Monday, July 19, 2021

Engadget RSS Feed

Engadget RSS Feed

Zoom is buying a cloud call center company for $14.7 billion

Posted: 19 Jul 2021 03:19 AM PDT

After experiencing enormous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has made its first major acquisition by purchasing cloud contact center company Five9 for $14.7 billion, it announced. The move will allow Zoom to expand into call center technology worth up to $24 billion, diversifying its products once employees start returning to the office after the pandemic. 

Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom when the deal is closed, likely in the first half of 2022. "We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more... value to our customers," Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said in a statement.

Five9 is a 20-year-old firm with 2,000 customers worldwide, including SalesForce and Under Armour, and processes over 7 billion minutes of calls annually. Zoom notes that it was already a "long-term" customer of Five9 and said the partnership will give Five9's business clients access to Zoom products like the multi-platform Zoom Phone app.

The acquisition won't have much of an impact on consumers, as Five9 is largely a business-to-business company. However, Zoom's recent growth has been fueled in part by employees needing to work and communicate from home due to the pandemic. Once that crisis eases, Five9's contact center business will provide another revenue stream.

While most of its products are aimed at businesses, Zoom has also embraced the consumer side of things. Last year, the company released a new category of products called Zoom for Home, with both software and a line of hardware devices. While those products are aimed at employees working from home, they can also be used by consumers looking for a reliable video calling system. 

Tencent to buy British video game studio Sumo for $1.27 billion

Posted: 19 Jul 2021 02:14 AM PDT

In a busy year for gaming mergers, another deal has just been announced. Tencent is to fully acquire Sumo Group, the UK developer behind LittleBigPlanet 3 and Crackdown 3. The Chinese web giant is offering 513 pence per share for the studio, in which it already owns an 8.75 percent stake, valuing it at $1.26 billion (£990 million).

The acquisition brings another major developer into the Tencent fold. Already the world's biggest gaming company, Tencent owns League of Legends studio Riot Games, and has a financial stake in several publishers including Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bluehole, Paradox Interactive, Supercell, Grinding Gear Games and Yager, along with chat platform Discord. In February, the company acquired a minority position in DayZ developer Bohemia Interactive.

But, Tencent's dominance has triggered regulatory pushback at home and abroad. Earlier this month, Chinese authorities blocked its plan to merge its two game livestreaming sites, Douyu and Huya. Tencent is also negiotiating an agreement with a US national security panel that would allow it to retain its stakes in US companies Riot Games and Epic Games, according to multiple reports.

The Sumo acquisition hands Tencent a mix of AAA and indie content. Alongside LittleBigPlanet 3 and spinoff Sackboy, both published by Sony, Sumo was also behind Hitman 2. It also owns UK-based indie developer The Chinese Room (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture) and Red Kite Games, best known for ports of games like Two Point Hospital. In February, the studio purchased Poland's PixelAnt Games for £250,000.

"The business will benefit from Tencent's broad videogaming ecosystem, proven industry expertise and its strategic resources, which will help secure and further the aspirations and long-term success of Sumo," Ian Livingstone, non-executive chairman of Sumo, said in a statement.

Between Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax and EA's deal for Codemasters, 2021 is already turning out to be a blockbuster year for video game consolidation. Other hot deals include Epic Games acquisition of Fall Guys studio Mediatonic, Sony's purchase of Returnal developer Housmarque and Facebook's takeover of BigBox VR through its Oculus arm.

Nintendo denies it will squeeze more profit from its new OLED Switch

Posted: 19 Jul 2021 12:45 AM PDT

Nintendo has taken the unusual step of denying a report that it's making more profits from its new OLED Switch model. Last week, a report from Bloomberg citing industry analysts claimed that the new model only cost Nintendo about $10 more per unit to produce, while the $350 price is $50 more than the previous model. 

"A news report on July 15, 2021 (JST) claimed that the profit margin of the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) would increase compared to the Nintendo Switch. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to make clear that the claim is incorrect," the company said in a tweet. 

Nintendo doesn't often react to rumors, so it's notable that it has refuted this one. However, the report involves potential profits and Nintendo specifically mentions "investors," so it may have wanted to head this one off for fiduciary reasons. If Bloomberg's report was accurate, Nintendo would be making $40 more per Switch, a pretty notable boost. The OLED Switch replaces the LED display on the original Switch with a 7-inch 720p OLED screen and doubles the storage to 64GB, while adding an ethernet port and improved kickstand. 

Multiple reports also pointed to the possibility of Nintendo launching another console, the Switch Pro, with higher-end components and NVIDIA's DLSS technology. However, Nintendo also shot down that rumor. "We also want to clarify that we just announced that Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) will launch in October, 2021, and have no plans for launching any other model at this time," Nintendo added in a follow-up tweet. 

Grimes, Will.i.am and Alanis Morrissette will judge an avatar singing TV show

Posted: 18 Jul 2021 02:26 PM PDT

Are you more comfortable singing behind a virtual persona than you are on a real stage? Your reality TV show has arrived. Pitchfork and AV Club report that Fox is launching a "world's first" avatar singing competition series, Alter Ego, that will have celebrity judges gather in real life to gauge the performances of amateur singers who use avatars to "reinvent themselves."

You'll likely recognize the judge panel. Canadian artists Grimes (pictured above) and Alanis Morrissette will join Will.i.am and Nick Lachey in critiquing the music, while Emmy winner Rocsi Diaz will host the affair. Alter Ego debuts sometime in the fall.

It's an unusual concept, but not necessarily a bad one. In theory, this could help budding talent overcome stage fright or self-esteem issues by using an avatar as a stand-in. It's certainly a fitting show for a tech-savvy artist like Grimes. It's just a question of whether or not audiences enjoy the concept. Anonymizing music shows like The Masked Singer have been hits, but they still involve a physical presence for the participants — there's a chance viewers might not be so thrilled about digital concerts.

Ubisoft sued in France over alleged 'institutional harassment'

Posted: 18 Jul 2021 01:59 PM PDT

Ubisoft is facing new legal action over alleged sexual harassment throughout the company. Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun report that French workers union Solidaires Informatiques and two former Ubisoft staffers have sued the game developer for allegedly enabling a culture of "institutional sexual harassment." It was supposedly easier for Ubisoft to tolerate misconduct than to address problems, according to the union.

The lawsuit targets several existing and former Ubisoft workers, including former managers Cecile Cornet (head of human resources), Tommy Francois (editorial VP) and Serge Hascoët (global creative director). Company chief Yves Guillemot is also under scrutiny not for direct involvement, but because he's inherently "responsible" for what happens at Ubisoft.

Ubisoft told Kotaku it had "no further details to share" in response to the claim against the gaming giant. It previously said that it had investigated all claims and taken an appropriate response.

There were already complaints that Ubisoft hadn't fully tackled allegations like these. Bloomberg sources said that accused managers remained in senior positions, and that staff were reporting sexist and racist activity that went unaddressed.

There's no certainty the lawsuit will succeed, let alone force institutional changes at Ubisoft. However, it's evident the company's initial efforts weren't enough to satisfy employees. If the allegations are accurate, Ubi might need to take more drastic steps if it's going to prevent misconduct and the ensuing fallout.

Soft robot plays piano thanks to 'air-powered' memory

Posted: 18 Jul 2021 01:01 PM PDT

Soft robots still tend to rely on hard electronics to function, but a new invention might reduce that need for unyielding chips. UC Riverside researchers have developed pneumatic computer memory that they used to help a soft robot play the piano.

Instead of conventional transistors and electric circuits, the "air-powered" memory relies on microfluidic valves that control airflow. Atmospheric pressure in a given valve represents a binary "0," while a vacuum indicates a "1." The researchers' memory has a complex-enough array of these valves to function like an 8-bit RAM chip — not exactly powerful, but good enough that a pair of soft robot hands can play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" at a slow but steady pace.

The absence of positive pressure makes this particularly safe — there's no danger of the memory exploding in mid-use.

The technology is far from ready for everyday use. Besides needed improvements to complexity and speed, a robot would need soft versions of processors and other components to completely eliminate the need for rigid electronics. The goal is clear, however. Pneumatic memory could at least reduce the need for chips in soft robots, and points to a future of completely flexible robotics that shouldn't hurt you if there's a collision.

NSO spyware was allegedly used to target activists and journalists

Posted: 18 Jul 2021 12:02 PM PDT

Critics have previously claimed that NSO Group spyware was misued to target the media and other innocent people, but new findings might have revealed the extent of that misuse. The Washington Post has shared a multi-partner investigation claiming that NSO's Pegasus software was used to successfully hack 37 phones, including journalists, activists and the two women closest to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The victims were on a 2016-era list of 50,000 phone numbers from countries believed to conduct both extensive surveillance and use of NSO tools, such as Hungary and Saudi Arabia. The list included 1,000 people who didn't obviously fit the software's intended criminal targets, including over 600 politicians, 189 journalists, 85 humans rights activists and 65 business executives.

Roughly a dozen Americans working overseas were on the list, but the investigation partners couldn't conduct forensic studies on most of their phones or find evidence of successful hacks. NSO previously said Pegasus couldn't be used to snoop on American devices.

NSO flatly denied the claims stemming from the investigation. It maintained that the information had "no factual basis," and rejected the notion that Pegasus was used to target Khashoggi or his associates. It maintained that it shut down access "multiple times" over past abuses, and that the list was too large to be focused solely on numbers its client countries would have targeted. The company went so far as to hire a libel attorney, Thomas Clare, that accused the investigation partners of having "misinterpreted and mischaracterized" data while making "speculative and baseless assumptions."

NSO has historically pinned abuse claims on the countries themselves, and has said it reviewed the human rights records of a given nation before doing business.

The report comes a year and a half after Facebook sued NSO for allegedly enabling call exploit attacks against WhatsApp, and mere months after Citizen Lab claimed that NSO software was used to hack Al Jazeera journalists' iPhones using an iMessage flaw. However true the accusations might be, they'll at least affect NSO's reputation — they cast doubt on the company's assertion that it only serves customers pursuing obvious targets like terrorists.

More leaks suggest the next iPhone might have an always-on display

Posted: 18 Jul 2021 09:45 AM PDT

Add another major voice to the chorus of those claiming the next iPhone could have an always-on display. As 9to5Macnotes, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman used his weekly "Power On" newsletter to say the 2021 iPhone will potentially have an "Apple Watch-like" always-on display with better battery life in addition to a 120Hz refresh rate, a smaller screen notch, an A15 chip and video recording upgrades.

Gurman didn't outline the always-on screen functionality. However, a past leak from Max Weinbach suggested Apple would use an LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) panel that, like on the Apple Watch and a few Android phones, could drop to extremely low refresh rates to offer persistent information without a large hit to battery life. You might see some notifications, battery life and the clock without having to wake up your phone.

The writer also used his newsletter to narrow the time frame for a long-rumored MacBook Pro redesign. He now expects Apple to start mass production of the mini LED-equipped laptops in the third quarter of 2021 (aka this summer) with a launch between September and November. That's still somewhat vague, but it does suggest you won't have to wait until next year (or watch for a surprise early announcement).

The new MacBook Pros are rumored to have a 'flat' design like the new iMac (minus the colors) while using a more powerful take on Apple's M1 chip that could support up to 64GB of RAM and more ports. Mini LEDs could deliver a screen that offers high contrast ratios and brightness while keeping battery life in check.

Facebook rejects Biden claim it's 'killing people' with COVID-19 misinformation

Posted: 18 Jul 2021 08:43 AM PDT

Facebook isn't exactly enthusiastic about President Biden's claim that it and other social networks are "killing people" by allowing COVID-19 misinformation to spread. The social media firm posted a refutation of the allegations, using data to suggest that something other than Facebook was responsible for a slowdown in vaccination rates and a rise in cases.

The company noted that vaccine acceptance in user polling had risen from 70 percent in January 2021 to as high as 85 percent in July, and that cultural group disparities had declined "considerably" over the same period. This was ahead of Biden's goal of getting 70 percent of Americans vaccinated by July — to Facebook, this was a sign the company was "not the reason" the US fell short of that target.

Facebook added that Canada and the UK had higher vaccination percentages despite using the social network about as much as their American counterparts. There's "more than Facebook" to the US results, the company said. It also pointed to its efforts to both promote accurate claims and fight falsehoods, including the use of misinformation labels, reduced exposure and takedowns. 

The internet giant didn't attempt to find an alternate explanation for US troubles. Some observers have pointed to a possible link between political affiliation and vaccination rates, but Facebook didn't even hint at this in its refutal.

It's not a flawless argument. Facebook is trying to draw a link between its polling data and the entire US, which doesn't make for a neat and tidy comparison. The company also hasn't shared estimates of how much COVID-19 misinformation slips through the cracks. The social site has a strong incentive to downplay its possible contribution to the problem given past complaints that it hasn't done enough to stop misinformation campaigns. 

At the same time, the data shifts the attention back to the Biden administration — it may need to provide more substantial data if it's going to show that health misinformation on social networks like Facebook is a major threat, as the US Surgeon General recently said. If nothing else, it suggests the answer is a complicated one regardless of how much Facebook is responsible.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)