Blizzard gets back to basics with ‘World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth’

Why it matters to you

If World of Warcraft has been too overwhelming with content for you, Classic should be a simple experience.

Blizzard capped off the opening ceremony for BlizzCon 2017 with several major announcements for one of its most venerable titles “that also has amazing shoulder pads,” World of Warcraft. As expected, we have a new expansion inbound, Battle for Azeroth, which gets back to the franchise’s core conflict of the Alliance versus the Horde. Executive Producer J. Allen Brack also had another surprise in store, however: An upcoming Classic server option that will allow players to go back in time and enjoy the pre-expansion World of Warcraft experience. Neither was given a release time frame, though Brack’s comments about the classic server in particular, “It’s gonna take some time, but it will happen” suggested it was not imminent.

Battle for Azeroth is the sixth major expansion for World of Warcraft since the game launched in 2004. The conflict between the Alliance and the Horde has been a persistent feature of Azeroth, but its intensity has waxed and waned as outside threats forced both sides to put aside their differences temporarily on several occasions. The time for compromise has passed, however, and now Azeroth is on the brink of world war. Both sides are rallying their forces for an all-out conflict on a scale never seen in the World of Warcraft. The opening cinematic featured a gritty siege in Lordaeron, with Varian Wrynn leading the Allied forces against Sylvanas Windrunner and the Horde in a castle. Apparently, the expansion begins in the wake of this world-shaking battle.

In order to tip the scales in their favor, both sides will have new continents to explore and alliances to forge therein. The Alliance will be exploring the Kul’Tiras archipelago, while the Horde will be penetrating the jungle depths of Zandalar. Both sides will have parallel quests to “battle for land and resources”  that will feed into overall conflict. Six new “allied races” join the fight, with three playable for each faction (and supposedly more coming after launch), including Void Elves, Lightforced Draenei, Blackiron Dwarves, Highmountain Tauren, Zandalari Trolls, and Nightborn. You unlock the ability to create new characters in these races (which start at level 20) once you have successfully brought them into your side through quests. The overall level cap will also go up to 120, at which point the world quests and allied race emissaries will become available.

A new system of Uncharted Islands will allow groups of three players to explore discrete areas with randomized content. There is also a new 20-player cooperative mode called Warfront in which players lead whole armies and battle for control over strategically important locations in gameplay inspired by the classic Warcraft real-time strategy games.

The announcement of World of Warcraft: Classic will excite a lot of fans that were disappointed when in 2016 Blizzard shut down a fan-run vanilla World of Warcraft server, Nostalrius. In an attempt to soften the blow, Blizzard invited the Nostalrius team to tour its headquarter and speak with them about what they want out of their WoW experience. That effort to listen to their community has finally come to fruition in these official classic servers.

According to creative director Alex Afrasiabi at the follow-up panel, the zone-level scaling introduced in Legion, which adjusted the difficulty of whole zones based on your character level, will be rolled out across the entire game. Zones will scale to a cap, so not every region will be equally playable at all levels, but it will allow for a wider range of options to play at any given level. This feature will be rolling out soon in the public test realm servers, likely dropping in the main game before either Battle for Azeroth or Classic arrive.

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Say what? ‘StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty’ will soon be free to play, and more

Why it matters to you

StarCraft II, Overwatch, Diablo III, and World of Warcraft have generated too much cash for Blizzard that you can soon play its popular sci-fi RTS game for free.

During the BlizzCon 2017 opening ceremony, Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Michael Morhaime said that starting November 14, the base installment of StarCraft II will be free to play. That means you get the full Wings of Liberty campaign without having to shell out cash up front.

But there’s more! If you already purchased the base game prior to October 31, Blizzard will hand over the Heart of the Swarm campaign free of charge between November 8 and December 8. Even more, if you purchased any version of StarCraft II prior to October 31 you’ll receive an Eidolon Ghost skin, and three portraits commemorating your founder’s status in-game.

In addition to free access, everyone will also have full access to the StarCraft II ranked ladder. You will even get free access to every co-op Commander in the game up to level five, including Kerrigan, Raynor, and Artanis. But Blizzard’s generosity doesn’t stop there, as everyone will have free access to Unranked and Versus AI modes, and Ranked will be unlocked after 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked and Versus AI.

“You have helped make it one of the best-selling, highest-rated PC games in history, and your support is why we continue to create new content for it,” he told the audience. “We are always looking for ways to help you get new friends into the game, and bring old friends back as well.”

In addition to revealing the free-to-play aspects of StarCraft II, Morhaime provided additional details about the latest additions to the game. First, a new co-op Commander is entering the stage that’s “two characters in one” consisting of Mira Han for commanding fast-moving ground units, and Matt Horner for commanding high-powered Dominion air units. They are now making an early appearance at BlizzCon 2017 along with a new co-op mission called Part and Parcel.

“The mission was adapted from a player-created map that won the recent Rock the Cabinet contest, where players submitted their own ideas for a Co-op Mission,” Blizzard said after the opening ceremony. “Players will collect resources to assist an AI-controlled archangel mech against an imposing array of hybrid bosses.”

New multiplayer updates were revealed for StarCraft II as well. They will hit the game shortly after BlizzCon, addressing complaints regarding “underused units,” and making support units more effective in smaller numbers. The changes also “promote more player control” regarding the game’s state, and reduce sudden “game-ending moments.” A detailed listing of the multiplayer changes can be found here.

StarCraft II is a science-fiction real-time strategy game for the PC developed and published by Blizzard. The first installment, Wings of Liberty, shipped in July 2010 and focuses on Earth’s human exiles called the Terrans. The second stand-alone installment, Heart of the Swarm, arrived in 2013 focusing on the Zerg race while the third stand-alone installment, Legacy of the Void, arrived in 2015 focusing on the Protoss race.

Typically, the StarCraft II: Battle Chest bundle consisting of all three parts costs $35. This bundle also tosses in seven co-op Commanders, all multiplayer units, all multiplayer maps and modes, and a bonus hero. Meanwhile, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void will cost $15 as well as the complete Nova Covert Ops single-player mission pack. Blizzard pulled the pricing for Wings of Liberty now that the game will go free to play later in November.

Here are the system requirements for all three StarCraft II installments:

Minimum
Recommended
Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
Intel Core i5
AMD FX Series
Graphics:
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT
AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Nvidia GeForce GTX 650
AMD Radeon HD 7790
Memory:
2GB
4GB
Storage:
30GB
30GB
Display:
1024 x 768
1024 x 768
Operating system:
Windows 10
Windows 8/8.1
Windows 7
Windows 10 64-bit
Internet:
Broadband
Broadband

Updated to reflect additional information and screenshots provided by Blizzard after the opening ceremony.

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Windows phones aren’t dead — Verizon now selling last year’s HP Elite x3

Why it matters to you

The HP Elite x3 features some impressive specs, but the fact it runs Windows Mobile makes it attractive to a very small group of enterprise customers.

More than a year after it’s initial release, HP unveiled a Verizon-compatible HP Elite x3 for enterprise customers. The phone is the same model as the GSM Elite x3 currently sold in the Microsoft Store, but compatible with Verizon’s CDMA network. The release of the phone comes as a surprise since Microsoft announced it would no longer focus on Windows Mobile OS earlier this year.

Even though Elite x3 is more than a year old, it still has some pretty impressive specs. The phone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM. Although the 820 processor isn’t as fast as current flagship phones like the Pixel 2 XL or Samsung Galaxy S8, it should still zip along for most business tasks.

The Elite x3 also features 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded to 1TB through the MicroSD card slot. A 5.96-inch AMOLED display accompanies Bang & Olfuson stereo speakers and and an 8MP camera. The back of the phone features a 16-megapixel camera. HP also included a fingerprint sensor and support for Windows Hello, which allows you to unlock the phone with an iris scan.

What sells the Elite x3 however, is its ability to transform into a makeshift computer. The bundled Desk Dock lets you to connect your phone to an external monitor and peripherals, while the Lap Dock transforms the phone into a 12.5-inch laptop. Windows Continuum and HP Workspace allows you to run a limited number of Windows apps through the phone.

The HP Elite x3 will probably be the last Window 10 mobile phone on the market. Last month Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore tweeted that the company was no longer focused on Windows Mobile and that he was currently using a Samsung Galaxy S8 with a suite of Microsoft apps installed. The Microsoft Store is currently selling the Samsung Galaxy S8 alongside the Elite x3.

Of course we'll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/hw aren't the focus. ???? https://t.co/0CH9TZdIFu

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017

The unlocked HP Elite x3, bundled with the compatible Desk Dock, is available on the Microsoft Store for $800. The Verizon version is currently available for $600 in the Windows Store and through Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

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TELUS drops the Essential Phone down to $650 CAD to spur sales

The Essential Phone is now more affordable than ever — in Canada.

After giving the Essential Phone a $200 USD price drop in the U.S., Canadian carrier TELUS, Essential’s exclusive partner in the country, has dropped the price by an epic $400 CAD. That brings the cost of the phone to $650 outright, or $0 with most 2-year plans.

The Essential Phone debuted in Canada for around $500 on contract, and $1050 outright, but Essential figured that it needed to incentivize users with more enticing pricing, especially for those who don’t want to re-up on a 2-year plan.

Essential has also been releasing a steady stream of software updates to improve the camera quality, especially in low light, along with minor features like touch sensor shortcuts and security improvements. Others, like Techcrunch’s Darrell Etherington, have seen massive gains in camera quality.

At $650, the Essential Phone is one of the best deals on a flagship in Canada, especially with its 128GB of storage. We’ll be taking a second look at the phone in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that.

The Essential Phone is a remarkable product released as a beta

See at TELUS

This $23 digital Bluetooth bathroom scale is down to its lowest price ever

This scale has a mode for weighing your baby.

Is this deal for me?

This digital Bluetooth bathroom scale by 1byone is down to $22.99 on Amazon. This scale consistently sells at $33. It drops down to $28 occasionally, but it has never dropped lower than that. This deal price is temporary because it’s part of Amazon’s daily deals, but it is the lowest price ever for this scale.

Features include:

• Measuring Function – Use BIA technology to track your health information, including: body weight, body fat, water, muscle mass, BMI, BMR, Bone mass visceral fat and a mode for baby weighing
• Step-on technology – No more tapping or turning on a switch to use the scale. Just step on the scale and get an instant readout.
• Compact Design – 3.3 inch highlight LED display
• Uses high quality impact-resistant tempered glass which is 4 times stronger than common glass.
• Equipped with 4 high precision sensors, can weigh from 11 pounds up to 400 pounds in 0.2 lbs increments.
• Compatibility – Only supports IOS 8.0 / Android 4.3 or higher version. Auto recognition of up to 10 users’ profiles.

The scale has 4.3 stars based on 1,862 user reviews.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – This is the lowest price ever on this scale, and the price goes away at the end of the day.
• Things to know before you buy! – This scale comes with a two-year warranty.

See at Amazon

Happy Thrifting!

Here are October’s winners of the Honor/Huawei incentive program!

These are the lucky October winners of some cool Huawei/Honor swag.

There’s nothing like being a cool person on the internet and winning great gadgets while doing so. But with our Huawei/Honor Community Incentive Program, you can do just that! The basis is pretty simple: be an active, engaged and friendly member of the Huawei or Honor communities in our forums to win great stuff.

Here are the winners from October:

• Djlarocca — Congrats, you’ve won an Honor 6X!
• dpham00 — Congrats, you’ve won an Honor Band Z!
• Aljean Thein — Congrats, you’ve won an Honor Band Z!

We’ve already into November, but there’s still plenty of time to get to the top of the charts and win some amazing stuff! All you need to do is be active our Huawei/Honor communities!

Learn more about the Huawei/Honor Incentive Program!

Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices can help save you big on Black Friday

Amazon’s perks get better if you have an Alexa-enabled device.

Everyone knows about the benefits of Amazon Prime. You get free 2-day shipping, access to a ton of services, and exclusive deals.

But are you aware of Amazon Voice Shopping deals? You should be!

If you have an Alexa device, you can say “Alexa, order [product]” and she’ll find a top-rated Prime-eligible item. She’ll place the order with your default credit card and shipping information. If you change your mind, don’t sweat it — you are able to cancel or return your product. If you already know what you want, you can order a specific product with your voice as well.

On top of that, Alexa devices get you access to special, exclusive discounts. You can ask Alexa what her deals are and she’ll tell you, or you can see them on the Alexa deals page every day.

Alexa even has exclusive deals on Prime Day and Black Friday. Sometimes that means early access to hot Lightning Deals, and sometimes the deals are only available through Alexa voice shopping.

I personally have scored a great discount once or twice through Alexa shopping. Last year, around Black Friday, I got this awesome KidKraft Penelope dollhouse for $40 through my Echo, which is $60 below the average price!

If this deal sounds good to you, you should know that there are a ton of different devices for all budgets that will work with Alexa Voice shopping. Another plus is that these devices are often discounted. Follow Thrifter on Twitter to be alerted when Amazon Alexa devices are on sale!

You can use Alexa Voice Shopping with the following products:

• Echo Dot
• All-New Echo
• Echo Plus
• Echo Show
• Amazon Tap
• Fire TV Stick
• Fire 7 Tablet
• Fire 8 Tablet
• Fire 10 Tablet
• Dash Wand

If you’ve never ordered a gift card using Alexa before, you can get a $5 bonus when you order a $25 gift card through Alexa Voice Shopping. Great deals and $5 for free? That’s a win in my book.

Will you be shopping exclusive deals at Amazon this holiday season?

More from Thrifter:

• Thrifter’s Electronics Gift Guide
• Thrifter’s Toys for Kids Gift Guide

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Google served a hamburger with cheese on the bottom to its employees

Cheese-gate

Towards the end of last month, one Twitter user discovered something deeply troubling – Google’s emoji for a hamburger on Android has cheese underneath the patty on the very bottom. As one might expect in 2017, this caused outrage.

Why was the cheese on the bottom? Why not just put it on top where it’s supposed to be? Why, Google? WHY?

Google CEO Sundar Pichai quickly responded with a light-hearted message to say that the company would drop everything it was doing to fix this, and along with getting a few good laughs, it also put the matter to bed. Google was aware of this monstrosity, it would soon be resolved, and all was right with the world.

Or so we thought.

Brad Fitzpatrick, an employee at Google’s campus in Seattle, recently shared an image on Twitter of what the company was serving for lunch on November 3. A new addition called the “Android Burger” included a beef burger, brioche bun, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and tomato. Sounds pretty good, right?

Lunch at Google today: an “Android Burger” 🍔 pic.twitter.com/I4dwOUPASg

— Brad Fitzpatrick (@bradfitz) November 3, 2017

Wrong.

The Android Burger, just like its emoji cousin, is made with cheese on the bottom. Just look at that mess. What could have been a perfectly good lunch has been tainted with the improper placement of one of its most important ingredients.

Sound off in the comments below so we can work through these trouble times together. Godspeed, friends.

Critical Heathrow Airport security files found in the bushes

When you’re unemployed, you tend to notice the world around you a bit more than the average working stiff. That’s how a regular, unemployed fellow in London happened to find intimate and detailed security protocols and maps for London’s main airport, Heathrow, lying on the ground in broad daylight

The unnamed man noticed a USB stick in a row of bushes lining the sidewalk on Ilbert Street, along Queen’s Park, in West London, so he grabbed it. It wasn’t exactly outside the airport’s security offices. That’s eighteen miles from the airport, or about 40 minutes by car.

Most people hip to day-to-day computer security practices know that you should never, ever plug a random USB stick into any device you care about. Maybe that’s why he didn’t check it out right away. He hung on to it for a few days, thinking little of it before popping it into a public computer at the library when he logged on to look for work.

To what we can only guess was his horror-and-surprise, he discovered the unencrypted, password-free thumb drive held 2.5GB of data evidently belonging to Heathrow Airport’s highest level security team.

Rather than take it to the police, he opted to hand the USB stick over to press — the tabloid paper Sunday Mirror. The Mirror promptly reported that the little drive contained 76 folders comprised of around 200 documents, maps, videos, timetables for anti-terrorism patrons, and much more, tediously compiled and with information across numerous different systems.

The Mirror wrote that it held:

• The exact route the Queen takes when using the airport and security measures used to protect her.
• Files disclosing every type of ID needed – even those used by covert cops – to access restricted areas.
• A timetable of patrols that was used to guard the site against suicide bombers and terror attacks.
• Maps pinpointing CCTV cameras and a network of tunnels and escape shafts linked to the Heathrow Express.
• Routes and safeguards for Cabinet ministers and foreign dignitaries.
• Details of the ultrasound radar system used to scan runways and the perimeter fence.

To anyone working in security, this is a disastrous data set to suddenly discover is out in the wild, for an unknown amount of time, and in unknown hands. Especially at a time when officials have just stated that “Britain is facing its most severe ever terrorist threat.” Right now the UK is on a terror alert at the level of “severe” — down from “critical” — after the September 17 Parsons Green tube bombing terror attack.

The Mirror reported that the London Metropolitan Police were working with airport officials to figure out how the USB stick and its information ended up physically exfiltrated from Heathrow and tossed in the bushes along an unremarkable street in London.

Of course, our first thoughts are that it was terrorists. But in the realm of all things security, it’s also possible that it was the work of errorists. Maybe they’re used to this sort of thing in the UK, though we are now too. Over here in the US, we’re running out of digits to count the number of times our government security secrets have ended up on a contractor’s computer, were promptly stolen, and then ended up “in the wild” where they’ve been used for all kinds of harm and completely avoidable stupidity.

This stuff keeps ending up on security contractor’s computers because when we say “ended up on a contractor’s computer” what we really mean is that some hacker working for Booz Allen or whoever did that thing that hackers do: They hoard. I’ve often thought there should be a version of “Hoarders” just for hackers, until I realized that was what was in the headlines every day anyway, and it would end up being too depressing.

It wouldn’t be depressing just because our security is a grade-A disaster, or because I believe every kind of hacker — white hat, black hat, grey hat, whatever nacho-flavored hat — has compulsively sticky fingers. It would be depressing because hackers are often crap at their own personal security. They will correct you, talk down to you, call users stupid every minute of the day, but it’s by and large a culture of not practicing what they preach for various reasons. If you doubt me, just look at how many of them get caught.

The point is, secrets are like catnip to hackers, and the feeling of power makes them sloppy. But oh, do they hoard. The hoarding is also functional: With employment and getting gigs, he who has the most vulns, wins. So if the USB stick with all the Queen’s secrets (literally) about Heathrow Airport ended up falling out of some red teamer or physical pentester’s pocket on a random street in London, bouncing into the bushes after being hired to do a security assessment on the airport, it’s not going to be a surprise. To me, anyway.

In a follow up Wednesday, International Airport Review reported that a meeting of the House of Commons Transport Committee was held on Monday in an attempt to find out what the hell was going on. In it, Heathrow’s Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye was asked what he knew about the USB stick, and what the airport was doing in its official capacity to investigate.

Holland-Kaye began with the usual verbal sleight of hand we hear from every business and organization that gets pwned, namely, that they take security very seriously. Once that commercial for nothing was over, he acknowledged that the Metropolitan Police were assisting with their investigation in addition to “setting up an independent internal enquiry.”

“From the information I have seen that was on the USB stick and reported in the papers,” he said, “there was nothing there that causes us any security concerns. From what I have seen, Heathrow is completely secure.” Was he even worried? Maybe, or maybe not. Holland-Kaye added that they “will be reviewing that with a critical eye to see that if there are any procedures to be changed they are changed quickly to ensure that we stay ahead of the game.”

It’s not the most reassuring statement, to be certain. But in an era of things somehow able to only get almost comedically worse, like having your fire extinguisher catch on fire while putting out a fire, let’s hope the somewhere in West London there’s a pentester watching all this in the news and just feeling really, really embarrassed.

Images: Sergio Perez / Reuters (Computer pile); PA Archive / PA Images (John Holland-Kaye)

Apple says ‘tears of joy’ face is the most-used emoji

In an overview of its differential privacy technology, Apple slipped in some super important data regarding the popularity of its emojis. The document included an image ranking the top 10 emojis among US English speakers and taking the number one spot was the “face with tears of joy” emoji. The red heart and “loudly crying face” rounded out the top three.

The image is just a simple chart without any real numbers attached, so there’s no telling just how popular that emoji is over all the rest. Really it was just a demonstration of how Apple uses its differential privacy tools, many of which it described in the overview. In it, Apple said, “There are situations where Apple can improve the user experience by getting insight from what many of our users are doing, for example: What new words are trending and might make the most relevant suggestions? What websites have problems that could affect battery life? Which emoji are chosen most often?” But the company said getting that information while maintaining privacy is a bit tricky but key. To do that, it uses its differential privacy technology, which Apple describes as “a technique that enables Apple to learn about the user community without learning about individuals in the community. Differential privacy transforms the information shared with Apple before it ever leaves the user’s device such that Apple can never reproduce the true data.”

Apple says it uses these tools to improve the usability of features like QuickType and emoji suggestions, lookup hints and Safari energy draining domains, among others. You can check out the full overview here.

With the release of iOS 11.1, Apple added over 70 new emojis, and I’m betting the cursing face one will make a run for one of those top 10 spots pretty quickly just based solely on how often I plan to use it. However, iPhone X users will no longer be limited to the selection of static emojis as the company announced in September that the new phone will include the ability to animate a selection of emojis based on what you say.

Image: Apple

Via: The Verge

Source: Apple