• Sony has announced the free PlayStation 4 games it will be giving away in May.
• PlayStation Plus subscribers will be able to download Cities: Skylines and Farming Simulator 19 for free from May 5th through June 1st.
• The two games normally retail for $40 each on the PlayStation Store.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

We’re still anxiously awaiting news from Sony about the PlayStation 5, but in the meantime, we will take what we can get. Today, what we can get is free games, as Sony has unveiled the next duo of titles that will be free for PlayStation Plus subscribers starting on May 5th. Up first is Cities: Skylines, a game that lets you build and maintain enormous cities, and doom them to natural disasters when you get bored with the planning.

If you’d rather escape the city and head out to the countryside, you’re going to want to pick up the other free title, Farming Simulator 19. As the name suggests, this simulator puts you in the shoes of a modern farmer and has you harvesting crops, tending to animals, and riding around in more than 300 vehicles and machines. You can share your farm play online with other players and download mods created by the community.

If you find yourself enjoying either of the games (or both, for that matter) and want more, Cities: Skylines and Farming Simulator 19 have plenty of downloadable content that you can pick up on the PlayStation Store once you’ve bled the base game dry. You will have to pay for it, but at least you got the game for free.

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Every free PlayStation 4 game you can download in May originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 22:15:18 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• As many as 90 vaccine candidates for the novel coronavirus are already in the works, with six of them having hit human trails.
• Not all these vaccine candidates use the same technology to trigger an immune response against COVID-19.
• Nature has illustrated them to explain the differences between the various types of vaccines that could be used for the new disease.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

Without treatment for COVID-19, all that we can do right now is try to reduce the transmission rate. Social distancing measures, increased hygiene practices, and face masks can all help slow the spread. But unless medication is found to kill the virus in infected patients and prevent life-threatening complications, or a vaccine is developed, we might be in for a long fight with the novel coronavirus.

The good news is that doctors are trialing several drugs that have shown promise and working on an increasing number of vaccines. The vaccines are what would help us get rid of COVID-19 for good, but not all of them work the same way. Thankfully, researchers are studying all sorts of technologies that can kickstart the immune system and train it for a future encounter with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The following illustrations explain some of them.

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These illustrations show how a coronavirus vaccine could prevent infection originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 21:12:35 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• South Korea is one of the few examples of a country that seems to have gotten its COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak mostly under control.
• However, the country sparked global alarm earlier this month when it seemed the caseload of coronavirus relapses had more than doubled in just a week within the country.
• Turns out, the rate of coronavirus infections (or, in this case, reinfections of the virus) was a little more nuanced. The tests showing reinfections seemed to mostly be sparked by false positives.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

In recent weeks, coronavirus data out of South Korea has sparked alarm around the globe, with scientists and researchers having been stumped as to the cause of some COVID-19 patients showing a relapse of the virus after having been declared cured — and even testing negative afterward. That puzzling phenomenon has also sent researchers scrambling to figure out not only why that’s happening but whether patients are contagious at that point of reinfection, and whether they can infect others. This was all based in part on observing South Korea, which is one of the few countries that has seemed to get its coronavirus epidemic under control. That is, until a growing number of people started testing positive for the virus a second time.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, infectious disease experts in South Korea announced at least a small bit of good news amid a pandemic in which such announcements have been hard to come by. Dead but lingering fragments of the virus have been identified as the likely reason why nearly 300 people in the country recently tested positive again for the virus after having first seemingly made a full recovery from it.

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People may not be getting reinfected by coronavirus as frequently as we thought originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 20:41:19 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Researchers at Johns Hopkins University helped develop a blood test that can detect cancers before the patient becomes symptomatic.
• The test, which is still in development will not be ready for widespread use for some time, spotted cancers that other screening methods missed.
• However, it also produced false positives and false negatives.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

In the battle against cancer, time is everything. Catching the disease early can be the difference between life and death, so as screening technology gets more accurate, more lives may be saved. Aside from the actual treatment of the disease, the timing with which it is discovered is the most important variable in determining a patient’s outcome.

Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins University have developed a blood test that they say could help detect cancers before patients even begin to experience symptoms. It would be the ultimate screening tool, and it’s the subject of a new research paper published in the journal Science.

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New type of blood test may help diagnose cancer before symptoms appear originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 20:09:46 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Waze is testing a navigation feature that users have wanted for years: Lane guidance.
• The app will now show visual guidance for exits and turns during navigation, both on highways and in cities.
• The feature will roll out in Israel first, followed by other markets.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

You’re probably not driving as much as you used to due to the novel coronavirus health crisis. Data from Apple and Google shows that most people have taken the social distancing measures that various governments have imposed seriously, and satellite imagery has shown a significant decrease in pollution in China and other regions following the COVID-19 outbreak. But navigations apps are still useful during the pandemic.

Apple Maps shows coronavirus testing sites, and Google Maps and Waze have added a slew of COVID-19 features of their own in the past few weeks. Google’s Waze isn’t just working on measures to help communities during the pandemic, though, and a new leak tells us the popular navigation app will soon get a feature that users have been asking for as long as the app has existed: Lane guidance support.

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Waze is finally getting a navigation feature you’ve always wanted originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 19:38:38 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• The latest iOS 13.5 beta includes Apple’s brand new coronavirus exposure notification API.
• The API is designed to support contact tracing, a Bluetooth solution that will alert iPhone users when they’ve come into contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

Apple earlier today released a new developer beta of iOS 13.5, an update that introduces the company’s exposure notification API that will enable contact tracing for the coronavirus. As you’ve likely heard by now, both Google and Apple worked on a Bluetooth-powered solution designed to let people discover if and when they’ve come into close contact with someone who previously tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Given the urgent need,” Apple said in a press release earlier this month, “the plan is to implement this solution in two steps while maintaining strong protections around user privacy.”

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How to opt out of coronavirus exposure notifications in iOS 13.5 originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 19:07:29 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• NASA’s Mars Helicopter gets an official name thanks to an Alabama high school student.
• The aircraft has been named Ingenuity, a name submitted by Vaneeza Rupani during NASA’s Name The Rover contest.
• The helicopter will be the first manmade machine to attempt powered flight on another planet.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

When NASA’s Mars 2020 mission finally arrives on the Red Planet in early 2021 it will be the Perseverance rover that will be doing the bulk of the work. However, it’s not the only vehicle making the trip from Earth to Mars, as NASA’s experimental Mars helicopter will also be along for the ride.

The Mars helicopter won’t be doing a whole lot during the mission, but it will become the first manmade aircraft to attempt flight on another planet. That’s pretty special, so NASA obviously wasn’t going to let it go without a proper name. Thankfully, an Alabama high school student came up with a winning moniker: Ingenuity.

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NASA’s Mars helicopter finally has a name originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 18:36:34 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• A new leak claims that the Pixel 4a will begin shipping on May 22nd.
• The Pixel 4a was originally expected to be unveiled during Google I/O 2020, but Google was forced to cancel the developer conference due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
• If the release date is correct, the Pixel 4a should be announced the week of May 11th.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

Once the novel coronavirus outbreak morphed into a full-blown pandemic, it was clear that many of the large events and gatherings set to take place this year weren’t going to take place. Google I/O, the annual developers conference, was one of the events that was taken off the calendar in early March, and while Google originally planned to “explore other ways to evolve” the conference, it canceled the event altogether on March 20th.

In the grand scheme of things, the cancellation of the May event isn’t a very big deal, but reports suggested Google I/O 2020 would be the event where the Pixel 4a would make its debut. Based on all of the leaks we have seen in the days since, it seemed likely that the launch of the affordable phone would still take place in May, but a new leak might finally confirm the release date of the phone weeks before Google actually announces it.

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Pixel 4a release date leaked online weeks before official reveal originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 18:05:18 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Apple released the latest beta version of iOS 13.5 as well as iPadOS 13.5 for developers on Wednesday, with the software including a few important features related to the current coronavirus pandemic.
• For example, the new version of the software now includes a workaround that allows for a quick unlock of your iPhone even when you’re wearing a face mask, as is increasingly becoming a requirement for when people are in public spaces outside of the home.
• Also, developers will now be able to start building apps that notify users when they’ve come into proximity with someone who’s had the COVID-19 coronavirus.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

Pushing a shopping cart with one hand while holding my iPhone with the other to study my grocery list was a bit of a logistical challenge during a shopping trip I took this week. Wearing a face mask — as we’re all supposed to be doing right now generally everywhere we go outside because of the coronavirus pandemic — also made it a little awkward to look down and actually see my list, which meant bringing the phone higher up to my eye line. And to add one more wrinkle to all this, how are you supposed to use Face ID to actually unlock your phone if you’re, you know, wearing a mask and actually obscuring half of your face?

Turns out, Apple has been working on a fix to address precisely that challenge. The latest beta version of Apple’s iOS mobile software, released to developers on Wednesday, includes an easy workaround for those of you who rely on Face ID — and while it’s only in the iOS 13.5 beta 3 code right now, given the seriousness and widespread nature of this pandemic, we’re surely all but guaranteed to see this feature make its way into a finished version of the software eventually.

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iOS 13.5 makes it easier to use Face ID while wearing a face mask originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 17:34:50 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Wireless service and internet connectivity are perhaps more important now than they’ve ever been for the millions of Americans stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T have extended their commitment to the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected pledge that was originally set to expire in May.
• The pledge says that these companies won’t cut off service or levy late fees for customers unable to pay right now, with millions of Americans out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic’s catastrophic financial damage which has also spurred Congress to send out coronavirus stimulus payments to Americans.
• Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus quarantines and stay-at-home orders that have been a fact of life around the country for more than a month now have made smartphones and internet connectivity perhaps as indispensable as they’ve ever been for most people. Hunkering down at home has been an interminable ordeal that’s at least in a small way alleviated by our digital connections to the outside world, giving us the ability to do everything from streaming TV and movies to enjoying video chats with friends and loved ones — not to mention the millions of Americans that have been adjusting to the peculiar rhythms of working from home.

It’s with all this in mind that the major US wireless carriers have signed on to a pact extending some coronavirus-related concessions through this summer. Specifically, companies and internet service providers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Comcast have pledged not to cut off service to customers through June 30, extending a promise that originally went through the middle of May.

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US wireless carriers promise not to cancel your service through June 30th originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 17:03:41 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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