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Meta announced its opening up the Quests operating system to third-party companies, allowing them to build headsets of their own. The Quest OS is being rebranded to Meta Horizon OS and already has two companies interested. ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand is working on new performance gaming headsets, while Lenovos focus is on devices for productivity, learning and entertainment. However, most intriguingly, perhaps, Meta says its also working on a limited-edition Xbox inspired Quest headset. (Microsoft and Meta also worked together recently to bring Xbox cloud gaming to the Quest.) While this could just be a reskinned Quest 3, this collaboration could lead to future headsets made entirely for Microsofts consoles. If PlayStation can have VR, then surely Xbox can too. Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed Grindr sued for allegedly sharing users HIV status and other info with ad companies What we watched: Blueys joyful finales Amazon halts drone deliveries in California, but kicks off tests in Phoenix You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The EU opens an investigation into TikTok Lite, citing addiction concerns This follows a more comprehensive probe from February. The European Union (EU) has opened a second formal investigation into TikTok. The probe involves the addictive nature of TikTok Lite, a smaller version of the app that takes up less memory and was built to perform over slower internet connections. The wrinkle might be a design aspect that allows users to earn points by watching and liking videos. These points can be exchanged for TikToks proprietary digital currency and even Amazon vouchers. The EUs Commission has expressed concern that this type of task and reward design language could impact the mental health of young users by stimulating addictive behavior. Continue reading. Russian court sentences Meta spokesperson in absentia to six years in prison Andy Stone was convicted after publicly defending terrorism. A few months after Russian officials placed Meta spokesperson Andy Stone on a wanted list and started a criminal investigation, a Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for him on several terrorism-related charges in February. It cited Stones alleged promotion of terrorist activities, public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism and public calls for extremist activities. Russias investigative committee opened a probe into Meta in March 2022. It claimed Stone had incited extremist activity after lifting a ban on calls for violence against the Russian military on its platforms. Stone said Meta was temporarily allowing some posts to stay on its platforms that would have previously been taken down for inciting violence, but noted the company would still outlaw credible calls for violence against Russian civilians. Continue reading. Embracer splits up its messy gaming empire into three companies Theyll specialize in AAA, tabletop and indie titles. Embracer The company has announced plans to split into three separate parts. The first is Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends, specializing in AAA games like Tomb Raider and Dead Island and, of course, anything Lord of the Rings. Asmodee will handle the tabletop gaming segment, which includes Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, CATAN, Dobble and Exploding Kittens. Coffee Stain & Friends will be the companys indie-centric group, with properties including Deep Rock Galactic and Goat Simulator. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-meta-teases-a-limited-edition-quest-headset-inspired-by-xbox-111520584.html?src=rss
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Atlus first teased that it was working on a new RPG with a fantasy setting in mid-2023 it also said way back then that it will be available sometime this year. Now, the developer has revealed that the game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, will come out on October 11 at a special livestream event. Katsura Hashino, the director of the game, as well as of Persona 3, 4 and 5, also introduced a 30-minute hands-on gameplay that gives you quite a lengthy look at its story and combat mechanics. Similar to the Persona games, Metaphor: ReFantazio has a turn-based combat system with what Atlus says is a "blend of real-time action." Also, like the Persona games, you'll have to manage your time, so that you can build bonds with your allies and increase your "virtues" outside of dungeon-crawling. Metaphor: ReFantazio is set in the fictional United Kingdom of Euchronia, which was plunged into chaos after the assassination of its king. In the middle of the royal tournament for the throne, the protagonist and his partner fairy Galica go on a journey to find the cursed prince that was thought to be dead and team up with new allies along the way. Physical copies of the game, both standard and limited Collector's editions, are now available for pre-order, but you'll have to wait a bit if you'd rather get the digital version. Upon launch, the game will be available for various consoles, namely the Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, as well as on Windows and Steam on PC. If the 30-minute gameplay footage is too long for you, here's a new trailer you can watch instead: This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metaphor-refantazio-a-fantasy-rpg-from-the-persona-5-team-comes-out-in-october-100359581.html?src=rss
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Microsoft has unveiled its latest light AI model called the Phi-3 Mini designed to run on smartphones and other local devices, it revealed in a new research paper. Trained on 3.8 billion parameters, it's the first of three small Phi-3 language models the company will release in the near future. The aim is to provide a cheaper alternative to cloud-powered LLMs, allowing smaller organizations to adopt AI. According to Microsoft, the new model handily outperforms its previous Phi-2 small model and is on par with larger models like Llama 2. In fact, the company says Phi-3 Mini provides responses close to the level of a model 10 times its size. "The innovation lies entirely in our dataset for training," according to the research paper. That dataset is based on the Phi-2 model, but uses "heavily filtered web data and synthetic data," the team states. In fact, a separate LLM was used to do both of those chores, effectively creating new data that allows the smaller language model to be more efficient. The team was supposedly inspired by children's books that use simpler language to get across complex topics, according to The Verge. Microsoft While it still can't produce the results of cloud-powered LLMs, Phi-3 Mini can outperform Phi-2 and other small language models (Mistral, Gemma, Llama-3-In) in tasks ranging from math to programming to academic tests. At the same time, it runs on devices as simple as smartphones, with no internet connection required. Its main limitation is breadth of "factual knowledge" due to the smaller dataset size hence why it doesn't perform well in the "TriviaQA" test. Still, it should be good for models that only require smallish internal data sets. That could allow companies that can't afford cloud-connected LLMs to jump into AI, Microsoft hopes. Phi-3 Mini is now available on Azure, Hugging Face and Ollama. Microsoft is next set to release Phi-3 Small and Phi-3 Medium with significantly higher capabilities (7 billion and 14 billion parameters, respectively). This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-lightweight-phi-3-mini-model-can-run-on-smartphones-100223483.html?src=rss
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