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The Last of Us Part I is a broken mess on PC

The Last of Us Part I finally debuted on PC on March 28th, but it’s been a bumpy launch, to say the least.

In the past 24 hours, players have been reporting a slew of technical issues with the remake of the seminal 2013 PS3 game, including repeated crashes, inconsistent framerates and lengthy wait times to load shaders. At the time of writing, the game has a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam based on more than 7,000 reviews.

Naughty Dog, the original developer of The Last of Us that also assisted port studio Iron Galaxy on the PC version, took to social media to acknowledge the issues.

“We’ve heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you’ve reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches,” tweeted Naughty Dog. The developer also directed players to a page listing known issues with the PC port while also asking players to submit a ticket for any others they my encounter.

It’s a remarkably bad look for PlayStation, which had already delayed the port by a few weeks for extra polish. It’s also a blemish on Naughty Dog, specifically, a studio renowned for its tightly-crafted, highly-polished games. “We want to make sure that The Last of Us Part I PC debut is in the best shape possible,” wrote Naughty Dog in a February 3rd tweet of the delay. “These additional few weeks will allow us to ensure this version of The Last of Us lives up to your, and our, standards.”

The port also comes several months after The Last of Us Part I was released on PS5 with no significant issues.

While Horizon Zero Dawn had a similarly rough launch on PC in 2020, PlayStation’s subsequent PC ports for games like God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered have largely been well-received, making the shoddy state of The Last of Us Part I feel especially standout.

Further enhancing the issue is the fact that this port was meant to coincide with the recently concluded first season of HBO’s hit The Last of Us series, which directly adapts the first game. Clearly, PlayStation is positioning the remake as an entry point for people who were introduced to the IP through the series. What’s more, PlayStation also didn’t make review copies available ahead of release, which meant that buyers weren’t able to get any advance feedback on how the PC port actually runs.

It’s worth noting that Iron Galaxy has a mixed track record with PC ports. While it did work on the solid PC version of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, it also handled the infamously broken PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight, which was so bad that Warner Bros. had to stop selling it for a time.

It remains to be seen how long it will take for The Last of Us Part I to be in an acceptable state on PC.

Image credit: PlayStation

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Mobile Syrup

Here are the free games hitting PlayStation Plus Essential in April 2023

PlayStation has revealed the free games coming to PlayStation Plus Essential in April 2023.

Leading this month’s lineup is Build Your Maker on PS4 and PS5 is releasing day one on PlayStation Plus. The first-person building and raiding game hails from Montreal’s Behaviour Interactive, the studio behind Dead by Daylight.

Also notable is Sackboy: A Big Adventure, a co-op-supported, Super Mario 3D World-esque platformer that’s available on both PS4 and PS5.

Rounding out this month’s trio of freebies is Tails of Iron, a hand-drawn RPG for PS4 and PS5.

All three games will be free through PS Plus Essential, the base PS Plus membership, from April 4th to May 1st. March’s Essential titles will remain free until April 3rd.

PlayStation Plus Essential costs $11.99/month or $69.99/year.

Image credit: Behaviour Interactive

Source: PlayStation

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Mobile Syrup

WWDC 2023 runs from June 5-9: Will we finally see Apple’s MR headset?

Apple has confirmed that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is set for June 5th-9th at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

The tech giant is expected to unveil the latest version of its operating systems, including iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, macOS 14 and more. There’s also a strong possibility Apple could reveal its often-rumoured virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) headset during WWDC 2023’s opening keynote. We’ve also seen rumours that Apple could show off its rumoured 15-inch MacBook Air for the first time at the event.

Like WWDC 2020, 2021 and 2022, the majority of sessions will be available to developers online at no additional cost, but there will also be an all-day special event for select developers and students on June 5th at Apple’s campus.

MobileSyrup will have more on Apple’s WWDC 2023 in the coming weeks.

Image credit: Apple

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Mobile Syrup

Apple co-founder, Musk and more call for AI development pause

Elon Musk and other well-known AI researchers have penned an open letter addressed to AI labs globally to pause the development of large-scale AI systems.

“Pause Giant AI Experiments” is the title of the open letter, and it is co-signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, and several other notable AI researchers. 

The letter says that “AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs.” The letter says that working on such technology requires labs to take meticulous precaution measures and should be planned for and managed with “commensurate care and resources.”

However, that level of planning and management is not happening, and rather, AI labs are in a race to develop and deploy the large-scale AI systems that “no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.”

Therefore, the letter suggests AI labs should “immediately pause” the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months. “This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”

The letter also quotes OpenAI and its recent statement regarding artificial general intelligence, stating that “At some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models.”

The letter offers a solution. A set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development should be put in place, and they must be rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. This does not mean that AI development halts, it just means that it takes a temporary pause until more favourable safety protocols can be put in place.

You can check out the full letter here.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Future of Life

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Mobile Syrup

iPhone 15 to have Apple Watch Ultra-like ‘Action’ button: leak

Rumours have swirled about the upcoming iPhone 15 series and changes Apple intends to make to the buttons on the device, namely making them capacitive buttons instead of physical buttons, like how the iPhone 7 changed from a physical home button to a capacitive one. Now, new details indicate Apple is working on a low-energy mode to power the capacitive buttons and that one of the buttons will be a user-programmable ‘Action’ button.

The Action button rumour is quite interesting as it builds on a previous rumour that Apple wants to replace the mute switch with a mute button. The details come from a leaker who previously revealed Apple’s Dynamic Island plans ahead of the iPhone 14 Pro launch, via a post on the MacRumors forum.

The leaker refers to the “action (currently ringer switch) button” in the post, which is about all we’ve got to go on. Admittedly, it’s not much — and you should definitely take it with a grain of salt — but the idea is an exciting one. Like the Apple Watch Ultra’s Action button, this new button for the iPhone could let users map certain actions to a single- or double-press. Some posit potential contextual features, such as different actions depending on the app you’re using.

However it ends up working (if it even ends up on the iPhone 15), an Action button could be a major improvement for iPhone users. On my iPhone, I set it to silent and never touched the switch again — I’d love to have some alternate functionality rather than a mostly useless switch.

Capacitive buttons might use new low-energy microprocessor

The other part of the leak and, arguably, the primary focus (though, in my opinion, not the most interesting part) discusses a potential new low-energy microprocessor to handle various tasks, including the rumoured capacitive buttons.

The key thing to understand is that capacitive buttons require power to function, which is a problem if the buttons will handle turning the iPhone on or off.

According to the leaker, the microprocessor will replace the existing low-energy mode that can handle things like Apple Pay or tracking devices via Find My when your iPhone is dead. Along with those features, the new microprocessor will supposedly allow the iPhone 15 series to sense capacitive button presses when the phone is dead or powered down.

The leaker also suggested the capacitive buttons would offer a 3D Touch-like functionality where the pressure applied would change the result. For example, pressing harder on the volume button would increase or decrease the volume faster.

However, the leaker does acknowledge that the 3D Touch-like features may not make it into the final device. They did claim the microprocessor was a “definite.” But as always, you should take this information with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Source: MacRumors forum Via: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Google says it stopped 5.2 billion bad ads in 2022

Google released its annual report on advertising safety, revealing the company stopped 5.2 billion “bad ads” in 2022. That’s a 1.8 billion increase over 2021.

At the top of the bad ads list are ads Google says abuse its ad network — that includes ads that contain malware as well as manipulative or spam ads. In 2021, Google said it stopped some 652.1 million such ads. In 2022, that number leapt to 1.36 billion.

Google attributed the increase to improvements in its machine learning algorithms that spot these ads, reporting mechanisms, and changes to its ad policies. Moreover, Google suspended 6.7 million advertiser accounts after it identified networks of bad actors that deployed malicious ads.

For all the company’s efforts, it hasn’t stopped malicious ads from appearing to users, including through Google’s own products like Google search. Bleeping Computer highlighted how bad actors use Google software to spread ads in December.

Gizmodo reports that Google’s director of ad privacy and safety, Alejandro Borgia, said during an online press conference that Google saw a spike in ads containing malware in 2022. The company took “swift measures” to deal with the so-called ‘malvertising.’

Unfortunately, there isn’t much data about how many bad ads Google might have missed. Gizmodo notes that U.S. federal law enforcement also noticed the increase in malvertising and even suggested people use ad blockers to filter out malicious ads.

Next to malicious ads, the next highest number of takedowns was for ads that infringed trademarks. There were 425.1 million more takedowns in 2022 than in 2021.

You can view the full report from Google here.

Source: Google Via: Gizmodo

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Mobile Syrup

Google details several new education-focused features for Workspace users

Google has announced upcoming updates to its Workspace features for education customers during the BETT 2023 educational technology exhibition.

The updates include new features for Google Docs, Slides, Classroom, and Meet, with the aim of providing teachers and students with more tools for collaboration and engagement.

One of the most useful updates for teachers on the Education Plus tier is the ability to use custom building blocks in Google Docs. Accessed via the @-menu, teachers can now create and save templates for lesson plans and curriculum guides. This feature will be rolling out gradually over the coming months. Another new feature coming to Google Docs is @voting chips, which will likely allow teachers and students to provide instant feedback during lessons. Meanwhile, @stopwatch and @timer are now available for teachers and students to use within Google Docs.

In Google Slides, co-presenting with multiple participants will soon be possible, with all parties being able to advance and start the video, whereas Google Meet recordings will support closed captions in multiple languages by later this year. “We’re also working on updates to Slides and Meet, adding co-presenting in Slides and AI-powered hand raise gesture detection in Meet, coming later this year,” wrote Google in a blog post. The hand raise gesture feature in Google Meet will automatically turn on the Raised Hand icon when a user physically raises their hand.

Lastly, Google Classroom users on the Teaching and Learning Upgrade and Education Plus tiers can look forward to new features like the ability to add questions to YouTube videos and receive real-time feedback, the option to sort grades and assignments by quarters/semesters/terms, and practice sets that offer targeted hints based on selected skills.

Image credit: Google

Source: Google Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Echo Buds (2nd Gen) sees a 32 percent price drop today

Amazon released its Echo Buds (2nd Gen) back in October 2021 and these have received a massive price drop of 32 percent.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2 are equipped with active noise-cancelling technology, which puts them in direct competition with other higher-priced wireless earbuds such as the Galaxy Buds 2 and Beats Studio Buds. Additionally, these earbuds have an added advantage for Alexa users as they can access the digital assistant hands-free directly from the wireless earbuds.

According to Amazon, the Echo Buds 2 offer up to five hours of listening time and can be recharged several times in the included case. In addition, each earbud features a touch-sensitive zone for controlling play/pause behavior. Moreover, the earbuds have an IPX4 rating, which means they can withstand light splashes of water.

The Echo Buds (2nd Gen) with a wireless charging case is now $129.99, while the wired charging option is 32 percent off at $104.99.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

Source: Amazon Canada

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Mobile Syrup

What’s leaving Netflix Canada, Crave and Prime Video in April 2023

As is the case every month, several shows and movies are leaving Netflix Canada, Crave and Prime Video in April.

It’s worth noting that the streaming services may only be removing certain shows and movies for a specific amount of time.

Series like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Gossip Girl and movies like Mean Girls have all left Netflix and then returned to the service months or years later. If you’re more interested in what’s coming to Crave, Prime Video, and Netflix, check out our respective ‘what’s coming to’ posts.

Below are all the shows and movies leaving Netflix, Prime Video and Crave in April.

Leaving Prime Video April

  • War With Grandpa (April 1st)
  • Bad Boys II (April 2nd)
  • Aamhi Doghi (April 5th)
  • Amazon Riders (April 5th)
  • Gretel and Hansel (April 6th)
  • Minari (April 11th)
  • The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (April 14th)
  • The First 48 (April 14th)
  • Chaos Walking (April 14th)
  • The Looming Tower (April 18th)
  • Stowaway (April 21st)
  • The First 48 (April 28th)

Here’s what’s leaving Netflix this April

  • Shrek Forever After (April 11th)
  • Shrek the Third (April 11th)
  • Despicable Me (April 14th)
  • Despicable Me 2 (April 14th)
  • Bill Nye: Science Guy (April 24th)
  • The IT Crowd: Series 1-5 (April 25th)
  • Señora Acero: Seasons 1-5 (April 27th)

What’s leaving Crave in April

  • Reminiscence (April 4th)
  • Stage Fright (April 5th)
  • 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. & Mrs. Kraus (April 7th)
  • Rogue Hostage (April 9th)
  • Spiral: From the Book of Saw (April 13th)
  • Crutch (April 17th)
  • Siberia (April 17th)
  • Cinema Toast: Season 1 (April 19th)
  • Sasquatch: Season 1 (April 19th)
  • Scary Movie (April 19th)
  • Scary Movie 2 (April 19th)
  • Scary Movie 3 (April 19th)
  • Scary Movie 4 (April 19th)
  • Scary Movie 5 (April 19th)
  • Malignant (April 26th)
    Free Guy (April 28th)
  • A Cinderella Story: Starstruck (April 30th)
  • After Dark, My Sweet (April 30th)
  • Angel Heart (April 30th)
  • August: Osage County (April 30th)
  • Belle (April 30th)
  • Big Miracle (April 30th)
  • Boogie (April 30th)
  • Four Christmases (April 30th)
  • Friday Night Lights (2004) (April 30th)
  • Grizzly Man (April 30th)
  • I Am Ali (April 30th)
  • I Heart Huckabees (April 30th)
  • Land (April 30th)
  • Letters to Juliet (April 30th)
  • Minions (April 30th)
  • Monsoon Wedding (April 30th)
  • Peacock (April 30th)
  • Red (April 30th)
  • Red 2 (April 30th)
  • Ride the Eagle (April 30th)
  • Riders of Justice (April 30th)
  • Rio (April 30th)
  • Rio 2 (April 30th)
  • Snowpiercer (April 30th)
  • Spirit Untamed (April 30th)
  • Super Troopers (April 30th)
  • Super Troopers 2 (April 30th)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (April 30th)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (April 30th)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (April 30th)
  • The Bank Job (April 30th)
  • TMNT (April 30th)

Image Credit: IMDB

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Mobile Syrup

Google app on Android gets massive Search bar

Bangkok. Thailand. January 24, 2016:A woman is typing on Google search engine from a laptop. Google is the biggest Internet search engine in the world.

Google has added a comically big Search bar to its Android app.

Now, the pill is practically twice the size, while the ‘Search’ text is displayed in a larger font.

Google Search GIF

That said, Search functions exactly the same otherwise, so this is purely a visual update. iOS users have had this for some time, but it’s finally come to Android.

Alongside the chonky Search bar, Google has introduced a carousel that offers suggestions for actions like searching for products in screenshots, translating text with your camera, identifying songs by listening and more.

For now, the changes are available in the latest version of the Google app beta (12.14). It hasn’t yet rolled out widely to all users.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Via: Android Police