ShinyShiny snippets: PlayStation accessibility controller unveiled to help players with disabilities

Image: Sony

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 

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 


At this year’s CES, Lenovo unveiled the 13inch Yoga Book 9i which is being billed as the first full-size dual-screen OLED laptop. More versatile than a traditional clamshell laptop form factor, the exceptionally flexible Yoga Book 9i with Intel Evo platform offers dual-screen versatility, multi-mode functionality, and – claims the manufacturer – superior entertainment capabilities. The two 13.3-inch touchscreens integrate OLED panels with 2.8K resolution, 400 nit brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and PureSight 60 Hz refresh rate. Tech Digest 

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

Chris Price