Meta sues a site cloner who allegedly scraped over 350,000 Instagram profiles

Meta is taking legal action against two prolific data scrapers. On Tuesday, the company filed separate federal lawsuits against a company called Octopus and an individual named Ekrem Ateş. According to Meta, the former is the US subsidiary of a Chinese…

NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite has gone dark

NASA has lost contact with CAPSTONE, a tiny satellite that left Earth’s orbit on July 4th. CAPSTONE is a cubesat weighing just 55 pounds, and it’s headed for the Moon as part of NASA’s plan to get humans back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. 

The small satellite stopped communicating with engineers on July 4th shortly after deploying from an Electron rocket bus and exiting Earth’s orbit. A NASA spokesperson told Space.com that the team has solid trajectory information for CAPSTONE and handlers are attempting to re-establish contact with the cubesat. 

“If needed, the mission has enough fuel to delay the initial post-separation trajectory correction maneuver for several days,” the spokesperson told the site.

CAPSTONE spent six days building up speed in-orbit on a Rocket Lab Electron booster and finally deployed yesterday, on a path to the Moon. The plan is for CAPSTONE to enter a near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon on November 13th, serving as a test for NASA’s Artemis mission. With Artemis, NASA plans to install a space station called the Lunar Gateway in the Moon’s orbit, serving as a permanent floating base for lunar visitors, complete with living quarters and a laboratory.

NASA plans to kick off its Artemis 1 mission between August 23rd and September 6th with the deployment of an unmanned Orion module, which will orbit the Moon and provide data about how the trip might affect the human body. After that, four astronauts will take off for the lunar satellite. Finally, some time after 2025, NASA plans to put humans on the Moon again.

Respawn finally patches an ‘Apex Legends’ input lag issue on Xbox Series X/S

Apex Legends players on Xbox Series X/S haven’t been too impressed with the game over the last two weeks. Since Respawn Entertainment rolled out a large update on June 22nd, players on those consoles have been complaining about an input lag issue that seemingly made the battle royale very slow to register button presses. Thankfully, the developer may have finally resolved the matter.

“We just pushed a small update to [Apex Legends] to help address issues with input lag on Xbox Series X and S consoles,” Respawn wrote on Twitter. “Thank you for your patience here, legends.”

It’s not clear why the issue only seemed to affect current Xbox consoles, but some folks claimed it made Apex Legends practically unplayable. A Twitch streamer named Reaiming shared a clip of them rapidly pressing the trigger but the game clearly wasn’t registering all their inputs.

Members of the community found workarounds to mitigate the problem until Respawn issued a fix, such as rolling back the firmware on certain controllers. Here’s hoping today’s update resolves the issue so Xbox Series X/S players have a better chance of becoming champions. Failing that, fingers crossed they can at least enjoy the game again.

The Kindle Kids e-reader hits new low of $50 before Prime Day

There’s no need to wait for Prime Day for a decent deal on a Kindle, especially if you’re looking to pick one up for a younger person in your life. Prime members can pick up the Kindle Kids edition for $50, which is $10 cheaper than the previous all-time-low price. The usual price of the e-reader is $85.

Buy Kindle Kids (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $50

It’s a 10th-gen Kindle that comes with a two-year worry-free guarantee. Amazon will replace the device if it breaks for any reason. It’s a proper e-reader, not a rugged toy, so that guarantee might come in handy. Kindle Kids does, however, come with a kid-friendly cover.

You’ll also get one year of access to Amazon Kids+, which includes access to thousands of kid-friendly books, including the Ramona Quimby and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Parents can view their kids’ reading progress and set educational goals. Amazon Kids+ usually costs $5 per month.

Meanwhile, you can also pick up the 2019 edition of the Fire 7 without breaking the bank, since that’s also down to a record low. The tablet is currently $30, which is 40 percent off the regular price. It’s another low-cost device that could be a solid option for a child, especially if you pick up a kid-friendly case for it.

Buy 2019 Fire 7 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $30

This model comes with 16GB of storage, which you can expand with a microSD card. Amazon says it will run for up to seven hours on a single charge, which could make it useful for watching movies in the back seat during a road trip. There are parental controls you can use to make sure little ones aren’t doing anything they’re not supposed to.

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Ubisoft will drop details on Assassin’s Creed and more games on Sept. 10th

Ubisoft will share updates and announcements about its roster of projects in a showcase on September 10th at 3PM ET. The event will be streamed on Ubisoft channels on YouTube, Twitch and the studio’s official website, and it’ll include news on “multiple games and projects from Ubisoft teams around the world,” according to spokesperson Youssef Maguid.

Back in June, Ubisoft confirmed plans to share information about the future of Assassin’s Creed during a special event in September, and this appears to be that. Ubisoft is currently working on two Assassin’s Creed projects: one is a live multiplayer experience spanning multiple time periods codenamed Infinity, and the other is a standalone series installment codenamed Rift. Early reports indicate Rift started out as an expansion to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and it stars Basim Ibn Ishaq from that title.

Alongside Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft is the caretaker of Far Cry, Rabbids, Beyond Good & Evil, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rayman and Prince of Persia. A remake of the original Prince of Persia has been bouncing around Ubisoft’s studios for a few years and is now in development in Montreal, due out some time after April 2023.

Ubisoft is also hosting a broadcast for its open-world, online pirate simulator Skull and Bones on July 7th at 2PM ET. Skull and Bones has been kicking around since 2017 and it was even playable in 2018, but updates since then have been few and far between.

Games Done Quick bans speedrunning cheater from future events

Games Done Quick has banned a speedrunner from future events after they admitted to cheating during last week’s marathon. Russian player Mekarazium appeared to complete a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance expansion in a world record time. Instead of live gameplay, though, Mekarazium showed a pre-recorded video that was pieced together using parts of separate runs. They reacted to the footage in real-time to sell the ruse.

While Summer Games Done Quick took place as an in-person event for the first time since 2019, some speedrunners participated remotely. Mekazarium was one of those, which allowed them to cheat, as PCGamesN reports. The player initially sped through the main campaign of MGR: Revengeance in a seemingly legitimate run, before taking on the Blade Wolf DLC after a charity donation goal was met.

However, viewers noticed discrepancies in the Blade Wolf playthrough. Some noted there were barely any audible instances of Mekarazium pressing keys on the keyboard (which could be heard as he played the main game). At one point, Mekarazium lifts their right hand up while their character was looking around, though they claimed they controlled the mouse with their other hand.

Mekarazium also downplayed the record-breaking aspect of their run after the fact. You’d think a speedrunner would be delighted to beat their own world-best time by 25 seconds.

“The Blade Wolf DLC run incentive people paid for is a pre-recorded, segmented run,” Mekarazium told the GDQ enforcement team in a message obtained by PCGamesN. “It was supposed to be a real-time run, but I’ve changed my mind at the last second after switching the saves.”

Mekarazium said they wanted to show off the potential of the Blade Wolf run. However, they apologized and acknowledged they did “an actual bad thing.” They worried about the impact on other speedrunners too. “I acted selfishly and I haven’t put more time thinking about others,” they added.

“Yesterday, we were made aware that Mekazarium played a segmented video for his DLC run at Summer Games Done Quick 2022,” GDQ told Engadget in a statement. “Mekazarium has since admitted to this, both to some members of the community as well as directly to GDQ staff. He contacted our staff with a document detailing that he had planned this for over a month, demonstrating this was planned and intentional.

“This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speedrunning community that we love and support,” GDQ added. “The exact result they desired was unclear from the document, but it is clear that they believed we would not be willing to speak out about their behavior. However, we believe it is in the community’s best interests to know why this run was removed by GDQ. We have removed Mekazarium’s runs from our YouTube archive, and will not permit him to run in the future.”

The incident puts an unfortunate stain on another largely successful GDQ event. Speedrunners and viewers raised just over $3 million for Doctors Without Borders. There were some other hiccups, however. Some runs went longer than expected, which led to organizers cutting a couple of games from the schedule. However, they found room to add an extra Pokémon game on the final day in a bid to maximize donations.

Ubisoft will reveal updated ‘Skull and Bones’ gameplay this week

After years of delays, Ubisoft is finally ready to offer a fresh look at Skull and Bones. The publisher announced on Tuesday it plans to host a showcase dedicated to the open-world multiplayer pirate game on July 7th at 2PM ET. Ubisoft will livestream the event on YouTube and Twitch.

The company is widely expected to announce a new release date then. If you haven’t kept track of Skull and Bones’ troubled development, we don’t blame you. Ubisoft first announced the title at E3 2017, with an original release window planned for 2018. It then pushed the game back to 2019, mid-2020, 2021 and then finally its fiscal 2022-2023 year.

In 2020, Elisabeth Pellen, the game’s creative director, attributed the delays to a change of vision. The original premise of Skull and Bones was simple. It was supposed to adapt the sailing mechanics from 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV:Black Flag and strip all the narrative threads and stealth mechanics that made that game unapproachable for some.

“The answer is that we simply needed more time. We dreamt something bigger for Skull and Bones, and these ambitions naturally came with bigger challenges,” Pellen said at the time. “As Skull and Bones evolved from its original idea to what it is now, it was also necessary to have some fresh eyes join the team.” Ubisoft also announced today it plans to hold a separate event on September 10th that will feature multiple games and projects from the company’s teams.

Early Prime Day deals knock the Echo Show 5 down to $35

Amazon has announced good deals on more devices ahead of Prime Day. This time around, some smart displays are getting deep discounts. The Echo Show 5, for instance, has dropped to just $35 for Prime members. That’s $10 less than the previous all-time low and $50 below the list price.

Buy Echo Show 5 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $35

The second-gen Echo Show 5 emerged last summer. We gave the smart display, which has a 5.5-inch screen, a score of 85 in our review.

It’s a solid choice for a bedside table device, particularly given that there’s a tap-to-snooze function. The decent audio quality doesn’t hurt either. On the flip side, we found the interface less intuitive than it perhaps ought to be. The webcam, meanwhile, is only 2MP, though that’s still an improvement over the one Amazon used in the first-gen Echo Show 5.

Amazon has slashed the price of the Echo Show 8 as well. It’s down from $110 to $55. However, it’s worth noting the deal is for the first-gen version of the device, which was released in 2019. An updated model followed in 2021.

Buy Echo Show 8 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $55

The eight-inch smart display has a camera shutter (as does the Echo Show 5) and stereo sound. It’s Alexa-powered and supports video calls, but it only has a 1MP webcam — the second-gen Echo Show 8 has a 13MP webcam. Still, $55 is not a bad price if you’re looking to pick up an inexpensive smart display with a larger, higher-resolution screen than Echo Show 5.

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Amazon’s Echo Dot drops to $20 ahead of Prime Day

Prime Day is still a week away, but Amazon is getting the jump on one of its biggest events of the year by putting a bunch of its own products on sale a little early. One of those is the fourth-gen Echo Dot. The company has slashed the price of the Alexa-powered smart speaker by 60 percent for Prime members. It’s down to $20, which is $30 off the regular price. That’s the best price we’ve seen to date.

Buy Echo Dot (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $20

We gave the Echo Dot a score of 88 in our review, lauding it for the decent audio quality, a 3.5mm audio out jack and the option to tap it to snooze the alarm. We also liked the spherical design. It’s worth bearing in mind that it’s been almost two years since Amazon released the fourth-gen Echo Dot. Dropping the price to just $20 is an indicator that the company is clearing out stock ahead of a possible new model this fall.

In addition, there’s a decent deal on the regular fourth-gen Echo. That’s down from $100 to $60. The larger version of the Alexa smart speaker also has a 3.5mm audio out jack. We gave it a score of 89 in our review, largely because of the great sound quality.

Buy Echo (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $60

If you were already considering buying an Echo, note that you can pair two of the smart speakers together for stereo audio. Paying an extra $20 on top of the regular price will net you two of the speakers at the minute. Again, though, the fourth-gen Echo was announced in September 2020, so it’s due for a refresh.

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