Technoblender

WhatsApp now lets you add up to 32 participants to group voice calls, a step on its roadmap to expansion into WhatsApp Communities feature. This is among a host of new features that the social media messaging platform is said to be bringing out. WhatsApp last increased the group call participation limit in 2020. Other features that are reportedly under development or in the beta testing stage include a new caption view when sending media and the ability to include more recipients within a chat thread, a redesigned…

Sony is reportedly working to bring advertisements to free-to-play PlayStation games, according to a report by Insider. The ads would appear in games and are meant to give game developers a way to monetize their work and encourage them to continue building free-to-play games. The in-game ads are expected to launch by the end of the year and would appear in inconspicuous places within the game, like billboards. Players could also get rewards for watching advertisements, and the ads would be sold through a private…

After years of speculation, we finally know what Google’s first in-house smartwatch will be called. Surprising absolutely no one, a new trademark filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reveals it is... Pixel Watch. The filing (via 9to5 Google) is about as barebones as it gets. The description says the Pixel Watch name is “intended to cover the categories of smartwatches; cases adapted for holding smartwatches; wearable computers in the nature of smartwatches; smartwatch straps; smartwatch bands.” Further on…

Jack Dorsey’s new title at Block is not CEO, but Block Head. No, this is not a very belated April Fools’ joke. The company filed an 8-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing the change — and of course, the new title came into effect on 4/20. Despite the new title (which, in full, is “Block Head and Chairperson”), Dorsey’s job at Block, the company formerly known as Square, will ultimately remain the same: there will be “no changes in Mr. Dorsey’s roles and responsibilities, and he will…

The EU has agreed on another ambitious piece of legislation to police the online world. Early Saturday morning after hours of negotiations, the bloc agreed on the broad terms of the Digital Services Act, or DSA, which will force tech companies to take greater responsibility for content that appears on their platforms. New obligations include removing illegal content and goods more quickly, explaining to users and researchers how their algorithms work, and taking stricter action on the spread of misinformation.…

The Lapsus$ hacking group stole T-Mobile’s source code in a series of breaches that took place in March, as first reported by Krebs on Security. T-Mobile confirmed the attack in a statement to The Verge, and says the “systems accessed contained no customer or government information or other similarly sensitive information.” In copies of private messages obtained by Krebs, the Lapsus$ hacking group discussed targeting T-Mobile in the week prior to the arrest of seven of its teenage members. After purchasing employees’…

If you find yourself face to face with the TCL 30 V 5G, chances are you’re at a Verizon store or on Verizon’s website contemplating its prospects as a “free” phone. Free is nice! But free may even be too steep for the 30 V 5G. The 30 V 5G’s full retail price, which few people will opt to pay upfront, is $299. That gets you a nice, big full HD display, a healthy 128GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and a 4,500mAh battery that easily lasts over a day. Those specs are just fine — even good for a budget phone where lower-res 720p…

Gearbox Software added crossplay to Borderlands 3 last year, but Sony’s platforms didn’t support the feature at first. That will change soon, as the company announced at PAX East that full crossplay support — including with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 — will be arriving sometime in the spring, GameSpot reports. When the feature is available, PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Stadia players will all be able to play the game with each other. Sony has been resistant to enabling crossplay on some games in the past,…

Twenty-one Raven Software QA employees have until May 20th to submit their ballots in a historic video game industry union vote. Today the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decreed that voting for the union would commence and that the voting unit would be composed of those 21 employees, against Activision Blizzard’s argument that the voting unit should be opened to all Raven employees. In a statement to The Verge, Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George said: While we respect the NLRB process, we are…

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is targeting a “late August” launch for the game’s long-awaited network co-op campaign mode, the game’s head of creative Joseph Staten says in a new Halo Waypoint blog post. As part of a new roadmap included in the post, Staten also shared that 343 is targeting an open beta for Halo Infinite’s Forge mode in September. 343 Industries announced months ahead of Halo Infinite’s December release that co-op and Forge mode wouldn’t be available at launch. The developer then said it was…