Category: Technology

In what essentially amounts to free money, Amazon’s selling $100 Xbox gift cards for just $90, a savings of ten percent. This deal only applies to digital codes, not physical gift cards. Additionally, only the $100 card gets the discount, so other denominations are the same price as always. The final caveat? You can only buy two at a time, but that’s nearly enough for four AAA games or a lengthy subscription to Game Pass.

The codes can be used to purchase full games, DLC, various subscriptions, in-game currency and more. You can even use them to buy controllers and other must-have Xbox accessories, so long as the products are available directly from Microsoft. Gift cards don’t go on sale often, for obvious reasons, so the deal will likely sell out before too long.

This is a suspiciously-timed deal, as the hotly-anticipated sci-fi RPGStarfield releases next week, on September 6th. In other words, a whole lot of people are going to use their brand-new gift cards to get the brand-new Bethesda adventure. There’s also a new Forza game on the horizon, in addition to Alan Wake 2 and a bevy of cross-platform titles. You’ll have no shortage of games to spend your digital cash on.

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/get-a-100-xbox-gift-card-for-90-at-amazon-184600576.html?src=rss 

Volition, the studio behind the Saints Row series, has closed with immediate effect. The developer said in a statement that the shutdown was a result of restructuring at parent company Embracer Group.

“This past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry,” the studio said. “As part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately.” Volition’s workers will be offered assistance to “help smooth the transition.” The studio signed off by thanking its fans.

Volition dates back to 1993 and a company called Parallax Software Corporation. That team split a few years later, leading to the formation of Volition. THQ bought the studio in 2000. Future Embracer subsidiary Koch Media (later Plaion) snapped it up for its Deep Silver division after THQ filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Along with the Saints Row series for which it’s best known, Volition was also behind the Descent games and the Red Faction franchise. Its final game was a 2022 Saints Row reboot. The game wasn’t especially well received, though PS Plus subscribers can claim it at no extra cost in September.

Embracer said in June that layoffs and studio closures were on the way as part of the restructuring plan. The company, which spent several years snapping up a wealth of gaming studios and the rights to many notable franchises, noted that a long-in-the-works $2 billion investment opportunity vanished at the 11th hour. Axios recently reported that the Saudi government-funded Savvy Games Group was the partner that Embracer had a verbal agreement with before the deal fell apart.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/saints-row-studio-volition-abruptly-closes-due-to-restructuring-at-embracer-group-184731175.html?src=rss 

PlayStation Portal, Sony’s $200 handheld for PS5 game streaming, is available to pre-order today before its November 15th launch. The company announced the availability details today in an update to its announcement post from last week. The upcoming device requires a PS5 and a persistent WiFi connection.

Sony markets the device as “the handheld gateway to your PS5 games.” Its eight-inch LCD screen offers 1080p visuals at 60 frames per second, and it includes haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Engadget’s Kris Holt aptly described the device’s appearance as “a bit like a tablet wedged between two halves of a DualSense controller.”

However, PlayStation Portal doesn’t support cloud streaming through PlayStation Plus Premium or similar services. Nor does it have any local apps. The device merely acts as a WiFi remote streaming controller for the PS5 you already own. However, at least it supports long-distance remote play as long as your console is up and running at home.

You can pre-order the PlayStation Portal Remote Player exclusively from Sony.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-200-playstation-portal-handheld-arrives-on-november-15th-190222052.html?src=rss 

In what can only bode poorly for our species’ survival during the inevitable robot uprisings, an AI system has once again outperformed the people who trained it. This time, researchers at the University of Zurich in partnership with Intel, pitted their “Swift” AI piloting system against a trio of world champion drone racers — none of whom could best its top time.

Swift is the culmination of years of AI and machine learning research by the University of Zurich. In 2021, the team set an earlier iteration of the flight control algorithm that used a series of external cameras to validate its position in space in real-time, against amateur human pilots, all of whom were easily overmatched in every lap of every race during the test. That result was a milestone in its own right as, previously, self-guided drones relied on simplified physics models to continually calculate their optimum trajectory, which severely lowered their top speed. 

This week’s result is another milestone, not just because the AI bested people whose job is to fly drones fast, but because it did so without the cumbersome external camera arrays= of its predecessor. The Swift system “reacts in real time to the data collected by an onboard camera, like the one used by human racers,” an UZH Zurich release reads. It uses an integrated inertial measurement unit to track acceleration and speed while an onboard neural network localizes its position in space using data from the front-facing cameras. All of that data is fed into a central control unit — itself a deep neural network — which crunches through the numbers and devises a shortest/fastest path around the track. 

“Physical sports are more challenging for AI because they are less predictable than board or video games. We don’t have a perfect knowledge of the drone and environment models, so the AI needs to learn them by interacting with the physical world,” Davide Scaramuzza, head of the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich, said in a statement.

Rather than let a quadcopter smash its way around the track for the month that its controller AI would need to slowly learned the various weaves and bobs of the circuit, the research team instead simulated that learning session virtually. It took all of an hour. And then the drone went to work against 2019 Drone Racing League champion Alex Vanover, 2019 MultiGP Drone Racing champion Thomas Bitmatta, and three-time Swiss champion, Marvin Schaepper. 

Swift notched the fastest lap overall, beating the humans by a half second, though the meatsack pilots proved more adaptable to changing conditions during the course of a race. “Drones have a limited battery capacity; they need most of their energy just to stay airborne. Thus, by flying faster we increase their utility,” Scaramuzza said. As such, the research team hopes to continue developing the algorithm for eventual use in Search and Rescue operations, as well as forest monitoring, space exploration, and in film production.    

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-ai-pilot-has-beaten-three-champion-drone-racers-at-their-own-game-190537914.html?src=rss 

In an unprecedented decision, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee announced on Thursday that he will allow not only a press pool, cameras and laptops to be present in the courtroom during the election interference trial of former President Donald Trump, but that the entire proceedings will be livestreamed on YouTube as well. That stream will be operated by the court.

Trump and 18 co-defendants are slated their trial on October 23rd. Tsplhey’re facing multiple racketeering charges surrounding their efforts in the state of Georgia to subvert and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, what Fulton County DA Fanni Harris describes as “a criminal enterprise” to unconstitutionally keep the disgraced politician in power. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges. 

While recording court proceedings can be an uncommon occurrence in some jurisdictions, the state of Georgia takes a far more lax approach in allowing the practice. 

“Georgia courts traditionally have allowed the media and the public in so that everyone can scrutinize how our process actually works,” Atlanta-based attorney Josh Schiffer, told Atlanta First News. “Unlike a lot of states with very strict rules, courts in Georgia are going to basically leave it up to the judges.”

For example, when Trump was arraigned in New York on alleged financial crimes, only still photography was allowed. For his Miami charges, photography wasn’t allowed at all. This means that the public will not be privy to the in-court proceedings of Trump’s federal election interference case, only the Georgia state prosecution.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/trumps-georgia-election-interference-trial-will-be-livestreamed-on-youtube-193146662.html?src=rss 

Google announced today that all Chromebook owners can claim three free months of GeForce Now. Most Chromebook users will get a (usually $10 per month) GeForce Now Priority subscription, while owners of Cloud Gaming Chromebooks will receive access to the Ultimate tier (typically $20 per month). The company is tying the promotion to Baldur’s Gate 3 launch on Nvidia’s cloud gaming service.

Standard Chromebook owners can claim three months of GeForce Now Priority, which uses a “premium rig” in the cloud that maxes out at 1080p / 60 FPS streaming and six-hour gaming sessions. Meanwhile, folks who bought a Cloud Gaming Chromebook can claim three months of GeForce Now Ultimate, which boosts performance to an RTX 4080, 4K resolution, 120 FPS and eight-hour sessions.

GeForce Now, launched publicly in 2020 after nearly five years in beta, offers instant access to a computer with much greater horsepower than a Chromebook — without worrying about updates, patches or graphic settings. But, of course, you’ll need at least a decently fast and low-latency internet connection to stream the games from Nvidia’s servers.

Building and accessing your library on Nvidia’s service can be a bit clunky compared to rivals like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and the now-defunct Stadia: You’ll need to link your Steam, Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store or Ubisoft Connect store accounts (among others) to see which of your purchased titles are eligible. Then, you can stream the games you already own and find out which storefronts are supported for those you still want to add. Nvidia’s GeForce Now library webpage is a solid place to start: It simplifies the process by letting you search the service’s catalog of over 1,500 support titles.

Google hasn’t announced how long the promotion will be available, except to say it’s for a limited time only. Chromebook owners can claim the offer on this “special perks” webpage.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-gives-chromebook-owners-three-months-of-geforce-now-cloud-gaming-182734681.html?src=rss 

YouTube Music’s latest redesign of the Now Playing page is making its way to iOS and Android devices everywhere. There’s a new feature that brings an extra social element to the app. You’ll now be able to read and post comments on the Now Playing page. That option was limited to playlists until now.

According to screenshots that 9to5 Google shared, some of the comments on the page may date back several years. As such, it seems like Google is populating the section with comments from related YouTube videos, for better or worse (probably worse).

The updated design is rolling out gradually, so you may not see it right away, but there are some other changes in store. The cover art is bigger and song titles and artist names now hug the left side of the screen. One other key thing to note is that there’s now a carousel with buttons for comments, giving a track a thumbs up or down, saving songs to a playlist, sharing, downloading and the radio. Most of the previously available actions required an extra tap to access until now. The buttons look very similar to the ones you’ll see below the YouTube video player. In addition, more of the controls should be easier to access as they’re at the bottom of the screen.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-musics-now-playing-tab-adds-everyones-least-favorite-feature-youtube-comments-164521304.html?src=rss 

The US Copyright Office (USCO) wants your thoughts on generative AI and who can theoretically be declared to own its outputs. The technology has increasingly commanded the legal system’s attention, and as such office began seeking public comments on Wednesday about some of AI’s thorniest issues (viaArs Technica). These include questions about companies training AI models on copyrighted works, the copyright eligibility of AI-generated content (along with liability for infringing on it) and how to handle machine-made outputs mimicking human artists’ work.

“The adoption and use of generative AI systems by millions of Americans — and the resulting volume of AI-generated material — have sparked widespread public debate about what these systems may mean for the future of creative industries and raise significant questions for the copyright system,” the USCO wrote in a notice published on Wednesday.

One issue the office hopes to address is the required degree of human authorship to register a copyright on (otherwise AI-driven) content, citing the rising number of attempts to copyright material that names AI as an author or co-author. “The crucial question appears to be whether the ‘work’ is basically one of human authorship, with the computer merely being an assisting instrument, or whether the traditional elements of authorship in the work (literary, artistic, or musical expression or elements of selection, arrangement, etc.) were actually conceived and executed not by man but by a machine,” the USCO wrote.

Although the issue is far from resolved, several cases have hinted at where the boundaries may fall. For example, the office said in February that the (human-made) text and layout arrangement from a partially AI-generated graphic novel were copyrightable, but the work’s Midjourney-generated images weren’t. On the other hand, a Federal judge recently rejected an attempt to register AI-generated art which had no human intervention other than its inciting text prompt. “Copyright has never stretched so far […] as to protect works generated by new forms of technology operating absent any guiding human hand, as plaintiff urges here,” US District Judge Beryl Howell wrote in that ruling.

The USCO also seeks input on increasing infringement claims from copyright owners against AI companies for training on their published works. Sarah Silverman is among the high-profile plaintiffs suing OpenAI and Meta for allegedly training ChatGPT and LLaMA (respectively) on their written work — in her case, her 2010 memoir The Bedwetter. OpenAI also faces a class-action lawsuit over using scraped web data to train its viral chatbot.

The USPO says the public comment period will be open until November 15th. You can share your thoughts until then.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-copyright-office-opens-public-comments-on-ai-and-content-ownership-170225911.html?src=rss