‘Doom’ is the latest game to get a 4K patch on consoles

The next time you venture a little south of Heaven in Doom it’ll have an awful lot more Hellish detail. Developer id Software is pushing out an update tomorrow that’ll bump the game’s resolution pretty dramatically on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X hardware, up to 4K. Doom uses a dynamic resolution scaler (which explains how it can run on the Nintendo Switch), but at the moment the resolution is capped at 1080p. So, while the game currently looks better on PS4 Pro than base PS4 hardware, it’s not playing in 4K. Unfortunately, publisher Bethesda’s blog post doesn’t mention HDR or what frame-rates the game will run at in UHD.

The timing of the patch is a little curious — the game came out back in May 2016 — but folks with the more powerful consoles surely won’t mind. For a preview of how it’ll look after tomorrow, peep the trailer embedded below.

Source: Bethesda

Facebook will limit data advertisers can use to target ads

Facebook is still determined to reassure jittery users in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal, and that now includes restricting what advertisers can do. The social network is closing down a Partner Categories service that let third-party data providers offer their ad targeting directly through Facebook. Instead, they’ll have to rely either on advertiser data (say, voluntarily provided emails) or Facebook itself. The program will take six months to ramp down, but Facebook product marketing director Graham Mudd said it should “improve people’s privacy” when all is said and done.

Wall Street Journal sources have also heard that Facebook will stop supplying data on the success of those ad campaigns to those providers.

This wouldn’t have put a stop to Cambridge Analytica’s activities (it harvested data under the guise of research), and Recode noted that it might create headaches for smaller companies that can’t afford to collect their own data. However, it could reduce the chances that Facebook ends up buying data collected through shady or inaccurate practices. Whatever Facebook loses in terms of sheer data it might gain by avoiding another fiasco that leads users to quit the site.

Via: Recode, Wall Street Journal

Source: Facebook Newsroom

Einride’s self-driving cargo trucks hit the highway this fall

Einride’s autonomous T-Pod may look like a giant freezer on wheels, but it’s likely to be on the road fairly soon. According to TechCrunch, the company announced today that the first customer deliveries of the self-driving transport vehicle will begin this fall.

The T-pod can transport standard cargo pallets and travel up to 124 miles on a single charge. It can drive itself on highways, but a human will take over on main roads via remote. TechCrunch says that the trucks will use the Nvidia Drive AI platform to plan driving paths and intelligently sense the environments. Einride also hopes to have a fleet of 200 with an initial route set between Gothenberg and Helsingborg in Sweden.

Source: TechCrunch

Waze Local makes it easy for small businesses to advertise on Google’s Waze app

Waze, the community-driven navigation app owned by Google, is making it easier for local businesses to advertise on its new Waze Local platform. But don’t get your pitchforks out to try and kick advertisers off your app — these type of advertisements have already been available on Waze for enterprise customers. The company is now simply focusing its efforts on launching tools and services specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.

In 2017, Waze said more than 3.3 million of its users visited local U.S. businesses that advertised on the app. When the app was in beta last year, the company found that U.S. businesses advertising on Waze Local saw a 20.4 percent increase in monthly navigations, or visits to the store.

If you use Waze, there are three types of ads that you’ve likely seen in action already. The core format is Branded Pins — these are pins that show up on the map indicating a specific business. Waze said only three show up at a time so your map doesn’t look cluttered, and they only appear for places you are near. Tap on one of these pins and you can get details about the business such as operating hours or a phone number, and of course, you’ll be able to navigate to it.

Branded Pins.

Promoted Search

Branded Pins

Small businesses can also pay to appear at the top of search results in Waze through Promoted Search (these are labeled as ads just like in Google Search). The more interesting ad format, however, is Zero-Speed Takeover banner ads. These ads, which have been in use already, take up the top half of your phone’s screen only when your car comes to a halt. They disappear as soon as your car starts moving. These ads are also proximity based, and they’re meant to be used when a small business wants to advertise a particular promotion or event. These banner ads have a wider reach — literally — as they go 3.1 times further than the Branded Pins from the businesses’ location.

Waze said small businesses can get set up on Waze Local in 5 minutes, touting the simplicity as a boon for businesses that don’t have large marketing teams. Through a dashboard, these small businesses will have access to data such as impressions, clicks, navigations, and more. There are two options: Waze Local Starter and Waze Local Plus. The starter option lets you start advertising on the platform for as little as $2, whereas the Plus version starts at $100. Zero-Speed Takeover ads are only available on the Plus option, along with live support for businesses that may need help.

“If you want to reach local drivers, you really have two options: The radio — ads on the radio — and billboards on the side of the road,” Matt Phillips, head of local SMB for Waze, told Digital Trends. “Both of which provide very little, if any, information back to the business owner. They don’t know how many people listen or saw the ad, they are expensive. If you are a small business owner and you want to change the billboard in the afternoon to promote iced coffee, it can be extremely expensive. With Waze, we track and collect information back to the advertiser using our Waze Local dashboard. They can then optimize their campaigns quickly and easily.”

When asked whether some of these advertising methods, specifically Zero-Speed Takeover, will be seen in Google’s other navigation service — Google Maps — Phillips told Digital Trends there’s nothing in the works at the present time.

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Yahoo Mail makes it easier for online shoppers to find the best deals

Yahoo Mail is getting better and better for those that like to shop online. The company announced two new partnerships for Mail that should allow users to both get products they want to quickly, and help save customers money.

The first partnership is with a startup called ShopRunner and essentially gets Yahoo Mail users a one-year ShopRunner subscription for free. Normally, a ShopRunner subscription costs $79 for a year. But what are the benefits? ShopRunner essentially gives customers things like free two-day shipping, free returns, and so on, through its partnerships with dozens of retail partners.

The second partnership is with another startup, this one called Earny. Earny is aimed at ensuring you never overpay on items you buy online. It basically reviews purchases that you made from eligible retailers over the past 90 days, and if it finds that you spent more than you had to, it will automatically process refunds on your behalf. According to Yahoo, “If you paid $60 at one retailer and Earny finds it for $45 somewhere else, you get a check in the mail.” If you want to take advantage of the partnerships with ShopRunner and Earny, you will need to sign up. Yahoo Mail users can sign up for ShopRunner here, and for Earny here.

The partnerships aren’t the only new features coming to Yahoo Mail. The company is also refining its relatively new “Coupons” feature. The feature was launched late last year as a way to put together lists if coupons, and at the time Yahoo called it the digital version of “coupon clipping.” Now, the feature is getting a few new things — like Coupons Smart View, which allows you to save the deals you care about for later, and Receipts View, which helps you track the purchases you’ve already made online.

Yahoo has been trying to build new features into Yahoo Mail of late. Apart from things like Coupons, the company also launched features like “Travel Smart View,” which is aimed at helping you track your flight, notifying you when there are delays and gate changes, and helping you check in 24 hours before your flight.

Thankfully, the new features aren’t only limited to the Yahoo Mail mobile app — they are also available in the Yahoo Mail desktop website.

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Huawei P20 Pro vs. the P20: Which smartphone is the right Huawei to go?

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The fact that Huawei has repeatedly run into issues trying to break into the U.S. market hasn’t stopped the Chinese manufacturer from turning out some very impressive Android smartphones. The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro offer a compelling combination of cutting-edge hardware and software, but there are some big differences between the two. If you’re considering buying one of them, then this comparison will help you get a grasp on where they’re similar and where they diverge.

Specs

Huawei P20 Pro
Huawei P20

Size
155 x 73.9 x 7.8 mm (6.1 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches)
149.1 x 70.8 x 7.65 mm (5.87 x 2.78 x 0.3 inches)

Weight
174 grams (6.14 ounces)
165 grams (5.82 ounces)

Screen size
6.1-inch OLED display
5.8-inch LCD display

Screen resolution
2,240 x 1,080 pixels (414 pixels-per-inch)
2,240 x 1,080 pixels (428 pixels-per-inch)

Operating system
Emotion UI 8.1 (over Android 8.1 Oreo)
Emotion UI 8.1 (over Android 8.1 Oreo)

Storage space
128GB
128GB

MicroSD card slot
No
No

Tap-to-pay services
Google Pay
Google Pay

Processor
Kirin 970
Kirin 970

RAM
6GB
4GB

Camera
Triple lens 40MP, 20MP, & 8MP rear, 24MP front
Dual lens 20MP & 12MP, 24MP front

Video
2160p at 30 frames per second, 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 960fps
 2160p at 30 frames per second, 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 960fps

Bluetoothversion
Bluetooth 4.2
Bluetooth 4.2

Ports
USB-C
USB-C

Fingerprint sensor
Yes
Yes

Water resistance
IP67
IP53

Battery
4,000mAh
3,400mAh

App marketplace
Google Play Store
Google Play Store

Network support
T-Mobile, AT&T
T-Mobile, AT&T

Colors
Black, Blue, Pink Gold, Twilight
Black, Blue, Pink Gold, Twilight

Price
899 euros (around $1,100)
649 euros (around $800)

Where to buy it
Huawei
Huawei

Review score
Hands-on review
Hands-on review

Performance, battery life and charging

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Dissect either of these phones and you’re going to find Huawei’s own Kirin 970 processor inside, along with its special Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which is designed to offer all kinds of artificial intelligence (A.I.) enhancements without slowing things down or draining too much power. You get 6GB of RAM in the P20 Pro, while the P20 makes do with 4GB of RAM. Only serious multitaskers will feel the difference. Both phones have 128GB of storage, but there’s no MicroSD card slot.

It’s easier to separate these phones on battery life because the P20 Pro has a 4,000mAh battery, while the battery in the P20 is only rated at 3,400mAh. The P20 Pro has a marginally bigger screen and a few more tricks up its sleeve, but we can’t see that being enough to cancel out the extra capacity, so we expect the P20 Pro to have more stamina than its sibling. There’s no wireless charging here, but you can expect both phones to support Huawei’s SuperCharge fast-charging standard.

Winner: Huawei P20 Pro

Design and durability

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The all-glass, curved design of these phones is extremely attractive and they come in some interesting finishes, particularly the twilight option, which shifts from purple to teal. Strangely, Huawei has put the fingerprint sensors on the front, in the old traditional spot beneath the screen, but the main thing that jumps out is that notch at the top. We’re not keen on the notch trend afflicting Android phones right now, but if you’re going to do it, there’s nothing wrong with Huawei’s implementation — the notch in the P20 and P20 Pro is much smaller than the iPhone X’s notch.

There’s nothing to divide these phones on the design front, but if we delve into durability, the P20 Pro is clearly superior. The P20 has a distinctly disappointing IP53 rating, while the P20 Pro scores an IP67 rating. In simple terms, this means that the P20 Pro can survive submersion, but the P20 probably won’t.

Winner: Huawei P20 Pro

Display

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The Huawei P20 sports a 5.8-inch RGBW LCD screen, while the P20 Pro boasts a 6.1-inch OLED screen. Both of them have a 2,240 x 1,080 pixel screen resolution. Strictly speaking, this makes the P20 screen a touch sharper, but the P20 Pro has a much higher contrast ratio, with rich colors and really deep blacks.

Winner: Huawei P20 Pro

Camera

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The camera war in smartphones has reached new heights recently, as the battle for supremacy has spilled beyond megapixel count and led many manufacturers to adopt secondary lenses. Huawei is taking things a lot further with the P20 Pro by packing in three lenses: There’s a 40-megapixel main lens with A.I. Image Stabilization (AIS), a secondary telephoto lens rated at 8-megapixels, and a third 20-megapixel monochrome lens. This camera offers 3x optical zoom, which can be enhanced digitally to 5x. It also delivers incredible detail and solid low -light performance.

By contrast, the P20 combines a 12-megapixel primary lens with a 20-megapixel monochromatic lens. It may not have as many tricks at its disposal, but we still expect it to be a good performer. Both phones have front-facing cameras rated at 24-megapixels, which should be enough to elevate your selfie game to the next level.

Winner: Huawei P20 Pro

Software and updates

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

You’ll find the latest Android 8.1 Oreo on the P20 and P20 Pro, with Huawei’s EMUI 8.1 user interface on top. It’s quite a departure from stock Android, and it means you won’t get the latest software updates as soon as Google rolls them out. Huawei’s software is packed with clever A.I. tricks, enabling things like keyword search in the photo gallery app. There’s no real difference between the two phones in this category.

Winner: Tie

Special features

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Huawei is firmly focused on the triple-lens camera as the standout feature of the P20 Pro, but everything else you might point to as a special feature can be found on both phones. There is a face unlock option on the P20 and P20 Pro that uses 2-D mapping to authenticate users in only half a second, but it’s not as secure as the iPhone X’s Face ID, so you can’t use it for payments.

Winner: Tie

Price

This has been a very one-sided battle so far, but the P20 is able to score a win on price, because it’s significantly cheaper than the P20 Pro. The Huawei P20 costs 649 euros (around $800), while the P20 Pro costs 899 euros (around $1,100).

The phones are available globally now. The bad news is that the P20 and P20 Pro will not be released through carriers in the U.S. after they were pressured to drop Huawei phones by Republican politicians, due to security concerns.

Winner: Huawei P20 

Overall winner: Huawei P20 Pro

There is absolutely no doubt that — as the name would suggest — the Huawei P20 Pro is a better phone than the P20. It has that triple-lens camera, a superior display, a bigger battery, and it’s more durable. The P20 is still a decent device, offering the same level of performance, A.I. smarts, and gorgeous design, but it falls well short of the P20 Pro. All you really have to decide is whether you can stretch your budget.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Huawei P20 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus: Are three better than two?
• Huawei P20 Pro hands-on review
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• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review

Smartphone speed demons! Is Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Plus the fastest off the line?

The Galaxy S9 Plus is Samsung’s newest flagship, and it packs some imposing tech under the hood. With a newfangled Snapdragon 845 processor — comprising an 8-core CPU with 2.8GHz clock speed, and Adreno 630 graphics processing unit — and 6GB of RAM, the S9 Plus can run the latest mobile games with ease. In our review of the phone, we noted that it’s “the first phone we’ve tested with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, and we’re happy to announce the new chipset delivers great performance. Apps open quickly, and moving throughout the user interface is mostly smooth,” and that “games like Tekken, The Sims: Mobile, and Sonic Forces run without flaw, offering a fluid experience,” although there was occasional stuttering.

Given how crowded the smartphone market is these days, one may wonder how the Galaxy S9 Plus stacks up against other notable flagships. That’s why, in an effort to determine which is the quickest smartphone on the market, we pitted the S9 Plus against a host of competitors — including the iPhone X, Mate 10 Pro, Note 8, OnePlus 5T, and Pixel 2XL — in a test of speed, seeing how quickly each device could launch different apps and games.

We launched each app on each phone, and recorded the amount of time required to do so. It’s a simple test, yes, but illuminating. The S9 Plus was the quickest to launch Twitter, and tied with the Pixel 2XL when launching Google Maps. In most other cases, it finished near the top of the pack, though not in first. In a couple instances, it even lagged behind the Note 8, which has a Snapdragon 835.

Given that it placed close to first for most of these apps — Facebook and Super Mario Run included — it’s clear that the S9 Plus is a premier smartphone. Although it lost out a few times to the Pixel 2XL and OnePlus 5T, that makes some sense, given that those phones run stock Android, which tends to be more efficient than proprietary versions.

In general, if you’re looking for a phone to play Fortnite on, the S9 Plus is one of your best options.

David Cogen — a regular contributor here at Digital Trends — runs TheUnlockr.com, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him over at Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Baidu’s pocket translator is a ‘Star Trek’ dream come to life

Chinese search giant Baidu has long been investing in artificial intelligence research, whether it’s hiring away the creator of the Google Brain project, building autonomous cars or creating a recent A.I. which can mimic your voice after listening to it for only a short period of time. At this week’s MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital conference in San Francisco, Baidu gave a demo of one of its most impressive consumer-facing examples of A.I. to date: A Star Trek-style pocket universal translator that is able to translate spoken sentences from English into Mandarin and back again.

Shown off on stage, the device was used to facilitate a conversation between English speaking senior editor Will Knight and Baidu chief scientist Hua Wu. The device appears to be capable of easily translating questions like “Where can I buy this device?” and “When will machines replace humans?” into Mandarin, and the Mandarin language responses back into English. To do this, it draws on Baidu’s deep-learning neural networks: The same technology which drives Google’s ever-improving machine translation and voice-recognition technology.

The gadget has reportedly been available since December, although right now it can only be leased at travel agencies and airports in China. Its immediate goal is to use its English, Chinese and Japanese translations (more languages will follow in the future) to help people navigate around cities. However, MIT Technology Review claims that other markets are planned for expansion in the future — hopefully meaning that it won’t be too long before we can get our hands on one of these devices.

While a number of mobile devices can carry out impressive machine translation at present, that doesn’t diminish how impressive Baidu’s achievement is. Not only does it underline how successful the company has been at taking on the Silicon Valley tech giants, but its apparently straightforward ease of use absolutely makes this a gadget we would be interested in picking up. Especially if, at some point, Baidu can combine this with its aforementioned voice soundalike technology.

Along with Google’s in-ear translation earbuds, it seems that we’re living in an incredibly exciting time for machine translation.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Netflix orders King Arthur series from comic legend Frank Miller

Netflix’s fondness for comic book industry veterans isn’t cooling off any time soon. The streaming giant has ordered Cursed, an Arthurian drama based on an impending novel co-authored by comic legend Frank Miller (of 300 and Sin City fame) and producer/screenwriter Tom Wheeler (no, not the former FCC chairman). The series flips the usual King Arthur story by focusing on Nimue, a teenage girl whose tragic heroism leads her to become the Lady of the Lake.

It’s not certain when the initial 10-episode series will air, but the book (announced just the week prior) is due to hit shelves in fall 2019.

There’s no guarantee of success just by having big names attached. The adaptations of Miller’s 300 and Sin City went well, but the Miller-directed take on Will Eisner’s The Spirit flopped at movie theaters. Still, it’s a potentially powerful creative duo in charge, and it’s hard not to wonder how well Miller’s storytelling experience translates to a streaming-only production.

Via: Deadline

Source: Netflix

‘Far Cry 5’ review: Destruction and doomsday in America

By Daniel Howley

The Far Cry series is known for dropping players into huge, open-world settings and letting them sew chaos and destruction as they take on each title’s menacing villain. But those settings and enemies have always been based in largely poor, tropical areas of the world, leading to criticisms of the franchise serving as a tourism simulator gone wrong.

For it’s latest entry, Far Cry 5, however, developer Ubisoft Montreal took the tried and true staples of the series — massive, explorable worlds and sandbox-style gameplay — and dropped them in the heart of Big Sky Country: Hope County, Montana.

That change in scenery pays off in a big way for Far Cry 5, which is one of the most stunning titles in the franchise to date. It also allowed for the game’s creative team to build a story about a doomsday cult building its own outpost in the middle of the U.S. at a time when the country is dealing with a resurgence in white nationalist hate groups.

But while the narrative initially captures your attention with the charismatic cult leader Joseph Seed, it never truly reaches its potential.

America, the beautiful

It’s impossible to talk about Far Cry 5 without mentioning just how spectacular its world looks. The team at Ubisoft Montreal built a version of Montana that allows the player to genuinely feel like they’re experiencing the grandeur of the American West. Traversing forests, running through open fields, fishing in streams and exploring small towns are a joy.

Driving an ATV across a mountain trail reminded me of the summers I spent biking through the woods with my brother, while riding around in a pickup truck on dirt roads and crossing rickety bridges took me back to road trips in the mountains around western Pennsylvania with my family.

The fact that Far Cry 5 was able to coax such specific emotions from my memories is a testament to how impressive this game looks and plays.

That said, there are occasional pop-in issues, and load times are long even on the PlayStation 4 Pro. I also wish Ubisoft added more variability to the cultists’ character models. At this point I’ve taken out so many shaggy-haired men wearing white sweaters that I’m starting to think the game is about a cloning experiment gone horribly wrong.

Peggies and preppers

Of course, that’s not the case. Far Cry 5 revolves around a cult, the ominous-sounding Project at Eden’s Gate, run by David Koresh stand-in Joseph Seed and his siblings John, Jacob and Faith.

At the game’s outset, you, a deputy with the Hope County Sheriff’s Department, another deputy, the county sheriff and a U.S. Marshal try to take Joseph into custody on a warrant. But after slapping the cuffs on him and get him into a waiting chopper, Joseph’s followers manage to take the craft down and rescue their dear leader back.

After escaping the wreck and evading capture by the cult, you meet up with a prepper named Dutch who helps get you started on your mission to crush the Project at Eden’s Gate cultists, or Peggies, as the townsfolk call them, who have taken over the county.

How does a cult take over a county in modern day America without drawing the attention of, say, the National Guard? By buying off the police, blocking the roads and cutting off all communication to the outside world, that’s how.

It’s a hard pill to swallow, but at least the game tries to explain how and why the cult wants to take over. What it doesn’t do, though, is make you feel any kind of emotion for the endless number of cultists you kill.

It’s a shame, because Far Cry 5’s atmosphere and environments seem purpose built to tackle the issues of drug addiction, manipulative leaders and the existential fear Americans seem to feed on. The game’s big bads are interesting, and the side characters are fun to chat with, but the narrative never really takes you anywhere particularly new or insightful. It’s not a bad story, but it hits many of the same notes we’ve seen before.

Leaning on its strengths

Where Far Cry 5 excels is in the open-world combat that is a hallmark of the series and allows you to tackle virtually any task as you see fit. Need to take down an outpost? Why not sneak up on it and eliminate the enemies with your compound bow? Or, you could lure each enemy away one-by-one and take them out with your bare hands.

Not destructive enough? You could always go in with guns blazing, or run over every enemy you see with a big rig. Heck, Far Cry 5 even gives you the chance to pilot WWII planes armed with rockets and bombs, letting you rain destruction down on the Peggies. Sure, the planes’ controls are incredibly simplistic, but nothing is more satisfying than jumping into your plane to down the annoying helicopters and enemy pilots that have been harassing you on the ground for the last two hours.

Further upping the firepower level, is Far Cry 5’s new Gun for Hire mechanic that allows you to hire non-player characters to serve as your backup. You can hire everyone from a sniper to a pilot to a very good dog named Boomer to help you pulverize the Peggies. Co-op availability also lets you fight through the game with a friend or friends.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be a Far Cry game if you didn’t have to capture a seemingly endless number of enemy outposts. But unlike previous series entries you never feel like you’re capturing the same plot of land over and over again. That’s because each outpost has its own unique characteristics whether it be a junkyard or pumpkin farm.

If you don’t want to spend your time blowing up a small chunk of U.S. soil, though, you can always turn to recreational activities like hunting, fishing or simply taking in the beauty of rural Montana.

Should you get it?

Far Cry 5 is a fun, downright gorgeous game to play alone or with a friend. The combat is fast-paced and the ability to pilot a plane or helicopter adds new levels of verticality to this insane game world. But while there are plenty of interesting characters ranging from alien-obsessed preppers to townspeople excited for the local Testy Festy, the game’s plot doesn’t quite reach the heights it sets out to.

Fans of the Far Cry series should absolutely dive into this entry, while more casual players will have a blast exploring the game’s open world and then blowing it to smithereens. Just don’t expect a particularly moving story.

Reviewed on the PlayStation 4 Pro

What’s hot: Gorgeous environments; chaotic sandbox-style gameplay; fast-paced combat

What’s not: Narrative falls short despite promising setup; enemy characters lack variety

More games news:

• ‘God of War’ could be 2018’s first must-have game
• ‘Kirby Star Allies’ review: How to make friends and eat them
• Despite Trump’s meeting, video games and violence still don’t add up
• ‘Far Cry 5’ preview: Exploring cults and terror in the American West
• The 10 best iPhone and Android games of the month

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