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When Dead Island 2 remerged earlier this year after a lengthy absence, publisher Deep Silver announced it would be the first title to support Amazon’s Alexa Game Control, a feature that allows you to use your voice to play a game. On Tuesday, the company shared a trailer showcasing the functionality, albeit one that offers a staged view of things.

The trailer opens with a group of zombie apocalypse survivors finding a playable build of Dead Island 2. “What a weird coincidence,” says one of the characters, commenting on the meta-narrative. “What’s Alexa Game Control?” asks the leader of the group. As one of their friends goes outside for a smoke, the video shows how certain voice commands will trigger actions within the game. “Hey zombie,” for example, draws the attention of the nearest undead. You can also say, “get me my ax” to cause your character to, well, switch to their ax.

Not every voice command that’s in the game is shown off in the trailer. An Amazon spokesperson told The Verge you’ll be able to use your voice to do things like set waypoints and greet other characters. Alexa Voice Control doesn’t require an Echo device. All you need is a headset with a microphone. We’ll get a chance to see how well the voice commands work when Dead Island 2, after nearly a decade of development, finally arrives on April 28th.

You didn’t have to wait long for confirmation of Apple’s domestic chip plans. Company chief Tim Cook has revealed that Apple will buy chips made at TSMC’s upcoming factory in Phoenix, Arizona. While Cook didn’t say just how those chips will be used, the 4- and 3-nanometer parts are expected to find their way into next-generation iPhones, Macs and other key products. Apple is currently TSMC’s largest customer.

The Phoenix facility is expected to start production in 2024. A follow-up plant is expected in 2026 due to increased demand. Combined, they’ll make about 600,000 chip wafers per year. TSMC is spending $40 billion on the factories, but they’ll be partly subsidized by the government through the CHIPS and Science Act meant to incentivize US semiconductor manufacturing.

Intel is also building factories in Arizona and Ohio. It’s planning to serve as a foundry for other companies looking to outsource chip production, and has expressed interest in making Apple’s components. Whether or not that happens may depend on Intel’s ability to keep up with foundries like TSMC, which frequently leads the push towards next-generation chip manufacturing processes.

The output will represent just a tiny portion of TSMC’s total capabilities. CNBC notes the Taiwan firm made 12 million wafers in 2020 alone. The National Economic Council estimates that should be enough to fulfill US demand, though. That could alleviate chip shortages, create jobs and reduce American dependence on foreign production.

While the plants won’t come online for two years, news of the expansion comes at an appropriate time. Apple has warned of iPhone 14 Pro manufacturing setbacks due to China’s COVID-19 policies. In theory, American facilities would have reduced the impact of those restrictions. Although many parts could still be made overseas even after TSMC’s expansion, there could soon be a greater chance of Apple devices reaching your door in a timely fashion.

African fintech Chipper Cash saw its valuation slashed from $2 billion to $1.25 billion before FTX’s bankruptcy, according to documents shared by the Financial Times on Alameda’s venture capital portfolio. TechCrunch got a whiff of this information from sources familiar with the company’s financial situation, and though the African cross-border payments company didn’t confirm the […]

FTX marked down Chipper Cash’s $2B valuation to $1.25B by Tage Kene-Okafor originally published on TechCrunch

Google is making it easier for users to search for tabs, bookmarks, and history from the address bar with new shortcuts. You can now type @tabs, @bookmarks, or @history to begin searching for websites. Tab search is probably the handiest feature out of the lot. Chrome already offers tab search, but you have to either […]

Chrome is adding shortcuts to easily search for tabs, bookmarks, and history from the address bar by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Startups across Europe are on track to raise $85 billion in funding this year — a drop of $15 billion on 2021 when funding passed $100 billion, according to a new report published today. The figures come from London VC firm Atomico’s annual State of European Tech, which has become a bellwether for the tech […]

Atomico report: European startups on track to raise $85B this year, down from $100B+ in 2021 by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch