Blizzard is patrolling YouTube for toxic Overwatch players

Toxic players are a big problem for the Overwatch team. As game director Jeff Kaplan explained in a developer update last September, they’re actually delaying maps and feature updates by forcing the developers to create measures to stem the tide of crappy player behavior. Those tactics seem to be working. In a new video, Kaplan reported that competitive play has less abuse and players are reporting more often. But the Overwatch team has gone further with at least one new proactive strategy: Find toxic behavior uploaded to ‘social media sites like YouTube’ and punish the accounts responsible.

Via: Polygon

Source: Overwatch (YouTube)

The auto industry is head over heels for VR

Virtual reality and augmented reality are all over the North American International Auto Show floor. Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are all using the tech to show off their latest cars and concepts. During the industry preview days (the show is open to the public through Sunday, January 28th) lines to try the experiences stretched around each booth.

The value to prospective customers is directly tied to the quality of each experience, though, and that quality shifts dramatically from one automaker to the next. Instead of thoughtful experiences that work within VR’s current limitations and are simultaneously informative and entertaining, more often than not, the VR implementations felt like cheap amusement park gimmicks with little regard for the user’s comfort.

Like its rival BMW did at CES, Mercedes is using an HTC Vive to put people behind the wheel of its new SUV (below). Where the two differ is in fidelity and presentation. In Las Vegas, BMW told me that its VR showroom for the X2 crossover SUV was limited to sitting in the driver’s seat and standing outside the car to ensure the best experience possible. When I strapped into Mercedes’ virtual G-Class, I could see why.

The G-Class’ interior felt roomy in VR, and unlike in the virtual X2, I didn’t feel like my head was going to brush the roof. But the overall visual quality wasn’t up to my expectations for the luxury carmaker. There were jagged edges everywhere, and there wasn’t much interaction — the interior looked like a low-res model from an early Xbox 360 game. A trio of trim options floated over the steering wheel, and fixing my gaze on each one caused the cabin to change accordingly. Training my reticle over points of interest like the “Oh no!” bar above the glove box caused some text blurbs to appear. But there wasn’t anything that really excited or surprised me. Essentially, this was a showroom brochure in VR.

I can’t say reading through dealership literature ever made me sick before, though. When I was examining the interior, the headset had a hard time keeping up and stuttered as I gazed about. That was when I found myself getting queasy. Just as bad, when I looked into the back seat, the Vive’s entire screen flashed white, returning to normal only when I turned back around. “Maybe it’s overheating,” the booth attendant said. Mercedes’ technical director, Björn Kantereit, told me there weren’t any plans to make this available at home or in dealerships. Essentially, it’s a high-tech parlor trick to take from one auto show to the next.

A virtual test drive through the SUV’s proving grounds at Austria’s Schöckl mountain wasn’t much better, despite a lack of technical snafus. The three demos played grainy 360-degree video behind the SUV’s low-quality rendered interior. A “moving” vehicle going up and down craggy hills while my body sat still was a recipe for motion sickness.

Kantereit said he hadn’t heard of anyone at the show getting sick, but he did tell me that if he were to strap on a headset, he’d lose his lunch. According to him, the optimal way to upgrade the tech would be to change it completely.

Timothy J. Seppala/Engadget

“The best way [to improve] would be to go with HoloLens,” Kantereit said, laughing. He said it’s a better way because you can overlay information in the real world through a transparent screen, keeping people from feeling isolated. He’s seen how it can be a boon for the company already: Mercedes has used HoloLens to train repair technicians. Since the first portion of the experience was just laying factoids over various touch points, AR seems like a more natural fit.

Honda, then, made the right choice in showing up with Microsoft’s AR headset to show off its new Accord in “HondaLens.” The 2018 sedan sat in the middle of a gated pavilion, and once I donned the headset, I was shown a timeline covering the Accord’s 42-year history, narrated by a disembodied female voice. Information floated in front of me as I moved around the car. When I sat behind the wheel, purple, pink and blue holograms laid out traffic in front of me, showing off the vehicle’s speed-sensing capabilities and HUD.

The same female voice offered instructions and information on how to pair my phone to the Accord’s new infotainment system and pointed out the increased passenger legroom while I sat shotgun. All told, it took just over 10 minutes to see everything Honda had to offer. The drawback? HoloLens’ narrow field of view. If I tilted my head too much one way or another, the holograms would cut off abruptly. When everything was working properly, however, it felt futuristic.

Charles Koch, manager of shows and exhibits for Honda and Acura, said that HoloLens is a natural extension of all of the electronics being packed into modern cars. Meaning that all the infotainment and autonomous systems are getting to the point where it’s easier to use tech to explain them than it is to read the owner’s manual or a sales brochure. If Honda and developer Spinifex can come up with a simple way to put HondaLens in dealerships, the pair will do it. That’s right: Automakers aren’t just bringing concept cars to auto shows anymore; they’re bringing concept sales tools too.

Volkswagen leaned hard on VR, using a Vive with a LeapMotion stuck to the front of it and a shell of its ID Crozz to show off the autonomous concept’s capabilities. The first part of the demo was a virtual showroom experience, but instead of using a Vive wand or gaze tracking, I used my hand to “open” the car’s driver-side door and examined the interior before taking the headset off. After that, I walked to the passenger side and donned another Vive and a pair of Beats headphones for a virtual test drive.

After I sat down and booth attendants manhandled a Vive onto my head, I was joined by a virtual companion who reminded me an awful lot of Ryan Gosling’s virtual girlfriend from Blade Runner 2049. The outlines of her body shimmered and shifted, flickering in and out of focus, and she had a familiar, almost therapeutic lilt to her voice. She served as a guide, telling me where to look and what I could interact with, like the panoramic sunroof, ambient light colors and music. And because she was right there with me in VR, I didn’t feel taken out of the experience.

Timothy J. Seppala/Engadget

When we took off down a coastal city street, the steering wheel and pedals tucked into the dashboard, and soon enough we passed through a narrow alley to get to a café. I was so calm throughout that, had my passenger not mentioned that someone had jumped in front of the car — one of my biggest fears as a driver — I wouldn’t have noticed. Like Mercedes, the demo used a mixture of a pre-rendered interior for the car with low-resolution 360-degree video for the exterior. Head on, everything looked fine, but when I looked out the driver’s window, people stuttered as they moved.

Chevy and Ford used grainy 360-degree video and gimmicky 4D “rides” to show off how their vehicles are tested before they reach customers. As I sat shotgun in a ZR1 Camaro, something pushed out of the backrest and punched me between the shoulders every time the driver shifted gears. During a hill climb in the Colorado ZR2, a dirt scent was pumped toward my face, and throughout the seven-minute experience my chair shook hard enough that taking legible notes was pretty difficult.

Relying on 360-degree video and its current limitations has its drawbacks, but GM isn’t deterred. “We’re still keeping this in mass-produced tech,” said Myki Bowling, global marketing manager for Chevy’s auto shows, referring to the Oculus headsets and 4D seating. “[Resolution and fidelity] are still something we have to deal and struggle with.” Bowling explained that the idea behind the demo was to make Chevy’s admittedly boring stories about dependability and reliability a little more exciting for customers. It kind of succeeded, but the 4D elements didn’t do anything but cheapen the experience.

VR has the potential to change how people experience things they otherwise couldn’t, but if the tech isn’t carefully implemented, it can have adverse effects. For gaming and entertainment, making someone sick could cost a company, at most, $600 for a headset. But an unsold G-Class loses a carmaker upwards of $200,000. Lost sales due to poorly optimized experiences stack up quickly. If automakers are reckless about rushing to VR and AR, it could do far more damage than a poorly designed brochure.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from NAIAS 2018!

‘Destiny 2’ update will boost rewards for its most loyal players

Bungie is still learning lessons about rewarding Destiny 2 players for their commitment, and that’s reflected in its January 30th update. To begin with, it’s promising much better loot for raids. You’re now guaranteed raid-only equipment when you complete an encounter, and you’ll always have a chance of scoring exotic gear you can start using right away. Those who go on Prestige raids get normal drops at the same time. Also, you can buy gear if you’d rather not grind the raid hoping to get that last armor piece you need — so long as you’ve completed the raid that week, you can buy hardware from a rotating selection at Benedict. When you throw raid-specific mod perks and a drop-enhancing Ghost into the mix, you might be more inclined to come back to the raid without feeling like you have to repeat it ad nauseam.

Fans of the competitive Iron Banner mode (which is making its Season 2 debut on the 30th) might also have a reason to come back. You can now buy Iron Banner-exclusive armor and weapons from Lord Saladin instead of hoping you’ll get lucky with tokens. And Bungie is quick to stress that there’s no limits on the number of engrams or tokens you can pick up, so it’s more a question of how often you can play than whether or not fortune works in your favor.

However you play, there’s an additional perk: Destiny 2’s Masterworks perk now covers armor. Find a Masterworks armor piece (or upgrade what you already have) and you’ll get 3 percent damage resistance while using your Super ability. It stacks with each set, so you might be difficult to destroy when you’re unleashing your character’s strongest attacks.

And while it won’t be coming in the immediate future, Bungie is promising to tackle one of Destiny 2’s lingering annoyances: having to delete dozens of shaders one at a time to make room for new ones. The developer wants to let you get rid of a stack of shaders in one fell swoop, but it’s hoping for something smarter than simply giving you a button shortcut. Bungie would like to bring back some of the original Destiny’s shader mechanics, as well, and is hoping to make shaders “more freely usable” so that you don’t worry about using the last of a given color. There’s no timetable for a solution, but Bungie would rather promise that one is on the way than leave gamers in limbo.

Source: Bungie

Apple Says HomePod Consumes Less Power Than Average LED Bulb During Music Playback

Apple has outlined the HomePod’s power consumption in an environmental report [PDF] about the speaker published today.

Apple says the HomePod consumes less power than an average ENERGY STAR certified LED household light bulb during music playback. The comparison is true, as a classic-shaped A-series LED bulb typically draws around 9-10 watts, while the HomePod draws around 8.74 watts with 115V of line voltage during music playback at 50 percent volume. Of course, power will vary depending on the volume.

The environmental report includes a chart with a complete breakdown of the HomePod’s power consumption based on different line voltages. For those unaware, around 115V is standard in the United States and Canada, and around 230V is standard in many other countries like the UK. 100V is standard in Japan.

Apple says the HomePod is so energy efficient because it automatically enters a low power mode after eight minutes of inactivity. In this mode, the speaker draws between only 1.71 and 1.76 watts of power.

HomePod outperforms the stringent requirements of the ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Audio/Video Version 3.0, consuming 50 percent less than the allowable energy for low power mode, according to Apple.

HomePod uses power-efficient components and software that can intelligently power them down during periods of inactivity. For example, through optimized power management features and a high-efficiency power supply, HomePod has been designed to be efficient in its low power mode, where the majority of time is spent. The result is that HomePod is energy efficient right out of the box.

The environmental report also notes the HomePod is free of brominated flame retardants, PVC, and beryllium, and adds that 100 percent of its packaging fibers are sourced from responsibly managed forests or recycled paper.

On a related note, an Apple support representative told 9to5Mac that the HomePod comes with a two-meter power cable in the box that is color matched in Space Gray or White. The representative said the cable is removable and user replaceable, but this wasn’t the case on demo units, so it may be wrong information.

Apple began accepting HomePod orders today in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia for $349, £319, and $499 respectively. The speaker can be used elsewhere in English for now, with French and German coming this spring.

Related Roundup: HomePodTag: Environmental Responsibility
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Several iCloud Services Experiencing Outage

Multiple iCloud services are currently experiencing downtime, according to Apple’s System Status page, leaving them inaccessible to some users.

Find My Friends, Find My iPhone, iCloud Backup, Contacts, Calendar, Drive, Keychain, Mail, Notes, Reminders, Storage Upgrades, and Web Apps have all been down for some people since 8:35 a.m. Pacific Time.

Back to My Mac, iWork for iCloud apps, Mail Drop, and Photos are also impacted.

Apple’s System Status report says that 1.5 percent of users are affected and may be unable to use the above listed services. It’s not clear how long the outage will last, but we’ll update when it’s resolved.
Discuss this article in our forums

Nixon’s all-action Mission SS smartwatch slips into something less casual

The Nixon Mission Android Wear smartwatch is designed with one purpose in mind — not breaking when it’s being abused by the surfers, tough-mudders, skiers, and other super sporty types who should be attracted to it. However, the rugged body and silicone strap look less at home matched with anything smarter than sportswear. Nixon’s solution is the Mission SS, three new versions of the smartwatch with metal straps.

It’s called the SS for a reason — the silicone strap has been swapped out for a 23mm stainless steel (SS, see?) three-link bracelet with a locking clasp, in black, gold, or silver with a matching body. The metal band adds class and style, while still maintaining the strength and durability needed if the Mission is used as intended. The bezel around the watch face is also made of stainless steel, matched to a polycarbonate casing, and a Gorilla Glass crystal over the screen.

This external toughness is matched with 10ATM water resistance, or to a 100-meter depth, yet the watch still has a microphone for Google Assistant voice control. Nixon uses a protection system called MicLock, which is a cover that needs to be secured over the mic before putting the watch in water, to keep the insides dry.

It’s Android Wear 2.0 installed on the Mission SS, while the original Mission watch shipped with Android Wear 1.5 onboard. Nixon pre-installs a pair of apps, both related to snow and surf activities. The 48mm Mission SS smartwatch uses a Snapdragon 2100 platform, and has the same 1.39-inch AMOLED screen as the original Mission, with a 400 x 400 pixel resolution.

Nixon has the Mission SS watches ready to buy through its website now. All three versions cost $425, or $25 more than the Mission watch with a silicone strap. However, it’s not included in Nixon’s customization plan, where the bezel, band, face, and inscription on the rear can all be altered to your preference. The Mission and Mission SS smartwatches are built with a purpose, and compete in a niche with very few other full Android Wear products. If you’re looking for a smartwatch that doesn’t need such specific use, take a look here at our picks for the best smartwatches out now.

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Google Play sees 19 billion apps downloaded in previous quarter

Google Play is on the up and up. The Android app marketplace reported its best quarter yet in the last quarter of 2017, boasting a whopping 19 billion downloads. That’s a new record for the service, and, according to a report from App Annie, represents a lead of a massive 145 percent over Apple’s App Store.

Google has bet pretty big on emerging markets over the past few years, and it looks like those bets are paying off. The huge download numbers were driven largely by markets like India, Indonesia, and Brazil. India in particular contributed a lot — according to the report, combined downloads on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in India surpassed downloads in the U.S. in 2017.

The report also went into the types of apps that were downloaded most. On a global level, games, finance, and personalization were the most downloaded apps on Google Play in the fourth quarter of 2017, while shopping apps were the most downloaded in the fourth quarter of 2017 on Apple’s App Store. Finance apps came second on the App Store, and App Annie says that it’s likely finance apps will continue to be popular in the first quarter of 2018 given the tax season.

Along with record download numbers were record spending numbers. Google and Apple both enjoyed 20-percent year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter, and despite Google’s lead in raw download numbers, App Store purchases accounted for $11.5 billion — almost twice that of Google Play’s purchases.

In terms of spending, the U.S. was the unsurprising leader in the fourth quarter globally on both Android and iOS, while Germany came in third. Second place was different on iOS and Android, with Taiwan coming in second on iOS, and South Korea second on Android.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, spending in entertainment apps is going up. In-app subscriptions from entertainment services, like Netflix, went up by a factor of four between 2015 and 2017. In-app subscriptions for productivity apps also went up, particularly on Google Play — where it was the fastest growing app category.

It’s no small feat that people are downloading so many apps, but it would be surprising if they weren’t. Google in particular has been putting heavy emphasis on emerging markets, and with that only set to continue we’ll likely see records broken next year, and the year after, too.

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• Google removes 60 apps from Play Store due to reports of malware

Fujitsu in talks to sell mobile division and leave the smartphone business behind

Fujitsu is negotiating with an investment company to sell off its mobile division, indicating its intention to leave the phone business behind. While Fujitsu isn’t a household name when it comes to phones in the United States or internationally, it’s well-established in that market sector in Japan, with its Arrows Android phones being particular standouts among the domestically popular flip phones. However, just like its computer business, Fujitsu has decided it’s time to move on.

It’s reported Fujitsu is talking with Tokyo-based investment firm Polaris Capital about the sale, which if it takes place, will be worth between $365 million and $456 million, according to an anonymous source speaking to Reuters. An agreement may be in place by the end of January. Should the deal be made, Polaris will continue to sell the Arrows branded phones, states the Nikkei Asian Review.

Fujitsu split its computing and mobile divisions into two companies in 2016, with the phone business falling under the control of Fujitsu Connected Technologies. Reports that Fujitsu wanted to sell off its phone business gathered steam in mid-2017. Subsequently, 51 percent of its computing division — Fujitsu Client Computing Devices — was sold to Lenovo, along with five percent to the Development Bank of Japan, as it exited the world of PCs. Should the mobile business be sold to Polaris, Fujitsu will rely on system development, servers, and other core IT businesses, which the Nikkei Asian Review says currently generate 70 percent of its sales anyway.

Fujitsu comes fourth in the Japanese phone market, behind Apple, Sharp, and Kyocera. Like Sharp and Kyocera, it has never made a strong play for international business, despite small attempts several years ago with niche devices like the Stylistic S01, a phone aimed at senior citizens. It also once displayed a prototype Android smartphone that was supposedly destined for launch in the United States and United Kingdom. Outside of this, Fujitsu has demonstrated cutting-edge mobile tech, and was an early adopter of iris recognition.

If Fujitsu leaves mobile devices behind, it will leave Sony, Sharp, and Kyocera as the only Japanese companies making phones today. Fujitsu told Reuters a deal has not yet been reached.

Editors’ Recommendations

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How to check your IMEI number on an iPhone, Android, or other phone

Every mobile phone has an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number that identifies your phone. If your phone is stolen, you can call your network provider and have them blacklist the device using its IMEI number, which should make it useless to the thief, even if they change the SIM card.

Your IMEI should be 15 digits long and it can be used to check various bits of information, such as the country of origin, the manufacturer, and the model number. You can also use it to check on the history of a device and find out if it has ever been reported stolen via services like CheckMend. Luckily, there are various easy ways to find it, so let’s look at how to check your IMEI number.

Before we start, keep in mind that you should never share your IMEI number publicly. The IMEI numbers in the following screenshots have been redacted.

How to check IMEI using a phone dialer

The universal method for checking your IMEI, which will work on an iPhone, an Android phone, and other, is to open your phone app and dial in the following:

*#06#

A box should pop up with your IMEI code in it, and you can copy the number down and then tap Dismiss or OK to close the box.

How to check IMEI on an Android phone

On an Android phone, you can find the IMEI in the settings menu. It will usually be in:

Settings > About phone > Status

Sometimes it will be:

Settings > General > About device > Status

You’ll want to write or type the number out somewhere else.

How to check IMEI on an iPhone

It’s very easy to find your iPhone’s IMEI. Simply go to:

Settings > General > About

Scroll down and look for the IMEI entry in the list. You can also touch and hold the number to copy it to the clipboard and then paste it somewhere else.

Other ways to check your IMEI

Some devices, such as the iPhone 6S and later, for example, display the IMEI on the SIM tray. Some phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, show the IMEI number on the back. Older phones with removable batteries quite often list the IMEI under the battery, usually on top of the SIM slot.

How to check the IMEI if you lost the phone

If your iPhone or Android phone has been stolen and you forgot to check and write down the IMEI number, there’s still a chance you can find it. If you kept the box that your phone came in, there’s a good chance you’ll find a sticker on the outside of it that lists the IMEI number of your phone.

Here’s absolutely everything we know about the HTC U12

HTC’s star is on the rise at the moment, with the company having put out two great flagship phones in consecutive years with the HTC 10 and the HTC U11. The Taiwanese company is probably hoping to continue that winning streak with the HTC U12 — the direct follow-up to the HTC U11. But what can we expect from HTC’s likely follow-up? Here’s everything we know about the HTC U12.

Launch and release date

HTC is clearly wanting to set a new tradition for itself, as sources inside the company let slip to Android Headlines that it would not be revealing the HTC U12 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, echoing competitor LG.

It seems likely that HTC is choosing to ignore the event because of the looming shadow of the Samsung Galaxy S9, which is due to be revealed during the opening days of the conference. Saying that following Samsung’s act is tough would be an understatement, and given the relative lack of hype built for HTC’s upcoming phone, it makes sense to avoid one of the most anticipated phones of 2018.

That said, HTC avoided MWC last year despite the absence of a Samsung flagship, so it may be that HTC is simply moving away from announcing its biggest phones at industry events, where the danger of a distracted media is much higher. If that’s the case, then it’s far more likely that we’ll see HTC announce an event of its own closer to the U12’s release date — most estimate we’ll be seeing the phone in March or April.

Design

HTC has been tight-lipped about possible design choices for the HTC U12, but it’s safe to say that we’re likely to see a return to the bezel-less design we saw in the U11. Early renders of what the U12 could look like were uncovered by Trusted Reviews, and show a phone that’s … er, slightly boring, to say the least.

Trusted Reviews

With the increased use of edge-to-edge displays, it’s fair that face-on renders of a phone would be underwhelming. An interesting question would be the new location of the fingerprint scanner, which had previously taken residence underneath the display. Could HTC have cracked the under-screen fingerprint scanner that Vivo has managed, or would we be seeing the scanner move to the rear of the device, like the OnePlus 5T?

Whether or not Edge Sense will return remains to be seen. The “squeeze-to-activate” function was well-enough received on the HTC U11 for Google to request the feature in the Pixel 2 range, and so it seems likely that it would return in the U12. However, HTC may decide to try something new instead.

Specs

A leaked list of phones that contain the upcoming powerful Snapdragon 845 immediately answers our question of the HTC U12’s likely processor. With many 2018 flagships tipped to contain Qualcomm’s latest chip, it would be odd if HTC released a flagship without the newest thing in processing power.

Other specifications don’t have such a clear answer. It would be odd for HTC to release a flagship phone with less RAM or storage than the previous flagship, so it’s safe to assume that the U12 will have an option for 6GB of RAM and  128GB of storage space. Whether the U12 would see the end of a 4GB/64GB model remains to be seen, but we reckon that while the model with 64GB of storage will remain, a lower-priced model with 4GB of RAM will be given the heave-ho. Still, that’s pure speculation at this point.

Software

The HTC U11 launched with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, but was upgraded to Android 8.0 Oreo in fairly short order. With Google’s I/O conference in May, we think the HTC U12 will launch with the latest version of Android Oreo, and will be upgraded to the newer version of Android a few months after it’s released by Google. Either way, the U12 will have HTC’s Sense UI laid over the top of whatever version of Android it’s running.

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