Many of the solar panels on American roofs are manufactured by Qcells, and the company also offers a complete home solar system package deserving of a closer look.
Mortal Kombat 1's stress test is currently underway, and players unable to secure a code are trying to get one via other means, with some paying hundreds of dollars to buy a code on eBay.
Earlier today, Mortal Kombat 1 stress test codes started popping up on online auction sites, and whilst it seems some players were simply trying their luck to make a little cash, codes are now up for sale for hundreds and hundreds of dollars… even though the codes are only good for the current stress test that kicked off yesterday.
Take this one, for example. Earlier today, it had clocked up an impressive $230 from 19 different bidders, but it eventually secured a winning bid of a truly eye-watering $810. And then there's the since-deleted auction below, although it's unclear if the code was sold or the auction was removed by eBay itself.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, other code owners are also trying to sell their codes, too, even though the test ends on Monday morning (thanks, TheGamer).
Mortal Kombat 1's servers are being stress-tested as we speak (well, write/read) on Xbox Series X and PS5, with the test ending at 8am PT / 11am ET (or 4pm BST) on June 26. That means no, it's not available for those hoping to play on PC or Nintendo Switch, but the good news is that for those lucky enough to receive an invite, you don't need to have an online subscription to either service to be able to play the title online.
Don't worry if you don't make the test pool this time, though – the upcoming game will also get a playable beta for those who have pre-ordered the fighting game, starting in August.
"The Kameo system is phenomenal, but it’s an extra level of strategy on top of an already complicated game that has made me absolutely sure that I’m going to be terrible at it," we said in our Mortal Kombat 1 preview.
"Often, whenever I tried to get Sonya in to assist me in a ground-based scrap, I’d instead merely make her fly overhead like a Red Arrow, giving us a cheery wave as she flew past us whilst we traded blows on the ground."
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Xbox boss Phil Spencer says the reason Minecraft has yet to release a native PS5 edition is because Sony was "reluctant" to send the team a PS5 dev kit.
Without a dev kit – that is, the specialist equipment given to developers to test their pre-release builds before they're released and sold to the public – Minecraft developer Mojang could not get a head start on the PS5 version, putting them "at a disadvantage".
As Mojang is one of Xbox's first-party family of developers under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella, it's possible Sony was wary of sharing early editions of its hardware with its competitor.
"Sony was reluctant to send us development kits for the PlayStation 5 at the same time they were sending them to other developers, which put us at a disadvantage relative to other developers," Spencer said (thanks, IGN) as part of his testimony to the Federal Trade Commission this week.
"I think Sony could have sent the development kits to Microsoft just as easy as they sent them to any other publisher."
Phil Spencer also recently commented on the status of an Xbox Series X successor in a recent high-profile media interview.
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are now nearing three years of market availability as both systems originally launched in late 2020. The prior console generation saw a system revision in the form of the Xbox One X (in 2017) which debuted three and a half years after the Xbox One did. The decision behind the upgrade was to deliver 4K resolution to consumers, a feat that the current flagship Xbox console can do straight out of the box.
Choose from stylish or rugged, built-in kickstand or magnetic connector modules -- find a case to protect your Galaxy S23 with these top picks tested by CNET editors.
Tesla has stopped offering lifetime Supercharging at signing, but nearly every other EV manufacturer is tempting customers with free charging deals. Here are all the incentives available now.
The ReMarkable 2, Kindle Scribe and other E Ink tablets offer readers and notetakers a way to save paper and keep all their work organized in one place.
YouTube is going to help its creators reach an international audience as the platform plans on introducing a new AI-powered dubbing tool for translating videos into other languages.
Announced at VidCon 2023, the goal of this latest endeavor is to provide a quick and easy way for creators to translate “at no cost” their content into languages they don’t speak. This can help out smaller channels as they may not have the resources to hire a human translator. To make this all possible, Amjad Hanif, vice president of Creator Products at YouTube, revealed the tool will utilize the Google-created Aloud plus the platform will be bringing over the team behind the AI from Area 120, a division of the parent company that frequently works on experimental tech.
Easy translation
The way the translation system works, according to the official Aloud website, is the AI will first transcribe a video into a script. You then edit the transcription to get rid of any errors, make clarifications, or highlight text “where timing is critical.” From there, you give the edited script back to Aloud where it will automatically translate your video into the language of your choice. Once done, you can publish the newly dubbed content by uploading any new audio tracks onto their original video.
A Google representative told us “creators do not have to [actually] understand any of the languages that they are dubbing into.” Aloud will handle all of the heavy lifting surrounding complex tasks like “translation, timing, and speech synthesis.” Again, all you have to do is double-check the transcription.
Future changes
It’s unknown when the Aloud update will launch. However, YouTube is already working on expanding the AI beyond what it’s currently possible. Right now, Aloud can only translate English content to either Spanish or Portuguese. But there are plans to expand into other languages from Hindi to Indonesian plus support for different dialects.
Later down the line, the platform will introduce a variety of features such as “voice preservation, better emotion transfer, and even lip reanimation” to improve enunciation. Additionally, YouTube is going to build in some safeguards ensuring only the creators can “dub their own content”.
The same Google representative from earlier also told us the platform is testing the Aloud AI with “hundreds of [YouTube] creators” with plans to add more over time. As of June 2023, over 10,000 videos have been dubbed in over 70 languages.
You can join the early access program by filling out the official Google Docs form. If you want to know what an Aloud dub sounds like, go watch the channel trailer for the Amoeba Sisters channel on YouTube. Click the gear icon, go to Audio Track, then select Spanish. The robotic voice you’ll hear is what the AI will create.
Apple has launched its first-ever beta for visionOS – the operating system the upcoming Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset will use – giving us a glimpse at what its new gadget should be capable of at launch.
As explained in the Apple Developer blog post making the announcement, the launch of the visionOS SDK will give developers the chance to start working on spatial computing apps for the Vision Pro. It will also help developers understand the Vision Pro's capabilities. Even better, the SDK provides a visionOS simulator so that developers can test out their 3D interface in a number of room layouts with various lighting conditions. And those tests have already revealed a number of details about what the Vision Pro will and won’t be able to do at launch.
This is only the first beta, and users are accessing the simulator via a PC rather than a headset – so expect some changes to be made to visionOS before it officially launches. With that said, here’s what we’ve learned so far about the Apple Vision Pro from the visionOS beta.
You can use the Vision Pro to scan real-world objects and text(Image credit: Apple)
According to info found in the visionOS beta, Vision Pro headset wearers will be able to use the headset’s cameras to find information about an item they scan and to interact with real-world text. This includes copying and pasting the text into Vision Pro apps, translating it between 17 supported languages, and converting units (like grams to ounces, or meters to feet). This sounds pretty neat, but unless you’re wearing your Vision Pro headset all the time while traveling abroad or baking with a recipe we aren’t too sure how often you’ll rely on these features.
2. The OS is intuitive
While not the most flashy feature, intuitive OS design and windows management in 3D space will be crucial for the Vision Pro. The idea of having loads of software windows floating around us seems neat – it'd be like we’re a real-world Tony Stark – but if it's a pain to position them how we want, it’ll be easier to stick with a traditional PC and monitor.
Thankfully, it looks like it’s super easy to move, resize, and hide app windows in Vision Pro, as shown off by @Lascorbe on Twitter.
visionOS, super intuitive so far:- You move the window with the bottom bar- When moving if the window touches other apps they dim- There’s a button to hide rest of apps (unsure how to bring them back yet)- Pointing at the corner of a window make the “resize handler” appear pic.twitter.com/ZHkA0I04SCJune 21, 2023
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The video also shows that you aren’t moving the apps on a fixed cylinder around you; you can take full advantage of the 3D space around you by bringing some windows closer while moving others further away – and even stacking them in front of each other if you want. While dragging a window it’ll turn translucent so you can see what’s behind it as you decide where to position it.
3. Porting iOS to visionOS is easy
According to developers (like @lydakisg on Twitter) that have started working with visionOS, it’s incredibly easy to port iOS apps over to the new system – so many of the best iPhone apps could be available on the Vision Pro at launch.
Just wow. I've been working on a private location journaling app for iOS, and simply by adding a new deployment target, my app can now function on visionOS without any additional changes! pic.twitter.com/Vg1TnfFVE4June 21, 2023
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This is great news for people that were worried that the Vision Pro might not have an app library comparable to the Quest Store found on Meta’s VR headsets like the Meta Quest Pro.
The only downside is that the ported iOS apps appear in a floating window as they would on a Mac rather than being a fully-fledged immersive experience. So while your favorite appears can easily appear on the Vision Pro, they might not take advantage of its new tech – at least not without the developers spending more time working on a dedicated visionOS version.
4. Battery percentages return
Battery percentages are a sore spot for many iPhone users. When the iPhone X was released over five years ago it changed the battery status symbol – the percentage disappeared and only a steadily emptying symbol of a battery remained. While this symbol does give a visual indication of how much charge your phone has left, it’s not always as clear as a number; as such, it's been a constant request from iPhone users for Apple to bring back battery charge percentages – which it did with iOS 16 when the iPhone 14 launched.
The Vision Pro trailer shows a battery icon with no percentage(Image credit: Apple)
Unfortunately, a brief section of Apple’s Vision Pro intro video showed us that the Vision Pro might make the iPhone X’s mistake by using a battery status symbol without a number.
Good news! The battery percentage does show on visionOS! https://t.co/Cvk2Xd2W6b pic.twitter.com/I00THVA0knJune 21, 2023
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Thankfully for fans of Apple’s more accurate battery symbol, users like @aaronp613 on Twitter have found that battery percentages do show up on Vision Pro. It’s not a massive win, but an important one for a lot of people.
5. Apps can use unique control schemes
The visionOS beta not only gives developers tools to create their own Vision Pro apps and to port their existing iOS software to the system; they’re also given details, sample code, and videos showing off the kinds of projects they could create for the upcoming Apple hardware.
One such game is Happy Beam, a video of which has been shared on Twitter by @SwiftlyAlex.
check out this game built for visionOS 👀 pic.twitter.com/thibhlZ3DjJune 21, 2023
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Happy Beam doesn’t look super interesting in and of itself – one Twitter commenter noted it looks like the sort of AR game you could play on the Nintendo 3DS – but it shows that the Vision Pro is able to recognize different hand gestures (like forming a heart) and translate them to different in-game controls.
We’ll have to wait and see how developers use these capabilities in their creations, but we can already imagine a few possible implementations. For example, rather than using button prompts you could make a scissors gesture with your hand to cut images and text from one document, then clap your hands to paste it in a new spot.
It also appears that Apple is conscious that its headset should remain accessible. As shown in the Happy Beam demo, there are alternative controls that allow Vision Pro users to rely on simpler gestures or controllers to play the game – with it serving as a reminder to other developers to consider similar alternative control schemes in their software.
This gameplay video shared by @wilburwongdev on YouTube shows how the game changes when not using your hands.
6. Fitness apps are discouraged
One last tidbit that has been spotted not in the visionOS beta but in the developer guidelines for the operating system. In its guidelines, Apple says app makers should “avoid encouraging people to move too much” while immersed in the headset. The wording is a little vague, but it seems as if Apple is against the development of fitness apps for Vision Pro at this time.
One notable omission from the Vision Pro reveal trailer was that there were no fitness apps featured. Many people (some of our writers included) use VR headsets for working out, or even just getting a bit active. There’s Beat Saber and Pistol Whip for more gamified workouts, or FitXR and Litesport for more traditional fitness options. These developer notes make the omission seem more intentional, suggesting fitness and activities involving a lot of movement are not in Apple’s current plan for the Vision Pro. We’ll have to wait and see if this changes when the device launches.
