TOTK for Game of the Year, anyone?
2023 is officially 87% complete. You know what that means? Like some worse-looking Mariah Carey, Geoff Keighley has defrosted himself just in time for December to officially get The Game Awards underway. That’s only taking place on 7 December 2023.
First, Keighley had to announce what would be in the running. That took place last night, 13 November, when Keighley announced the contenders for that coveted Game of the Year award, alongside all the other awards.
As listed on The Game Awards website, this year’s nominees are Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, and Resident Evil 4.
It’s a tough crowd this year. Personally, we’re not so sure that Resident Evil 4 – a remake – is as deserving of the nod against something like… Final Fantasy 16 or Lies of P. But that’s just us. We’re only here to enjoy the ride and watch the tears flow down the faces of those on Twitter X.com that not one, but two Nintendo games managed to score a nom.
While the higher-ups at The Game Awards decide which games are in the running each year, winners are determined by actual voters. Voting is open to anyone with a pair of opposable thumbs and can create an account on The Game Awards website. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 are currently leading the pack, with eight nominations apiece, only slightly lower than God of War: Ragnarök last year which scored an insane nine nominations in total.
AI-enhanced Siri on the way
While being 87% of the way through 2023 means it’s time for Geoff Keighley to come out of hibernation, it also means that the world is still obsessed with AI. And rightfully so. In the last year, the industry has exploded, with Google, Amazon, Meta and even X.com scrambling to put out anything AI-related.
For Apple, that strategy is apparently reliant on adding a large language model (LLM) to Siri, its virtual assistant. And it might be ready as nearly as the first half of 2024, according to a new rumour from @Tech_Reve (via Android Authority).
It wouldn’t need to make under-the-table deals to put something like ChatGPT or Meta’s Llama 2 on there, either. In recent years, Apple’s become a self-sustainable beast, and is reportedly working on its own LLM, in-house. The goal, apparently, is to “revamp Siri into the ultimate virtual assistant,” that’ll see it become “Apple’s most powerful killer AI app.”
Specifically, Apple could show off the new tech at 2024’s WWDC, with an official rollout coming sometime in September alongside the launch of the iPhone 16. It’s worth taking the news with a pinch of salt – nothing official has come from Apple – and it’ll probably stay that way for a while.
PSA: Google is deleting old accounts. Soon
Chances are high that you’ve probably got a couple of Google accounts lying around – some that you use and some that only serve as a throwaway account where marketing and promotional emails go to die. If you’re particularly fond of your spam accounts, you might want to sign into them if it’s been a while. And soon.
Google first announced that it would be killing off accounts that had been inactive for more than two years back in May. Now it’s finally putting those plans into action this December. Previously, Google would clear out some data off those old accounts to keep things chugging along. According to the policy change at the time, it’ll now delete “content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos”.
Why? For your safety, of course. Google reckons that inactive accounts are most prone to successful attacks as they usually rely on old and outdated passwords that don’t have 2FA (two-factor authentication) enabled. The change is only being implemented for personal accounts and won’t affect your school or organisation’s business accounts.
Google has reportedly made good on its promise to warn users of their account’s deletion before it happens, by sending out multiple notifications “to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided)” before deleting the account.
Enter the Billionaire’s Gadgets collection
To some, they might not be pretty. But they’re expensive and sometimes that’s all that matters. Anyone looking to own this diamond-littered box that’s supposedly for “billionaires” will only set you back “a cool R5 million.” That’s still plenty of cheddar – made no cheaper by Golden Concept’s “individually crafted” boxes the things arrive in.
The standouts here are the still-functioning iPhone 15 Pro Max, AirPods Max, and Apple Watch featuring more than 5,514 diamonds weighing 106,16 carats (21.2 grams) that took 296 hours for these devices to look just right. However, with Apple’s annual iPhone release schedule, Golden Concept’s Billionaire’s Box will be irrelevant before the end of September 2024.
If you’re not too fussed by the irrelevancy but still need diamond-encrusted gear to make a statement, you can do so at the iStore in Canal Walk or Sandton City, or by visiting istore.co.za.