Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the take-it-back department: Apple said on Tuesday it plans to ask a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department and 15 states in March that alleged the iPhone maker monopolized the smartphone market, hurt smaller rivals and drove up prices. From a report: In a letter to U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals in New Jersey, Apple said "far from being a monopolist, Apple faces fierce competition from well-established rivals, and the complaint fails to allege that Apple has the ability to charge supra-competitive prices or restrict output in the alleged smartphone markets." In the letter to the judge, Apple said the DOJ relies on a new "theory of antitrust liability that no court has recognized."
The government is expected to respond within seven days to the Apple letter, which the court requires parties to submit, hoping to expedite cases before advancing to a potentially more robust and expensive effort to dismiss a lawsuit. The Justice Department alleges that Apple uses its market power to get more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses and merchants. The civil lawsuit accuses Apple of an illegal monopoly on smartphones maintained by imposing contractual restrictions on, and withholding critical access from, developers.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the long-time-coming department: After being rumored for years, Sonos has officially entered the headphones market with its new Ace headphones. "The Sonos Ace wireless over-ear active noise-canceling headphones are specified to go toe-to-toe with the established market leaders from the likes of Apple and Bose, and they're priced to match at $449," reports Wired. From the report: Visually, you get an elegant and notably slim pair of over-ear headphones in either a black or "soft" white matte finish. Thanks to a light 312-gram weight, and with some very well-judged clamping force and a clever hanger arrangement that conceals the hinged yoke inside the body of the ear cups, it means all-day comfort. The combination of memory foam, vegan leather, and stainless steel is equally beneficial where comfort and aesthetics are concerned. Branding is restricted to one ear cup, and it's laser-etched, so it manages to be understated while still catching the eye. Where the Apple AirPods Max shout "look at ME!," the Sonos Ace enunciate it quietly and precisely.
As far as performance is concerned, you get all the bells and whistles you'd expect. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.4, and they have SBC and AAC codecs, allowing the Ace to be compatible with ALAC and Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound aptX Lossless. Sound is delivered by a pair of custom-designed 40-mm dynamic drivers. Sonos is characteristically coy about frequency response, but from my brief listen at a recent press event in London, they were full-range enough for real bass. Ported acoustic architecture allows for optimum low-frequency extension. Spatial audio is available via those streaming services that support Dolby Atmos and/or Sony 360 Reality Audio, and Sonos' Intelligent Motion Processing with Dolby Head Tracking dynamically follows your head movement to provide an even greater sensation of immersion and envelopment.
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Posted by from MMO Champion
Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes - May 21, 2024 WoW Remix Tuning and Adjustments - May 21
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We’ve continued to deploy hotfixes to the game in response to feedback and data that we’re seeing. The following adjustments are now live, and are intended to address concerns about the balance of low- and high-level players in various Remix content:
The health of creatures in heroic scenarios has been decreased by 20% - 25%, based on the players’ levels. Higher level players will see enemies incur a larger decrease.
The health and damage of creatures on the Timeless Isle, Isle of Giants, and Isle of Thunder has been reduced.
Several spell gems (that were not down scaling up or down correctly based on player level) have been adjusted so that they provide a more-appropriate scaling effect. This includes Cold Front, Windweaver, Vampiric Aura, and Lightning Rod.
Spell gems with shielding effects should no longer cause threat.
Fixed a bug with Righteous Frenzy not canceling upon the end of combat.
Timerunner’s Vial mana regen significantly increased.
We’ll have all of the above, as well as other hotfixes to various issues, listed in our next
hotfixes update.
Thanks again for all of your feedback!
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the rest-in-peace department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Computer pioneer Gordon Bell, who as an early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) played a key role in the development of several influential minicomputer systems and also co-founded the first major computer museum, passed away on Friday, according to Bell Labs veteran John Mashey. Mashey announced Bell's passing in a social media post on Tuesday morning. "I am very sad to report [the] death May 17 at age 89 of Gordon Bell, famous computer pioneer, a founder of Computer Museum in Boston, and a force behind the @ComputerHistory here in Silicon Valley, and good friend since the 1980s," wrote Mashey in his announcement. "He succumbed to aspiration pneumonia in Coronado, CA."
Bell was a pivotal figure in the history of computing and a notable champion of tech history, having founded Boston's Computer Museum in 1979, which later became the heart of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, with his wife Gwen Bell. He was also the namesake of the ACM's prestigious Gordon Bell Prize, created to spur innovations in parallel processing. Bell also mentored at Microsoft in 1995, where he "studied telepresence technologies and served as the subject of the MyLifeBits life-logging project," reports Ars. "The initiative aimed to realize Vannevar Bush's vision of a system that could store all the documents, photos, and audio a person experienced in their lifetime."
Former Windows VP Steven Sinofsky said Bell "was immeasurably helpful at Microsoft where he was a founding advisor and later full time leader in Microsoft Research. He advised and supported countless researchers, projects, and product teams. He was always supportive and insightful beyond words. He never hesitated to provide insights and a few sparks at so many of the offsites that were so important to the evolution of Microsoft."
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Datamining - Build 54774
Build 54774 will be deployed to the Beta realms soon.
There are now 40 slots for talent loadouts, up from 10.
Queen Ansurek drops
Sureki Skyrazor and
Ascendant Skyrazor (Mythic)
More Story Mode things have been added
Story Mode
There are hints in the data that a Story Mode is coming to raids. The details aren't clear and this hasn't been announced, so please remember that nothing is final.
An entry has been added to Queen Ansurek's difficulties for 1-5 player difficulty.
This new mode currently uses the same difficulty scaling as Normal, but that could change.
There are only entries for the final boss, so it may be limited to one boss for story progression / quests.
The release of this difficulty could come at a different time as it has its own entry.
A new spell was added that may be related:
Queue for the Queen Ansurek New Icons
The War Within Alpha Development Notes
Blizzard has posted the Development Notes for Build 54774.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the tussle-continues department: Companies working with the US government may be required to start protecting their data and technology from attacks by quantum computers as soon as July. From a report: The National Institute for Standards and Technology, part of the Department of Commerce, will in July stipulate three types of encryption algorithms the agency deems sufficient for protecting data from quantum computers, setting an internationally-recognized standard aimed at helping organizations manage evolving cybersecurity threats. The rollout of the standards will kick off "the transition to the next generation of cryptography," White House deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told Bloomberg in Cambridge, England on Tuesday. Breaking encryption not only threatens "national security secrets" but also the the way we secure the internet, online payments and bank transactions, she added.
Neuberger was speaking at an event organized by the University of Cambridge and Vanderbilt University, hosting academics, industry professionals and government officials to discuss the threats posed to cybersecurity by quantum computing, which vastly accelerates processing power by performing calculations in parallel rather than sequentially and will make existing encryption systems obsolete.
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Development Notes - May 21, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We have the following changes and updates in today’s new build of The War Within Alpha:
Classes
The number of talent loadouts that can be saved on a per character basis to has been increased to 40 (was 10).
We are removing increased melee range talents across the game, such as Astral Influence and Acrobatic Strikes. Default melee range has increased since these talents were originally created, so they now allow specs to attack from well outside where it appears they should be able to. They make the melee experience inconsistent across classes in a way we’re not happy with, so we’re removing them.
Rogue
Deathstalker (Assassination/Subtlety) Hero Talents are now available for testing.
The harbingers of death, Deathstalkers strike from the shadows to bring a swift end to their targets.
Death Knight
New Talent: Unyielding Will – Anti-Magic Shell’s cooldown is increased by 20 seconds and it now also removes all harmful magic effects when activated. Now a capstone talent available after Rune Mastery and Subduing Grasp.
The class tree has had further adjustments in talent locations and pathing updates.
Osmosis healing received while Anti-Magic Shell is active is increased by 15%. Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Runic Protection armor increased to 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Blood Draw cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
Blood Draw is no longer a capstone and is now available in Death’s Echo old location.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Development Notes - May 21, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We have the following changes and updates in today’s new build of The War Within Alpha:
Classes
The number of talent loadouts that can be saved on a per character basis to has been increased to 40 (was 10).
We are removing increased melee range talents across the game, such as Astral Influence and Acrobatic Strikes. Default melee range has increased since these talents were originally created, so they now allow specs to attack from well outside where it appears they should be able to. They make the melee experience inconsistent across classes in a way we’re not happy with, so we’re removing them.
Rogue
Deathstalker (Assassination/Subtlety) Hero Talents are now available for testing.
The harbingers of death, Deathstalkers strike from the shadows to bring a swift end to their targets.
Death Knight
New Talent: Unyielding Will – Anti-Magic Shell’s cooldown is increased by 20 seconds and it now also removes all harmful magic effects when activated. Now a capstone talent available after Rune Mastery and Subduing Grasp.
The class tree has had further adjustments in talent locations and pathing updates.
Osmosis healing received while Anti-Magic Shell is active is increased by 15%. Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Runic Protection armor increased to 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Blood Draw cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
Blood Draw is no longer a capstone and is now available in Death’s Echo old location.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the no-surprises department: Major oil companies have in recent years made splashy climate pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and take on the climate crisis, but a new report suggests those plans do not stand up to scrutiny. From a report: The research and advocacy group Oil Change International examined climate plans from the eight largest US- and European-based international oil and gas producers -- BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies -- and found none were compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels -- a threshold scientists have long warned could have dire consequences if breached.
"There is no evidence that big oil and gas companies are acting seriously to be part of the energy transition," David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International, who co-authored the analysis, said in a statement. The report's authors used 10 criteria and ranked each aspect of each companyâ(TM)s plan on a spectrum from "fully aligned" to "grossly insufficient" and found all eight companies ranked "grossly insufficient" or "insufficient" on nearly all criteria. The US firms Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil each ranked "grossly insufficient" on all 10 criteria. "American fossil-fuel corporations are the worst of the worst," Allie Rosenbluth, US program manager at Oil Change International, said in a statement.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the pushing-the-limits department: Microsoft is planning to either add subtitles or even dub video produced by major video sites, using AI to translate the audio into foreign languages within Microsoft Edge in real time. From a report: At its Microsoft Build developer conference, Microsoft named several sites that would benefit from the new real-time translation capabilities within Edge, including Reuters, CNBC News, Bloomberg, and Coursera, plus Microsoft's own LinkedIn. Interestingly, Microsoft also named Google's YouTube as a beneficiary of the translation capabilities. Microsoft plans to translate the video from Spanish to English and from English to German, Hindi, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. There are plans to add additional languages and video platforms in the future, Microsoft said.
After years of marketing, delays, betas, and name changes, XDefiant from Ubisoft is finally here and...things aren’t going very well. Players are currently unable to find matches as the game’s servers can’t seem to cope with the large influx of people. 
Are you hungry? Are you really hungry? Do you want 50 chicken nuggets? Well, lucky you, Wendy’s is now selling a bucket that contains 50 fried pieces of chicken across the United States. 
Cosplayer and OnlyFans creator Belle Delphine recently revealed that she earned no money from her 2019 viral “Gamer Girl Bath Water” stunt because PayPal was charging her weird fees and keeping the funds for itself. Almost five years later, Business Insider reports that the internet celebrity’s “biggest L” has finally… 
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The Pokédex has had plenty of different voices across the Pokémon franchise. This digital codex tells you all about the different critters you meet in the Pokémon world, and in the anime, it’s voiced. Original protagonist Ash Ketchum cycled through several variations of the Pokédex throughout his years-long run, and… 
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The first season of X-Men ‘97, the animated series on Disney+, is over. The show was a stunning continuation of the classic ‘90s cartoon that managed to blend nostalgic appeal with sharp storytelling that masterfully applied the mutant metaphor to modern-day issues. There is already a season two on the way, but if you… 
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