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As a bona-fide hater of actual reality, virtual reality is very appealing to me. However, Im not that into 100 hour AAA games like Asgards Wrath 2 or Half Life: Alyx. Im into short interactive experiences that cant be had anywhere else. Good news for me? The Apple Vision Pro is getting a pretty nifty mixed-reality interactive story that could herald the evolution of a new type of entertainment that puts people directly in their favorite shows or movies. Step inside the Multiverse like never before What If...? An Immersive Story is the first-ever interactive @DisneyPlus Original story, coming soon to Apple Vision Pro from Marvel Studios and @ILMImmersive. pic.twitter.com/jg5UKnfHDC Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) May 8, 2024 Marvel and Industrial Light & Magic, the company George Lucas built, just announced a forthcoming Apple Vision Pro title based on What If?, the current Disney+ show that just completed its second season. Itll be an hour-long experience that uses all of the technology embedded within Apples pricey headset, including that stellar passthrough. The story is being kept under wraps, but you wont play as The Watcher, that much is clear. The promotional copy says players will learn the mystic arts, which recalls Dr. Strange to me. The companies also promise that fans will step into breathtaking environments that place them in new and iconic MCU locations. Does this mean well be able to virtually order shawarma with Tony Stark and the gang? Now, I havent played a demo of this, but I have played the Vader Immortal series and plenty of similar titles and absolutely love them. It just seems like such a natural evolution of both games and TV to merge them together. Give the player the illusion of freedom but keep it mostly on rails and call it a day. Director Dave Bushore agrees, calling this title the next evolution in how we tell our stories and that it's a glimpse of what Ive been waiting for my whole life. Bushore doesnt have a lot of directing credits, but was the interactive marketing executive for Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, among other MCU films. Its being written by David Dong and Phil McCarty, a duo best known for a short film adaptation of a David Sedaris essay. There are some heavy hitters on the EP side of things, with people who were involved with The Marvels and X-Men 97 signing on for the mixed-reality project. Marvel hasnt announced any actors returning to reprise their roles, but Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher seems like a given. For the uninitiated, What If? is an anthology series that examines parallel universes and how things could have shaken out in the MCU if something happened a bit differently. The game/experience will be exclusive to Apple Vision Pro and is coming soon. This isnt enough to get me to part with $3,500, but come on, its a cool sign of things to come. Who wouldnt want to play an episode of The Mandalorian or something like that?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/marvels-making-an-interactive-story-based-on-the-what-if-show-for-apple-vision-pro-183958714.html?src=rss
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Your cable streaming bill may be getting more expensive once again. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is reportedly planning another price increase for Max. Bloomberg didn't reveal how much WBD is expected to jack up the subscription by. The cheapest ad-free plan is currently $16 per month after a $1 increase in early 2023. WBD is said to be aiming for $1 billion in earnings from Max and Discovery+ next year. We could find out about any Max price increase as soon as Thursday. That's when WBD will report its earnings for the first three months of the year. The price increase may be on the way as part of WBD's seemingly never-ending cost-cutting drive. As part of that, more layoffs may be in the pipeline. Over the last year, the company has fired more than 2,000 people and eliminated their positions. Very soon after WBD formed in 2022 following a merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, CEO David Zazlav went into extreme costcutting mode as the company was saddled with over $50 billion in debt. The company quickly axed the just-launched CNN+, laid off staff, canceled projects, moved shows and movies from Max to ad-supported streaming services and shelved completed or nearly finished movies in favor of tax breaks. Zazlav has reduced WBD's debt load by around $10 billion so far, according to Bloomberg. However, his decisions have infuriated creatives and many fans, such as those who are clamoring for the company to release the highly regarded live-action Looney Tunes film Coyote vs. Acme instead of canning it for a tax rebate. Coincidentally, Variety on Wednesday published a list of media and tech CEOs' pay packages for 2023. Zazlav's compensation is said to have shot up by 26.5 percent to $49.7 million. That's around 290 times what the median WBD employee makes.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ugh-max-subscription-prices-might-be-going-up-again-181332420.html?src=rss
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The iPad Pro has always struck me as a baffling device. It's significantly more expensive than the (very capable!) iPad and iPad Air. iPadOS still isnt a great environment for multitasking. And Apple hasn't yet justified why, exactly, you'd want a super-powerful tablet in the first place (simplified versions of Final Cut Pro and Audition aren't enough!). If you're trying to get serious work done, you're better off buying a slightly used last-gen MacBook Pro, instead of shelling out $1,000 or more on a souped-up tablet. And yet, something about this year's iPad Pros compels me. Apple Taken individually, most of the tablet's new features seem inessential. It's the first device with Apple's M4 chip, which has vastly better AI performance than its earlier M-series hardware. It has a "tandem" OLED display, which stacks two OLED panels together for better performance. And both the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros are incredibly thin and light (the latter model is the slimmest device Apple has ever made, measuring 5.1mm). But when you wrap all of those advancements together and pair them up with a redesigned, MacBook-like Magic Keyboard, the iPad Pro M4 is starting to look more and more like the ultra-light computer of my dreams. A super-powerful machine that's easy to take anywhere, with a gorgeous screen for binging TV shows and a capable keyboard for writing on the go. Maybe I'm just charmed by the side profile of the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, which looks like it could have been designed by Syd Mead in the '90s, imagining how laptops could be transformed in a few decades. I'll admit, the new iPad Pro looks very similar to the 2022 model. But, as the kids say, it just hits differently now. This years iPad Pro is thinner than I ever thought possible, and the revamped Magic Keyboard solves most of the problems I've had with earlier versions, thanks to its aluminum top cover, function keys and larger touchpad. Part of the appeal, for me at least, is that Apple has also taken the idea of a tablet PC a step further than Microsoft's Surface tablets. While those devices can function as genuine PCs and run full Windows apps, Microsoft hasn't improved its keyboard covers or overall design in years. If you want to hold a Surface on your lap, you'll still have a kickstand digging into your legs and a pretty flimsy typing experience. The iPad Pro M4, on the other hand, now more closely resembles an actual laptop. Now I realize part of this gadget lust comes from covering Apple's recent launch event. I've been thinking far too much about iPads over the past few days, and it's taken a toll. You could potentially get a laptop-like PC experience from either the entry-level iPad or iPad Air when paired together with a keyboard case. But, then again, Ive already bought a 10th-gen iPad with Logitechs Slim Folio keyboard and I dont actually use it much for typing. Its fine for jotting down something short like emails, but the unsatisfying keys makes it tough to get into a writing flow. I'd also feel better about jumping on the iPad Pro bandwagon once iPadOS becomes an even better platform for multi-tasking. Stage Manager is a start, but it's a bit clunky and hard to navigate. Sure, Apple is constrained by what's possible on smaller displays, but I could imagine iPads (along with iPhones and Macs) becoming far more functional once the company starts rolling out its rumored local AI models. What if Siri could accurately note down your shopping list, pull in prices from local stores and share it with your friends. What if it could automatically edit your vacation videos to post on Instagram? Now imagine you could do those things without losing focus from the email on your screen, or your companys Slack channel. Multitasking doesn't necessarily need to involve jumping between several apps. With AI enhancements down the line, we could potentially complete complex tasks with natural language, and our devices could better anticipate what we actually need. Apple The iPad Pro M4s price problem Price is another obvious problem facing the iPad Pro. It has always been expensive, but Apple is really pushing the boundaries of acceptability with these new models. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch tablets are $200 more than before, starting at $999 and $1,299 respectively. While it's nice to see them come with 256GB of storage by default (up from 128GB), creative professionals will probably want to spend another $200 to get 512GB. If you want the full 10-core CPU power of the M4 chip, though, you'd have to shell out for at least 1TB of storage, which makes the 11-inch iPad Pro $1,599. Want nano-textured glass for additional glare reduction? That's another $100. Oh, and don't forget the Magic Keyboard! That's $299 or $349 more, depending on the size. If you actually wanted to spec out the iPad Pro like a laptop, it's easy to hit a price near $2,000. Alternatively, you could just get a $1,299 MacBook Air, or $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro. Maybe add another $200 to get 16GB of RAM. At least with those machines, you've got larger screens, excellent keyboards, the ful desktop power of macOS and more than a single port for connectivity. If you really want an iPad Pro experience, you could always keep an eye out for used or refurbished 2022 models, which come with the very capable M2 chip. Given just how expensive it is, I likely won't be buying a new iPad Pro anytime soon. But the desire is certainly there, sitting somewhere deep within me, ready to take over my cognitive functions the minute these tablets get cheaper.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/oh-no-i-think-i-want-an-ipad-pro-now-170041331.html?src=rss
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