Engadget

24.07.2024 02:13 Humble Games has reportedly laid off all 36 of its staff. Former employees posted about the layoffs on social media. Humble Games is owned by media conglomerate Ziff Davis, which counts IGN, Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz among its gaming portfolio. Humble Games confirmed in a LinkedIn post that there had been a "restructure" at the company, but did not reveal the number of jobs lost. A PR rep for Humble Games also confirmed to Engadget that the company would not be shutting its doors as a result of today's restructuring. He added that both ongoing and upcoming projects would continue to be supported and published by the studio. The layoffs at Humble Bundle are the latest in a sweep across the gaming business. Last year saw a shocking number of cuts across studios of all sizes, and the trend has sadly continued into 2024. "The games industry is volatile, it's been inundated by people who only want exponential growth at the expense of making great games with great teams," Emilee Kieffer, a former lead quality assurance analyst with Humble Games, wrote on LinkedIn following the layoffs. Well friends, me and the entirety of Humble Games was laid off this morningIf you need senior/lead QA at your game studio HI HELLO I DON'T HAVE A JOB ANYMOOOORE! pic.twitter.com/giAPAiTDsx—

24.07.2024 02:13 Netflix has landed a notable new leader for its rapidly-expanding gaming endeavors. Variety reported that the streaming company has hired Alain Tascan as its new president of games. Before joining Netflix, Tascan was executive vice president for game development at a little studio you may have heard of called Epic Games. In that role, he oversaw the first-party development for some of the company's hugely successful titles, such as Fortnite, Lego Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys. The company is also recruiting talent on the creative side. Since launching the games project in 2021, Netflix has acquired notable indie studios Night School, Boss Fight, Next Games and Spry Fox, and has brought a large number of acclaimed indie games to mobile. In its second quarter earnings call, Netflix execs revealed that it has more than 80 games currently in development, which would nearly double its current library of about 100 titles. Many of these new projects are interactive fiction based on Netflix shows and movies, with the goal of giving fans new ways to engage with their favorite titles. "I think our opportunity here to serve super fandom with games is really fun and remarkable," Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the call. We also learned that a multiplayer Squid Game project will be coming to Netflix Games later this year. Although Netflix is making a sizable investment into this games division, people haven't been flocking to their titles yet. In 2022, the library had about 1.7 million daily users and its games had been downloaded 23.3 million times.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-hires-former-epic-games-exec-as-new-president-of-games-212614285.html?src=rss

24.07.2024 02:13 Video games are supposed to provide us an escape from the grinding and anger produced on an average day. Now one of the real world’s most contentious aggravations has slithered its way into Fortnite AND Rocket League. The Cybertruck, Tesla’s electric vehicle that replaced the pink Hummer as the official car for total jerks, makes its digital debut in both games today. The Cybertruck add-ons are part of a new “Summer Road Trip'' promotion bundle for Fortnite and Rocket League. Both bundles come with a vehicle that looks like a door stop and special body decals such as “Baja Off-Road,” “CyberCamo,” “MatteBlack,” “Stainless Steel” and “OMG Cybertruck,” which recreates the window that Elon Musk broke while trying to prove the strength of the Cybertruck’s windows. Did they also include the sticky accelerator? Psyonix/Tesla Presumably, the OMG stands for “Oh my God! Cybertruck?" The Baja Off-Road skin paired with the douchey Cybertruck in particular just screams, “I wear a lot of Ed Hardy!” We have… some questions. Will the rain in Fortnite cause widespread rusting of the chassis? Will the Rocket League ball dent the “shatterproof” window like a metal ball famously did way back in 2019? Will players be able to finish a whole game if there’s another recall alert? If you really must, you can find out in both games now.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-cybertruck-is-coming-to-fortnite-and-rocket-league-because-were-being-punished-210309356.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Microsoft has been taking a lot of hits over its Xbox Game Pass price hike and the overall lackluster offering of games. So to make up for it, they are offering a Call of Duty game for the first time on its virtual buffet. Unfortunately, it’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, one of the lowest rated games in the series. Calling the reviews for Modern Warfare III “mixed” would be generous. IGN’s Simon Cardy said its single-player campaign was “shallow,” “dull” and “the worst Call of Duty single-player campaign I’ve played.” Jump Dash Roll’s Derek Johnson wrote that its main campaign is “genuinely not worth playing” and its signature Zombies mode “isn’t quite as atrociously terrible as its single-player but that doesn’t mean it’s anything resembling something fun.” Modern Warfare III won’t be the only Call of Duty game available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Xbox Game Pass will provide day one access to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in October. Of course, we don’t know how good the game will be but one imagines it'll garner a bit more favor from critics compared to Modern Warfare III.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-call-of-duty-game-is-coming-to-xbox-game-pass-just-not-one-anyone-wants-175255224.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Cybersecurity company Dragos has flagged malware that can attack industrial control systems , tricking them into malicious behavior like turning off the heat and hot water in the middle of winter. TechCrunch reports that’s precisely what the malware, dubbed FrostyGoop, did this January in Lviv, Ukraine, when residents in over 600 apartment buildings lost heat for two days amid freezing temperatures. Dragos says FrostyGoop is only the ninth known malware designed to target industrial controllers. It’s also the first to specifically set its sights on Modbus, a widely deployed communications protocol invented in 1979. Modbus is frequently used in industrial environments like the one in Ukraine that FrostyGoop attacked in January. Ukraine’s Cyber Security Situation Center , the nation’s government agency tasked with digital safety, shared information about the attack with Dragos after discovering the malware in April of this year, months after the attack. The malicious code, written in Golang , directly interacts with industrial control systems over an open internet port . The attackers likely gained access to Lviv’s industrial network in April 2023. Dragos says they did so by “exploiting an undetermined vulnerability in an externally facing Mikrotik router.” They then installed a remote access tool that voided the need to install the malware locally, which helped it avoid detection. The attackers downgraded the controller firmware to a version lacking monitoring capabilities, helping to cover their tracks. Instead of trying to take down the systems altogether, the hackers caused the controllers to report inaccurate measurements — resulting in the loss of heat in the middle of a deep freeze. Dragos has a longstanding policy of neutrality in cyberattacks, preferring to focus on education without assigning blame. However, it noted that the adversaries opened secure connections to Moscow-based IP addresses. “I think it’s very much a psychological effort here, facilitated through cyber means when kinetic perhaps here wasn’t the best choice,” Dragos researcher Mark “Magpie” Graham told TechCrunch. Lviv is in the western part of Ukraine, which would be much more difficult for Russia to hit than eastern cities. Dragos warns that, given how ubiquitous the Modbus protocol is in industrial environments, FrostyGoop could be used to disrupt similar systems worldwide. The security company recommends continuous monitoring, noting that FrostyGoop evaded virus detection, underscoring the need for network monitoring to flag future threats before they strike. Specifically, Dragos advises ICS operators to use the SANS 5 Critical Controls for World-Class OT Cybersecurity, a security framework for operational environments.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/russia-linked-hackers-cut-heat-to-600-ukrainian-apartment-buildings-in-the-dead-of-winter-researchers-say-171414527.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Regulators in the US and Europe have laid out the "shared principles" they plan to adhere to in order to "protect competition and consumers" when it comes to artificial intelligence. "Guided by our respective laws, we will work to ensure effective competition and the fair and honest treatment of consumers and businesses," the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority said. "Technological inflection points can introduce new means of competing, catalyzing opportunity, innovation and growth," the agencies said in a joint statement. "Accordingly, we must work to ensure the public reaps the full benefits of these moments." The regulators pinpointed fair dealing , interoperability and choice as the three principles for protecting competition in the AI space. They based these factors on their experience working in related markets. The agencies also laid out some potential risks to competition, such as deals between major players in the market. They said that while arrangements between companies in the sector may not impact competition in some cases, in others "these partnerships and investments could be used by major firms to undermine or co opt competitive threats and steer market outcomes in their favor at the expense of the public." Other risks to competition flagged in the statement include the entrenching or extension of market power in AI-related markets as well as the "concentrated control of key inputs." The agencies define the latter as a small number of companies potentially having an outsized influence over the AI space due to the control and supply of "specialized chips, substantial compute, data at scale and specialist technical expertise." In addition, the CMA, DOJ and FTC say they'll be on the lookout for threats that AI might pose to consumers. The statement notes that it's important for consumers to be kept in the loop about how AI factors into the products and services they buy or use. "Firms that deceptively or unfairly use consumer data to train their models can undermine people’s privacy, security, and autonomy," the statement reads. "Firms that use business customers’ data to train their models could also expose competitively sensitive information." These are all fairly generalized statements about the agencies' common approach to fostering competition in the AI space, but given that they all operate under different laws, it would be difficult for the statement to go into the specifics of how they'll regulate. At the very least, the statement should serve as a reminder to companies working in the generative AI space that regulators are keeping a close eye on things, even amid rapidly accelerating advancements in the sector.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-and-european-antitrust-regulators-agree-to-do-their-jobs-when-it-comes-to-ai-163820780.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Lego just announced its first sets inspired by the gaming phenomenon Fortnite. These kits draw from iconic characters and vehicles from both the original game and the brick-based spinoff Lego Fortnite, like an ouroboros of corporate synergy. The baddest of the bunch looks to be the 954-piece Battle Bus kit, which costs $100. This is a brick-based replica of the iconic hot-air balloon on wheels, complete with a removable roof and characters like Meowscles, Raven and Cuddle Team Leader, among others. Lego The 1,414-piece Peely Bone set looks to appeal to collectors more than kids. It builds into a giant version of the rare Fortnite character, who is one-half banana and one-half skeleton. The kit comes with accessories like a pickaxe and paint launcher. This set also costs $100. The game’s beloved Supply Llama is also getting a kit. This 691-piece set allows fans to build the iconic character and it comes with a whole bunch of themed accessories, including a grappler, Slurp Juice, Slap Juice and more. This set costs $40, which isn’t too bad given the number of pieces involved. Lego Finally, there’s a teensy Durrr Burger kit, which is aimed squarely at kids. This 193-piece set builds into the aforementioned Fortnite landmark It even comes with an olive on a toothpick. The kit costs just $15. All of these sets are available for preorder right now straight from Lego, but we have to wait a little bit before they ship. The kits don’t officially release until October 1. In the meantime, there’s a nifty Jaws-inspired set coming out in August and a massive 2,500-piece set based on The Legend of Zelda that ships on September 1. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/legos-first-fortnite-sets-are-here-153451343.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 So much relies on Wi-Fi — your TV, music, games, smart home devices, possibly even your alarm clock — which makes dead zones productivity killers. One of our favorite ways to remedy weak or spotty coverage is with Google's Nest Wi-Fi Pro 6E and right now, a three pack is down to $285. That's a 29 percent discount and matches the sale price it hit last week for Prime Day. This isn't an all-time low, but it's just $5 more than the record. We named the Nest Wi-Fi Pro the best for novice users in our guide to mesh Wi-Fi systems and it earned an 87 in our full review. Our reviewer, Daniel Cooper, called Google's 6E system "more approachable than the rest," though he notes that it's can't beat the competition on speed. The smooth rounded shape is a little more decor-friendly than some more industrial-looking routers and was the first Nest router to harness WiFi 6/6E. That's great if you're looking to upgrade to the newer Wi-Fi standard, but keep in mind that these aren't backwards compatible with any pre-6E Nest routers. As for speed, it's plenty fast enough for streaming movies and browsing the web and the coverage is impressive. To help with performance, it dynamically shunts traffic around the available space, including using the 6GHz band as backhaul. That frees up a lot of space in 2.4 and 5GHz bands, which is what most devices use. So unless you have a ton of devices that are Wi-Fi 6E-enabled, that feature should help. Still, if speed is your main concern, you might be better off with our pick for power users. Overall, Dan appreicated that this was one of the cheapest WiFi 6E systems on the market, with a particularly easy-to-use app that made set up fairly foolproof. And if you're already using other Nest or Google-compatible smart home equipment, you'll appreciate the integration with the Google Home app. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-google-nest-wi-fi-6e-three-pack-is-back-on-sale-for-285-153232698.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Meta AI launched in September 2023 using the Llama 2 learning language model. Nearly a year later, Meta has announced a new round of features for its AI assistant and a fresh LLM to support it: Llama 3.1. These updates include an expansion of who can access Meta AI. Thanks to the addition of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Cameroon, the assistant is now available in 22 countries. It's also accessible in new languages: French, German, Hindi, Hindi-Romanized Script, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. However, some of the new features are location or language-specific for the time being. Meta is rolling out a beta tool called "Imagine me" throughout the US. It allows for prompts such as "Imagine me surfing" or "Imagine me as a surrealist painting," and the AI assistant will create it using a photo of the individual. Meta is also adding new ways to tinker with an image, such as removing, changing or editing its content. This feature allows for creating an image, such as a duck, with the "Imagine me" tool and then instructing Meta AI to "Change the duck to a cat." Next month there will also be an "Edit with AI" button for further fine-tuning of images. The company is also rolling out the ability to create an image with Meta AI in a feed, comment, story or message across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. It should roll out this week, though just in English for now. Then there's the launch of Llama 3.1 405B — Meta's new open-source AI model. You can use it on WhatsApp or meta.ai for tasks such as answering math problems and coding. Meta claims it will update its AI technology every two weeks and that new features and languages are on the way. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-ai-is-now-available-in-spanish-portugese-french-and-more-150051715.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Meta on Tuesday announced the release of Llama 3.1, the latest version of its large language model that the company claims now rivals competitors from OpenAI and Anthropic. The new model comes just three months after Meta launched Llama 3 by integrating it into Meta AI, a chatbot that now lives in Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and also powers the company's smart glasses. In the interim, OpenAI and Anthropic already released new versions of their own AI models, a sign that Silicon Valley’s AI arms race isn’t slowing down any time soon. Meta said that the new model, called Llama 3.1 405B, is the first openly available model that can compete available rivals in general knowledge, math skills and translating across multiple languages. The model was trained on more than 16,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, currently the fastest available chips that cost roughly $25,000 each, and can beat rivals on over 150 benchmarks, Meta claimed. The “405B” stands for 405 billion parameters, which are internal variables that an AI model uses to reason and make decisions. The higher the number of parameters an AI model has, the smarter we perceive it to be. OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, by comparison, is reportedly has roughly 1.5 trillion parameters, although the company has not disclosed the number so far. In addition, Meta also released upgraded versions of existing Llama models that contain 70 billion and 8 billion parameters each, claiming that the newer versions had stronger reasoning abilities among other things. Developers can download Llama 3.1 from its official website, while regular users can play with it through Meta AI in WhatsApp or on meta.ai, the company’s website for its chatbot. “Llama 405B’s improved reasoning capabilities make it possible for Meta AI to understand and answer your more complex questions, especially on the topics of math and coding,” Meta’s blog post states. “You can get help on your math homework with step-by-step explanations and feedback, write code faster with debugging support and optimization.” . For now, Meta AI on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are still restricted to the smaller version of Llama 3.1 that uses 70 billion parameters. Unlike OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic that keep their AI models proprietary, Meta’s AI models are open source, which means that anyone can modify and use them for free and without sharing personal data with Meta. In a letter published on Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg argued that an open source approach to AI development will ensure wider access to the technology’s benefits, prevent the concentration of power among a few big companies, and enable safer AI deployment across society. By open sourcing the company’s largest language model to date, Meta aims to make Llama the “industry standard” for anyone to develop AI-powered apps and services with, Zuckerberg wrote. Open sourcing AI models and adding them to its existing products already used by billions of people could allow Meta to compete more effectively with OpenAI whose ChatGPT and DALL-E chatbots ignited an AI explosion when they launched in 2022. And it could also boost engagement — Meta announced today that users would soon be able to add AI-generated images directly into feeds, stories, comments and messages across Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. In his letter, Zuckerberg also criticized Apple and its closed ecosystem, arguing that the iPhone maker’s restrictive and arbitrary policies had constrained what Meta could build on its platforms. “ clear that Meta and many other companies would be freed up to build much better services for people if we could build the best versions of our producers and competitors were not able to constrain what we could build,” he wrote.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/llama-31-is-metas-latest-salvo-in-the-battle-for-ai-dominance-150042924.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 Meta's AI-powered assistant have been accessible on the Ray-Ban smart glasses for quite some time, but the company will only start rolling it out to its Quest headsets next month. The assistant will still be in experimental mode, however, and it's availability will be limited to users in the US and Canada. Meta has revealed the update alongside its announcements for the Llama 3.1 and the new Meta AI capabilities. Users who get access to the assistant in August will be able to put its hands-free controls to the test. The company said Meta AI is replacing the current technology used for Voice Commands on Quest, so it will be the one controlling the headset whenever people use voice for navigation and the one answering their questions if they ask for information. They can ask the assistant for restaurant recommendations for an upcoming trip, as an example, or ask it for the weather those days, as well as suggestions on how to dress for it. They will also be able to use the "Meta AI with Vision" feature, which will let them ask the assistant for information on what they're seeing, while using Passthrough on the Quest. Passthrough lets users see their environment through a video feed while watching or doing something else on their headsets. A user can, for instance, ask the assistant to look at what's inside the fridge and suggest what they can cook, or ask for tips on what kind of top would go with a skirt they're holding up, all while watching a YouTube video.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-ai-assistant-is-coming-to-quest-headsets-in-the-us-and-canada-150033530.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 General Motors is putting the autonomous Cruise Origin shuttle van on ice. The company said that the embattled Cruise, of which GM is the majority owner, will now focus on making the next-gen Chevy Bolt. The automaker discontinued the previous Bolt last year due to a shift away from an older battery system but did not reveal plans for a new model at the time. According to a letter that GM CEO Mary Barra sent to shareholders, the indefinite delay of the shuttle van "addresses the regulatory uncertainty we faced with the Origin because of its unique design." Barra added that the per-unit costs of the next-gen Bolt will be much lower, "which will help Cruise optimize its resources." GM and Cruise were working on the Origin with Honda. The Origin — which does not have a driver's seat, steering wheel or pedals — was supposed to debut in Japan in 2026. In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's driverless vehicle permits over safety issues. Earlier that month, a pedestrian in San Francisco was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise vehicle and pinned under it after a hit-and-run by another car pushed her into the robotaxi's path. Cruise later paused all driverless operations before temporarily halting production in November. According to CNBC, former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt at one point told staff that hundreds of pre-commercial Origin vehicles had been built. The company has resumed robotaxi operations in Phoenix, Houston and Dallas with human operators on board and is carrying out tests in Dubai. However, it hasn't recommenced operations in San Francisco. It's still under investigation for the October incident there. Shelving the Origin is not a decision that GM and Cruise would have come to lightly. In GM's second quarter earnings report, the automaker noted that it incurred around $583 million of Cruise restructuring costs. It said these resulted "from Cruise voluntarily pausing its driverless, supervised and manual operations in the US and the indefinite delay of the Cruise Origin." On the plus side, resuming work on the Bolt could be a boon for GM's bottom line. As of 2023, the Bolt EV and EUV accounted for most of GM's electric vehicle sales. It planned to make around 70,000 of them last year before ceasing production.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gm-shelves-the-autonomous-cruise-origin-shuttle-van-144256801.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 21:14 You can's say Fujifilm is boring. It stuck to APS-C sensors instead of going full-frame like everyone else, while releasing cool and weird models like the X100 VI. That strategy has been refreshing in a conservative industry and undeniably successful. It also went big by introducing its first medium-format camera seven years ago, the GFX50S. After eight models, they’ve proven to be popular among pro portrait and scenic photographers, a market Fujifilm never really had before. Each has become increasingly more sophisticated, with better image quality, faster shooting speeds and improved video. Now that the company’s flagship $7,500 100-megapixel GFX 100 II, has been out for awhile and had several firmware updates, I was keen to test the new AF speeds and more. So I went to London to try it out alongside two pro photographer friends who are thinking of buying one. Body The original GFX 100 is a gigantic camera, weighing over three pounds with the viewfinder. The GFX 100 II is more manageable at 2.27 pounds, the same as Panasonic’s full-frame S1. Photographers are still likely to be carrying a heavy bag, though, as medium-format GFX lenses are generally bigger and heavier than full-frame glass. The GFX 100 II also feels more like a full-frame camera than an old-school top-down viewfinder medium format model. It has an updated, modern control layout, with a pair of control dials, a mode dial, a joystick, 14 buttons and a movie/photo switch. The rear display tilts up, down and to the side, but doesn’t flip out — not a huge deal, as this will never be a vlogging camera. It shines where it counts, though, with a high 2.36 million dot resolution and enough brightness to use in sunlight. The viewfinder, meanwhile, is one of the best on any camera, with an extremely sharp 9.36-million dot resolution and 100 percent magnification. It’s easy to handle, thanks to the well-placed controls and large grip. The top display, which stays on even when the camera is switched off, shows all the main settings at a glance. I’m not a huge fan of Fujifilm’s overly complicated menu system, but it’s fine once you get used to it. As with other recent high-end cameras, you get both an SD UHS II card slot and a much faster CFexpress B option. The latter is required for fast burst shooting, as I’ll discuss soon. Battery life is solid, with up to 540 shots on a charge, or about an hour of 8K or 4K 60p recording. Performance Steve Dent for Engadget The GFX 100 II is the fastest medium-format camera to date. You can fire bursts at up to 8 fps with the mechanical shutter enabled and capture about 300 lossless RAW frames before the buffer fills. That’s about 36GB of data, so it requires a fast CFexpress card. Autofocus wasn’t a strong point on the GFX, but it’s a big step up on this model. The majority of shots in our burst testing were in focus, though it becomes less accurate when the subject is close to the camera. This isn’t a sports camera, obviously, but it still has the best AF I’ve seen on any medium format camera. Face and eye detection have also improved, usually locking onto the eye and not, say the eyebrow as the older model did. Fujifilm also introduced AI subject detection from recent models, so it now has settings for animals, birds, automobiles, motorcycles, bikes, airplanes and trains. Nathanael Charpentier for Engadget The GFX 100 II has a new 5-axis stabilization system with up to eight stops of shake reduction, compared to 5.5 stops before. This is useful for portraits and scenics, letting you shoot down to a quarter second or slower and blur water or people, while keeping the background sharp. Rolling shutter was pretty abysmal on the original model, and isn’t a lot better here. If you’re taking street photos and want to remain silent, it’s fine if the subject doesn’t move much. For anything else, use the mechanical shutter to avoid some bad skewing. Image quality Image quality is this camera’s forte. Naturally, photos are pin sharp thanks to the 102-megapixel sensor. And with 16 bits of color depth in RAW mode, dynamic range is outstanding, right up there with Sony and Nikon. All of that makes it ideal for portraits and landscapes, on top of tasks that benefit from high-resolution, like art preservation. The GFX 100 II now goes down to ISO 80 instead of 100 to further boost dynamic range. All of that allows photographers to get creative with RAW photos, or tease detail out of highlights and shadows. It’s not bad at high ISOs either, thanks to the sensor’s backside illumination and dual-gain design. There’s very little noise visible at ISO 6400, and photos are usable up to ISO 12800 if exposure is correct. The medium format sensor offers incredibly shallow depth of field if you need that for portrait shooting. Combined with a fast lens like the 80 mm f/1.7, it allows for incredible bokeh and subject separation. For those who prefer to use JPEGs straight out of the camera, it delivers color-accurate images with the perfect amount of in-camera sharpening. That’s ideal for previews or for folks who want to use Fujifilm’s impressive film simulation modes. For the GFX 100 II, Fujifilm introduced a new one called Reala Ace that’s based directly on one of its old negative films. With a punchy, saturated and slightly nostalgic feel, it has become one of my new favorites. There is one quality issue — the GFX 100 II drops from 16- to effectively less than 14-bits when shooting 8fps bursts in order to reduce throughput. That in itself isn’t a huge problem, but Fujifilm has been cagey about how it markets this, which has rubbed a lot of pro photographers the wrong way. Video Steve Dent for Engadget I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but the X100 II is also Fuji’s best medium format camera for video. It has a host of new modes, most notably 8K. It also offers 6K, 4K/60p and 1080p at 240fps. All those formats can be captured in 12-bit ProRes, along with 10-bit H.265 formats. You also get access to Fujifilm’s excellent F-Log2 capture that boosts dynamic range. There are some considerable compromises, though. 8K is captured with a 1.53 times crop, reducing the effective sensor size to less than full frame — which negates one of the main medium-format advantages: shallow depth of field. Other resolutions use the full sensor width, but pixel binning reduces sharpness. Rolling shutter is also an issue at 8K, so be sure not to move the camera much at that resolution. It’s less bothersome at 4K resolutions, likely due to the pixel binning. All that aside, video from the GFX100 II has a different quality than I’ve seen from most mirrorless cameras. The larger sensor makes it cinematic, especially with some of Fujifilm’s prime lenses. And the 8K video is extremely sharp when downsampled to 4K in DaVinci Resolve. Realistically though, video is more of a nice-to-have feature for occasional use, as the majority of buyers will certainly be using it for photography. Wrap-up Nathanael Charpentier for Engadget The $7,500 GFX100 II is an impressive medium format camera with improvements in every area compared to the previous model. More importantly, what did my pro photographer friends think and will they buy one? “What’s most noticeable is the evolution of the autofocus compared to the GFX100,” said Nathanael Charpentier. “In our studio we usually work with Sony, and the GFX100 II autofocus is still far from Sony’s level, but it’s a big improvement. “It’s not a sports camera, it doesn’t have super-fast burst speeds. It’s more for studio portrait work. For certain types of ‘reportage’ like candid wedding shoots, if we really need the extra dynamic range offered by a medium-format camera, I could see using it.” At this point, they’re not planning on buying one due to the high price , but it’s high on their list of future equipment purchases. Its main competitor is the $8,200 Hasselblad X2D 100C, which has perhaps slightly better color science and image quality — while also bringing a certain prestige with the Hasselblad name. However, the GFX100 II is superior in most other ways, including speeds, autofocus and video. If you really need to nail autofocus in busy or difficult situations, though, full-frame is still best: Sony’s 45-megapixel $6,500 A1 or Nikon’s $3,800 Z8 or $5,500 Z9 are better choices.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fujifilm-gfx-100-ii-the-king-of-medium-format-mirrorless-cameras-143009929.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 16:12 The new Samsung Galaxy devices drop tomorrow which means today is your last chance to take advantage of pre-order promotions. One of the best deals we've seen comes from Amazon, which is offering a $300 gift card to anyone who pre-orders the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. The bundle is available for $1,900 thanks to a six percent discount on the 512GB model . You can pick it up in Silver, Navy or Pink. Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 6 earlier this month, and we've had the chance to test it out. We gave it an 86 in our review due to welcome features like native stylus support and an even lighter chassis. It also uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and has a larger vapor chamber, so there's basically no lag, and it's less likely to overheat. The screen is brighter, with a colorful display, and the device lasted over 20 hours during our video rundown test on the main screen and 25 hours and 19 minutes on the exterior screen. If you're in the market for something cheaper, check out the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 — a smaller device with some of the same perks. The smartphone is also available for pre-order, with the 512GB model and a $200 Amazon gift card on sale for $1,100. The 512GB Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 starts at $1,220 on its own . Like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, it comes out tomorrow so today is the last day to snag a pre-order deal. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/its-your-last-chance-for-a-300-amazon-gift-card-when-you-pre-order-the-samsung-galaxy-z-fold-6-141053944.html?src=rss

23.07.2024 16:12 The first reports of instability issues with the 13th-gen Intel desktop CPUs started popping up in late 2022, mere months after the models came out. Those issues persisted, and over time, users reported dealing with unexpected and sudden crashes on PCs equipped with the company's 14th-gen CPUs, as well. Now, Intel has announced that it finally found the reason why its 13th and 14th-gen desktop processors have been causing crashes and giving out on users, and it promises to roll out a fix by next month. In its announcement, Intel said that based on extensive analysis of the processors that had been returned to the company, it has determined that elevated operating voltage was causing the instability issues. Apparently, it's because a microcode algorithm — microcodes, or machine codes, are sets of hardware-level instructions — has been sending incorrect voltage requests to the processor. Intel has now promised to release a microcode patch to address the "root cause of exposure to elevated voltages." The patch is still being validated to ensure that it can address all "scenarios of instability reported to Intel," but the company is aiming to roll it out by mid-August. As wccftech notes, while Intel's CPUs have been causing issues with users for at least a year and a half, a post on X by Sebastian Castellanos in February put the problem in the spotlight. Castellanos wrote that there was a "worrying trend" of 13th and 14th-gen Intel CPUs having stability issues with Unreal Engine 4 and 5 games, such as Fortnite and Hogwarts Legacy. He also noticed that the issue seems to affect mostly higher-end models and linked to a discussion on Steam Community. The user that wrote the post on Steam wanted to issue a warning to those experiencing "out of video memory trying to allocate a rendering resource" errors that it was their CPU that was faulty. They also linked to several Reddit threads with people experiencing the same problem and who had determined that their issue lied with their Intel CPUs. More recently, the indie studio Alderon Games published a post about "encountering significant problems with Intel CPU stability" while developing its multiplayer dinosaur survival game Path of Titans. Its founder, Matthew Cassells, said the studio found that the issue affected end customers, dedicated game servers, developers' computers, game server providers and even benchmarking tools that use Intel's 13th and 14th-gen CPUs. Cassells added that even the CPUs that initially work well deteriorate and eventually fail, based on the company's observations. "The failure rate we have observed from our own testing is nearly 100 percent," the studio's post reads, "indicating it's only a matter of time before affected CPUs fail."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intel-has-finally-figured-out-its-long-standing-desktop-cpu-instability-issues-130042083.html?src=rss