Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft has at least two new Far Cry experiences coming down the road. One will effectively be Far Cry 7, the next mainline game in the hit first-person shooter series. The other is a standalone multiplayer spin-off and likely the company’s latest attempt to create a live-service money-maker around one of its most successful franchises.
Insider Gaming reported on Thursday that the next single-player game in the Far Cry series is internally known as Project Blackbird and that the standalone multiplayer component is internally called Project Maverick. It also says that both were originally born of a single game that was previously under the supervision of Dan Hay, the franchise’s former overseer at Ubisoft Montreal. He left Ubisoft in 2021 and is now working at Blizzard on its unannounced survival game.
While Kotaku can’t corroborate the projects’ origins, it can confirm that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot referenced both of these games in an internal company update last week, according to sources present. Far Cry has often included both co-op and competitive multiplayer, but this would be the first time in the franchise’s history that online multiplayer was packaged into a standalone title. Kotaku can’t yet confirm exactly what it will include, or whether it will have overlap with the story campaign of Far Cry 7.
According to three current and former Ubisoft developers, however, the next mainline game in the series will be switching from its existing Dunia engine to Snowdrop, the engine used for The Division 2 and Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world Star Wars game. They considered this an improvement over the legacy engine, which originally grew out of the CryEngine belonging to Crytek, the studio behind 2004’s very first Far Cry.
Ubisoft has been trying to make a fully multiplayer Far Cry game for many years now, sources have told Kotaku. Those efforts were often either canceled or morphed into other projects, including the single-player-driven Far Cry games that were eventually released. It’s possible the current split is yet another compromise of that nature.
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But the appeal of a robust live-service Far Cry game for Ubisoft is clear. 2015’s Rainbow Six Siege continues to be a huge money maker for the publisher. Meanwhile, Far Cry 5’s arcade content creator never really took off, and Far Cry 6 lacked a competitive mode entirely. The series’ post-launch DLC has also fallen flat compared to the multi-year seasons in Assassin’s Creed.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Ubisoft told Kotaku,“We don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
Virtual reality headsets have changed quite a bit over the past decade, mostly getting more powerful and more expensive. HTC’s Vive XR Elite, like Meta’s recent Quest Pro and possibly Apple’s awaited device, asks the question: Are we truly ready for the rise of the $1,000-plus VR rigs?
Now playing: Watch this:
Super Small Vive XR Elite Doesn’t Quite Work For My Eyes
3:36
The $1,099 headset, available for preorder Thursday, is arriving by the end of February — remarkably soon for a CES product. That means it’ll be available alongside Sony’s PlayStation 5-connected PSVR 2. While less expensive than the Quest Pro, the XR Elite’s price costs about as much as buying a PS5 and a PSVR 2 together. It’s far from an impulse purchase. But the hardware, which shrinks down the VR form to a pair of nearly glasses-like goggles and includes mixed-reality capabilities that could allow for AR apps, looks to solve how we’ll be using the metaverse for more in our lives than just games, simulation and fitness.
Read more: The Wonders of CES 2023: 3D Laptops, Wireless TV and Shape-Shifting Screens
No other company has really cracked this challenge either. But this Vive headset looks, more than ever, like it’s a stepping stone to future AR glasses.
The XR Elite’s battery strap detaches, and glasses-like arms can be added on instead to reduce size further.
HTC
“We see where mixed reality is going to create a whole new suite of use cases. We know the virtual reality use cases are great. I think the AR side is amazing, too,” Dan O’Brien, HTC’s general manager of Vive, told me in a conversation at CES in Las Vegas. He acknowledged that HTC tried to make an AR device in 2015 but stopped because of the complications. O’Brien sees 5G and cloud computing as a key next step. “You need a 5G network, a really robust one to make AR go to scale — you need a cloud infrastructure to deliver to those types of wearables.”
The XR Elite is primarily a standalone VR headset, and it looks like an impressive piece of tech: It has a familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip much like the Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and Vive’s existing business-focused Focus 3. But it adds a higher-resolution 110-degree field of view, LCD displays with 2K resolution per eye that can run at 90Hz. There’s also a boosted 12GB of RAM along with 128GB of storage. It can connect to PCs to run SteamVR or HTC’s VivePort software, or connect with Android phones. But its potential as a bridge to AR experiences seems like the most impressive feature.
Those are just specs, though. The XR Elite is a VR headset with a similar proposition to previous models, but with expanded capabilities. Its compact size is the most surprising part: At 340 grams, it’s less than half the weight of the Quest Pro. The rear hot-swappable battery gives about two hours of life. It gets even smaller by unclipping the back battery strap and adding glasses arms that can turn the headset into a modified pair of VR glasses, which could just plug into an external USB-C charger or battery for power. It’s small enough to fit in a compact carrying case tube.
The XR Elite in its carrying case, which looks more portable than any other VR headset I’ve seen.
HTC
But that compact size comes with a twist: Instead of fitting on top of glasses, the XR Elite uses adjusting dials, or diopters, which can change the lens prescription on the fly without you needing to wear glasses at all — for some people, at least. The diopters only accommodate up to a -6 prescription, but my own vision is over -8 for nearsightedness. It’s a challenge HTC faced with its even smaller Vive Flow phone-connected VR goggles, which also went for the glasses-free approach.
The XR Elite has a dedicated depth sensor on the front, along with color passthrough cameras that can eventually show mixed reality-experiences, similar to the Quest Pro. The Quest Pro doesn’t have the Elite’s added depth sensor, but it accommodates for that with its onboard cameras.
A front camera (part of an array for movement tracking), and also a depth sensor for measuring spaces and layering AR.
HTC
The XR Elite could also adapt further. While the hardware doesn’t have its own eye-tracking tools onboard, eye- and face-tracking add-ons are coming later in the year. The headset’s controllers are the same standard ones that HTC has for the Vive Focus 3, which follow the same game controller-like playbook as the Meta Quest 2 and others. But HTC already has its own line of wearable VR body trackers and wristbands, and more accessories could follow.
O’Brien acknowledges that the sticky, mass-market appeal of VR and AR aren’t here yet. “I think developers will be using cloud computing, being able to actually get their content into the metaverse much faster, and much more efficiently,” he said. “If you think about the streaming business, these streamers, these TikTokkers, all these kids that create the really compelling, fun experiences that just keep drawing you back in? That’s not in the metaverse today, We need to create more opportunities for less sophisticated immersive content creators to get involved, and then create more [of an] economy.”
O’Brien sees cloud computing, driven by eye tracking’s ability to compress graphics data via a technology called foveated rendering, as a way of eventually shrinking the processors on future headsets, getting smaller and fitting on more people.
The headset doesn’t work with glasses: instead, it has prescription-adjusting diopter dials inside.
HTC
My concern is about the limited prescription options at the moment. “As we get to much lighter glasses, people will probably be bringing more of their prescriptions to it in the future,” says O’Brien. “For now, what we can do is just try to address the majority of the market as best we can with these types of setting changes, because we have to get the headsets lighter. We’ve got to get them more comfortable. And if you’re going to have these big eye relief areas inside of these headsets, they’re going to stay really big.”
O’Brien sees the included VR controllers as possibly becoming optional one day, even maybe being left out of the box and bought separately, but not yet. Hand tracking isn’t reliable enough. “Hand tracking has to make massive advancements over the next two to three years to really become much more of a natural input tool.” But O’Brien suggests it’s a way for future headsets to get more affordable. “If a user can just put on glasses and interact with content [with their hands], that’s going to be a much less expensive product.”
This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the other Best of CES 2023 award winners.
VR is getting better and better, but it’s also getting more expensive. HTC’s newest high-end headset announced at CES, the Vive XR Elite, follows a similar playbook to Meta’s recent Quest Pro, and possibly Apple’s awaited device as well. It raises a question: Are we truly ready for the rise of the $1,000-plus VR rigs? The standalone Vive XR Elite is sleek and looks a lot more compact than the Quest Pro, and is trying to test the higher-end waters.
Now playing: Watch this:
Super Small Vive XR Elite Doesn’t Quite Work For My Eyes
3:36
The $1,099 headset, available for preorder Thursday, is arriving by the end of February — remarkably soon for a CES product. That means it’ll be available alongside Sony’s PlayStation 5-connected PSVR 2. While less expensive than the Quest Pro, the XR Elite’s price costs about as much as buying a PS5 and a PSVR 2 together. It’s far from an impulse purchase. But the hardware, which shrinks down the VR form to a pair of nearly glasses-like goggles and includes mixed-reality capabilities that could allow for AR apps, looks to solve how we’ll be using the metaverse for more in our lives than just games, simulation and fitness.
Read more: The Wonders of CES 2023: 3D Laptops, Wireless TV and Shape-Shifting Screens
No other company has really cracked this challenge either. But this Vive headset looks, more than ever, like it’s a stepping stone to future AR glasses.
The XR Elite’s battery strap detaches, and glasses-like arms can be added on instead to reduce size further.
HTC
“We see where mixed reality is going to create a whole new suite of use cases. We know the virtual reality use cases are great. I think the AR side is amazing, too,” Dan O’Brien, HTC’s general manager of Vive, told me in a conversation at CES in Las Vegas. He acknowledged that HTC tried to make an AR device in 2015 but stopped because of the complications. O’Brien sees 5G and cloud computing as a key next step. “You need a 5G network, a really robust one to make AR go to scale — you need a cloud infrastructure to deliver to those types of wearables.”
The XR Elite is primarily a standalone VR headset, and it looks like an impressive piece of tech: It has a familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip much like the Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and Vive’s existing business-focused Focus 3. But it adds a higher-resolution 110-degree field of view, LCD displays with 2K resolution per eye that can run at 90Hz. There’s also a boosted 12GB of RAM along with 128GB of storage. It can connect to PCs to run SteamVR or HTC’s VivePort software, or connect with Android phones. But its potential as a bridge to AR experiences seems like the most impressive feature.
Those are just specs, though. The XR Elite is a VR headset with a similar proposition to previous models, but with expanded capabilities. Its compact size is the most surprising part: At 340 grams, it’s less than half the weight of the Quest Pro. The rear hot-swappable battery gives about two hours of life. It gets even smaller by unclipping the back battery strap and adding glasses arms that can turn the headset into a modified pair of VR glasses, which could just plug into an external USB-C charger or battery for power. It’s small enough to fit in a compact carrying case tube.
The XR Elite in its carrying case, which looks more portable than any other VR headset I’ve seen.
HTC
But that compact size comes with a twist: Instead of fitting on top of glasses, the XR Elite uses adjusting dials, or diopters, which can change the lens prescription on the fly without you needing to wear glasses at all — for some people, at least. The diopters only accommodate up to a -6 prescription, but my own vision is over -8 for nearsightedness. It’s a challenge HTC faced with its even smaller Vive Flow phone-connected VR goggles, which also went for the glasses-free approach.
The XR Elite has a dedicated depth sensor on the front, along with color passthrough cameras that can eventually show mixed reality-experiences, similar to the Quest Pro. The Quest Pro doesn’t have the Elite’s added depth sensor, but it accommodates for that with its onboard cameras.
A front camera (part of an array for movement tracking), and also a depth sensor for measuring spaces and layering AR.
HTC
The XR Elite could also adapt further. While the hardware doesn’t have its own eye-tracking tools onboard, eye- and face-tracking add-ons are coming later in the year. The headset’s controllers are the same standard ones that HTC has for the Vive Focus 3, which follow the same game controller-like playbook as the Meta Quest 2 and others. But HTC already has its own line of wearable VR body trackers and wristbands, and more accessories could follow.
O’Brien acknowledges that the sticky, mass-market appeal of VR and AR aren’t here yet. “I think developers will be using cloud computing, being able to actually get their content into the metaverse much faster, and much more efficiently,” he said. “If you think about the streaming business, these streamers, these TikTokkers, all these kids that create the really compelling, fun experiences that just keep drawing you back in? That’s not in the metaverse today, We need to create more opportunities for less sophisticated immersive content creators to get involved, and then create more [of an] economy.”
O’Brien sees cloud computing, driven by eye tracking’s ability to compress graphics data via a technology called foveated rendering, as a way of eventually shrinking the processors on future headsets, getting smaller and fitting on more people.
The headset doesn’t work with glasses: instead, it has prescription-adjusting diopter dials inside.
HTC
My concern is about the limited prescription options at the moment. “As we get to much lighter glasses, people will probably be bringing more of their prescriptions to it in the future,” says O’Brien. “For now, what we can do is just try to address the majority of the market as best we can with these types of setting changes, because we have to get the headsets lighter. We’ve got to get them more comfortable. And if you’re going to have these big eye relief areas inside of these headsets, they’re going to stay really big.”
O’Brien sees the included VR controllers as possibly becoming optional one day, even maybe being left out of the box and bought separately, but not yet. Hand tracking isn’t reliable enough. “Hand tracking has to make massive advancements over the next two to three years to really become much more of a natural input tool.” But O’Brien suggests it’s a way for future headsets to get more affordable. “If a user can just put on glasses and interact with content [with their hands], that’s going to be a much less expensive product.”
This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the other Best of CES 2023 award winners.
VR is getting better and better, but it’s also getting more expensive. HTC’s newest high-end headset announced at CES, the Vive XR Elite, follows a similar playbook to Meta’s recent Quest Pro, and possibly Apple’s awaited device as well. It raises a question: Are we truly ready for the rise of the $1,000-plus VR rigs? The standalone Vive XR Elite is sleek and looks a lot more compact than the Quest Pro, and is trying to test the higher-end waters.
Now playing: Watch this:
Super Small Vive XR Elite Doesn’t Quite Work For My Eyes
3:36
The $1,099 headset, available for preorder Thursday, is arriving by the end of February — remarkably soon for a CES product. That means it’ll be available alongside Sony’s PlayStation 5-connected PSVR 2. While less expensive than the Quest Pro, the XR Elite’s price costs about as much as buying a PS5 and a PSVR 2 together. It’s far from an impulse purchase. But the hardware, which shrinks down the VR form to a pair of nearly glasses-like goggles and includes mixed-reality capabilities that could allow for AR apps, looks to solve how we’ll be using the metaverse for more in our lives than just games, simulation and fitness.
Read more: The Wonders of CES 2023: 3D Laptops, Wireless TV and Shape-Shifting Screens
No other company has really cracked this challenge either. But this Vive headset looks, more than ever, like it’s a stepping stone to future AR glasses.
The XR Elite’s battery strap detaches, and glasses-like arms can be added on instead to reduce size further.
HTC
“We see where mixed reality is going to create a whole new suite of use cases. We know the virtual reality use cases are great. I think the AR side is amazing, too,” Dan O’Brien, HTC’s general manager of Vive, told me in a conversation at CES in Las Vegas. He acknowledged that HTC tried to make an AR device in 2015 but stopped because of the complications. O’Brien sees 5G and cloud computing as a key next step. “You need a 5G network, a really robust one to make AR go to scale — you need a cloud infrastructure to deliver to those types of wearables.”
The XR Elite is primarily a standalone VR headset, and it looks like an impressive piece of tech: It has a familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip much like the Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and Vive’s existing business-focused Focus 3. But it adds a higher-resolution 110-degree field of view, LCD displays with 2K resolution per eye that can run at 90Hz. There’s also a boosted 12GB of RAM along with 128GB of storage. It can connect to PCs to run SteamVR or HTC’s VivePort software, or connect with Android phones. But its potential as a bridge to AR experiences seems like the most impressive feature.
Those are just specs, though. The XR Elite is a VR headset with a similar proposition to previous models, but with expanded capabilities. Its compact size is the most surprising part: At 340 grams, it’s less than half the weight of the Quest Pro. The rear hot-swappable battery gives about two hours of life. It gets even smaller by unclipping the back battery strap and adding glasses arms that can turn the headset into a modified pair of VR glasses, which could just plug into an external USB-C charger or battery for power. It’s small enough to fit in a compact carrying case tube.
The XR Elite in its carrying case, which looks more portable than any other VR headset I’ve seen.
HTC
But that compact size comes with a twist: Instead of fitting on top of glasses, the XR Elite uses adjusting dials, or diopters, which can change the lens prescription on the fly without you needing to wear glasses at all — for some people, at least. The diopters only accommodate up to a -6 prescription, but my own vision is over -8 for nearsightedness. It’s a challenge HTC faced with its even smaller Vive Flow phone-connected VR goggles, which also went for the glasses-free approach.
The XR Elite has a dedicated depth sensor on the front, along with color passthrough cameras that can eventually show mixed reality-experiences, similar to the Quest Pro. The Quest Pro doesn’t have the Elite’s added depth sensor, but it accommodates for that with its onboard cameras.
A front camera (part of an array for movement tracking), and also a depth sensor for measuring spaces and layering AR.
HTC
The XR Elite could also adapt further. While the hardware doesn’t have its own eye-tracking tools onboard, eye- and face-tracking add-ons are coming later in the year. The headset’s controllers are the same standard ones that HTC has for the Vive Focus 3, which follow the same game controller-like playbook as the Meta Quest 2 and others. But HTC already has its own line of wearable VR body trackers and wristbands, and more accessories could follow.
O’Brien acknowledges that the sticky, mass-market appeal of VR and AR aren’t here yet. “I think developers will be using cloud computing, being able to actually get their content into the metaverse much faster, and much more efficiently,” he said. “If you think about the streaming business, these streamers, these TikTokkers, all these kids that create the really compelling, fun experiences that just keep drawing you back in? That’s not in the metaverse today, We need to create more opportunities for less sophisticated immersive content creators to get involved, and then create more [of an] economy.”
O’Brien sees cloud computing, driven by eye tracking’s ability to compress graphics data via a technology called foveated rendering, as a way of eventually shrinking the processors on future headsets, getting smaller and fitting on more people.
The headset doesn’t work with glasses: instead, it has prescription-adjusting diopter dials inside.
HTC
My concern is about the limited prescription options at the moment. “As we get to much lighter glasses, people will probably be bringing more of their prescriptions to it in the future,” says O’Brien. “For now, what we can do is just try to address the majority of the market as best we can with these types of setting changes, because we have to get the headsets lighter. We’ve got to get them more comfortable. And if you’re going to have these big eye relief areas inside of these headsets, they’re going to stay really big.”
O’Brien sees the included VR controllers as possibly becoming optional one day, even maybe being left out of the box and bought separately, but not yet. Hand tracking isn’t reliable enough. “Hand tracking has to make massive advancements over the next two to three years to really become much more of a natural input tool.” But O’Brien suggests it’s a way for future headsets to get more affordable. “If a user can just put on glasses and interact with content [with their hands], that’s going to be a much less expensive product.”
This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the other Best of CES 2023 award winners.
VR has suddenly gotten more expensive. It seems like the worst possible timing, but HTC’s newest high-end headset announced at CES, the Vive XR Elite, follows a similar playbook to Meta’s recent Quest Pro, and possibly Apple’s awaited device as well. It raises a question: Are we truly ready for the rise of the $1,000-plus VR rigs? The standalone Vive XR Elite is sleek and looks a lot more compact than the Quest Pro, and is trying to test the higher-end waters.
Now playing: Watch this:
Super Small Vive XR Elite Doesn’t Quite Work For My Eyes
3:36
The $1,099 headset, available for preorder Thursday, is arriving by the end of February — remarkably soon for a CES product. That means it’ll be available alongside Sony’s PlayStation 5-connected PSVR 2. While less expensive than the Quest Pro, the XR Elite’s price costs about as much as buying a PS5 and a PSVR 2 together. It’s far from an impulse purchase. But the hardware, which shrinks down the VR form to a pair of nearly glasses-like goggles and includes mixed-reality capabilities that could allow for AR apps, looks to solve how we’ll be using the metaverse for more in our lives than just games, simulation and fitness.
Read more: The Wonders of CES 2023: 3D Laptops, Wireless TV and Shape-Shifting Screens
No other company has really cracked this challenge either. But this Vive headset looks, more than ever, like it’s a stepping stone to future AR glasses.
The XR Elite’s battery strap detaches, and glasses-like arms can be added on instead to reduce size further.
HTC
“We see where mixed reality is going to create a whole new suite of use cases. We know the virtual reality use cases are great. I think the AR side is amazing, too,” Dan O’Brien, HTC’s general manager of Vive, told me in a conversation at CES in Las Vegas. He acknowledged that HTC tried to make an AR device in 2015 but stopped because of the complications. O’Brien sees 5G and cloud computing as a key next step. “You need a 5G network, a really robust one to make AR go to scale — you need a cloud infrastructure to deliver to those types of wearables.”
The XR Elite is primarily a standalone VR headset, and it looks like an impressive piece of tech: It has a familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip much like the Meta Quest 2, Quest Pro and Vive’s existing business-focused Focus 3. But it adds a higher-resolution 110-degree field of view, LCD displays with 2K resolution per eye that can run at 90Hz. There’s also a boosted 12GB of RAM along with 128GB of storage. It can connect to PCs to run SteamVR or HTC’s VivePort software, or connect with Android phones. But its potential as a bridge to AR experiences seems like the most impressive feature.
Those are just specs, though. The XR Elite is a VR headset with a similar proposition to previous models, but with expanded capabilities. Its compact size is the most surprising part: At 340 grams, it’s less than half the weight of the Quest Pro. The rear hot-swappable battery gives about two hours of life. It gets even smaller by unclipping the back battery strap and adding glasses arms that can turn the headset into a modified pair of VR glasses, which could just plug into an external USB-C charger or battery for power. It’s small enough to fit in a compact carrying case tube.
The XR Elite in its carrying case, which looks more portable than any other VR headset I’ve seen.
HTC
But that compact size comes with a twist: Instead of fitting on top of glasses, the XR Elite uses adjusting dials, or diopters, which can change the lens prescription on the fly without you needing to wear glasses at all — for some people, at least. The diopters only accommodate up to a -6 prescription, but my own vision is over -8 for nearsightedness. It’s a challenge HTC faced with its even smaller Vive Flow phone-connected VR goggles, which also went for the glasses-free approach.
The XR Elite has a dedicated depth sensor on the front, along with color passthrough cameras that can eventually show mixed reality-experiences, similar to the Quest Pro. The Quest Pro doesn’t have the Elite’s added depth sensor, but it accommodates for that with its onboard cameras.
A front camera (part of an array for movement tracking), and also a depth sensor for measuring spaces and layering AR.
HTC
The XR Elite could also adapt further. While the hardware doesn’t have its own eye-tracking tools onboard, eye- and face-tracking add-ons are coming later in the year. The headset’s controllers are the same standard ones that HTC has for the Vive Focus 3, which follow the same game controller-like playbook as the Meta Quest 2 and others. But HTC already has its own line of wearable VR body trackers and wristbands, and more accessories could follow.
O’Brien acknowledges that the sticky, mass-market appeal of VR and AR aren’t here yet. “I think developers will be using cloud computing, being able to actually get their content into the metaverse much faster, and much more efficiently,” he said. “If you think about the streaming business, these streamers, these TikTokkers, all these kids that create the really compelling, fun experiences that just keep drawing you back in? That’s not in the metaverse today, We need to create more opportunities for less sophisticated immersive content creators to get involved, and then create more [of an] economy.”
O’Brien sees cloud computing, driven by eye tracking’s ability to compress graphics data via a technology called foveated rendering, as a way of eventually shrinking the processors on future headsets, getting smaller and fitting on more people.
The headset doesn’t work with glasses: instead, it has prescription-adjusting diopter dials inside.
HTC
My concern is about the limited prescription options at the moment. “As we get to much lighter glasses, people will probably be bringing more of their prescriptions to it in the future,” says O’Brien. “For now, what we can do is just try to address the majority of the market as best we can with these types of setting changes, because we have to get the headsets lighter. We’ve got to get them more comfortable. And if you’re going to have these big eye relief areas inside of these headsets, they’re going to stay really big.”
O’Brien sees the included VR controllers as possibly becoming optional one day, even maybe being left out of the box and bought separately, but not yet. Hand tracking isn’t reliable enough. “Hand tracking has to make massive advancements over the next two to three years to really become much more of a natural input tool.” But O’Brien suggests it’s a way for future headsets to get more affordable. “If a user can just put on glasses and interact with content [with their hands], that’s going to be a much less expensive product.”
This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the other Best of CES 2023 award winners.
WhatsApp’s new app on Windows no longer requires you to link your phone to send, receive, and sync messages. An update on WhatsApp’s site reveals the refreshed Windows app is out of beta and available to download on the Microsoft Store.
Previously, users on Windows had to download WhatsApp’s web-based desktop app or access the messaging service from their web browsers. The new app is native to Windows, which, as WhatsApp explains, should make the app faster and more responsive.
The redesigned WhatsApp has a slightly cleaner interface when compared to the previous version of the app but otherwise doesn’t look all that different. The biggest change is that you no longer need to keep your phone online to sync messages between your phone and the desktop app. WhatsApp says it’s currently working on a native app for macOS as well.
Oh wow, the new version of WhatsApp is now out of beta. It’s a modern Windows app which replaces the old electron/web version. You can receive messages without the app being turned on, and you don’t need to be connected to a phone.
WhatsApp’s multi-device feature has been fully rolled out and is out of beta. This lets you link up to four devices to your WhatsApp account without needing your phone, all while maintaining end-to-end encryption.
In April, WABetaInfo found a screenshot from the beta version of WhatsApp on Android that indicates the platform may soon add multi-device support for tablets. Right now, WhatsApp only lets you link computers to your account, so adding support for tablets (or perhaps an additional phone) would only make sense.
Using linked devices does come with some limitations, however. For example, if you use an iPhone as your primary device, you can’t clear or delete chats. You also can’t send messages with link previews from WhatsApp web, message or call someone who’s using a “very old version” of WhatsApp, as well as view live locations.
Apple’s rumored mixed reality headset seems like the worst-kept secret in tech, and a new report about the device from The Information (its second this week) is chock full of details about the unannounced product’s turbulent development.
One of the most notable parts of the story is about Apple’s decision to go with a standalone headset. At one point, Apple hadn’t yet decided whether to move forward with a more powerful VR headset that would be paired with a base station or a standalone one. While Apple’s AR / VR leader Mike Rockwell apparently preferred the version with the base station — which included a processor that eventually shipped as the M1 Ultra, according to The Information — Apple executives chose to go with the standalone product. Bloomberg reported similar details in 2020.
That choice has apparently had long-term effects on the development of the headset. “By the time the decision was made, the device’s multiple chips had already been in development for several years, making it impossible to go back to the drawing board to create, say, a single chip to handle all the headset’s tasks,” The Information reported. “Other challenges, such as incorporating 14 cameras on the headset, have caused headaches for hardware and algorithm engineers.”
The report also includes details about Jony Ive’s continued consultation on the project’s design even after his official departure from Apple. Ive “prefers” a wearable battery, perhaps like what Magic Leap offers. But other prototypes have had the battery in the headset’s headband, and it’s unclear which will be used in the final design, The Information says.
Apple reportedly showed the headset to its board of directors last week, so it could be nearing a public reveal. That said, it may not be announced until later this year, and it might not hit store shelves until 2023, so we could be waiting a while to try it for ourselves. For further down the line, Apple is developing a pair of AR eyeglasses that look like Ray-Ban wayfarer glasses, but The Information says those are “still many years away from release.” (I’m curious how they’ll differ in style from Meta and Ray-Bans’ actual wayfarer-like glasses.)
F1 has returned to Melbourne two years after the grand prix was cancelled hours before practice was due to begin for the 2020 season opener following the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the paddock.
This year’s Australian Grand Prix is round three of the season, but has traditionally been the first race of the campaign. The season started with a Middle East double-header in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
But the standalone nature of the race means most team members only got a few days at home before travelling to Australia early in order to adjust to the time difference.
Russell felt there needed to be more consideration in the future about Australia’s placement on the calendar, suggesting it should be paired with a race in the Middle East to break up some of the travel.
“Having Melbourne in between races, especially as a standalone, is too tough for the teams and everybody,” Russell said.
“People came out on Saturdays and Sundays to get acclimatised to the conditions, to the timezone change, and it’s just too much. I think it needs to be thought about more.
“There’s no reason why we couldn’t have done a back-to-back with one of the Middle Eastern races. It feels like another double-header for all of the teams with the amount of time that they spend in this part of the world.
“As the season is getting longer and longer, we need to find a better balance.”
The last time Australia appeared on the calendar not as the season opener was in 2010, when it served as the second round of the season after Bahrain.
Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
The Malaysian Grand Prix took place one week after Melbourne, allowing those returning to Europe to break up the journey.
Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner said having Australia as a standalone race made it “very expensive” logistically for teams.
“To come here for one weekend, I think for everybody, it’s a massive time change, it’s expensive,” Horner said.
“From a calendar perspective, it would have been better to have another race that we moved onto from here.”
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Asked if it was something F1 had to try and resolve for future schedules, Horner said: “It’s very tough for them with the calendar, because you’ve got Easter next weekend for example.
“Fitting the right schedule of races in, there are always issues they are having to work around.
“It is tough for the teams, obviously coming all the way out here for a weekend.”
Valve could have a second VR headset in development with a standalone design similar to what’s currently offered by Facebook’s lineup of Oculus Quest headsets. Evidence for the new headset was brought to light by YouTuber Brad Lynch. He found multiple references in Valve’s SteamVR code to a device codenamed “Deckard” which he then cross-referenced against the company’s recent patent applications.
Ars Technica subsequently confirmed with its own sources that much of Lynch’s findings are accurate, and that Valve does have a second headset prototype in development. In contrast with the company’s first VR headset, the Valve Index, released in 2019, the new headset has a built in processor that could allow it to work without being tethered to a PC by a cable. Valve also reportedly has ambitions for it to be able to track movement without needing external base stations (aka “inside-out” tracking).
Ars’ claims broadly line up with the code references Lynch outlines in his video. These include use of the term “standalone” and a code string that suggests it might have some internal processing power, which could allow it to function independently from an external PC. There are also references that suggest the new headset might have some measure of wireless connectivity, potentially via Wi-Fi. Ars also reports that details about updated optics are also accurate, which could allow the headset’s lenses to be positioned closer to the user’s face for better comfort and performance.
Reports of a standalone headset are interesting in light of the announcement of Valve’s handheld Steam Deck console, which runs on a semi-custom AMD processor. A Valve FAQ has made it clear that the current console is “not optimized” for VR, but in an interview the company expressed an interest in one day using the processor in a standalone VR headset.
“We’re not ready to say anything about [using the AMD processor in a VR headset],” Valve’s Greg Coomer told The Verge in a recent Steam Deck interview, “but it would run well in that environment, with the TDP necessary… it’s very relevant to us and our future plans.”
Of course, Valve developing something internally is no guarantee it’ll ever see a commercial release. Ars points towards the company’s famous history of working on projects internally, only to kill them off. But the fact that the company has already released one VR headset, and is on the cusp of releasing its own standalone handheld console, has us hopeful that Deckard might one day make it to market.
Ghost of Tsushima’s Legends multiplayer mode is getting a bunch of new content in the weeks ahead, starting with a new 2v2 PvP mode called Rivals out September 3.
Darren Bridges of developer Sucker Punch outlined the studio’s redoubled plans for Legends in a new blog post. Rivals will be a free update for all current Legends players, and like the rest of the mode, it will support cross-play and cross-progression between PS4 and PS5.
Rivals was described as a 2v2 PvPvE mode where teams compete to slay waves of enemies to collect and deposit Magatama which can “harm the other team.” If that sounds a lot like Gambit from Destiny 2, that’s because it is a lot like Gambit from Destiny 2, at least at first blush.
“You can spend Magatama on Shades to block your opponents’ purchases, Curses (health drain, exploding bodies, etc), Hwacha fire, and more,” Bridges explained. “Once you’ve spent enough Magatama, you’ll unlock Final Stand waves. Complete these before the opposing team to win!”
Rivals will launch alongside a bigger update which will raise the gear level cap from 110 to 120. By binding a level 110 piece of gear to a class completing new mastery challenges, players can add a second perk slot to their gear and unlock new abilities and techniques for the bound classes.
Ahead of the September 3 drop, Sucker Punch will push out a more general update on August 20 alongside the Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut (you won’t need to actually purchase the Director’s Cut DLC to get the update). This will make “some changes based on feedback from the community,” Bridges says, like shortening Survival mode and adding weekly challenges to it, and adding more Legends cosmetics awarded from Jin’s story in the base game.
If you don’t already own Ghost of Tsushima, you’ll also be able to purchase Legends individually going forward. Legends will cost $19.99 / €19.99 / £15.99 on the PlayStation Store for PS4 and PS5, and apart from a few cosmetics tied to the main game’s campaign, Bridges says it’s got all “the same Legends content.” The studio will also offer an upgrade package for players who decide to get the main game after buying Legends, which will go for $40/€50 /£44 on PS4 and $50/€60/£54 on PS5.
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