By Tanvi Mehta and Blassy Boben NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Alphabet Inc's Google will start manufacturing smartphones in India and its

The Echo Pop is one of Amazon’s newest Alexa devices. With a flat speaker on

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES The tentative deal Hollywood writers reached with the major studios

Microsoft has completed its deal to buy Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard in the biggest deal in gaming history. The $68.7 billion acquisition means the Xbox maker now owns games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo, as well as the Call of Duty series. Microsoft first announced the deal at the start of 2022. Since then it has faced intense scrutiny from regulators around the world – but the final of those investigations, from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, closed earlier on Friday. The process has forced Microsoft to make public commitments that its games will still be available on other platforms, such as PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch. “As one team, we’ll learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people,” said Xbox boss Phil Spencer. “We’ll do this in a culture that strives to empower everyone to do their best work, where all people are welcome, and is centered on our ongoing commitment of Gaming for Everyone. “We are intentional about inclusion in everything we do at Xbox – from our team to the products we make and the stories we tell, to the way our players interact and engage as a wider gaming community.” Microsoft has said that the deal will bring Activision’s games alongside its first-party offerings, including adding its titles to Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service. “Together, we’ll create new worlds and stories, bring your favourite games to more places so more players can join in, and we’ll engage with and delight players in new, innovative ways in the places they love to play including mobile, cloud streaming and more,” Mr Spencer said in the announcement. Read More Microsoft gets go-ahead to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Google is about to ditch passwords forever EU to investigate X’s handling of disinformation over Hamas attack on Israel

Astronomers have discovered a ‘treasure trove’ after capturing an image of a barred spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away. The findings were made after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) gave a more in depth look at galaxy NGC 5068. The feature is found in the constellation of Virgo, and it’s thought that the discovery could lead scientists to discover more about barred spiral galaxies like our own. The observations are all part of a series of findings from the JWST, with the telescope having collected images of 19 galaxies to add to our understanding of star-birthing galaxies. The bars can be seen in the upper left-hand section of the image posted by NASA below and they’re made up of tightly clustered stars. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It’s thought that structures like these take as long as two billion years to form, which could mean they’re a lot older than other galaxies. “This image of the central, bright star-forming regions of the galaxy is part of a campaign to create an astronomical treasure trove, a repository of observations of star formation in nearby galaxies,” Webb astronomers said, via sci.news. “These observations are particularly valuable to us for two reasons. The first is because star formation underpins so many fields in astronomy, from the physics of the tenuous plasma that lies between stars to the evolution of entire galaxies.” “By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, we hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb.” It continued: “The second reason is that Webb’s observations build on other studies using telescopes including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories.” They went on to say: “With its ability to peer through the gas and dust enshrouding newborn stars, Webb is particularly well-suited to explore the processes governing star formation. “Stars and planetary systems are born amongst swirling clouds of gas and dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like Hubble or VLT.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed the new Meta Quest 3, just days ahead of the widely-expected launch of Apple’s own virtual reality headset. The new version of the Quest has higher resolution graphics, better performance and a slimmer and more comfortable design, Meta claimed. The new version of the headset will release later this year, Meta said, and much was left unannounced about the new headset, including the full details of the chip that will power it. Mr Zuckerberg suggested that more details about the new headset would be revealed at Meta’s “Connect” conference, on 27 September. While Meta and Mr Zuckerberg did not address the widespread rumours that Apple would launch its own headset, the reveal looks to have been scheduled to attempt to beat the reveal of that product. Apple will hold its Worldwide Developers Conference event on Monday, during which it is expected to release its own headset to the world. Like the new Meta Quest 3, Apple’s headset is expected to focus on graphics and a comfortable design, aimed at uses in both gaming and social features. Meta has long been looking to position virtual and augmented reality as the future for years, even renaming the company from Facebook to Meta in an attempt to shift focus onto its work in what it calls the metaverse. But it said that the new headset was the first that could allow for both “cutting-edge VR and MR experiences in a single device”, meaning that users can both inhabit entirely virtual worlds as well as put virtual objects into the real world. ““Ultimately, our vision is to enable you to move through all realities in a way that’s intuitive and delightful, going beyond the rigid classifications of ‘virtual reality’ and ‘mixed reality’ to deliver truly next-gen experiences that let you effortlessly blend the physical and virtual worlds,” said Mark Rankin, Meta’s vice president of virtual reality. “Meta Reality gives you both the deep, immersive magic of VR and the freedom and delight of making your physical world more fun and useful with MR. We’re excited to see what developers and creators can build on the Quest Platform when the possibilities are limitless.” The Meta Quest 3 will cost $499.99 USD for the 128GB option, with the option to pay for more storage space. The Meta Quest 2 will also receive a reduction in price, and it and the Quest Pro will receive software updates that Meta said should improve the performance of that headset. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro will stay in Meta’s line up, and will continue to get software updates, Meta said. “While Quest 3 sets a new standard for mixed reality, immersive gaming, and what a mainstream VR headset can be, Quest 2 remains our most affordable entry point to VR and Pro is optimized for work use cases, with face and eye tracking for more authentic self-expression in meetings,” it wrote in its announcement. Read More Meta Ireland to cut about 490 jobs AI chatbot taken down after it gives ‘harmful advice’ on eating disorders Famous torrent site RARBG shuts down with final parting message

Olivia Dunne elegantly adorned herself in a shimmery purple dress as her senior year at LSU drew to a close

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 29, 2023--

Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda has made its way into video games like Minecraft.

'From the perspective of gymnastics to mention her in the same breath as Simone Biles is ridiculous,' a fan said

Test monkeys at Elon Musk’s controversial biotech startup Neuralink died due to a number of complications from brain chip implant procedures, counter to the claims made by the multi-billionaire, a new report claimed. Nuralink has been developing chips to be implanted into the skull, claiming that such a computer-brain interface will help restore vision in the blind and paralysed people walk again. The company unveiled the working of its technology in monkey models in the past, including one demonstration of a nine-year-old macaque learning to play the 1970s classic video game Pong. However, the startup is also subjected to complaints by animal rights groups, including the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which criticised the company’s “inadequate care” of its research monkeys a number of times in the past. In a post on X, the Tesla titan said earlier this month that “no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant” in response to allegations that the neurotech firm was inflicting “extreme suffering” on its primate test subjects. “First our early implants, to minimise risk to healthy monkeys, we chose terminal monkeys (close to death already),” Mr Musk posted on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. In a presentation last year, the multibillionaire also claimed that Neuralink’s animal testing was never “exploratory” but was conducted to confirm scientific hypotheses. “We are extremely careful,” he said at the presentation. However, public documents obtained by PCRM – a nonprofit that advocates against using live animals in testing – present a different picture. The documents, reviewed by Wired, pointed out that a number of monkeys, on whom the implants were tested, were euthanised after suffering various complications, including “bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema”. One document reportedly noted that a male macaque was euthanised in March 2020 “after his cranial implant became loose” to the extent that they “could easily be lifted out”. A necropsy report of this monkey pointed out that “the failure of this implant can be considered purely mechanical and not exacerbated by infection”, which appeared to counter Mr Musk’s claim that no monkeys died due to Neuralink’s chips. Another primate, the report noted “began to press her head against the floor for no apparent reason” and lose coordination, with her condition deteriorating for months until she was finally euthanised. A necropsy report, cited by Wired, suggested that this animal was bleeding in her brain and that the neurotech firm’s implants left parts of her cerebral cortex brain region “focally tattered”. However, the company held that its “use of every animal was extensively planned and considered to balance scientific discovery with the ethical use of animals”. Neuralink did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment. The latest report also comes as Neuralink announced on Wednesday that it has started human trials for people with quadriplegia after testing its implants on pigs and monkeys. “We’re excited to announce that recruitment is open for our first-in-human clinical trial,” the company posted on X. “If you have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), you may qualify,” it said. Read More Elon Musk recruiting humans to trial brain implant Starship rocket launch window revealed by FAA Elon Musk reveals trillion dollar algorithm that explains everything he does Elon Musk’s Neuralink recruiting humans to trial brain implant Elon Musk and the one trillion-dollar algorithm that explains everything he does Elon Musk says monkeys implanted with Neuralink brain chips were ‘close to death’

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