Month: February 2023

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)

Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Instagram that his company is testing out a new subscription service to help Facebook and Instagram users “get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you.” Called Meta Verified, the monthly service will cost $11.99 on the web and $14.99 on iOS and Android. It’s being rolled out in Australia and New Zealand starting this week, and there are plans to offer the service in other countries soon.

Reactions on Instagram were mixed, with approximately 35,000 users reacting with thumbs up, hearts, tears, laughter, anger, and shock emoji.

A Meta blog went into further detail on how the monthly subscription service works. Users will show a government ID to authenticate their accounts and will receive a verified badge. Meta will then begin proactively monitoring to block impostor accounts while providing additional account support. Similar to Twitter Blue, the Meta Verified service offers users “increased visibility and reach.” Announced before Twitter Blue launched, the monthly subscription service is designed partly in response to top creator requests “for broader access to verification and account support,” Meta’s blog said. Subscribers will also have access to “exclusive features” like stickers to help their posts stand out even more from basic accounts.

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Twitter announced Friday that as of March 20, it will only allow its users to secure their accounts with SMS-based two-factor authentication if they pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, requires users to log in with a username and password and then an additional “factor” such as a numeric code. Security experts have long advised that people use a generator app to get these codes. But receiving them in SMS text messages is a popular alternative, so removing that option for unpaid users has left security experts scratching their heads.

Twitter's two-factor move is the latest in a series of controversial policy changes since Elon Musk acquired the company last year. The paid service Twitter Blue—the only way to get a blue verified checkmark on Twitter accounts now—costs $11 per month on Android and iOS and less for a desktop-only subscription. Users being booted off of SMS-based two-factor authentication will have the option to switch to an authenticator app or a physical security key.

Enlarge / Efficient design and a big battery combine in the Lucid Air Grand Touring. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

It's been more than a decade since Tesla proved that it's possible to start a new American automaker—and even become profitable. Its success has sparked a wave of subsequent EV startups, each with a mission to decarbonize our transportation sector. But that was a difficult prospect even before 2020 brought its own flavor of disruption to this nascent industry.

Of those upstarts, Rivian and Lucid have made it into production thanks to large investments. Rivian is busy building EV pickups and SUVs aimed at those with an affluent outdoorsy lifestyle, plus 100,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon. Lucid is further behind, but it too has gone into production with the Lucid Air, a handsome luxury sedan with a tiny drag coefficient, oodles of power and torque, and a rather hefty price tag—the Air Grand Touring we tested starts at $138,000.

Ars first met the Lucid Air in 2017 when the company brought one of its alpha prototypes to Washington, DC, to show off to lawmakers. In 2021, we went for a ride in the passenger seat, but now we've had some actual seat time in this intriguing EV.

Enlarge / A human player races against several instances of GT Sophy, a highly capable racing AI developed by Sony. (credit: Sony)

Last year, Sony AI and Polyphony Digital, the developers of Gran Turismo, developed a new AI agent that is able to race at a world-class level. At the time, the experiment was described in a paper in Nature, where the researchers showed that this AI was not only capable of driving very fast—something other AI have done in the past—but also learned tactics, strategy, and even racing etiquette.

At the time, GT Sophy—the name of the AI—wasn't quite ready for prime time. For example, it often passed opponents at the earliest opportunity on a straight, allowing itself to be overtaken in the next braking zone. And unlike human players, GT Sophy would try to overtake players with impending time penalties—humans would just wait for that penalized car to slow to gain the place.

But in the intervening year, Sony AI and Polyphony Digital have been working on GT Sophy, and tomorrow (February 21), GT Sophy rolls out to Gran Turismo 7 as part of update 1.29, at least for a limited time. Until the end of March, players can try their skills against Sophy in the GT Sophy Race Together mode in a series of races with increasing difficulty levels. There's also a one-versus-one match where you race Sophy in identical cars, so you can see how much slower you are than the AI.

Enlarge / The glorious future that awaits you in Atomic Heart involves dismantling a lot of the glorious future constructed by an alternate-history Soviet Russia. (credit: Mundfish / Focus Entertainment)

Note: Atomic Heart arrived to us in the middle of last week, with its embargo falling on a holiday Monday. What follows is not a full review but impressions of the first few hours. There are very light spoilers for the first 6-7 hours of gameplay.

One of the best things a first-person action game can have is a great kick. As a backup when ammo is scarce, or a crowd control tactic, a solid boot adds gravity to combat that can otherwise become detached crosshair clicking.

In Atomic Heart, you don't have a kick, but the humanoid robots sure do. Give them a chance, and they'll fling themselves into a two-footed jump-kick that hits like a fishtailing Chevy. If you don’t dash out of the way, you spin and hit the ground with a thud, slowly getting up from your hands while vulnerable to more damage. It's some of the most visceral melee fighting I've seen in a first-person shooter. And the gunplay has a similar oomph.