Category: Technology

The background-checking tool used by Match Group to offer a safety feature for Tinder users is shutting down. The non-profit and female-founded Garbo, which the dating app conglomerate has partnered with since 2019, will shut down its consumer tool at the end of August. “Most tech companies just see trust and safety as good PR,” Kathryn Kosmides, Garbo’s founder and CEO, told The Wall Street Journal, which published a report on the severed partnership. “I’d rather Garbo shift focus to our other efforts than allow the vision of Garbo to be compromised and relegated to a piece of big corporations’ marketing goals.”

A Match Group spokesperson supplied a statement to Engadget. “Match Group has made significant investments to enhance safety across our platforms over the last few years and we will continue to do so. From features like ‘Are you Sure?’ and ‘Does this bother you?’ to background checks, we have created tools and made investments that no other dating apps offer. We are committed to continuously investing and building industry-leading features that give users more information and control over who they choose to connect with on our platforms.”

The company suggests it’s in the process of finding a replacement partner to check for histories of violence. “While we are disappointed that we were unable to come to an agreement, we are in advanced conversations with alternate providers and will announce a new partnership soon,” the spokesperson wrote.

Dating apps owned and run by Match Group include Hinge, Tinder, Match, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish (among others).

Kosmides told the WSJ that Garbo’s decision to suspend the tool spawned from disagreements with Match Group and difficulties getting platforms to pay for its services. She described internal disputes within Match Group brands about how to make the tool work.

Tinder leaders reportedly pushed for a system that would encourage users to run background checks on themselves to receive a badge on their profile, described as “a way to engage those who are less likely to run [background checks] themselves (predominantly men) and highlight the majority of people that are good,” an internal document viewed by the WSJ read. Garbo rejected the idea, and Kosmides told the paper, “You can’t white-list someone or give them a ‘good guy, bad guy’ identity verification.”

Public and regulatory interest in dating app safety rose in 2019 when ProPublica published a widely circulated story about sex offenders using dating apps. A Match Group spokesperson was quoted in the story as telling Columbia Journalism Investigations, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.” The uproar led to increased scrutiny from Capitol Hill. U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Ann Kuster (D-NH) sent a letter in 2020 to Match Group inquiring about protecting users from registered sex offenders. The pair sent a follow-up letter this July, noting that the dating company no longer discloses the size of its trust and safety team.

The intensified public and political interest heightened pressure on Match Group to do something, and its leadership reportedly saw Garbo — a new and untested product still under development at the time — as a novel solution. The dating conglomerate announced its $1.5 million partnership with the group in 2021 and launched a consumer tool the following year — with the company paying to offer two free background searches for Tinder users. Some criticized the move for providing a false sense of security, although Match Group cautioned not to view it as an all-in-one fix.

This summer, with Match Group and Garbo failing to agree on funding terms, the latter’s board met and voted to terminate the tool. Garbo, which also partnered with smaller firms, says it will shift back to being volunteer-run beginning on September 1st. The organization says it will “refocus our efforts on further ways to directly empower individuals with new and innovative tools to protect themselves from gender-based violence and other interpersonal harms in the digital age.”

Undeterred from its core mission, it adds, “We also plan to continue fiercely advocating for reforms in the criminal justice and public record systems to protect victims and hold bad actors accountable.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tinder-is-losing-the-tool-it-uses-for-background-checks-210539913.html?src=rss 

Activision has spilled the beans about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, revealing much more about what players can expect from the next entry in the rebooted series. For one thing, it seems like fans of Call of Duty’s Zombies mode are in for a treat. Activision is promising the mode’s biggest map to date. You’ll be able to team up with other squads for the first time and try to survive “massive hordes” of zombies.

Although Sledgehammer Games is leading development on Modern Warfare III, a bunch of other Activision studios are lending a hand. Treyarch, one of the core Call of Duty developers, handled this year’s Zombies mode, which tells a “Dark Aether” story. Along with secrets to unearth and a variety of missions to check out, Zombies includes “an open-world PvE extraction survival experience” and some of the biggest enemies in the franchise’s history, Activision said.

Zombies is not the only major multiplayer mode, of course, and MWIII will pay tribute to one of the series’ high points. Every one of the original 16 multiplayer maps from the 2009 version of Modern Warfare 2 will be available at the outset. Sledgehammer has modernized classic maps like Terminal and Highrise with new modes and gameplay features. More than 12 new six vs. six maps will arrive in future seasons.

From the jump, there will be three new Battle Maps on which you’ll duke it out in the Ground War and Invasion modes, along with a War map. The latter marks the return of the War Mode that made its series bow in 2017’s Call of Duty: WWll.

You can expect fresh movement mechanics, such as a Tac-Stance for tactical close-quarters combat. Activision says Sledgehammer has refined the reload cancel and slide cancel mechanics, while you should find it faster to aim down sights out of slide. Meanwhile, all perks will be available at the beginning of a multiplayer match, including a new silent movement one called Covert Sneakers.

Many players will be pleased to learn that the classic red-dot minimap is back after Infinity Ward omitted it from last year’s Modern Warfare II. There will be a map voting system, while Sledgehammer has given players a health boost, which will increase the time-to-kill — I’m sure players will have no opinions whatsoever about that change.

You won’t necessarily have to start over your collection of multiplayer gear from scratch. Last week, Activision confirmed that, for the first time, players will be able to carry forward nearly all of their unlocked items (including weapons and operators) from Modern Warfare II to Modern Warfare III.

On top of all of the multiplayer features, there’s the small matter of the campaign. This is a direct sequel to last year’s game and it continues the Modern Warfare story with Task Force 141 looking to take down ultranationalist villain Vladmir Makarov. This time around, there’s a new type of mission called Open Combat. This offers players the chance to choose their own path through a level and they’ll have multiple ways to complete objectives. These levels were built to work around players’ preferred play styles, so if you prefer a stealthy approach to an all-guns-blazing one, you might appreciate their flexibility. 

Activision has also released a new gameplay trailer, which backs up speculation that there will be a fresh take on the controversial No Russian mission from the original Modern Warfare 2. The phrase “No Russian” appears in a text message before the recipient points a gun while walking through a plane.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will hit PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC (via Steam and Battle.net) on November 10th. There will be a free open beta beforehand, with those who pre-order getting early access. Those folks will also be able to play the campaign up to a week before the game’s official release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-iii-will-include-the-series-biggest-zombies-map-ever-180029216.html?src=rss 

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak will be free on the Epic Games Store later this month. The well-received 2016 prequel to 1999 real-time strategy classic Homeworld arrives ahead of Homeworld 3, due early next year after multiple delays. The (usually $50) Deserts of Kharak will be available to claim on Epic’s storefront from August 24th to 31st.

The 2016 game takes place over a century before the events of Homeworld on the desert world of Kharak. The arid planet is the once-home of the Kushan people, protagonists of the 1999 original and central figures in the series. It’s the only Homeworld installment to move the action from space to the ground as you navigate the terrain to gain the advantage over the Kiith Gaalsien. This cult-like faction believes anyone who dreams of flying to the stars deserves harsh punishment — something they’re all too happy to dole out. Its gameplay honors the series’ strategic roots while adapting to ground play’s reduced axes of movement by making elevation (navigating the desert’s plateaus and valleys) a core focus.

Snagging the game for free can give the franchise’s fans something to tide them over ahead of Homeworld 3 in February 2024 — and publisher Gearbox Software would surely love to lure some younger gamers into the nearly quarter-century-old series. 

The Homeworld series has ridden an IP roller coaster since the RTS genre’s late 90s / early 00s heyday. After the first game’s critically acclaimed reception, original developer Relic Entertainment made two more (also well-received) games: an expansion and a proper sequel. However, after 2003’s Homeworld 2, THQ bought Relic and failed to produce a single Homeworld game under its ownership.

The series only got another lease on life after THQ folded and Gearbox Software won a 2013 auction to secure its rights. The Borderlands maker revived the saga with remastered versions of the classic titles. Deserts of Kharak followed soon after, and Homeworld 3 was finally announced in 2019, using a crowdfunding campaign to raise money and gauge consumer interest. After several delays, the long-awaited third installment will (hopefully) arrive next winter.

Claiming the PC game from August 24th to 31st will require an Epic Games account. During that time, you can navigate to the Deserts of Kharak store page in a browser or use the Epic Games Launcher to redeem it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/homeworld-deserts-of-kharak-will-be-free-on-the-epic-games-store-this-month-181511485.html?src=rss 

Honda is looking to make waves in the electric vehicle market. The first model in the automaker’s major 2024 push into the space is the Acura ZDX. It expects to obtain an EPA range rating of 325 miles on a single charge for the base A-Spec single-motor configuration.

That’s in the same ballpark as the Tesla Model X (333 miles) and better than the Model Y (303 miles), as well as Ford’s Mustang Mach-E (up to 312 miles) and the F-150 Lightning (230 miles). What’s more, Honda is touting this range for a starting price of around $60,000. The first Acura ZDX deliveries are slated for early 2024 with pre-sales starting later this year. Sales will take place exclusively online.

The company unveiled the EV at Monterey Car Week after teasing it earlier this month. It will be available in two variants: the Acura ZDX A-Spec and ZDX Type S. The former is expected to deliver 340 horsepower. The dual-motor, all-wheel-drive ZDX Type S will have an estimated 500 horsepower and is expected to start at around $70,000. Honda says that will be “the most powerful and best performing Acura SUV ever” but it’s expected to eke out a shorter range of 288 miles from the 102 kWh battery. Of note, the ZDX A-Spec will have 20-inch wheels, while the Type S has 22-inch wheels.

Honda has been dripfeeding details about the ZDX for months, so it was already known that the EV would have Android Auto, built-in Google apps and Apple CarPlay integration. It will feature an 11-inch touchscreen dashboard for the driver and an 11.3-inch center display. The ZDX is the first Acura model with a Bang & Olufsen audio system, which comes as standard. It has 18 speakers, including a subwoofer.

Safety features include a rear pedestrian alert and blind zone steering assist. The ZDX Type S has hands-free cruise driver assistance. According to Acura, that allows for “true hands-free driving on up to 400,000 miles of compatible roads.” The Type S also has an automatic parking assist system that should help with parallel parking.

When it comes to topping up the EV’s battery, Honda is hoping you’ll never be too far away from a charging station. Last month, it announced a joint effort with six other automakers to build an extensive network of 30,000 stations in North America. The initiative’s first locations are expected to open in the US next summer. Honda also notes that the ZDX supports DC Fast Charging, and a 10-minute top up can add up to 81 miles of range to the ZDX A-Spec’s battery in the rear-wheel drive configuration.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/acuras-zdx-ev-has-an-estimated-325-miles-of-range-and-starts-at-around-60000-160023372.html?src=rss 

The 2023 version of Samsung’s Freestyle projector is now available for pre-order through the company’s website. Introduced at CES earlier this year, the Freestyle Gen 2 can throw 1080p images on your wall or your ceiling and transform it into a screen that’s between 30 and 100 inches in size. Its cradle stand rotates 180 degrees, allowing you to move the screen for the best possible position, and it comes with built-in 360-degree sound capability for immersive viewing. 

Since the compact projector weighs less than two pounds and is meant to be used whether indoors or outdoors, you can also plug it into portable batteries with USB PD and 60W/20V output or above when outlets aren’t available. In addition, it comes with the brand’s SolarCell Remote, which, like its name indicates, has a solar panel attached to it for easy charging on the go. 

Like any regular smart TV, the Freestyle Gen 2 gives you access to the usual streaming apps, including the Samsung TV Plus service. You can also use it to play videos, though, through the Samsung Gaming Hub that lets you stream titles from various providers. The Gaming Hub gives you quick access to Samsung’s streaming partners, which include Xbox Game Pass, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna and Utomik. While the hub is free, you will need a subscription to those services to be able to play the games they have on offer. Also, the projector doesn’t come with its own controller, so you’ll need to use your own and connect it via Bluetooth.

The Freestyle Gen 2 projector costs $800 and will be available for pre-order until August 30th, the day before it starts shipping. You’ll get a free case with the unit if you purchase it before its launch date. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-revamped-freestyle-projector-is-now-available-to-pre-order-130013689.html?src=rss