November, 2020

• 18 November

  Creating the new Call of Duty during a pandemic: ‘We had no idea how we were going to do any of this’

  

  Activision’s Call of Duty is one of the biggest game franchises ever. Last year’s edition, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, made more than $1 billion for the gaming giant within two months of launch.  Producing a massive game like Call of Duty is never easy, especially when preparing for new, next-generation game console hardware. Throw in …

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• 18 November

  Apple to pay $113M settlement over its iPhone ‘batterygate’ slowdowns

  

  Apple is paying $113 million to settle an investigation by 34 states and the District of Columbia over the company’s practice of slowing down the performance of older iPhones when their batteries degrade. The practice wasn’t announced by Apple but rather proved by internet sleuths. That led regulators and customers alike to criticize the company for not being forthcoming, particularly …

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• 18 November

  The MacBook is changing fast, but it’s still missing some key features

  

  Apple’s latest generation of Macs has shifted to a whole new set of Apple-made chips. These MacBooks, and a Mac Mini, use an M1 processor that sounds like a more advanced version of the graphics-boosted processors in recent iPad Pro models, and promise incredible gains in performance and battery life. And yet, these MacBooks and Mac Minis don’t look any …

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• 18 November

  Chrome and Firefox reportedly now available for Apple’s M1 Macs

  

  Google Chrome has reportedly released an updated version that supports Apple’s new lineup of Macs with its own homemade silicon. According to 9to5Google, the Apple silicon version of Chrome for Mac is available now. You can get it from the Chrome site by clicking “download” and then selecting “Mac with Apple chip.” Developers on Twitter also spotted preliminary support for …

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• 18 November

  Logitech G Pro X Superlight wireless gaming mouse sheds weight, not speed for $150

  

  There’s not much to Logitech G’s latest wireless gaming mouse, but that’s sort of the point. The Pro X Superlight is less than 63 grams (2.2 ounces), making it the company’s lightest mouse ever, and 25% lighter than its standard Pro wireless mouse. That’s about a 20-gram difference. To get it that low, Logitech trimmed it up all over — …

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• 18 November

  Jabra Elite 85t review: AirPods Pro competitor impresses but doesn’t wow

  

  Like many people, I’d been waiting for Jabra to put out a set of noise-canceling true-wireless earbuds. It finally has: the Elite 85t ($230, £220, AU$349). What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that it would also add noise cancellation to the earlier Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t via a firmware upgrade. This gives you two Jabra noise-canceling options, one significantly less expensive than …

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• 18 November

  Houseparty in Fortnite brings in

  

  After acquiring the Houseparty app earlier this year, Fortnite developer Epic Games is bringing in-game video chat to the popular battle royale game. The new feature, called Houseparty in Fortnite, is available for players on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC, and also requires people to have Houseparty installed on an iOS or Android device.  “With accounts linked, fire up Fortnite …

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• 18 November

  Download MacOS Big Sur now; here’s how

  

  This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET’s complete coverage from and about Apple’s annual developers conference. Apple’s latest operating system MacOS Big Sur is now available for download as a free software update for all users, so long as your Mac is compatible. The newly designed operating system includes major updates to the Safari web browser, and refreshed Maps and Messages apps (we’ve rounded up some …

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• 18 November

  12 of the best hidden WhatsApp features you need to know

  

  Looking for ways to get more out of WhatsApp on your Android phone or iPhone? We have your back. For example, rolling out right now is a new setting that will automatically clear out your messages after a week. It’s a Snapchat-like feature, sure, but who says that’s not welcome in other apps? You can even format the text you send in a message, adding …

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• 18 November

  Marissa Mayer wants to help you organize your contacts

  

  Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is launching a new app.  Mayer and Enrique Muñoz Torres, co-founder of Lumi Labs (now rebranding as Sunshine), have created Sunshine Contacts, an app for managing contacts, according to a press release Wednesday. Sunshine Contacts uses artificial intelligence to organize contacts, remove duplicates and automatically update contact information.  “The essential technologies that help us stay …

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