Month: June 2020

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  The Magic Keyboard with a 12.9-inch 2020 iPad Pro. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

Apple may soon add keyboard shortcuts for the iPad that would perform some of the actions Mac and PC users use the function or media keys for, according to 9to5Mac. The claim is based on analysis of code within iPadOS 13.5.5 beta.

When we reviewed the iPad Pro's new Magic Keyboard peripheral, one of our main complaints was the lack of physical media keys. Some features like managing media playback or changing screen brightness are available in the Control Center, which is a simple swipe away.

But others, like keyboard backlight brightness, have to be changed deep within the Settings app, whereas they could be changed with one or two taps on the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar or the MacBook Air's function keys. The Apple-made keyboard attachments for the various iPad models have no Touch Bar, and they lack function or media keys.

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  The Moto G Fast, looking way better than a $200 phone should look. [credit: Motorola ]

Motorola is releasing some cheap smartphones for 2020. You might think the company had already done this with the April release of the Moto G Stylus ($299) and the Moto G Power ($249), but today Motorola is announcing more budget devices for the US: the Moto G Fast ($199) and the 2020 version of the Moto E ($149).

Motorola's 2020 lineup of phones-at-$50-increments is getting pretty complicated, so maybe a big table would help:

One big oddity in Motorola's phone lineup is that none of these phones has NFC. You won't be able to use tap-and-pay with Google Pay anywhere, which is disappointing. They at least all have headphone jacks, Android 10, rear capacitive fingerprint readers, and Micro SD slots, which is nice. The Moto E is the only phone that is still using the dusty old Micro USB standard, which sadly is a normal occurrence at this price point.

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  Welcome back to Westwood's classic RTS series in this week's new Remastered Collection. [credit: EA / Petroglyph ]

The strategy, the explosions, the FMV sequences, the ripping guitars, and the Kane-fueled cheese—they're all back. The original 1995 game Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and its 1996 prequel Red Alert have returned in today's launch of the C&C Remastered Collection on Windows 8/10 (Amazon, Steam, Origin). In good news, the package is right for the price: $20 gets you both original games, all of their expansion packs (one for C&C:TD, two for Red Alert), and each game's console-exclusive content. The complete package has been aesthetically touched up for the sake of working on modern PCs.

I've spent the past week tinkering with Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection to break down exactly what to expect and how you should temper your real-time strategy expectations. Despite a few quality-of-life tweaks, the package is otherwise faithful to the originals—almost to a fault—while its compatibility with modern PCs is mostly good enough.

From 400p to 2160p, but not without issues

The package's biggest selling point is a new coat of high-res paint. Every single asset and map element has been redrawn, and like other recent classic-game remaster projects, this one includes a handy "graphic-swap" button. By default, tap the space bar at any time during single-player modes to switch from the original 400p assets to a new, 2160p-optimized suite of units, buildings, and terrain. Here, enjoy an after-and-before gallery of both zoomed-in units and full battleground scenes.

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A major investment group with substantial holdings in Activision stock is speaking out this week against the high compensation for Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. The move comes ahead of a shareholder vote on executive pay scheduled for June 11.

"Over the past four years, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick has received over $20 million in combined stock/option equity per year," the CtW investment group writes in a letter filed with the SEC this week. "These equity grants have consistently been larger than the total pay (the sum of base salary, annual bonus, and equity pay) of CEO peers at similar companies."

CtW—which works with union-sponsored pension funds to speak out against "irresponsible and unethical corporate behavior and excessive executive pay"—said Kotick's excessive compensation is especially concerning in light of the wave of nearly 800 layoffs the company rolled out in 2019. Those layoffs were implemented amid the announcement of "record results in 2018" for Activision and reportedly focused on "non-development teams" that were no longer needed thanks to a lighter slate of releases from the company going forward.