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After whetting fans’ appetites with a teaser back in January, there’s a full-length trailer for the second season of Arcane. The animated Netflix show explores the backstories behind some of the many champions in Riot Games’ League of Legends.

Sisters Vi and Jinx remain at the show’s core. Their conflict acts as a foil for the cities of Piltover and Zaun, which are now locked in a deadly conflict following the closing events of season one. Vi is now part of the effort to capture her sibling and destroy the dangerous substance Shimmer. Fans of the MOBA will recognize champions such as Caitlyn and Ekko returning from Arcane‘s first season, while it appears Singed and Warwick will make their show debut when the new season drops this November. Check it out for yourself:

This new season sets up plenty of stunning visuals and compelling drama, but the second batch of episodes will also be the last for Arcane. This show “is just the beginning of our larger storytelling journey and partnership with the wonderful animation studio that is Fortiche,” Arcane co-creator Christian Linke said in a League of Legends dev update. “From the very beginning, since we started working on this project, we had a very specific ending in mind, which means the story of Arcane wraps up with this second season. Arcane is just the first of many stories that we want to tell in Runeterra,” he added.

With a clear end point in view, at least the show will get a proper ending instead of an unsatisfactory cliffhanger. The ongoing creative partnership is also a nice silver lining for fans. Considering League of Legends now has more than 160 champions in-game and in-the-works, that’s a whole lot of story fodder to explore.

Arcane won acclaim both from people who had no prior experience with the MOBA, as well as impressing much of League of Legends’ existing international fan base when it debuted on Netflix in November 2021. The show was rewarded with four Emmys in 2022. It was the first show from a streaming network to be honored with the award for outstanding animated program.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-drops-a-proper-trailer-for-arcanes-second-and-last-season-210424128.html?src=rss 

Yesterday, following Apple’s announcement of a partnership with OpenAI to integrate support for ChatGPT into the company’s devices, Elon Musk did what he always does: he tweeted. The owner of X wrote, on X, that he would ban Apple devices at his companies “If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level.”. And to that I say: Go right ahead. And while you’re at it, remove your company’s software from Apple’s App Store too.

Musk’s companies (at least the major ones) currently include Tesla, SpaceX, X, X AI and Neuralink. Even if we’re just talking about phones — which according to Counterpoint Research Apple currently has a 52 percent market share in the US — around 80,000 of Musk’s 155,000 employees would be subject to the ban, if general statistics hold true. And that’s not counting anyone who uses a Mac computer or iPad. (Note: The lion’s share of these workers would be at Tesla, which employs around 140,000 people.)

Now as we’ve seen with staff reductions at X and Tesla, Musk’s management style might best be described as “willing to shoot himself in the foot.” But subjecting more than half of his staff to a ban covering one of the most popular gadget makers in the world seems especially obtuse. Yes, all of this would be a headache (especially for the poor souls on his IT teams). But what’s truly at issue is that, if Elon truly cares about security, he’s only proposing a half-measure.

Why stop at just banning Apple devices? Surely, the apps his companies makes for iOS are in jeopardy as well. So why not pull the apps for X, Tesla and all the others from Apple’s App Store? That would offer even more insulation against the threat of OpenAI, would it not?

Some of the stronger students here, I’m sure, have had their hands raised by now. “But if the problem is that ChatGPT is integrated at the OS level, shouldn’t that also mean Musk’s companies would be barred from using Windows?” How right you are. And as a man of conviction, I fully expect Elon will ban those machines from his workplaces as well. I suspect his engineers will have a relatively painless time calculating the trajectory of spaceships into orbit on a Ti-83.

Musk followed up his statements by saying “It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy! Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.”

To no surprise, that statement does not accurately describe Apple and OpenAI’s partnership, which readers quickly pointed out using X’s additional context feature. (On Musk’s own website no less, oh the ignominy!) Apple says it will have its own AI models that will either run on-device or in a private compute cloud, and will only send data to OpenAI with a user’s explicit permission on a strict opt-in basis. So despite Musk’s claims, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of trickery there.

The bottom line is that, as the founder and CEO of a handful of companies, Musk can do what he wants. And in this case, I encourage Elon to follow through. Show us that your posts aren’t a bluff, as some are already claiming. It’s time to fuck around and find out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hey-elon-go-ahead-and-ban-apple-devices-211521967.html?src=rss 

“How do you shorten Apple Intelligence?” That’s the question I’ve asked several Apple employees at WWDC 2024, and their practiced responses have become comically absurd.

“We just say Apple Intelligence,” they tell me. “Yah, but do you say that every time? The AI acronym is right there!” I’d retort. The usual response is a stiff smile and clenched teeth, like a human programming error in real-time. (Yes, I’m aware it’s just overly aggressive media training in action.) One person suggested they also say “personal intelligence” — yes, a phrase that’s longer than Apple Intelligence.

There’s no doubt Apple Intelligence means many things to the company. It’s an effort to compete with Microsoft’s (still unproven) Copilot and Google’s Gemini. It’s a way to make Apple seem “hip” with ChatGPT. And it should enable a slew of new features for consumers. But Apple Intelligence is never “AI” to Apple.

Normally, I’d chalk this up to a silly branding quirk. But it becomes a problem as we cover Apple Intelligence. It’s a long phrase that’s just begging to be shortened to “AI,” but then how do you distinguish that abbreviation from ChatGPT, Copilot and the general concept of AI? During the WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple only mentioned the phrase “artificial intelligence” three times: Twice while referring to its previous AI-powered features, and another while referring to “other artificial intelligence tools” like ChatGPT.

At this point, I’ve just decided to call Apple Intelligence “Apple AI.” It’s shorter and it differentiates the product from competitors. And yes, it just means “Apple Apple Intelligence,” but everyone still says “ATM machine” and “PIN number.” It’s not my fault Apple decided to co-opt the acronym “AI.”

Catch up here for all the news out of Apple’s WWDC 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-refuses-to-call-apple-intelligence-ai-195913202.html?src=rss 

Bethesda announced Doom: The Dark Ages at the Xbox Games Showcase over the weekend, and easily the most exciting addition to the franchise featured in the trailer is the Shield Saw. As the name suggests it’s a shield. Which is also a chainsaw. Naturally, modders have already programmed the weapon into the original Doom.

Modder Craneo shared a clip on X yesterday showing how they were able to bring the Shield Saw featured in the trailer for the upcoming Doom sequel into the retro computer game. They converted the old-fashioned chainsaw into an innovative weapon that both protects you from enemy damage and rips opponents to shreds, thereby providing the wielder with a brilliant balance of defense and offense. The video makes it seem you can also toss the Shield Saw, something that was surely a pain to program.

Craneo also brought another Dark Ages weapon to Doom overnight called the Skullcrusher, or Skul-Gun, as Andy Chalk of PC Gamer called it. As the name suggests, the Skul-Gun uses skulls as ammo and fires them out like oversized bullets. That mod remains incomplete however, because, as Craneo notes, the gameplay mechanics for its next-gen counterpart haven’t been shown yet. If you want to try these out, Craneo helpfully provided links to grab the mods for both the Skul-Gun and Shield Saw.

The Doom modding community is well renowned for their creativity in adding features that make Doom more fun to play. They made Doom playable within Doom 2, ported the 2005 Doom mobile game to Windows, modded the horror game MyHouse.wad into Doom 2, and programmed the Indiana Jones-inspired mod Venturous to the Doom engine, among other things. Of course, modders have also tried to get Doom to run on every piece of hardware known to man, from a lawnmower to a Roomba vacuum cleaner. The latter device was dubbed the Doomba because game developer Rich Whitehouse programmed it to translate the floor maps into Doom maps.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/modder-adds-the-vicious-shield-saw-to-the-original-doom-203628837.html?src=rss 

Apple Intelligence is coming, but not to every iPhone out there. In fact, you’ll need to have a device with an A17 Pro processor or M-series chip to use many of the features unveiled during the Apple Intelligence portion of WWDC 2024. That means only iPhone 15 Pro owners (and those with an M-series iPad) will get the iOS 18-related Apple Intelligence (AI?) updates like Genmoji, Image Playground, the redesigned Siri and Writing Tools.

Why won’t the iPhone 14 Pro get Apple Intelligence?

It’s not evident exactly why older devices using an A16 chip (like the iPhone 14 Pro) won’t work with Apple Intelligence, given its neural engine seems more than capable compared to the M1. A closer look at the specs sheets of those two processors show that the main differences appear to be in memory and GPU prowess. In fact, all the supported devices have at least 8GB of RAM and that could hint at why your iPhone 14 Pro will not be able to handle making Genmojis, perhaps.

Though it might not seem quite fair that owners of a fairly recent iPhone won’t get to use Apple Intelligence features, you’ll still be getting a healthy amount of updates via iOS 18. Here’s a quick breakdown of what is coming via iOS 18, and what’s only coming if your iPhone supports Apple Intelligence.

What iOS 18 features will be coming to iPhones?

Basically everything described during the iOS portion of yesterday’s WWDC 2024 keynote is coming to all iPhones. That includes the customizable home screen, Control Center, dedicated Passwords app, redesigned Photos app, new Tapback emoji reactions, text effects, scheduled sending and more. Messages via Satellite is only coming to iPhone 14 or newer, and you’ll be able to send text messages, emojis and Tapbacks, but not images or videos. 

You’ll also be tied to the same satellite service plan that you got at the time of your purchase of an iPhone 14. If you bought your iPhone 14 in January 2024, you received a free two-year subscription to be able to use Emergency SOS via Satellite and other satellite communication features that now include texting. That means that to continue texting people via satellite after January 2026, you’ll need to start paying for a plan. 

There are a whole host of updates coming with iOS 18 that Apple didn’t quite cover in its keynote either, and I’ll be putting up a separate guide about that in a bit. But suffice to say that apps like Maps, Safari, Calendar and Journal are getting new functions that, together with the other changes mentioned so far, add up to a meaty OS upgrade.

What Apple Intelligence features are older devices missing out on?

In short, all of them. If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPad with an M-series chip, you’ll get a redesigned Siri, Genmoji and Image Playground, as well as writing tools baked into the system. That means tools like proofreading, summarizing or helping you adjust your tone in apps like Mail, Notes and Keynote are limited to the AI-supported devices. If you don’t have one of those devices, you’ll get none of this. 

The redesigned Siri, which is only coming through Apple Intelligence, will be able to understand what’s on your screen to contextually answer your queries. If you’ve been texting with your friend about which baseball player is the best, you can ask Siri (by long pressing the power button or just saying Hey Siri) “How many homeruns has he done?” The assistant will know who “he” is in this context, and understand you’re referring to the athlete, not the friend you’re chatting with. 

Apple Intelligence is also what brings the ability to type to Siri — and you can invoke this keyboard to talk to the assistant by double tapping the bottom of the screen. 

This also means that new glowing edge animation that appears when Siri is triggered is limited to the Apple Intelligence-supported devices. You’ll still be looking at that little orb at the bottom of your screen when you talk to the assistant on an iPhone 14 Pro or older.

We’ll continue adding to this story as we learn more about Apple Intelligence and iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 this week.

Catch up here for all the news out of Apple’s WWDC 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-intelligence-what-devices-and-features-will-actually-be-supported-185850732.html?src=rss