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Spatial goes free, aiming to become the Zoom of virtual collaboration

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To get a real-world sense of how Spatial works, I jumped headfirst into the platform to chat with its CEO, Anand Agarawala, and chief product officer Jinha Lee. But before I could do anything, I needed to create an avatar on the company’s site. I snapped a photo with a neutral expression (as instructed), uploaded it, and within a few seconds, I had a creepy digital doppelganger blinking back at me.

Spatial demo

Spatial

I’ve had my fair share of VR demos — I was more intrigued to see how Spatial would translate its technology for web browsers. So I kicked off our meeting through Chrome while my Oculus Quest charged up. The onboarding process wasn’t any different than Zoom, Webex or any other collaboration tools: I clicked a personalized link and was thrust into a virtual living room alongside Agarawala and Lee’s avatars.

The 3D room looked a bit muddy, and the framerate wasn’t anywhere near 30 FPS (the bare minimum for smooth-looking 3D worlds), but I could still easily hold a conversation with both of them. My view of the room panned left and right automatically, so I could get a decent sense of the space, but there was no manual control of the camera.

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PlayStation 4 sales pass 110 million

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Sony’s massively-popular PlayStation 4 has smashed another sales milestone. In its latest financial earnings, the company revealed that 1.5 million consoles — a figure that covers all configurations, including the PlayStation 4 Pro — in the three-month period that ended on March 31st, 2020. That brings lifetime sales to 110.4 million, a figure that’s just shy of the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color. The PlayStation 4’s momentum has slowed, though. The company sold 2.6 million consoles in the same period last year, and fiscal year (April 2019 to March 2020) sales were down by 4.2 million. It’s unlikely, therefore, that the ageing system will take the ‘all time best-selling console’ crown from the PlayStation 2.

Sony won’t mind, though. The company is scheduled to release the PS5 this year, which will undoubtedly boost hardware sales. In its earnings, the company reiterated that the system is “on track for launch in this holiday season.” Yesterday, an online job posting suggested that the console would come out in October. Sony told Japanese gaming publication Famitsu that the date was an “error” introduced by the recruiting site, however. For now, therefore, we’re still stuck with a “holiday 2020” release window.

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Detective RPG ‘Disco Elysium’ will now run on decade-old PCs

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Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has rolled out a Working Class update that allows the detective RPG to run even on a laptop you haven’t touched in years. In its announcement, the company said it wants the game to run on as many machines as possible, “[n]o matter how old or low-tech” they may be. To make that happen, the team optimized Disco Elysium to drop its minimum specs “down to Mariana Trench levels.”

The game’s new minimum specs for Windows machines are: Windows 7, DirectX 11 compatible video card (integrated or dedicated with minimum memory of 512MB), 2GB of RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo and 20GB hard disk space. As PC Gamer notes, the game used to require an Intel i5-7500/AMD 1500 (or equivalent) processor, 4GB of RAM and an integrated Intel HD620 (or equivalent) graphics card.

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‘COD: Warzone’ now requires two-factor authentication for PC players

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New Call of Duty: Warzone players on PC will now have to go through two-factor authentication via text messaging when they log in to play. To be clear, CoD developer Infinity Ward has rolled out the additional security measure for those playing on the free-to-play client and not those accessing the battle royale game via Modern Warfare.

In its announcement tweet, the company said the feature is meant to provide PC gamers with “an additional layer of security” — PlayStation and Xbox players already have their platforms’ two-factor verification system to protect them, after all. As the responses to the tweet and GameSpot suggest, though, the developer could’ve also implemented the feature to thin out cheaters by preventing their bots from being able to log in.



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‘Apex Legends’ season five adds a lot more than just a new character

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Other characters have smaller changes, as Bloodhound’s sonar ability refreshes more quickly, and Octane’s Jump Pad ultimate also charges up faster than before. The robot Pathfinder has been weakened, now that his grappling hook ability has seen its cooldown increase from 15 seconds to 35.

Along with the reworked areas in King’s Canyon, the map also contains new Charge Towers that can instantly fill up the ultimate meter for every player on the platform. When it comes to weapons, the Pathfinder shotgun is no longer simply laying around in loot crates, and can only be found in care packages, while the Mastiff shotgun that used to be exclusive to end-game care package drops is now a regular weapon with reduced power.

The PvE elements of season five aren’t live yet, but players can already kick off the new Broken Ghost quest / story line while they wait, and see how the new character Loba can use her abilities — a translocating bracelet, the ability to see high-value loot through walls and an ultimate that collects all nearby loot instantly — to mix up gameplay.



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It’s not your connection — Slack is down

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Whether you’re used to working from home or are connecting remotely for pandemic-related reasons, this is not the time to be cut off from your team. Unfortunately, the communication service Slack is suffering a major outage, causing messages to fail and preventing users from connecting. The service’s issues have lasted about a half-hour so far with no word on exactly what the issue is or ETA for a fix.

You can keep an eye on the Slack status page to see when things are resolved, or maybe just go for a socially-distanced walk or watch something on TV. And if you can’t go offline, then have you heard that Google Meet is available for free?

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SpaceX Crew Dragon simulator shows what it’s like to dock with the ISS

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You don’t have to train as an astronaut to know what it’s like to pilot Crew Dragon — you just need a web browser and some patience. TechCrunch notes that SpaceX has launched a web simulator that lets you dock the capsule with the International Space Station using the “actual interface” the crew relies upon. The input is simple, and your only goal is to keep the pitch, roll, yaw and positional values green as you make your approach. It’s fulfilling that goal which is tricky. You’re guiding a ship slowly through microgravity, so you need to adjust your expectations accordingly.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said he completed the physical simulator on the “first try” back in 2019, although it’s clearly easier for him to understand as a former Air Force pilot.



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Twitter for iOS now shows all retweets with comments in one place

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Twitter is making it easier to keep track of what people are saying about your tweets. Hot on the heels of an earlier test, Twitter’s iOS app now provides an option to see all the retweets with comments (that is, where someone quoted you instead of a plain retweet) in a single feed. Tap the retweet counter and you’ll know if followers cheered you on, made a snide remark or provided useful insight —and it should be that much easier to respond.

You might also be happy to know that those commented retweets will contribute to the total retweet count “very soon.” There’s a degree of vanity involved to boosting the retweet count, to be sure, but this could also be helpful if you want to gauge the true reaction to your posts and participate in more conversations.



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Facebook will pay content moderators $52 million in PTSD settlement

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As part of the settlement, Facebook will make changes to its content moderation software. Audio will be muted by default and videos (which often include violent or otherwise harrowing footage) will be displayed in black and white. These changes will be in place for all moderators by 2021. Moderators will also have access to licensed mental health professionals, counselors and monthly group therapy sessions.

Facebook will also require the companies who hire content moderators to provide details about psychological support at each workstation and to screen for “emotional resiliency” during the hiring process. They’ll also need to tell moderators how that can report violations of Facebook’s policies by their own workplace.

The settlement covers content moderators in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida who worked for Facebook from 2015 until now. Those involved in the class-action suit can review the settlement and request changes before a judge signs off on it.

The class-action suit stems from one filed by former content moderator Selena Scola in 2018. She claimed that she developed PTSD after nine months on the job. The suit alleged that the company “ignored its duty” to protect moderators who experience mental trauma after viewing extreme material as part of their job. Content moderators in Europe have brought similar lawsuits against Facebook. Last year, the company announced pay increases for content moderators, following reports that they were not well compensated for thankless, difficult work.

“We are grateful to the people who do this important work to make Facebook a safe environment for everyone,” Facebook told Engadget in a statement. “We’re committed to providing them additional support through this settlement and in the future.”

“We are so pleased that Facebook worked with us to create an unprecedented program to help people performing work that was unimaginable even a few years ago,” Steve Williams, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told The Verge. “The harm that can be suffered from this work is real and severe.”



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Google’s whole-home Nest Aware subscription is available now

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Google’s streamlined Nest Aware service is finally rolling out in 19 markets several months after it was first announced. As of this week, you can now pay $60 per year (or $6 per month) to provide 30 days of event video history for all your Nest security devices instead of paying per camera. Pay $120 per year (or $12 per month) and Nest Aware Plus will both double the event history to 60 days and offer 10 days of 24/7 history.

The new Aware will also record and share any event clip that needs your attention, such as a package at the door or an intruder. Your Nest speakers and smart displays will let you know if about concerning sounds, such as breaking glass or a smoke alarm, and you can take care of remote relatives if they have a Nest Hub Max.

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