Apple tried at the last second to get out of producing a trove of documents by Monday as it was ordered to in its ongoing dispute with Epic, and Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson is not having it. In early August, the company was given a deadline of September 30 to produce documents relating to the changes it made to its App Store rules this year, which was its attempt to satisfy an injunction. Apple initially told the court that the task would entail reviewing roughly 650,000 documents — but in a status report on Thursday, it said the number had ballooned to over 1.3 million, and asked for a two-week extension. Hixson denied the request on Friday in a strongly worded order spotted by The Verge, and called out Apple’s move as “bad behavior.”
Apple and Epic have been submitting joint status reports to the court every two weeks, and the issue of Apple’s documents exceeding its earlier estimate never previously came up, the judge noted. “This information would have been apparent to Apple weeks ago,” Hixson said in the order. “It is simply not believable that Apple learned of this information only in the two weeks following the last status report.” The judge said the request raises other concerns, calling into question the quality of Apple’s reports and its intentions around complying in a timely manner. Apple has “nearly infinite resources” that it could have tapped to get the task done in the allotted time, according to Hixson.
“This is a classic moral hazard,” Hixson said in the order, “and the way Apple announced out of the blue four days before the substantial completion deadline that it would not make that deadline because of a document count that it had surely been aware of for weeks hardly creates the impression that Apple is behaving responsibly.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/judge-rejects-apples-last-minute-request-for-a-deadline-extension-in-epic-case-195536755.html?src=rss
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/history-of-overhyped-tech-charles-burns-final-cut-richard-powers-playground-163018545.html?src=rss
Apple introduced some major repairability improvements with the iPhone 16 lineup, but nothing stands out as much as the new battery removal process for the base iPhone 16. Doing away with the usual pull tabs, Apple is using an adhesive that debonds in response to a low electrical current. It only takes about a minute and a half for it to come unstuck, per Apple’s repair guide. A teardown by iFixit shows the process in action, and it sure looks easier than ever. iFixit tech Shahram Mokhtari said, “I’m not sure we’ve ever had a battery removal process go so cleanly and smoothly.”
Only the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have the new adhesive, and they’ve earned a 7/10 on iFixit’s repairability scale. “Apple definitely seems to be leveling up on repairability,” Mokhtari, adding Apple has “landed another repairability win” with this year’s base iPhones thanks to the new battery removal procedure.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/see-the-iphone-16s-game-changing-battery-removal-process-in-new-ifixit-teardown-213911136.html?src=rss
The emotional 2011 indie game To the Moon will soon be playable on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Developer Freebird Games and publisher Serenity Forge announced this week that ports for the consoles will arrive on October 8 for $10. At the same time, they released a new installment in the series — a short called Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode that offers one of the series’ endings. It’s available now on Steam.
To the Moon is a time travel adventure that follows two doctors who have developed a way to help dying patients fulfill their greatest dreams by taking them back in time within their minds. The patient at the heart of the story is an elderly man named Johnny, whose final wish is to go to the moon. The game, which originally launched for PC, has become beloved over the years and eventually expanded to mobile and Nintendo Switch.
Freebird Games followed it up with another episode called Finding Paradise, which focuses on a different patient, and the time-travel murder mystery, Imposter Factory. There’s also a heartfelt short called A Bird Story. They’re all tear-jerkers. The developer has described the latest, Beach Episode, as “half of an ending” to the series.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/indie-classic-to-the-moon-comes-to-xbox-series-xs-and-ps5-october-8-193949307.html?src=rss
Rumors emerged last year of a collaboration between former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but the two have until now kept quiet about it. In a profile by The New York Times that was published this weekend, though, Ive confirms his company LoveFrom is leading the design on an AI product being built with Altman. Also on board are Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, both of whom held big design roles at Apple.
There’s so far a team of about 10 employees involved with the project, based in a San Francisco office building that’s one of several properties Ive has purchased on a single city block, according to the Times. But we still don’t know much about the product they’re working on. The report describes Tan and Hankey wheeling chairs between the LoveFrom properties that were “topped by papers and cardboard boxes with the earliest ideas for a product that uses A.I. to create a computing experience that is less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”
Since Ive left Apple in 2019 to start LoveFrom, the design firm has worked on a typeface and even a red clown nose, but we haven’t seen much in the way of hardware — just that $60,000 turntable. While an AI product seems to be on the horizon, there’s currently no timeline for when it’ll make its debut.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/jony-ive-confirms-hes-working-with-sam-altman-on-a-secret-project-163201291.html?src=rss
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-a-house-haunted-by-ai-and-the-mysterious-murder-of-a-superhero-193544502.html?src=rss
X is reportedly reversing course after weeks of refusing to comply with conditions set by the Brazilian Supreme Court that would allow it to operate in the country again. According to The New York Times, the company’s lawyers said in a Friday court filing that X has named a legal representative in Brazil as demanded by justice Alexandre de Moraes and removed accounts that the judge had identified as a threat to democracy, along with paying the fines it owed. But, the publication also reports that the Brazil Supreme Court has said X did not submit all the necessary paperwork, and now has five days to do so.
The paperwork X failed to submit is that which would prove it formally appointed a legal representative in Brazil, as required by Brazilian law, according to Reuters. X named Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao as its new legal representative in the filing on Friday. The company has been working to restore service to users in Brazil after it was blocked at the end of August, and briefly came back online earlier this week using Cloudflare’s DNS. But, it said that this was “inadvertent and temporary.” In a statement, an X spokesperson said at the time, “While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil.”
Brazil has threatened X and Starlink with daily fines of nearly $1 million if they do not comply with the ban in the country. Justice Moraes also made it so users in Brazil could be fined roughly $8,900 if caught using a VPN to access X. The company’s latest move is a step toward resolving the issue and potentially bringing X back to Brazil legally.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-reportedly-now-complying-with-orders-from-brazils-supreme-court-170651920.html?src=rss
Amazon’s next Prime Day event is right around the corner, and the deals have already started trickling in. Google’s Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds have dropped down to just $64 from their normal price of $99. The A-Series, released in 2021, was Google’s more budget-friendly version of its 2020 Pixel Buds. They lack more advanced features like wireless charging and active noise cancellation, but the sound quality and battery life are decent for the price. If you’re an Android user looking for a good pair of earbuds that won’t break the bank, you might want to check these out.
The Pixel Buds A-Series may be a few years old now, but it’s still a nice pair of earbuds. We gave the Pixel Buds A-Series a score of 84 in our review when the model was first released, and were especially impressed with the sound quality, Google Assistant integration and comfort. The A-Series buds have a small “stabilizer arc” appendage to help them sit securely in the ears. There are some on-board controls, including play/pause, answer call and skip tracks, but they don’t have physical volume controls — for that, you’d need to use Google Assistant or adjust the volume on your device.
Google says the Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds get about five hours of listening time on a charge, or 2.5 hours of talk time. With the charging case, listening time goes up to about 24 hours. With the current deal, you can get the Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds in Clearly White or Dark Olive for $35 off the usual price. For a dollar more, you can grab them in Charcoal. (The pale blue Sea color option unfortunately isn’t covered in the discount). At $64, the Pixel Buds A-Series is almost at a record low, and cheaper even than during Prime Day in July.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/early-prime-day-deals-include-the-pixel-buds-a-series-for-only-64-152116488.html?src=rss
Apple announced a bunch of new products at the It’s Glowtime event on Sept. 9, but the rumored Apple Watch SE with a plastic shell wasn’t among them. That doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t see it at some point, though. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who first reported that the company was developing an even cheaper version of the budget watch, the plastic SE “is still moving forward.” Sources told Gurman it could arrive next year.
The Apple Watch SE last got a refresh in 2022 with the release of the second generation line. In addition to a plastic shell, plans for the rumored upcoming watch include bolder colors that would appeal to kids, Gurman reported. But, Apple has apparently hit a manufacturing snag with the plastic design. Last Monday’s official Apple Watch news focused on the Series 10, which has a thinner build and larger display, as was expected in the leadup to the event. In a hands-on with the new wearable, Engadget’s Billy Steele called the Series 10’s brighter, wide-angle OLED display “a massive upgrade” compared to other recent models.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/a-plastic-apple-watch-se-may-still-be-happening-but-not-until-next-year-203534583.html?src=rss
Every couple of years, a core childhood memory resurfaces and sends me hunting for a bizarre PlayStation game my brother and I obsessed over but never actually played in its entirety. The internet search goes like this: game on red-and-black PS1 demo disk featuring feral child with pink hair tackling pigs and trees that look like butts. The results tell me the game I’m looking for is the 1997 platformer Tomba!, and I giddily bask in the nostalgia. Then I forget all about it, and the cycle eventually repeats.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when a trailer popped up earlier this summer announcing Limited Run Games’ rerelease of Tomba! in all its wacky glory for modern consoles. Tomba! Special Edition is now available digitally for PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC. Physical editions, a line of plushies and a themed NEO S controller (pre-orders for which are sadly sold out) are also on the way. And in finally playing it all the way through almost 20 years after its original release, I’ve discovered that Tomba! is even more unhinged than I remembered.
Tomba, the player-character, is a wild boy who lives outside of society, hunting boars and sleeping under the stars. His peace is disrupted one day when a group of delinquent pigs swoops in and wreaks havoc, ultimately robbing him of a gold bracelet that belonged to his grandfather. To get it back, Tomba ventures into the nearby towns to find the Evil Pig ringleaders and take them down. Along the way, he meets a slew of strange characters who will help guide him on his mission, but only after he completes a bunch of tasks for them.
It’s a 2.5D platformer, meaning much of the game operates like a two-dimensional side-scroller, but you can occasionally move into the background or foreground to explore the map in more depth. Tomba! Special Edition doesn’t change much about the original game. The graphics are still distinctly PS1 polygonal, and the controls can feel clunky. There are some quality of life additions, though — namely a rewind feature that ends up being extremely handy because, as it turns out, this game is pretty tricky in some spots. I found myself needing to try certain maneuvers over and over again to get them right.
Just about every part of the story and its environment carries a touch of absurdity. Tomba is able to scale walls, swing on branches, jump with inhuman ability and apparently store items (including living creatures) in his stomach, which he can regurgitate when they’re needed later on. There are the butt trees, as mentioned earlier, which are allegedly meant to depict peaches but when Tomba jumps onto them and squeezes, a cloud of magical gas comes pouring out. You’ll encounter a village of dwarves, but can only communicate with them after leaping on the heads of several dwarves to learn their language. In another village, everyone’s been turned into mice, and for some reason, they’re all wound up about the disappearance of an actual, never-been-human baby mouse.
Limited Run Games
One of the most memorable areas is undoubtedly the Mushroom Forest, a bad trip of a location that’s filled with creepy, clownish anthropomorphic flowers and mushrooms that inflict Tomba with certain ailments if he jumps onto them. One will have him laughing uncontrollably, while the other makes him wail — and that cry is deeply unsettling. It kind of jump-scared me the first time it happened, if I’m being real. With both mushroom illnesses, Tomba becomes unable to wield his weapons, instead flailing his arms and screaming if you try to do an attack.
It is altogether a surprisingly complex game, and visually striking thanks to its loud color palette. But the quest can feel convoluted as you try to navigate the often confusing map layout and fulfill the many, many tasks thrown your way. Boss fights are uniquely frustrating, too. Instead of simply beating up or killing the Evil Pigs, you have to wrangle each one and throw it in a bag… but the bag is floating and, in most cases, spinning.
While frequently maddening, Tomba! was a joy to revisit. It’s consistently silly, and the soundtrack gave me a welcome blast of nostalgia from the moment its steel drums started playing. (Tomba! Special Edition includes both the original soundtrack and a remastered version, and they’re both great.) If anything, the Special Edition release has made it clear why Tomba! has lingered so long in my memory — I can’t say I’ve ever played another game quite like it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ps1-gem-tomba-is-still-a-wild-ride-nearly-20-years-later-163011449.html?src=rss