Tech Digest daily roundup: PlayStation accessibility controller unveiled to help players with disabilities
A new accessibility controller has been unveiled for the PlayStation 5, designed for players with disabilities. The highly-customisable device, dubbed Project Leonardo for now, boasts a completely different form factor to the console’s standard DualSense remote. Leonardo is circular in design and is made up of a number of large buttons and a single control stick, all of which gamers can rearrange to suit their needs. It can also be used in conjunction with another Leonardo or DualSense, allowing friends or family to lend further assistance to the main player. Sky News
HTC Vive has announced its brand new XR Elite headset, which combines Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality, for a whopping £1,299. The headset includes a full colour RGB camera for passthrough, plus hand-tracking, meaning players can experience real-time overlays and more interactivity between the device and their real world environment. The versatile, lightweight device can be used wirelessly or connected to a PC for PCVR games from Viveport and Steam. Eurogamer
After months of rumours, Apple launched the iPhone 14 series with a new Emergency SOS via Satellite feature. It connects smartphones to satellites for off-the-grid connectivity in emergency situations. But a similar feature is on the way to even more devices, with Qualcomm‘s latest Snapdragon feature announced at CES. Dubbed Snapdragon Satellite, the new tech feature enables two-way messaging over a connection to satellites. Stuff
Elon Musk has declared the end of homework after New York schools attempted to clamp down on pupils using a new artificial intelligence chatbot to cheat. The tech billionaire, who was an early investor in the company behind ChatGPT, wrote on Twitter: “It’s a new world. Goodbye homework!” ChatGPT, released by the Silicon Valley company OpenAI in November, is a free online service that has alarmed teachers due to its ability to churn out convincing essays which can’t be detected by their existing anti-plagiarism software. Telegraph
Instant-messaging service WhatsApp is letting users connect via proxy servers so they can stay online if the internet is blocked or disrupted by shutdowns. The technology giant, owned by Meta, said it hoped blackouts such as those in Iran “never occur” again. They denied human rights and “cut people off from receiving urgent help”. WhatsApp is urging its global community to volunteer proxies to help people “communicate freely” and said it would offer guidance on how to set one up. BBC
A LastPass user has filed a class-action lawsuit against the password management provider for failing to prevent a recent, staggering data breach. The lawsuit, filed this week in the US district court in Massachusetts, comes from an anonymous LastPass user named John Doe, who originally signed up for the service in May 2016. He’s now demanding the company pay in damages after LastPass announced last month it had lost a copy of every users’ password vaults to a hacker. PC Mag
