Your tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Wednesday, April 8.
1. PS5 controller unveiled: DualSense
Sony unveiled off its new PlayStation 5 controller late yesterday, which it is calling DualSense, and here’s a morph between the new in white and the old DualShock 4:
- This is a big step from the previous DualShock, especially the unveiling in a two-tone color scheme, which is mostly white with black accents.
- What matters: The new wireless controller design offers haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and a built-in microphone array for online chat between players.
- Haptic feedback “adds a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud, � said Hideaki Nishino, senior vice president of platform planning and management at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
- The adaptive triggers actually change their resistance depending on the in-game scenario and task at hand: “We also incorporated adaptive triggers into the L2 and R2 buttons of DualSense so you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow,� explained Nishino.
- Sony is also doing away with the Share button from the DualShock 4, replacing it with a ‘Create’ button, but without revealing what it does.
- It comes with a USB-C port for charging, and appears to have a mute button for the microphone just below the PlayStation logo/home button.
- Sony did again commit to a holiday 2020 launch, with no mention of COVID-19 at all.
- No peek at the actual console, yet, and no pricing. None of the really juicy stuff.
Fans say:
- The design has immediately and predictably divided fans: some love the futuristic look and think it looks sleek, others hate the palette, think it’s straight ugly, and are worried the size looks a little too big.
- But if Sony had kept the DualShock 4 design, people would’ve complained that Sony wasn’t trying to do anything different.
- No one has touched it yet so mostly it’s just words for the winds.
- Still, some have mocked up their own re-design, and you’d think Sony would go ahead and offer multiple color options and special editions. The Playstation subreddit is churning new styles about once a minute:
2. All the OnePlus 8 series camera details have just leaked: OnePlus 8 Pro packs a 48MP IMX689 main camera, a 48MP IMX586 ultra-wide shooter, a telephoto zoom camera (3x hybrid zoom), and a color filter camera – no 8K video recording (Android Authority).
3. 10 things the new LG V60 does well, and 5 things it doesn’t (Android Authority).
4. The best free Nintendo Switch games (that’s right, free!) (Android Authority).
5. Google releases Chrome 81 with less intrusive ‘app icon’ notifications (Engadget).
6. Quibi may only have had 300,000 app downloads on day one. Disney Plus had 4m, by comparison (Gizmodo).
7. Facebook has launched an app for couples called Tuned. It connects to Spotify for music sharing, and a couple can send each other photos, notes, cards, and voice memos. iOS-only for now. Maybe a space just for couples could work. Ah, Facebook… at least the app uses phone numbers, rather than Facebook accounts (The Verge).
8. Fascinating in-depth excerpt from Sarah Frier’s upcoming book No Filter: Zuckerberg’s jealousy held back Instagram and drove off founders (Bloomberg). I didn’t know Facebook tried to buy Snapchat again in 2016, long after its first attempt in 2013 (for a reported $3 billion). Anyway, Frier’s book focuses on an inside look at Instagram and it looks juicy.
9. Square/Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has opened a $1 billion fund, from a plan to sell Square shares over time, to support global COVID-19 relief, and later more worthwhile projects. All tracked in a Google spreadsheet (Twitter).
10. Microsoft bought corp.com so that bad guys can’t (KrebsOnSecurity).
11. This Video Has X Views: very clever video! (YouTube).
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