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The Sims has been one of the biggest success stories in gaming over the last quarter century, with more than 500 million players trying to understand Simish, learning what WooHoo-ing is and using the classic Rosebud cheat to gain more money. All of that could be coming to a big screen near you, as Electronic Arts has revealed that Amazon MGM Studios is working on a movie adaptation of the games. Kate Herron (Loki, The Last of Us) will direct the film and co-write the screenplay with Briony Redman (Doctor Who). One of the production companies that's on board is Margot Robbie's LuckyChap, which seems appropriate given that EA is looking "to make an impact the size of something like a Barbie movie," EA vice president and Sims general manager Kate Gorman said. (For the tape, Barbie is the 14th-highest-grossing film of all time.) EA wants the movie to be an authentic experience for fans, particularly given that many people have "love and nostalgia" for the series. To that end, you can expect a lot of Sims lore and Easter eggs in the film. There will be Freezer Bunnies, Gorman told Variety. Im sure a pool without a ladder is somewhere in there, but we havent finalized any of those details. But thats the idea, is to say that it lives within this space. Its a nod to all of the amazing play and creation and fun that people have had over the last 25 years within The Sims. Meanwhile, EA provided updates on The Sims franchise as a whole. The company doesn't currently plan to release The Sims 5, instead opting to focus on updating The Sims 4 and releasing paid expansions for the 10-year-old game. The publisher is also spinning up a creator program and some players who create custom in-game items will be able to sell them as Creator Kits. While The Sims 4 will remain the core of the series, EA is looking at expanding the franchise in other ways, including with Project Rene, a cross-platform multiplayer experience that the publisher has been talking up for a couple of years. An invite-only playtest is scheduled for this fall.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-sims-movie-from-amazon-mgm-studios-is-on-the-way-161159048.html?src=rss
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The next Amazon Prime Day sales event is set for October, but the early deals have already begun to trickle in. Case in point? There are some nifty discounts on Echo Show smart displays that ship with smart light bulbs. The Echo Show 5 is available for just $60, which is a discount of $50. This is a great all-around device that easily found a spot on our list of the best smart displays. Its bare bones, but gets the job done. We appreciated the compact design and the diminutive, yet useful, 5.5-inch screen. The compact size allows the Echo Show 5 to double as one heck of a smart alarm clock. To that end, theres an ambient light sensor that adjusts the screens brightness automatically, a tap-to-snooze function and a sunrise alarm that slowly brightens the screen for a gentle wake up call. Theres also a camera for video calls and the like, which is great, and privacy concerns are assuaged by the physical camera cover that ships with the display. This is a smart display, so Amazon has packed in a Sengled smart light bulb. This is a decent way to learn the ins and outs of making smart home adjustments, but its just a colored light bulb. The only major downside with this display is that the speakers are tiny, to suit the rest of the device. This translates to reduced sound quality when compared to rival smart displays. If you want larger speakers and a larger screen, theres a similar offer for the Echo Show 8. The smart display is available for $105, which is a discount of $65. It also comes with the aforementioned light bulb. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/early-prime-day-deals-include-the-echo-show-5-plus-a-smart-light-bulb-for-only-60-151010373.html?src=rss
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Google is trying to be more transparent about whether a piece of content was created or modified using generative AI (GAI) tools. After joining the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) as a steering committee member earlier this year, Google has revealed how it will start implementing the groups digital watermarking standard. Alongside partners including Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI, Google has spent the past several months figuring out how to improve the tech used for watermarking GAI-created or modified content. The company says it helped to develop the latest version of Content Credentials, a technical standard used to protect metadata detailing how an asset was created, as well as information about what has been modified and how. Google says the current version of Content Credentials is more secure and tamperproof due to stricter validation methods. In the coming months, Google will start to incorporate the current version of Content Credentials into some of its main products. In other words, it should soon be easier to tell whether an image was created or modified using GAI in Google Search results. If an image that pops up has C2PA metadata, you should be able to find out what impact GAI had on it via the About this image tool. This is also available in Google Images, Lens and Circle to Search. The company is looking into how to use C2PA to tell YouTube viewers when footage was captured with a camera. Expect to learn more about that later this year. Google also plans to use C2PA metadata in its ads systems. It didn't reveal too many details about how its plans there other than to say it will use "C2PA signals to inform how we enforce key policies" and do so gradually. Of course, the effectiveness of this all depends on whether companies such as camera makers and the developers of GAI tools actually use the C2PA watermarking system. The approach isn't going to stop someone from stripping out an image's metadata either. That could make it harder for systems such as Google's to detect any GAI usage. Meanwhile, throughout this year, we've seen Meta wrangle over how to disclose whether images were created with GAI across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The company just changed its policy to make labels less visible on images that were edited with AI tools. Starting this week, if C2PA metadata indicates that someone (for instance) used Photoshop's GAI tools to tweak a genuine photo, the "AI info" label no longer appears front and center. Instead, it's buried in the post's menu.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/heres-how-google-will-start-helping-you-figure-out-which-images-are-ai-generated-150219272.html?src=rss
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