(Reuters) — Alphabet’s Google on Thursday published reports for 131 countries showing whether visits to shops, parks and workplaces dropped in March, when many governments issued stay-at-home orders to rein the spread of the novel coronavirus. Google’s analysis of location data from billions of users’ phones is the largest public dataset available to help health […]
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If Found…, an interactive visual novel about going home, coming out and erasing everything, will launch on May 19 on iOS and Steam. Developed by Dublin-based independent studio Dreamfeel and published by Annapurna Interactive, the game will be available for iOS on the App Store for $5, as well as for PC and Mac via […]
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Xbox co-creator Rob Wyatt has filed a lawsuit against Atari for failing to pay him for the design work he did in creating the Atari VCS console. Tin Giant, Wyatt’s company, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Colorado, alleging breach of contract and defamation. Tin Giant said that Atari owes it in excess of […]
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Gaming laptops are already in a great place. They were getting smaller, lighter, and faster for years, and they reached a point where they made sense for most people by 2018. And the rate of progression hasn’t slowed. And we’re on the cusp of yet another leap forward thanks to the competition between Nvidia, AMD, […]
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The programmatic strategies that once worked before the COVID-19 pandemic may not be working so well now. Internet browsing is up as more segments of the global population are ordered to remain home and are thus spending more of their day online. However, this surge in traffic is not always a good thing for publishers, […]
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The show is going on at the University of Southern California’s gaming showcase. Normally, the USC Games Expo is a physical event where students show off their games around graduation time. But this year, it will be a digital-only event starting at 4 p.m. Pacific on May 12. For the first time, the annual event […]
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Since our family went into coronavirus quarantine almost three weeks ago, we’ve completed two ambitious jigsaw puzzles. The first was a map of our hometown with 1,000 small pieces and the other was a photo of shelves filled with vintage soda cans with 1,000 miniature pieces. Part of the big story of the coronavirus has […]
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The Stanford Institute of Human-Centered AI (HAI) hosted a conference to discuss applications of AI that governments, technologists, and public health officials are using to save human lives during the global coronavirus pandemic. Based on current mitigation efforts, the U.S. — which has more cases than any other country on Earth — could see 100,000 […]
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I had a nice conversation with Glen Schofield, the former co-head of Sledgehammer Games and now founder of Striking Distance Studios. I asked him if he was making “Call of Dead Space,” referring to the past franchises that he worked on in his storied career. “You’re trying to get me to say what I’m making,” Schofield […]
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The best way for organizations to reach people right now is through the platforms everyone is already using. That means broadcasting to video services like Twitch and YouTube. But it takes a lot of bandwidth to send a live feed to multiple channels unless you use an intermediary like Restream that replicates the broadcast for […]
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(Reuters) — Zoom’s daily users ballooned to more than 200 million in March from a previous maximum total of 10 million, the video conferencing app’s boss Eric Yuan said on Wednesday, as it fought to dispel concerns over privacy and “Zoombombing”. The use of Zoom and other digital communications have soared with political parties, corporate […]
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Microsoft today announced the launch of new neural text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in Azure Cognitive Services, its suite of AI-imbued APIs and SDKs, that enable developers to tailor the voice of their apps and services to fit their brand. Each of three new styles — newscast, customer service, and digital assistant — offer fluid and natural-sounding […]
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Facebook is launching Messenger apps for Windows and MacOS globally starting today, nearly a year after the social networking giant first announced plans to bring dedicated apps to the desktop. At its annual F8 developer conference in San Jose last April, Facebook detailed a number of major updates that it was working on for Messenger, including […]
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Lightheart Entertainment has raised $1.4 million in seed funding for “hyper core” mobile games, or games that are deep enough to entertain hardcore gamers while still having accessible features. Galaxy Interactive, using the Galaxy EOS VC Fund, led the investment round. The money will be used to grow the company’s first game, Mr. Autofire, and […]
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Presented by Facebook Gaming We spoke with mobile gaming leaders from Activision, Wildlife Studios and Lion Studios to learn more about their global user acquisition strategies. Our discussion dives into how these publishers have successfully leveraged data to grow audiences outside of the US, what creative considerations are used for international marketing and what role […]
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We’re exposed to risk every day. From crossing the road to using our phones on the toilet. Every decision is a gamble and, subconsciously or consciously, we weigh up the likelihood of something going wrong. The insurance industry is built on this principle. Policies offer protection in the event the odds aren’t in your favor. […]
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Collibra has raised $112.5 million in venture capital at a $2.3 billion valuation as the Brussels-based unicorn continues to expand its data intelligence service. ICONIQ Capital and Index Ventures led the round of funding which also included participation by Durable Capital Partners, Battery Ventures, CapitalG and Dawn Capital. The funding essentially doubled its valuation from […]
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AI-powered optimization software provider Concertio today announced that it has raised $4.2 million, which it says it will use to scale its platform that boosts app performance by tailoring x86 server settings. Customers won’t only benefit from faster, more stable apps and hardware as a result, says Concertio, but from lower infrastructure costs as well. […]
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Google now enables you transform your own photos into works of art using a new tool inside its Arts & Culture mobile app. Art Transfer, as the new feature is called, is underpinned by an AI-powered algorithm that analyzes famous paintings to replicate the style in any photo that you take. “Art Transfer doesn’t just […]
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Intel has launched its first laptop processors, the 10th Gen Core H-Series, that breaks the 5GHz barrier with speeds that range from 2.3GHz to 5.3GHz. It is targeting gamers and content creators. Or those who both play games and upload videos to YouTube — at the same time. The new Intel Core i9-10980HK processor is […]
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Razer is upgrading its Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop with Intel’s latest Core i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX Super graphics processing units (GPUs). It is also adding an ultra-fast 300-hertz display. Intel is launching its eight-core 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processors today, and lots of laptops are expected to debut in mid-April with […]
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(Reuters) — Apple said on Wednesday it would stop taking a cut of some sales for “qualifying” streaming video services on iPhones and other Apple devices, including Amazon.com’s Prime Video. To make purchases inside apps on its App Store, Apple requires the use of Apple’s own payment systems and takes a commission of between 15% […]
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IBM today announced the launch of Watson Assistant for Citizens, a new chatbot solution available to government agencies, health care institutions, and academic organizations free of charge for 90 days. The hope is that by tapping AI technologies like natural language processing, it’ll triage residents looking for guidance on COVID-19, which has affected 204 countries […]
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