Month: April 2022

Ubisoft Singapore’s Skull & Bones was a long-awaited release. Announced at E3 2017, the pirate adventure has been delayed for several years; the most recent update from Ubisoft came in September 2020, more than 18 months ago.

Skull & Bones finally resurfaced Friday when a Redditor uploaded a leak showing six minutes gameplay. It described it as a tutorial video meant for Alpha testers — and detailed the “infamy system” as well as crafting features. Ubisoft has confirmed that this leak is genuine to Polygon.

The leaked footage comprises a narrated tutorial video that goes over the infamy system, which tracks your reputation as a pirate. As you rank up your infamy, you’ll get access to new opportunities like the ability to build better and cooler-looking ships. To level up, you will be able to make “high-risk, high-reward” contracts with NPCs in the game, the narrator says, as well as explore, plunder, and complete world events.

Along with exploring the land, you can also set sail to board ships and navigate them — Skull & Bones a pirate game. The video emphasizes survival elements and the importance of keeping your ship well stocked. You can’t give your crew enough food and they will rebel against you. According to the video, crafting is an “essential” part of the game that will allow you to upgrade your ship’s stats, like attack damage and HP.

Asked for comment on the leak, a Ubisoft representative confirmed to Polygon that the footage comes from an “early version” of Skull & Bones:

We can confirm this is a glimpse of our upcoming game Skull & Bones. We recently ran a technical testing of the game, and some details were made public. This video footage was taken from an early version of the game and doesn’t reflect the quality and features of the final game. More information about the game will be available soon.

Skull & Bones‘ development has been plagued with setbacks. It was first shown at E3 2017 and has since been delayed several times. The game was originally supposed to come out in 2019, and then got pushed to 2020. It’s 2022 now, but it looks like this ship might finally be ready to set sail.

So far, there’s been no substantive update on Skull & Bones from Ubisoft. However, the game’s official Twitter account posted a brief clip this morning with the text “Keep your eyes on the horizon…” and a desert island emoji. It’s only the second tweet from the account since the aforementioned development update in September 2020.

The weekly Exotic item merchant, Xur, hangs out in random locations around the world of Destiny. In Destiny 2, he can appear all over the map, as well as inside the Tower. This week, you can find Xur in Nessus, standing on a giant tree overlooking the Watcher’s Grave.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Xur’s inventory this week consists of the following:

• Hard Light, Arc/Solar/Void auto rifle: 29 Legendary Shards
• Gemini Jester, Hunter legs: 23 Legendary Shards
• Mk. 44 Stand Asides, Titan legs: 23 Legendary Shards
• Nezarec’s Sin, Warlock helmet: 23 Legendary Shards
• Exotic Engram: 97 Legendary Shards (you can now purchase a second with an Exotic Cipher)
• Exotic Cipher quest: free

As of Season of the Risen and The Witch Queen, Xur sells a random roll of both Hawkmoon and Dead Man’s Tale each week.

Here are the special Exotic weapons he’s selling:

• Hawkmoon, Kinetic hand cannon (Rangefinder): 125,000 Glimmer, 200 Legendary Shards, Exotic Cipher, Ascendant Shard
• Dead Man’s Tale, Kinetic scout rifle (Vorpal Weapon): 125,000 Glimmer, 200 Legendary Shards, Exotic Cipher, Ascendant Shard

As of Season of the Lost, Xur also sells a collection of old armor and weapons — similar to Banshee-44 and Ada-1. Usually, these items are difficult to find and from seasons long past. Each item (whether armor or weapon) costs only 1,000 Glimmer and 50 Legendary Shards.

Xur’s Legendary inventory this week consists of the following:

• Seventh Seraph Carbine, Arc auto rifle
• Jian 7, Arc pulse rifle
• False Promises, Kinetic auto rifle
• Timeline’s Vertex, Solar fusion rifle
• Widow’s Bite, Solar sniper rifle
• Negative Space, Solar sword
• Frozen Orbit, Void sniper rifle
• Season of the Splicer armor set

Xur’s items drop at a power level similar to that of your character.

Hard Light

Hard Light’s exotic perk, Volatile Light, causes its projectiles to have no damage fall-off at range, and to pierce targets and ricochet off walls. Shots that bounce off of walls deal bonus damage. Hard Light can also shift between all three elemental types by holding down the reload button.

Hard Light is a great gun for matching elements in a Nightfall or for PvP. Pick this up if you don’t have it.

Gemini Jester

Gemini Jester is one of the Exotics added in Curse of Osiris. Its main exotic perk is Misdirection. If you dodge near an enemy, you’ll disorient them, removing their radar if they’re a human player. This is a decent PvP exotic if you’re sick of running the classics. To be successful, you must be near the target.

Xur’s roll this week comes with 62 total stats.

Mk. 44 Stand Asides

The Mk. 44 Stand Asides‘ main perk in Destiny 2 is Seriously, Watch Out. When Titans are equipped with Seismic Stike ,, Shield bash and they have maximum health, they can get an Overshield while sprinting at full speed. Your melee energy is quickly replenished when you strike an enemy using these abilities. This perk works well for Titans who are aggressive, particularly in PvP. If you have a Titan, pick these up.

Xur’s roll this week comes with 68 total stats.

Nezarec’s Sin

Nezarec’s Sin isn’t a particularly exciting Warlock helmet, but it’s very good. The main perk is Abyssal Extractors, which causes Void damage kills to recharge your ability energy. It’s boring but it is very effective. This includes Void damage from your subclass and from your energy or power weapons. If you ever play Voidwalker or have a Void weapon that you use all the time, pick up this great helmet.

Xur’s roll this week comes with 69 total stats.

Exotic Cipher quest

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Starting in Beyond Light, Xur has a new quest for an Exotic Cipher. You can buy Exotics at the Monuments to Lost Light kiosk located in the tower with the Exotic Cipher. These items will be required along with other currency to purchase Exotics such as Heir Apparent or Truth.

This week, Xur wants you to complete 21 Strikes or win Crucible or Gambit matches. You’ll get an Exotic Cipher if you complete the quest.

It’s been one year since Apple released its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature – which is a way to improve consumer privacy where users can choose to opt-out of third-party app tracking. A new article from Recode takes a look back at the first year of Apple’s privacy feature.

When you first use an app, a popup appears asking for permission to monitor your activities across different apps or to ask the app not to. The feature arrived with iOS 14. 5 and is used across iPhones and iPads.

“A user’s data belongs to them and they should get to decide whether to share their data and with whom,” Apple told Recode. “With iOS and iPad OS, we have given users the choice whether or not they want to allow apps to track them across apps and websites owned by other companies.”

ATT has shaken the mobile ad industry by giving advertisers less user data to work with. Companies that rely on this data for their ads, have had to rethink their plans in order to stay afloat.

From a user privacy standpoint, App Tracking Transparency seems like a good thing. This is not the best thing you think, or Apple would have you believe.

The article also states that with people constantly using their phones, it’s been easy for apps to collect and monetize consumer data. It’s become a multibillion-dollar mobile ad economy by tracking users through their devices. Advertisers have created detailed profiles and sent users targeted ads according to their profile.

Meta vs. Apple

Meta is the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. It has long been critical of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. A couple months ago, the company announced that it expects a $10 billion loss this year due to Apple’s privacy changes. Despite this loss, the company’s ad business is still growing, just not as much as before.

“Despite Apple’s harmful policy, we’ve continued to adapt our systems to help businesses succeed while honoring privacy, and shared extensive steps they can take to maximize performance and measurement on our platforms,” Meta told Recode.

Ads on Meta’s platforms can still target users as part of large, anonymous groups, however. Since advertisers can’t track on an individual level, ads are going to be less relevant. Contextual ads can also be used, which is more relevant than user-level data.

“It used to be, you could put money in the [Facebook] machine, you get $5 or $6 back,” a former Meta advertiser notes. “And now you’re lucky if you get a one-to-one ratio back.”

Nintendo Switch Sports, out Friday on Nintendo Switch, brings back the motion-controlled fun of Wii Sports for the modern era, letting players enjoy bowling, soccer, badminton, and more with their Joy-Cons. It’s great! It’s great!

Switch Lite owners will need an external set of Joy-Cons to play Nintendo Switch Sports, similar to how earlier motion-control-dependent games like Ring Fit Adventure and 1-2-Switch work. The Nintendo Switch Sports , Nintendo states on their support site . that the Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers do not work with Nintendo Switch Sports Nintendo. )

But there are more severe limits on local multiplayer in Nintendo Switch Sports on a Switch Lite, so if you were planning on playing a close-quarters game of doubles tennis, for example, that’s not possible locally. Nintendo Switch Sports allows for two-player play in games such as tennis, badminton and volleyball. There are some game modes like bowling and soccer that allow you to pass-and-play. However, this is only possible in specific modes.

Nintendo Switch Sports supports online play so Lite users have an option to go to if you don’t mind playing in local multiplayer.

Nintendo makes note of these kinds of restrictions in Nintendo Switch Sports‘ listing on its website, noting that the Wii Sports sequel only supports TV mode and Tabletop mode, and that “software compatibility and play experience may differ on Nintendo Switch Lite.”

Nintendo Switch Lite owners are likely well aware of restrictions such as these on the handheld-only Switch by now, but for those hoping to get the most out of Nintendo Switch Sports, the standard Switch is the better option.

PlayStation Plus will be getting a revamp in a few months. This makes it a bit strange. One thing that users have observed is the inability to add more time to existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now subscriptions. Now that they’ve been pointing this out in social media and forums, Sony has updated its FAQ to clarify the policy.

In the FAQ, Sony says that subscribers to either of PlayStation’s current premium services won’t be able to add time to their existing subscriptions, also known as stacking. The company clarified however that all vouchers and pre-paid codes players might have may still be valid. Those codes will have to be redeemed after Sony moves to its new version of PlayStation Plus starting on June 13.

One thing that’s a little confusing is what exactly these voucher codes will be good for after the transition. Because the prices of both the old and new plans are slightly different, it seems like all codes will be valid for different amounts or tiers in PlayStation Plus’ new service.

Instead of trying to explain it all, here’s Sony’s somewhat-helpful chart:

Sony also wants current PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now subscribers to know that their subscriptions aren’t going away, even if the names are changing. Members who have active PlayStation Plus subscriptions on June 13 will be migrated to PlayStation Plus Essential subscriptions, which are functionally the same as their current service. Players who are still enrolled in PlayStation Now Subscriptions on June 9 will receive PlayStation Plus Essential subscriptions. This includes all the features of PlayStation Plus as well as PlayStation Now.

For a full breakdown of all the changes coming to PlayStation Plus and answers to your many questions, check out Sony’s PlayStation Plus page on the PlayStation website.

Samit Sarkar contributed additional reporting to this story.

A new study digging into how Amazon uses Alexa voice recordings from its customers has concluded that the company and third parties leverage the audio to deliver targeted ads directly on Echo smart speakers as well as the web. That’s in contrast to Apple not using Siri recordings for ads and sharing voice data being turned off by default on devices like HomePod and iPhone since 2019. However, Amazon contends the new research is based on “inaccurate inferences or speculation.”

Reported by The Verge, the new study: Your Echos are Heard: Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Amazon Smart Speaker Ecosystem was done by researchers at the University of Washington, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and Northeastern University.

At a high level, the research concluded that Amazon and third parties are collecting and sharing Alexa voice interactions from Echo speakers with up to 41 different advertising partners. This data can be used to “infer” user preferences and deliver targeted ads across Echo speakers, as well as the internet. This voice data appears to be highly lucrative with the study claiming smart speaker interactions get “30X higher ad bids from advertisers.”

Responding to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild said the company does use Alexa voice data to place relevant ads on Amazon and other places it has ads.

As an analogy to the experience you would have if your order was placed on Amazon.com, or a song requested through Amazon Music. If you ask Alexa for paper towels, or for a song to be played on Amazon Music then Amazon’s record may help you to find relevant ads on Amazon.com and other websites where Amazon has ads.

Raemhild confirmed that it also uses targeted ads on Echo smart speakers for customers who use premium, ad-supported content .”

The study said it found it was only processed transcripts of Alexa data that were being shared not raw audio, which lines up with what Amazon says.

However, the research raised questions about how transparent Amazon is with Alexa voice data. All third-party Alexa Skills that gather personal information are required to post privacy policies.

However, the report found that those policies were spotty at best, with more than 70 percent of the skills it examined not even mentioning Alexa or Amazon, and only 10 skills (2. 2 percent) being clear about data collection practices in their privacy policies.

The researchers concluded that there was a need for more transparency and control in data collection, sharing and use of smart speaker platforms and third-party skills. .”

For its part, Amazon’s Raemhild said:

Many of the conclusions drawn in this research were based on speculation or incorrect inferences by the authors and don’t accurately represent how Alexa operates.

…

We are not in the business of selling our customers’ personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks.

Privacy with Siri

While the study didn’t mention Apple and Siri, the research creates a distinction between how Apple and companies like Amazon may handle sensitive data.

Apple did land in some hot water back in 2019 when it was discovered that it was using <1% of Siri recordings to help improve the virtual assistant but it wasn't using the data for ads or sharing it with partners.

And in late 2019, Apple shifted sharing Siri recordings to be opt-in. That means Siri recordings are not shared by default and users have full control of the privacy feature (Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements > Improve Siri & Dictation).

Note: there was a bug with this in iOS 15 which Apple resolved in iOS 15.4.