‘Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris’ Lost Prophecy weapons guide

Much of what’s available in Destiny 2‘s first expansion, Curse of Osiris, is pretty straightforward. But like much of Destiny 2, it also has its secrets. Found in Mercury’s Lighthouse, the forge allows you to create several new Legendary guns that are part of the Curse of Osiris. It’s a great resource for high-level players, assuming you know how to find it.

Unlocking the Forge and its capabilities, though, requires a lot of work — and the process to get guns from the Lighthouse isn’t exactly quick, either. Nobody’s quite sure yet what the Forge will eventually unlock, but so far, we know about four guns you can nab if you’re willing to put in the effort.

Here’s how to get your forge weapons, and the best places to hunt for the materials required to create them.

Unlock the Lost Prophecies

Before you can unlock the Cult of Osiris‘ Forge and the Prophecy Tablets that go with them, you need to complete most of the missions in Curse of Osiris. You need to work your way through the campaign, plus the three “adventure” sidequests that pop up on Mercury once you’re done. After you’ve cleared all of those missions, head to Brother Vance in the Lighthouse on Mercury for a new addition to your slate of activities.

When you talk to Vance, he offers you “heroic” versions of the Mercury adventures you just finished. Like the difficult, timed Nightfall Strikes, which rotates every week in Destiny 2, these are tougher takes on the missions with a variety of modifiers that ratchet up the difficulty, and force you to change your tactics.

To find the Forge, pick and complete any one of the heroic adventures. Note that they’re recommended for Power level 300 or above, which should give you an indication of how tough they are. You will have an easier time if you can band together with friends to finish them. You get some solid rewards and finish a Milestone for completing a heroic adventure. You can earn reputation tokens from heroic adventures once per day, and it’s worth it to do so if you want to get more of the new gear.

When you complete your heroic adventure, return to Brother Vance.

Get your Prophecy Tablet

When you talk to Brother Vance after completing your first heroic adventure, he has an item you can take from his menu for free: A “Prophecy Tablet.” The tablets, which unlock weapons, become available in batches. The first group has four tablets, each of which requires you to gather a certain set of items in order to activate it.

The first item you need is “Concentrated Radiolarian Culture.” Once you have the Prophecy Tablet, these items will start to drop for you around the world of Destiny 2. “Concentrated” items are harder to find than the average pickup — they are the uncommon version, which has a blue background. It won’t show up nearly as often as the common, “green” version, which is simply called “Radiolarian Culture.”

Where to find Radiolarian Culture

To get hold of Radiolarian Cultures, you need to know where to look. And to get the uncommon blue variety, you have to gather up several of the common green kind.

Radiolarian Culture generally drops during public events and related endeavors around the solar system, not just on Mercury. Radiolarian Culture drops most often during Public Events, and the chances of some dropping seem higher after triggering the heroic version of an event. You can also find Radiolarian Culture when you defeat high-value targets wandering around any of the planets and hidden in treasure chests. That includes the gold Regional Chests you can find in every level, as well as the caches that are scattered around each area randomly. The good news is, you can get them anywhere, not just Mercury, and the drop rates don’t seem to be much different from place to place (despite some reports that you get more on Mercury).

The trouble with gathering Radiolarian Culture is that the drop rate isn’t great (and the drop rate for Concentrated Radiolarian Culture is terrible). You won’t get some from every Public Event, High-Value Target or chest, so you may find yourself playing event after event trying to get what you need. To make it slightly easier, Brother Vance will convert a batch of 10 green Cultures into one blue Culture for you, but he charges you 15 legendary shards for the privilege.

The best approach to minimize fatigue here is to roll your material hunting into other activities, like clearing the weekly Flashpoint. You also want to equip a Ghost shell that will show you where chests are if you can, or buy Cayde-6’s consumable Scouting Reports to highlight chests as you wander each zone.

Activating a Prophecy Tablet

Once you have a blue Concentrated Radiolarian Culture in your inventory, you can “use” it in order to activate your Prophecy Tablet. Once you’ve done so, go back to Brother Vance in the Lighthouse: He will give you a new item that you can take to the Forge to his left. Fire it up to get your gun.

It’s worth noting here that you can mess this up. You can “Use” any material you have, even if your Tablet doesn’t call for it — and if you use the wrong material, nothing will happen to your Tablet, but the material will still be used up. So be careful not to accidentally highlight the green version of Radiolarian Culture, or even worse, a material you need to activate a different tablet. You also want to double-check that you’re applying the correct material to your tablet, just to be safe.

The first Prophecy Tablet will net you a scout rifle called “Garden Progeny 1.”

Where to find Paradox Amplifiers

Once you turn in your first Prophecy Tablet and forge your first gun, Brother Vance will offer you one of three other tablets. Pick any one, since you can come back for the others after you have finished. Two of the tablets require a new material in addition to Radiolarian Culture, called a Paradox Amplifier. That said, here’s a list of what they get you:

Verse 3: Jack Queen King 3 (Energy hand cannon)

Verse 4: Machina Dei 4 (Kinetic pulse rifle)

Verse 6: Sol Pariah 6 (Energy submachine gun)

The good news is that Paradox Amplifiers drop pretty regularly. The bad news is that they’re limited to just three types of events: Strike missions, the Crucible, and Heroic Adventures on Mercury.

If you’re going for efficiency and you’re alone, the best approach is to hunker down in the Crucible. Like Cultures, you need 10 green Amplifiers to create a blue one. But as far as we can tell, every match will drop at least one green Paradox Amplifier, and sometimes two. That means 10 matches, max, will get you enough for one blue Advanced Paradox Amplifier. You shouldn’t need more than two for any given Prophecy Tablet.

Where to find Hermaion Blossoms

Once you’ve run through the first batch of four Prophecy Tablets, you unlock a new set. According to a handy list on the Destiny subreddit, these are the rest of the weapons you can earn:

• Verse 2: The Conqueror 2 (Kinetic submachine gun)
• Verse 5: Traveler’s Judgment 5 (Energy sidearm)
• Verse 7: West of Sunfall 7 (Kinetic hand cannon)
• Verse 8: Infinite Paths 8 (Energy pulse rifle)
• Verse 9: Null Calamity 9 (Energy auto rifle)
• Verse 10: Future Safe 10 (Sword)

Some of these will require an additional material for you to grind out from around the world, called “Hermaion Blossoms.” Like the other materials, you need the uncommon, or blue, version of the materials, known as “Fossilized Hermaion Blossoms.” These are the toughest materials to come by. You can find them in three specific activities: Nightfall Strikes, Heroic Strikes, and Trials of the Nine matches. To unlock all the Prophecies, you need seven Fossilized Blossoms in total.

Again, there is no way to avoid the grind, so your best bet here is to concentrate on the content you like best or whatever can match your current Milestones. Heroic Strikes are definitely the easiest of the activities to complete, but Trials of the Nine matches go faster if you can find a good team. Your best bet for drops is likely the Prestige version of the Nightfall, but like all these drops, none of them are easy to track.

Prophecy 11: Legends Lost

As you unlock the tablets and forge weapons, you notice the seal on the wall next to the Forge starting to light up. Unlock all the “Prophecies” from Brother Vance and you kick off a new quest line for you.

When you finish the quest, you unlock your final reward: A rapid-firing shotgun called Perfect Paradox.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘Destiny 2’ power leveling guide: How to get raid-ready fast
• ‘Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris’ review
• Face the ‘Destiny 2’ Trials of the Nine PVP challenge at 10 a.m. PT today
• How to trigger every ‘Destiny 2’ Heroic public event and max out your loot
• Catch up on the entire ‘Destiny 2’ story before playing ‘Curse of Osiris’

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 keeps your next phone more secure than ever

Qualcomm has announced the processor that will power many of next year’s Android flagship smartphones, the Snapdragon 845, and it boasts better performance, an improved graphics processor, helps phones process artificial intelligence on-device, and more. But there’s one feature that, in a year filled with major data breaches, could prove more important  — the addition of the “Secure Processing Unit.”

Apple’s iPhone has traditionally held security as an edge over Android smartphones. We hear about a new Android malware or Google Play vulnerability every single week. That’s not to say the iPhone is perfect — but Android’s fragmented ecosystem, where manufacturers and carriers don’t update phones to the most recent version of Android, presents serious security complications.

We hear about a new Android malware or Google Play vulnerability every single week.

That’s what Qualcomm is trying to change. The Secure Processing Unit (SPU) is an isolated security-focused processor embedded in the Snapdragon 845 system-on-a-chip. It’s built specifically to protect data that’s most important to you. Hacks and data breaches are becoming increasingly common — even biometric data could be stolen, like the fingerprint you use to get into your phone, or face data if your phone uses facial recognition technology like the iPhone X.

With the introduction of the SPU, Qualcomm wants to store all that biometric data in the vault-like environment, which is similar to what Apple does with the Secure Enclave on its A11 Fusion processor in the iPhone. The Secure Enclave Processor boasts its own microprocessor and encrypted memory, and it handles ultra-sensitive data like Face ID data and decryption keys. The SPU stores similar sensitive data, and it’s kept separate from other components on the Snapdragon 845 to prevent hacking.

It’s not just protecting biometric data, but also payment information, SIM information, and more. Eventually, it could help protect everything you do on your Android phone. When you take a photo on a phone with the Snapdragon 845, for example, the SPU will create an encrypted unique key that’s stored in the same place for decryption. It’s an added layer of protection, and developers like Facebook could use the SPU to generate keys for things like Facebook Messenger messages with your friends and family — all on-device.

The SPU boasts its own little processor, its own memory, and it is even power-separated from other components on the chip, so it never needs to rely on other less secure components of the Snapdragon 845. Everything it does is in a locked, safe environment.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Snapdragon 845 SPU, but Qualcomm’s Product Director, Gary Brotman, said that’s a good thing — the less we know about it, the less the bad guys know about it. Will it make for a totally secure and hack-free phone? Probably not — but it’s a step in the right direction for Android devices, and most importantly, for consumers.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Meet the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the power behind next-gen phones
• This real-time map of antivirus fails is roasting MalwareBytes’ competitors
• Top 5 Android security apps: The best antivirus protection for Android
• Expert says risk of Bluetooth ‘BlueBorne’ attacks across multiple devices overblown
• InfoWatch to announce security-focused Taiga phone at GITEX Technology Week 2017

Twitter blames bug for accidentally banning a bunch of accounts

What’s allowed and isn’t allowed on Twitter isn’t always clear. Even though the company has come out with a hateful conduct policy and has unverified and banned some of those who violate it, it still makes a lot of mistakes, like suspending accounts in error. Well, it seems like Twitter has made yet another boo-boo. In the past 24 hours, the company has “banned” over a dozen accounts by accidentally marking them as “withheld” from the whole world.

According to Buzzfeed News, over 21 accounts were affected. Instead of being suspended or outright banned, their accounts were marked as “withheld: worldwide.” This is part of Twitter’s “country withheld” program, where certain accounts are barred from being viewed in certain countries, usually because it violates the country’s laws of expression. Being “withheld worldwide” would, however, effectively ban your tweets from being seen by everyone.

Buzzfeed News notes that one of the users that was hit with the “withheld worldwide” ban had been critical of J.K. Rowling. But according to Twitter, it was all a mistake. According to a Twitter spokesperson: “We have identified a bug that incorrectly impacted certain accounts. We have identified a fix, are working to resolve the issue, and anticipate it will be fully resolved shortly.”

Be that as it may, this isn’t good news for a company already beleaguered with problems that include Russian trolls, broken searches and, unfortunately, hate speech.

Source: Buzzfeed

Watch the PlayStation Experience live stream right here

It’s going to be a late night, folks. The PlayStation Experience takes place this weekend and Sony is kicking things off with a live-streamed presentation called PlayStation Presents tonight at 11 PM ET — that’s 8 PM in Anaheim, California, where the show is being held. No matter where you are on this fine Friday evening, you can catch PlayStation Presents right here with the embedded video, or on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook or the event’s official site.

Sony has only hinted at the surprises it’s bringing to PlayStation Presents, saying, “Expect to listen in on candid discussions with some of PlayStation’s top developers, get updates on key titles, and be a part of some special announcements.”

Sony has sold 70 million PlayStation 4 consoles since they hit the market in 2013, and 2 million PlayStation VR headsets since those landed last fall. These are solid numbers, placing Sony ahead of the competition — Microsoft, Nintendo, HTC and Oculus — in both categories. However, Sony’s recent press conference at E3 was decidedly lackluster, ditching the company’s patented parade of indie games to showcase AAA titles and VR experiences. With the holidays right around the corner, PlayStation Presents is Sony’s last chance to get players — and the people buying presents for them — excited for the PS4 in 2017.

Acer’s ProDesigner PE320QK offers precise color accuracy for professionals

Acer has launched a new display aimed at photographers, graphic designers, video editors, and any other users invested in high-quality visuals. The ProDesigner PE320QK is a 31.5-inch monitor that promises precise enough color representation to satisfy the needs of professionals.

The monitor — which was originally announced by Acer in April 2017 — boasts a 3840 x 2160 4K resolution and a color depth of over a billion colors. Thanks to its support for Delta E<1 color accuracy — the slightest difference that the human eye can register — users can ensure that the tweaks they are making to their work will be reflected in the finished product.

“Engineered for professionals who require the most exacting quality standards, our latest ProDesigner monitor offers the most accurate color available today,” said Ronald Lau, Acer’s director of stationary computing, in a press release. “We’re confident animators, film producers and other creative experts will be delighted with the performance the Acer ProDesigner PE320QK affords.”

One of the more unusual quirks of this particular piece of hardware is its adjustable three-sided shading hood. This is made with antiglare materials that’s designed to reduce screen glare from ambient light, so the display’s capacity to present colors with precise accuracy can be used to its full potential. Depending on what’s necessary with regards to any given task, the side panels can be swiveled to various angles, and the top panel can be removed altogether.

The display itself is also very flexible, thanks to Acer’s ErgoStand technology. It can be swiveled 20 degrees in either direction, and tilted through a 25-degree range of motion, while the high can be adjusted up to 5.9 inches. There’s also a VESA mount that allows the monitor to be hung on the wall.

The Acer ProDesigner PE320QK is outfitted with two 2W speakers and a single USB-C port that caters to data transfer and connectivity needs. It also features two HDMI 2.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.2, audio out, and a USB 3.0 hub.

Acer is making the monitor available today across the United States via its online retail partners. Estimated selling prices start at $1,200, which includes a three-year warranty for limited parts and labor.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Dell S2716DG review
• The best 4K monitors
• BenQ PD3200U review
• Acer Predator Helios 300 review
• Asus ZenBook Flip S review

Don’t put glue in your eyes — unless it’s this superglue for punctured eyeballs

Surgical superglue is frequently used by medics to help mend superficial cuts by gluing the two edges of the wound together. One type of wound you wouldn’t necessarily consider it for? Traumatic eye injuries. That could soon change, however, courtesy of research coming out of the University of Southern California. Scientists there have created a new temperature-sensitive gel that could help deliver on-the-spot treatment for injured eyeballs, particularly in scenarios like war zones.

The requirement for such a bandage in war situations has arisen due to the steady increase of eye injuries sustained on the battlefield. Over the past several decades, these injuries have increased from being a fraction of a single percentage point to as high as 10-15 percent of all war injuries today — partly as a result of the increased use of explosive devices.

“We have developed a smart sealant for temporary intervention of eye trauma,” Niki Bayat, a doctoral student in the the university’s department of chemical engineering and materials science, told Digital Trends. “The reversible hydrogel is liquid at low temperature, and when raised to body temperature, it forms a solid, yet soft, plug.”

This plug allows it to effectively plug lacerations to the eyeball. When surgery is ready to take place, so that the wound can be permanently closed up, doctors are able to easily remove the seal simply by adding cool water, which immediately returns it to its liquid state. To help with the application process, the researchers also developed a custom syringe for the hydrogel, which rapidly cools the material prior to injection, thanks to a cooling chamber filled with the same calcium ammonium nitrate crystals usually found in instant ice cold packs.

While the eyeball superglue has not yet been tested on humans, it has undergone successful trials on rabbits, where it was found to be able to preserve the eye without causing any further damage or inflammation. “It demonstrated excellent mechanical characteristics, biocompatibility, and applicability in immediate ocular intervention,” Bayat continued. “We hope to start human clinical trials in 2019.”

A paper describing the work, titled “A reversible thermoresponsive sealant for temporary closure of ocular trauma” was recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Editors’ Recommendations

• New medical superglue seals large wounds almost instantly, prevents scars
• Electronics that repair themselves might be possible with new liquid metal transitor
• This 3D-printed textile could enable your clothing to cool you down
• Future doctors learn human anatomy using virtual reality simulations
• Clever new LED lighting system thwarts unwanted smartphone photography

Apple is reportedly close to acquiring music-recognition app Shazam

Apple is close to acquiring the music recognition app Shazam, according to TechCrunch. The purchase is the latest acquisition for the world’s largest tech company.  

First launched in 1999, Shazam has grown significantly over the last several years. Once specifically devoted to music recognition, Shazam now accepts audio and visual clips to identify songs, movies, and television shows. The service is the oldest of its kind, competing with Soundhound and Musixmatch.

While specifics on the deal are still sketchy, one source reported that Apple will approximately $400 million for the company. This estimate falls far beyond the company’s $1 billion  valuation from its last funding round in 2015. The discrepancy is likely due to Shazam’s struggle to become profitable.

In 2015, Shazam posted an annual loss of $22 million dollars. The company saw a major turnaround in 2016 with revenues at $54 million dollars and became profitable for the first time with a pre-tax loss of $5.3 million. Earlier in 2017, Shazam CEO Rich Riley hinted that the company’s ability to become profitable could make it an attractive acquisition target.

A big part of Shazam’s turnaround is due to its feature diversification. In its earlier incarnations, Shazam made money primarily from advertising revenues and linking customers to services like Apple Music. In 2016, the company added a new augmented reality feature, allowing users to scan branded Shazam codes to unlock deals and games on the app.

The new features allow Shazam to build more strategic partnerships and drive engagement with the app. Earlier in 2017, the company partnered with spirits company Beam Suntory, maker of Jim Beam, Sauza, and Hornitos tequila, to create a wildly successful AR marketing campaign. Since its partnership with Beam, Shazam has partnered with a number of other companies and artists to create similar AR campaigns within the app.

It’s uncertain what Apple plans to do with Shazam. Apple frequently purchases smaller tech companies to scrape the technology into its own products. Apple could opt to integrate Shazam into future versions of iOS or use the app in conjunction with Apple Music.

Neither Apple nor Shazam has confirmed a deal is in the works. Sources say the companies will announce the acquisition on Monday, December 11. We will update this story as we learn more.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Apple AR glasses: News and rumors about ‘Project Mirrorshades’
• The Facebook community has already raised over $2 million for Giving Tuesday
• YouTube to try again with new paid music service, aiming for March launch
• Augmented reality is becoming real for home goods brands like Williams-Sonoma
• Why Google bought part of HTC’s smartphone team for $1.1 billion

Action Launcher turns 5 and gives us all a present

Happy Birthday to us all!

Action Launcher is one of the best launchers on Android today, and the Swiss Army home screen launcher now has something big to celebrate: its fifth anniversary. On December 8th, 2012, Action Launcher was published, and five years later, it’s come a long way and picked up quite a few fans along the journey.

Five years is a big milestone for an Android app, and Chris Lacy has a hell of a birthday present for everyone: the first sale on Action Launcher’s pro upgrade in three years.

You may remember that back in 2014, Action Launcher 3 was launched as a complete rewrite from Action Launcher 2, and it switched from a separate Action Launcher pro app to unlock its best features to an in-app purchase called Action Launcher Plus. Since that change in 2014, Action Launcher Plus has never gone on sale, though Lacy has also debuted the Action Launcher Supporter program that you should absolutely take a look at.

That streak ends today.

Action Launcher Plus is 30% off for the next 3 days, and then it goes back to regular price for what we assume will be a really, really long time. Now, Action Launcher Plus is worth every penny at full price, but if you’ve had any doubts about its worth, or you’ve been saving up your Google Opinion Rewards money for a good app, now is the perfect time to take the plunge.

For those of us who already own Action Launcher Plus, there’s an app update for us taking Action Launcher to v32. There’s no big shiny new features here, but there’s something better: bug fixes and performance improvements, especially for Android 8.1 users. Adaptivepack is also getting 200 more icons, increasing the pack to 950 icons.

The ultimate guide to Action Launcher

Google Contacts syncing not working for some users — here’s how to fix it

Data not syncing for your Google Contacts? This is what to do.

You might not consciously think about it, but chances are you use Google Contacts every single day. It’s a fairly unexciting service, but it’s also one of the most important when it comes to communication. Unfortunately for some users, one of Contacts’ biggest features – data syncing – simply hasn’t been working.

If you’re affected by this bug, you’ll see that contacts that are saved to Google Contacts aren’t showing up on your phone as they should. This is something that appears to only affect devices running Android Oreo (both 8.0 and 8.1), and users have been reporting it on Google’s Product Forums, Reddit, and even our own Android Central Forums.

The issue stems from contacts added through Google+.

Community Manager Orrin on the Google Product Forums says that he’ll be reaching out to Pixel users to gather bug reports and other information, but if you want a fix right now, Ambassador and Moderator of the Android Central Forums, LeoRex, has something for you to try out.

Per LeoRex’s findings, the bug stems from contacts that have been added through Google+. When you add a contact this way, the profile URL for that entry in Google Contacts is a web link for their Google+ profile. You’ll be able to see this contact when viewing Google Contacts from Chrome or on your computer, but not through the Contacts app on your Android phone.

To fix this, head to the Google Contacts website, find any contacts added through Google+, and remove the profile URL that’s there. Once the contact is saved, it should show up on your phone like normal.

Responses to LeoRex’s solution are all positive so far, so if you’re running into this bug, it’s worth giving this a shot. We’re still waiting on an official fix from Google, but in the meantime, this should work just fine.

Google Pixel 2 on AT&T gains AT&T gains HD Voice with Oreo 8.1 update

Google Home Mini regains touch controls with v1.30 update

Thank you thank you thank you 👏

Shortly after the Google Home Mini was announced on October 4, it was discovered that there was an issue with the smart speaker’s touch controls. Essentially, the top part of the Home Mini that acted as the area for these controls was far too sensitive and resulted in the speaker recording and sending audio back to Google 24/7.

This was obviously a pretty big problem, but rather than recalling thousands of Home Minis that had already shipped to retailers, Google chose to disable the top touch controls altogether via a software update.

However, after a couple months of being on the market, this functionality is making a return.

According to Android Police, the v1.30 update for the Google Home app re-enables touch controls on the Home Mini, but rather than touching the top of the speaker, you’ll long-press either the left or right side of it.

A quick tap will continue to adjust volume like usual, but a long press will end calls, pause/play music that’s playing, and (most importantly) silence alarms without having to shout at your Home Mini at 6:00 in the morning.

The v1.30 update is rolling out now, so be sure to keep an eye out for it over the coming days.

Google Home

• Google Home review
• These services work with Google Home
• Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
• Join our Google Home forums!

Google Store Best Buy Target