PS2J 302 News – Aztec and Japanese

Free games

  • Twitch

    • Silence: The Whispered World 2

      • 2016
      • Point and click adventure game that won awards for its visuals and sound design, following a young girl lost in the magical realm between life and death, and her brother trying to bring her home

  • Epic Games

    • Civilization VI

      • 2016
      • Turn-based 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) strategy game in the Sid Meier’s Civilization series, where you develop a civilization from an early settlement through millennia to become a world power and achieve military domination, technological superiority, or cultural influence against human or computer-controlled opponents

Apple software updates

  • watchOS 6.2.5 has brought ECG functionality to Saudi Arabia, as well some new Pride watch faces to go with Apple’s new Pride-themed watchbands
  • iOS 13.5 has brought the ability to share your medical ID information during an emergency call, security fixes for Mail, mask-detection for FaceID so the password prompt appears more quickly, and most important the exposure notification API
    • Exposure notification settings are available under Settings, Privacy, Health once your region has been set up, including options to enable/disable it on demand, a list of active tracing apps on your phone, records of all requests to check your exposure log, and the ability to delete your exposure log altogether
    • Apple’s reported that several US States and 22 countries around the world have requested and received access to date, with more expected to join in the coming weeks
    • Now that this is available to the public I’m looking forward to contact tracing apps that handle privacy and device performance well, alongside giving people more tools to see if they may have been exposed to COVID-19
    • In the ABTraceTogether’s FAQ for the Alberta-based contact tracing app they mention updating once the API is released, so as soon as I see that I’ll definitely be installing it

The latest battle in iPhone encryption is already here, hidden behind NDA’s for the last year

  • Among more news of the FBI claiming Apple is willfully not decrypting the phones of suspected criminals and accusing them of aiding terrorists, and Apple replying that they seriously can’t decrypt those devices because they’re secure by design but they provided literally everything they have access to, we’re hearing more talk of the secret hacking tools that government agencies and law enforcement are spending tens of thousands of dollars on. Each.
  • Grayshift, the company behind the GrayKey iPhone brute-force cracking device we’ve talked about more than a few times over the years, apparently has an additional tool for passcodes that are too long to crack
    • Four to six digit pins can be cracked in less than a day, but adding the alphabet and increasing length can easily stretch that time to years
  • It’s a piece of software called Hide UI, and it’s basically spyware that the GrayKey box can install on devices to record passcodes as they are entered into the device
    • The idea is that basically law enforcement can try to crack the phone, then instead install the Hide UI spyware and give the phone back under the pretence of allowing a phonecall or other access to the data on the phone.
    • Then, even if the phone is locked again, the passcode will have been stored in a file that can be extracted the next time it’s plugged back in to the GrayKey device
      • According to a screenshot posted online, the GrayKey even snapshots the phone’s file system to prevent the deletion of any data, disables Airplane mode, and blocks attempts to wipe the phone
      • So now not only do we need to have long, alphanumeric passcodes for any semblance of security, but if your phone has been in the hand of law enforcement you can’t trust it enough to use it
  • One of the biggest problems with this is it’s another tool used by law enforcement, which needs to be accountable to the public in a democratic society
    • So far though GrayKey has been mentioned in court documents we haven’t seen any search warrants outlining the capabilities of Hide UI, and if it’s been in use that could be a problem when it comes to our rights and freedoms
    • Some civil liberties groups including the ACLU are concerned that, rather than disclose how the tech works and subjecting it to public scrutiny, prosecutors may be dropping cases when it comes up.
      • This previously happened with the use of stingray devices, which spoof a cell phone tower to intercept nearby phonecalls and text messages
  • And even though law enforcement sources say a warrant is required, it’s not clear whether the prosecutor or judge are aware of subterfuge and malware involved. It feels like this is moving from the territory of a search warrant and into surveillance or wire tapping
  • On top of all that, because Grayshift is using these NDA’s to prevent law enforcement from being transparent, defence attorneys may not get the same access to exculpatory data
    • One NDA from 2018 requires law enforcement to notify Grayshift if details of the tech are likely to be disclosed through something like a subpoena or court order, so that Grayshift has the opportunity to “obtain a protective order or otherwise oppose the disclosure”, so we officially have a company that could interfere with the courts and due process because they don’t want people to find out about the hacking tools they’re selling

id Software caught a lot of flak this week for the May 14th update of Doom Eternal, which added in anti-cheat software with dangerous implications

  • Separate from the Denuvo Anti-Tamper software, which is built to make it harder for pirates to crack the software through reverse-engineering, the new piece is Denuvo Anti-Cheat
    • DAC is a PC-only piece added to Doom for its multiplayer game modes, to ensure everyone’s on an even playing field, but the way it was added after the fact even for players not going in to multiplayer has many up in arms
  • The big problems with DAC?
    • It completely ruined Linux compatibility
    • It seems to have been causing blue-screen errors, performance degradation, as well as issues launching the game at all
    • It can be updated silently in the background, giving it even more access and control
    • And, because of the level of access it is set up with, it can collect information on everything your computer is doing and transmit/affect it however it pleases
      • Any security vulnerabilities found in DAC would immediately affect everyone with Doom Eternal installed, whether they wanted DAC or not
  • Things got so bad so quickly that, after a campaign of review-bombing on Steam, id has already announced plans to remove DAC in the next patch
    • They’re saying that, at the very minimum, they will consider giving campaign-only players a way to avoid anti-cheat software altogether while also re-evaluating what they use to prevent cheating in multiplayer
    • They’ve also stated that the performance issues are unrelated, and that other fixes are coming in the patch to address them, but with the way they worded it (“It’s also worth noting that our decision to remove the anti-cheat software is not based on the quality of the Denuvo Anti-Cheat solution.”) it almost seems like they’re trying to avoid a liability/defamation problem with Denuvo
  • Either way, anyone playing Doom Eternal on PC may want to uninstall the game while we wait for the next patch. Or at the very least, check your Uninstall Programs app on Windows and remove Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Denuvo Anti-Cheat Updater

Users of the popular email app Edison Mail had a major privacy breach this week, with many reporting that they suddenly had access to other peoples’ email accounts

  • A new sync feature was recently rolled out to allow connected email accounts to show up across all your devices, but there are a lot of reports from users on sites like Twitter saying that they now had full access to complete strangers’ email accounts
    • They could also see in their settings that other peoples’ devices had access to their accounts as well
  • Edison has been replying to users saying they’re “urgently working to resolve this technical problem” and that they’ve reverted the change that introduced the problem for a “small percent of our users”
    • A followup blog post says that it exclusively affected iOS users, totalling about 6,500 accounts, and was fixed 30 hours after first being reported
    • They’re also saying that your credentials weren’t exposed, but that you should change your password just in case
  • Either way, this will likely lead many to reconsider using Edison Mail going forward

The BBC has launched a new online service to let users watch or listen to programs, podcasts, and radio together remotely

  • BBC Together is available now on Taster, the BBC’s experimental platform, and can be accessed with any web browser.
  • Once one user finds a link to something they want to watch with others, from iPlayer, Sounds, Bitesize, News, or Sports, and pastes it into BBC Together it creates a new group session with a link that can be sent to friends and family
  • Each session can be watched by up to 50 people, with the host able to control the content or choose something new to watch
  • Overall it seems pretty similar to Netflix Party, the Chrome extension that lets you watch Netflix shows simultaneously online, and it couldn’t have come at a better time

Dumb news item of the week- The US Department of Homeland Security has had to issue alerts to wireless telecom providers and law enforcement agencies about potential attacks on cell towers and telecom workers

  • Apparently coronavirus conspiracy theorists have decided that COVID-19 can be spread by the new 5G cellular frequency (it can’t), and that has led to dozens of cell tower burnings in the UK and mainland Europe

Overwatch Anniversary

  • May 19 to June 9th

    • Log in for a free Legendary Lootbox!

  • Each day features a seasonal brawl

    • It runs through this list, one a day and repeats when it ends:
    • Lucioball
    • Junkenstein’s Revenge
    • Mai’s Snowball Offensive
    • Yeti Hunter
    • Capture the Flag
    • Uprising
    • Retribution
    • Storm Rising
    • Archive Challenges
      • The harder effects added to Uprising, Retribution and Storm Rising
  • During the anniversary you are able to use your in game currency and purchase any cosmetic from events that you may have missed

  • This event brings 5 new legendary skins

    • Dragoon Mercy

      • Mercy’s armour is styles like a green dragon

    • Huitzilopotchli Zenyatta

      • Pronounced Weetsee-low-potched-li (Josh’s pronunciation breakdown)
      • Huitzilopotchli is a the Mesoamerican deity of war, sun, human sacrifice and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. (Ten-o-cheetch-lon) Which is now in Mexico City.
      • His body looks like ancient Aztec stone, has a statuesque face, some omnic flare for joints and lighting, and he is wearing a ceremonial headdress and skirt

    • Little Red Ashe

      • Ashe is dressed like an armed Little Red Riding Hood
      • And Bob is the bag bad wolf, dressed like granny

    • Masquerade Reaper

      • It is very similar to the masquerade outfit in the comic, big exceptions are:
        • the lack of fluffy collar
        • his mask is not a full skull, but a gold masquerade mask with a top jaw of a skull
        • and unlike the comic, he has a full cape
        • and his shotguns are styled like handcannons with writing on the bottom
          • “Beneath your dancing feet are the tombs of tortured men!”
          • Which is a quote from The Phantom of the Opera

    • Submarine Wrecking Ball

      • The mech is nautical themed like an old diving suit
      • Hammond has a captains outfit and a big moustache

  • And again, they are giving away Epic skins with a player icon and spray with 9 wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or the Arcade

    • Week 1

      • May 19th to 26th
      • Carbon Fiber Sigma
      • His armour is black carbon fiber
      • With extra details and visor that are yellow hexagonal glass or hardlight

    • Week 2

      • May 26th to June 2nd
      • Fleur de Lis Widowmaker
      • Her clothing is purple and gold
      • Parts look somewhat like armour, like shoulders and boots

    • Week 3

      • June 2nd to June 9th
      • Masked Man McCree
      • A recolour of McCree making him a teal with white trim and white hat
      • His poncho reads Ranger
      • His belt buckle is HYSA
        • Given the Lone Ranger flair its probably “Hi-Yo Silver Away!”

Tidbits

  • Chrome is taking aim at bad ads with new features to block advertisements that affect your computer’s performance through either bad or malicious code
    • The idea is that they’ll block ads that use more resources or network data than the other 99.9% of overall ads, to prevent things like surreptitious bitcoin mining
    • They’ll be experimenting with it over the next few months with an expected release by the end of August
  • Spotify is continuing their slow but hostile takeover of the podcast ecosystem, with Joe Rogan hitting the service in September and going Spotify-exclusive this January
    • I understand that the money is attractive, but at the end of the day podcasting is supposed to be an open standard. Once you start limiting things to specific apps and services you’re going to lose people, especially if you go to a service with as much user tracking as Spotify
  • Twitter has started testing new conversation options, letting people limit replies to their tweets to either everyone, people you follow, or only people you mention
    • It’s not a bad idea, but it will definitely increase the echo-chamber effect that Twitter already has issues with
  • HTC is working on their new U Ear earbuds that, according to photos in regulatory documents, took some design cues from the original AirPods
    • And by “took some design cues”, I mean “they took AirPods and spray-painted them black”
  • Facebook has acquired the GIF sharing website Giphy for $400M, and has announced plans to further integrate it into Instagram and other Facebook apps
    • This is really going to highlight which companies with Giphy integration care about your data- some, like Signal or Slack, will outright tell you how they protect your data and disassociate your information from the Giphy images you use, while others are going to be conspicuously silent
  • Apple Stores have begun reopening in Canada and the US this week, with safety precautions like required face coverings, temperature checks and screening questions at the door, and limited occupancy of the stores
    • I’ll have a first-hand account of their new safety precautions after I take my computer in on Saturday

 

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PS2J 296 News – New Horizons

Free games

– Epic Games

    – Close to the Sun

        – 2019
        – First-person horror adventure similar to Bioshock that puts you in the role of Rose Archer, trying to save her sister Ada in an alternate 1897 that has Tesla and Edison fighting for technological dominance around the world

    – Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

        – 2014
        – Adventure mystery game in the same series as The Devil’s Daughter, that has you exploring crime scenes and examining clues to link deductions and attempt to find the culprit in six different mysteries

Update to last week’s PSA- Apple has released iOS, macOS, and watchOS updates that fix the issue with FaceTiming older devices, so if you’re using FaceTime to keep in touch with people still using systems that don’t support the latest software you’ll want to prioritize updating

Continuing their past security and privacy shenanigans, Zoom is really cementing why they shouldn’t be used if you can avoid it
– Their latest mistakes include “accidentally” routing calls through China, which is the last place on earth you’d want your poorly encrypted video chats routed through, and exposing thousands of videos online because the file names are easily accessible
    – The Washington Post found that, because Zoom names every video recording with the same format, a simple online search can reveal a long stream of videos that anyone can download and watch.
    – Reporters found things like one-on-one therapy sessions, training orientation for healthcare that included private names and phone numbers, meetings including financial information, and elementary school classes in which children’s faces and personal details were exposed
– Zoom has really been playing fast and loose with security and privacy, and it’s time that we let them know that’s not okay

Researchers are now calling on people to wear cloth masks when leaving their homes for essential reasons

– One big thing to note is that they’re not saying physical interaction is okay if you wear a mask, but that if you have to go out anyway a cloth mask has a chance to improve risks of transmission
– Using cloth masks will free up stock of medical-grade equipment for those who need it on the frontline of healthcare (seriously, if you have any paper or N95 masks please donate them to a hospital. Medical professionals need them more than you do), and professors at Yale say that even if cloth masks reduce transmission by 10% (and that’s likely a very conservative number) each one could have a value of $3000-$6000 due to their impact in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
    – Best estimates say that their protective value is even closer to 40-50%
– You can find plenty of cloth masks online nowadays, and if you’re feeling crafty the CDC has released guidelines on how to make your own with a few different methods suggested for all skill levels, from sewing a fancy one to cutting one out of a t-shirt to just folding a bandana around a coffee filter- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html
– The biggest thing though is to make sure you’re practising good hand hygiene, washing them frequently, and not touching your face.
    – Be conscious of your mask and hands, because you may end up wanting to touch your face more to adjust and position your mask while wearing it
    – Make sure you have one that fits comfortably, don’t touch it, and if you do make sure to immediately wash your hands
    – Also note that once you’ve worn your mask it’s contaminated- don’t just throw it in your pocket for later use. Make sure to wash it frequently and be aware that it can contaminate whatever it comes into contact with before you do so

Sony has unveiled their new DualSense controllers for the upcoming PS5, and they’re very pretty

– It looks like they’ve taken cues from the Xbox One and Switch Pro controllers in making things a little more rounded and smooth, continuing the evolution of the classic Playstation controller mold that the PS4 revamped
– They’ve also added haptic feedback for more meaningful vibration, similar to Nintendo’s Joy-cons, and adaptive triggers so that they can dynamically change the resistance of the pull depending on context (like drawing a bowstring)
– The controller also has a built-in microphone array for quick conversations so you don’t need a headset
– All in all this seems like a great improvement of the DualShock 4, and I’m really looking forward to using one

In a move with some great timing, Google’s Stadia is now free for anyone with a Gmail address

– And the cherry on top is that Stadia Pro, including access to nine games, is free for the next two months
    – Destiny 2: The Collection
    – Grid
    – Gylt
    – SteamWorld Dig 2
    – SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
    – Serious Sam Collection
    – Spitlings
    – Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks)
    – and Thumper
– You’ll be able to play games on a computer, Chrome tablet, Pixel phone, and other supported Android devices including the Chromecast Ultra
    – You can also play with any supported USB or Bluetooth controller, or your mouse and keyboard
– After the two month free trial you’ll be charged $9.99/month, but you can cancel your subscription online if you choose

Tidbits

– Apple has purchased the popular weather app Dark Sky this week, announcing that while there will be no changes to the app itself they will be ending Android support this July. They’ll also be shutting down the API at the end of 2021, affecting other popular apps like Carrot Weather that use them as a data source
– Users of the digital wallet app Key Ring will want to update as soon as possible due to a large security breach
    – Security researchers have found that the app accidentally exposed personal info for over 44M users due to misconfigured cloud servers
        – The potentially compromised data includes names, birthdates, emails, addresses, and loyalty card info
    – Key Ring hasn’t made a public statement so we don’t know how long the data’s been out there, so anyone using it will want to update the security settings for anything linked to it and perhaps rethink continuing to use it at all
– Apple’s had a tough time with AirPod replacements, with many individual AirPods being shipped to customers with an unreleased firmware preventing them from being used
    – In order to have both AirPods synced to your phone at once they need to have matching firmware. The problem here is that they can’t be downgraded to the current version, and the newer firmware hasn’t been released to the public, so users are having to work back and forth with Apple trying to get AirPods that will actually work together with varying amounts of success
    – The hardest part is that this all has to occur through the mail, since Apple Stores are now slated to be closed until at least May

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PS2J 285 News – Accidently More Secure

Free game

  • Epic Games

    • The Bridge

      • 2013
      • Winner of the 2012 Indie Game Challenge awards for Achievement in Art Direction and Achievement in Gameplay
      • Billed as Isaac Newton meets M.C. Escher, The Bridge is a logic puzzle game that has you manipulating gravity and exploring impossible architectures

More details on the FBI/Apple encryption argument, courtesy of Daring Fireball

  • The GrayKey device doesn’t actually break an iPhone’s encryption, it just exploits software flaws to remove the password attempt limit and then brute-forces it
  • That does mean that it will depend on the passcode used on the devices
    • A four digit passcode would take about 7 minutes
    • Six digits takes on average 11 hours
    • Eight is 46 days
    • Ten would take 12.5 years
    • If the passcode uses numbers and letters, then a six character passcode would take about 72 years to guess
  • So it’s a little unfair of us to say that the FBI can definitely crack the devices involved in crimes. On the plus side, that means if you use a passcode with both numbers and letters your data remains safe while Apple refuses to hand over a back door

Early adopters of Google’s Stadia platform, that paid $170 plus a monthly subscription for the privilege of testing the service, are starting to get chapped with the lack of updates

  • The service has been out for two months and still falls short of many of Google’s promises
  • The idea was that you could pay a subscription to play triple-A games in your browser, but at the moment the only access is available by buying the Premiere Edition which uses a special controller and a Chromecast Ultra
  • Meanwhile Google has gone largely silent, giving no word on when people can expect some of the promised features or highly anticipated releases
    • The Stadia doesn’t have voice chat, which even the Switch has an attempt at
    • Games promising 4K resolutions still aren’t hitting that target
    • Integration with YouTube doesn’t have a date for release
    • No word on when players can expect cross-platform gaming, either
    • And the big one, the promised free base version of the service, is still completely uncertain
      • This is the big sore spot, with a lot of people saying that the service could work really well for demo or trial versions if they didn’t have to pay a premium for access
  • So far it’s a subscription-based digital storefront with 26 games, only one of which is an exclusive- the other 25 are already available for other consoles, in many cases for less money
  • It really hammers home the Google philosophy- release services in beta, let them simmer for a few years, and then see if you still have a userbase. Then flip a coin on whether or not to shut it down anyway

Sony’s quietly launched a $40 controller attachment that turns any Dualshock 4 into a pro controller

  • The DualShock 4 Back Button Attachment plugs in to the bottom of the controller and, adding only a little weight, gives you two paddles on the back sitting naturally under your middle or ring fingers, so that you can press buttons without having your thumbs leave the analog sticks
  • One really nice thing about the added device is it works with no extra configuration or drivers- on your PS4, PC, wherever, the controller just now has two extra programmable buttons that can act as any of the other buttons on the controller
  • And the easiest part is that it actually has an OLED touchscreen on the back of the device where you can assign the buttons and save up to three profiles, all configurable on the device itself
  • Unfortunately it’s proven to be very popular- it was released the day of recording and it’s already sold out at multiple stores, with Amazon’s only remaining offering being sold at an extra $10 premium
  • All in all it sounds like a pretty slick device, and though it’s coming kind of late in the PS4’s lifespan there’s speculation that the DualShock 5 will have extra buttons and Sony has said the PS5 will be backward-compatible with all the PS4’s accessories

According to their latest app updates, EA is fully retiring their Tetris apps for iOS and Android

  • As of April 21, 2020, they’re shutting things down so that, from the sounds of it, even people who have kept the apps installed won’t be able to run them
  • People looking for their Tetris fix won’t have to look far though- The Tetris Co. announced that they have a new version available as a free download on both the App Store and Google Play
    • It’s pretty bare bones, with one game mode and control scheme compared to EA’s three modes and two methods of control, but they promise that this is just a foundation for much more to come
    • They also have plans to bring Tetris Royale, a mobile adaptation of the Switch’s Tetris 99, out of beta and into full release
    • Unfortunately at the moment the new core game developed by N3twork is pretty choked with ads, and the in-app purchase to remove them is $7, so with all that working against it the reviews are looking grim- 1 star in the app store, and the Google Play store has reviews complaining of bad controls and required internet connectivity.
      • It sounds playable, but a large step back from EA’s mobile Tetris games

Last week we asked:

With Byleth, being the final character to the first DLC Fighters Pack, who do you want to see in the next one?
Looking for a realistic answer, and a fantasy pick.
Let us guess which is which!
Listening to Remember The Game, Adam Blank’s retro gaming podcast
  • Dovahkiin
    • The Dragonborn from Skyrim
    • Would made a neat level and great soundtrack addition
  • With the addition of the Altair costume for Mii Fighters, is Ezio on the horizon?

Tidbits

  • Designers of the Jaws Board Game and Disney’s Villainous are working on a horror board game based on The Shining
  • Adobe Flash’s days continue to be numbered, with the latest Safari browser beta explicitly ending support for the web plugin
    • At the moment it’s disabled by default, but can still be installed and manually activated. Soon that won’t be the case for the built-in macOS browser and you may need to download Firefox or Chrome to do so
  • Beginning this February, new installs and updates of Office365 Pro Plus will include a Chrome extension that forcibly changes the default search engine from Google to Bing
    • The worst part is how purpose-built that extension is- if you already use Bing, it won’t even be installed.
    • If you want to change it back you’ll need to either find a new toggle that the extension adds to Chrome or remove the whole extension itself
    • From users to sysadmins, many are calling the change invasive and uncalled for. And I’m hard-pressed to disagree
  • Black Mesa, the glorious remaster/remix/love letter from fans to the original Half Life, has officially released their reimagined Xen chapters and is due for a full release early this year
    • Black Mesa has been around for years now but didn’t include the Xen portion of the game due to the sheer amount of work the developers wanted to put into it- the original chapters didn’t really feel like the same game, and they wanted to put even more polish into them than they did with the improved and expanded Earth chapters
    • In related news, in the ramp up to Half Life: Alyx Valve has made every previous official Half-Life game free to play until it comes out this March

We want to know:

With all these games being remastered and released on modern consoles, is there something you feel slipped through the cracks and could use a remaster?

 

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PS2J 275 News – Bushel of Apple

Security alert

  • Google’s October 2019 Android security fix is here for the majority of Android devices and has a fix for a major vulnerability present on a bunch of different phones
    • The bug allows a hacker to remotely root and take complete control of the device if an infected app has been installed or if a Chrome-based loophole is used
    • If you have an Android device you should go into your Settings app and search for System Update to download and install it as soon as possible

Free games

  • Epic Games

    • Surviving Mars

      • 2018
      • City building simulation from the developers of the Tropico series modeled after real Martian data that has you building a colony on Mars by manufacturing resources and constructing buildings to ensure the survival of the colonists

Apple’s under fire this week for their wishy-washy capitulation to the Chinese government during the Hong Kong protests

  • Most of the controversy, involving Apple at least, revolves around an app called HKMap.Live that allows users to flag locations on a map. It’s being used to warn the public about things like concentrations of riot police, tear gas, and zones that are currently being locked down
    • According to people within Hong Kong, tear gas is routinely being deployed without warning in densely populated neighbourhoods just because the cops were being verbally taunted, and the police are firing bean bag rounds without warning at people that, for example, walk out of a subway station in a locked-down area
  • It originally hit headlines because Apple rejected the app, saying that it facilitates, enables, and encourages the evasion of law enforcement. Which is no more true that being able to flag speedtraps on Waze- it’s not like the app has GPS on every cop in the region
  • The app eventually did get approved and released, so people chalked it up to an overzealous App Store reviewer and left it at that
  • Then Apple came under fire in the Chinese state media, being accused of protecting “rioters” and enabling illegal behaviour
    • Interestingly enough, the same story made no mention of the fact that it’s also a web app and available on the Google Play store- it completely targeted Apple
  • In response to those stories, and presumably pressure from Chinese officials, Apple then removed the app from the App Store citing claims that it was used to target and ambush police, threaten public safety, and that criminals have used it to victimize residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement.
    • They went on to say that the app violates Apple guidlines and local laws, but despite many inquiries neither Apple nor Chinese officials seem to be able to point those laws out
      • The Secretary for Transport and Housing laid the decision solely at Apple’s feet, saying to ask them for the reasons why
      • Tim Cook released a company-wide email talking about the situation, but still didn’t or couldn’t back up the claims that it was used to target individual officers for violence, or to victimize people or property where no police were present. And no one at any point has said what local laws in Hong Kong this app is violating.
  • At this point the app remains available Google Play and its webapp, and anyone that already installed it on their iDevices can still use it, but it’s not available for purchase or download any longer
  • For all Tim Cook’s talk of free speech and human rights, this really seems like a failure to stand up for what’s right. They’re just 100% buckling under the pressure of the Chinese government

In related news, Blizzard is in a similar situation but they’ve 100% embraced their Chinese overlords

  • After a professional Hearthstone player declared his support for the Hong Kong protest movement Blizzard handed him a one year suspension and rescinded his $10,000 tournament prize
  • This has even caught the attention of American senators, with Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden both calling Blizzard out for the censorship
  • This is a really bad look for a company with supposed values like “Think globally” and “Every voice matters”
  • Many are boycotting Blizzard games in protest, to the point where they have basically crashed the account deletion part of the Blizzard site
    • Early reports were suspicious of them trying to prevent a mass exodus by changing the requirements (ie needing photo ID to close the account, instead of the usual authenticator, sms, email, or secret question), but further testing has shown that they’ve either backpedaled on that strategy or, more likely, gotten a little-used part of their website some more resources
      • Interesting part there is that you don’t need to send in your id to make the account in the first place, so what exactly would they be verifying?

The latest iOS may be a bit of a mess, but it at least has a couple of new privacy features to go with it

  • If you’ve already updated you might have noticed a new security prompt when using some apps, asking if you want to allow them to use Bluetooth
  • It mentions that it’s used to connect to Bluetooth accessories, which makes sense, but also says apps can use it to know when you’re nearby
  • Apparently some retailers were using bluetooth beacons to track customers that had their app open, since they previously by default had the ability to see nearby Bluetooth devices without a prompt
  • They could also learn your location if you were near a public WiFi hotspot, but Apple now has things locked down so that’s no longer possible
  • The worst part about that tracking was that it wasn’t limited to apps you might expect like Best Buy, but also things like games, flashlights, or other one-off apps from sketchy developers
  • So now with the additional prompts users can basically deny everything that doesn’t make sense, and then if they notice that actual functions within the app are affected they can look at allowing the needed access
  • The next challenge will be apps from companies like X-Mode, which get permission to collect location data by plugging in to apps that actually do need your location
    • For instance they have an earthquake alert app, which would make sense to let track your location, but buried in the ToS is language that says they can use that location data for other means
  • End of the day it looks like we still need to be conscious of what apps we’re installing, but at least now iOS lets us know if that wallpaper app you downloaded is secretly trying to get your location data

macOS Catalina is here, and because I haven’t learned my lesson from installing iOS 13 on day 1 yet we’ve got the full scoop

  • One thing to note is that they’ve drawn a line in the sand and you can no longer run 32 bit apps. That should be limited to older software, but even some newer 64 bit apps may rely on 32 bit plugins
    • There’s a free download available called Go64 that will flag the applications on your system that won’t work after the update, as well as let you know when they were last used, and it was a handy way to make sure I was ready
      • I actually found you need to delete/reinstall Steam to get the new 64 bit version, even though the Blizzard launcher updated itself smoothly
  • iTunes has been split into three separate apps- Music, TV, and Podcasts. Gone are the days of a single bloated hub for all your media, but it’s shifted iPhone and iPad syncing to an unlikely new home- Finder
    • Once your device is plugged in you should see your phone near the bottom of the navigation bar on the left side of Finder. You can click on that to see the familiar sync and update options that used to live in iTunes
    • You’ll also see an option for “Show this device when on Wi-Fi”, which you’ll need to manually enable to get WiFi sync back the way it’s been for the last few years
    • Apple notes in their support documentation that things set to sync with the cloud, like Apple Music, may not be available through the new Finder sync, possibly in a move to push more people into the iCloud and away from local syncing and backups
    • Also, despite its name, TV is the new home for all the video content including movies
  • They’ve also released Mac Catalyst, allowing developers to port iPad apps directly to macOS with the addition of multiple windows, drag/drop, and keyboard shortcuts
  • Photos has been updated with more sorting/filtering options and some automatic curation similar to Facebook, highlighting important moments like birthdays and vacations
  • Notes and Reminders have also been updated with the new iOS 13 features and finally sync properly across all your updated devices! And there was much rejoicing
  • Apple Arcade is now up on Mac in addition to iOS and AppleTV, meaning you can really take your game subscription anywhere
    • I’ve been itching to give it all a try, so expect my impressions in the coming weeks
  • Sidecar is brand new in Catalina, letting you use your iPad as a second monitor for your Mac. You can even use your Apple Pencil to control things, giving you a solid tablet interface for your computer for things like Adobe Creative Cloud, Maya, ZBrush, and more
  • Screen Time has come to the Mac, giving you insight into how you’re spending your time and allowing you to monitor usage, schedule downtime, and set limits for apps and websites across all your devices for yourself or your family
    • You’ll even be able to set communication limits as of this spring, if you want to limit who your kids can contact at certain times of the day (or night) without blocking their ability to contact you if they need to
  • On top of all that we also got a bunch of new security features, like better encryption, activation lock for lost or stolen hardware so only you can erase and reactivate your Mac, better controls to prevent accidental overwrites of system files (I’m looking at you, Chrome update we discussed in 273), and permissions prompts before apps get access to your files, keyboard activity, or images of your screen.
    • They’ve also set up the new Find My app with a couple tweaks to help locate a missing Mac, even if it’s offline and sleeping, by sending out Bluetooth signals that can be detected by Apple devices in use nearby so they can then relay the location so you can find it. And it’s all encrypted end-to-end so not even Apple knows the identity of the reporting device or the location of your hardware
  • Plus some great new accessibility features that let users control their Mac, iPhone, or iPad entirely with their voice, and tools to let users with low vision adjust magnification or visiblity on the fly
  • All that is available now, free, for most Mac hardware from 2012 or later.

The internet has found a way to get official Google apps back on Huawei phones, and you definitely shouldn’t do it

  • Recently the Trump administration banned US companies from doing business with Huawei as part of the trade war between the US and China
  • This has made their latest phone, the Mate 30 Pro, the first to launch without Google apps even though it uses the Android operating system
    • So it can’t access apps like the Play Store, YouTube, Chrome, Google Assistant, and more
  • Generally this wouldn’t be a big deal- gray market distribution of Google apps is something the modding community has been doing for years, but the Mate 30 has locked down the loopholes that are normally used for devices like the Kindle Fire
  • Instead the new method is to install them through a website called Lzplay.net, which has been promoted by many major Android news sites and is very easily searchable
    • It’s easy to see why it’s so popular too- you just go to the website, install the app, hit ‘next’ a few times, and it installs a batch of Google system apps in the blink of an eye
  • Unfortunately the method it uses to do so is suspect at best and a security nightmare at worst
    • The website plugs in the Android’s Mobile Device Management framework, usually meant to give your IT department full control over a company-issued device. The goal there being that they have as much control remotely as you do physically- they can install/uninstall apps, change passwords, wipe lost or stolen devices, and all kinds of other things
    • These are permissions that should only ever be given to someone you 100% trust- I don’t even like giving that access to my employer, even though they pay my phone bill
  • The big problem here is that no one knows who or what owns Lzplay.net, so you’re essentially giving full ownership of your phone and its data to a random website registered somewhere in mainland China, which historically doesn’t sound like a great idea
  • On top of that, a lot of the write-ups and video guides out there really gloss over how it works and just how many permissions you’re granting. Almost none of them mention the fact that you’re left with this massive backdoor to your phone, and removing the app as your device administrator requires digging through a lot of settings
  • Lzplay might not do anything malicious today, but tomorrow it could fill your phone with bitcoin miners, install ransomware, or brick your phone
  • If you want more details on just how suspicious the site’s background is, like how it uses secret Huawei code and launched three days before the phone even came out, check out ArsTechnica’s article on the whole debacle

Watch out, there’s a new sneaky phone scam making the rounds that looks like one of the most credible phishing attempts out there at the moment

  • Twitter user Pieter Gunst reported that he got a call from someone claiming to be his bank, asking if he’d used his card in another city. When he said no, the caller apparently blocked the transaction and asked for his customer number to verify his identity (red flag number 1)
  • Not realizing things weren’t on the up and up quite yet Gunst gave it, and the person on the phone then said they were sending a verification PIN for him to read back (red flag number 2). He later realized the scammer was resetting his online banking password through the Forgotten Password link, and used that verification number to do so
  • The scammer then read off a few other charges to sound legitimate, now that they’d gotten access to his online statements, and after he’d confirmed he made them the scammer said they then wanted “to block the PIN on your account, so you get a fraud alert when it is used again.”, and asked for his current PIN (at this point dozens of red flags were raining from the heavens and luckily Gunst realized something was up)
  • He hung up on the scammer and called his bank’s actual fraud department, as well as his local police department to file a report on the number that called
  • Based on my experience, as well as common sense if you think about it, if the bank is calling you then they know who you are. When my card was compromised the fraud department called me, verified which charges were legit, and then cancelled/reissued my credit card without ever asking me for passwords, or my PIN
    • If you ever do get a call and they start asking weird questions or you’re at all worried about its legitimacy, let them know you want to call them back and then get the number either from the back of your card or your bank’s website (don’t use any phone numbers they give you). That way you can be sure who you’re talking to, even if you have to jump through a couple extra hoops to do so

The LEGO Group is putting old bricks to use

  • The LEGO Group announced the start of LEGO Replay.
    • This pilot program will accept old bricks, wash them and donate them to children’s non-profit charities
    • its a collaboration with Give Back Box, Teach for America, and Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston
  • They made it easy to donate as well
    • collect any bricks, sets, lego figures you’re not using in a cardboard box
    • Vist Lego.com/replay to get a free UPS shipping label
    • Ship it, Lego takes care of the rest!
  • Your package is sent to the Give Back Box facility
    • They will sort the Lego
    • Inspect for damage
    • And clean it thouroughly
  • Tim Brooks, Vice President of Environmental Responsibility at the Lego Group had this to say:
    • We know people don’t throw away their LEGO bricks
    • The vast majority hand them down to their children or grandchildren.
    • But others have asked us for a safe way to dispose of or to donate their bricks
    • With replay, they have an easy option that’s both sustainable and socially impactful
  • The founder of Give Back Box, Monika Wiela, also said:
    • I am excited to join the LEGO group in this pilot program
    • Growing up in Poland, I didn’t have many toys as a child, so this collaboration is rather personal for me
    • What’s better than giving a child the gift of play?
    • For us, the number of donations we receive is critical to a successful campaign, so we’ve made it as easy as possible for folks at home to send in their idle bricks
  • Among the bricks sent out
    • There is a portion going to Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston for thier after-school programs
    • First shipments in November 2019.
    • Once the pilot is complete in Spring 2020, the LEGO group will evaluate a possible expansion of the program
  • LEGO replay is one of the many sustainable and philanthropic efforts the LEGO group has announced in the past year
    • Recent efforts include bricks made from plants, braille bricks and audio & braille instructions.

Josh wants to get into Streaming

Trying XSplit Gamecaster
They have a camera app that can capture just you with, I dunno, machine learning?
I want to stream Overwatch, HotS, and whatever I play. Like Sims 4, Rollercoaster Tycoon, any whatever free game I get from Alan’s free games list.

Tidbits

  • Bose has discontinued their noise-masking Sleepbuds earbuds due to battery and charging issues, and are offering full refunds as long as you put in your request by the end of the year
    • They also note that if you want to keep using them their newer Sleepbuds are less likely to see problems, and they’ll continue replacing them while supplies last
  • PS4 remote play has gotten amped up on iOS with the ability to connect your Dualshock 4 controller to iPhones and iPads
    • Previously we were stuck with on-screen controls, which aren’t great for the sheer number of buttons involved, but with an actual controller it makes remote place a lot more useful
  • Spotify has been updated on iPhone to include Siri support, and it works almost exactly how I’d hoped- you just ask it to play a song, artist, or playlist followed by “with Spotify” or “on Spotify” and it picks up the command easily
    • One annoying nitpick though, it doesn’t play nice with Siri on my watch so changing music while driving continues to be slightly more awkward than it needs to be
  • Steam has announced their Remote Play Together feature coming near the end of this month, giving a couch-coop experience online
    • The idea is that the host computer runs as if it was a local multiplayer session, split screen and all, then streams the video to your remote friends while they stream their controller inputs back

Recommend The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad from 1949

  • Especially the second half, where it does a full Disney take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow narrated and voiced by Bing Crosby
  • It’s charming and just a real treat in the fall season to hear more of Bing not limited to Christmas carols, and it’s a solid delivery of the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman
  • Plus as a bonus you also get The Wind in the Willows, narrated by Basil Rathbone, which is another excellent example of Disney animation at its finest
  • Each segment is about half an hour, which leaves neither of them feeling padded or cut short. Just the right amount of two great Disney films

Literally Misleading

Last Week:

Movie – A typical cowboy saves the princess tale.  (Shanghai Noon, Movie)

This Week:

Game – Sadistic architect values efficiency over safety.

 

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A huge thanks to Dalton, for supporting us for so long.

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PS2J 273 News – My Glasses Are Vibrating

Free games

  • Xbox

    • Tembo the Badass Elephant

      • 2015
      • 2D side-scrolling platformer that has Tembo smashing and stomping his way through enemy structures and vehicles, and solve puzzles using his trunk to progress

    • Friday the 13th: The Game

      • 2017
      • Asymmetric survival horror game based on the film franchise, pitting up to seven counsellors at Camp Crystal Lake against Jason Voorhees in a semi open world fight to escape

    • Disney’s Bolt

      • 2008
      • Based on the movie of the same name, you play as Bolt the superdog going on various missions using your powers to take down enemies and make it through the levels

    • Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge

      • 2013 re-release of the 2012 WiiU title
      • Punishingly difficult action-adventure game from Team Ninja that has you jumping, climbing, fighting, and assassinating
      • Razor’s Edge is an enhanced release of the original NG3, in line with the Sigma games, taking a lot of cues from Ninja Gaiden 2

  • PS4

    • MLB: The Show 19

      • 2019
      • Baseball sim that’s the 14th in the The Show franchise, bringing new features to let players relive and recreate famous moments in MLB history

    • The Last Of Us Remastered

      • 2014 remaster of the 2013 title
      • Action adventure third person shooter by Naughty Dog that has you escorting a teenage girl across a post-zombie apocalypse United States where survivors have managed to make ends meet, it’s earned a lot of praise for not just its gameplay but also its characterization and storytelling
      • The remaster brings graphical improvements, a higher framerate, and some new features to take advantage of the PS4’s controller’s touchpad and lights

  • Epic

    • Everything

      • 2017
      • A simulation game where you have the ability to explore a procedurally generated universe and control various objects within it, exploring and changing while quotes from philosopher Alan Watts are played

    • Metro 2033 Redux

      • 2014
      • Post-apocalyptic first person shooter that turned the Earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland, and has the survivors living in a new dark age, populating the depths of the Moscow underground

Google managed to push a Chrome update recently that could make your Mac completely unbootable

  • Apparently the automatic update was released including a bug that damaged the file system on macOS machines that have the built-in System Integrity Protection disabled (or any versions before 10.11 El Capitan, where SIP was first introduced), deleting an important file at the root of the startup drive
  • Google has since paused the release until they address the problem, but this raises a bigger question- why is a web browser’s software updater doing anything at the root level?
    • Daring Fireball put it nicely- “This is like hiring someone to wash your windows and finding out they damaged the foundation of your house.”
  • End of the day unless you have a really good reason you should probably leave SIP turned on, since this is the exact kind of problem it was introduced to prevent
  • If you’re a Chrome user on Mac you should check out the blogpost on MrMacintosh.com (https://mrmacintosh.com/google-chrome-keystone-is-modifying-var-symlink-on-non-sip-macs-causing-boot-issues/) for steps on how to see if you’re affected and how to fix it.
    • Above all, do not logout, shutdown, or restart your Mac before running the repair if you’re affected. You’ll have to boot into recovery to fix the problem introduced by Chrome

Sony’s Nintendo Direct-style State Of Play livestream hit again this week, so here’s some of the highlights courtesy of Kotaku:

  • The Last Of Us Part II is coming February 21st
  • A demo of the MediEvil remake is available today, and you can get a special item in the full game by playing it
  • A limited-edition Death Stranding PS4 Pro bundle is hitting November 8th, with a pretty cool dripping-handprint design
  • Wattam, the next game from the creator of Katamari Damacy, is coming this December
  • L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files is available now for PSVR
  • Civilization 6 is coming to the console on November 22nd

iOS 13.1 is here! Already! Because for some reason we needed a new version 5 days after the previous release!

  • Before we get into the new features, it comes with a BIG security warning for everyone: the new iOS has a flaw that enables third-party keyboards to get full access to your device even if you haven’t approved it
    • Full access means that they keyboard isn’t just a standalone piece of software and can provide additional features through network access, meaning that they could theoretically send what you type over the internet to another system
    • The problem apparently doesn’t affect the official built-in keyboard, but the exploit is currently public and Apple has yet to find a fix so be very, very careful when using iOS keyboard replacement apps
    • On the plus side, iOS 13 added some new features like swipe-typing that users previously needed third-party apps for, so fewer people will need those keyboards going forward
    • You can check out Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards to see what you currently have installed. If in doubt, it’s definitely worth deleting them
  • So, on to the new stuff!
    • iPadOS is officially here, bringing more multitasking abilities like having the same app open twice, improved browsing in Safari, and a bunch of other tablet-exclusive features to the iPad
      • It also has an updated home screen to take advantage of the extra space, instead of just showing a big grid of apps
    • We’ve also got tvOS 13, updating the home screen to make it easier to discover new content, a new picture-in-picture mode to let you watch videos while using a different app or adjusting settings, and supporting multiple users for the first time
      • It also supports Xbox One and PS4 controllers, alongside the new Apple Arcade service which gives you unlimited gaming for $5-6 /month
    • Share ETA is now more powerful, automatically updating selected contacts if your travel time changes
    • There’s a new lyrics view in Apple Music that follows along with your music, turning your iPhone into a karaoke machine
    • You can now temporarily pair two sets of Airpods or Beats headphones (anything with an H1 or W1 chip) to your phone to share audio with a friend
    • And the Shortcuts app is getting even more powerful, with automatic triggers based on things like location or time of day now available
  • Overall it’s a solid improvement over iOS 13, also fixing a bunch of things like the email issue I mentioned in the last episode, with the only caveat being “be careful with third party keyboard apps”

Amazon has announced a whole bunch of new hardware including Echo devices and more

  • Among the announced devices are an Echo Dot with a built-in digital clock, and a high-end Echo Studio set to compete with the HomePod for giving you audio optimized to whatever room it’s located in
  • They also updated their line of Echo Show devices, including screens with HD resolutions, and announced the Echo Glow, a multicolour smart lamp that works with your Alexa devices
  • And now Alexa can live in your glasses with the Echo Frames, that has directional microphones and vibration motors on your face meant to connect to your phone on the go. This is a weird one, since it doesn’t really do anything that headphones don’t already while being more limited in other ways
  • Finally, Amazon’s released their Airpod-competing Echo Buds- truly wireless earbuds with 5 hour battery life and up to 20 hours with the included charging case
  • One funny part of the whole announcement came with Amazon executive Dave Limp being interviewed by Bloomberg about the new products while clearly wearing an AirPod instead of the new Echo Buds
    • It’s right up there with Samsung promotional tweets marked with “via Twitter for iPhone”

Google Assistant coming to Xbox

Currently in Beta, I was not able to get it working between getting home and starting the show

Tidbits

  • Google launched their Apple Arcade competitor, Play Pass, this week; a subscription app service for $5-6 /month
    • Contrary to Apple’s strategy of being the only mobile source for their games and providing brand new content, Play Pass includes many existing apps like Stardew Valley, KOTOR, and AccuWeather, so though they get to launch with a larger library it somewhat seems like more of a subscription ad removal system than something really comparable to Apple Arcade
  • Activision is under fire this week after a leak came out saying that Modern Warfare lootboxes won’t be just cosmetic
    • Supply drops will apparently include weapon unlocks alongside filler content like emotes and sprays
    • They’ve also announced that PS4 players will have exclusive access to Survival Mode until October 2020, which has a lot of people cancelling their preorders
  • Bandai Namco is holding a blood drive with the American Red Cross during Twitchcon this week, gifting a free copy of Code Vein and a “promo blood kit” for everyone that donates
  • Continuing the mess that is Fallout 76’s merchandising (the terrible collector’s edition bag, the disappointing Nuka rum), the Nuka Cola branded power armour helmet is being recalled due to the lining containing dangerous levels of mold, posing a risk of respiratory or other infections
    • Good news, apparently though there were 20,000 produced for sale in GameStop stores, the manufacturer has stated that only 32 were sold

Alan recommends Mario Kart Tour

  • Nintendo’s latest mobile game, Mario Kart Tour, released this week on iPhone and it’s pretty fun!
  • There are definitely some freemium aspects to it, with a couple different currencies and gatchapon-mechanics to get new drivers and karts (spend the freemium currency to launch a random thing out of a pipe)
    • One extra piece to file under “bold choice” is their $5 monthly subscription, which nets you access to exclusive characters, extra bonuses, and the 200cc mode (the fastest in the game)
    • Considering that costs more than Nintendo Switch Online, which gets you access to a bunch of free games, it’s a hard piece to justify
  • The steering is also a little strange, with the two main options being either swipe to steer or swipe to drift
    • There’s also an option for gyroscope steering, but in practice I found that it just messed me up
    • Swipe to drift seems to be the pro option, and you just need to hold your drift and adjust your swipe to get around different angles and corners
  • On the plus side of things it looks like the gatchapon mechanics aren’t a core pay-to-win feature, with different courses giving bonuses to different drivers each time
  • They also didn’t put in an energy system, so you can race as much as you like.
  • Overall it’s a fun game that I wish didn’t have microtransactions, but it seems like they’ll be easy to avoid going forward

Literally Misleading

Last week:
Game – A hard working lady is stuck going back and forth to clean up the trash. (Super Metroid)
This week:
Movie – A man led astray by his employer takes out his frustration on his family.

 

For more content, Patreon supports get access to upcoming ideas and more!

A huge thanks to Zane, for supporting us and Podzilla.

And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us.
And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link!
We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB
And talk to us in the comments!
Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow
A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 269 News – nice

Free games

  • Microsoft

    • Hitman: The Complete First Season

      • 2016
      • Third person stealth assassination game in episodic form, taking Agent 47 all around the world to prove he is the ultimate silent assassin

    • We Were Here

      • 2017
      • Co-op puzzle game where you team up with a friend or stranger online to escape an abandoned castle, but the twist is you’re split up only able to communicate with and help eachother via walkie talkie

    • Earth Defense Force 2025

      • 2013
      • Arcade-style third person shooter that has you taking on gigantic alien insects with infinite ammo and often-ridiculous weaponry
      • More details in PS2J 238, the history of Earth Defence Force

    • Tekken Tag Tournament 2

      • 2011
      • Tournament fighting game with solid gameplay and a massive cast

  • Sony

    • Batman: Arkham Knight

      • 2015
      • Solid third-person stealth action game in the Batman universe with great combat, fun stealth takedowns, and the addition of a drivable Batmobile, all brought together by Kevin Conroy’s iconic voice
    • Darksiders 3
      • 2018
      • Action-adventure Metroidvania style game that will be familiar to fans of the first two, Darksiders 3 has you taking control of Fury, the sister to War and Death and another of the four horsemen of the apocalypse
  • Epic
    • Celeste
      • 2018
      • Platform adventure game where you have to jump, climb, and dash through each area to climb a mountain and collect strawberries
    • Inside
      • 2016
      • The spiritual successor to Limbo, Inside is another deceptively simple platformer where you control a small boy in a big, very dangerous world
 

Security warning- it’s time to delete the CamScanner app immediately

  • Security researchers at Kaspersky discovered malware in various versions of the Android app, and the iOS app has a history of not being much better despite the protections Apple has built in to their App Store process
    • The malware is set up to extract and run another piece of software that downloads more malware for whatever its creators are up to at the moment, like showing intrusive ads or signing users up for paid subscriptions
  • Lifehacker is recommending Android users switch to a better, more secure app like Adobe Scan or Microsoft Office Lens, or use the built-in scanner in the Google Drive app
    • iOS users can also use the document scanning function built in to the Notes app
 

Speaking of security, after the Siri privacy concerns we reported on back in episode 265, Apple has officially apologized and put a halt to the Siri grading program pending some serious changes

  • It looks like concerns were more founded than I thought, with Apple laying off the contractors they’d hired to review selected Siri conversations to improve the service and completely revamping the whole program later this fall
  • The changes include defaulting everyone to opt out of the recordings, allowing an optional opt-in with the ability to turn it back off at any time, and only allowing Apple employees access to the audio samples instead of using contractors
  • They’ve also released a new Siri Privacy and Grading FAQ that you can check out for more details on the upcoming program: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210558
 

The Apex Legends subreddit became an interesting place this month, with developers logging on to insult players reacting to microtransactions

  • About two weeks ago Respawn posted an apology regarding the Iron Crown event and how they locked some of their cooler skins and items behind paid lootboxes
    • For context, one event item called the Heirloom Axe costs over $200 CAD to get
    • In the future they say they’ll provide more ways to obtain items, and in the meantime they’ve made some tweaks to how the event items are being distributed
  • The comments thread then got pretty heated, as a Respawn employee started engaging with people pretty angry about the situation calling them dicks, ass-hats, and freeloaders
    • The downvotes are currently sitting at -5300, -3500, and -1000 respectively, so they’re going to have to try a lot harder to beat the Battlefront 2 “sense of pride and accomplishment” microtransaction comment with a whopping -670000
    • I’m not sure what’s going on over at EA, but it really seems like they should tone it down with both the lootboxes and the social media responses
  • This time it was handled with a lot more class though- instead of EA’s strategy of “ignore the masses”, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella publicly apologized for the discussion, saying
    • “Some of our folks crossed a line with their comments, and that’s not how we want Respawn to be represented. I apologize to any of our fans that were offended.”
    • “I will always stand behind the team here at Respawn and support them on speaking out against some of the toxic and nasty comments aimed at their families and loved ones,” he continued. “But we shouldn’t contribute to it when we do comment, and add to the very thing we want to prevent. Last week we didn’t do that, going forward we will be better. Having an open, healthy relationship with our community is incredibly important to all of us at Respawn.”
  • All in all it’s a pretty classy response to a bad situation, taking responsibility without throwing anyone under the bus
 

An attempt is being made to bring Telltale Games back from the dead, though with very few of its original parts

  • All the assets were purchased by LCG Entertainment, and the new Telltale will sell some of the back catalog as well as work on new games based on some old associated properties as well as new licenses
  • Apparently some workers from Telltale Classic will be offered freelance roles with a possibility for full-time in the future, but it looks like LCG wants to make a fairly clear distinction between that company and New Telltale
  • It’s been confirmed that New Telltale has the rights to continue The Wolf Among Us and Batman, as well as some original properties, and there are some expired licenses that they’re currently reviewing
    • Unfortunately the rights to release a game based on Stranger Things have already reverted back to Netflix, but there’s still a lot there to work with
  • Fingers crossed they can recapture the magic of early Telltale, before they overreached and started pumping out poorly managed games in a dated, hard to work with engine
 
Good news everyone, the final additions to Shovel Knight, King of Cards and a multiplayer fighting mode called Showdown, are officially coming in December
  • The game is also getting features like new body types, a they/them pronoun option, accessibility features, co-op feats, new language support, and additional cheats that apparently add whole new ways to play
    • It’s been so long since the main campaign released I’ll have to dust off my Vita and check it out this Christmas
  • There’s also a new spinoff coming called Shovel Knight Dig, following Shovel Knight in a Spelunky-type adventure through semi-randomized levels as you pursue Drill Knight and his dastardly crew to the centre of the earth
    • It’s being developed in collaboration with Nitrome, makers of games like Redungeon and Rust Bucket
    • There’s no word on a release date for Dig quite yet
 

More than a year after Zuckerberg promised a Clear History tool for Facebook it’s finally here, and it kind of works?

  • Rather than the previous claims of it deleting tracking information from your account, it just slightly limits data that is collected about you when you’re not on Facebook
    • For instance, how Facebook would present ads based on things you shopped for online
  • It doesn’t even stop the tracking, but rather disconnects it from a specific user- everything is still gathered to build a profile, it just may not be used on you in particular
    • And keep in mind, this only applies to behind-the-scenes tracking- they can still identify you if they have your email or phone number
  • And it only limits data gathering one way, from third parties into Facebook. Nothing stops Facebook from reporting back to advertisers when users purchase a product after seeing a targeted ad
  • All in all it’s kind of a garbage attempt, especially when it was first touted as working the same as as your browser’s Clear History feature- flushing the data entirely
 

In response to WebKit’s announcement that tracking cookies will be treated as a security risk, Google’s now trying to make the argument that blocking them is actually bad for privacy…?

  • For anyone not aware, a cookie is a little piece of info that websites can read and write in your web browser, to do things like keep you logged in when you leave a website, that can also be used like breadcrumbs to see what websites you visit
  • Their first point seems to be that if you block cookies then developers will find other, more secret ways to track users, like building a fingerprint based on things like what device they’re using or what fonts they have installed. Since users can’t manually clear that, it’s apparently worse
    • freedom-to-tinker.comsaid it well: “We see that our town has a pickpocketing problem. But if we crack down on pickpocketing, the pickpocketers will just switch to muggings. That would be even worse. Surely you don’t want that, do you?”
  • And their second point is that blocking cookies that target ads causes content publishers to lose ad revenue because the ads become less relevant. This was, of course, backed up by a study (read, single paragraph in a blog post) run by Google. Who I’m sure is a completely third party wait it’s the same company
    • As long as we’re comparing anecdotes, the international edition of the New York Times recently switched from tracking-based ads to contextual and geographic ads—and it didn’t experience any decrease in advertising revenue.
  • So their strategy is to block fingerprinting (which is good) and improve the classification of cookies to be more transparent about what’s being used to track you (which is kind of neutral? Because in theory any cookie could be used to track you)
 

Creature in the Well

  • A top down dungeon crawler
    • With elements of pinball
  • You play as Bot-C
    • The last of engineer of a robot collective
    • You have to save the town of Mirage from a huge sandstorm by repairing an ancient weather machine
    • But there is a strange creature that is watching you from the shadows
  • The gameplay is hack and slash
    • With puzzles influenced by pinball, breakout and other ball based games
    • You explore rooms rooms to gather energy, which you spend to open doors and upgrade your character
    • Lots of secrets, with different weapons and cosmetic items
    • The town also has citizens that can help you
    • And they coined the phrase Pin-Brawler
  • September 6 for Switch, Xbox One and Steam.
 

Indies for Switch that Josh has

  • Enter the Gungeon
  • Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
  • Stardew Valley
  • The Messenger
 

Josh is interested In getting

  • Cuphead
    • StudioMDHR’s astonishing Cuphead has made the jump from Xbox One/PC to Switch. The port runs wonderfully both in console and handheld mode, retaining all the glory of the 1930s cartoon art style and animations.
    • Cuphead is a challenging game, but it never comes across as unfair. Minimalistic mechanics let you focus on the task at hand — the multi-phase bosses — while enjoying all of the excellent animations and sounds.
    • Cuphead is worth playing for the art style alone, which is as impressive now as it was upon its original launch in 2017. The engaging boss fights and crisp mechanics make it a pleasure to work through, even when the going gets exceedingly tough.
  • Hyper Light Drifter
    • Hyper Light Drifter is an ode to 8-bit and 16-bit adventure games, set in a distinct world reduced to shambles. This top-down adventure features extremely challenging gameplay with a neat gimmick.
    • Your main weapon, an energy sword, has to strike enemies in order to charge your supplementary, ranged weapons. This means you have to master melee combat to have a chance against the onslaught of enemies.
    • Rounded out by a beautiful soundtrack and fantastic animations, Hyper Light Drifter is a moving experience with an understated, but powerful story.
  • Down Well
    • Downwell, a game about a man falling down a well in a park, has been available since 2015 on mobile devices. Rendered in black and white, the premise is simple: Make it to the bottom. Since you’re falling at a rapid pace, you would think you’re already ahead of the game, right? Not so fast. Avoiding obstacles, enemies, and projectiles is an arduous endeavor that forces you to think and move on the fly.
    • As a rogue-like, each time you make your descent, the layout of the well changes. With guns attached to your boots that only recharge when you touch the ground safely, it’s a constant battle between the offensive and defensive. Power-ups are rewarded at the bottom of each stage, but each level ups the challenge. Basically, no matter what you have in your arsenal, you’re always facing an uphill battle (ironic, huh?).
    • A round of Downwell can last anywhere from seconds to a handful of minutes, depending on your skill level. On Switch, it’s a perfect game for quick bursts in handheld mode. The $3 price makes Downwell a steal, but you should splurge for the Flip Grip to play Downwell comfortably with a vertical orientation.
  • Into The Breach
    • From the makers of the excellent FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breachsomehow manages to be Subset Games’ best outing. A turn-based tactics game, Into the Breach takes place on small grids filled with only a few units. The name of the game is survival, as losing all your units restarts the game.
    • It’s an interesting approach to the relatively well-trodden grid-based tactics genre. You can, if you choose, take out enemy units, but you must focus on protecting your power grids. Since you only have a limited number of turns, choosing where to place your units at the start of each round is key.
    • Into the Breach has so many surprising layers to it that you’ll learn new strategies even after you’ve cleared the game multiple times. It’s a near perfect turn-based strategy game that should not be missed by any fans of the genre.
 
 

Tidbits

  • A new trailer for The Mandalorian dropped this week, and it looks just fantastic
    • Strikes me as Firefly but Star Wars, and has the titular Mandalorian teaming up with IG-11 in a lot of very cool settings and situations
  • The 2015 MacBook Pro battery trouble is now having some negative effects on travellers, with many airlines banning all 15″ MacBook Pros from checked luggage regardless of the year and warning they must stay off for the duration of the flight
  • Dutch brand ZENS unveiled a wireless charging mat that can charge two devices at a time anywhere on the mat, bringing us one step closer to the cancelled Apple AirPower
    • The mat uses 16 overlapping coils to deliver the power, compared to Apple’s planned 32 coils to charge three devices, and doesn’t have the same kind of software integration, but if it sounds like something you want I hope you have $140 USD to burn. $180 USD gets you a glass version so you can see the coils and circuitry
  • A short-lived Amazon listing for an Overwatch-themed Nintendo Switch case, marked as “officially licensed by Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment”, is fuelling speculation that the team shooter is coming to the Switch sometime soon
    • Between an upcoming Nintendo Direct and Blizzcon this November, the time is definitely ripe
 

Alan recommends Archero

  • You play the Lone Archer in this roguelike dungeon crawl, choosing from randomly assorted skills each time you level up to take on bigger and more daunting challenges
  • It got some interesting gameplay, where each room has a variety of enemies either shooting or charging at you, and you have to take them down while keeping your health bar up
    • The interesting part comes in with your attack- it automatically aims and shoots but only while you aren’t moving, so you have to choose between attack and dodging at any given moment
    • And it has my favourite roguelike mechanic, where there are permanent upgrades you can unlock and level up between sessions, so that even if you’re having trouble at the moment you’re still making progress
  • It’s got some annoying F2P bits to it, but it’s been pretty easy to not drop any money on it so far and I’m about halfway through the campaign
    • They also don’t have any mandatory ads, only putting them in when you choose to continue after dying or keep playing when you’re out of energy
  • Over all I’ve been enjoying it, and it looks like there are some cool updates coming in the near future with unlockable heroes and a battlepass feature that increases the rewards you can get
 

Literally Misleading

MOVIE – After being mistaken for terrorists, protecting intellectual property is now the least of the hero’s problems.
 
If you have a Literally Misleading Description, message Josh directly on our Discord, or Twitter @fushigiyami
 

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A huge thanks to Zane, for believing in us for so long.
And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us.
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PS2J 263 News – Amazon Police State

Free Games

  • Epic

    • Moonlighter

      • 2018
      • Action RPG that has you managing your shop by day, working with inventory and making money to expand your town, and exploring dungeons and fighting hordes of enemies by night to earn loot

    • This War of Mine

      • 2014
      • War survival game inspired by the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, it focuses on the civilian experience of making difficult decisions and trying to keep your people alive by gathering and crafting resources while avoiding snipers and hostile scavengers
 

Security warning

  • there are eight different browser extensions out there that are stealing data from millions of customers and a long list of companies including Apple, Walmart, Amazon, 23AndMe, SpaceX, Skype, and many more
  • The extensions are
    • Branded Surveys (Chrome)
    • FairShare Unlock (Chrome and Firefox)
    • HoverZoom (Chrome)
    • Panel Community Surveys (Chrome)
    • PanelMeasurement (Chrome
    • SaveFrom.netHelper (Firefox)
    • SpeakIt! (Chrome)
    • SuperZoom (Chrome and Firefox)
  • The tracking activity has been reported to Chrome and Mozilla, who have disabled the add-ons and removed them from their marketplaces, but even after being disabled they continue to track and send user data
    • The only way to stop them is to completely uninstall the extensions involved
  • Leaked data includes user names, addresses, credit card info, passwords, files stored in the cloud, tax returns, genetic information, medical history… the list goes on
  • It just goes to show that we need to be careful about what browser extensions we download and use, since even though they’re on an official storefront doesn’t mean they’re safe
 

Nintendo has officially responded to the Joy-Con drift controversy

  • An American law firm is investigating a potential class action lawsuit
  • Their official stance is that affected players should visit support.nintendo.comand open a ticket to get your controllers repaired
    • This ticketing system seems to be a new development, since as recently as July 19th they just had basic troubleshooting steps like updating your system and recalibrating your Joy-Cons
  • Even with Nintendo offering repairs many people aren’t satisfied, citing high repair costs ($50 CAD out of warranty), slow turnaround, and the drift issues coming back very quickly (in some cases within days)
    • Systems carry a 12 month warranty, but controllers bought separately are only covered for 3 months
    • There are also a few unsubstantiated reports of Nintendo offering free out-of-warranty repairs, and refunds to people that already paid out of pocket, but it hasn’t been consistent so far.
  • It’ll be interesting to see how the Switch Lite fares, with its built-in controllers
 

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is now slated to launch this September

  • They’ve apparently extended the plastic layer reviewers were peeling off to sit under the bezels, making it clear that it’s not supposed to be removed, and added reinforcements to protect the display from dirt and debris getting under it
  • End of the day this is still a $2000 USD concept tablet that folds into a phone with a surprisingly small screen, but we’ll see what people think of it this fall
 

FaceApp is under fire for processing photos and device-related data in Russia

  • A new warning tells users that photos will be uploaded to servers and not processed on their devices, but that was just added last week
  • Another piece to note is that you’re granting them a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use your data
 

Google Stadia’s director was on a Reddit AMA recently trying to reassure people that paying money for games that exist only in their service is completely safe

  • He went on to compare it to Gmail, Docs, Music, etc that have persisted for years
  • He declined to mention things like Nest, Google+, Inbox, and Reader, which have all been shut down. In many cases with little notice and no replacement on offer
  • If you want to see their track record you can check out killedbygoogle.com
 

Overwatch’s new Tank Sigma

 

ROLE

Sigma occupies the tank role. He is a full tank and uses a barrier to prevent damage.
 

SIGMA ABILITIES

Primary Fire – Hyperspheres

  • Fires limited ranged projectiles that can bounce off of walls. The orbs explode after a certain range and do area damage. This does 120 damage if you direct hit both of the orbs.
 

Experimental Barrier

Hold to propel a floating barrier; release to stop. Press again to recall the barrier to you.
  • This is Sigma’s main shield and what he will use to prevent damage for your team. It starts with 1,500 HP and can be placed on the map in front of you. It moves forward until you release the shield button. You press the button again to bring the shield back to you. The shield is just like Reinhardt’s shield where it needs to be recharged, and doesn’t have a separate health pool like Orisa’s shield.
 

Accretion

Gather a mass of debris and throw it at an enemy to knock them down.
  • Gathers rocks and throws them. Hitting a target at close range will only deal damage, further away targets will be hit by a knock-back and CC.
 

Kinetic Grasp

Absorb projectiles in front of you and convert them into shields.
  • Absorbs in coming damage and converts the damage up to 400 shield for Sigma.
 

Ultimate Ability – Gravitic Flux

Manipulate gravity to lift enemies into the air and slam them back down.
  • Sigma’s ultimate ability floats Sigma into the air (you can kind of fly around slowly) and allows you to place a black hole like ability on the ground. Any enemy within this area gets floated up into the air, and eventually they are slammed down onto the ground for 50% of their hp. You can fire Hyperspheres immeddiately after you’ve set the black hole.
 
Also they added Role Queue
  • For Quick play and Ranked
 

Tidbits

  • This week has brought new updates to iOS and watchOS, including releasing ECG and irregular heart rhythm notification functionality in Canada and Singapore
    • The walkie-talkie feature has also been re-enabled, and you can now migrate to a new iPhone by wirelessly connecting it to your old one; no computer required!
  • Amazon is apparently using police departments in the US to advertise their Ring seurveillance cameras in exchange for free products and access to an interactive map of active cameras where they can request footage stored in the cloud
    • The access is without a warrant, which is pretty damning, and Amazon’s agreement requires police to “keep the terms of this program confidential”, which means they clearly know it’s shady
  • Stjepan Sejic (styapun shayitch), the Croatian artist known as Nebezial online and behind the very popular Sunstone comic, is officially bringing his Harley Quinn origin story concept to DC
    • Harleen will be a 3 book series with oversized, 60 page volumes, and follow Dr Quinzel’s descent into madness as she grows more and more attached to the Joker
 

Alan recommends the Pokemon Go Team Rocket event

 

For more content, Patreon supports get access to upcoming ideas and more!

A huge thanks to Zane, for believing in us for so long.
And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us.
And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link!
 
We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB
 
And talk to us in the comments!
 
 
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A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 256 News – Teen Fiction

Free Games

  • Epic Games – Ends June 13

    • Kingdom New Lands

      • Kingdom is a minimalistic micro strategy game with modern retro aesthetics and an ambient soundtrack. Players take control of a monarch struggling to build their kingdom from nothing by exploring the world, recruit loyal subjects and defend from the nightly Greed attacks.

  • Twitch Prime – Ends July 2nd

    • Aegis Defenders

      • Humanity Has Been Brought Back Into the Dark Ages, but Remnants of a Once Highly Advanced Civilization Still Exist. In a world where control over ancient technologies means power, a ruthless Empire has arisen. You play as a team of Ruinhunters searching for the one thing that can save their village – a legendary weapon known as Aegis.
      • Explore, build, & defend in this 2D platformer that blends Metroidvania style combat with Tower Defense strategy.

    • Stikbold!

      • Stikbold is a glorious and intense sport which will put your friendships to the test with fast-paced, hard-hitting and occasionally hilariously unfair action! Or play the co-op story mode to unlock the full roster of quirky sporting heroes and earn achievements.

    • 10 Second Ninja X

      • A hardcore sidescroller. You’re a ninja, there are robots, you’ve got ten seconds to destroy them all. Get three star ratings, climb leaderboards, discover secrets and stop Captain Greatbeard.

    • Metronomicon

      • Rhythm Role Playing Game; fight the weirdest monsters with the power of music! Level your party and upgrade your gear while dancing to the beat.

Apple Keynote

  • The new Mac Pro that will be available to buy in the fall
    • Its design is being referred to as a “cheese grater”
    • $5,999 for the computer itself
    • another $4,999 for the new 32-inch Pro Display XDR Apple introduced to go with the Mac Pro.
    • And that new display doesn’t come with a stand
    • Another $999 to get the Pro Stand that offers tilt, height, and rotation adjustments.
  • iPadOS is a version of iOS specifically for the iPad and its larger display
    • More multi-tasking features
    • the ability to show widgets on the home screen
    • enhanced text editing
    • and more
    • With macOS Catalina, a new Sidecar app will enable the use of an iPad as a wired or wireless second display to a Mac.
  • Betas of iOS 13, iPadOS, macOS Catalina, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 are available to registered developers now and there are already some threads discussing their features and issues.

Google’s Stadia game service is coming 2019

What is Stadia again?
  • Stadia is a cloud gaming service operated by Google,
  • capable of streaming video games up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with support for high-dynamic-range
    • Done with numerous data centers across the globe, provided users have a sufficiently high-speed Internet connection
  • It will be accessible through the Google Chrome web browser
    • Also works on phones and tablets including the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a phones.
  • The service is integrated with YouTube and its “state share” feature allows viewers of a Stadia stream to launch a game on the service on the same save state as the streamer.

Google Stadia internet connection speeds and game resolution

Launching in November
  • 14 different territories including the US, UK and Canada
  • At least 31 games from 21 different publishers
    • An initial “Founder’s Edition” price of $130 for a hardware starter kit with three months of premium service, and $10 a month afterwards
    • There’s a separate free tier coming in 2020.
  • Google intends to eventually have a back catalog of free games included for your $10 monthly fee
    • Stadia is not primarily a subscription service. The subscription only includes a single game as of today — Destiny 2.
  • Google says you should expect to buy, not rent cloud games for the same retail prices you’d find on other platforms like PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and Steam.
  • Here are some companies that are on board with this service:
    • Bandai Namco
    • Bethesda
    • Bungie
    • Capcom
    • Deep Silver
    • EA
    • Giants Software
    • Rockstar Games
    • Sega
    • Square Enix
    • 2K Games
    • Warner Brothers
    • THQ
    • Ubisoft

Blizzard had a Starcraft First Person Shooter Canceled

  • This game has been in development for the last 2 years
  • Rumors are it would feel like Battlefield in space
    • An anonymous game dev said they had built prototypes in which a Terran Marine was fighting off Zerglings
    • And that there were plans for a playable Zerg prototype
    • Development was slow on the project while other said it looked quite good
  • The cancelation of the project did not cause any Blizzard layoffs
    • The developers were moved
    • Some to a Diablo project codenamed Fenris
    • Others to an Overwatch project rumored to have a large PvP element
  • The project, with the codename Ares, was an experiment of what StarCraft could be in the Overwatch engine
    • Which makes sense as multiple projects on the same game engine is cost effective
    • This project was lead by Dustin Browder
      • Who formerly led Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II
  • This is another disappointment to long time StarCraft fans
    • Long time fans will be reminded of StarCraft Ghost
      • A 3rd Person shooter-stealth project that would have players take the role as the Terran Ghost Nova
      • It went through many changes from its 2002 announcement and eventually its cancellation in 2006

Microsoft quietly wiped a massive facial recognition database

  • Microsoft has been very clear about how they feel facial recognition technology needs strict regulation
    • The president, Brad Smith, has appealed Congress directly, to take steps to manage the technology
    • He has said it has “broad societal ramifications and potential for abuse”
    • The company has even blocked the sales of the technology to California police forces
    • So they have deleted its MS Celeb Database
      • Which includes 10 million images of some 100,000 people
  • The database was published in 2016
    • It was the largest publicly available facial recognition data set in the world
    • It has been used to train facial recognition systems by global tech firms and military researchers
    • The people in the data set were not asked for consent
      • Since the people were considered celebrities, the images were taken from the internet under a Creative Commons license
  • FT.com calls some images in the dataset of “arguably private individuals”
    • Such as security journalists and authors
    • The deletion comes after FT.com ran an in-depth investigation on facial recognition technology
    • Microsoft said the deletion of the data was a matter of protocol
      • They said, “The site was intended for academic purposes, It was run by an employee that is no longer with Microsoft.”
    • Being protocol takes away the gesture of goodwill
      • Although, it does demonstrate their commitment to the law

Tid Bits

  • Playable at E3 is a demo of Luigi’s Manson 3
  • Watch Dogs Legion is set in London, and you will be able to play as any NPC you recruit
  • The Obamas have made a deal with Spotify, to produce and host podcasts
  • Destiny 2 will have cross save, across all platforms, even Playstation 4
  • Double XP on Overwatch through June 10th, on all consoles
  • Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated is up for preorder on Amazon for $30

Josh Recommends Just Cause 4

  • I got it on sale, huge bonus
  • All the fun I had from Just Cause 3
  • Added new tethers, Balloons
  • The villain is making weather altering super weapons
    • Sandstorms
    • Lightning Storms
    • And even Tornados
 

For more content, Patreon supports get access to upcoming ideas and more!

A huge thanks to Karen, for believing in us for so long. And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us. And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link! Also, make sure to check out RIPT Apparel for sweet 24 tee shirt designs. And don’t forget to use the coupon code PS2JSHOW for 10% off! We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB And talk to us in the comments! Or… Discord Server Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow Facebook

PS2J 218 News – KD Connoisseurs

Josh brings up quick meal ideas, mostly Kraft Dinner based. Google is trying to make Chrome the next game platform. Josh recommends an artists YouTube channel, Alan has another trilogy for our fans.

For more info, Patreon supports get access to our show notes!

A huge thanks to Dalton, our favourite fan. And thanks to all our Official Fans that support us.
And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link!

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Or…

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