Apple is joining the chorus of companies promising to address racial justice in the wake of large-scale protests over police violence and discrimination. Tim Cook has unveiled a Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, including a $100 million pledge, that will tackle the “systemic barriers” to opportunity and dignity for people from diverse backgrounds, with a particular focus on the black community. This includes support for education, economic opportunities, justice and reform within Apple itself.
The company intends to expand on its existing partnerships with historically black schools, and will forge new partnerships with groups like the Equal Justice Initiative. It’s launching a Developer Entrepreneur Camp for black developers ahead of WWDC. Apple also intends to improve spending and representation among its partners, and aims to do more to “hire, develop and support” people from underrepresented groups inside Apple.
Last week, Bandai Namco announced that it had turned the neon-infused hit Pac-Man: Championship Edition into an NES-style demake. At the time, it seemed as if you could only play the game if you bought all of the entries in the company’s Japanese Namcot Collection series of re-releases. However, the game will be included as a bonus in the upcoming Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1, which will be available for consoles and Steam in North America and Europe on June 18th.
The collection also includes arcade titles like Dig-Dug and Xevious, as well as the cult classic Famicom title Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. It will be joined by Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2, which features ten games from a slightly newer era, like Galaga, Pac-Land and Super Xevious. This compilation will come with an NES-style version of Gaplus as a bonus — a game that was previously only on the Commodore 64 and in arcades.
There’s also a chance that you’ll have a fire sale in your game. When this is in effect, most Buy Station items will be on sale for 80 percent off and some (including bringing back a dead teammate) will be free. There won’t be any discounts on Loadout Drops, however, and you’ll need to be quick if you want to pick up a bargain: a fire sale will only last for a minute.
The third mid-match twist arriving in season four is the supply chopper. It’s a heavily armored helicopter which won’t attack anyone, but you’ll probably want to fire at it and take it down anyway. It’ll be packed full of goodies, including, at the very least, three UAVs, two armor boxes, a couple of munitions boxes, gas mask, grenade launcher and loads of cash.
The Warzone playlist will include a 50 vs. 50 team deathmatch mode called Warzone Rumble. Two limited-time modes are on the way this season as well: Juggernaut Royale and Realism. In the former, there’ll be three care packages that include the Juggernaut suit, which is best known as a killstreak reward in multiplayer. It provides you with a big health boost, a minigun and a fresh music track to accompany the carnage you’ll dispense. When a Juggernaut player is eliminated, another suit will drop into the map in a care package.
Infinity Ward/Raven Software
As for Realism, that will adopt the vibe of Modern Warfare‘s multiplayer modes, with a minimal heads-up display and increased headshot damage. Speaking of multiplayer, it’ll once again be free for everyone this weekend, starting at 1 PM ET tomorrow and ending at the same time on Sunday.
The new season brings three new maps to Modern Warfare multiplayer at launch: Zhokov Scrapyard (from Modern Warfare 2), Ground War map Barakett Promenade and Gunfight locale Trench. More multiplayer modes and missions will emerge during the season, and there’ll be plenty of new weapons and gear for you to get your mitts on.
Of course, a new season means there’s a fresh battle pass. Instant unlocks for those who buy it include a new operator, Modern Warfare stalwart Captain Price, and a battle horn customization item. Two more operators will hit the store during the season. All players, even those who don’t buy the pass, will be able to earn two new weapons, legendary assault rifle and sniper rifle blueprints, 300 CoD points, cosmetics and more by progressing through the ranks.
As you’d imagine, the ZenBook Duo instantly stands out from every other notebook when it’s open. But it’s another story if you’re not actually looking at the screens. ASUS is still relying on its metallic ZenBook case design, which is sleek and smooth to the touch. Its matte finish gives off an air of subtle refinement — certainly more than the shinier cases from past ZenBooks. ASUS also includes an array of useful ports, including two USB Type A connections, one USB C, HDMI and a microSD card slot. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support Intel’s fast Thunderbolt 3 standard, which is technically four times faster than standard USB 3.1.
Beneath the hood, the ZenBook Duo features Intel’s quad-core i7-10510U, 16GB of RAM and NVIDIA’s GeForce MX 250 GPU. ASUS likely opted for that NVIDIA GPU to better handle dual displays. It doesn’t really lead to much more performance compared to the XPS 13’s integrated Iris Plus graphics though. Both notebooks ended up scoring almost the same in the 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark, though the ZenBook Duo edged out a victory in the newer Night Raid test. And Overwatch was a bit more playable in 720p and even 1080p with lower graphics settings, thanks to more consistent frame rates.
Unsurprisingly, given all of its horsepower, the ZenBook Duo handled all of my productivity needs without issue. But I really appreciated having 16GB of RAM when dealing with dozens and browser tabs and other apps running on the secondary screen. This is a machine meant for multitasking, after all. The more memory, the better. It also lasted a surprising 11 hours and 55 minutes on our battery test, even with both screens on. The ZenBook Pro Duo, had a hard time reaching four hours.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
If you’re considering the ZenBook Duo, the real question you need to ask yourself is how much do you really need two screens on a $1,499 ultraportable. ASUS did a decent job of fitting in a second display, but it leads to plenty of compromises. I wouldn’t go so far as to call the ScreenPad Plus a gimmick, but it’s not something most people actually need — not when you can get a thinner, lighter and cheaper machine like the XPS 13. Still, it’s a noble experiment — the ZenBook Duo stands alone in a sea of ever-similar ultraportables.
Back in 2015, networking equipment vendor Juniper Networks discovered unauthorized code in its software that created a backdoor, potentially allowing hackers to decrypt and spy on supposedly secure traffic. Now, officials want answers. A group of 13 senators has sent an open letter to the company, calling for the results of its internal investigation to be published.
“It has now been over four years since Juniper announced it was conducting an investigation, but your company has still not revealed what, if anything, it uncovered,” the letter says. It goes on to outline a number of requests for specific information, such as who led the company’s investigation, why its findings weren’t published as originally promised, and what was ultimately done to remedy the vulnerability. The group has asked for a response from Juniper by July 10th.
Apple also recently removed Castro Podcasts from the App Store for similar reasons. “We think it might have been our support of the protests in the Discover tab,” Castro tweeted. “We were not given specifics.”
China is Apple’s third largest market after the US and Europe. To that end, it often obliges requests to censor apps and content deemed sensitive by the Chinese government including games like Plague, Inc. Foreign podcasts have been banned in China for years, but Apple Podcast recently opened up a window to foreign content in the nation. However, the latest actions suggest that window might be closing fast.
“The very small amount of warning we were given between there being a problem, and our app being completely removed from the Chinese app store was quite alarming,” a Pocket Casts spokersperson told TechCrunch.
Even as pandemic-related lockdown policies ease, movie theaters everywhere remain closed and some may never reopen. It doesn’t feel quite right to have a summer without trips to the movies, but you might be able to replicate the experience for a few guests right at home. LG’s PH30N projector tries to fill the gap with a portable design and $400 price.
LG
Of course, it’s only 720p, so if your aspirations lean toward the IMAX end of things, with features like 4K and HDR, then you will want to read our higher-end suggestions (or spend a little extra for more of those all-important lumens). But if the plan is to find a conveniently placed wall to have the kids watch Artemis Fowl on a bigger screen than usual, it might get the job done.
What’s new? The changes revolve around communication apps and improved privacy features and controls. For example, instead of only being able to allow apps to have access to things like your camera, mic and location “All the time” or “Only while using app,” the new software will enable one-time permissions. The app will be able to request permission again the next time you use it. Permissions for less-frequently-used apps will also auto-reset after a set time. Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low has already spent some time with Android 11 — read up on how the new features fare. Continue reading.
Intel’s ‘3D’ Lakefield chips arrive for foldables and ultrathin laptops
Get ready for something new.
Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation
So what does Intel have planned in the face of rumors that Apple is close to building its own CPUs for Macs? Try these Lakefield processors. Dubbed “Intel Core processors with hybrid technology,” they combine i3 and i5 CPUs with low-power Atom cores. In an arrangement similar to the big.Little setup Qualcomm uses, they divide tasks between the cores they’re most suited to, ideally extending battery life without limiting performance. They won’t be speed demons, but they can run Windows programs built for x86 chips without struggling.
And with 3D packaging technology — think layer cake vs. pancake — Intel says these chips can contain all of that in smaller spaces than usual, making them ideal for thin and light devices. They’re also Intel’s first chips with “native dual internal display pipes” that can help push dual-screen and foldable devices. A version of Samsung’s Galaxy Book S with the new chips inside is slated to ship this month, followed by Lenovo’s Thinkpad X1 Fold later this year. Continue reading.
The world’s first smartwatch had the same issues we have today
Seiko’s Ruputer had terrible battery life and a limited UI.
Back in 1998, Seiko launched arguably the world’s first smartwatch. Reflecting the PDAs of the time, it did calendars, calculators and a few other things, docking with your PC and running on two humble watch batteries — as long as they lasted. The struggles of the Seiko Ruputer were the same ones facing wearables now. Continue reading.
Twitter is thinking of giving you the capability to react more strongly and appropriately to public tweets, based on the latest discovery by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong. The social network rolled out Facebook-like reactions for Direct Messages back in January, but at this point in time, you can still only “heart” tweets in public. Wong, who’s known for taking apps apart to look for hidden features in testing, found an experimental panel that lets you choose from a variety of reactions. It’s located right next to the Retweet and Retweet with Comment buttons.
As you can see, the options aren’t an exact copy of Facebook’s or even the reactions you’ll find in DMs. However, they could change if and when Twitter decides to release the feature to the public. In the image Wong posted, you’ll also see the option to React with Fleet, its Stories-like tweets that disappear after 24 hours. Twitter has been testing Fleets over the past months and found that it’s been seeing less instances of abuse when the disappearing messages are concerned.
It’s been a busy year for Riot Games. The company has shipped Valorant, a first-person shooter inspired by Counter-Strike and Overwatch, Legends of Runeterra, a digital card game similar to Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering, and auto chess sensation Teamfight Tactics on iOS and Android. There’s one project that won’t be seeing the light of day in 2020, though: Arcane. Announced last October, the animated series — set in the same universe as Riot’s League of Legends MOBA — was supposed to come out sometime this year. Production has slowed during the coronavirus pandemic, however, and the company is now targeting a 2021 release date.
“Everyone here at Riot is bummed,” the company said in a blog post. “We were really looking forward to bringing you the show this year, but we need to balance our excitement for the story with the safety and well-being of our teams and partners.” Little is known about the project. A two-minute trailer confirmed that iconic champions (League of Legends‘ term for characters) such as Jinx and Vi will appear in the show. We don’t know much about the storyline, though, or how long the first season will be. Riot has confirmed, however, that it’s working with Fortiche Productions, a French animation studio that was involved with the viral Pop/Stars music video for virtual band K/DA, among other League of Legends projects.
Torn Banner Studios is promising that Chivalry 2 will deliver first-person slasher combat with up to 64 players at once, a big upgrade from a franchise that started life as a Half-Life 2 mod. The first game launched after an $85k Kickstarter in 2012, and now the Unreal Engine 4-powered sequel is coming to PC and current gen consoles later this year. It will also have native versions for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, although release information on those will come later.
Most importantly, prospective knights can play with and against each other no matter which platform they’re on. Mounted combat, castle sieges, fights that go on even after someone’s lost a limb or two — it’s in the game. The developers announced cross play during IGN’s Summer of Gaming 2020 event with a new trailer, but to get a feel for how it will play, there’s also a 5-minute gameplay video available, and a closed alpha period that you can join now.
