Month: May 2024

Now in Pokémon Go you can find more shiny Pokémon… but they are fake

One out of every 4096 wild creatures is special, and if it escapes, you have to wait for luck again.

If you have ever played ‘Pokémon’ in a way beyond casual, surely the mere mention of the word “shiny” makes your hair stand on end. For years, shiny pokémon have been the crown jewel of any game in the franchise: one out of every 4096 wild creatures is special, and if it escapes, you have to wait for luck again. However, in ‘Pokémon Go’ they have dealt with your frustrations… only to bury them again.

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Brilliant, this is what I can do, what do I have left to do?

The latest campaign of the mobile game, Rediscover GO, has already been ruined by attempting to enhance the features of trainers by creating authentic monsters, but now we have discovered that it also causes many more shiny pokémon to appear. The problem is… they are not real. They only give that impression due to the visual enhancements introduced with the update, and your excitement may end up in a pokémon pit.

Niantic has not said anything yet, but it is most likely that they will try to fix it with a patch soon. Good intentions sometimes amount to nothing, and creating your team of shinies will definitely be much more complicated than it seemed. I just hope you haven’t spent a Master Ball on this.

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Is TikTok avoiding Apple’s commissions? It seems so

It’s 2024 and it seems like TikTok has deployed a tactic similar to what Fortnite did in 2020 on its iOS app.

It’s 2024 and it seems that TikTok has implemented a tactic similar to what Fortnite did in 2020 in its iOS application. Now the question is: Is TikTok infringing Apple’s rules?

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In 2020, Apple banned the popular video game Fortnite from its sacred and monopolistic App Store. The game’s publisher, Epic Games, tried to avoid paying Apple its 30% commission for in-app purchases of the game’s V-Bucks currency.

In response to Fortnite’s solution, which redirected users outside of the App Store to make purchases, Apple removed the game from the App Store.

Asking customers to buy coins outside of Apple’s system cost Epic Games a ban

Developer David Tesler shared screenshots on Twitter on Tuesday showing that TikTok was urging users to purchase coins through the app, but not through Apple’s in-app purchase system, which would provide the iPhone maker with a 30% commission.

These screenshots show that TikTok is explicitly asking its users to make a purchase through its website, where it then redirects users within the app so they can buy coins.

“Try again by reloading on tiktok.com,” says the TikTok app’s pop-up window that appears in the screenshot: “You can save the service fee and access popular payment methods.”

TikTok users buy these coins to send tips to their favorite creators.

When a user selects a coin purchase option, TikTok informs users that making this purchase through the website will allow them to save around 25% due to a lower third-party service fee.

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Now, as mentioned earlier, Fortnite was famously banned from the App Store years ago due to similar tactics by Epic Games. However, there have been numerous lawsuits and policy changes regarding Apple’s App Store rules in the almost 4 years since Fortnite was expelled.

Since then, Apple has softened its rules regarding apps that direct users to alternative payment methods. Will Apple dare to take on TikTok?

The strangest, craziest, and most disgusting animated film is back with its own series.

In 2016, an animated film was released in theaters that confused many parents, horrifying them alongside their children and scandalizing all kinds of audiences. Sausage Party, the madness written by Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Evan Goldberg, turned out to not only be vulgar in its teenage humor but also in bad taste. But it wasn’t going to stop there… much to our regret.

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On July 11th, Amazon Prime Video will premiere The Sausage Party: Foodtopia. It is a direct sequel to the movie in series format, which apparently is even more disgusting than the movie itself. Is there really an audience for this?

Sausages for everyone

“There is a specific scene that had a special screening for Amazon’s public relations team,” Seth Rogen tells Empire about the series. “Everyone should start thinking about this now. They will probably talk a lot about it. A few days ago we had Kristen Wiig repeating some lines and I think we were all stunned because we thought, ‘Give us the scene!’ And then she says, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy!’“.

The best Easter eggs and cameos from the eighth episode of X-Men 97′.

‘X-Men 97’ has become a must-watch weekly event for all Marvel fans. Without a doubt, the series by the fired Beau DeMayo is showing how things should be done at the studio to regain the lost fandom in the past two years, and it seems to be a turning point for the company’s future.

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In the eighth chapter, we encounter a fierce battle that begins between the X-Men and the villain Bastion, who has turned people from all over the world into “human sentinels” to fight against mutants. The episode is chaos in every sense; the beginning of a war that will end in a big way. But it has also been an episode in which we have been able to see all kinds of cameos and easter eggs. Here are the best ones.

Spider-Man is here!

Undoubtedly, the best revelation of the chapter has been the appearance of Spider-Man, and not just any Spider-Man! The Spider-Man from the nineties series, who has already crossed paths with the X-Men on several occasions before, makes an appearance as part of the upcoming war.

Two villains from Wolverine make an appearance

In addition to Spider-Man, we can take a look at two other very important Marvel characters: Silver Samurai and Omega Red. Both were enemies of the X-Men, specifically of Wolverine, and it seems that they will also be part of the final war.

Juggernaut also appears… in his own way

Another famous villain that appears in the last episode of X-Men 97′ is Juggernaut, but there’s a catch. In reality, Morph takes on his form to fight against the Sentinels.

Doctor Doom and Baron Zemo as allies of Bastion

At the beginning of the episode, it is revealed that Bastion is not alone, but has several allies in his plans around the world. The two most recognizable ones are Doctor Doom and Baron Zemo.

Other details

The chapter is full of references for X-Men fans, from the ending with Charles Xavier calling his X-Men to the phrase “Magneto was right“, so often repeated in the comics. We can also see Cable’s quantum computer that allows him to time travel, as well as a reference to the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Without a doubt, the series has spared nothing for the imagination.

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Taylor Swift manages to get TikTok and Universal to agree

If you remember the case well, Universal Music Group started withdrawing their music from TikTok on February 1st, when the old contract expired.

A few weeks ago, the agreement between Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record label, and the Chinese video giant TikTok exploded. The two companies did not reach an understanding and the music of Taylor Swift (among others) disappeared from the social network.

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Now, months after that fight, Universal Music Group has signed a “multidimensional” agreement with TikTok by which its roster of artists – including Taylor Swift, Drake, and Olivia Rodrigo – will return to the platform’s over one billion users.

If you remember the case well, Universal Music Group started removing its music from TikTok on February 1, when the old contract expired.

TikTok agrees to fight against AI in the music world

In particular, the agreement will address the concerns that UMG and its artists have with generative AI. “TikTok and UMG will work together to ensure that the development of AI in the music industry protects the human art and the economy that flows to those artists and composers,” reads a press release announcing the agreement.

“TikTok also commits to working with UMG to remove unauthorized AI-generated music from the platform, as well as tools to improve attribution for artists and composers,” they explain.

“We are delighted to welcome UMG and UMPG back to TikTok,” said Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development. “In particular, we will work together to ensure that AI tools are developed responsibly to enable a new era of musical creativity and fan engagement, while also protecting human creativity.”

The agreement also includes “new monetization opportunities” that arise from TikTok’s growing e-commerce capabilities.

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TikTok also commits to continue creating tools to help artists better leverage the platform in areas such as analytics and integrated ticket sales.

Finally, companies claim that they are working quickly to bring artists back to the platform. Every minute counts.

This dark superhero movie from a saga that deserved much more arrives on HBO Max.

In the early 2000s, when the ban on superheroes was lifted and comic book adaptations to the big screen were no longer frowned upon, Guillermo del Toro, a director who was just starting to make a name for himself, had the luck to adapt Hellboy for the first time to the big screen. Mike Mignola’s comic book came to life with great box office success, and four years later its highly successful sequel arrived: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

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Now, HBO Max (Max in the United States) has just added this great movie to its catalog, as a reaffirmation that, 16 years later, Hellboy 2 is still a wonderful movie that is worth watching over and over again. At the very least, much better than the forgettable Hellboy of 2019. But what makes this film special?

Hellboy is on fire

First of all, the plot of Hellboy II grabs you from beginning to end. The story follows the benevolent demon, Hellboy, as he fights against an elf prince determined to awaken an army of invincible mechanical creatures. Action is guaranteed, as well as hilarious comedy touches and supernatural elements that keep the viewer hooked to the screen.

In addition, the characters are magnificently developed. Hellboy, brilliantly portrayed by Ron Perlman, is a charismatic and complex protagonist who struggles with his demonic identity and his desire to belong to the human world. But the supporting characters, like Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien, also have depth and contribute significantly to the story.

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But the most outstanding, of course, is the artistic direction of Guillermo del Toro. It is simply amazing. Each scene is meticulously designed, from the stunning fantasy settings to the shots he chooses to tell the story. In addition, the combination of practical and digital visual effects creates a visually stunning world. A movie you must immerse yourself in at some point.

What is the perfect duration for a movie? The audience is clear about it, although the directors are not so sure

In recent years, we have become accustomed to movies that last a whopping three hours or more. Although it was already common in the past decade for many movies to last up to two and a half hours, now it has practically become a standard for blockbusters to reach 180 minutes. However, this is not exactly what the audience likes the most.

As The Guardian reports, the perfect duration for a movie is, no more and no less, than 92 minutes. The publication is based on a survey conducted by Talker Research in which 2,000 Americans of all ages and backgrounds were interviewed. 15% said that movies over 120 minutes (2 hours) were acceptable, but only 2% thought a movie over 150 minutes (2:30h) was okay.

No more three-hour movies, please

Interestingly, this is something that completely clashes with directors. The only one of the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time that does not reach two and a half hours is The Lion King of 2019 – which, well, lasts 118 minutes – and three last more than three hours: Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Sense of Water, and Titanic. In short, do filmmakers have anything to learn from the audience?

Microsoft invested billions of dollars in OpenAI… out of fear of Google

Fear, sometimes, is the great catalyst. In this case, Microsoft bet on fear in OpenAI and succeeded. Today we have Microsoft feared Google.

Microsoft invested 1 billion dollars in OpenAI in 2019 because it was “very concerned” that Google was years ahead in expanding its efforts in artificial intelligence.

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An internal email, titled “Thoughts on OpenAI,” between Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, CEO Satya Nadella, and co-founder Bill Gates reveals some high-level discussions around an investment opportunity in the months leading up to Microsoft’s announcement of the partnership.

The email was made public on Tuesday as part of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google, reported Business Insider.

Microsoft discovered to be years behind Google in AI

“We are multiple years behind the competition in terms of machine learning scale,” Scott wrote in his email on June 12, 2019 to Nadella and Gates. And he details how Microsoft engineers took six months to replicate Google’s BERT language model and train it “because our infrastructure was not up to par.”

Scott says that at first he dismissed the AI efforts of OpenAI and Google DeepMind when the companies were competing to see who “could achieve the most impressive gaming feat,” a clear reference to the demonstrations of Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo Zero.

Scott quickly became more impressed when things moved towards natural language processing models. “When I tried to understand where the differences in capability between Google and us for model training were, I got very concerned,” wrote Scott.

Some of Google’s early AI models helped it gain a competitive advantage over Bing, said Scott, and he even praised Google’s autocomplete features in Gmail that were “becoming eerily good” in 2019.

It is not clear in this internal email who initiated the discussion about investing in OpenAI in 2019, but Business Insider reported earlier this week that Bill Gates had been regularly meeting with OpenAI since 2016 and helped negotiate the agreement.

Microsoft has now invested over 13 billion dollars in OpenAI, adding their models to Office applications, their Bing search engine, Edge, and even within their Windows operating system.

This has helped Microsoft to be seen as a leader in AI, instead of falling behind as feared five years ago. Fear, sometimes, is the great catalyst. In this case, Microsoft bet on fear in OpenAI and got it right.

Elon Musk has just fired the entire team at Tesla responsible for the Superchargers

The Tesla Supercharger team, responsible for managing and developing electric vehicle charging stations, has been fired.

Tesla developed the North American Charging Standard (NACS) for electric vehicles, which has been opened to other manufacturers in recent years. The nationwide availability of charging stations has been considered a success, especially considering the agreements reached with rival companies (Ford, General Motors, etc.) to use these locations.

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Well, the Tesla Supercharger team, responsible for the management and development of electric vehicle charging stations throughout the United States, has been fired.

William Jameson, responsible for Tesla’s strategic cargo programs, announced the news through Twitter. His message said: “Confirmed: @Tesla @elonmusk has fired our entire charging organization. What this means for the charging network, NACS, and all the exciting work we were doing in the industry, I still don’t know. It’s been a wild ride.”

Tesla begins massive layoffs to save its accounts

The news of the staff layoffs comes after a turbulent few weeks for Tesla and Elon Musk. Due to pressure from rival car manufacturers, the company cut many of its flagship models worldwide and recalled the Cybertrucks due to an accelerator problem that put human life at risk.

Musk said in a memo, first published by The Information, that the electric car manufacturer had to be “absolutely tough” in cost reduction.

Drew Baglino, Head of Powertrain at Tesla, and Rohan Patel, Head of Business Development, resigned after the need to reduce the workforce by 10% was announced.

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Elon Musk continued his statement regarding the reduction of Tesla’s workforce: “as part of this effort, we have conducted a thorough review of the organization and have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by more than 10% worldwide. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will allow us to be agile, innovative, and prepared for the next growth cycle.”

This next growth phase cycle will not include 14,000 employees, nor Rebecca Tinucci, head of the Supercharger team, nor Daniel Ho, head of New Products.

Elon Musk tweeted after the layoffs saying that Tesla still plans to expand the Supercharger network, but at a slower pace for new locations and more focused on 100% uptime and expanding existing locations.

This slower pace may be due to the slowdown in earnings and growth that the company reported earlier this month. These decisions to cut costs for electric vehicles, senior staff, and a tenth of the company’s workforce can be attributed, in part, to an unfavorable fourth-quarter earnings report.

Windows 11 will not have a watermark, it was a hoax

Perhaps Microsoft could put a watermark on Windows 11 somewhere to promulgate this warning about AI Explorer, but it wasn’t true.

Fears about the Windows 11 watermark for PCs that do not meet the AI Explorer requirements were unfounded, clarifies a famous insider who often accurately leaks the new Windows steps.

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It is rumored that the next big feature of Windows 11 will be AI Explorer – in fact, it is strongly rumored – and recently there has been some controversy about how it could be implemented in the operating system.

The reason has been a recent Twitter post by the well-known Microsoft leaker Albacore, who has unearthed clues in the Windows 11 code that suggest that AI Explorer checks PC system components and notifies if they do not meet the requirements for the AI feature.

It will only notify us within the AI Explorer itself

Some interpreted it as a hint that maybe Microsoft could put a watermark on Windows 11 somewhere to enforce this warning, but Albacore just tweeted again to clarify that it will definitely not be the case.

As you can see, the author of the leak clearly states that any warning about the system not meeting the necessary requirements would be placed exclusively in the AI Explorer interface itself.

This means that you would open the AI Explorer application (it will be a standalone application, not to be confused with File Explorer), and it would simply present you with that information (“you cannot run this” essentially).

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As Albacore says, there would be no notice throughout the operating system indicating it, such as a watermark or other notice in the general Windows 11 interface. This would be limited only to the Windows 11 app, so it wouldn’t bother you if you never go near it.