28th, a day before the service’s official launch date. Whatever the reason is, subscribers can say goodbye to CNN+ today and expect to get their refund on May 28th.
Elon Musk won’t be able to get out of his agreement requiring oversight of his tweets about the company, Bloomberg reported. A judge has rejected his request to drop the 2018 deal made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that required a company lawyer approve any Tesla-related tweets. The judge also denied Musk’s request to block an SEC subpoena related to possible insider trading.
“Musk cannot now seek to retract the agreement he knowingly and willingly entered by simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time but now — once the specter of the litigation is a distant memory and his company has become, in his estimation, all but invincible — wishes that he had not,” US District Judge Lewis Liman wrote.
Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authority — and has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authority — as any other citizen.
After Musk tweeted in 2018 that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420, the SEC sued saying that Musk had misled investors. The parties eventually settled, with Musk and Tesla agreeing to pay $20 million each and require lawyers to review Musk’s Tesla-related tweets.
However, last month Musk asked a federal court to terminate the deal, saying he felt “forced” to sign the consent decree during a period when Tesla’s financial health was at risk. A self-described “free speech absolutist,” he also claimed through his lawyer that the deal impinged on his his First Amendment rights.
The judge also denied Musk’s request to quash an SEC subpoena related to a Twitter poll he conducted asking users whether he should sell Tesla shares or not. Officials were concerned he might have told his brother Kimbal about the poll, leading the brother to sell 88,500 shares just a day before the November 6th, 2021 tweet. In response, Musk said that the Twitter poll in question was just meant to gather input and not a disclosure of information he’d have to report to the SEC.
“Musk may wish it were otherwise, but he remains subject to the same enforcement authority — and has the same means to challenge the exercise of that authority — as any other citizen,” Liman wrote. “Indeed, to conclude otherwise would be to hold that a serial violator of the securities laws or a recidivist would enjoy greater protection against SEC enforcement than a person who had never even been accused of a securities law violation.”
In response, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said that the court’s ruling still means he can address SEC subpoenas on a case-by-case basis. “The court is simply saying we can move to quash these subpoenas when they are compelled,” he told Bloomberg. “Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have — all that’s left some half decade later is remnant litigation which will make that truth clearer and clearer.”
Dell’s latest flagship ultraportable is now available for purchase. The Dell XPS 13 Plus is powered by Intel’s 28-watt 12th-gen processors and features a clean, minimalist design. Its keyboard has no borders and no space in between its large keys that makes it ideal for touch-typing. The laptop’s haptic touchpad blends into its palm rest and the function buttons at the top of the keyboard aren’t buttons at all — they’re displayed on a touch panel similar to Mac’s Touch Bar.
It’s a beautiful device that gives the illusion of being carved out of a single piece of metal, but it doesn’t come without drawbacks. The biggest one of all? It doesn’t have a headphone jack. You’d have to use Bluetooth headsets with it, and the process of connecting a pair to a Windows laptop isn’t quite as seamless as connecting one to a phone. In addition, we had some trouble using the touchpad when we tested the laptop at CES earlier this year, because the lack of borders means you can’t see its edges. That said, it might be something you get used to the more time you spend with the notebook.
The XPS 13 Plus will set you back at least $1,299 and comes with either an OLED touch or an LCD display. You can also get the Developer Edition, which ships pre-installed with Ubuntu instead of Windows, for at least $1,249. It’s still showing on Dell’s site as coming soon, but it should be available shortly.
