Select Walmart parking lots around the US will soon be transformed into drive-in theaters, thanks to a partnership with the company behind the Tribeca Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The “safe, socially distanced drive-in events,” as Walmart describes them on its website, will run from August through October at 160 locations across the country.
The events will also feature “appearances from stars,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, and customers will be able to order concessions that will be delivered to their vehicles. Information like possible entry fees, exact locations and film lineup for the Walmart events haven’t yet been announced. More details will be announced closer to the start of the screenings at walmartdrive-in.com.
The #StopHateForProfit boycott now has more than 300 participants, and its organizers are calling for an international expansion as well. At this point, Facebook has had very little response to the boycott, with a VP reportedly telling advertisers that the company doesn’t make policy changes due to revenue pressure. Surprisingly enough, even hundreds of big-name brands pulling their ads for July might not even make much of a hit to Facebook’s bottom line — according to CNN, only a few of the top 25 spenders on Facebook have pulled their campaigns.
Either way, the optics of this campaign aren’t great for Facebook, a company that continues to struggle with its public image. Whether the company makes concrete change or just tries to weather the storm remains to be seen. Last week, Facebook announced it would add warnings to posts from politicians that break its rules, and it also cracked down on accounts related to the violent “boogaloo” movement. But the response from boycott organizers has been tepid, suggesting more bold action will need to be taken to quell this latest controversy.
Of course, the less charitable way to frame the entire idea is that BMW wants to make more money on its already expensive cars. Even one of its more affordable models will set you back about $36,000. It’s probably safe to say that’s a price at which most people don’t want to pay a monthly fee for features their car already includes.
It’s easy to see why a service like this would be appealing to an automaker. It will allow BMW to continue making money on cars that have entered the used market. Moreover, this isn’t the first time the company has tried something like this. In 2019, BMW introduced an $80 per year fee for people to use Apple CarPlay in its cars. The company later scrapped the subscription after BMW owners complained about it.
The plan also fits into a broader trend of automakers trying to move beyond one-time purchases. Companies like Cadillac and Porsche have experimented with subscriptions that allow people to swap cars on demand. But BMW’s latest take on the model seems unsavory in a way those services did not.
If you played Flash-based games in the 2000s, you probably remember Kongregate, a website that hosted over 100,000 browser games. Developers of any experience level could upload their creations, and users could find a host of oddball options that you weren’t likely to find elsewhere. Unfortunately, the site will soon take a step towards being more of an archive than an active part of the internet, as Kongregate has announced that it’ll stop accepting new game uploads “around” July 22nd. The company does say that all of its 128,000 games will still be playable, and developers will be able to keep updating them, as well.
Additionally, Forbes confirmed that the site is also laying off an unknown number of employees after a number of employees tweeted that they only found out by a direct deposit to their bank accounts. Kongregate said in a statement to Forbes that the way they found out was entirely unintentional.
Cyberpunk 2077 will no longer have one of its more intriguing movement mechanics that have been showcased in demos over the last couple of years. CD Projekt Red says it has ditched the wall-running ability.
“[Wall-running] is something that we removed due to design reasons, but there’s still going to be a lot of flexibility in how you move, that’s for sure,” level designer Max Pears told Gamereactorin an interview (via Eurogamer). A lengthy 2018 gameplay demo showed the protagonist V equipping mantis blades, then running along a wall and perching above a group of enemies.
I’m proud to join @parler_app — a platform gets what free speech is all about — and I’m excited to be a part of it. Let’s speak. Let’s speak freely. And let’s end the Silicon Valley censorship. Follow me there @tedcruz! pic.twitter.com/pzUFvhipBZ
The app has been downloaded more than 870,000 times in the last two weeks according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. That’s close to half of the app’s total installs — 1.8 million, according to Sensor Tower — since it launched in 2018. This week, Parler has ranked among the top apps in the App Store and Google Play.
At the same time, many of the app’s new users have reportedly found the “free speech social network” to be less welcoming than one might expect of a social network premised on free speech. Twitter users, many of whom may have joined the app to troll Parler’s conservative users — have since said they were banned.
IS THIS MYSPACE? NO ONE IS RESPONDING TO MY TWEETS!!! IS EVERYONE AT PARLER ???
The Nunes antagonist behind the infamous @DevinCow Twitter account, reported being banned from Parler shortly after joining (thought they seem to be taking the ban in stride.) There arenumerousotheraccounts of bans, though circumstances around them aren’t clear.
Still, the complaints have been widespread enough that the app’s CEO, John Matze, has addressed them. In a post on Parler, he said there are “very few basic rules we need to follow on Parler.”
He went on to specify that users should not post photos of pornography or fecal matter and that usernames shouldn’t be “obscene.”
“We will not allow you to spam other people trying to speak, with unrelated comments like ‘Fuck you’ in every comment,” he wrote. “If ever in doubt, ask yourself if you would say it on the streets of New York or national television.”
But read the app’s rules carefully, and it seems there are more gray areas that could get a user banned. A few examples from the app’s community guidelines:
avoid language/visuals that are sexual in nature
do not use language/visuals that are morbid or degrading
do not use language/visuals that are offensive and offer no literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
avoid language/visuals that is non-satirical when claiming to be a satire account.
Additionally, the app’s terms of service states the app can remove posts or ban users for any reason at all — even if they’re following the rules. It also has a questionable clause that states users can be liable for the company’s legal fees should they be sued as the result of a post.
On Tuesday, the company went further: asking its users to step in and volunteer as unpaid moderator in order to keep “violations such as spam, porn, nudity, obscenities off our platform.” The company said it would eventually pay moderators via the in-app tipping system, but didn’t elaborate on the details.
Parler didn’t respond to a request for comment on its policies.
However, Matze has said he would like more liberal users to join the app. He told CNBC he planned to offer a “progressive bounty” that would pay $20,000 if “an openly liberal pundit with 50,000 followers on Twitter or Facebook” joined Parler. It’s unclear if anyone has taken him up on the offer.
Anduril’s hardware almost looks like it belongs in orbit, rather than sitting amid desert scrub. On the ground, two wide solar panels collect energy to keep the surveillance tower running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And at the top of a lengthy mast sit a cluster of cameras, sensors and antennae designed to spot animals, vehicles and people as they traverse potentially rugged landscapes. Of course, that hardware is only part of the solution — Anduril’s Lattice AI collects the data from those myriad sensors, identifies the objects in motion, and feeds relevant information to its customers in government and law enforcement.
It’s worth noting, however, that Anduril’s AI has limits. Despite a bevy of sophisticated sensors, these towers can’t be used for fine-grained personal data collection.
“We know at a distance whether it’s a person, it’s a cow, it’s a vehicle, it’s an aircraft, it’s a ship,” said Richard Steckman, Anduril’s Chief Revenue Officer, to the Post. “We don’t know anything below that level, but for border security, especially in rural locations, that’s enough to make a decision.”
While industry observers were surprised to see Palmer Luckey shift gears from consumer virtual reality to defense technology, what might have been more surprising was the speed at which the former Oculus chief found success in his new venture. He started Anduril Industries in 2017, mere months after being forced out of Facebook due to backlash from a $10,000 donation he made to a pro-Trump political group. Just over a year later, Anduril was on the ground on a ranch in Texas, testing a cluster of four Lattice-powered surveillance towers. During that ten-week people, Wired reported that the AI had helped customs agents apprehend 55 people who had crossed the border illegally. It wasn’t long before U.S. Customs and Border Protection procured an additional 56 towers.
Now, just three years since launch, Anduril landed a government deal estimated the Post pegs at hundreds of millions of dollars. The startup didn’t just get cash to grow from the federal government, either. The Trump administration’s announcement comes on the heels of another major milestone for the startup: It just closed a $200 million Series C funding round, based largely on its promise of becoming a full-blown defense contractor. With today’s announcement, Luckey and Anduril have made good on that promise.
Despite early successes in the field, though, it doesn’t appear that the Trump administration’s embrace of “virtual wall” technology has diminished its zeal for traditional, physical barriers. The president’s border wall has grown by about 50 miles since the end of February, while much of the country grapples with upticks in COVID-19 infections and questions over re-opening.
Amazon’s latest sci-fi series will be a familiar one to gamers — the company is partnering with Bethesda to make a show based on the post-apocalyptic Fallout series. Tweets from both Bethesda and Amazon confirmed this, and Bethesda also confirmed that Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are developing the show through their Kilter Films production company. The game series first started way back in 1997 and is set decades in the future in an America in the aftermath of nuclear war.
Bethesda says it has been looking for ways to adapt Fallout to a movie or series for the last decade and that Nolan and Joy’s vision for the series is the first that made them think it could be done right. Unsurprisingly, we’re not getting any detail on who else might be involved, what the story might focus on or when the series will arrive. But Bethesda’s press release specifically cites the games’ “serious and harsh” tone that’s also set alongside some “ironic humor” and oddball “B-movie nuclear fantasies” — so we can probably expect to see moments that keep the show from being too grim.
All the core battle royale genre hallmarks are here. Matches start with players dropping into the virtual city of Neo-Arcadia, and scavenging for gear and weapons. The play area shrinks over time as map sectors deteriorate, forcing players closer together until one team is left standing.
What helps make Hyper Scape a little different is that there’s another way to win. Towards the end of a match, the Hyper Scape crown pops up somewhere on the map. You can claim victory if you pick up and hang onto it for 45 seconds.
If you find a gun you already have, you can fuse them to upgrade your weapon. You’ll find shotguns, pistols, grenade launchers, machine guns and sniper rifles, and you can carry two of them at a time.
There’s a lot of focus on movement and verticality in Hyper Scape, which is free to play. Players can double jump and climb up structures, and there’s no fall damage.
“Hacks” will help you get around, and you’ll have inventory slots for two abilities. For instance, you can build a wall wherever you like to gain height quickly (or shield yourself from enemies), teleport, become invisible or turn into a bouncing ball. Other hacks include heat-sensitive mines, an option to reveal nearby enemy locations and armor. The latter negates all damage, but you can’t use your weapons while it’s active. You can swap out and upgrade your hacks during a round.
A brand-new urban battle royale begins today. #HyperScape is now live on Twitch!
Watch streams to earn access to the Technical Test via Twitch Drops.
If you’re watching an eligible stream and you’re fortunate enough, you’ll gain access to the Hyper Scape technical test on PC. Players in the following countries are eligible to join the test: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the US.
Ubisoft Montreal actually developed the game in partnership with Twitch, and viewers can get in on the action in other ways. They can impact the game directly if streamers are using the Crowncast extension. Streamers can use that to share details about their loadouts and in-game stats, and viewers can vote for events that affect all players in a match, such as enabling low gravity, granting infinite ammo or revealing player locations.
Ubisoft
“What makes Twitch so unique is the real-time engagement between our streamers and their fans. While traditionally this kind of interaction has been about commenting on gameplay, Hyper Scape transports viewers into the game themselves, to serve as active participants,” Sharmeen Browarek Chapp, vice president of community product at Twitch, said in a statement. “The fact that fans can now directly impact what’s happening in the game creates an entirely new experience.”
The technical test runs through July 7th. The trios (or Crown Rush mode) is available now, and players will get to try the Dark Haze solo mode before the end of the test. There’ll also be a free 10-tier battle pass, and all of your progress and items you earn will carry forward through future tests and betas through to the full launch of Hyper Scape.
Update 7/2 2:45 PM ET: Added more details from Twitch and Ubisoft.
The other major concern opponents of the EARN IT Act raise has to do with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says that companies are not liable for much of the content that users post. Originally, the EARN IT Act proposed requiring that companies “earn” Section 230 protections by following recommended practices outlined by a Department of Justice (DoJ) commission. Without those protections, companies like Twitter or Facebook might be compelled to remove anything that might prompt a legal challenge, which could threaten freedom of speech.
The amendments passed today strip the DoJ commission of any legal authority and will not require companies to earn Section 230 protections by following recommended practices. But the amended bill would change Section 230 to allow lawsuits from states, and state legislatures could restrict or outlaw encryption technologies. Plus, that could lead to inconsistent laws that vary state-by-state.
“The drafters of this bill obviously want to address real harms from abusive materials, but the amended bill creates an enormous opening for state-level liability,” said Gaurav Laroia, Free Press Action senior policy counsel, in a statement. “Even as amended today, it invites states to begin passing all sorts of laws under the guise of protecting against abuse, but replicating the problems with the original EARN IT Act’s text.”
“While there are significant changes made in the amended version, these changes do not alleviate the concerns that the EARN IT Act will undermine the privacy of every single American, stifle our ability to communicate freely online, and harm LGBTQ people, sex workers, and protesters,” the ACLU wrote in a statement.
