Amazon Prime has released the official trailer for Like A Dragon: Yakuza, its live action adaptation of the action-adventure Sega game franchise mostly revolving around the yakuza Kazuma Kiryu. Unlike the teaser Amazon dropped in July, the trailer features a voiceover by Kiryu's actor Ryoma Takeuchi, as well as voice dialogues by other cast members. The series is set across two intersecting timelines in 1995 and 2005 in the fictional town of Kamurocho, which is based on Tokyo's Kabukicho.
It will cover the events of the first Yakuza game, with some changes to the story. Based on Amazon's own description of the series, it will show Kiryu and his friends Nishiki, Yumi and Miho plan a heist at an arcade that's apparently under the control of a powerful yakuza organization called the Dojima Family. Like in the game, Kiryu was imprisoned for 10 years and returned to Kamurocho in 2005 when he was released after finding out that his friends needed his help.
The trailer gives us a glimpse of how the show's story will unfold, as well as of the franchise's beloved characters, including Nishiki and fan favorite Goro Majima. It shows a chaotic Kamurocho with gangsters on bikes, gun fights, fist fights and explosions. The trailer also introduces us to a shadowy figure called the Demon of Shinjuku, who's going around killing people in the district.
Amazon is making the first three episodes of Like A Dragon: Yakuza available for streaming starting on October 24. The last three episodes will come out on October 31.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/watch-the-full-trailer-for-amazons-live-action-yakuza-adaptation-123027590.html?src=rss
What qualifies a video game as “depressing?” The most obvious answer is that game you simply cannot beat no matter how hard you try, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Instead, we’re looking at games that just have a pall over them, whether it’s directly from story beats or a more subtle vibe given off by the visuals, music or activities the player has to participate in.
The games on this list don’t have a lot in common on the surface — there are big-budget action thrillers, smaller independent titles and at least one visual novel / deck-building game. But they can all put you in a somber mood, if that’s what you're looking for. Next time the rain is pouring down and you’re feeling a bit of melancholy, we have options to keep you company.
It was a messy Monday if you were a Verizon customer or wanted some PS5 gaming in the evening. First, Verizon mobile customers reported outages across the US on Monday. At around 9:30AM ET, hundreds of thousands of users flagged problems with their mobile service on Downdetector. Reports spiked at almost 105,000 at 11:20AM. Issues included the inability to send texts and a lack of cellular service outright. The issue centered on the East Coast and Midwest. The carrier hasn’t elaborated on what caused the issue. The FCC said it was “working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions.”
Hours later, the PlayStation Network experienced serious issues, kicking people off their matches and crashing online games worldwide. (Yes, that’s even bigger than the Midwest and East Coast.) Users couldn’t sign in on the PS5, PS4, PS Vita and PS3 or perform account maintenance on the web either. Streaming functionality was also knocked offline. Services came back online in the early hours of October. We’re also checking with Sony about the cause.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) fined Cruise, GM’s self-driving vehicle division, $1.5 million. The penalty was imposed for omitting key details from an October 2023 accident when one of the company’s autonomous vehicles struck and dragged a San Francisco pedestrian. Cruise is being fined for initially submitting incomplete reports, but it’s worse than that. Executives initially played a video of the accident during October 3 meetings with the San Francisco mayor’s office, NHTSA, DMV and other officials. However, the video stream was “hampered by internet connectivity issues” that concealed the part where the vehicle dragged the victim. Executives, who the report stated knew about the dragging, also failed to verbally mention that crucial detail.
The NHTSA wants Cruise to file a corrective action plan, along with others covering its total number of vehicles, miles traveled and whether they operated without a driver. It also has to summarize software updates that affect operations and more. Finally, Cruise will also have to meet with the NHTSA quarterly to discuss and review those reports.
It claims Samsung's Auto Blocker makes it difficult to install its app store.
Epic loves a courtroom battle. Its next challenger is Samsung — and Google. (Yes, Epic already won an antitrust lawsuit against Google last December, which found Google held an illegal monopoly on app distribution and in-app billing services.) Epic Games is claiming Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature is making it difficult for users to install the Epic Games Store on the latest Samsung devices. This is because Samsung now activates Auto Blocker, which only allows app installs from the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store, by default. To be honest, it’s pretty laborious to switch off. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney even suggests Google and Samsung are working together, though he admits there’s no concrete evidence for this claim.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-verizon-and-playstations-network-separately-hit-by-outages-110420743.html?src=rss
It's not just you — the PlayStation Network experienced serious issues, kicking people off their matches and crashing online games around the world. Based on Downdetector reports, the issue started shortly after 8PM Eastern time on September 30. Sony Interactive Entertainment has yet to release a statement about the problem, but it did update the PlayStation Network status page to show that several of its services weren't working.
Users couldn't sign in, create new accounts or edit their account details on the PS5, PS4, PS Vita and PS3. They couldn't do any account maintenance on the web either. Likewise, they couldn't stream games on the web or on any PlayStation console. They couldn't do any window shopping, as well: Users couldn't browse or search for games, redeem vouches, make any purchases or download previously purchased titles.
"We're working to resolve the issue as soon as possible," the company wrote in the status update. "Thank you for your patience."
As of 4:30AM Eastern time on October 1, however, the PSN status page now shows that all its services are up and running. It's still unclear what had happened and why PSN was down from the evening of September 30 to the early hours of October 1, but we reached out to PlayStation/Sony Interactive Entertainment for more information.
Update, October 02, 2024, 4:42AM ET: We updated this post after the PSN status page showed that all its services were up and running.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-playstation-networks-services-are-down-034439741.html?src=rss
On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) fined Cruise, GM’s self-driving vehicle division, $1.5 million. The penalty was imposed for omitting key details from an October 2023 accident in which one of the company’s autonomous vehicles struck and dragged a San Francisco pedestrian.
Cruise is being fined for initially submitting several incomplete reports. The NHTSA’s reports require pre-crash, crash and post-crash details, which the company gave to the agency without a critical detail: that the pedestrian was dragged by the vehicle for 20 feet at around 7 MPH, causing severe injuries. Eventually, the company released a 100-page report from a law firm detailing its failures surrounding the accident.
That report states that Cruise executives initially played a video of the accident during October 3 meetings with the San Francisco Mayor's Office, NHTSA, DMV and other officials. However, the video stream was “hampered by internet connectivity issues” that concealed the part where the vehicle dragged the victim. Executives, who the report stated knew about the dragging, also failed to verbally mention that crucial detail in the initial meetings because they wanted to let “the video speak for itself.”
Investigators finally found out about the dragging after the NHTSA asked the company to submit the full video. The government agency says Cruise also amended four other incomplete crash reports involving its vehicles to add additional details.
The NHTSA's new requirements for Cruise include submitting a corrective action plan, along with others covering its total number of vehicles, their miles traveled and whether they operated without a driver. It also has to summarize software updates that affect operation, report citations and observed violations of traffic laws and let the agency know how it will improve safety. Finally, Cruise will have to meet with the NHTSA quarterly to discuss the state of its operations while reviewing its reports and compliance.
The order lasts at least two years, and the NHTSA can extend it to a third year. Reutersreported on Monday that, despite the fine, the NHTSA’s investigation into whether Cruise is taking proper safety precautions to protect pedestrians is still open. Cruise still faces probes by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
To say the incident sparked shakeups at Cruise would be an understatement. The company halted its self-driving operations after the accident. Then, last November, the dominoes began to fall: Its CEO resigned, and GM said it would cut its Cruise investment by “hundreds of millions of dollars” and restructure its leadership. Nine more executives were dismissed in December.
Nonetheless, Cruise is trying to rebound under its new leadership. Vehicles with drivers returned to Arizona and Houston this year, and GM said it’s pouring an additional $850 million into it. Earlier this month, it began operating in California again, also with drivers — which, it’s safe to say, is a good thing.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/gms-cruise-fined-15-million-for-omitting-details-about-its-gruesome-2023-crash-210559255.html?src=rss
If you've been on the lookout for a killer deal on a perfectly decent tablet for streaming videos and catching up on some reading, hunt no more. Just ahead of the October edition of Prime Day, Amazon has slashed the price of the Fire HD 10 tablet to $75, which is a discount of $65. This matches the tablet's lowest price to date, which we saw during Prime Day in July.
The deal is for a model with 32GB of storage and ads on the lockscreen. Expanding the storage is easy enough thanks to the microSD slot, but to get rid of the lockscreen ads you'll need to buy a different version (which, at $90, is also currently $65 off).
You probably won't be doing as much creative work on a Fire HD tablet as you might on an iPad Pro. But for kicking back and catching up on a show or reading a Kindle book, Amazon's tablet certainly does the trick. It has a 10.1-inch Full HD display with a promise of up to 13 hours of battery life. Amazon says it delivers 25 percent faster performance than the previous model and it has 3GB of storage.
You can use the tablet to keep up with family and friends using messaging apps or hop on video calls with the help of the 5MP front-facing camera. You can also use a stylus to sketch in various apps. There's Alexa integration as well, of course — you can use the tablet to control smart compatible home devices and get a live view of connected security cameras.
One thing worth noting is that Amazon has yet to hold its usual fall devices event, so it may be using the October Prime Day sale to get rid of its current inventory of devices on the cheap before announcing upgraded models. Even if Amazon does have new tablets to show off in the coming weeks, though, you'll still have a solid device in hand if you snap this one up.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazons-fire-hd-10-tablet-drops-to-a-record-low-price-ahead-of-october-prime-day-202755183.html?src=rss
Update, September 30, 7:28PM ET: At 7:18PM ET, the company tweeted that its engineers had resolved the issue. The original story, which was updated twice after publish with statements from Verizon, follows.
Verizon mobile customers reported widespread outages across the US on Monday. Starting at around 9:30AM ET, hundreds of thousands of people flagged issues with their mobile service on Downdetector, which tracks user-submitted outage reports. The volume of reports spiked at almost 105,000 at 11:20AM, but were still reaching almost 59,000 at 12:52PM.
Many folks claimed they were unable to make or receive calls or exchange text messages. Those with an iPhone may be seeing "SOS" instead of the usual connection bars on the top right of their screen. That's a common sight when there's limited service or none at all. However, affected iPhone users can still make emergency calls via other networks.
A Downdetector heatmap suggested that the issue was most prevalent in New York, New Jersey, Georgia and elsewhere on the east coast and midwest. A narrow yellow band of reports was also emerging on the west coast as of 1:10PM ET. along with an intensifying heat spot in Los Angeles.
We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue.
Verizon confirmed that service was affected for some customers. “Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to solve the issue,” the company wrote on X at 11:48AM. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.
As of 3:45PM ET, Verizon had yet to provide an update on the outage via X. User outage reports were still flooding into Downdetector, however, with almost 48,000 of them at 3:10PM.
At 5:04PM ET, the company tweeted that "service has started to be restored," and Downdetector reports of outages had dipped below 30,000.
Verizon engineers are making progress on our network issue and service has started to be restored. We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today. We continue to work around the clock to fully resolve this…
At 7:18PM ET, the company tweeted that its engineers had "fully restored today's network disruption." The number of reports of an outage on Downdetector had dropped below 3,500. There has still been no word from the company on what caused the outage.
Verizon engineers have fully restored today's network disruption that impacted some customers. Service has returned to normal levels. If you are still having issues, we recommend restarting your device. We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience.…
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/verizon-says-its-network-is-fully-restored-following-an-hours-long-outage-194833420.html?src=rss
Reddit has just changed the rules so moderators of subreddits must get admin approval to switch from public to private, as originally reported by The Verge. This is being seen by many as an attempt to curb sitewide protests, as these requests must be approved by Reddit staffers. There will be no way for multiple subreddits to go private at once without Reddit having its hand on the lever.
The company put a little note on the support page that reads “if you’re changing your community type after community creation, you’ll need to submit a request.” This page doesn't offer any reasoning behind the decision.
Reddit
We reached out to Reddit to inquire about this most recent policy change and the company pointed us to a post on the subreddit r/modnews written by VP of community Laura Nestler. She wrote that “the ability to instantly change Community Type settings has been used to break the platform and violate our rules.”
So it looks like last year’s protests are absolutely connected to today's changes. Nestler also suggested that this is an issue of personal responsibility, writing that “communities should honor the expectations they set – public communities should remain accessible to all; private communities should remain private.”
On the topic of recent protests, switching from public to private is the exact way in which subreddits expressed dissatisfaction with last year’s API pricing changes. In that case, over 8,000 subreddits went private in tandem. This means that the subreddits became inaccessible to the general public, though they remained active for current members.
The site’s daily traffic suffered as a result. This allegedly had an impact on the functionality of Reddit itself, as there was a major site outage after all of those subreddits went private. The company blamed the protests for this outage, telling Engadget that "a significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues.”
Not all protests involve switching a subreddit from public to private. Some moderators protest Reddit by labeling a subreddit as NSFW. This disallows advertising on the subreddit and makes it harder to search for. The company also put the kibosh on this move, as that kind of switch also now requires admin approval.
It’s worth noting that last year’s protests didn’t work. Reddit went ahead with those API charges, which forced third-party apps like Apollo to shut down. The company also went in and took complete control of one of the larger subreddits that participated in the protest. Now, there’s today’s change that effectively bans sitewide protests altogether.
Adding insult to injury, Reddit recently struck gold by licensing its content to train AI models. That deal will reportedly net the company around $60 million per year, but the users who actually created the content that’s being licensed will be getting approximately $0 per year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/reddit-policy-changes-make-sitewide-protests-nearly-impossible-183754240.html?src=rss
ASUS's latest Zenbook S14, much like the Zenbook 14 OLED we reviewed last December, is a solid ultraportable with one major selling point: It's among the first laptops to use Intel's newest CPUs. In this case, it's the Core Ultra 7 258V, a processor that sits in the mid-range of the company's "Lunar Lake" lineup. While Intel touts these chips as its most efficient ever, I've been curious about what that means for raw performance, especially since they top out with just eight cores.
Based on my testing, I can confirm that the Zenbook S14 delivers the best battery life we've ever seen from an Intel laptop. It reached 16 hours and eight minutes in the PCMark 10 battery benchmark. In comparison, the Zenbook S16 powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI 9 365 chip only hit 12 hours and 47 minutes. The Intel system's timing is close to the 17 hours and 45 minutes we saw from the Dell XPS 13 Copilot+ , which is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite.
While it's astounding to see how much progress Intel has made with battery life, that does come with some compromises. In a few benchmarks, the Zenbook S14 doesn't score much higher than Intel's last-gen Core Ultra chips, and it's often bested by AMD's Ryzen AI on multithreaded tasks. But, as we often say, benchmarks don't tell the entire story.
A gorgeous ultraportable
When I reviewed the Zenbook 14 OLED a year ago, I couldn't help but point out how dated it looked. It was practically the same as ASUS' laptops from a decade ago (albeit with slimmer screen bezels). Not so with the Zenbook S14. It's impressive the moment you open it up and feel its lid, which is built with a material ASUS calls "Ceraluminum." As the name implies, it's a combination of ceramic and aluminum, and it feels almost uncanny, like something between high-end plastic and smooth metal. It's still premium, but it's also distinctly different from most other laptops.
Combining ceramics and aluminum isn't exactly new — ASUS notes that it's a popular option for aerospace and watch designs — but we haven't yet seen it deployed in laptops. It's not just for looks, either. The material should also be more durable than standard metal. The rest of the Zenbook 14 S's body is made out of a solid block of metal, but ASUS added some unique tweaks there as well. The lower part of the case features a geometric grille above the keyboard, consisting of 2,715 circular cooling vents. ASUS claims this design enhances airflow while also keeping dirt and dust out.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
ASUS 14-inch 3K "Lumina" OLED display dominates the Zenbook S14, and it delivers everything I want from a modern laptop screen. It sports a fast 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of peak brightness. While its bezels are relatively thin compared to older ASUS systems, they're still noticeably chunkier than Dell's latest InfinityEdge screens on the XPS 13 and 14. The system would look much sleeker if ASUS could shave off more of its bottom and side bezels. Most importantly, though, the OLED display looks glorious, with deliciously dark black levels and colors that pop off the screen.
The Zenbook S14 is surprisingly sturdy for a 14-inch laptop that weighs 2.65 pounds and measures 0.47 inches thin. It's slightly lighter and a hair thicker than the most recent 13-inch MacBook Air, and feels similarly polished. Notably, it also offers many more useful ports than Apple's ultraportable. The S14 includes two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections, a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, a headphone jack and even an old-school USB Type-A port. The only thing it's missing is Ethernet and an SD card slot.
Unfortunately, ASUS couldn't get everything right with the Zenbook S14. Its quad-speaker audio system is serviceable, but the sound loses any sort of depth and detail as you ramp up the volume. And while it's nice to have a Windows Hello-compatible webcam for fast logins, the 1080p sensor looks far grainier and less detailed than Dell's XPS line and the MacBook Air.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Its keyboard also feels merely serviceable, with little responsive feedback while typing. That’s a particular shame, since that’s been a constant complaint we’ve had with ASUS keyboards. At least the touchpad is large and responsive to swipes and multi-finger gestures. You can also adjust the volume and other settings by sliding your finger along the sides of the touchpad.
In use: Capable, but don't stress it
Thanks to Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V chip, the Zenbook S14 felt impressively zippy from the start. I breezed through the Windows setup process, downloaded the latest updates and installed my usual testing programs in just a few minutes. It didn't sweat whenever I needed to jump between apps like Spotify, Slack and Evernote, and I didn't notice any of the lag I often see on Windows notebooks bogged down by third-party bloatware. It was always ready to get work done.
PCMark 10
Geekbench 6 CPU
3DMark Wildlife Extreme
Cinebench 2024
ASUS Zenbook S14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V)
6,688 (Base Test)
14,215 (Applications)
2,569/10,442
7,158
121/482
Dell XPS 13 Copilot+ (Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite)
14,024 (Applications)
2,621/14,194
6,191
122/748
Dell XPS 13 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Intel Arc)
6,806 (Base test)
2,276/11,490
4,579
90/453
Apple MacBook Air (M3)
N/A
3,190/12,102
8,310
141/490
In PCMark 10, the Zenbook S14 scored almost exactly the same as the Surface Laptop 7 for Business, which uses the last-gen Core Ultra 7 165H. It also matched the XPS 13 Copilot+ edition, which had a Snapdragon X Elite chip, in the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark. The Zenbook's multithreaded performance was noticeably worse than either of those machines in Geekbench 6, likely due to the reduced core count this generation.
The big selling point for Intel's Lunar Lake chips is their dramatically improved NPU (neural processing unit), which can reach up to 47 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of AI performance. In comparison, the previous Core Ultra chips had a significantly less powerful 11 TOPS NPU, while AMD's new Ryzen AI chips reach up to 50 TOPS. (More powerful Lunar Lake chips can hit up to 48 TOPS.) Higher TOPS figures means Copilot+ PCs like the Zenbook S14 will be able to tackle demanding AI workloads more quickly, without impacting overall CPU performance.
Unfortunately, there still aren't a ton of AI features to test at the time of this review. Microsoft's Copilot+ Windows 11 update for Intel and AMD systems isn't arriving until November, and even that will only include a beta version of the controversial Recall feature. It's also hard to find apps that take advantage of a local NPU — most entries in the Windows Store "AI Hub" rely on cloud AI processing.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
At least there's Audacity's OpenVino plugin, which Intel developed to show off its AI PC hardware. It offers NPU-powered features like noise suppression and transcription, but it also requires an involved setup process that may be confusing to Audacity novices. I was able to completely remove incessant jackhammering from a five-minute clip in one minute and eight seconds using the NPU alone. That's not very fast in the world of audio editing (CPU rendering can tackle a noise-filled 90 minute file in three minutes and thirty seconds), but what's key is that the NPU handles the same work using very little power. That could be important if you're stuck editing on battery in a plane or remote location.
I was also impressed by Intel's latest Arc 140V GPU, which let me play Halo Infinite between 35 fps and 45 fps in 1080p with low quality graphics settings. That's far from a smooth experience, but it's fascinating to see it from a built-in GPU. Intel's graphics also scored well above the Snapdragon X Elite across the board, especially in the Geekbench 6 GPU test.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Pricing and the competition
ASUS launched the Zenbook S14 with a starting price of $1,500, but it’s already slightly discounted at Best Buy for $1,400. That configuration gets you a Core Ultra 7 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. That’s not too shabby, considering the XPS 13 Copilot+ system with a Snapdragon X Elite costs $1,800 when equipped with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an OLED display. The Zenbook also doesn’t have the compatibility issues inherent with Snapdragon systems, which have to emulate older Windows apps and can’t run many popular games at all.
As usual, ASUS also delivers far more value than Apple. A MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD costs $1,700, and that’s also stuck with a 60Hz LCD screen.
Wrap-up
The Zenbook S14 leans more on efficiency than raw power, but it’s still an incredible achievement for Intel, a company that used to be infamous for energy-devouring mobile chips. While the Lunar Lake chip’s NPU makes the Zenbook ready for Copilot+ and AI features, its true selling points are its excellent battery life, slick ASUS design and gorgeous OLED display.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-zenbook-s14-review-a-showpiece-for-intels-lunar-lake-ai-pc-chips-171642261.html?src=rss
AI enthusiasts who like the Raspberry Pi range of products can rejoice, as the company is now announcing its new Raspberry Pi AI Camera. This product is the result of the company’s collaboration with Sony Semiconductor Solutions (SSS), which began in 2023. The AI Camera is compatible with all of Raspberry Pi’s single-board computers.
The approximately 12.3-megapixel AI Camera is intended for vision-based AI projects, and it’s based on SSS’ IMX500 image sensor. The integrated RP2040 microcontroller manages the neural network firmware, allowing the camera to perform onboard AI image processing and freeing up the Raspberry Pi for other processes. Thus, users who want to integrate AI into their Raspberry Pi projects are no longer limited to the Raspberry Pi AI Kit.
The AI Camera isn’t a total replacement for Raspberry Pi’s Camera Module 3, which is still available. For those interested in the new AI Camera, it’s available right now from Raspberry Pi’s approved resellers for $70.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/raspberry-pi-built-an-ai-camera-with-sony-165049998.html?src=rss