MGM+ has ordered an eight-episode series based on Stephen King’s 2019 novel, The Institute, Deadline reported this week. The novel follows the plight of 12-year-old Luke Ellis and a group of other children with telepathic and telekinetic abilities who have been kidnapped and held captive at a facility deep in the Maine woods, where their powers are being exploited. Their story becomes intertwined with that of an ex-cop Tim Jamieson. I really enjoyed this one when it came out, and as a lifelong King reader who has become hardened against the disappointment of terrible adaptations, I’m choosing to remain hopeful.
So far, all we know about the cast is that it includes Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone) as Jamieson and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) as the villainous Mrs. Sigsby, according to Deadline. The show has Benjamin Cavell on board as writer and executive producer. Cavell helmed 2020’s The Stand miniseries remake, which… well, it happened. Again, we’re staying hopeful here. Production starts later this year in Nova Scotia.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/one-of-stephen-kings-best-recent-novels-is-being-made-into-a-show-for-mgm-203220393.html?src=rss
Some Cybertruck buyers who were scheduled to receive their new trucks this week have been told they’ll have to wait a little while longer as the company addresses a safety issue with the windshield wiper motor. Tesla hasn’t publicly confirmed any such problems or issued an official recall, but numerous commenters on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum and Reddit said they were notified that deliveries have been halted and their pickup dates were pushed back a week.
This follows reports from Cybertruck owners who have said that the windshield wiper failed on them, in somecases almost immediately after the truck was picked up. Tesla previously had to pause Cybertruck deliveries this spring, when it issued a recall over faulty accelerator pedals that could get stuck. The problem affected around 3,878 Cybertruck vehicles. In this case, the fix was fairly simple (installing a rivet) and deliveries resumed soon after.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybertruck-buyers-say-theyve-been-told-deliveries-are-paused-due-windshield-wiper-problems-173804018.html?src=rss
The US military used fake social media accounts to spread propaganda that was designed to discredit China’s COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines during the height of the pandemic, according to a bombshell report from Reuters. The anti-vax campaign ran from spring 2020 until mid-2021, and was intended to “counter what [the Pentagon] perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines,” the publication found in its investigation. The Philippines saw low vaccination rates through 2021 even months after China’s Sinovac vaccine arrived in the area, and recorded nearly 50,000 COVID deaths by November of that year.
In one example of the US’s anti-vax messaging cited by Reuters, an account in 2020 tweeted, “COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” The campaign also pushed the narrative that China’s vaccines were “haram” — or forbidden under Islamic law — because of a pig derivative in the ingredients.
Former military officials who spoke with Reuters said the Pentagon had propaganda accounts on X, Facebook and Instagram, and was warned in late 2020 by Facebook executives that the accounts had been identified and were acting in violation of the platform’s policies. Some of these accounts, however, ultimately weren’t taken down after the Pentagon said it would stop using them for its anti-vax campaign. Reuters notified X of at least 300 accounts it found during its investigation that appeared to be part of the operation. These were determined to be bots and removed.
According to Reuters, the campaign was launched after the Chinese government made unfounded claims that the COVID-19’s spread could be traced back to the US. In a statement to the publication, a Pentagon spokesperson brought up China’s disinformation campaign, and said the military “uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the U.S., allies, and partners.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-military-reportedly-used-social-media-to-spread-anti-vax-propaganda-in-the-philippines-160357361.html?src=rss
The following contains spoilers for “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”
In an episode full of misdirection, the biggest one has to be its title, given we’ve learned very little about what Ruby Sunday’s legend actually is. Instead, the first part of the series’ two part finale is essentially an hour to build a sense of dread that spills over in its final moments. I could cheat and say “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is just “Army of Ghosts” — the first half of the 2006 season’s finale — with a bigger budget. Except the big bad that reveals itself at the end is a villain from a far deeper cut than the usual corners of Doctor Who’s history.
The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT HQ to ask about the mysterious woman — Susan Twist — following them around the universe. UNIT, meanwhile, has been monitoring someone named Susan Triad, a British tech billionaire who will announce her gift to humanity later that day. Even the goofballs at UNIT work out that S.TRIAD is an anagram of TARDIS and the Doctor thinks Triad, or the mysterious woman more generally, could be his granddaughter.
But there’s also the matter of Ruby’s parentage to uncover, giving the Doctor a reason not to just confront Triad. The Doctor, Ruby and a UNIT soldier enter the time window — a low-grade holodeck — to try and see who left Ruby on the steps of the church. But the history’s a bit wonky, and Ruby’s faceless mother — unlike what we saw in “The Church on Ruby Road” — turns and ominously points toward the TARDIS. Not long after, the TARDIS is engulfed in a black cloud of swirling evil that nobody’s sure what to do about.
The Doctor then meets Triad just before she gets on stage, prompting her to remember all of her other selves. Whenever Triad dreams, she’s somehow aware of those myriad alternate selves. And while she takes to the stage, the Doctor asks the team at UNIT HQ to scan the TARDIS. It is similarly engulfed in an invisible cloud of malevolent stuff that’s threatening everyone in the area.
Bad Wolf / BBC Studios
[ASIDE: This is the second time in four years that Doctor Who has tried to parody an Apple Keynote. And this is the second time that they’ve totally misunderstood how to stage one that looks even remotely evocative of what they’re parodying. I know the conventions of the tech keynote have mutated since the Steve Jobs era, but they’re not even trying.]
A UNIT staffer, Harriet Arbinger (Wait… H. Arbinger?) starts muttering about a dark prophecy while Triad goes off script. The Doctor, standing close by, watches as she turns into a skeleton monster while the TARDIS is menaced by a giant animal head surrounded by Egyptian iconography. Turns out Susan isn’t the Doctor’s granddaughter, or even a key component of the story, but an innocent. An innocent who has been co-opted by Sutekh, an all-powerful Egyptian God we first saw in 1975’s “Pyramids of Mars.” Cue the credits.
It’s a slender synopsis, mostly because these scenes are played slowly as the tension ratchets up. “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” takes its time, letting the screw turn gently until you’re almost happy when the big reveal happens. It’s a gripping ride on a first watch, although I imagine it’ll not have too much value when you go back to it a third or fourth time. But, then again, that’s often been an issue with episodes penned by Russell T. Davies. It’s also a good way to juice bookings for next week’s finale which will get a UK cinema release on June 21.
Was it easy to guess that we’d be getting Sutekh back after his one outing in “Pyramids of Mars?” The rumor mill certainly pulled in that direction over the last month or so, and it’s not as if we didn’t get a clue or two along the way. Longtime Davies fans will recall that Vince watches the part one cliffhanger at the end of the first episode of Queer as Folk. And we’ve already had a whole scene from “Pyramids of Mars” lifted — the jump into a ruined future — in “The Devil’s Chord.”
Bad Wolf / BBC Studios
If you are unfamiliar, “Pyramids of Mars” is a classic, and another blockbuster from the pen of the series’ best 20th century writer, Robert Holmes. At the time, Holmes was the series’ script editor and had commissioned a story from writer Lewis Griefer. But Griefer’s material was so poor that Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe decided a replacement was needed. So Holmes was tasked with writing a whole new episode in a tiny amount of time. The finished episode was credited to pseudonym Stephen Harris, but it’s all Holmes under the hood. Sadly, because of various rules around writing credits, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” end credits actually give credit to Lewis Griefer as Sutekh’s creator and omit Holmes, which feels pretty rough.
But that one minor injustice aside, let’s bring on the finale.
Susan Twist Corner
Well, looks as if we have our answer that Susan Twist was something of a misdirect.
Gabriel Woolf, who voiced Sutekh in 1975, is back to give voice to him now.
When Mrs. Flood was left to look after Cherry, she was clearly aware of Sutekh’s return and seemed delighted by it. But she didn’t appear to be a harbinger, so it’s likely she’s representing another, different malevolent character from the series' past.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-the-legend-of-ruby-sunday-review-what-legend-120004162.html?src=rss
PlayStation Productions and Screen Gems have announced the cast for the upcoming movie adaptation of the interactive horror game Until Dawn. According to Deadline, the ensemble will include Ella Rubin, who stars alongside Anne Hathaway in Amazon Prime's The Idea of You, and Michael Cimino, who played Victor Salazar in Hulu's Love, Victor.Expats' Ji-young Yoo and Sitting in Bars with Cake's Odessa A'zion have also signed on to play characters in the game revolving around eight young adults who have to survive the night at a remote mountain lodge while being hunted by a killer.
Supermassive Games got some pretty well-known actors to provide motion capture and voice acting for the game's characters, including Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere. They're no longer the right age to play their original roles, so it doesn't come as a surprise that they're not involved in the project. But since they're not unknown motion capture actors, the filmmakers are dealing with a unique situation in that famous people's faces are tied to the characters other people will now portray.
"At PlayStation Productions, we are always looking to find creative and authentic ways to adapt our beloved games that our fans will enjoy," Asad Qizilbash, head of Sony's production company, told Deadline. "Alongside Screen Gems, we’ve assembled a fantastic cast of new characters that builds upon our already stellar filmmaking team and their vision for the adaptation."
The game itself is getting a remake for the PS5 and for PC. It was built in Unreal Engine 5 for the newer console, and it will add a third-person camera mode, new locations and new interactions to the original. Until Dawn's remake is coming out sometime this fall.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/until-dawns-original-actors-will-not-star-in-its-film-adaptation-110036254.html?src=rss
If you regularly stare at the Steam charts to see if there’s anything new and exciting to play, you may have noticed an odd little “game” called Banana. It has quickly become a huge success and, as of this writing, sits at the number three spot with over 400,000 concurrent players. It’s a simple idle clicker game, like many before it, so what’s making players flock to what amounts to a static screen of a huge banana?
The promise of sweet, sweet cash, that’s what. It’s an extremely bare-bones title that has you repeatedly clicking on a banana. That’s pretty much it, though there’s a twist. As you click and click on the tropical fruit, there’s a chance of a banana sticker dropping into your Steam inventory. These bananas come in all different designs, from silver-encrusted variants to one that looks like it's glitching out from a hack.
aaladin66, Pony, Sky, AestheticSpartan
Because the bananas show up in your inventory, they can be sold on the Steam Marketplace. Rare bananas have already gone for as much as $1,400, though the average payout is somewhere in the $0.02 range. One of the developers called it a “legal infinite money glitch” in an interview with Polygon. “Users make money out of a free game while selling free virtual items,” he continued.
The money earned goes into a Steam wallet, which can then be used to purchase games. So these bananas are basically NFTs, only without the blockchain. People are buying and selling them like crazy, like weird fruit-based trading cards. Forget the banana stand: it looks like there’s money in just the facsimile of a banana.
If the idea of spending all day clicking on a fake banana in front of a vomit-green background doesn’t do it for you, the developers sell inventory bananas outright for $0.25 a pop. The game itself, however, is free to play. The devs deny allegations that the clicker is some sort of scam or a Ponzi scheme, simply saying that it’s “pretty much a stupid game.” Idle clickers, after all, are nothing new.
As for the future, the designers have teased updates, including a way to use inventory items to change the way the plain in-game banana looks. There also might be a minigame coming down the pike, as well a shop upgrade that lets players exchange multiples of the same banana for a unique drop. One thing is a near certainty. The massive popularity of Banana is sure to inspire a whole bunch of copycats. May I humbly suggest a pizza slice as something to click over and over.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/one-of-the-biggest-games-on-steam-right-now-is-a-clickable-banana-190058749.html?src=rss
Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a long time in the making. It was announced in 2017 as Project re Fantasy through a weird long video that said very little. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Project for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate to find a cool way to say ‘fantasy.’ It’s also made a giant fantasy JRPG — and after rolling through a demo at Summer Game Fest last weekend, I’m dying to play it.
ReFantazio is the first original title by Studio Zero, a relatively new Atlus division headed up by Katsura Hashino. As the director of the third, fourth and fifth Persona game, Hashino is responsible for the Persona series’ pivot towards social simulation elements. After finishing up Persona 5, Hashino left P-Studio to work on all-new titles unrelated to Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series.
Atlus and Hashino are both known more for (semi-) grounded urban fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents a big departure. This is an epic, sprawling story covering a whole nation, the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The Euchronian king has been assassinated, and the people of the land must elect (!?) a new one.
Euchronia is home to eight “tribes” (fantasy races) and our hero is trying to reunite them. There’s also a cursed prince who everyone thinks is dead, a royal tournament for the throne in six months and monsters everywhere. To make matters worse, Euchronia is being invaded by hideous, Hieronymus Bosch-inspired creatures called humans, which function as the game’s bosses. Humans, huh? Wonder if it’s a… metaphor?
Given Atlus’ storytelling history, the broad strokes of ReFantazio will probably make more sense than the moment-to-moment beats. Best to just let it wash over you.
The game takes place over the course of six months, and you’ll be traveling across Euchronia in a Gauntlet Runner (a cool ship designed by the Evangelion mech guy) trying to rally support for your entry into the royal tournament. Each town in the game has a tavern where you can grab a bite and gather information, a recruitment center where you can accept quests, various shops and an inn where you can rest. Completing quests and making friends along the way will gain you supporters among the various tribes, which is key to both the overarching story and the combat.
Atlus
Atlus’ Summer Game Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The first was a training sequence of sorts, story-heavy and light on combat. This felt mostly like a showcase for ReFantazio’s cinematics, which were gorgeous, despite the TVs in the demo area being set to interpolate frames. Atlus has a tradition of showcasing top-quality anime in its games, and the demo clips were among the best I’ve seen. What I appreciated more than the quality of the animation was how closely the character designs and vibe of the game matched the cinematics.
Also memorable is the voice acting. For the English-speaking cast, Atlus is taking the “United Kingdom” of Euchronia very seriously, as everyone I ran into had a totally over-the-top British accent. As the owner of an English accent, I found the characters beyond theatrical but nonetheless enjoyable. At one point in the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat girl that could've been auditioning for Oliver.
Atlus
In another segment, I fought alongside an adorable floppy-eared fellow from fantasy Liverpool who sounded like he was analyzing a soccer game. If none of this excites you, the Japanese voice cast seems to be shooting for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can’t imagine playing this game in anything other than English at this point.
Not everything is voiced — as in a lot of JRPGs, key lines and conversations play out in full, but many interactions will be confined to text, with the voice actors emoting a little along the way for flavor. As a speed reader, this is absolutely fine by me.
Atlus
Segment two was all about dungeon-crawling combat — time for the Persona comparisons! The setup here will be familiar to fans of Atlus games: It’s a turn-based JRPG, with various types of physical and magical attacks, status effects and ailments. ReFantazio’s version of the classic JRPG class system is Archetypes — there are 14 lineages containing over 40 unique Archetypes, including some familiar roles like Mage, Thief, Knight and Healer.
There’s also a tactical element to party composition, with a front and back row playing a part in combat, and Synthesis moves that allow you to combine your party’s Archetypes for stronger attacks. Everything has a little Persona and SMT to it — you manage Archetypes in an Akademeia (similar to a Velvet Room), they can evolve through experience, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond with your supporters.
Atlus
A twist on the classic turn-based formula — and one I’m very pleased about — is the Fast battle system. When you come across an enemy, you’ll be able to gauge their strength before initiating combat. The Fast system lets you target a particular enemy and strike them; this can insta-kill underpowered foes, which allows you to avoid turn-based battling entirely when grinding low-level enemies. For stronger foes, you can use Fast to butter them up and start a squad battle with advantage, but if you mess up this engagement you could start the turn-based combat on your ass. Other Atlus games have a similar risk-reward system to allow players to gain an advantage, but this is more nuanced and satisfying.
The interface for all of this is a typically gorgeous menu system and UI that feels more refined than ever. Simple actions are assigned a face button on the controller, which means less time spent in menus. It’s all pretty intuitive, and towards the end of my short demo I was already speeding through the turn-based combat without wondering what button did what. Taken as a whole, the combat system feels like a natural evolution to the classic formula Atlus is known for.
Atlus
The final demo section starts inside the Gauntlet Runner. It’s a claustrophobic space, more submarine than super yacht, but filled with things to do. There are people to talk to, activities to partake in, and routes to choose. Similar to Persona, the game occuring over a fixed period means you likely won’t be able to do everything you want to, and instead need to decide how best to spend your time each day. You might try to level up one of the main character’s five traits — courage, wisdom, tolerance, eloquence and imagination — or perhaps focus on fighting monsters or earning cash. I played to type and read a book, which was sadly not enough to raise my courage from “craven.”
My cozy book session led immediately into the main show: a face-off against a giant human. This began with an anime sequence, which gave way to classic four-on-one combat. The human designs in this game are buckwild. This one was called, “Sea Horror Homo Sabara” and here are the Cliff’s Notes:
Long violet beard and eyebrows.
One yellow eye, one white eye, both glowing.
12 ears arranged in two rows? Edgy piercings.
Crown of thorns. Actually, make that two crowns of thorns.
Top half of head has been scalped. There seems to be a human heart sticking out.
Also, eight giant bejeweled tentacles as weapons.
It’s not like I haven’t seen crazy bosses in a JRPG before, but this octodad was a lot of fun to fight. There was no major challenge: Take out the tentacles, wail on the body, tentacles regenerate, repeat. But he hit hard, and the demo clearly set me up for success. It’s easy to see this guy wiping your team if you don’t come properly prepared.
Of all the things Atlus squeezed into the short Summer Game Fest, the human battle was the most memorable. From the lore being drip-fed to fans, it seems like the humans are actually from our world, and are being Isekai’d into Euchronia as these messed-up monsters. Here’s hoping a lot of them made it over.
Atlus
At first blush ReFantazio feels like a real auteur moment for Hashino — as if, after the worldwide success of Persona 5, he’s basically been given a blank check. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to show you how cool and edgy they are, but the only concern for ReFantazio is how loud, confident and unique it can be.
Yes, there are elements borrowed from almost every Atlus RPG you can think of, but it's all been remixed and refined. I left my brief time with ReFantazio filled with this wonderful milieu of nostalgia and surprise, a warm familiarity from something unlike anything I’d played before.
Metaphor: ReFantazio comes to PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series consoles on October 11.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metaphor-refantazio-feels-like-a-jrpg-free-from-restraint-and-sanity-185129361.html?src=rss
Neva is going to make me cry. It very nearly did at Summer Game Fest, as the game’s introductory cinematics faded to black, literally just one minute into my time with the demo. I won’t divulge what happens in those initial frames, but it shattered my soul. It also perfectly primed me for the heart-pounding danger and devastating beauty that I would get lost in for the next 45 minutes, alongside my new best friend, Neva the wolf.
Nomada Studio
Every aspect of Neva is breathtaking. It plays like a living watercolor illustration: Alba, the protagonist, has long, slender limbs, a cloud of silver hair and a flowing red cloak that drapes behind her elegantly with each leap and fall. Neva is a young white wolf, fluffy and energetic, and the two share an intense bond that’s repeatedly reinforced and tested in the demo.
The world of Neva feels slightly more grounded than that of Gris, the game that put Nomada Studio on the map in 2018, but it’s still filled with layers of magic. The landscapes beyond the 2D plane that Alba and Neva traverse have incredible depth — dense forests hiding secrets and mountain ranges towering above wide valleys, sharp peaks piercing the sky in the far distance. The demo has lush glades draped in vines and weeping branches, sunlight streaming through the gaps in the leaves, as well as cave systems with dark, tight corridors. At times Neva takes the Frank Lloyd Wright approach to design, squeezing players through claustrophobic thickets that suddenly burst onto fields of thick green grass, the camera pulling back to show how small Alba and Neva really are in this space.
Nomada Studio
Trees, leaves, rocks and roots compose the game’s sidescrolling playground, with sloping platforms and floating islands built mainly out of stone. Touches of fantastical alien technology appear with increasing frequency as the demo progresses, as do hordes of inky-black enemies with round white faces, mouths open in silent screams.
Platforming in Neva is intuitive. There’s minimal on-screen text in the game, and instead direction comes from the environment, soft highlights and sunkissed glows marking the proper paths in a way that feels completely natural. I flowed through most areas of the demo, leaping onto ledges with almost-subconscious impulses, knowing that I could trust the game’s subtle instructions. There are areas of spiky blackness that Alba has to clear for Neva to be able to progress, and at times it’s necessary to leave the little wolf behind for a moment, generating instant separation anxiety. Neva yelps and squeaks as she learns how to traverse the world, and they’re heart-wrenching sounds. I was keenly aware of Neva with each jump, making sure she could follow my path, lingering to watch her complete big leaps, petting her after each success, and consistently calling out her name.
Alba’s voice is fairy-like and the way she says, “Neva? Neva. Nevaaa!” has become an earworm I can’t shake. In the days since coming home from Summer Game Fest and reuniting with my two small dogs, I’ve been walking around the house saying, “Neva?” as if it were their names. It’s been a very confusing time for them, but they’ve gotten a few extra treats, so all’s well.
Combat in Neva feels as intuitive as platforming, with simple inputs that land satisfying hits of Alba’s sword. The enemies, long-limbed creatures that appear out of dark pools in the ground, slash at Alba with their spiky fingers and throw lethal blobs at her, but one-on-one, they’re fairly easy to dispatch. Alba is able to get incredibly close to each creature before she takes damage, and this generous proximity makes the fight scenes feel like dance, with constant action and minimal interruptions. I didn’t die until I reached the boss fight at the end of the demo, where Neva and I had to fight off a giant creature, double jumping around it to slash at its legs and back, avoiding its attacks. I defeated the boss after three deaths, and the scene felt like an appropriate escalation of everything I’d learned so far.
Nomada Studio
I’m convinced that every preview of Neva (including this one) will mention how quickly and easily the game will make players cry, and I want to take a moment to recognize the magnitude of this achievement. The bond that Nomada Studio have built between Neva and Alba is incredibly powerful, and this type of emotional connection doesn’t just happen when you put an animal and a human in the same scene. Neva is a constant source of anxiety and joy: The cub must be protected, at all costs, and she feels like a physical part of Alba’s being, necessary to the protagonist’s survival. Neva establishes their shared trauma and every following mechanic reinforces their partnership — protect, pet, repeat. Neva and Alba need each other, and their shared love resonates from each frame of the game.
Guaranteed, Neva is going to make me cry.
Neva is due out on PC and PlayStation 5 this year, developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/neva-hands-on-a-grand-achievement-in-emotional-game-design-180516649.html?src=rss
The Google Pixel Tablet with charging speaker dock is $130 off right now via Woot. This is a discount of 26 percent and a record low for the tablet. That's a pretty good deal for a device that’s still under a year old.
It’s worth re-emphasizing that this sale is for the tablet and the charging speaker dock. It’s the latter accessory that was largely responsible for the positive review we gave the tablet last year. The dock lets the tablet double as a smart display. It charges the tablet quickly and provides a sturdy base for touch gestures. The speakers are also much louder than one would expect, given the size. The combination of a useful dashboard, an easy-to-read interface and impressive audio make it one heck of a smart display.
We were a bit cooler on the tablet itself, though it's perfectly serviceable. The nano-ceramic coating and glass-like backing makes it feel more expensive than it actually is and the low weight, at just over one pound, ensures you won’t cramp up while streaming the latest hit TV show. It is, however, slightly heavier than the iPad Air.
There’s also a neat little kickstand-hanger combo that lets you place the tablet just about anywhere. This is useful, for instance, when following a recipe in the kitchen. You can just hang it right on a cabinet knob. The 2,560 x 1,600 LCD panel isn’t as vibrant as a modern OLED, but it gets the job done.
The Pixel Tablet is the first of Google’s tablets to be a Chromecast receiver, so you can control it from your phone. This comes in especially handy when watching streaming apps, though it only works when docked.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-tablet-with-charging-speaker-dock-is-130-off-right-now-165101833.html?src=rss
It might be too late to get a big tech gift to ship in time for Father's Day, but if you're looking to upgrade your own setup, you can still take advantage of a few sales that are still kicking ahead of the weekend. The 13- and 15-inch versions of Apple's latest MacBook Air are each down to all-time lows, for instance, as are both versions of the newest MacBook Pro. Beats' new Solo 4 headphones are $70 off, too, while Solo Stove has a sale on some of our favorite smokeless fire pits. Several other gadgets we recommend are also on sale, including Amazon's Echo Buds, the Backbone One mobile game controller and Lenovo's IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-macbook-air-m3-hits-a-new-low-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-160638174.html?src=rss