The company just confirmed that the update, which will add long-awaited group calling features to FaceTime, will roll out Tuesday, Oct. 30, the same day as its fall hardware event.
Group calling for FaceTime was first previewed over the summer during Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, but the feature was removed from beta versions of iOS 12 because it was extremely buggy. Those early issues are apparently sorted out now, as Apple says the feature is ready for the masses. Besides supporting group calls of up to 32 participants, FaceTime will let you use animated filters, and Animoji and Memoji effects during calls.
In addition to the FaceTime upgrades, iOS 12.1 also comes with 70 new emoji, including red-haired characters and cupcakes and donuts.
The update also offers some camera upgrades for Portrait Mode. The new depth control feature, which lets you adjust the depth of field on a photo after you’ve shot it, will be available.
And, finally, iOS 12.1 adds dual-SIM support for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which support an additional e-SIM, so you can use the same phone with two different cellular plans.
Though not unexpected — Apple often releases new versions of iOS on the same day as hardware events — it is somewhat unusual for Apple to confirm the launch date before the actual event. We still don’t know what time the update will drop, though, so stay tuned tomorrow for the details. Mashable will be covering the event live from Brooklyn with the latest updates.
Quick! How many guest verses has Nicki Minaj racked up in 2018? The answer, surprisingly, is not as many as last year — but still quite a few. And they run the gamut of vibes, too, from more traditional sexy pop with Little Mix (“Woman Like Me“) and Ariana Grande (“The Light Is Coming“) to harder hip-hop with Post Malone (“Ball With Me“) and YG and others (“Big Bank“). She even did a song with BTS! Remember?
Nicki’s newest feature arrived on Monday (October 29) and comes courtesy of Tyga. “Dip” even finds the pair nodding to Michael and Janet Jackson’s iconic “Scream” music video with harsh and surreal futurism, like an invisible ghost playing a violin and the general feeling of being in a haunted space station. Spooky stuff.
Throughout the vid, Tyga appears as an anthropomorphic puppet being handled by Nicki herself. When he’s not, he floating through the ether rapping couplets like “Sip got me buzzin’, I am not a husband / I can be your daddy, ’cause I am a motherfucker” while Nicki conveys a lot with just a hard stare. When she steps up to the mic, though, she takes her turn to let it go: “Harper’s Bazaar, I’m covering the icon issue / I got issues, yeah bitch, I got issues / W, Vogue, Cosmo (I got issues).
“Tyga and I coordinated fucking well for this video, you would think we put the looks together,” Nicki revealed on Queen Radio recently, via Rap-Up. “All we did was put the colors together. The video is clean and fly as fuck. I’ve shot huge big-budget videos before that didn’t look like that. He’s extremely fucking talented.”
Watch the full thing above, and then go back and revisit the Mark Romanek classic “Scream” below.
Riyad Mahrez’s fifth goal of the season sent Manchester City back to the top of the Premier League
Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League with a dominant display against Tottenham at Wembley.
Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal after Raheem Sterling capitalised on Kieran Trippier’s early mistake.
Pep Guardiola’s side controlled proceedings throughout though, on a pitch affected by Sunday’s NFL contest between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Erik Lamela missed a late opportunity for Spurs who stay fifth.
Every product here is independently selected by Mashable journalists. If you buy something featured, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps support our work.
Apple opted for a variety of colorful logos for this year’s event.
Apple isn’t done with new products for 2018 just yet.
For the first time, the Cupertino-based behemoth is unveiling its latest and greatest in Brooklyn on Oct. 30.
New iPads and smart accessories, alongside a much needed Mac refresh, are likely en route. The spectacle is kicking off earlier than normal at 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this year. The event will be streamed, so no worries if you didn’t score an invite.
The best way to experience the livestream is via the Safari browser on macOS or iOS. You’ll need at least iOS 10 or macOS Sierra 10.12 to watch. Apple’s homepage will be devoted to the livestream on Oct. 30, but you can access the dedicated October 2018 event page here.
Windows users can livestream it through Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.
If you miss the event, Apple will post an on-demand version shortly after it wraps on Apple.com.
On Twitter
Streaming the September 2018 iPhone and Apple Watch event on Twitter was such a hit that Apple is offering the option again. You can “Like” the tweet below to get a reply with how to watch tomorrow during the event.
On the big screen
Want to watch the event on TV? You’ll need at least a second-generation Apple TV to stream the upcoming presentation. The Apple Event app will auto-update automatically to let viewers select the October 2018 event.
Mashable is the place to be
Apple’s livestream may be great and all, but you’ll want to follow Mashable’s live blog as the event happens for our play-by-play commentary and in-depth analysis.
Leicester City players pay their respects inside the King Power stadium as the family of the club’s late owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha lay a wreath in the centre of the pitch. Read More
The world is filled with a wide variety of good dogs, but some are harder on their toys than others. You know the type: they take less than five minutes to turn a brand new stuffed animal into a cloud of torn cloth and stuffing.
It can be a challenge to pick the right gift for these dogs knowing that you’re going to be shelling out money that leads to a big mess for you to clean up.
I know this from first-hand experience.
So, what can you do to get something your high-energy, toy-tearing pup will enjoy for more than just one romp, while also being easy on your wallet? We’ve run down 15 solid options.
The ‘indestructible’ ball is a steady companion for active dogs.
Okay, so “virtually indestructible” doesn’t mean totally indestructible, but this Grimace-like toy is made of “hard, tear-proof polyethylene,” and that unusual shape means a lot of wobbly movement to keep your pup on their toes chasing it around. There are also a variety of sizes you can choose from depending on how big your furry friend is.
This adorable toy is made of multiple layers of “tuff” material and features webbing around the edges rather than a single seam, making it tougher for your pooch to rip the toy apart at its weakest points. Like a real lobster, this toy lobster can also be played with in water. Bonus points: it looks pretty easy to throw to keep your pup running after at it, tiring your dog out in the process.
The goDog Dragon is no match for your hard-playing dog.
In a similar vein to the lobster, these dragon toys come in a wide range of sizes and colors. These flying monsters are a bit different for your own four-legged beast because they have a minimal amount of stuffing, which makes for fun, different play over typical stuffed toys. Double seams also reenforce the toys for those tough playing pups.
This one’s labeled a “classic” for a reason: it’s a tried-and-true design that’s not just durable but designed to keep a dog occupied for a while. These chew toys feature a hollow in which you can squirt in any number of treats. If you want to get even more play time out of these toys, fill one with peanut butter and then throw it in the freezer for a frozen treat that’ll keep your dog occupied for a while.
The West Paw Zogoflex is similar to the kong while keeping dogs engaged
If you want to up your game beyond the Kong, consider West Paw’s Zogoflex Tux. Like the Kong, it’s durable and features a pouch to stuff with treats or peanut butter to keep your dog engaged. But it has a completely different shape from the Kong that’s bound to confuse and delight your active pooch.
If you’re dog’s a chewer, there are a variety of products from Nylabone that offer dogs long-lasting chewtastic times. Unlike rawhides or other chew toys that eventually get totally chewed down and consumed, these bones are made of nylon that offer up long-term chewing for active dogs. Bonus point: These toys make good supplementary dental tools.
The sledgehog is designed to be a mouthful for destructive dogs
An ingenuous toy with an adorable design, the sledgehog is made of rubber and its ridged spikes make for fun bounces and also serve as grips for your dog’s mouth. Throw it around and watch it bounce in odd directions to keep your pup on its toes.
Okay, your dog loves to destroy toys, right? So why not give them a toy that’s meant to be destroyed? The Tuppy Talon is a perfect trick: what appears to be a fluffy toy ripe for destruction holds a second, more durable spiked ball inside for additional fun. It’s like two toys in one, and one heck of a bargain.
The Ruff Dawg Dawg-Nut is a perfect durable fetch toy
Perfect fetch toy? Check. Lifetime durability guarantee? Check. Easily washable? Check. Usable in water? Check. The all-purpose Dawg-Nut is a perfect donut-shaped fetch toy for active dogs and it’s durable enough to stand up to aggressive chewers.
You’ll never rope-a-dope your favorite dog with this fun toy
Rope toys are always a good, durable choice for high-octane dogs, offering plenty of fun whether it’s for fetch, playing with a human, or a little wrangling with another dog. The heavy-duty rope will last a good while, and the loop on one end makes it easy to grip when you’re taking on your dog in a little tug-of-war. Just be sure to keep an eye on any fraying.
The Orbee-Tuff Snowball offers year-round fun, no matter the season.
Like a lot of similar toys, this one is perfect for fetch, for tug-of-war, or just letting your dog chew the day away. What’s special about the Orbee-Tuff Snowball Dog Toy is made out of non-toxic recycled materialize and features “a ‘Crystalline’ texture that stimulates teeth and gums, great for chewers.”
The Cycle Dog Flat Tire Flyer-Flying Disc offers a “wheel” good time for dogs
If you’re noticing a trend here, it’s toys that are hard to destroy and can be used to play fetch because high energy dogs need all the help they can get in getting their zooms out. Enter the Cycle Dog Flat Tire Flyer-Flying Disc. It’s easy for dogs to chase, but hard for them to ruin.
The decoy sandal is perfect for you and your dog: they get to destroy something and it’s not something you have to wear.
Okay, so your pooch likes to chew up your shoes or your sandals or your slippers or whatever it is you choose to put on your feet. Fool them with these handy-dandy rope toys that offer plenty of chewing time and makes them think they’re destroying whatever they shouldn’t be, because what is dog if not a mischievous little furball?
A bouncy, rubber toy that will bring lots of fun to your tireless dog, the squeaky JW Pet Good Cuz Dog Toy is another toy perfect for fetch or tug of war or just letting your pup chew and chew. The little toy’s “legs” are a quirky design touch that add good grip if you’re getting in on the fun with your dog. Fun bonus: There’s a devil-horned version for the naughty pooch in your life.
If you need something to occupy your destructive dog for a good spell of time, these antler chews are the perfect option to keep them chill and chewing. It’s a durable treat that will require a lot of time and focus for your dog, keeping them entertained for quite a while. While the treat contains calcium and protein, it also helps keep teeth and gums clean thanks to all that chewing and won’t turn into a goopy mess like rawhide bones will.
The number of reported hate crimes in the United States rose in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president, the second consecutive year the figures increased.
African-Americans, Jews and Muslims were all targeted.
Last week, a Florida man was arrested after mail bombs were sent to some of Trump’s high-profile critics. And on Saturday, 11 people were killed in a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
So, who is to blame? And does Trump’s rhetoric fuel the hate?
Presenter: Imran Khan
Guests:
Steven Rogers – member of the Trump for President advisory board and a former member of the FBI National Joint Terrorism Task Force
Glenn Carle – former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats at the CIA
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a convenient target, being the latest and most high-profile offender. But video game blackjack hasn’t ever been done right in my recollection. And it’s because every game gets a central component wrong: The key to blackjack, the thing that makes it interesting, is the betting. Not the rules.
So let’s talk first about those rules, the absolute basics of blackjack. How each card works, what the goal is, how a typical hand flows.
The objective in blackjack is to get a set of cards whose sum is 21. Less than that is OK. More than that is a bust — a lost hand. Numbered cards, 2 through 10, count as the number printed on the card. Face cards also count as a 10. Ace can be either a 1 or an 11, whichever you choose. So if you have a 9 card and two Aces, you have a 21: 9 + 11 Ace + 1 Ace. That’s great.
At the start of a hand, you get two cards and the house gets two cards. Your cards are both visible, but you can only see one of the house’s cards. When it’s your turn — setting aside advanced strategies for a moment — you can choose to either hit (take another card) or stand (end your turn).
Once you stand, it’s the house’s turn to either stand or hit. They don’t make that decision themselves; it’s dictated by the cards they’re holding. You win a hand if the house goes bust or if the house is forced to stand on a number that’s lower than your own card total.
Now that you know the rules, let’s talk about how blackjack is actually played in practice.
Image: Shutterstock / juliannedev
When you sit down to play blackjack, the only person you’re playing against is the dealer, who represents the house. Everyone else at the table influences the way the cards fall — if someone right before you hits and gets the Ace you need, that’s one less Ace in the deck that could possibly drop — but they’re not the enemy.
When it’s your turn in blackjack, the one house card you can see is as much of an influence on what you do as the cards you’re holding. The dealer always goes after every player’s turn is over, but your decision to hit or stand is based entirely on how the house rules work. Knowing how those rules work is the real key to winning.
It’s pretty simple: If the house has a hand total of 16 or lower, the dealer has to hit. Once that total is 17 or higher, the dealer has to stand. The only wrinkle here is when the house has a “soft 17,” which is an Ace and an 8. Most casinos require the dealer to hit on a soft 17 and then continue playing under the same “stand on 17 or higher” rule.
Whenever you’re playing blackjack, you operate under the assumption that the card you can’t see is probably a 10. It’s an odds thing. There are 52 cards in the deck, but when you factor in all the face cards a total of 16 cards have a value of 10. That’s versus four of each for every other card.
The only person you’re playing against in blackjack is the dealer.
Let’s think about this now in practical terms. Forget your hand for a second. If the dealer’s visible card is a 6, you proceed as if they have a 16 — which means when it’s their turn, they have to hit. If the visible card is a 7, they probably have 17 — an automatic stand.
Your decision to hit or stand is based on the same assumption. You can (and should) safely hit anytime your hand total, the sum of all cards, is 11 or lower. Once your hand total exceeds 11, it’s all about what the dealer has.
If you see the house has a 7, 8, 9, or 10, you want to keep hitting under your hand total is at least one higher than the visible card plus 10. So if you see a 7, you assume it’s a 17 and keep hitting until you’re at 18 or higher (or go bust). But if you see, say, a 6 or a 5, you’re going to want to stand the second your hand total is higher than 11.
At that point, you’re betting that the dealer will bust. If the house has a 16 and has to hit, chances are they’re going to draw a 10. In the case of a 16 specifically, any card higher than a 5 (except Ace) is going to be a bust for the dealer. So if the dealer’s showing a 6, you want to stand even if you only have a 12.
There’s one special case that’s worth highlighting. If the house is showing a 2 or 3 and you have a 12, most pros will tell you to hit. Only a 10 will bust you in that situation, and it’s also the one case where you hedge the odds a bit and say “OK, the dealer may not have a 10 hidden here.”
There are other advanced strategies, like doubling down or splitting your hand, but I’m not getting into all of that here. It’s good to understand those finer points of the rules if you want to get serious about blackjack gambling, but they’re irrelevant to this discussion. (Learn more here.)
Image: Shutterstock / juliannedev
Now we come to the heart of what makes blackjack an interesting table game: the gambling.
Red Dead Redemption 2‘s blackjack (and, really, every other video game version I’ve encountered) emphasizes “straight betting.” You put money down, you play the hand, you double what you bet if you win. When the next hand starts, you bet the same amount of money and keep on playing that way.
It’s a viable blackjack strategy in terms of the math and the way the odds work out. It’s also ridiculously boring and slow. Thankfully, it’s not the only option. Enter progressive betting.
With this approach, the amount you’re wagering in each hand is influenced by the amount you won or lost in the previous hand. There’s a multitude of ways to go about doing that, but I’ll share the strategy that has always worked for me. That doesn’t mean I’ve never lost; it’s just a reflection of how I’ve played the odds most successfully.
With progressive betting, the amount you wager is influenced by your win or loss in the previous hand.
Start with the table minimum bet. Let’s say it’s $5. You bet that. You win. Now you have $10, double your original bet. Let it ride. You win again, bringing your total on the table to $20. At this point, pull back $5 and bet $15. Whether you win or lose that next hand, taking your initial $5 back means you’ve already broken even and are gambling entirely with “won” money.
How you bet from that point on depends on how conservative or aggressive you are as a gambler. If I win that third hand, the $15 bet doubles to $30 and, personally, I take $10 back. So now I’ve got a $20 bet on the table — $5 more than the previous bet — and I’ve added $10 from my winnings to what I have banked.
The goal in blackjack, at least the way I play, is to stay afloat and keep betting conservatively until I go on what’s called a “run,” a consecutive series of winning hands. Once I get past that starting hump of two straight winning hands (i.e. once I’ve paid for my initial bet), I’m not risking anything in each successive hand.
In a more aggressive strategy, you might only take back $5 and bet $25 on the fourth hand. You’re growing your winnings more slowly by leaving more won money out on the table to be gambled. But, as your run continues, you’re also growing that pile much more quickly.
The particulars vary from strategy to strategy. My approach is definitely more conservative, aimed at keeping me in the game longer until I can hopefully go on a run. Like I said, there’s no surefire way to win. That’s just what works for me.
The problem in Red Dead and other games: When you win a hand, those winnings go right into your master cash supply. It emphasizes straight betting because there’s only one number to keep track of: The amount you bet on every hand. If you want to roll with progressive betting when gamble $5 and win $10, you’ve got to manually set the next hand’s bet to $10.
It’s an easy thing to keep track of early in a run, but it becomes increasingly complicated as your string of wins gets longer. There isn’t a thorough accounting on the screen of what you bet and what you won, so it all comes down to following the math in your head.
What’s frustrating is this is such a fixable problem! All video games I’ve encountered deal with blackjack in the same way: Win or lose, your bet resets to the minimum once a hand is over.
Instead, these games should be more reflective of how it would work in a casino. When you win on a $5 bet, the dealer puts another $5 into the space where your bet was placed. It’s then up to you to leave the money there or pull it back as you like.
That’s what video game blackjack ought to do. Leave my money on the table, let me decide how much to bet next based on how much I just won. It would make virtual blackjack a whole lot more interesting and in line with the way things tend to work in a real casino.
Is blackjack just a minor piece of Red Dead Redemption 2, something that no one has to engage with and a bunch of players probably won’t? Sure! But this has been bugging me, a gambler, for a long, long time. And if any game can fix this, it’s Red Dead.
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