Author: Max Milella

Let’s get something out of the way right now. Yes, The Ascent is a cyberpunk game. No, it’s not Cyberpunk 207. Everyone clear? Good. The Ascent is a cyberpunk-themed, top-down, cover-based shooter created by fledgling studio Neon Giant, a twelve-person team of video game developer vets who’ve worked on titles like The Outer Worlds, Wolfenstein and Bulletstorm. So these peeps know their games, even if the point-of-view change is a little odd. What’s it all about? The Ascent is set on an arcology (that’s a portmanteau of architecture and ecology, and is essentially a massive vertically built city) on the…

Spotify launched its Clubhouse lookalike, Greenroom, back in mid-June, not so much thunderous applause as to a resounding, “Oh. Okay.” Now, over a month down the line, it’s been picked up by 240,000 people (or devices at least), paltry compared to its mainline audience and its biggest competitor (which was recently released in full, finally). Greenroom’s growing pains If you’re not caught up, Greenroom began as Locker Room, an audio-chat app developed by Betty Labs, and was specifically geared for talking about sports. Hence the name. Spotify acquired Betty Labs and transformed the app into what it is now: a…

Most people archive their WhatsApp chats to declutter their main feed, or possibly to ignore certain group chats. It’s not personal, it’s just for feng shui. That kind of comes undone whenever an archived chat gets a new message and it pops up on your main screen again. Well, WhatsApp’s fixing that issue, by rolling out a new settings update that will keep your archived chats buried for good. What goes in the WhatsApp archive stays in the archive Previously the archive feature was certainly useful for temporarily cleaning up your main chat tab, but was completely useless whenever a…

A large group of Activision Blizzard employees have planned a ‘Walkout for Equality’ today. The demonstration is in response to the recent California DFEH suit filed against the game developer in response to alleged rampant gender discrimination and an overhanging “frat boy” culture, as well as the following response from the company’s higher ups. Many workers feel that, “[their] values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.” Activision Blizzard’s activists According to an official statement on Blizzard Watch, the walkout is intended to “call on the executive leadership team” and makes several…

As much as Instagram has been working to bolster safety for its users of late, there’s no denying that it still has a ways to go in that arena, particularly when it comes to younger folks.  Unfortunately, many unwanted followers and DMs have found their way onto a minor’s account before. Instagram has countermeasures against this in place, it often falls on the user to enable them, and younger users might not think to or know how. In light of this, as of today, Instagram is making all accounts for users under 16 years old (and 18 in some places)…

While Android-centric smartphone makers are certainly looking at wireless charging options for their products, until now they hadn’t come up with anything like Apple’s MagSafe wireless magnetic charger. Realme, a self-proclaimed “emerging mobile phone brand”, has a new flagship on the way, and you’ll be able to charge it magnetically. Realme’s magnet magic The new flagship, dubbed the Realme Flash, was leaked by GSMArena and confirmed later by the company’s official Twitter account. It will hit shelves debuting the new MagDart wireless magnetic charger. https://twitter.com/realmeIndia/status/1419877707605635075 All of the specs on the MagDart are still mostly unknown, but here’s what’s been…

As much as smartphones have made much of our lives more efficient and streamlined to a nearly detrimental degree, switching between them can sometimes be more than slightly frustrating. As much as Android and Apple alike have a plethora of cloud backup and file transferring options, we’re willing to bet you’ve gone through the process of transferring all your data across two phones and found some things missing. WhatsApp has notoriously never had a super reliable way of transferring chats and chat history between Android and Apple phones. Now Android is testing out an official and reliable way to do…

In case you’ve been fortunate enough to miss this, the tech world is currently suffering a semiconductor shortage, which is affecting everything from high-end computers to cars. Adding to that gloomy-doomy overhang, Intel has now warned that it may have a shortage of CPU chips going into Q3 2021. Intel’s suffering CPU stockpile This news comes by way of Intel’s Q2 2021 Earnings Conference Call (transcribed in full by Seeking Alpha). On the call, chief financial officer George Davis brings up the matter. “We remain in a highly constrained environment where we are unable to fully supply customer demand. In…

As the Kaseya REvil ransomware saga continues, a report from CNN sheds some new light on the chaotic situation. According to several cybersecurity experts working with businesses and companies affected by the cyber attack, Kaseya is making its customers sign non-disclosure agreements before it hands over the decryption key it got its hands on last week.  This apparently isn’t an uncommon practice in the tech world, but it does make it harder to unpack exactly what happened when looking back on the event and its aftermath.  Kaseya’s keeping quiet In addition to organisations signing NDAs, many of Kaseya’s customers are…

Last month we speculated that Samsung would ship its new phones (to be announced on the 11th of August) sporting Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which is a bit of a staple when it comes to high-end smartphones these days. Well, we were right, but we missed a detail: Corning is making some brand-spanking-new glass just for camera lenses, and Samsung will be the first to get its hands on it. Corning’s camera-ready So, for those of you who don’t know, Corning technically doesn’t make glass-glass. Like the kind you’d use to make windows. Gorilla Glass is a “scratch-resistant and durable glass…