Stray, one of Engadget’s favorite games of 2022, is coming to Switch. The title, which lets you play as an orange tabby cat exploring a dystopian cyberpunk setting, arrives on Nintendo’s console this holiday season.
The trailer shows familiar action in the two-year-old game from BlueTwelve Studio. You’ll see the feline protagonist rolling in a barrel, facing a robotic enemy and knocking objects off ledges (as cats tend to do).
BlueTwelve Studios / Nintendo
Unfortunately, its graphical fidelity appears noticeably downgraded compared to its console brethren, but that’s to be expected. Switch developers can do a lot with the seven-year-old system, but they aren’t miracle workers.
Stray arrived on PS5/PS4 and PC (Steam) in 2022, followed by an Xbox port last year. The Switch version will round things out sometime around the holidays. You can check out the announcement trailer below.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stray-is-coming-to-switch-this-holiday-season-163611672.html?src=rss
Square-Enix’s old-meets-new reworking of Dragon Quest III arrives on November 14 on Switch. In addition, the HD-2D remake will be joined next year by reissues of its two predecessors in the trilogy, Dragon Quest I and Dragon Quest II, using the same innovative engine. The announcements came in Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct, which also brought news of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Metroid Prime 4 and Donkey Kong Country Returns.
The Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake trailer and screenshots showcase the game engine’s marvels, combining 16-bit-style sprites and textures with modern environmental effects. The engine stays true to vintage games’ original look and feel but uses modern touches to make them prettier. Square-Enix has already used the tech in Octopath Traveller and its sequel, along with Triangle Strategy, the Live a Live remake and the opera scene in Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster.
Square-Enix
Launching the third game in the trilogy first sounds odd, but the prequel, originally released in 1988, was the first chronologically within the game’s universe. The HD-2D remakes of the first two entries, initially available in 1986 and 1987, will arrive as one game sometime in 2025.
You can check out the nostalgic-meets-modern Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake trailer below. It launches on November 14 and will be available on Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S and PC (Steam).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-dragon-quest-3-hd-2d-remake-arrives-on-november-14-160136678.html?src=rss
It’s time for another Nintendo Direct, where the company teases, hypes and previews its upcoming slate of games. You can watch the June Nintendo Direct right here today at 10AM ET.
One thing we can rule out in advance is news about the Nintendo Switch successor. Last month, the company finally confirmed that it will unveil its next console by March 2025. However, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa quickly dashed any hopes that we’ll hear about it in today’s Direct. And the stream’s YouTube description box reiterates that as plainly as possible: “There will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during this presentation.”
So, Nintendo clearly wants us to think about one of the last waves of games for the Switch before we start drooling over new hardware. Let’s see what it has in store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-the-next-nintendo-direct-here-at-10am-et-120054935.html?src=rss
The company said at its developer conference last week that loans through third-party service Affirm are coming to Apple Pay later this year, so the two would have been redundant. “Users in the U.S. will also be able to apply for loans directly through Affirm when they check out with Apple Pay,” the company wrote in a newsroom post after its WWDC keynote.
According to TechCrunch, Pay Later is already disabled as an option when checking out with Apple Pay, and it won’t accept any new loans moving forward. However, those with current payment plans can still access those through the Wallet app.
“Starting later this year, users across the globe will be able to access installment loans offered through credit and debit cards, as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay,” Apple wrote in a statement to TechCrunch. “With the introduction of this new global installment loan offering, we will no longer offer Apple Pay Later in the U.S.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-pay-later-is-dead-long-live-affirm-loans-202524989.html?src=rss
YouTube is borrowing a page from X (Twitter) and adding a community notes feature ahead of the 2024 US election. The company wants the short viewer-created blurbs to add relevant context to videos, such as pointing out misinformation or old footage passed off as new.
Notes will roll out initially as a pilot program for “a limited number of eligible contributors,” who will receive an invitation via email or Creator Studio. The invited participants will need to have an active YouTube account in good standing.
During the pilot phase, “third-party evaluators” will rate notes’ helpfulness to help train the system. YouTube says it wants to launch notes gradually to test and fine-tune the feature before making it more widely available. Look no further than YouTube’s often toxic video comments to see why that’s necessary.
Once the feature is calibrated and widely available, you’ll see them under videos “if they’re found to be broadly helpful.” Viewers will be asked to rate notes as “helpful,” “somewhat helpful” or “unhelpful” — and tell them why (for example, it cites good sources or is written clearly).
Note ratings will be determined by a bridging-based algorithm, which looks for connections among disparate groups. For example, if people who have historically rated things differently agree on a particular note’s helpfulness, that one will more likely appear. It sounds like the system could still be abused, especially considering how many online tribes today share an unflinching belief in the same debunked misinformation. But hey, we’ll reserve judgment until we see it in action.
The feature is awfully similar to one that was rolled out initially under the Jack Dorsey era of Twitter and expanded globally after Elon Musk bought the company in 2022. At the time, Musk described the feature as “a gamechanger for improving accuracy on Twitter.” X, as it’s known today, isn’t exactly known for its accuracy, but YouTube apparently saw something worth copying in the crowd-sourced context.
As for when you will see community notes, YouTube says the pilot will launch on mobile in the US first. The company anticipates mistakes during this test phase as it tweaks its algorithms. Everyone else in the US can expect to see notes appear “in the coming weeks and months.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtubes-community-notes-feature-rips-a-page-out-of-xs-playbook-162145673.html?src=rss
WhatsApp is upgrading its video-calling chops. The Meta-owned platform is enhancing its calls with a new screen-sharing feature, a higher participant count and a speaker spotlight to try to make the platform a more viable competitor to Zoom, FaceTime and Google Meet.
Screen sharing could be handy for watching videos together, sharing content that isn’t easily shareable or troubleshooting your parents’ devices. It also allows for audio sharing, so you can easily chat with others while looking at their screen.
WhatsApp also expanded its participant count to 32 people on video calls. The new cap applies to all platforms. It’s a significant boost from the previous limit of eight people, first rolled out in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns kicked into full gear.
Speaker spotlight is another tweak in WhatsApp’s update (which is already a standard feature on many other calling platforms). In a group call, the person talking appears first in the row of participants, and their picture is highlighted, making it easier to identify who has the proverbial mic.
WhatsApp also highlighted its recent switch to the MLow codec for clearer calls. The new compression should clean up noise and echo cancellation, which is handy for noisy environments. Also, video calls will stream in a higher resolution if your network is fast enough to support it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-rolls-out-enhanced-video-calling-191519808.html?src=rss
The Yahoo News app is now AI-assisted, thanks to the company’s purchase of Artifact. Yahoo rolled out an update to its news aggregation app on Thursday with AI-powered personal feeds, key takeaways and the ability to flag clickbait headlines.
In April, Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company) bought the remains of Artifact, the AI-fueled news and recommendation app from Instagram’s co-founders that shut down earlier this year. Today’s update showcases how the technology can improve Yahoo’s news feed, which brings in over 180 million unique visitors every month in the US.
The new Yahoo News, available now on mobile and later on desktop, starts by letting you pick topics and publishers of interest for its algorithms to customize your feed accordingly. One noteworthy feature is the ability to quickly glance at the “Key Takeaways” of a given story: a short bullet list of main ideas that (if you request it) appear at the top of an article to help save time. This is Yahoo’s version of Artifact’s “Summarize” feature.
You can further customize your feed by blocking keywords you want to avoid (like, say, “NFT”) or publishers whose content you don’t like. Maybe the most intriguing feature is its ability to flag clickbait, which prompts the AI to rewrite headlines that are misleading, overly sensational or withholding critical information in hopes that you’ll click. (Yes, please.)
In addition to the app, Yahoo is revamping its homepage layout. The updated UI “emphasizes top news, personalized recommendations, and real-time trending topics” and is designed to evolve over time. The company says you can opt in to receive access to new features (presumably, many AI-powered) as they’re introduced.
If you’re in the US, you can download the new Yahoo News app for iOS or Android today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yahoo-news-gets-an-ai-powered-overhaul-171507596.html?src=rss
“Musk knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” the eight former employees wrote in Wednesday’s filing.
The former SpaceX engineers said some of them were harassed by other co-workers who “mimicked Musk’s posts,” in an alleged example of mob bullying under the influence of their superior’s behavior. The plaintiffs wrote that this “created a wildly uncomfortable hostile work environment.”
The group worked together on an open letter in 2022, highlighting the Tesla founder’s allegedly problematic behavior. They say they were fired in retaliation for that essay.
According to Bloomberg, the filing says the former SpaceX engineers have reason to believe Musk made the decision to fire them in retaliation for their letter. The complaint claims that when a SpaceX HR official suggested the company conduct a formal investigation before taking any decisive action, Musk replied, “I don’t care — fire them.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-sued-for-sexual-harassment-and-retaliation-by-former-spacex-engineers-190846047.html?src=rss
Jabra is exiting the consumer earbuds business. The move is shocking, as Jabra's parent company made the announcement at the same time it unveiled new models of its Elite earbuds. Peter Karlstromer, CEO of parent company GN, said the decision is “part of our commitment to focus on attractive markets where we can deliver profitable growth and strong returns.”
The company will discontinue the Jabra Elite (consumer earbuds) and Talk (mono Bluetooth) product lines. In late 2023, it pivoted the Elite line towards the premium segment in a move designed to compete with industry heavyweights Apple, Sony and Bose. However, the company lamented that its target markets “have changed over time.” Its current assessment is that “we cannot generate a fair return on investment compared to the many other opportunities we have within our Hearing, Enterprise, and Gaming businesses.”
Jabra will reduce the inventory of the to-be-discontinued products, and it expects to complete the wind-down by the end of the year. However, GN says it will service and support its devices “for several years.”
Although a bit farther under the radar than obvious competitors like AirPods, Jabra made some high-quality audio gear. Engadget’s audio expert Billy Steele called the 2021 Jabra Elite 3 “the new standard for affordable wireless earbuds,” as the company struck an alluring balance between quality and value.
Update, June 12 2024, 1:15PM ET: This story and headline have been updated to note that Jabra's parent company made the announcement it was exiting the headphone business the same day it released new earbuds, not the day after.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jabra-says-its-exiting-the-consumer-headphones-business-a-day-after-launching-new-earbuds-164518215.html?src=rss
Game publisher Voodoo (known for free-to-play mobile titles stuffed with ads) has bought the social platform BeReal (known for a scorching hot 15 minutes of fame in 2022) for €500 million. Although BeReal has fallen off the radar since its much-hyped peak, Voodoo says the app has grown to 40 million active users.
“BeReal achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends,” Voodoo CEO Alexandre Yazdi wrote in a press release. “We are very excited to bring our teams together and leverage Voodoo’s know-how and differentiated technologies to scale BeReal into the iconic social network for authenticity.”
If you’ve forgotten, BeReal’s gimmick is that it promotes “spontaneous authenticity” by prompting users to capture dual-camera pictures (a selfie and whatever the rear camera is aimed at) during two-minute windows at random times throughout the day. It won Apple’s iPhone App of the Year award in 2022 as younger users (especially) appreciated its less choreographed user content.
The app’s marketing spiel is that the short and sudden posting window forces spontaneous, unmanicured content (unlike, say, Instagram). On the downside, authenticity isn’t always engaging: Some users complained that its content could get downright boring. (Care to peruse an adrenaline-pumping pic of... somebody looking half asleep as they sit at a computer?)
Although BeReal’s buzz has died down significantly since its 2022 heyday (partially thanks to Instagram and TikTok cloning its gimmick while it was still hot), the company says its user base is growing more than you might expect. Voodoo’s 40 million active users figure is double the 20 million daily active users BeReal claimed in April 2023.
It’s worth noting that Voodoo’s press release on Tuesday describes BeReal as having 40 million active users, not daily active users, suggesting those figures may not be apples to apples. And around the time BeReal claimed 20 million daily active users last year, The New York Times published a report citing an analytics firm that said the app’s daily use had dropped 61 percent from its peak: from about 15 million users in October 2022 to “less than six million” in March 2023.
Left: The original Donut County. Right: Voodoo’s clone Hole.io.
Ben Esposito / Voodoo
No matter whose figures are accurate, BeReal is now in the hands of the French gaming publisher Voodoo. Founded in 2013, the mobile gaming titan’s ultra-casual titles tend to do quite well. By 2022, it claimed to have passed six billion total downloads, and it says its apps trail only Google and Meta in mobile app installations.
Voodoo says Aymeric Roffé, CEO of its social app Wizz, will take over as BeReal’s CEO. The company says BeReal’s founder and previous CEO Alexis Barreyat will “remain involved in BeReal in the short term” before shuffling off to work on new products.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bereal-the-buzziest-app-of-2022-has-been-bought-by-a-mobile-game-publisher-175016152.html?src=rss