Get a last look at Elden Ring before it launches
A new trailer for Elden Ring dropped on Saturday, 19 February 2022, finally shedding some light on what is actually going on in the game. Titled ‘Overview Trailer’, it shows off many of the systems in FromSoftware’s new action RPG. And you’ll learn how your character fits into the seemingly deep lore in Elden Ring. This new six-minute clip is your best chance to check out what you’re getting yourself into before the game launches this Friday, without spoiling anything.
Apart from the open-world environment, you’ll also see glimpses of some of the dungeons you’ll come across, including ones that look like they’ve been pulled straight from any of FromSoftware’s previous games. The trailer also shows off a little crafting, player customisation and even some co-op action.
First announced at E3 2019, Elden Ring has already won a few awards including Most Anticipated game in 2020 and 2021 at The Game Awards. That might have something to do with the fact that George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, co-created the world with visionary Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. Elden Ring launches this Friday, 25 February 2022 on PC, Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X.
Source: Engadget
South Africa gets its own Wordle – Wortel
You must have heard about Wordle by now. If you haven’t and have been able to keep your head in the sand successfully then maybe it’s time to go outside for a bit? Wordle, the five-letter word guessing game was bought recently by The New York Times for an undisclosed “low seven-figure” amount. Since it entered the zeitgeist at the beginning of the year there have been a large number of clone apps and sites, all trying to do the same thing. Which, let’s face it, isn’t terribly difficult. The open-source project React-Wordle makes that much easier.
Which is how software developer Francois Botha went about creating Wortel. Wortel is the Afrikaans version of Wordle and works, at least as far as the user is concerned, exactly like Wordle. Just in Afrikaans and not English. Speaking to MyBroadband, Botha said the hardest part of creating the Afrikaans version was building the word list. Well, both lists, as he says he needed two lists, one for accepted guesses and one for the chosen word of the day. If Afrikaans isn’t your first language and you need all the help you can get, Botha said “The target word won’t be plural or diminutive, and I avoided words with circumflex (ˆ) and diaeresis (¨), such as geëet.” Have fun and remember, don’t right-click > inspect element to look for the answer.
Apple could track your activity with new AirPods patent
A new patent from Apple, found by Apple Insider, aims to use sensors in AirPods to assist in measuring user activity to let you know if you’re doing those workouts correctly. Apple Fitness+, the company’s online exercise service, primarily uses your Apple Watch to track how well you’re doing the given exercises and whether you’re actually doing them at all. It does this by measuring your heart rate. But that might not get it right every time on its own.
Apple wants to include gyroscopic sensors or similar tech in future AirPods to help the Apple Watch interpret your workout data. Additionally, during your exercises, the extra data based on your poses and head movements could let you know if you’re on the right track and assist if not. “Feedback such as audible feedback may be provided to a user based on evaluation of user performance of the head movement routine,” the patent notes. AirPods already have some onboard motion sensors so it might be possible to enable the feature on older AirPods models but the patent does bring up other kinds of sensors, like echolocation sensors. So we might have to wait for new AirPods if this patent is approved.
Apple’s M2 chips could make their debut this year
It’s been over a year since Apple debuted its first ARM-based M1 chip, designed in-house. Since including it in Macs, Apple has reaped the rewards of the increased performance and power efficiency over Macs with Intel silicon. In his Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman says he expects Apple to launch the new M2 chip this year in updated models for the 13in MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, 24in iMac and a redesigned MacBook Air.
Apple is being as tight-lipped as usual about its new M2 chips but Gurman predicts a slight performance increase over the M1 chips. Additionally, there’s also the M1 Pro and Max chips Apple announced last year that it could stick in the Macs still running Intel silicon. Apple usually has its first event in March or April. Rumours suggest an 8 March date for this year’s first event. It’s not official yet but the chances are high that’s correct. Together with the new Macs, we’re expecting to see a new iPad Air, iPhone SE and iOS 15.4. The iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8 will probably only be seen towards the end of the year.
Source: The Verge