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Earlier this week, Superhot VR received an update that removed all scenes that involved the player-character hurting or killing themselves. The devs explained that these scenes had “no place” in the game and apologized for taking so long to remove them. In response, hundreds of gamers yelled at them and began review-bombing the game on Steam.

The update for Superhot VR went live on July 21 and with it, the devs at Superhot Team explained in a short post why the scenes featuring self-harm had been totally removed from the game. The removed scenes involved the player shooting themselves and jumping off of a building.

“‘Skip disturbing scenes’ toggle was added in a previous update. Considering [the] sensitive time we’re living in, we can do better than that. You deserve better. All scenes alluding to self-harm are now completely removed from the game. These scenes have no place in superhot virtual reality. We regret it took us so long. We’re [committed] to shipping this update to all vr platforms.”

As you might expect, numerous Steam users responded with anger and hostility to news of the update. Many upset by the update began to give Superhot VR negative reviews, triggering Valve’s anti-review-bombing tech to kick in and filter out the flood of bad-faith evaluations.

Reading the comments under the Superhot developers’ update note is like scrolling through a warzone, with participants flinging angry attacks at the devs, the game, and society as a whole.

One popular comment suggested that “Snowflakes” were to blame and predicted that Grand Theft Auto games will have all the blood and violence removed next. If that seems like an overreaction to a developer making a small change to their own game, you’d be correct. There was no evil cabal forcing the devs to update a four-year-old game to remove a few scenes featuring acts of self-harm. The reality is that people change, and the devs might have looked back at what they made and felt uncomfortable today, in 2021, having their name attached to a piece of content that depicted self-harm. So they decided to remove it.

Kotaku has reached out to Superhot Team about the removal of the scenes.

Currently, only the Steam version of the game has had these scenes removed. However, the team mentioned in its note that Superhot VR on other platforms, like Oculus Store, will be updated in the future to also remove these scenes.

Anyway, yeah, it is happening again: The gamers are angry because some developers have decided to change their own game. This isn’t the first time this has happened and sadly it probably won’t be the last.

Apple’s Pro Display XDR has been available for quite some time now, but there are still no rumors about an updated version of its high-priced display in the near term. However, 9to5Mac has now learned from sources familiar with the matter that Apple is internally testing a new external display with a dedicated A13 chip and also Neural Engine.

The new display is being developed under the codename J327, but at this point, details about technical specifications are unclear. According to sources, this display will have an Apple-made SoC, which right now is the A13 Bionic chip — the same one used in the iPhone 11 lineup.

Along with the A13 chip, the external display features the Neural Engine, which accelerates machine learning tasks. Although rumors suggest that Apple has been working on a less expensive display for regular users, the new external display with a dedicated SoC will likely be a new model to replace the current Pro Display XDR in the future.

Back in 2016, right after Apple’s Thunderbolt Display was discontinued, rumors suggested that Apple was working on a replacement with a high-resolution display and a built-in GPU. While the company has indeed launched its own premium external display in 2019, Pro Display XDR does not come with a GPU as rumors predicted.

Today’s report from 9to5Mac’s sources suggests that Apple has not given up on its plans to launch an external display with some sort of SoC, at least internally. Having a CPU/GPU built into the external display could help Macs deliver high-resolution graphics without using all the resources of the computer’s internal chip.

Apple could also combine the power of the display SoC with the Mac’s SoC to provide even more performance for running intensive graphic tasks. Another possibility is to use this SoC to add some smart features to the Pro Display XDR, such as AirPlay.

Keep in mind that Apple’s plans may change, just as the first Pro Display XDR never had all the features it was rumored to have. Apple’s launch plans for this new external display are also unknown.

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A teardown of Apple’s new $99 MagSafe Battery Pack from Charger Lab has given us our best look yet inside the new accessory, and revealed more details about how it works. For starters, it confirms recent speculation that it uses a pair of battery cells wired in series like Apple’s previous Smart Battery cases, but it also gives us a look at the NFC circuitry and heat shielding within.

A dual-cell design is important, because it allows the voltage of the battery pack to be higher than a comparable single-cell design. While each individual cell is labelled as being 3.82 volts, the overall voltage of the battery pack is 7.62 with them wired in series. It means the pack should be capable of supplying more power than its 1,460mAh capacity would suggest when compared directly with the battery capacities of the iPhone itself, with a total power output of 11.13Wh. AppleInsider has a good writeup of the science if you’re after more detail.

Screenshot: Charger Lab

Beyond the battery cells, the teardown gives us a good look at how the battery pack dissipates heat. In February, when Bloomberg first reported the existence of the pack, it noted that development had been set back because the iPhone’s software kept thinking the accessory was overheating. It’s unclear if this problem was overcome with software or hardware fixes, but clearly a lot of effort has gone into keeping the pack cool while allowing it to supply enough power.

Unlike the right-to-repair advocates over at iFixit, Charger Lab doesn’t offer a repairability score at the end of its teardowns. But the amount of adhesive and concealed tabs holding the battery pack together don’t make it look very user serviceable. We’ll have more details on how it performs in practice in our forthcoming review.

Apple has recently updated its Music app for Android, but it left out a couple of new features you may have been waiting for: support for lossless streaming and spatial audio. Engadget has confirmed that the tech giant has started rolling out the new high-quality streaming options, even though they aren’t specifically mentioned in the Android app’s release notes. 

The company first announced that it’s making the streaming options available to subscribers at no extra charge back in May, promising immersive experiences similar to what Tidal HiFi and Amazon Music HD offer. Both options arrived for Apple users back in June, but they’re limited to certain albums. Apple promised to make Dolby Atmos content easy to find with curated playlists and special badges, though, and it said lossless streaming will eventually come to its entire catalog with 75 million tracks.

You will need to use compatible speakers or headphones to be able to enjoy these new immersive listening experiences, though. Apple previously said that AirPods and Beats earbuds and headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the speakers on the latest iPhones, iPads and Macs will work with Dolby’s spatial audio. You’d have to look up your device’s features to make sure it can also access spatial audio streaming. Meanwhile, lossless audio requires a wired connection and won’t work with wireless audio devices. 

A few weeks ago, Samsung had announced that it is abandoning Tizen OS in favor of an operating system that it has jointly developed with Google for smartwatches. Some of the important features of the new operating system were revealed during Google I/O 2021, but the brands had not revealed its formal name until today.

Google has revealed that the new operating system for smartwatches is called Wear OS 3. There is no mention of Google in its name, and probably because it was built using the best bits of former Wear OS, Samsung’s Tizen, and Fitbit’s fitness expertise. The Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic would be the first Samsung smartwatches to run Wear OS 3. Future smartwatches from the South Korean firm will use Wear OS 3 as well.

Existing Galaxy smartwatches won’t be upgraded to Wear OS 3

Existing Galaxy watches won’t be upgraded from Tizen to Wear OS 3, though. In fact, only four existing smartwatches running Wear OS 2.x would be updated to Wear OS 3, and the update will come in the second half of 2022. Samsung has announced that it will support its current Tizen-based smartwatches for up to three years and bring new features through software updates.

Wear OS 3 offers faster performance, better health tracking, improved battery life, and more third-party apps

Wear OS 3 features a new UI design, and Google is promising that it has faster performance and longer battery life. Apparently, apps will open 30% faster when compared to previous versions of Wear OS. The new operating system will also offer more third-party apps, and brands would be able to offer their own UI customizations on top of Wear OS 3. Samsung has revealed that its UI customizations over Wear OS 3 would be called One UI Watch.

The new operating system for wearables also features an easier way to switch between important features, apps, Tiles, and watch faces. Developers can build new watch faces for Wear OS 3 using Samsung’s watch face design editor. The operating system will have standalone apps for Google Assistant, Google Maps, Google Pay, Fitbit, and YouTube Music.

Features like health tracking and fitness goals celebration have been designed with the help of Fitbit. Some third-party app developers will launch new and revamped apps for Wear OS 3. Overall, it looks like the future is bright for Samsung’s smartwatches and Wear OS 3.

Pokemon Go‘s August Community Day will be held across two days rather than one, developer Niantic has announced. The event will take place August 14-15 and will feature Eevee, giving you another chance to get some Shiny Eevee evolutions.

As the featured Pokemon, Eevee will be appearing more frequently in the wild than usual throughout the entire weekend, meaning you’ll also have an increased chance of finding a Shiny. Any Shiny Eevee that you evolve will retain its Shiny coloration, making this a good opportunity to add some Shiny Eevee evolutions to your collection.

Additionally, Niantic is making it easier to get Sylveon. Typically, you need to earn 70 hearts when Eevee is set as your buddy in order to evolve it into Sylveon. For August’s Community Day, however, Niantic is reducing the number of buddy hearts you need to earn to only seven.

Eevee will also learn a different Community Day-exclusive move depending on which form you evolve it into. Any Eevee that you evolve between August 13-16 will automatically know the following attacks:

• Vaporeon: Scald
• Jolteon: Zap Cannon
• Flareon: Superpower
• Espeon: Shadow Ball
• Umbreon: Psychic
• Leafeon: Bullet Seed
• Glaceon: Water Pulse
• Sylveon: Psyshock

As usual, a few bonuses will be live during August’s Community Day as well. First, any Lure Modules and Incense that you use during the event hours will remain active for three hours. On top of that, eggs that are placed into incubators will hatch at a quarter of their usual distance. Finally, Niantic will sell a special Community Day bundle in Pokemon Go’s in-game shop. The bundle costs 1,280 PokeCoins and includes the following:

• 50 Ultra Balls
• 5 Incense
• 1 Elite Fast TM
• 1 Elite Charged TM

Each day of August’s Community Day weekend will run from 11 AM to 5 PM local time. You can read more details about the event on the official Pokemon Go blog.

In the meantime, Niantic has three Ultra Unlock events lined up for Pokemon Go. Ultra Unlock Part 1: Time kicks off July 23 and features Pokemon from across different eras, including Shiny Dialga. Ultra Unlock Part 2: Space follows starting August 6 and features Pokemon from different regions, as well as Shiny Palkia. The third and final Ultra Unlock event will begin on August 20, but Niantic is keeping details on that under wraps for now.

DSLR or smartphone? It’s an age-old debate that photographers, enthusiasts, and journalists have been waging ever since phone cameras started getting ood. Among gadget nerds, the addition of advanced lenses or improved camera software are often used as reasons for justifying a phone upgrade—perhaps before you actually need to. However, many of the winning photos in the 2021 iPhone Photography Awards were taken on older iPhones and still look pretty dang amazing.

The grand prize-winning photo, “Transylvanian Shepherds,” was taken by Hungarian photojournalist Istvan Kerekes on an iPhone 7. And that’s not an outlier, either. Several winners throughout multiple categories were taken on iPhones that are several years old. The rules of the competition also state that photographers can’t use desktop versions of photo-editing software, though mobile versions are allowed.

Here’s a collection of some of our favorites, and you can check out the full list of winners here. Remember: The best camera is the one you have with you.

We’re not saying they’ve been discontinued, but if you head over to Google’s online store in the US and Canada, you’ll find that there doesn’t seem to be any option to buy its second-generation true wireless Pixel Buds. Its more recent Pixel Buds A-Series are still available, but the dedicated listing for the Pixel Buds themselves has disappeared.

Google won’t officially say whether the second-generation Pixel Buds are reaching the end of their life. What it will confirm is that they’re “out of stock in the Google Store in the US and Canada at this time” and that it doesn’t have additional stock. “Some third-party retailers may still have inventory available and they remain on sale in other markets as inventory allows,” a spokesperson says. “As inventory allows” definitely makes it sound like the Buds are reaching the end of their life, but as I said, Google is refusing to say the word “discontinued.”

Screenshot: store.google.com

Android Police reports that the buds are still available in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Sure enough, on the UK Google Store the Pixel Buds are still available, though when it comes to third-party retailers, John Lewis is listing them as unavailable with a note that it’s “unlikely to receive more stock of this item.”

Ultimately, those are a lot of signs that the second-gen Pixel Buds are on the way out after around a year of being on sale. But given their average battery life, and persistent reports of connection issues, we can’t say we’re too surprised to see them go. If you’re an existing owner, Google says you’ll “continue to receive ongoing feature support, software fixes, and critical security updates.”