Technology

Sony’s new Xperia 1 II smartphone is purpose-built for one very specific thing: to make your phone work a little bit more like a standalone Sony Alpha camera. It’s a long time coming: Sony has made dozens of Xperia phones since its first one in 2008, but until now, none of them have had an identity this clear or compelling. Every smartphone brand tries to create its own ecosystem — or at least its own experience. You surely understand what it’s like to live in Apple’s iPhone world, Google’s Pixel world, or Samsung’s Galaxy world. But there’s long been an entire Sony world that’s just as well-defined, and it has a community of users that’s just as dedicated. It’s just that Sony’s world wasn’t about smartphones; it was about its Alpha line of cameras. Sony has finally taken the first steps o...

Where is Google’s Pixel 4A? Sitting right on the company’s online store, as it turns out. Google seems to have mistakenly published an image of the Pixel 4A on its Canadian store. The text says “Nest Wifi,” but uh… that’s no Nest Wifi. The phone has already leaked extensively over the last few months, but this is a marketing render direct from Google — and it suggests that the 4A might finally be coming sometime in the near future. Note also that the screen has a date of May 12th on it, which is pretty solid confirmation that Google did originally plan to launch the 4A during its annual developers conference before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nest Wifi, you say? I don’t think so. The 4A seen in the photo has a matte black finish with a light blue power button and th...

Over a matter of days, TikTok has become the scariest social network in the world. On July 7th, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that the White House was considering banning the app, a move so unprecedented that it’s hard to know what government action was even being threatened. India has already taken a similar measure, and on Friday, an email went out telling Amazon employees that they should uninstall the app from their company phones — although higher-ups later said it had been sent in error. Over the weekend, Wells Fargo issued a similar order and stuck with it, and both major political parties have told their operatives to steer clear of the app. It’s the kind of avalanche of concerns you would expect from a privacy failure on the scale of Cambridge Analytica or the Ya...

California has reportedly opened its own antitrust investigation into Google, Politico reports, which would mean the search giant is now facing antitrust probes from every state in the US bar one. It is not known which aspect of the company California’s attorney general is investigating, but recent scrutiny has focused on its acquisitions, and its dominance and conduct in the ad tech market and search markets. The probe would be just the latest antitrust investigation faced by Google. Last September, attorneys general from 50 states and territories announced an antitrust investigation into Google’s advertising and search businesses. At the time, California and Alabama were the only two states to not participate in the probe. California’s non-participation was particularly notable, since th...

The upcoming OnePlus Nord will have a selfie camera with an ultra-wide 105-degree field of view. OnePlus confirmed the news in a video posted to the Nord’s Instagram page. Although it didn’t confirm the resolution of the camera, a previous report from Android Central said that the phone will have two selfie cameras: one 8-megapixel wide-angle camera and a main 32-megapixel selfie camera. OnePlus has previously shown a prototype device with dual selfie cameras during a documentary about the Nord. In the feature’s announcement video, OnePlus positioned the ultra-wide selfie camera as an alternative to using a selfie stick, meaning it should be helpful for taking selfies of groups, or just of yourself alongside more of your environment. Ultra-wide selfie cameras aren’t an entirely new feature...

Ubisoft has announced that the open beta for its upcoming battle royale shooter Hyper Scape kicks off on PC today, and the company also shared a trailer for the beta and a new cinematic trailer detailing some of the game’s story. The news came as part of the Ubisoft Forward presentation that aired on Sunday. Hyper Scape launched first as a technical test on July 2nd, with Ubisoft giving access to some Twitch and YouTube creators so they could stream the game. The launch was a huge success, with Hyper Scape rising to the top of the Twitch charts that day. In his experience with the technical test, my colleague Nick Statt found the game to be a fun and polished take on the battle royale formula. Update July 12th, 4:25PM ET: Updated headline to reflect that the beta is now available. You Dese...

NPCs were a big part of the first two Watch Dogs games; their colorful histories and biographical snippets would pop up when you scanned anyone in the game world, mostly for comedic effect. But in Watch Dogs Legion, Ubisoft is taking that potential and expanding it into a core part of the game — or at least, it’s trying to. The idea is simple: all those NPCs, with all their strengths and weaknesses, are now actual playable characters that can be recruited as part of your hacktivist army. Need to sneak into a building site? Recruit a construction worker who can sneak in undetected. And with procedurally generated characters, Ubisoft says that the number of potential recruits ranges in the millions. Unfortunately, for all the hype, after playing three hours of Legion, it doesn’t do enough to...

It’s been nearly two years, but Ubisoft is finally gearing up to release a new Assassin’s Creed game. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is billed as “the ultimate viking fantasy,” set not in the fjords of Scandinavia but in the fields and rivers of England during the ninth century Viking invasion. Players are put in the role of Eivor, a Viking from Norway, as they attempt to lead their people to establish a settlement in England. It may have new Norse trappings and some refreshed gameplay modes and features, but after spending three hours running around Valhalla’s open world, it feels a lot more like an iteration of 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey than a drastically different experience. The game’s recreation of England might be the best the series has ever looked I was able to try out an early ve...

Ubisoft debuted the first trailer for Far Cry 6 as part of its Ubisoft Forward digital conference today. The cinematic trailer didn’t have any gameplay, but showed a city in revolt under the regime of Antón Castillo, who is played by Giancarlo Esposito, perhaps best known as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. In Far Cry 6, players control Dani Rojas, who is tasked with stopping Castillo’s regime. Much like its predecessors Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn, the playable character will be customizable and can be played as either a male or female. But Far Cry 6 will also see the return of a voiced protagonist, GameSpot reports. Ubisoft says players will have many weapons at their disposal and a companion system that allows you to recruit numerous allies to fight alongside you, like...

Ubisoft, like many other video game companies, was unable to host its typical in-person press conference at E3 in June due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it hosted a digital event on Sunday called “Ubisoft Forward,” revealing more about its biggest upcoming games. Those included Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, its newly-announced battle royale shooter Hyper Scape, Far Cry 6, and more. The company says it also plans to hold another Ubisoft Forward showcase later this year. Ubisoft Forward comes at a difficult time for the company: Reports of a pervasive toxic culture at Ubisoft have recently come to light amid multiple allegations of misconduct levied against Ubisoft employees. Just yesterday, three prominent executives left Ubisoft, bringing the total to four departures ...

Tesla has lowered the purchase price of its Model Y by $3,000, so its Long Range AWD will now cost $49,990, Electrek reported. The Model Y just began shipping in March, and earlier this month Tesla reported better-than-expected delivery numbers for all its vehicles in the second quarter, so the reason for the price cut isn’t totally clear. But it’s likely to help boost sales at a time when all carmakers are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Tesla cut prices on several vehicles in May, but the Model Y was not included in those reductions. It lowered the prices on the base models and Performance versions of the Model S and Model X by $5,000, and cut the prices on all versions of its Model 3 by $2,000 (with prices slightly different for Model 3s sold in China). Tesla said July 2nd t...

This week’s list of original streaming shows has a little something for everyone, I think: Tom Hanks as a heroic Navy captain fleeing Nazis, a new series from the creator of Regular Show, a twist on the King Arthur legend that focuses on the Lady of the Lake, and Zac Efron who is traveling the world for some reason. [embedded content] Greyhound (Apple TV Plus, now playing) Greyhound is a Navy action movie set in World War II with Tom Hanks playing a captain whose ship is one of a convoy of Allied ships being chased by Nazis in submarines. Hanks wasn’t too thrilled when it was announced that Greyhound would land on Apple TV Plus instead of in theaters, and Polygon says the movie’s spectacle is somewhat diminished since it’s not on the big screen. But reviewer Karen Han says “[director Aaron...