Earlier this week, we heard that Microsoft was due to make some announcements about its PC gaming store. Now, we know what changes are coming, as Microsoft is reducing its revenue cut for PC games sold through its store from 30 percent to 12 percent.
This is the same strategy that Epic Games employed when it first launched its store two years ago. From this point forward, developers bringing their games to the Microsoft Store will get a bigger share of the revenue compared to a platform like Steam, which still takes a 30 percent revenue cut for most titles.
Speaking on the change, Xbox Game Studios head, Matt Booty, said: “Game developers are at the heart of bringing great games to our players, and we want them to find success on our platforms. A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so.”
As pointed out by The Verge, the timing here is very interesting. This week, a survey of 3,000 game industry professionals revealed that the majority of developers don’t believe Steam does enough to justify its 30 percent revenue cut. With Microsoft and Epic Games now both offering a larger revenue share to developers, it puts more pressure on Valve to reduce its own cut in order to stay competitive.
Now the next issue for Microsoft is tackling the store itself. While the Xbox Game Pass (beta) app has an improved layout, the proper Microsoft Store app is still a mess. Soon, developers will be able to upload Win32 apps to the store, removing the need for UWP applications. Other overhauls to the store are also on the way, including a completely new store layout, improved install reliability and faster download speeds. All of these changes will be in place in the coming months.
“We know that we still have a lot of work to do, but based on the response from both PC gamers and PC game developers, we think that we’re headed in the right direction for this community with the investments we’re making”.
These changes to the Microsoft Store on PC will be in place starting from the 1st of August, at which point the new Store app should also be available.
KitGuru Says: With Epic Games and Microsoft now offering larger revenue cuts for developers on their PC stores, do you think Valve will adjust its business model at all to keep Steam competitive?
Home/Software & Gaming/Fortnite is not on Xbox Cloud Gaming due to competition with Epic PC offerings
Matthew Wilson 16 hours ago Software & Gaming
With the Epic Games V Apple trial set to get underway in just a matter of days, court documents are starting to reveal some interesting facts about both companies. One court document reveals that Epic Games is keeping Fortnite off of Microsoft’s xCloud streaming service, as Epic views it as a competitor to its own PC offerings.
The document, which was uncovered by The Verge, goes over deposition questions directed towards Epic Games VP of business development, Joe Kreiner. When asked about why Fortnite isn’t on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Streaming service, Kreiner said: “we viewed Microsoft’s efforts with xCloud to be competitive with our PC offerings”.
As a result, Fortnite isn’t available to stream on Microsoft’s service, although it is available elsewhere, including Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service.
On GeForce Now, all revenue made through microtransactions and in-game subscriptions goes straight to Epic Games, while on the Xbox, Epic has to use the Xbox Store for in-game transactions. However, Kreiner does admit that Epic Games hasn’t negotiated this with Microsoft.
This line of questioning is all part of the lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple. Epic’s case against Apple is centred around iOS App Store policies, which prohibit rival app stores and payment processing methods from being used. Due to this, Fortnite was removed from the iOS platform last year.
KitGuru Says: We’re going to get some interesting looks behind the scenes of mobile, PC and console businesses during this case. The Epic V Apple trial is set to begin next week.
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Apple has added a new App Store search suggestions feature in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK, that might make it easier to find apps. Now, after typing in a search term, the App Store will attempt to predict what you’re looking for and offer suggested words that, when tapped, will further narrow down your search results and speed up your hunt for specific kinds of apps.
Search suggestions actually appeared on some iPhones earlier in April as part of a test, according to MacRumors, but now the feature should be rolling out to all iPhones in the supported regions.
Introducing search suggestions on the App Store!
Select (or deselect) multiple suggestions to refine your search so you can find even more amazing apps and games.
Search suggestions roll out today starting with the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia. pic.twitter.com/viaZHlCZMb
— App Store (@AppStore) April 29, 2021
Using search suggestions is pretty simple. Let’s say I’m looking for an app to help me make some pizza from scratch: I can type “pizza” in the App Store’s search field and see additional words pop up like “maker,” “game,” “call,” “calculator,” or “order.” Selecting one of those suggestions filters the results further, so choosing calculator will pull up apps for calculating the correct ratio ingredients for pizza dough (surprisingly there’s a lot of those).
Hunting for “pizza calculators” using the new App Store search suggestions.
Currently, not every search allows you to select multiple suggestions. I was able to refine Apple’s example of “food” with “delivery” and “Indian,” but my other sample searches only gave me one filter each. Not every search brings up a suggested filter, either. We’ve reached out to Apple for clarification on when suggestions appear.
What does consistently show up in search are ads, which Apple originally added to App Store search in 2016. It’s easy to see how my plan to make pizza from scratch could get derailed by a big Uber Eats or Papa John’s ad above my helpful dough calculator app. Ordering delivery is so much easier than doing math.
Those ads are likely to inflame Apple’s App Store critics further — they’ll no doubt argue that an indie developer trying to make it easier to figure out the ratios of water to flour in pizza shouldn’t have to compete with Uber’s ad budget, the same way they think competing apps shouldn’t be buying ads in front of one another’s products while Apple profits from the result. But every change to a search engine has winners and losers, and it’s not yet clear whether this one will make it easier or harder for small developers to get more exposure. They could wind up being helpful for everyone who uses the App Store.
After months of preparation, Epic Games will finally take on Apple in court in a trial that could fundamentally change the makeup of the App Store. The fight dates back to August, when Epic added a direct payment mechanism to its hit battle royale game Fortnite in violation of Apple’s rules. The iPhone maker quickly removed the game from the App Store, and Epic responded shortly after with an antitrust lawsuit aiming to establish the App Store as a monopoly. The case will finally be brought to trial starting May 3rd.
The trial promises to deliver huge revelations about the inner workings of one of the biggest and most influential companies in the world, with testimony from Apple CEO Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, and more. We’ve already made some fascinating discoveries from documents published ahead of the trial, and there’s sure to be a lot more news ahead.
I wish I’d had this to test with Samsung’s Odyssey G9
Microsoft has something of a history of neglecting PC gaming, but it’s trying to change that in a big way — by promising its flagship HaloInfinite will feel like a native PC game when it arrives later this year. We’ve known for many months that it wouldn’t be the Xbox Series X’s killer app, but Microsoft’s trying to make PC gamers feel like first-class citizens too, with features as forward-looking as support for 32:9 super-ultrawide monitors like the Samsung Odyssey G9 I reviewed late last year.
This morning, we learned the game would support ultrawide monitors, in addition to triple-keybinds, advanced graphics options, and both crossplay and cross-progression between Xbox and Windows PCs. But this evening, the Halo Waypoint blog went way deeper, revealing what Infinite will look like at 32:9 and an array of other PC-gamer-friendly details like being able to adjust your field of view up to 120 degrees — and the ability to host your own LAN multiplayer server!
In my Samsung Odyssey G9 review, I bemoaned how even the games that do support 32:9 typically look abnormally, wildly stretched out on each side, providing over a dozen examples of how they don’t properly adjust the shape and curvature of the window they’re opening into the 3D game world. But Halo Infinite PC development lead Mike Romero says the game’s designed to support arbitrary window sizes, and can fit its HUD, menus, and even in-game cutscenes into the wider aspect ratios.
“There’s dozens of people across the studio that have had to put dedicated effort into supporting something like ultrawide throughout the entirety of the game, and I’m very excited to say I think we’ll have some of the best ultrawide support I’ve ever seen in a game,” boasts Romero.
Looking at these Halo Infinite images at 32:9, it’s not immediately clear to me that Microsoft has solved the 32:9 issue — looking at the hill on the right of this image below, for instance, it seems like the game world still might appear a little bit skewed and warped.
But it is clear that you’ll see a lot more of the game world at once this way, if you’re one of the few who’ve ascended to an ultrawide monitor — and have a PC powerful enough to drive it, of course.
Here’s a short list of all the PC-esque perks Microsoft is promising:
LAN play, hosting a local multiplayer server on PC that you can join from both PC and Xbox
Crossplay, restricting ranked matches to input type rather than console vs. PC, with server-side anti-cheat
Adjustable FOV (up to 120 degrees) on both PC and console
Mouse and keyboard support on both PC and console
Triple keyboard and mouse bindings
Visual quality settings up to ultra presets on PC, with individual settings for texture quality, depth of field, anti-aliasing etc.
High refresh rate options
21:9, 32:9 “and beyond” ultrawide monitor support on PC
Minimum and maximum framerate settings on PC
Fixed and dynamic resolution scaling options on PC
Optional borderless fullscreen on PC
FPS and ping overlay on PC
Out-of-game multiplayer invites let you join games through Xbox Live, Discord and Steam
As my colleague Tom Warren notes, there’s still more to learn, like whether the game will support GPU-dependent features on PC like Nvidia’s framerate-enhancing DLSS, ray tracing, and more.
Scammers are hacking into the accounts of Target gig workers and draining their bank accounts, Motherboard reports. Since March 28th, more than 30 employees who work for Shipt, Target’s delivery app, have posted on Facebook about being attacked. The company employs about 300,000 contract shoppers in the United States.
In some cases, the scammers are spoofing Shipt’s phone number and pretending to be corporate employees. They say they’ve noticed unusual activity on the worker’s account and ask for the person’s password. Once they get in, they transfer the worker’s earnings to themselves.
The scam is made possible in part by an “instant payout” feature Shipt rolled out earlier this year. The feature allows workers to cash out their earnings within the hour. But it also enables scammers to instantly get access to workers’ funds. Previously, workers only had access to their earnings once a week.
The scammers appear to know workers’ names and phone numbers, making some people nervous that their information leaked in a data breach. Motherboard found evidence that some workers’ information was exposed in data breaches at other companies — but not at Shipt.
A representative from Shipt’s trust and safety team left a voicemail for a worker who’d complained about phishing attacks. “I just wanted to let you know about this issue that it’s something we’ve been looking into and something that we’ve been reviewing a lot of recently,” the representative said, according to a recording obtained by Motherboard.
Some workers received emails asking them to reset their passwords prior to getting the scam call. According to Motherboard, the emails were likely an attempt to trick workers into thinking there was suspicious activity on their account. Other shoppers had two-factor authentication set up but were deceived into reading the codes to scammers who called them on the phone.
In a statement emailed to The Verge, Danielle Schumann, a Shipt spokesperson, said the company knows about the attacks but does not believe they have impacted a large number of Shipt workers. “We’re aware of the prevalence of scams like these that are often the result of phishing or an account takeover,” Schumann said. “A very small number of shopper accounts have recently experienced this kind of activity.”
The company also said it has reimbursed shoppers for the full amount lost, and taken several steps to educate people on how to secure their accounts, including proactively emailing all shoppers.
Six workers told Motherboard that they did not see the email containing security information since the company sends so many updates.
Shipt workers have been talking about the attacks in private Facebook groups. Some have described what happened to them in detail. But others appear to have been censored when they tried to get information on the attacks. In one instance, the company seemingly blocked a contractor from asking colleagues about phishing schemes. “Curious has anyone experienced a phishing scam on Shipt?” the worker wrote. Moderators for the group did not approve the post.
Shipt has a history of allegedly censoring contractors who speak out about working conditions on the platform. According to Motherboard, the company has retaliated against workers who complained about app changes and pay on social media.
Spotify has launched its paid podcast subscription service. This lets podcasters who host their shows on Spotify’s Anchor platform to charge listeners for their podcasts. As rumoured, podcasters can choose to offer subscriber-only extras such as bonus content and no adverts.
Spotify has opened a waiting list that podcasters can join. Once their turn comes, they should be able to offer subscriptions.
For the first two years, Spotify won’t take a cut of podcasters’ earnings, but creators will have to cover the cost of transaction fees through Spotify’s payment partner Stripe. From 2023, Spotify will take five per cent of creators’ subscription revenue, which is less than Apple will take with its forthcoming podcast subscription service.
Spotify’s service is currently only available in the US, but will come to other countries “in the coming months”. It launched with 12 independent podcasts, including Tiny Leaps, Big Changes and Mindful in Minutes, offering subscriber-only content.
Broadcaster NPR will also offer subscribers ad-free versions of certain shows from 4th May. These include How I Built This with Guy Raz, Short Wave, It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, Code Switch, and Planet Money, with more following in the coming weeks.
These NPR shows will be tagged as ‘Plus’ – for example, Planet Money Plus.
Spotify claims the new service will help podcasters grow their audiences.
“By enabling wide distribution of subscriber-only content, our aim is to help podcasters maximise their subscription audiences and grow them from their existing listener bases,” it said in a blog post. “Within Spotify, this content will be searchable and discoverable like any other podcast episode.”
Paid-for shows will show up with a lock on the Play button. Because subscribers pay through Spotify’s Anchor platform, Spotify won’t have to pay Apple any cut of in-app purchases.
Anyone hosting podcasts elsewhere will also soon be able to integrate them into Spotify, though it’s not clear exactly how this will work.
Apple announced last week that it was launching its own podcast subscription service next month. As well as setting the price, podcasters on Apple’s platform can decide what extras (if any) you get for paying – examples include bonus content, early access, and ad-free shows. Free trials and sample episodes are also options.
With the news that Spotify raised its UK prices this week, hopefully, this service will be worth paying that little bit extra for.
Lime’s bright green electric mopeds are coming to New York City. The company that’s better known for its electric kick scooters will initially roll out 100 mopeds in Queens, Brooklyn, and Lower Manhattan.
It’s the second US market for Lime’s mopeds, after first launching them in Washington, DC. (The company is also operating a fleet in Paris.) Lime was also recently approved to deploy 1,000 electric scooters in the Bronx as part of New York City’s inaugural shared scooter pilot.
The mopeds are manufactured by NIU, a Chinese company that also supplies mopeds to New York City-based mobility company Revel. NIU’s mopeds typically get between 25–100 miles of range. Lime’s mopeds will be speed limited to 28 mph and can be controlled and monitored via wireless connectivity.
The mopeds are intended to lend credibility to Lime’s claims of being more than just another scooter company. The company sees itself as a “platform” for different types of low-speed, electric-powered mobility. Last year, Lime added pedal-less e-bikes from Wheels to its app in several cities as part of a new effort to integrate third-party micromobility providers.
Mopeds are arguably a faster way to get around, but they can also be more dangerous, especially for novice riders. Lime says that riders will be required to take a multi-chapter rider safety course that is provided through the app, developed in partnership with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. Customers will be required to have a driver’s license in order to ride. And they’ll also have to take a selfie of themselves wearing one of the provided helmets.
The news comes a day after Revel, New York’s other moped operator, announced that it would begin offering a Tesla-only ride-hailing service in Manhattan.
G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is ready for almost any condition or abuse and comes with secure, always-on 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption.
For
+ Competitive 10 Gbps performance
+ AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption
+ Rugged design
+ 5-year warranty
Against
– Single 2TB capacity
– Bulky size
– Costly
Features and Specifications
By leveraging your phone’s biometrics, such as touch or FaceID, G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD makes passwords a thing of the past in an attempt to remove the most common inconvenience when it comes to data security — entering a password. The ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is a secure portable storage solution with fast, consistent performance of up to 1 GBps of sequential read/write throughput that keeps your data safe with always-on 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption. Plus, it carries robust abuse ratings that ensure it will maintain reliability in the toughest conditions, perfect for those adventurous types.
Data security is becoming more important for a large swath of users, from creators in the media and entertainment industry to professionals in finance, government, healthcare, IT enterprise, and legal fields. Password protection backed by AES 256-bit encryption is the norm for those who need to ensure the data they have remains locked down and secure. Ranging from a simple password manager launching within the host OS to alphanumeric keypads with PIN protection and even fingerprint scanners, we have seen quite a few ways of unlocking password-protected storage devices over the years. Unlocking your secure storage with only a phone app seems convenient; let’s put it to the test.
Specifications
Product
ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD 2TB
Pricing
$499.99
Capacity (User / Raw)
Interface / Protocol
USB-C / USB 3.2 Gen 2
Included
USB Type-C & USB Type-C to USB Type-A
Sequential Read
1,000 MBps
Sequential Write
1,000 MBps
Interface Controller
ASMedia ASM2362
NAND Controller
WD Architecture
DRAM
DDR4
Storage Media
WD 96L TLC
Power
Bus-powered
Endurance
IP55 water-dust resistant
2-meter drop protection
1,000 lbs. crush resistant
Security
AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption
Dimensions (L x W x H)
134 x 82 x 19 mm
Weight
200 g
Part Number
0G10484-1
Warranty
5-Years
G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is available in just one 2TB model priced at $400. The SSD delivers up to 1,000 MBps of sequential throughput. Unlike most consumer-grade SSDs, the ArmorLock NVMe SSD’s write performance won’t significantly degrade below its rated performance under high abuse. Of course, that is assuming that it is connected to a compliant USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. The company backs it with a long five-year warranty for peace of mind, too.
Software & Accessories
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
G-Technology includes two twelve-inch USB cables, one Type-C, and one Type-A to Type-C, with the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD.
ArmorLock App
You configure and manage the device through the company’s ArmorLock app, available on both the App Store and Google Play Store. Not only does the app enable firmware updates, formatting, and even secure erasing the device, but it can also track the last known location of the SSD and simplifies multi-user and multi-drive management. You cannot unlock the ArmorLock drive by connecting it directly to a PC — you have to use the app. As such, at installation, the app creates a recovery key that you store separately. This key allows you to install the app onto another phone if you lose your phone or uninstall the application, thus enabling you to unlock your storage device.
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A Closer Look
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G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD features a fairly rugged design and an activity indicator light. It carries an IP67 dust and water resistance rating and can handle a three-meter drop, and the company states that it boasts 1000-pound crush resistance. Its thick finned aluminum core aids with heat dissipation, but it comes at the expense of size.
While the device is pocketable, it is very large at 134 x 82 x 19 mm, and the plastic casing gives it a clunky and toy-like feel in the hand. We were even able to twist the casing, which ironically helped during our disassembly process. It is also fairly heavy, weighing roughly 200 grams, which is two to three times heavier than many portable SSDs.
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G-Technology’s ArmorLock uses a Bluetooth low energy module by Raytac that’s based on a Nordic nRF52840 SoC solution that allows communication between your drive and the app. When plugged in, the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD’s LED indicator light will show it is locked until you unlock the device with the app.
The ArmorLock uses 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption, which provides stronger data protection by taking advantage of two AES keys instead of just one, and NIST P-256 elliptic curve-based key management to eliminate side-channel attacks, ensuring data stored on the devices remains secure.
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An ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 GBps to PCIe 3.0 x2 bridge chip manages host-to-SSD communication. G-Technology outfitted the ArmorLock with WD SN730 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.3-compliant SSD. This SSD is similar to the SN750 but comes as a client solution that uses BiCS4 96-Layer TLC flash. It features a multi-core, DRAM-based architecture and offers plenty of speed to saturate the bridge chip’s capability.
If you’re stuck for something to watch this weekend, Netflix has you covered. The streaming giant is now rolling out its Play Something feature. Play Something (previously called Shuffle Play) picks a show or movie for you based on your viewing history. All you need to do is press play.
Netflix has been testing the feature for months. It’s rolling out now in certain regions on TV-based versions of the Netflix app, and will eventually roll out globally to all Netflix users who watch on a TV. The firm plans to start testing it on Android mobile devices, too.
We’ve tested it in the UK, and it’s working on LG TVs in our test rooms, but not yet on our Apple TV.
Open the Netflix app, and you should see a big Play Something button on your profile screen (it will also appear on the 10th row of the homescreen, and in the navigation menu to the left). Hit it, and the algorithm will pick something for you and start playing.
“Sometimes you just want to open Netflix and dive right into a new story,” Cameron Johnson, Director of Product Innovation at Netflix wrote in a blog post. “That’s why we’ve created Play Something, an exciting new way to kick back and watch.”
What happens if you don’t like what it picks? With another click, Netlfix will pick something else – this will either be from your queue, something you haven’t finished watching, or something else new based on your viewing habits. It could save you hours of scrolling through looking for something to watch. Or, it could fail spectacularly. There’s only one way to find out…
MORE:
Check out the 36 best TV shows to watch on Netflix right now
Here are 25 Netflix tips, tricks and features
Find out: Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix – which is better?
Roku has a strange relationship with remotes: it’s one of the worst offenders when it comes to branded buttons, with a seemingly ever-rotating list of streaming services — Netflix, Sling, even Rdio at one point — that have come and gone over time. One of its remotes even bears a mysterious glyph that’s never been used for anything.
And yet, Roku also leads the pack when it comes to customizability. For the last couple years, some of its remotes have offered programmable buttons, and its recently released Voice Remote Pro elevates them to new heights.
The programmable shortcut keys, labeled with just a 1 and a 2, are almost infinitely customizable. And Roku actually has the software support to back them up in an easy and approachable way, one that the updated Voice Remote Pro’s mic makes even easier with its hands-free commands.
Speak any voice command — be it as basic as opening a streaming app that Roku doesn’t have a sponsored button for, or as complex as “lower the volume to 10 percent” — and then press and hold the button afterward, and you instantly create a shortcut to do that action on command.
As my colleague Chris Welch explains in his review:
The buttons labeled “1” and “2” can save any voice command that Roku supports; just long-press either button after the voice command, and it’ll be set as that button’s function. This can be as simple as using them as two shortcuts for apps that don’t have their own button, like “open HBO Max” or “open Peacock.” But you can also use the shortcut buttons for searches (“show me free movies”), input selection (“switch to antenna TV”), or TV controls (“turn the volume up,” “turn on closed captioning”).
It’s a clever system, one that leverages Roku’s voice controls to allow for complex commands, without requiring that users muck around with complicated software menus to program in exactly what they want. You just say what you want your Roku to do, and then save it for as long (or as little) as you need.
Roku’s customization system is also easily reprogrammable on the fly: want a dedicated button that just plays Iron Man 2? You can have it. Trying to learn French by watching Netflix’s Lupin? You can quickly make a button to toggle captions. The only real limit is your imagination (and Roku’s surprisingly deep bench of voice command options).
Roku’s system also helps to alleviate one of the biggest issues with voice assistants — sometimes, you don’t want to bother your housemates with the noise of you constantly asking your TV to change channels. Once programmed, the shortcut buttons make it possible to use complex or long voice commands silently, making them the perfect complement to Roku remotes’ similarly roommate-pacifying headphone feature.
It’s a system that’s so useful, it’s a wonder that companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google — all of which feature set-top boxes with their own robust voice assistant setups — aren’t looking to offer a similar feature in the future.
Voice remotes are all well and good, but at the end of the day, no one wants to hear you shouting over the sound of the latest episode of your favorite show.
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The Moto G Play is the least expensive of four phones that Motorola introduced for the US market earlier this year. Introduced at $169, it’s already enjoying an apparently permanent $10 mark down, placing it firmly in budget territory.
Most of what you’ll find on the G Play’s spec list makes a lot of sense given that price point: a 6.5-inch 720p LCD with standard refresh rate, Snapdragon 460 processor with 3GB of RAM, and a generous 5,000mAh battery.
There’s another factor that might sway some shoppers toward the G Play, too: as LG leaves the budget phone space and its remaining stock disappears from retailers’ shelves, Motorola’s budget-friendly phone will be one of a smaller number of options. In the US. we haven’t seen the kind of sub-$150 devices from Motorola that the company has introduced in other markets this year, so for now, the G Play is a likely candidate for the budget-oriented phone shopper’s consideration.
There are a couple of aspects of the phone’s feature set that feel underwhelming even considering the price: namely, a paltry 32GB of storage (though it can be expanded after the fact) and a 13-megapixel main camera when more advanced, high-resolution pixel-binning sensors are becoming the norm at every price point, for example. But in short, the G Play performs just fine for its price. Just know that you’ll need to bring patience and acceptance of a few shortcomings, and that spending an extra $50 to $100 if your budget allows would get you some meaningful upgrades.
The G Play’s 6.5-inch display is a bit low-res for its size and hard to see in bright outdoor light.
Moto G Play performance and screen
The G Play uses a Snapdragon 460 chipset which was introduced over a year ago and is an entry-level Qualcomm processor. Coupled with 3GB of RAM, it manages to keep up with routine tasks like jumping between apps and scrolling social media, albeit with subtle-but-noticeable stuttering along the way. Heavier tasks like starting and stopping Google Maps navigation take an extra couple of beats. It’s not as frustrating as my experience with the LG Stylo 6 was, but it’s a step down from the kind of performance you can expect from a phone that’s $50-100 more expensive, including those in Motorola’s own G-series lineup.
The screen, likewise, gets the job done but doesn’t particularly shine. Its 720p resolution is stretched thin across the 6.5-inch display and images are noticeably pixelated. Colors are on the cooler side and the screen is a bit dim unless you max out the brightness. Even with the brightness cranked all the way up I had a hard time seeing it outdoors. We spend so many hours looking at our devices that this is one area where it might be worth upgrading. That said, there isn’t exactly anything wrong with the display — it’s just not very nice.
There’s better news on the battery front. The G Play includes a 5,000mAh battery, which is significantly bigger than the typical 4,000 or 4,500mAh found in other comparably sized Android phones. Motorola claims it will get three days of battery life, which is probably true if you’re a light user and conservative with your screen brightness. I had no problem getting two days on a charge with a couple of hours each day of screen-on time. A full day and then some of heavy use is definitely reasonable to expect.
The Moto G Play includes just 32GB of storage — about as low as it gets in 2021. Considering roughly half of that will be taken up with operating system files, it’s just not enough. Storage is expandable via microSD card, so plan on that extra $10-15 as a necessary part of the purchase if you don’t already have one.
The G Play ships with Android 10 installed. While it’s on Motorola’s list to receive an Android 11 update, the timing is unclear and, given the company’s track record, could be many months away. The phone will receive security updates until January 2023. That’s an unfortunately short life span, so you might want to count on trading it in or cashing in your upgrade with your carrier after a couple of years.
There’s just one camera on the Moto G Play’s rear panel — plus a depth sensor and a flash.
Moto G Play camera
The G Play has just one 13-megapixel rear-facing camera (accompanied by a 2-megapixel depth sensor) and a 5-megapixel selfie camera. That’s it. Even in the budget class, that’s not many cameras in 2021. I don’t think anyone (myself included) will miss having the low-quality macro camera that manufacturers keep putting on their devices these days, but not having an ultrawide is a bummer considering it’s not hard to find a phone that offers one at this price.
If nothing else, the G Play’s camera offerings are very straightforward. There are just two main shooting modes in the native camera app: photo and video. Portrait mode and a few other extras are available in the shooting menu, but there’s no night mode here.
Outside in good lighting, this 13-megapixel camera does okay. Overall exposures are balanced and the camera doesn’t try to do too much HDR-ing, which I appreciate, but you don’t have to look too close to notice that details in grass and leaves are smoothed over. Things go downhill quickly in less good light — the G Play just isn’t up to low-light photography. The selfie camera is also guilty of aggressive over-smoothing at its default “Face Beauty Auto” setting that made my face look like a glazed donut. Thankfully, you can turn this off.
The G Play is well-priced for what it offers, but spending a bit more would mean some valuable upgrades.
Clearly the G Play has its share of shortcomings — at $160, it has to. The question is whether these are trade-offs you can live with for a couple of years. If you enjoy a very casual relationship with your phone, the G Play will do all of the things you need it to do.
Everyday performance for the basics — light web browsing, social media, email, music — is sufficient. If you just use your phone camera for quick snapshots out and about and don’t expect too much from it, the G Play will do fine.
If you suspect that you need a little more from your phone, or that you want the experience of using your phone to be a little more enjoyable, then I’d strongly encourage spending a bit more on something like Motorola’s own Moto G Power for a better camera. Samsung and OnePlus have recent entries in the sub-$200 class that are worth looking at, too; I haven’t tested them, but they’re specced competitively.
If your relationship with technology is less complicated than those of us who spend hours each day of our precious time on this Earth staring at the little glowing screen in our hands, jumping between social media apps, and pushing our phone cameras to their limits, then you’ll get along fine with the Moto G Play. Just spare a thought for the rest of us, please?
ChargePoint, operator of one of the largest EV charging networks across Europe and North America, is adding support for Android Auto to its app. The functionality means Android phone users will be able to find, navigate to, and start charging from a ChargePoint charging station from their car’s infotainment screen, without having to pick up their phone. Support for Android Auto follows the addition of CarPlay support in November last year.
According to ChargePoint, the Android Auto experience lets you view a map with nearby charging stations, check status, filter by metrics like availability and cost, and then start a charging session once you arrive. The in-vehicle app can also be set to notify the driver once a busy charging station becomes available. ChargePoint says its network includes over one hundred thousand charging locations.
Details about available charging spots can be viewed from the screen.Image: ChargePoint
The app’s Android Auto support will be available from today in the USA, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. To use it, you’ll need ChargePoint’s app running on a device with Android 6.0 or above, and a car that supports Android Auto.
Vivaldi announced today that it’s updating the desktop and Android versions of its Vivaldi browser with the ability to block annoying cookie preference pop-ups. Thanks to the passage of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you’ve probably had to click through at least one dialog box asking if you’d like to manage how a site tracks you. Vivaldi’s new update lets you avoid those notifications — with some major caveats — while theoretically still keeping you safe from tracking.
Vivaldi’s logic for the new feature, affectionately called “Cookie Crumbler,” is that while giving users control over how they’re tracked is good, doing so through a pop-up “leads to clicking ‘allow’ or ‘accept’ without realizing that unwittingly users just gave permission for trackers to create behavioral profiles about them,” Vivaldi writes.
A cookie dialog box from The Guardian.
Vivaldi’s built-in Ad Blocker can theoretically already handle hiding users from the various tracking methods deployed by sites, so Cookie Crumbler is about removing the annoying hangers-on — the pop-up notifications that direct users to customize how they’re tracked, if at all. Users with an updated version of Vivaldi (version 3.8 as of today) can enable Cookie Crumbler by going to Settings > Privacy > Tracker and ad blocking > Manage sources > Remove cookie warnings lists. The same feature can be enabled on the Android version of Vivaldi under the same menus.
“Cookie Crumbler” can be enabled on Android in the same menu you manage Vivaldi’s ad and tracker blocker.Image: Vivaldi
Cookie Crumbler pulls from two separate third-party block lists to work, but “this is not a perfect solution, as there will be a few websites that use other tactics to obtain cookie consent,” Vivaldi says. Enabling Cookie Crumbler may also make some sites completely inaccessible on desktop and mobile, depending on if the site locks some functionality behind interacting with the cookie dialog. Losing access to some websites is a major inconvenience for a web browser that’s designed to visit websites, and that may be why Cookie Crumbler isn’t enabled by default.
Vivaldi is also taking an even stronger stance on Google’s cookie alternative, FLoC, or Federated Learning of Cohorts. FLoC builds cohorts from users’ browsing history to sort them semi-anonymously by interests or qualities for websites looking to sell ads. It seems less directly invasive than a traditional cookie, but also hugely dependent on browser makers implementing it correctly for it to be safe.
Vivaldi is decidedly not okay with Google’s implementation of FLoC and is not enabling it in its browser, despite relying on Google’s Chromium codebase. With today’s updated version of Vivaldi, it’s also blacklisting the FLoC component required for Google’s current test of the ad technology, removing it from browsers that might already have it downloaded and preventing it from being downloaded going forward.
Vivaldi 3.8 also adds new customization options for the browser’s Panels feature (think SlideOver in iPadOS but for websites) and a new keyboard command for adding bookmarks. The Android version of the app can also now switch between the 41 languages Vivaldi supports rather than relying on Android’s built-in language settings.
Earlier this month, we learned that the iOS version of Fortnite was a huge revenue driver for Epic Games — the game earned more than $700 million from iOS customers over the two years before it was pulled by Apple, according to court documents (PDF) released ahead of Epic’s trial against the iPhone maker. But even though iOS Fortnite players brought in a staggering amount of money for Epic, iOS isn’t the biggest platform in terms of revenue for the game — apparently, it might even be among the smallest.
Court documents reveal that PlayStation 4 generated 46.8 percent of Fortnite’s total revenues from March 2018 through July 2020, while Xbox One, the second-highest platform, generated 27.5 percent. iOS ranked fifth, with just 7 percent of total revenue. The remaining 18.7 percent would have been split between Android, Nintendo Switch, and PCs.
In 2020, iOS revenues were projected to be an even smaller piece of the pie: just 5.8 percent, compared to 24 percent for Xbox One and “almost 40 percent” for PlayStation 4, according to a new deposition (PDF) of Epic Games’ David Nikdel, a senior programmer who works on the backend services for Fortnite.
“iOS was always the lowest or second lowest if Android was listed, correct?” lawyers asked Joe Babcock, Epic’s CFO until March 2020, in a separate deposition. The answer was yes.
Babcock explicitly confirmed that the iOS version of Fortnite earned less revenue, month to month, than:
PlayStation 4
Xbox (presumably Xbox One)
Nintendo Switch
PCs
iOS’s low revenues compared to other platforms may not be entirely surprising, based on past comments from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. He said in a declaration that Fortnite on iOS represented 10 percent of the game’s total average daily players in the two years from when the game launched to when it was pulled from the App Store in August. And Fortnite is considered to be a billion-dollar business all on its own: in 2019, it reportedly brought in $1.8 billion in revenue all by itself. (Epic projected company-wide revenue of $3.85 billion in 2020, to give you some idea of how big Fortnite is compared to, well, everything else Epic does.)
Thanks to these court documents being released ahead of the trial, we now have a better idea of where Fortnite makes most of its money — and despite the huge amount of dollars flying around mobile games right now, PlayStation and Xbox seem to account for the bulk of Fortnite’s earnings. They could make Epic’s choice to fight Apple and Google make a bit more sense — even if they alienate the app store companies, Epic can bank on Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles continuing to rake in cash.
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