Meta continues to improve upon parts of Facebook that have been in need of an update for some time, with Groups being given a new sidebar to help users find their favorite groups more easily on iOS and Android.
The days of posting statuses that would begin with ‘is’ on Facebook are long gone, with a bunch of users seeing the social platform as a way of sharing memes, or keeping in touch with family, or simply being in groups to post and share content.
Meta is keenly aware of this, and recently, has taken steps to make admin rights more powerful to easily decline posts and more.
In this new update that’s in testing (opens in new tab) for a select pool of users, you can take part in audio channels, or channels about certain topics, similar to Slack, which could make managing a group much easier in the future.
Analysis: copying from other apps is nothing new
(Image credit: Facebook)
Some of these features copied from Slack make a lot of sense for Facebook Groups.
We all know that one friend or family member who spends all their time on the social network in certain groups – it could be about the neighborhood or a future event, for example. Yet it’s easier than posting a status requesting something, as if you’re throwing a net into an ocean, hoping to catch a relevant comment.
These new features look to make it easier for these users, especially if they’re part of more than five groups. As things stand right now, when you go onto Facebook and select a group it can be confusing to find the right post or to start the right topic.
It’s another good decision from Meta here in these new features. Hopefully, there are even more coming to this part of Facebook that can give members and admins even more power over what they share, and how they can report abuse as well.
After turbulent development and multiple delays, Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones could be gearing up for release next November.
Twitter user Alumia_Italia claims to have found details about the game’s release in an Xbox Store listing, eurogamer reports. Per the tweet, the listing makes mention of a pre-order bonus, additional missions, a “Smuggler Pass Token”, a digital soundtrack and art book, and a premium bonus pack. More importantly, also includes a possible release date (opens in new tab): November 8, 2022.
Skull & Bones’ announcement is imminent. The Xbox Store listings are ready, some examples: 1) SKULL AND BONES™ PRE-ORDER BONUS2) Bloody Bones Legacy Quest3) Ashen Corsair Quest4) Smuggler Pass Token5) Digital Soundtrack and Artbook6) Premium Bonus…June 28, 2022
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This release date discovery was later corroborated by well-known whistleblower and leaker Tom Henderson, who simply tweeted a green tick in response.
Alumia_Italia suggests that the game’s listing on the Xbox Store means that an “announcement of Skull and Bones is imminent”. In fact, Tom Henderson claimed earlier this month in a report to TryHard Guides (opens in new tab) that, according to their sources, Ubisoft is planning to re-reveal the game in early July and that the re-reveal will include a release date confirmation.
Skull and Bones does not currently have an official release date, although earlier this year Ubisoft said in a financial briefing (opens in new tab) who expect the game to release this financial year, so before April 2023. November 8 would certainly fit that goal.
Of course, any leaked release dates should always be taken with a pretty sizable pinch of salt. We won’t know the release date for Skull and Bones for sure until we officially hear from Ubisoft.
Analysis: is it likely?
It’s safe to say that Skull and Bones is a game that comes from a long time ago. First revealed in 2017, it has had its release date pushed back several times amid reports of a mid-development reboot.
In the September 2020 update, Ubisoft Singapore Creative Director Elisabeth Pellen said that the game was being made with a “new vision”, and in February 2022, Ubisoft stated that Skull and Bones is now a “multiplayer” game. first”, suggesting that mentions of single-player elements made in the first E3 presentations no longer apply.
Despite these issues and delays, however, over the last few months, it seems increasingly likely that the game could finally be gearing up for release, because this leak is certainly not the first.
Even more recently, in May the game was evaluated in South Korea and it was just a few days ago that it received its ESRB rating (opens in new tab) from ‘M’ to mature.
With all these things considered, it seems possible that Ubisoft is gearing up for a Skull and Bones announcement. A November release date – or should we say November-arrr – doesn’t seem out of the realms of possibility either. If it’s not going to be a month where you can really lean towards the ‘arrr’ sound then really what’s the point?
Sony has just released a range of PC-centric monitors and headphones that PlayStation console owners will definitely want to get their hands on.
Say hello to Inzone – Sony’s new brand of PC gaming peripherals. The collection currently consists of two rather stylish gaming monitors and three headphones. It’s not a total surprise, as news of the headphones leaked last week, while the monitors’ existence leaked to the world just before the press release was released.
All the hardware is compatible with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but the white and black colors will look great alongside Sony’s console. In fact, both monitor stands look like tiny mini versions of the PS5. Adorable.
There’s an ad that, in true Sony fashion, shows almost nothing related to the product. We have a few seconds of a player getting ready for a session, adjusting his lovely new monitor, before wandering through a CGI landscape. With only a piece of the Inzone kit in sight. Take a look:
The cat is a cute addition, but I’m not a big fan of these types of commercials. Especially when they feature a good dose of nightmare fuel. Imagine this monstrosity falling on you in the middle of the night.
(Image credit: Sony)
All three headphones will be available from July at various retailers, while the monitors have a more vague release date of ‘summer 2022’ for the Inzone M9 and ‘winter 2022’ for the M3. The latter is still waiting for a price as well.
On the display front, it’s worth noting that the Inzone M9 has a 144Hz refresh rate and 4K resolution. It’s a rarity, but it will gladly fit into our roundup of the best 4K 144Hz displays, I’m sure. Now for the specs and prices!
Sony Inzone headphones price and release date
(Image credit: Sony)
Pictured above, from left to right, are the Inzone H3 wired headset, the Inzone H7 wireless headset, and the Inzone H9 wireless noise canceling headset. We’ve listed the details of each below.
Inzone H3 wired gaming headset
Release date of: july 2022
Price: $99.99 / £89 / AU$149.95
360 Spatial Sound
Flexible flip-up microphone with mute function
Left side controls
Housing ducts to optimize low-frequency sound for punchy bass
padded headband
Ergonomic ear cushions to minimize pressure on the ears
Pictured above, from left to right, are the Inzone M3 and Inzone M9 gaming monitors. They look incredibly similar, but I promise they are two different product photos. It’s also worth noting that while the headphones are on Sony’s Australian website, the monitors aren’t. Therefore, there is no pricing or release date information for this region at this time.
Inzone M3 gaming monitor
Release date of: winter 2022
Price: To confirm
Screen size: 27 inches
Screen ratio: 16:9
Panel type: IPS LCD
Update rate: 240Hz
Resolution: Full HD
VRR: Yea
response time: 1ms GtG (gray to gray)
Low latency auto mode: Yes (HDMI 2.1)
Backlight: LED on edge
HDR: HDR10, HLG
Brightness peak: 400cd/m2
viewing angle: 178°
picture modes: Standard, FPS game, Cinema, Game 1, Game 2
The Inzone M3 and Inzone M9 are very similar models, so the choice comes down to whether you want to fork out a 144Hz/4K monitor.
While Sony is targeting PC gamers with its Inzone-branded collection, PS5 owners should definitely look into peripherals. The colors are begging to be matched with your black and white monolith.
Everything is available for pre-order now, with the exception of the Inzone M3, but you can bookmark it and come back to see when they open.
Hyundai has officially lifted the lid on its long-awaited Ioniq 6 electric sedan – and the Tesla Model 3 may finally have a genuine competitor on its hands.
No powertrain specs have been revealed about the car yet – meaning we don’t know, at this stage, how fast the Ioniq 6 will run nor how long it will run on a single charge – but the Korean automaker has confirmed that it will share the same. excellent electrical architecture Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Hyundai has promised that a more detailed rundown of the Ioniq 6’s internal makeup will be released later this month, although the brand did shed some light on the thought process behind the EV’s decidedly unconventional look during its global unveiling.
To our eyes, the Ioniq 6 looks like an odd mix of Apple’s Magic Mouse and a classic Porsche 911 – not exactly pretty, but not entirely uninteresting either. It’s certainly… different.
Hyundai, however, said the car’s shape embodies the concepts of “Sensuous Sportiness” and “Optimistic Futurism,” which could also be marketing jargon for “the Ioniq 6 is the automotive child of a Tesla Model 3 and VW.” Beetle”.
(Image credit: Hyundai)
Viewed from the rear, the sedan definitely fits the Porsche-Beetle mold, with a wide range of taillights adding a noticeable sense of modernity to a classic design. Incidentally, these taillights, along with the Ioniq 6’s headlights, third brake light, and rear reflectors, comprise a total of 700 Parametric Pixel LEDs, of the type found on the Ioniq 5.
The car’s interior also takes obvious cues from the Ioniq 5, with two 12.3-inch screens placed side by side in a cabin filled with recycled materials.
(Image credit: Hyundai)
Aside from these few features, though, we don’t know much more about the sedan. Hyundai has said it expects the Ioniq 6 to go on sale in the first half of 2023, and rumors have suggested its price will be lower than the Tesla Model 3 – but that’s the only other information we have at this stage.
The automaker is hard at work developing an Ioniq 7 electric SUV alongside preparations for the proper launch of the Ioniq 6, so perhaps we’ll learn more about the latter with any news about the former. Either way, Hyundai looks set to enjoy several stellar years, disrupting the booming electric car market.
If you want to know more about the other new EVs hitting the roads in 2022 and beyond, check out our all-electric DeLorean DMC breakdown and our review of the new Mercedes EQXX range record.
AMD’s Ryzen 7000 desktop processors could launch in mid-September, if the internal sources are to be believed.
This rumor comes from DigiTimes (opens in new tab) – not always the most reliable outlet in our experience, but that being said, the supply chain conversation is definitely worth hearing about – and the claim of a mid-September release comes from motherboard manufacturer sources. (These companies are, of course, making AM5 mobos with a new socket for AMD’s high-end desktop chips.)
The sources claim the launch is scheduled for this month to allow room for continued sales of current generation Ryzen 5000 CPUs, which are apparently ‘excessive’ in stock at OEMs and presumably retailers as well.
Of course, once the Ryzen 7000 chips are revealed, and we get a glimpse of what they can actually do – and this is rumored to be a lot, in terms of it being an all-new Zen 4 architecture – the Ryzen 5000 processors will suddenly be in much less demand as people will be tempted to wait for the more robust formation around the corner.
Analysis: Raptor Lake should not leave the gate first
Take all of this with a good old-fashioned dose of skepticism, as always with this kind of ‘supposed sources’ report, but there are several rumors that back this up. One of which claims a September 15th release date for the Ryzen 7000, which is mid-September, of course – while granted, it’s in shaky territory. There were other rumors of a September release before that, so the weight of the rumors is growing.
It’s also interesting to hear that selling through current-gen Ryzen shares is a concern here – which suggests that, in fact, AMD could get the Ryzen 7000 out of the door sooner if it wanted to, and the situation allowed for that.
To us, AMD really should release the Ryzen 7000 before Raptor Lake, simply because, as it stands, the Ryzen 5000 is feeling pretty dated and has lost ground to Intel’s current Alder Lake processors – which are widely considered to be the best. choice for players now. Therefore, Team Red cannot let Raptor Lake into town without an answer, so to speak.
The Zen 4 certainly seems like a convincing answer, but the rumors surrounding Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs are that they will take the goods out of the gaming bag, so all this leads us to believe that AMD should be confident it still can. beat Raptor Lake with a September release.
If, of course, any of the speculations we’re hearing are correct. The last we hear is that Raptor Lake is slated for October, so that would fit this photo.
If Zen 4 processors appear in September, it is likely that only a small number of models will be on sale to begin with. These could be the Ryzen 7950X, 7900X, 7800X, and 7600X, according to another leak, and that would make sense as these were the early tiers of CPUs released with current-gen Ryzen chips.
The early days, when the iPhone was new, were special. Fifteen years ago, Steve Jobs and Apple designed what could best be described as silly product launch hype.
First, Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld in January 2007, but it would take months for the iPhone to officially launch. Whether by design or necessity, this delay turned out to be the best possible way to launch what would become a technological and cultural landmark.
Anticipation by availability details and the official release date built and built until Apple announced and of course the tech media reported.
The central Hype turned out to be the year-long Apple Flagship Store on Fifth Ave. While I remember launch day, I don’t remember attending or even walking around. However, accounts from the time described a line that literally ran down the front steps of the store and wound around the block. There were media and third-party companies trying to ride this wave of excitement. It was pandemonium.
the old fashioned way
Apple spawned all of this without the benefit of social media. Facebook was only a few years old and mostly only college students used it. Twitter has not caught on with the general public. There was no Instagram.
All of this was built on traditional media hype and word of mouth.
Apple leaned into him, hard. There were store employees acting like cheerleaders, leading people in chants of “When I say ‘I’, you say ‘iPhone’”.
Apple and Jobs have spent the past eight years building a brand devotion that some might argue trumped the concurrent quality of their products. I don’t see it like that. There has never been a company, tech or otherwise, that has managed to combine exquisite design and industry-leading quality and utility with a brand affinity that has become something close to a cult.
as a guy said The New York Times in 2007 (opens in new tab) as he waited online outside a Chicago Apple Store for the first iPhone, “If Apple made sliced bread, yes, I would buy it.”
The devotion was born out of products like the iMac, iBook and iPod. Steve Jobs was the glue that held it all together. It was hard to find an Apple fanatic who wasn’t as devoted to Jobs as he was to his iPod.
(Image credit: )
devotion and repetition
After that first release, I became a regular participant in the annual release events, which eventually moved from summer to September or October. For a while, the hype machine continued unabated. At the launch of the iPhone 6s, I remember to meet one of the first eager iPhone recipients (opens in new tab)a young woman who traveled from Lithuania to obtain a pink device that she has not yet been able to purchase in her home country.
Still, by then the tenor of events had changed. Yes, there were still lines, but they were often full of professional waiters who bought the phones for other people and those who bought them for resale. Pre-orders, home delivery and home activation have become commonplace – and easier than waiting outside an Apple store.
Queues were starting to shrink, but Apple’s hyperactive team was growing and getting bolder.
After the Lithuanian woman brought out her new phone, still boxed, they demanded that she unpack it for the crowd. She complied and seemed excited, but I found it a bit forced.
never the same
There are the occasional dots back to the excitement of yesteryear, like when Apple released the iPhone X in 2017. Its radical new look and notch created a buzz not seen since the days of Jobs. I thought the line at the Fifth Avenue store was among the biggest I had seen in years (opens in new tab). I had the phone earlier and when I waved it in front of some would-be iPhone X owners, they visibly fainted.
Obviously, the pandemic vaporized this phenomenon for a few years, but even before that, I’m not sure the iPhone customer queues were as big as the professional cheerleading squads on Team Apple that created a challenge for new iPhone owners. .
15 years later, Apple’s iPhone is still an excellent smartphone, clearly a leader in its field, but the hype bubble that Apple and Steve Jobs nurtured and grew is visibly deflated. We still love devices and buy them by the millions, but that cultural moment is gone.
I’m looking forward to the next product that can generate that kind of emotion.
Anyone who has used the Xbox Series X controller | S for a long time will know the dangers of the Share button, but it doesn’t have to bother you anymore.
The Share button on the Xbox Wireless Controller often gets in the way at the most inopportune times. like a redditor (opens in new tab) recently pointed out, its placement between the controller’s View and Menu button makes it very easy to accidentally tap while you’re playing a game.
Get a little too excited about your thumb in Forza 5, and you can unintentionally capture the moment your vehicle leaves the lane. Get distracted in Halo Infinite and you can inadvertently capture the instant an enemy player runs over you in a Warthog.
The Reddit post generated a lot of discussion about the unfortunate placement of the Share button, but there is an easy solution. Earlier this year, Microsoft released an update for the Xbox Series X | S that lets you reassign the Share button to a series of custom actions – or none at all.
If you find that you’re filling your Xbox’s media library with hundreds of accidental screenshots, try remapping the Share button to something more suitable.
Remapping the Share button is very easy. To get started, go to the Xbox Accessories app in the “My Games & Apps” section of your console. If you are using the controller on PC, you can also download and open the app from the Microsoft app store (opens in new tab).
After loading the application, select the controller you want to configure. Choose a profile (control scheme) and select the pencil icon on the right side to edit. From there, it’s a case of assigning the Share button to whatever action you want.
There are many options to choose from. You can remap to record a video clip of the last 30 seconds of gameplay, mute your TV, activate Night Mode, send a message, and even launch a specific app or game. If you’re frequently tapping the button by accident, you might be better off setting it to No Action, making it a superfluous but safe plastic bump on the face of your controller.
There is also room for more customization. You can assign a double tap on the button to a separate action and change the functionality of holding the Share button. So while you can remap a single button press to do nothing, you can assign a double tap to take a screenshot and hold to record a video. You don’t have to completely give up your screenshot days.
Some Xbox fans have used the remap function in surprisingly creative ways, including one Redditor who found it a cool tool for quickly switching between games. Even without these tricks, it’s a handy way to avoid accidental screenshots. Take a chance.
maple updated your Aspire 7 budget gaming laptops in India a few days ago. Now the company has also updated the Aspire 5 series laptops also with the latest 12th Gen Intel Core i5 chipset and NVIDIA RTX series graphics cards. The laptop starts at Rs 62,990 and will be sold on the company’s online store and on Amazon.
The Aspire laptop lineup is similar to the Aspire 7 in terms of design aesthetics, but comes with a few different hardware specs. Thermal performance is improved with the addition of dual copper tubes that dissipate heat from the CPU and GPU. The backlit keyboard on the Acer Aspire 5 also draws cool air through the keys and adds airflow to the system.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Acer Aspire 5.
Acer Aspire 5 pricing and availability
Acer Aspire 5 is available in 2 configurations but only in black color option. The 8GB RAM model costs Rs 62,990 while the 16GB RAM model will retail for Rs 65,990. Both models are available for purchase on the Acer website. store (opens in new tab) as well as on Amazon.
Acer Aspire 5 specs and features
(Image credit: Acer)
The low-end gaming laptop Acer Aspire 5 runs on the 12th generation Intel Core i5-1240P processor with 12 cores and a maximum clock speed of 4.40 GHz. It comes with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 512GB of NVMe SSD storage. RAM is expandable up to 32GB in both variants. The laptop also features NVIDIA’s RTX 2050 graphics card. It runs on Windows 11 64-bit Home edition out of the box.
The laptop has a 15.6-inch FullHD IPS display and supports Acer’s ComfyView technology. The 720p webcam is also situated just above the screen. It also features Temporal Noise Reduction technology that improves video quality during meetings and group calls.
In terms of I/O ports on the new Aspire 5 laptops, you get HDMI, USB 3.2 and USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. On top of that, you also get a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The laptop has a 50Wh battery and comes with a 90W charger in the box. Acer also offers a 1-year warranty for international travelers on the latest line of Aspire 5 laptops.
The legal battle between Sonos and Google escalated after a new decision by the US Customs Service.
As reported by Paul Thurott (opens in new tab)Google was found guilty by the Customs Service of breaking an import ban imposed by the International Trade Commission (ITC) after continuing to infringe five Sonos patents.
“The US Customs Service confirmed that Google was violating the import ban and continuing to import infringing products in violation of that ban. This discovery marks yet another example of how Google continues to misuse our intellectual property and act in complete disregard of the law. We remain committed to defending our intellectual property [intellectual property] and we will continue to do so, on behalf of our own technology as well as the broader innovation landscape,” said Sonos Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus.
The legal battle has been ongoing since 2020, when Sonos first sued Google for patent infringement.
Sonos alleged that Google stole key elements of its multi-room technology after a 2013 partnership, accusing them of using its massive scale to produce competing products that undermine Sonos’s.
The ITC ruling in favor of Sonos in January of this year imposed an import ban on several major Google hardware products, including the Nest, Pixel and Chromecast.
In an effort to get around the ban, Google began introducing workarounds through software updates earlier this year for a wide range of its products. Among the changes was the degradation of its volume adjustment and initial network setup features for its smart home devices and speakers. This meant a less user-friendly experience for owners, with users having to adjust the individual volumes of all units in a group of speakers separately.
Despite these downgrades, Google still infringed on at least two Sonos patents on devices that were still importing after the ban.
Responding to this week’s new ruling, Sonos appeared to challenge Google with a direct order for them to make their products worse or pay to use their patents.
Reacting to the result, a Sonos representative told Thurott: “To avoid further import exclusions, Google should further degrade the customer experience or seek a fair licensing deal with Sonos.”
When contacted for comment, Google spokesman José Castañeda told via email;
“The US Customs Service has confirmed that Google audio players are not subject to an import ban. This decision temporarily affects a small number of Pixel users who are setting up a speaker or display for the first time with the Device app. Utility. We will work with them to minimize disruption. Our support teams are on hand to fix any issues and, if necessary, will ship replacement devices or offer a Google store credit. Over the years, we’ve worked hard to ensure our shared customers had a positive experience and we are disappointed that Sonos continues to use the legal system in a way that deliberately creates problems for these users.”
Want a Sonos-like wireless speaker experience? Well, you better pay. (Image credit: Future)
Analysis: A Big Win for Sonos…and a Potentially Big Loss for Google’s Smart Device Users
Sonos will rightly celebrate the latest legal salvo in this long-running dispute over its patents, with the result, no doubt, being a cause of major headaches among Google’s hardware team.
While the workarounds released to users so far haven’t necessarily changed the game in terms of the key features of Google’s affected devices, existing users have nonetheless been speaking out online about the reduced functionality some of their gadgets now have.
If this latest episode results in more feature rollbacks, Google’s smart device users hope the companies can gather around a table and close what is now likely to be an expensive deal for these pesky patents.
This would at least result in the experience for users reverting back to what it was before – but people might wonder why a company the size of Google/Alphabet didn’t just pay its debts to Sonos early on, instead of making the products people pay for. worse to use…
Dual-SIM phones are very much in demand now. Whatever the price, one thing is for sure: most brands selling their phones these days support dual-SIM. This basically helps the user to engage with the dual side of their life smoothly. But that wasn’t really the case for apps that haven’t yet adapted to these demands and trends. In countries like India, the use of dual-SIM phones is linked to constituting more than 40% of the billions of smartphone users. Also, with data costs and the network being a constant issue, switching between SIMs can be something of a nightmare.
This is where Truecaller is coming to the fore, becoming proficient in this ‘dual’ era. So the next time your dual-SIM can’t read all your phone contacts and identify them, you know where to go.
The popular caller id app has been updated with several features that give you caller contact details on multiple SIMs without any hassle. “On many Android devices on the market, you would have to go into your settings, find the right menu item, switch the default SIM cards for calls or SMS, and then go back to the dialer to make the call or send a text message. . With Truedialer, you are just a click away from being able to change your SIM card and make calls, saving time and money, with greater convenience”, as stated by the application company itself.
The new features are bundled together with the updated version of the Truecaller app, available on all platforms; Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry too. It might not seem like a big deal, but ask any serious dual-SIM user and he’ll give you the answer.
