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Quibi will let you screenshot its shows

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Quibi has introduced the ability to screenshot its bite-size shows, but it uses a method quite different from what you’re used to. Tom Conrad, Quibi’s Chief Product Officer, has announced the feature and explained how it works in a Twitter thread. “[I]t’s not your grandfather’s screenshotting,” he said. To grab one, you’ll have to press and hold the screen to bring up a menu with an option that says “Slide over to screenshot.” After you slide over and press it, the app will capture what’s on screen and give you the option to share it.

In his announcement, Conrad emphasized the feature’s meme-making potential. “Share your cel-drawn horoscope with the world! Photoshop your own head onto action star @KevinHart4real,” he wrote. After all, people sharing memes using its shows would put the service in front of more eyes through social media channels. And Quibi definitely needs all the help it can get to boost signups.



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Epic Games Store summer sale discounts ‘Disco Elysium,’ ‘Control’ and more

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Epic’s PC game store has kicked off a summer sale of its own — take that, Steam — and it includes a few noteworthy discounts on titles you might not have picked up yet. A game like Remedy’s shooter Control is available for 50 percent off at $30, while indie favorite Disco Elysium is on sale for the same price, which is 25 percent lower than it’s usual cost.

Jedi: Fallen Order and Borderlands 3 are other recent games now available for half-off at $30 each, while Red Dead Redemption 2 got a minor price cut to $48. If you’ve been waiting to pick up Ubisoft titles from series like Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed, The Division or Far Cry then this is another good opportunity — many of them are available for $12 or less. Have a look at the full collection right here before the promotional prices end on August 6th.

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Intel’s 7nm CPUs are delayed, won’t arrive until at least 2022

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Intel is accelerating its transition to 10nm products this year with increasing volumes and strong demand for an expanding line up. This includes a growing portfolio of 10nm-based Intel Core processors with “Tiger Lake” launching soon, and the first 10nm-based server CPU “Ice Lake,” which remains planned for the end of this year.

In the second half of 2021, Intel expects to deliver a new line of client CPU’s (code-named “Alder Lake”), which will include its first 10nm-based desktop CPU, and a new 10nm-based server CPU (code-named “Sapphire Rapids”). The company’s 7nm-based CPU product timing is shifting approximately six months relative to prior expectations. The primary driver is the yield of Intel’s 7nm process, which based on recent data, is now trending approximately twelve months behind the company’s internal target.

Tom’s Hardware notes that on a call following the release, execs including CEO Bob Swan cited a “defect mode” in the process and said it may rely on third-party foundries for chip production. That means pushing 7nm production back to late 2022 or early 2023. Further updates are apparently incoming at the company’s Architecture Day, as it tries to catch up with the competition.

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Disney’s next Star Wars trilogy gets pushed back, will debut in 2023

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Last year Disney set a release schedule for a new slate of Star Wars movies, but things have changed since then. With theaters closed and productions shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s pushing the planned release dates back by a full year. That means the first movie, reportedly directed by Taika Waititi, will debut on December 22nd, 2023, followed by the others in 2025 and 2027.

That’s giving fans some extra time to wait, but really it’s nothing compared to the Avatar sequels. Now owned by Disney after its acquisition of Fox, those have also been pushed back. Deadline mentions that Avatar 2 is now on the schedule for December 16th, 2022. That’s a year after it was expected, but the movie had originally been announced for release in 2014.

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Army pauses recruiting on Twitch after First Amendment criticism

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During a July 8th Army stream, Uhl typed into the channel’s chat, “what’s your favorite u.s. w4r cr1me?” and linked to a Wikipedia page listing war crimes by the US military. The Army promptly banned Uhl from the channel. A video of the interaction has surfaced on Twitter.

The Knight First Amendment Institute responded Wednesday by sending the Army and Navy a letter condemning Uhl’s ban as a violation of the right to free speech. “When the government intentionally opens a space to the public at large for expressive activity, it has created a ‘public forum’ under the First Amendment, and it cannot constitutionally bar speakers from that forum based on viewpoint,” the letter said.

An Army spokesperson told GameSpot “the team has paused streaming to review internal policies and procedures, as well as all platform-specific policies, to ensure those participating in the space are clear before streaming resumes.” Army spokeswoman Kelli Bland said users are banned from the channel when they violate Twitch’s terms of service, and said Uhl was banned for harassment. A Twitch spokeswoman didn’t comment on Uhl’s ban, but pointed to Twitch’s policy which states “channel owners and moderators are free to ban anyone from their channel, regardless of the reason.”

The Army’s Twitch channel has also drawn criticism for advertising a “giveaway” for an Xbox controller, only for a link on the ad to lead to a recruiting form. Twitch responded by telling the Army to cut out the fake giveaways. Still, some say Twitch is an inappropriate place for the military to fish for potential recruits. Ocasio-Cortez’s says as much with her planned amendment to an appropriations bill.

“It’s incredibly irresponsible for the Army and the Navy to be recruiting impressionable young people and children via live streaming platforms,” Ocasio-Cortez told Vice. “War is not a game, and the Marine Corps’ decision not to engage in this recruiting tool should be a clear signal to the other branches of the military to cease this practice entirely.”



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Watch today’s Xbox Games Showcase in 11 minutes

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Microsoft finally offered a closer look at some of the biggest titles coming to Xbox. During its Xbox Games Showcase, we got a long-awaited preview of gameplay from Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport and much, much more.

With Halo Infinite, we got a tantalizing look at what’s next for the franchise, with a lengthy look at campaign gameplay — and Master Chief’s new grappling hook. Also revealed: the first footage from Forza Motorsport, created specifically for the Xbox Series X and its low-latency controller. 

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The Surface Pro X will soon help you pretend to pay attention to calls

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Surface Pro X eye contact

Microsoft

Because the software depends on Microsoft’s custom silicon, it’s unclear if the company will make the feature available on x86-based PCs. That said, Microsoft is not the only company working on this type of functionality. With the iOS 13 betas, Apple started testing a similar FaceTime Attention Correction feature. The company ultimately shelved the feature before releasing the operating system to the public. However, as The Verge notes, Attention Correction is one of the enhancements Apple says iOS 14 will include when it comes out later this year. 

If you don’t own a Surface Pro X, there’s still a good reason to check out the latest Windows 10 preview build. The update includes a nifty tweak to how the Alt + Tab shortcut works. By default, pressing the two keys will let you see all of your browser tabs alongside open app windows. If having the option to switch between all your tabs at once is jarring, you can tweak the feature to show only your most recent three or five tabs instead, or none at all. 

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Google is granting another $4 million towards affordable Bay Area housing

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According to Google, Larkin Street Youth Services has been able to secure a hotel in San Francisco to “house homeless youth who have been deprioritized from housing waitlists.” During the pandemic, giving people a safe place to live has been even more important, “given the added risk of contracting the virus among people who are on the streets or in homelessness encampments.”

Part of the billion-dollar investment announced last year was a $250 million fund meant to “provide incentives to enable developers to build at least 5,000 affordable housing units across the market.” Today, Google said it’s used that to support affordable housing projects like The Kelsey Ayer Station in San Jose, which offers 115 homes for “people with a range of incomes.” Some $50 million went to Housing Trust Silicon Valley’s TECH Fund towards building more affordable units quickly, and that money has gone towards six projects in the Bay Area “with more to come.” Some of the housing developments Google has invested in are expected to break ground next year.

Today, Google announced it’s giving another $50 million from the $250 million fund to the Housing Trust’s Launch Initiative, which will invest in a broader range of housing projects. Google estimates this initiative will create 4,000 affordable units. The tech giant is also looking into modular housing by working with modular home maker Factory_OS and helping them double their production capacity. The goal with this investment is to create “tens of thousands affordable housing units over the next decade, including around 700 multi-family modular homes in Oakland and San Francisco by early 2021.”

Google isn’t the only major tech employer in the Bay Area. Apple also said earlier this month that it will spend $400 million on affordable housing this year, as part of its $2.5 billion pledge from last year to combat the California housing crisis. There are an estimated 35,000 people who are homeless in California’s Bay Area, which makes it the third largest region for homelessness in America. Companies have also pushed for state policy changes to help improve the situation, which has only been exacerbated during the pandemic. With increased attention to the issues and more investment from Big Tech, perhaps we will see some progress in the coming years.

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Facebook will pay $650 million to settle facial recognition privacy lawsuit

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Facebook will now hand over a total of $650 million to settle a lawsuit over the company’s use of facial recognition technology. The social network added $100 million to its initial $550 million settlement, Facebook revealed in court documents reported by Fortune. 

The lawsuit dates back to 2015, when the company was hit with a class action lawsuit saying Facebook violated an Illinois privacy law that required companies obtain “explicit consent” before collecting biometric data from users. At issue was Facebook’s “tag suggestions” feature, which used facial recognition to scan photos and automatically suggest tags when users uploaded new images. (Facebook stopped scanning faces by default last year.) 

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A security breach opened up access to a genealogy site’s DNA profiles

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According to Verogen, the company that recently purchased GEDmatch, no user data was downloaded or compromised. But two days later, the genealogy website MyHeritage alerted users to a phishing scheme that targeted people who used both MyHeritage and GEDmatch. In a statement posted online, the company said it suspects the attackers may have gleaned the email addresses from GEDmatch.

Verogen has taken GEDmatch down. The company says it is working with a cybersecurity firm to conduct a forensic review and safeguard the site. That may not be enough to recover users’ trust.

Some already see giving law enforcement access to DNA profiles as controversial. As BuzzFeed News reports, this incident could limit those on both sides of the debate. If GEDmatch can’t keep data safe, users may be less likely to create DNA profiles, which could make it harder for police to use the site to solve cold cases. On the other hand, if GEDmatch can’t limit police access, users who may have made a profile on the condition it wouldn’t be used by law enforcement may not create a profile at all. That means less data for genealogists to work with.

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