Fortnite is back on the App Store - right now only in the US and the EU. But we've already found a super simple way of accessing the app in Australia and other countries. With a US iTunes account you can download the app, and then sign back
Look, to be honest, I'm okay with how similar the Switch 2 OS seems to look when compared to the Switch 1. But check this out: 0:00 /0:35 1× New sound effects!
Tech is a lot less fun to cover at the moment.
Bloomberg Apple Intelligence report highlights a company at odds with its core values, comparisons to Grok.
There's an interesting report this morning from Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett at Bloomberg on Apple Intelligence.
The story leads with a description of John Giannandrea being "poached" from Google in 2018. That shake-up didn't result in much, with a lack of substantial output so far. Over the past year or so Apple has had a marketing blitz for its answer to AI, Apple Intelligence. But it was premature.
Some writing features were added to Apple platforms and Siri can kinda phone-home to ChatGPT in other areas. But the initiative has so far fallen behind rivals, and even relied on them.
Yet the article makes me wonder if that's a bad thing. The more I read of Bloomberg's story, the more I feel like the very core of Apple's positioning over the past few years is at stake. And a lot of it stems from Apple growing into the everything-company. Take this quote for example:
The company’s base of 2.35 billion active devices gives it access to more data—web searches, personal interests, communications and more—than many of its competitors. But Apple is much stricter than Google, Meta and OpenAI about allowing its AI researchers access to customer data. Its commitment to privacy also extends to the personal data of noncustomers: Applebot, the web crawler that scrapes data for Siri, Spotlight and other Apple search features, allows websites to easily opt out of letting their data be used to improve Apple Intelligence. Many have done just that.
The article almost plays this off as being a bad thing. Apple's App Tracking Transparency privacy move reportedly stripped Meta of US$10 billion in revenue as of 2022. And it viciously competes with Google in other key areas. But the article continues:
All this has left Apple’s researchers more heavily reliant on datasets it licenses from third parties and on so-called synthetic data—artificial data created expressly to train AI. “There are a thousand noes for everything in this area, and you have to fight through the privacy police to get anything done,” says a person familiar with Apple’s AI and software development work. An executive who takes a similar view says, “Look at Grok from X—they’re going to keep getting better because they have all the X data. What’s Apple going to train on?”
There's an expectation that publicly listed businesses must do everything possible to grow, and this is an interesting example. Apple is a hardware and software company. It makes a big mobile OS and a pretty big desktop OS.
So it should sound alarm-bells that an executive is pointing to Elon Musk's "White-Genocide"-believing AI Grok as a baseline for LLMs. It should also be sounding alarm bells that Apple, the company that shipped iPods with a "Don't Steal Music" sticker, has employees that want to train AI on user data and not just rely on licensed datasets.
Privacy initiatives have undoubtedly helped Apple maintain a huge marketshare worldwide. Yet Apple Privacy as a department probably doesn't even have a line on Apple's balance sheet. And as the practice of scraping all value possible out of Apple's users and partners continues, it's almost as if growth is the goal at all costs, even if it hurts Apple's brand and bottom-line in other areas.
Apple has prided itself on its privacy and ethics, with billboards and commercials, for a decade at least. In 2015 the company famously went up against law enforcement in an attempt to maintain privacy for its users:
Jenna McLaughlin
The other requests are listed in a newly unsealed court brief filed by Apple attorney Marc Zwillinger in response to an order from a magistrate judge in a Brooklyn federal court. That case involves a government request to search an Apple iPhone 5s for evidence about a suspect’s possession or sale of methamphetamine.
Apple has refused to extract data from the phone, even though it could (because the phone was running on an older operating system), arguing in court that it was “being forced to become an agent of law enforcement.”
Since then Apple has become the privacy company, though this is still a bit of marketing of course. While Apple shouts from the rooftops about its privacy initiatives - some of which are great - it still isn't perfect. One of the key insights from Google's landmark monopoly ruling is around the fact that Apple talks big game about privacy, while taking Google money to sell out its users.
Back in 2023, when the antitrust case went to trial, it was revealed in court that in 2021 Google paid companies more than $26 billion for the search placement deals. In 2022, Google paid Apple a whopping $20 billion to secure itself as the default search engine on the company's Safari browser, the DOJ said.
Which leads me back to this Bloomberg report. The question for Apple going forward will seemingly revolve around the apparent urgency of LLMs and "AI".
But is Apple Intelligence enough to risk the billion-dollar iPhone business? Is Apple willing to risk everything it currently apparently stands for just because of AI hype? Is it worth it to sink to the lows of xAI and Meta when Apple famously doesn't compete in the search space?
Apparently yes, and Tim Cook - the business mind at Apple who has no product sense - has been moving fast to shake things up. Despite a more reserved approach from Giannandrea, the kind you would expect from Apple, the company has moved him to a new product.
Giannandrea retains oversight of AI research, the development and improvement of large language models, the AI analysts, and some infrastructure teams. Insiders say that some Apple executives have discussed the idea of shrinking Giannandrea’s role still further or of him being put on a path to retirement (he’s 60), but that Federighi and others have concerns that if he leaves, the prized researchers and engineers he brought in would follow him out the door.
Is there any reason why Apple couldn't just be a great platform for other AI apps? It makes the hardware and software for the iPhone, and it could just introduce better APIs for offloading some tasks to LLMs that a user chooses to install. Offer up the useless Apple Intelligence-infused Siri for integrations with whatever AI app a user chooses to use?
Part of the Google trial has been around the fact that Apple simply doesn't compete in Search, even though that is a lucrative industry. Apple also doesn't compete in the cloud-computing space, which keeps Microsoft afloat. So why must it compete in AI?
Or is it more important to ignore these privacy introusions and move further away from the company that previously stood, as Steve Jobs would always say, at the intersection of liberal arts and technology?
Gaming
Love this from Mikhail Klimentov on ReaderGrev: So why did business augury become one of the primary ways in which people talk about games online? Look around and you’ll see it everywhere, from people with no obvious reason to pocket-watch. (Surely they’re not investors in these companies!) Handwringing
Gaming
Fandom Blows Up Giant BombA cornerstone of gaming is in shambles following interference from the wiki farmKotakuHome Giant Bomb’s future is uncertain following a showdown with parent company Fandom, which also owns GameSpot, over editorial interference. Creative director Dan Ryckert announced on a recent livestream that he would no
"Polygon Acquired by Porn Mogul Who Co-Founded Brazzers" - sold by Vox Media.
It is a brutal day for institutional games media, and independent media cannot fill the void.
Samantha Cole
Pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2 GameCube controller tonight at 6PM AEST.
Update 7:01PM - Aaaaand the store crashed...
A brief look at The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, out now on Xbox, PC and PS5.
Microsoft has shadow-dropped what is essentially a full remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
The most shocking part appears to be the mix of Creation Engine with Unreal Engine 5. Under the hood, it looks like there's a very similar game running the game logic as it originally did. But everything else about the release looks brand new, in a way that other recent remakes haven't.
It's a relatively demanding game too on console, with the game not always hitting 60fps. From my time briefly trying it, the game performs better on consoles when Screen Space Reflection is turned off in the games Settings.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion™ Remastered modernizes the 2006 Game of the Year with all new stunning visuals and refined gameplay. Explore the vast landscape of Cyrodiil like never before and stop the forces of Oblivion from overtaking the land in one of the greatest RPGs ever from the award-winning Bethesda Game Studios.
The game is available on Game Pass or starting from AU$84.95 on Xbox, PC, Steam and PS5 for the standard edition. It's also Steam Deck verified and looks like it runs okay, but doesn't have the most consistent performance there in the open world, depending on where you are.
The BBC will begin geoblocking access to its BBC Sounds app and most BBC Radio channels for users outside the UK, including listeners in Australia. BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4 will remain available due to a lack of music programming. The broadcaster described the decision as one based
From the New York Times: China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. [...] The official crackdown is part of China’s retaliation for President Trump’
Australia
Sony is increasing the price of PS5 consoles in Australia and some other markets, excluding the already pricey PS5 Pro. The regular PS5 which includes a disc drive now costs $30 more, starting at AU$829.95. The PS5 Digital Edition now costs $70 more, starting at AU$749.95.
Blue Prince is sure to be on Game Of The Year lists this year.
This blog is a "side gig" of sorts for me, so sometimes it's hard to balance finding time to play the latest games before they come out with my real life.
When a review code for Blue Prince arrived around a week ago I assumed I'd get sidetracked and let it slide by. Instead I played 10+ hours of the surprise gem over one weekend. Just one more run, I'd say, before genuinely looking outside and seeing that several hours had passed by and it was suddenly pitch black. I normally hate run-based games where progression can feel just out of reach and luck-based, but Blue Prince almost had a Tetris-effect on me. I'd stop playing and still have the twists and turns of this house running through my brain. At one point I had the room-selection UI pop into my head as I left my real house.
I haven't uncovered every secret the game has to offer, or even rolled credits. I think I'm very close, but also from the sound of things I'm far from done.
But 16+ hours in I'm obsessed and can't stop wondering what's next in this deceptively simple-seeming puzzle game, one that's built around perfect bite-sized runs and strategic play.
Blue Prince has a bit of a board game vibe to it. As the player you explore an inherited house. At the start of each day the house isn't sketched out at all. Every room could be the key to victory, if you can manage to find a path through the house.
Like a board game, each room of the house is generated from a selection of 3 rooms, kinda like picking up 3 cards from a deck at the start of a turn. You're trying to get to a certain room on the board, but this can be limited by your inventory and which randomly selected rooms are offered to you. You might hit a road-block and have to end the day.
Different rooms contain different tools, perks and paths. The currency of the game includes steps, which count down with each room you enter and exit, as well as gems, coins and keys. They're all essential to progression and incredibly difficult to balance. Sometimes finding just one bit of food will save an entire run. Sometimes a key is the difference between today and tomorrow.
Some rooms will punish you, by taking away steps, while others will give you more time to explore the house. You'll find yourself locked out of progressing, or lacking the gems required to open a new type of room that you haven't seen before.
I've felt so many types of emotions playing this game. It has environmental storytelling that just trails along in the background, and everything may or may not be a clue to progression. Simple things that you might walk past a hundred times can eventually become a puzzle to solve. It's best to have a physical notebook by your side as you play, and my own is filled with the scribbles of a mad-man. Everything is a clue, every note, every item.
But runs can also end very quickly. Sometimes you'll get blocked off by a bad set of 3 rooms that equate to a dead end. Sometimes you'll need to collect a key or gem to unlock a door. Some doors are hidden behind specific items. Some specific items uncover powerful specific rooms. Or sometimes you'll have a great run where you're wealthy and able to get extremely far into the house.
When I'd get a great run going, it almost felt like I was winning a lottery. But there's also a need for tactics too, it isn't just luck-based. There are even permanent perks that you'll need to work hard to uncover.
Overall it's best to go in blind though. The best part of this whole review period was simply the fact that barely any discussion around this game existed online, apart from some discussions around a demo released last year.
I think the key tip from me is to explore. Don't worry about how many days have passed, but instead look around. Always pick new rooms if you're offered them, even if it leads to a dead end.
And avoid spoilers at all costs. I've already told you too much (but not really).
(Also yes, the name is kinda a pun for Blueprints, don't let that scare you off)
Gaming
Some "lifestyle" photos/renders taken from Nintendo.com
Nintendo to charge for Switch 2 game upgrades.
While the Nintendo Switch 2 is backwards compatible with most Nintendo Switch games, old games won't necessarily run or look any better on the new console.
Instead Nintendo today announced "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" versions of games, which will be sold at full price, but also with upgrade paths for existing customers. Upgrade pricing was not yet announced.
For The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, a Switch 2 Edition upgrade will bump up resolutions and framerates. A 60FPS target wasn't specified, so the games might still wobble around that level.
Both titles previously targeted 30FPS, but on the original Switch console the games could definitely struggle, especially Tears Of The Kingdom.
To sweeten the deal additional content and features were also announced for a few of these upgraded editions. But it still would have been nice to see Nintendo give this to customers for free. Hopefully the upgrade pricing is a reasonable $10-$15 and not anything ridiculous.
Anticipated Australian game Hollow Knight: Silksong hidden in Switch 2 sizzle reel.
Nintendo put the highly anticipated follow up to Hollow Knight in a sizzle reel during its Nintendo Switch 2 Direct.
The Australian game from Team Cherry was expected to come out in 2022/2023. A the time, as a title launching on Xbox Game Pass, the game was shown at an Xbox Showcase in June 2022. Since then it's been almost radio silence from Team Cherry, apart from a few hints here and there.
So it was funny to see a new 2025 release window hidden in a sizzle reel for the Switch 2 announcement livestream. The game was always expected to come to Nintendo platforms, but it's been a very long time since we've seen the game.
Fingers crossed it doesn't slip into 2026...