Category: Technology

Microsoft was quick to limit Bing’s AI chats to prevent disturbing answers, but it’s changing course just days later. The company now says it will restore longer chats, and is starting by expanding the chats to six turns per session (up from five) and 60 chats per day (up from 50). The daily cap will climb to 100 chats soon, Microsoft says, and regular searches will no longer count against that total. With that said, don’t expect to cause much havoc when long conversations return — Microsoft wants to bring them back “responsibly.”

The tech giant is also addressing concerns that Bing’s AI may be too wordy with responses. An upcoming test will let you choose a tone that’s “precise” (that is, shorter and more to-the-point answers), “creative” (longer) or “balanced.” If you’re just interested in facts, you won’t have to wade through as much text to get them.

There may have been signs of trouble considerably earlier. As Windows Centralnotes, researcher Dr. Gary Marcus and Nomic VP Ben Schmidt discovered that public tests of the Bing chatbot (codenamed “Sidney”) in India four months ago produced similarly odd results in long sessions. We’ve asked Microsoft for comment, but it says in its most recent blog post that the current preview is meant to catch “atypical use cases” that don’t manifest with internal tests.

Microsoft previously said it didn’t completely anticipate people using Bing AI’s longer chats as entertainment. The looser limits are an attempt to strike a balance between “feedback” in favor of those chats, as the company says, with safeguards that prevent the bot from going in strange directions.

 

As tablets get more powerful, some are becoming suitable replacements for laptops. That’s particularly the case with the higher capacity models of Apple’s iPad Pros. Right now the larger, 12.9-inch models with either 1TB or 2TB of storage are $200 off at Amazon. The deal covers both the Wi-Fi only models and configurations with cellular connectivity. The sale brings the 1TB, Wi-Fi model down to $1,599 instead of $1,799 and makes the 2TB Wi-Fi plus cellular model $2,199 instead of $2,399. A $200 discount still doesn’t make these cheap devices by any stretch, but if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your laptop, and also want the portability of a tablet, this could be a good time to buy. 

We gave the iPad Pro a review score of 87 when it debuted late last year. The latest generation of the iPad Pro didn’t see a total rebuild like the standard iPad did, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Pro already benefited from having an amazing screen and superior build, but this time around, Apple increased processing power with the addition of their M2 chip. The latest operating system, iPadOS 16, added Stage Manager, an innovative multitasking system that lets you easily use multiple windows while working with your iPad. 

Combine the software tweak with a faster chip, and you’ve got a slab that aspires to do laptop duty — especially after adding in accessories like the Magic Keyboard and the latest generation Apple Pencil. On the screen front, the 12.9-inch Pro features a Liquid Retina XDR panel with mini-LED backlighting for great range and contrast. The Pro also houses a solid, all-day battery and robust speakers. Around back, there’s one 12-megapixel wide and one10MP ultra wide camera, plus a flash and LIDAR scanner. The ultra wide 12MP front-facing camera is still oriented to the portrait side, making you a little off-center on video calls if you’re docked into a keyboard. It’s also not a light tablet, weighing in at a pound and a half, but perhaps that’s to be expected from such a powerful machine.  

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Almost every music streaming service on the market offers a radio feature, allowing you to create an automatically generated playlist around a song or artist you love. For the most part, however, those features don’t offer a lot of flexibility. You pick a single song or artist and the platform does the rest – as is the case with Spotify and Apple Music.

Google has begun rolling out a redesigned radio feature on YouTube Music the company claims provides users with a lot more control over their listening experience. Among the new features the refreshed experience includes is the ability to pick up to 30 artists when creating your own radio station. You can also decide how frequently those artists repeat and apply filters that change the mood of the resulting playlist. For instance, a few of the selections include “chill,” “downbeat” and “pump-up.”

It’s also possible to adjust the parameters you set after creating a station by tapping the “Tune” option that appears at the bottom of the interface once you’re listening to your new playlist. Naturally, you can save the station to revisit it later. Once the new experience is available on your device, you will see a prompt in the main interface that says “Create a radio.” As with many of Google’s rollouts, it may take some time before you see the feature on your client.

On its own, it’s fair to say the feature won’t be enough to convince some to ditch Spotify and Apple Music for YouTube Music, but if you’re among the 50 million subscribers Google says has access to the service, it may prompt you to use it more frequently or convert the free trial you got with your phone into a paid subscription.

 

Microsoft has struck a 10-year deal with NVIDIA to bring Xbox games to the GeForce Now streaming service. The company’s president, Brad Smith, made the announcement at a press conference in Brussels, where he, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, Activision Blizzard head Bobby Kotick and other prominent figures attended a European Commission hearing over Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard.

Smith said that, if the deal goes through, Activision Blizzard games like the Call of Duty series will be available on GeForce Now as well. The publisher removed its titles from the cloud gaming service in 2020. Smith’s GeForce Now announcement came hours after he confirmed that Microsoft will bring Xbox games to Nintendo platforms under a binding 10-year deal — and Activision Blizzard titles if the acquisition closes. NVIDIA is now supporting the Activision Blizzard deal, Smith said.

“Xbox remains committed to giving people more choice and finding ways to expand how people play,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a statement. “This partnership will help grow NVIDIA’s catalog of titles to include games like Call of Duty, while giving developers more ways to offer streaming games. We are excited to offer gamers more ways to play the games they love.”

Users will need to buy copies of games from the Xbox PC, Steam or Epic Games stores to play them on GeForce Now. It’s not clear when Xbox games will be available to stream through the service, which has more than more than 25 million users. However, NVIDIA said it and Microsoft “will begin work immediately to integrate Xbox PC games into GeForce Now.”

The agreement will afford players another way to stream Microsoft’s games from the cloud almost anywhere that they have a sturdy enough internet connection. Currently, Xbox Cloud Gaming (which requires a Game Pass Ultimate subscription) is the main way to do that. The NVIDIA deal is an attempt by Microsoft to placate regulators’ concerns over the Activision takeover by showing that Xbox Cloud Gaming won’t be the only exclusive way to stream its games.

Earlier this month, the UK’s competition regulator said that the proposed $68.7 billion Activision acquisition could result in a “substantial lessening of competition in gaming consoles” and “harm UK gamers.” The Competition and Markets Authority found that Microsoft already had a 60-70 percent share of the cloud gaming market and that, should the deal go through, it would “reinforce this strong position.” In December, the US Federal Trade Commission sued to block the merger.

 

Sony has revealed when its first State of Play showcase of 2023 will take place. You’ll be able to watch the stream at 4PM ET on February 23rd on PlayStation’s Twitch and YouTube channels.

Don’t expect too much in the way of news on big first-party games for PlayStation 5, such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Sony says the State of Play will include fresh looks at “some anticipated” third-party games, as well as a “first glimpse” at five titles on the way to PlayStation VR2 later this year — hopefully including Half-Life: Alyx. As a reminder, the impressive but pricey VR headset arrives this week.

Sony will round out the showcase with a deep dive into Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. You’ll get to check out more than 15 minutes of gameplay and other details about the Batman: Arkham Knight followup, which can be played either solo or with up to three other people and is scheduled to land on May 26th.

 

Horror movie powerhouse Blumhouse is getting into video games. The company behind hits like M3GAN, Get Out, The Purge and Insidious is opening a production and publishing division that will work on original horror games for PC, consoles and mobile.

“We’re in the scary story business. We do films, we do TV and there is this massive, growing segment in media and entertainment called gaming,” Blumhouse president Abhijay Prakash told Bloomberg. “The space is hundreds of billions of dollars; we’re in a great position to try and access it.”

As with the film side of the production company, Blumhouse Games will keep the budgets modest. It plans to release games that cost under $10 million to make. Rather than adapting its own movies (something Blumhouse has tried in the past) into games, the company will look for projects that are in development and offer studios financial support, creative insight and the Blumhouse name to slap on their titles.

Veteran game producer Zach Wood — who was recently involved in Prey: Mooncrash and Redfall — will run the creative side of Blumhouse Games. Don Sechler, a former PlayStation executive who worked closely with indie studios, will oversee the operational and financial aspects.

It’s hardly the first time that a movie studio has opened a gaming division. Disney used to have one, as did Lucasfilm (which now licenses its properties to external developers). Annapurna Interactive has perhaps set the template for Blumhouse Games to follow, though. The games division of Annapurna Pictures has an excellent track record as an indie publisher, having released the likes of What Remains of Edith Finch, Florence, Donut County, Outer Wilds, If Found…, Neon White, Stray and Sayonara Wild Hearts over the last six years.

 

Sony is launching a pair of midrange headphones that borrow some tech from the company’s $400 WH-1000XM5. The new WH-CH720N is an over-ear pair using the same V1 chip from Sony’s flagship model, which should help provide high-quality sound and active noise cancelation (ANC) for a much lower price.

The company says the WH-CH720N’s battery will last up to 35 hours with ANC enabled. The headphones also include Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) support, Sony’s audio upscaling tech that may improve the sound of compressed music files on services like Spotify. It also has multipoint connectivity and two microphones in each ear cup, which assists it in offering 20 levels of noise-canceling / ambient sound. Of course, you can tweak its settings with the companion Sony Headphones Connect app.

Sony has a good track record with its mid-range headphones. Like with this model, the company typically carries over a few features from its premium cans while skimping in enough places to keep the price down. (In this case, it lacks the second ANC processor from the WH-1000XM5.) So although they’ll have lesser noise canceling than their more expensive siblings, the V1 chip should still make for terrific ANC for their $150 price. The WH-CH720N will be available in black, blue and white when it begins shipping this spring.

Sony also announced a new entry-level pair of on-ear headphones, the WH-CH520, which will skip ANC but offer an impressive 50 hours of battery life. They will also include DSEE and multipoint connection. The WH-CH520 will also launch this spring in black, blue and white. They will cost a mere $60.

 

Pokémon fans have something to look forward to early next week. The latest Pokémon Presents event is slated for February 27th (that’s Pokémon Day, fact fans) at 9AM ET. As is often the case with these livestreams, The Pokémon Company hasn’t given too much away about what’s in store. However, it did say the livestream will run for around 20 minutes. You’ll be able to watch it on The Official Pokémon YouTube channel.

The smart money is on news about paid expansions or other updates to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which arrived in November. The pair were in rough shape when they debuted and Game Freak and Nintendo have been working to resolve the technical issues. Still, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold more than 10 million copies between them in the first weekend (making it the fastest-selling game launch in Nintendo’s history) and over 20 million by the end of 2022. So, there’s clearly a large audience that would lap up DLC.

Given how recently Pokémon Scarlet and Violet dropped and the buggy nature of the games, it may be a little too early to reveal the next mainline entries in the series. It’s possible that we may learn details about Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Pokémon games coming to Nintendo Switch through the Switch Online service. This would make sense, as Pokémon Day marks the anniversary of the first games in the series — Pokémon Red and Green debuted in Japan on February 27th, 1996. The stream also may include details on updates to games like Pokémon Masters Ex, Pokémon Unite, Pokémon TCG Live and Pokémon Go.

Speaking of Pokémon Go, this past weekend saw developer Niantic ask players to stay away from a public park in Las Vegas unless they bought a $30 pass to join an event. An extra 17,000 people who did not pay for the event are said to have shown up, leading to spotty connections and a disrupted experience for many. Niantic offered players who paid for a ticket some in-game goodies to make up for the issues.

 

Beats Fit Pro debuted in late 2021, but the earbuds remain the best true wireless option from the Apple-owned company well over a year later. Today, Beats is adding three new colors for the fitness-focused model: coral pink, volt yellow and tidal blue. These new hues join black, white, stone purple and sage gray in the company’s lineup. They’ll be available Thursday, February 23rd for $200 from Apple and other retailers.

Since their arrival, Beats Fit Pro have been some of our favorite workout earbuds. In fact, we’ve named them the best option for those activities in our most recent buyer’s guide. You get all of the convenience of Apple’s AirPods in a more comfortable design. That includes hands-free Siri, Adaptive EQ, spatial audio and quick pairing. The Fit Pro also offer solid noise-canceling performance and punchy bass that keeps the energy up while not overpowering the rest of the mix. There’s no wireless charging and some features are exclusive to iOS, but Beats does offer a dedicated app for Android users for a fit test, customization and other items that are built into Apple’s software. 

In recent months, we’ve seen the Fit Pro for as low as $145, though they were most recently on sale for $150. However, you may not find a deal on the new colors any time soon.

 

Samsung has started shipping its 2023 Neo QLED TV line, and it won’t surprise you to hear that you’ll pay a premium for its ultimate models. The company’s 8K, Mini LED-based QN900C (shown above) starts at $5,000 for a 65-inch set, while a 75-inch variant costs $6,300. The 85-inch version has yet to be priced. If you value 8K but don’t need the full feature set, the QN800C begins at $3,500 for a 65-inch screen and tops out at $6,000 for an 85-inch panel. The 75-inch edition also hasn’t received pricing.

You’re more likely looking at a 4K TV, and you’ll be glad to hear those are considerably more affordable. At the high end, the QN95C ranges from $3,300 for a 65-inch display to $5,800 for an 85-inch beast. The lowest-priced sets are in the mid-tier QN90C series, however — that starts at $1,200 for a compact 43-inch design, with five other sizes that culminate in a $4,800 85-inch set. If you’re looking for (relative) value for money, the QN85C is available for $1,500 in 55-inch form and climbs to $3,800 for the QN85C. Samsung hasn’t yet shared details of the 4K-capable QN935C, which offers thinner bezels and top-firing speakers that enable Dolby Atmos without external speakers.

All 2023 Neo QLED TVs fit better into your smart home. They include both Matter Thread and SmartThings-friendly Zigbee hubs that coordinate compatible devices. 

The QN900C’s hook isn’t just its 8K resolution. It’s extremely bright at 4,000 nits, and it boasts improved contrast as well as HDR “remastering” for older content. All the QN-series TVs boast Mini LED as well, although they’re poised to be iterative upgrades compared to their 2022 counterparts. Like last year, the standout is arguably the OLED model — the S95C is your pick if you demand perfect black levels and minimal lag.