Tech Digest daily roundup: FIFA 22 on PC won’t include next gen improvements
FIFA 22’s PC version will not feature next-gen improvements seen on PS5 and Xbox Series X, including its new animation tech. The PC edition of FIFA 22 will instead be comparable to the last-gen version, to the dismay of its small but vocal core of fans. It will follow in the footsteps of FIFA 21, which likewise reserved its various next-gen upgrades for console. According to EA, this is done to ensure that players with less powerful PC rigs can still run the game well. “When we looked at what generation to put the PC game on, we looked at our fans and what capabilities they had with the hardware they have,” executive producer Aaron McHardy told Eurogamer in late 2020… “And when we looked at that, in order to run the [next-generation version of FIFA], our min spec would have been at a spot that would have left a lot of people out in the cold not being able to play the game.” IGN
Google has been hit with a €500m (£427m) fine by France’s competition authority for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with news organisations over the use of their content. The authority accused Google of not taking an order to do so seriously. Google told the BBC the decision “ignores our efforts to reach an agreement”. The fine is the latest skirmish in a global copyright battle between tech firms and news organisations. Last year, the French competition authority ordered that Google must negotiate deals with news organisations to show extracts of articles in search results, news and other services. Google was fined because, in the authority’s view, it failed to do this. BBC
Tag Heuer has now unveiled its the Tag Heuer Connected x Super Mario watch, a limited-edition piece that’ll cost a staggering, if unsurprising, $2,150. The new release is actually a special edition of the Tag Heuer Connected, a digital watch that uses Android’s Wear OS tech (thanks, VGC). Over on the Tag Heuer website, visitors are taken on a tour of the watch’s features, which include special animations that change as you meet certain activity milestones, different watch faces, and access to all of Google Suite’s widgets such as Calendar, Emails and more. The Tag Heuer Connected x Super Mario watch will be limited to 2000 units, going on sale exclusively at select ‘super boutique’ locations and the Tag Heuer website from 15th July. Nintendo Life
The Bank of England today warned that the wholesale switch to cloud computing posed a potential risk to the financial system. Like most businesses, banks have switched to cloud services as customers flocked to online banking during the Covid crisis. The Bank warned the small number of cloud infrastructure providers posed a systemic risk and called for measures to be taken to increase the diversity of supply. Amazon Web Services hosts 32% of the cloud, Microsoft Azure 20% and Google Cloud 9%. Behind them are far smaller providers IBM, Salesforce and Tencent. The Bank said the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority are looking at the issue of risks from cloud computing, but stressed that international standards are likely to be needed to tackle the rising threat. Evening Standard
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell social media companies on Tuesday to do more to tackle online abuse, condemning racist comments made against England’s soccer players as coming from “the dark spaces of the internet”. Johnson’s government has come under fire by some players and commentators, who say the Conservative prime minister and some of his top team have fanned the flames of prejudice and fuelled the abuse of three Black players in the soccer team. But Johnson’s spokesman said the prime minister had urged people to support the team and not boo them for taking the knee – a protest first made by American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick and followed by the Black Lives Matter movement. Reuters
