Technology

Telegram is set to introduce a premium feature onto its platform. The new paid features is set to give users “additional features, speed, and resources.” Pavel Durov recently announced in a post that the messaging service is launching a paid Telegram Premium subscription, hinting that some of the features coming with the platform includes the ability to upload larger files, early access to new features, premium-only stickers and reactions. He stated that the existing features on the platform will stay free, and paid features will not affect the experience of users who aren’t subscribed. With the larger files, Durov claimed that non-subscribed users can access larger files sent to them and view premium stickers and reactions. The idea of having a premium subscription would help with some of...

Google has placed one of its engineers on paid administrative leave for allegedly breaking its confidentiality policies after he grew concerned that an AI chatbot system had achieved sentience, the Washington Post reports. The engineer, Blake Lemoine, works for Google’s Responsible AI organization, and was testing whether its LaMDA model generates discriminatory language or hate speech. The engineer’s concerns reportedly grew out of convincing responses he saw the AI system generating about its rights and the ethics of robotics. In April he shared a document with executives titled “Is LaMDA Sentient?” containing a transcript of his conversations with the AI (after being placed on leave, Lemoine published the transcript via his Medium account), which he says shows it arguing “that it is sen...

Elon Musk continues to make headlines as his Twitter deal works towards becoming finalized. As of June 2022, Forbes listed Musk’s real time net worth to be $215.1 billion USD. As he continues to revolutionize transportation on Earth and beyond with Tesla and SpaceX, it comes as no surprise that Musk will quickly move on to trillionaire status. Musk’s SpaceX is currently valued at $100 billion after its funding round in December 2021 and his 25% stake in Tesla is worth a heft amount as well. In a new study from Approve which compared annual net worth of the world’s wealthiest people, the stats have predicted that Musk will be the first to reach the trillionaire milestone. As the trend for Musk’s success continues to be on the growth trajectory, he is expected to become a trillionaire as qui...

The Celsius Network, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform and one of the largest crypto lenders, announced Sunday night that it was “pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts.” It has 1.7 million customers. The company’s token, CEL, is trading at 23 cents as of this writing, according to CoinMarketCap. That’s a 92 percent decrease from April 8th, when CEL was worth $3. The token was worth nearly $7 a year ago. There have been questions about Celsius Networks’ high yields, its connections to failed stablecoin Terra, and its reserves. The value of assets on its platform dropped by half to $12 billion in May, from $24 billion in December 2021. Between March and May, a billion dollars flowed out of the system, The Financial Times reported. In a June 7th blog post entitle...

Overwatch 2 will be launching “in early access” on October 4th, Activision Blizzard announced Sunday. At least the PVP parts of it will be. And in a major change, it will be free to play — the original Overwatch was a paid title. It will be releasing on PC, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. “We can’t wait to roll out the beginning of the Overwatch 2 experience on October 4 and introduce an exciting new competitive vision, featuring amazing new content and a reimagining of the iconic heroes, maps, and gameplay that made the original game so compelling,” Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard, said in a press release. “This is the beginning of an always-on and always-evolving era for the franchise, and a recommitment to serving players with frequent and substantial upda...

Diablo IV, the next major release in Activision Blizzard’s popular dungeon-crawling series, will be available in 2023, the company announced Sunday. When it launches, it’ll be available on PC, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4, and the game will have crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms. And as with previous Diablo games there will be blood — a lot of it. Whole actual waves of blood. In addition to previously announced classes like the sorceress, barbarian, druid, and rogue, Activision Blizzard revealed the fifth playable class: Necromancer. “Fight with aggressive skeleton Warriors, fast-attacking Skirmishers, sword and board Defenders, or scythe-wielding Reapers,” the company said in a press release. “Unleash a litany of spells with Skeleton Mages, imbuing them wit...

A rocket belonging to the up-and-coming Astra space company failed to deliver two of NASA’s weather-tracking satellites to space after its second stage engine shut down prematurely. Both satellites were lost as a result of the failure. Astra’s Launch Vehicle 0010 (LV0010) successfully took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:43PM ET, but suffered an upper stage failure about 10 minutes into its flight. The launch was part of NASA’s mission to send six TROPICS satellites into space — these small, foot-long CubeSats are supposed to help NASA keep better track of developing tropical storms. CubeSats are low-cost satellites frequently built by researchers at colleges and universities. We had a nominal first stage flight. The upper stage shut down early and we did not del...

Three beloved JRPGs in the Persona franchise — Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal — are coming to Xbox and PC, Microsoft announced at its Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase 2022. The first will be Persona 5 Royal, which will be available on October 21st. Currently, that game is only available on PlayStation platforms, so the upcoming Xbox and PC release marks a notable expansion for the game. If you haven’t played it before, I cannot recommend the game enough — it absolutely oozes style, and by the end of the game, you’ll really feel like you connect with the many characters you meet. Person 3 Portable originally appeared on the PSP back in 2006. Persona 4 Golden was a port of Persona 4 that originally appeared on the PS Vita in 2012. They’ll be available in 2023, Microsof...

Microsoft showed off a bunch of games at its Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase 2022. Yes, we did get a significant look at Starfield, but there was a lot more than that — surprises included a launch date for Overwatch 2’s PVP mode and a launch window for Diablo IV. Here’s our coverage from the big event.

Xbox revealed a ton of exciting news at the Xbox & Bethesda Game Showcase, ranging from a longer look at Starfield to news about Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. For this event, Xbox only focused on games available to play within the next 12 months. So at least you won’t have to wait too long. In case you missed it, here’s a roundup of the biggest announcements and trailers. [embedded content] Hollow Knight: Silk Song, the highly-anticipated sequel to the popular Hollow Knight indie title, is set to launch on day one for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The trailer shows off the platformer’s beautiful artwork and gameplay, but there isn’t an official release date just yet. [embedded content] It’s official: Overwatch 2 will be free to play and early access is set to come on October 4th. The game w...

After an early glimpse of Starfield at Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda showcase last year and a delay to 2023, we’re now getting a much closer look at Bethesda’s first new IP in 25 years thanks to 15 minutes of gameplay. Starfield is, naturally, set in space where players will take on the role of a last group of explorers. Described as “Skyrim in space,” by game director Todd Howard, the RPG will be playable in both first- and third-person, but primarily it’s first-person. During the early stages of the gameplay, we arrive on the moon of Kreet, just one of more than 1,000 planets that players will be able to fly to and explore freely. Powered by Bethesda’s new Creation Engine 2, the first Starfield gameplay shows a player freely roaming around in both first- and third-person views, collect...

Team Xbox is holding its Xbox & Bethesda Game Showcase today. The 95-minute event will feature the latest on games from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and other third-party studios. Naturally, it will also include a lineup of games that are coming to Xbox, PC, and Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription. Microsoft is calling it the “biggest moment of 2022” for Xbox so far, so it’s one worth tuning in to. Here’s how you can watch it: WHEN DOES THE XBOX AND BETHESDA GAMES SHOWCASE BEGIN? It’ll start at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on Sunday, June 12th. HOW CAN I WATCH THE XBOX EVENT? You can watch it at Xbox’s Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and even TikTok pages. It’s also available on Steam, China’s Bilibli, and other media outlets. The show will be broadcast live in 1080p at 60fps, and a 4K / 6...