Kamis, 30 Mei 2019
Apple's WWDC 2019: What to expect for iOS 13 and everything else - Engadget
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRltKsivH44
2019-05-30 13:00:16Z
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Microsoft Is Doubling Down on PC Gaming Support - IGN
They're bringing Game Pass to PC and adding more XGS games to Steam
Microsoft has announced that a version of Xbox Game Pass will be coming to PCs, and that more Microsoft Store exclusives titles will be available on Steam.
In a blog post by Phil Spencer, Microsoft's EVP of Gaming and Head of Xbox, he admitted that the software giant has "not always lived up to our aspiration" when it comes to meeting players needs on PC, and would be taking steps to improve the gaming experience on Windows.
"We believe the player should be at the center of their gaming experience and be able to harness the unique benefits of the devices they choose to play on," Spencer said. "As the creators of Windows, we have a unique responsibility to ensure we’re investing in experiences that benefit players everywhere, while respecting the PC community’s preference for an open, highly customizable platform."
Xbox Game Pass on PC
The first point in Spencer's plan is to make the Xbox Pass Game subscription service available to players on PC. "It’s called Xbox Game Pass, just like the original," he says, "but it’s a new experience that we are building together with the PC community."
Exit Theatre Mode
While there's no word yet on exactly how the PC version of Game Pass will differ from its console counterpart, subscribers will have access to more than 100 games from over 75 developers such as Bethesda, Paradox and Devolver Digital, and will also include day-one access to Xbox-studios exclusives from developers like Obsidian and inXile. Subscribers will also get a 20% discount when purchasing full games from the Microsoft Store that appear in the Game Pass library.
Microsoft Games on Steam
"Our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores," Spencer says. "We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games." The post pledges that the company will continue adding Xbox Studios games to Steam, starting with Gears 5.
Exit Theatre Mode
The post didn't specifically say anything about other digital PC distributors like the Epic Games Store or GoG, but Spencer did make a point of saying, "We also know that there are other stores on PC, and we are working to enable more choice in which store you can find our Xbox Game Studios titles in the future."
More Flexible Developer Tools
The last item that Spencer addressed in his post was that the Microsoft Store will be receiving updates allowing for games and apps that run on Win32 architecture instead of the Universal Windows Platform that its been supporting since Windows 8. "When I think about the role we play as a company to support and evolve gaming on Windows," Spencer says, "it’s critical that we make decisions that reinforce the open nature of the PC."
The post also says that Microsoft intends to have all new games from Xbox Studios support cross-play between PC and consoles, "To bring players together to create a shared player community regardless of where they play."
Spencer promised that more information on PC support - along with Xbox's biggest upcoming games - would be coming during their briefing at E3 2019. You can tune into every E3 press conference, from Microsoft to Square Enix, right here on IGN.
JR is IGN's Senior Editor of Features, and you can follow him on Twitter if you're into that.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/05/30/xbox-game-pass-pc-microsoft-games-on-steam
2019-05-30 13:00:14Z
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Your next iPhone or Mac? WWDC offers the best tease - CNET
Apple will kick off its developer conference Monday.
AppleAt WWDC next week, Apple may be talking to developers. But it's really all about you.
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is the company's annual gathering where it hosts designers and engineers making apps for iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices. Thousands will descend on the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, at 10 a.m. PT on Monday to hear CEO Tim Cook and various executives outline their strategy for the company's software. They'll spend the rest of the week at sessions about the new technology and walk away with plans for updating their apps.
WWDC typically isn't where Apple launches new devices. Instead, it updates its iOS software for iPhones and iPads, MacOS for its computers, TVOS for Apple TV and WatchOS for the Apple Watch. Despite all of that news, most of what it unveils won't be available until later in the year, at best. Even if you're a big software fan, some of Apple's announcements, like discussions about the Swift programming language, get technical pretty fast.
Watch this: iOS 13, MacOS 10.15 and MacPro: Everything we’re expecting...
9:08
It may be easy to think WWDC doesn't have anything for you. You're not going to see the next iPhone there, and Oprah's not going to show up. She's already been to one Apple event this year, after all. What could a developer-focused show really offer you?
But if you look past all the talk about Swift and APIs, you'll find quite a lot. While WWDC is all about the developers, it's also Apple's way of teasing the features and services you'll see in products coming later this year. You won't see the new iPhone, but you will see what its interface will look like. You may not get the new Mac Pro, but at the very least, Apple will try to make you feel like it hasn't forgotten the creative professionals. And there will be various health, augmented reality and privacy advancements you'll soon get to access.
The twist this year, though, is those new features and services are increasingly coming directly from Apple -- in some ways a source of tension for the company. As iPhone sales slow -- we're all holding onto our phones longer than before -- Apple has been trying to turn itself into a services powerhouse. It has jumped into TV and music streaming, introduced gaming and news subscriptions and even plans to launch its own credit card this summer.
But just because it's doing more on its own doesn't mean Apple doesn't need developers. After all, it's their apps that keep you reaching for your iPhone. And Apple will give them even more ways to improve those apps you use everyday.
"Apple's not going to have a service for everything out there," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said. "At the end of the day, developers drive engagement, drive new use case and drive the link the consumer has with their device."
Apple declined to comment ahead of WWDC.
App battle
This year's WWDC comes at a tense time for Apple's App Store. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that iPhone owners can sue Apple for allegedly operating a monopoly through its App Store. And there has been an outcry from parental control app makers that Apple unfairly banned their software because their apps compete with Apple's own software. Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and other heavyweights have also criticized Apple's App Store model.
Even the man who used to run third-party app approvals for Apple called on the company to "own up" to irresponsible policies against direct-competitor services, saying "Apple has struggled with using the App Store as a weapon" for years.
Consumers say Apple's tight control over the App Store causes higher prices. Some developers say Apple's policies, like charging a commission for any subscriptions, make it harder for services that compete directly with Apple's own. Apple, for its part, says its App Store policies keep its customers safe and help maintain high standards. It also says it welcomes competition.
While Apple likely won't completely overhaul the App Store, it's got to find ways to keep its developers -- and in return, you -- happy.
At a time when rival Google is touting its artificial intelligence prowess, Apple's software also needs to be smarter. Apple's Siri Shortcuts feature from last year allows the company's digital assistant to complete complex tasks with a single voice command -- or sometimes without a voice command at all. But Siri still doesn't match up to the assistants from Google and Amazon.
The breadth of apps in the App Store isn't the advantage it used to be.
"I don't know the last time I downloaded a new app from the App Store," Milanesi said. "We're now in a very mature part of the market. Apple can't tell the same story."
Beyond the iPhone
This year, there could be two major announcements by Apple that actually have very little to do with its iPhones: the launch of a Watch App Store and a bigger push with Project Marzipan, the effort to make iPhone and iPad apps run on Macs.
Apple's huge installed base of iPhone users has made developing for the iOS App Store an easy sell. At the end of 2018, there were 1.4 billion Apple devices actively used around the globe, the company said in late January during its quarterly earnings report. More than 900 million of them were iPhones.
That same focus hasn't extended to Apple's other products, though. The Mac App Store never really took off, with most software on computers coming through Web browsers. Not all developers have made companion Apple Watch apps, and Apple TV has largely centered around video, not the gaming platform Apple once envisioned. It can even be hard to find apps optimized for Apple's various iPads.
The next version of Apple's WatchOS is expected to make the Apple Watch more "independent." You'll be able to download apps directly from your watch -- even if your phone is nowhere around. Today, Apple Watch apps are companions to the main iPhone app. You currently add them, update them or change their settings through your smartphone, not your watch.
"The watch is an area where Apple has an enormous lead over the competition," Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said. "But there's still a lot of headroom on the watch."
Mac attention?
The biggest advancements from WWDC could come to Apple's long-neglected Mac computer line.
Apple still generates about 10% to 15% of its quarterly sales from its computer line, but it hasn't given its Macs as much attention in recent years as other its devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch. In October 2016, Apple redesigned the MacBook Pro laptop for the first time in four years, but the "butterfly switch" keyboard it's used in every new laptop since then has been criticized. Last week, Apple said it would replace all defective butterfly switch keyboards for free -- even on the new MacBook Pro models it just unveiled.
Apple's Mac Pro is long overdue for an update.
CNETPower users, like graphic designers, also have been waiting for more pro-friendly features for years. The company hasn't made big changes to its high-power Mac Pro since 2013. Notable for its cylindrical design, the Mac Pro is favored by creatives who need a lot of horsepower for professional purposes. Apple said in April 2017 that it's working on a big refresh of the computer, but a year later, it said the device wouldn't hit the market until sometime in 2019.
It's unclear whether Apple will actually launch the Mac Pro at WWDC, but it likely will spend a big chunk of its keynote on its computer line.
At the end of Apple's WWDC presentation last year, the company gave a sneak peak of Project Marzipan, its effort to make it easy to take apps developed for iOS devices to Macs. Its MacOS update released in September included four of Apple's own apps that originated on iOS -- News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home.
This year at WWDC, Apple is expected to open that capability up to third party developers, as well as port more of its own iOS apps, like Podcasts, to the Mac. Marzipan brings Apple's mobile devices and computers one step closer -- without actually merging them.
Like much of WWDC, it may seem wonky and pretty removed from your actual devices. But listen closely, and you just might see the future of those Apple products you'll one day hold in your hands.
$999
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Apple iPhone XS
https://www.cnet.com/news/your-next-iphone-or-mac-wwdc-offers-the-best-tease/
2019-05-30 12:00:11Z
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Google will force Android apps to show the odds of getting loot box items - Engadget
Sponsored Links
Google has made some major alterations to its Play Store policies that tighten rules surrounding sexual content, hate speech and loot boxes. Android Police has spotted the changes, noting that they were designed to make the platform's ecosystem more suitable for children. Under the policies' Monetization and Ads section, Google now notes that games offering randomized virtual items for purchase "must clearly disclose the odds of receiving those items in advance of purchase." In other words, you'll now know how hard it is to get particular items from loot boxes or gacha, so you can better manage your expectations.
The addition of the new rule coincides with the government's efforts to crack down on loot boxes. Senator Josh Hawley recently introduced a bill that would prohibit games marketed towards children from selling them. The FTC also plans to host a public workshop in August to look into consumer protection issues linked to the virtual items.
Google Play has also expanded its rules regarding sexual content to include a ban on nudity and on instances wherein the subject is wearing minimal clothing not "acceptable in an appropriate public context." The tech giant has changed the section's wording to add that it doesn't allow "animations or illustrations of sex acts or sexually suggestive poses," as well anything that "depicts sexual aids and fetishes." In addition, the updated policies note that Google doesn't allow anything considered "lewd or profane" and apps that promote "sex-related entertainment."
Under hate speech, Google has added examples of common violations to clarify the kind of content that will get apps banned. First in the list? "Assertions intended to prove that a protected group is inhuman, inferior or worthy of being hated." Apps that contain theories on how a protected group is a threat or how members inherently possess negative characteristics aren't welcome, as well. Finally, Google says it doesn't allow any content that encourages others to hate others because they're part of a protected group.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/30/google-android-apps-odds-loot-boxes/
2019-05-30 12:01:52Z
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Apple, Google, Microsoft, WhatsApp sign open letter condemning GCHQ proposal to listen in on encrypted chats - TechCrunch
An international coalition of civic society organizations, security and policy experts and tech companies — including Apple, Google, Microsoft and WhatsApp — has penned a critical slap-down to a surveillance proposal made last year by the UK’s intelligence agency, warning it would undermine trust and security and threaten fundamental rights.
“The GCHQ’s ghost protocol creates serious threats to digital security: if implemented, it will undermine the authentication process that enables users to verify that they are communicating with the right people, introduce potential unintentional vulnerabilities, and increase risks that communications systems could be abused or misused,” they wrire.
“These cybersecurity risks mean that users cannot trust that their communications are secure, as users would no longer be able to trust that they know who is on the other end of their communications, thereby posing threats to fundamental human rights, including privacy and free expression. Further, systems would be subject to new potential vulnerabilities and risks of abuse.”
GCHQ’s idea for a so-called ‘ghost protocol’ would be for state intelligence or law enforcement agencies to be invisibly CC’d by service providers into encrypted communications — on what’s billed as targeted, government authorized basis.
The agency set out the idea in an article published last fall on the Lawfare blog, written by the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) Ian Levy and GCHQ’s Crispin Robinson (NB: the NCSC is a public facing branch of GCHQ) — which they said was intended to open a discussion about the ‘going dark’ problem which robust encryption poses for security agencies.
The pair argued that such an “exceptional access mechanism” could be baked into encrypted platforms to enable end to end encryption to be bypassed by state agencies would could instruct the platform provider to add them as a silent listener to eavesdrop on a conversation — but without the encryption protocol itself being compromised.
“It’s relatively easy for a service provider to silently add a law enforcement participant to a group chat or call. The service provider usually controls the identity system and so really decides who’s who and which devices are involved — they’re usually involved in introducing the parties to a chat or call,” Levy and Robinson argued. “You end up with everything still being end-to-end encrypted, but there’s an extra ‘end’ on this particular communication. This sort of solution seems to be no more intrusive than the virtual crocodile clips that our democratically elected representatives and judiciary authorise today in traditional voice intercept solutions and certainly doesn’t give any government power they shouldn’t have.”
“We’re not talking about weakening encryption or defeating the end-to-end nature of the service. In a solution like this, we’re normally talking about suppressing a notification on a target’s device, and only on the device of the target and possibly those they communicate with. That’s a very different proposition to discuss and you don’t even have to touch the encryption.”
“[M]ass-scale, commodity, end-to-end encrypted services… today pose one of the toughest challenges for targeted lawful access to data and an apparent dichotomy around security,” they added.
However while encryption might technically remain intact in the scenario they sketch, their argument glosses over both the fact and risks of bypassing encryption via fiddling with authentication systems in order to enable deceptive third party snooping.
As the coalition’s letter points out, doing that would both undermine user trust and inject extra complexity — with the risk of fresh vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers.
Compromising authentication would also result in platforms themselves gaining a mechanism that they could use to snoop on users’ comms — thereby circumventing the wider privacy benefits provided by end to end encryption in the first place, perhaps especially when deployed on commercial messaging platforms.
So, in other words, just because what’s being asked for is not literally a backdoor in encryption that doesn’t mean it isn’t similarly risky for security and privacy and just as horrible for user trust and rights.
“Currently the overwhelming majority of users rely on their confidence in reputable providers to perform authentication functions and verify that the participants in a conversation are the people that they think they are, and only those people. The GCHQ’s ghost protocol completely undermines this trust relationship and the authentication process,” the coalition writes, also pointing out that authentication remains an active research area — and that work would likely dry up if the systems in question were suddenly made fundamentally untrustworthy on order of the state.
They further assert there’s no way for the security risk to be targeted to the individuals that state agencies want to specifically snoop on. Ergo, the added security risk is universal.
“The ghost protocol would introduce a security threat to all users of a targeted encrypted messaging application since the proposed changes could not be exposed only to a single target,” they warn. “In order for providers to be able to suppress notifications when a ghost user is added, messaging applications would need to rewrite the software that every user relies on. This means that any mistake made in the development of this new function could create an unintentional vulnerability that affects every single user of that application.”
There are more than 50 signatories to the letter in all, and others civic society and privacy rights groups Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, Liberty, Privacy International and the EFF, as well as veteran security professionals such as Bruce Schneier, Philip Zimmermann and Jon Callas, and policy experts such as former FTC CTO and Whitehouse security advisor, Ashkan Soltani .
While the letter welcomes other elements of the article penned by Levy and Robinson — which also set out a series of principles for defining a “minimum standard” governments should meet to have their requests accepted by companies in other countries (with the pair writing, for example, that “privacy and security protections are critical to public confidence” and “transparency is essential”) — it ends by urging GCHQ to abandon the ghost protocol idea altogether, and “avoid any alternative approaches that would similarly threaten digital security and human rights”.
Reached for a response to the coalition’s concerns, the NCSC sent us the following statement, attributed to Levy:
We welcome this response to our request for thoughts on exceptional access to data — for example to stop terrorists. The hypothetical proposal was always intended as a starting point for discussion.
It is pleasing to see support for the six principles and we welcome feedback on their practical application. We will continue to engage with interested parties and look forward to having an open discussion to reach the best solutions possible.
Back in 2016 the UK passed updated surveillance legislation that affords state agencies expansive powers to snoop on and hack into digital comms. And with such an intrusive regime in place it may seem odd that GCHQ is pushing for even greater powers to snoop on people’s digital chatter.
Even robust end-to-end encryption can include exploitable vulnerabilities. One bug was disclosed affecting WhatsApp just a couple of weeks ago, for example (since fixed via an update).
However in the Lawfare article the GCHQ staffers argue that “lawful hacking” of target devices is not a panacea to governments’ “lawful access requirements” because it would require governments have vulnerabilities on the shelf to use to hack devices — which “is completely at odds with the demands for governments to disclose all vulnerabilities they find to protect the population”.
“That seems daft,” they conclude.
Yet it also seems daft — and predictably so — to suggest a ‘sidedoor’ in authentication systems as an alternative to a backdoor in encrypted messaging apps.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/30/apple-google-microsoft-whatsapp-sign-open-letter-condemning-gchq-proposal-to-listen-in-on-encrypted-chats/
2019-05-30 09:44:08Z
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MediaTek’s first 5G-enabled chipset will save battery life and space - The Verge
MediaTek has unveiled the world’s first mobile chipset with an integrated 5G modem. The 7nm chipset combines the company’s Helio M70 5G modem with ARM’s recently announced Cortex-A77 and Mali-G77, resulting in an integrated chip that should save on physical space inside the phone and battery life. The chip’s modem has a theoretical maximum download speed of 4.7 Gbps and upload speed of 2.5 Gbps, MediaTek says.
Although it’s not as fast as Qualcomm’s second generation X55 modem, which offers peak download speeds of up to 7 Gbps, MediaTek’s approach has the advantage of combining everything into a single chip. By comparison, Qualcomm’s modem is separate to the company’s SoCs, meaning it occupies more space and may draw extra power (depending on the two companies’ implementation of the technology).
From a technology perspective, MediaTek’s chip isn’t quite as advanced as Qualcomm’s latest modem, since it doesn’t appear to support mmWave along with sub-6Ghz. That shouldn’t be a problem for MediaTek’s primary markets in the short term, however, as Anandtech notes that the US is the only major region that’s currently rolling out mmWave. Otherwise the chip supports both standalone and non-standalone 5G, and is also backwards compatible with 2G to 4G networks.
After Intel’s exit from the 5G phone business and the US’s blacklisting of Huawei, the amount of competition in the 5G hardware business has reduced significantly, so it’s good to see that MediaTek is still offering Qualcomm some competition in the 5G space. MediaTek says the new chip should start shipping to device partners later this year, with the first releases expected in early 2020.
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/5/30/18645415/mediatek-integrated-5g-modem-specs-download-upload-speeds-sub-6ghz-helio-m70-arm-cortex-a77
2019-05-30 08:58:40Z
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Death Stranding Game's Japanese Trailer Features Japanese Voice Overs - Anime News Network
The PlayStation Japan YouTube channel began streaming the Japanese trailer for Kojima Productions' Death Stranding PlayStation 4 game on Wednesday. The trailer features the same footage as English trailer that debuted on the same day, but with Japanese voice overs.
Both the English and the Japanese trailers also reveal two new characters: Mama (model based on actress Margaret Qualley) and Heartman (model based on film director Nicolas Winding Refn). Game director Hideo Kojima announced on Twitter on Thursday that Refn will not be voicing his character. The English trailer also revealed that Jesse Corti, Emily O'Brien, and Darren Jacobs will perform voice overs in the English version of the game.
The Japanese trailer also revealed more dub voices, including Kazuhiro Yamaji (Cliff) and Houchu Ohtsuka (Heartman). The video also revealed Maaya Sakamoto's role in the Japanese dub as Mama.
The Japanese dub of the game will star Kenjiro Tsuda as Sam Bridges. Norman Reedus is the model and voice for the character in the English version.
Kikuko Inoue will voice the character Amelie, modeled and voiced by Lindsay Wagner in the English version.
Nana Mizuki will voice the character Fragile, modeled and voiced in English by Léa Seydoux.
Akihiko Ishizumi will voice the character Deadman, whose appearance is based on director Guillermo del Toro.
Satoshi Mikami will voice the character Higgs, played by Troy Baker.
Akio Ohtsuka will voice the character Die-Hardman, played by Tommie Earl Jenkins.
Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, Doctor Strange, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is also the basis of the model and the voice for the character Cliff in the game.
The game will ship on November 8. The Collector's Edition of the game will include special cases, a BB Pod, a Ludens keychain, a digital soundtrack with behind-the-scenes video, 10 PSN character avatars, and four in-game items. The Digital Deluxe Edition will include the soundtrack, avatars, and in-game items. The Special Edition will include the Steelbook case, soundtrack, and in-game Ludens Mask item. The Japanese version of the game will include both English and Japanese audio tracks, but Kojima Productions has not yet revealed if the North American version of the game will also have the Japanese audio track.
Kojima Productions describes the game:
Besieged by death's tide at every turn, Sam Bridges must brave a world utterly transformed by the Death Stranding. Carrying the stranded remnants of the future in his hands, Sam embarks on a journey to reunite the shattered world one step at a time. What is the mystery of the Death Stranding? What will Sam discover on the road ahead? A genre defining gameplay experience holds these answers and more.
Kojima himself posted a separate story synopsis for the game on Thursday.
Kojima Productions is developing the game using Guerilla Games' Decima Engine. The game will be an action game, and will have open-world elements with "some degree of freedom." Kojima stated the game's name originates from the phenomenon of cetacean stranding, where dolphins and whales wash up on land and die. While other games offer elements analogous to "sticks" for gameplay, Death Stranding will also offer "ropes" to tie and link players together.
Thanks to jdnation for the news tip.
Sources: PlayStation Japan's YouTube channel, Hideo Kojima's Twitter account (link 2)
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-05-30/death-stranding-game-japanese-trailer-features-japanese-voice-overs/.147270
2019-05-30 07:44:00Z
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