Take-Two is shutting down the developer behind the mobile hit ‘Two Dots’

Rockstar, Zynga and 2K owner Take-Two Interactive is shutting down Playdots, the New York-based studio behind the popular mobile game Two Dots, Bloomberg has reported. Sixty-five employees will lose their jobs, the company confirmed to Bloomberg. …

The Morning After: Netflix with ads launches on November 3rd

Netflix’s ad-supported tier finally has a release date. The new Basic with Ads plan will be available November 3rd from 12 PM ET for $7 per month in the US. It launches at the start of November in 11 other countries: the UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Canada (November 1st), Mexico (November 1st) and Spain (November 10th).

The ads will run for an average of four to five minutes per hour, and you’ll be limited to 720p/HD resolution. That’s not the only limitation: Licensing will also prevent you from watching certain movies and TV shows on the ad plan.

While we don’t know what kinds of ads you’ll get, we do know they’ll initially be 15- to 30-second spots and will play both before and during shows. There’ll be “broad” targeting for those ads based on criteria like your country and the content genres you watch.

That list of caveats might stop existing Netflix subscribers from downgrading (the Basic plan starts at $10), but it could convince folks with other video subscriptions – or a lapsed Netflix sub – to start paying again.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Microsoft Office is dead. Long live Microsoft 365

Because it’s more than just Word and Excel.

Back in 2020, Microsoft announced it would change the name of its Office 365 subscription to Microsoft 365, acknowledging it had become more than just a work app. Now, it’s removing most of the remaining Office branding. “In the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app and the Office app for Windows will become the Microsoft 365 app, with a new icon, a new look and even more features,” an FAQ says.

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Sony and Honda will open pre-orders for their first EV in 2025

Their joint company aims to make the first deliveries in the US by 2026.

Sony and Honda have announced they’ll open pre-orders for their first electric vehicle model in the first half of 2025. Their joint venture, Sony Honda Mobility Inc., hopes to begin deliveries in the US by spring 2026. The companies didn’t give us a glimpse of the vehicle they’re working on during the event, and they didn’t mention anything about its pricing or its battery technology and range. They did say, however, they’re planning to focus on online sales, like Tesla.

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Microsoft accuses UK regulator of adopting Sony’s complaints in Activision probe

The regulator focused on ‘Call of Duty.’

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Activision Blizzard

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard will have to gain approval from various regulators around the world before the deal can go through, including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA has recommended a more in-depth inquiry. Shortly after the CMA published its decision, Microsoft accused the regulator of relying “on self-serving statements by Sony.” In a response it shared with Ars Technica, the tech giant said the CMA’s decision was rooted in the concern that Activision’s catalog of games, specifically the Call of Duty franchise, will allow Xbox to “foreclose its competitors.” Microsoft called that concern “misplaced.”

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Sony’s ZV-1F is its most affordable vlogging camera yet

At $500, it’s designed as a smartphone step-up cam.

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Sony

Sony has unveiled the ZV-1F, its third and most affordable vlogging camera. At just $500, it’s slotted below the $700 ZV-1 compact, with a Type-1 Exmor 20.1-megapixel sensor, 4K video and a raft of Sony camera features. Those include the “product showcase” feature, which lets you place a product in front of the camera to quickly get focus and background defocus, for quick-and-easy bokeh backgrounds. And a new Shot Mark feature lets you grab a 15-, 30- or 60-second clip and send it to a smartphone. The camera arrives on October 24th.

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The best smart light bulbs for 2022

Ditch the dumb bulbs for ones you can control from anywhere.

One of the best places to start when building a smart home ecosystem is smart light bulbs. Not only are they relatively affordable compared to other IoT gadgets, often costing between $10 and $50 a bulb, but they can also completely change the feel of your home. And there are now more players in smart lighting than ever before. Here are our top picks.

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Meta’s VR legs video wasn’t what it seemed

When Meta announced that its Horizon Worlds avatars were getting legs in the near future, we got to see VR Mark Zuckerberg jump up and down to show them off. Apparently, though, what we saw wasn’t a real demonstration of how Meta was able generate their full-body virtual reality avatars. According to UploadVR editor, Ian Hamilton, the event used animations that were created using motion capture:

The process, which is called mocap for short, is widely used in cinema and games and entails recording the movements of a real person or object so they can be turned into computer animated graphics. 

During the event, Meta said that “legs have been one of the most requested features on [its] roadmap, and it’s been a significant area of [the company’s] focus.” Indeed, the addition of legs to Horizon’s legless avatar would be a noteworthy achievement due to the technological constraints of the VR devices we have access to today. VR headsets as we know the weren’t made to track legs. As Meta CTO and Reality Labs team leader Andrew Bosworth had explained to CNN Business earlier this year: “Tracking your own legs accurately is super hard and basically not workable just from a physics standpoint with existing headsets.” Meta’s solution to that problem involves the use of an artificial intelligence model to predict where the user’s legs are supposed to be. 

We’ll have to wait a bit more to see these AI-powered VR legs in action, though, because Meta’s full-body avatars that don’t rely on mocaps won’t be coming out until 2023.

Framework is selling refurbished versions of its modular laptops

Framework, which make modular, easy-to-repair laptops with the idea of reducing e-waste, is now selling refurbished models. They come from “the small number of returns we get from our 30-day return guarantee,” and promise a like-new laptop with decent specs, a full guarantee and a discount from all-new models. The company is also selling refurbished version of its expansions packs (USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, etc.)

The returns go through a detailed testing process, and the company replaces any parts that fail to meet its specifications. They’re then tested to confirm functionality and cleaned. There are what Framework calls “cosmetic limitations,” but the company has set “pretty stringent” limits for the initial set of refurbed laptops.

Framework starts selling refurbished versions of its modular laptops
Framework

The cheapest refurbished model available has an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor for $600, without memory, storage, WiFi, a power adapter, the OS and expansion cards. In comparison, the same model new costs $680. With 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, 1TB of storage, WiFi, a power adapter and a refurbished expansion card pack (2 USB-C, 1 USB-A and 1 HDMI), you’re looking at $905 in total — not bad for a decently equipped laptop that’s easy to repair and upgrade. The other options are a Core i7-1165G7 model for $800 and a Core i7-1185G7 model for $1,069.

Allowing the sale of previously purchased devices is part of the company’s pledge to “remake consumer electronics to respect people and the planet,” while letting buyers contribute to the circular economy. The refurbished program is only available in Canada and the US so far — it hasn’t received enough returns to launch the program in Europe yet.

Framework has always said that it wants to sell PCs to compete with models like the Surface Laptop or Dell XPS 13, and spec-wise, its latest 12th-generation Intel models are at least competitive. And so far, the company has offered mainboard updates you can install yourself, should you desire more performance down the road. In any case, most buyers will likely be just as interested in playing a part in reducing e-waste, and the refurbished models give Framework another way to do that.

Apple slapped with a $19 million fine in Brazil for not selling iPhones with a charger

Apple keeps on losing court battles in Brazil over its decision to stop shipping iPhones with a charger. The São Paulo state court has ruled against the tech giant and slapped it with a 100 million real ($19 million) fine in a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian Consumers’ Association, a group of borrowers, consumers and taxpayers. In addition, the court has ordered Apple to supply all customers in Brazil who purchased the iPhone 12 or 13 over the past couple of years with a charger, as well as to start including them with all new purchases. Apple, as you’d expect, told the news organization that it will appeal the decision. 

According to Barron’s, the judge in charge of the case called the non-inclusion of chargers in phone purchases an “abusive practice” that “requires consumers to purchase a second product in order for the first to work.” Apple has been at odds with Brazilian authorities over the issue for a while now. In 2021, São Paulo consumer protection agency Procon-SP fined Apple around $2 million for removing the power adapter from the iPhone 12, telling the company that it was in violation of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code.

This September, the country’s Ministry of Justice issued an order that bans Apple from selling iPhones that don’t come with a charger. It also fined the company another $2.38 million and ordered the cancelation of iPhone 12’s registration with Brazil’s national telecoms agency. The tech giant is also appealing that decision. 

Apple stopped bundling its iPhones with power adapters back in 2020 with the release of iPhone 12. The company cited environmental concerns for removing chargers with every purchase of the device and claimed that the decision will save 861,000 tons of copper, zinc and tin. The Brazilian Ministry of Justice remained unmoved by that reasoning, telling Apple that it could help the environment in other ways, such as giving its devices USB-C support. In Europe, Apple has a couple of years to do just that after the European Parliament voted to make USB-C the common charging standard in the EU. Mobile devices like the iPhone sold in the region will have to come with USB-C charging posts by the end of 2024.