Hyperion Motors has been working on a supercar project for years, and according to a teaser video, we’ll meet the hydrogen-powered XP-1 next month. In January, Autoblog noted that the company would show off its vehicle at the New York Auto Show, but with the event canceled it has changed to a digital unveiling.
In a press release, CEO Angelo Kafantaris said “We are extremely excited to launch Hyperion to the world so we can educate people to the benefits of hydrogen-based power systems. As the most abundant element in the universe, the potential is virtually limitless. Our goal is to tell the story of hydrogen with inspiring vehicles and infrastructure solutions.”
The legal response to the move was almost immediate. Harvard and MIT filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security the mere days after the announcement. On Monday, various tech giants, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, joined a separate lawsuit against the Trump administration. Those companies depend on international talent to build out and maintain their talent pools. “These students contribute substantially to the US economy when they are resident in the United States,” they said in the brief. The parties went on to say the Trump administration hadn’t done the necessary work to measure the measure’s impact.
The government didn’t say why it was rescinding the order, but CNN reports the White House keenly felt the blowback from the announcement. According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, the Trump administration is likely to announce a revised policy that targets newly-enrolled students. If it materializes, that order is expected to be challenged in court as well.
Spotify is expanding to 13 additional markets. Starting today, music fans in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine can check out the platform. With the expansion, the streaming app is available in 92 countries globally.
In all, Spotify says the move gives it access to 250 million potential customers. However, Russia, in particular, is a critical market for the company. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, approximately 87 percent of people in Russia stream music online. That makes the eastern European country the 17th biggest streaming market globally, and it’s on pace to break into the top 10 by 2030. So as you might imagine, Spotify is going out of its way to make its platform appealing to Russian users.
Security researchers have discovered a serious flaw in Windows’ Domain Name System software that users must patch immediately. Sagi Tzaik from Check Point found a way to run malicious code which can be used to hijack websites, intercept emails, steal private information and take sites offline. Microsoft has already acknowledged the issue and has issued a fix in today’s Patch Tuesday update, which it urges all users to download immediately.
The vulnerability has been codenamed SigRed and Check Point says it affects Windows Server versions from 2003 to 2019. Microsoft said that the flaw is “wormable,” enabling hackers to take over multiple machines at once and causing large amounts of damage. That’s especially a risk for big corporate customers that run their own platforms, especially since the exploit is fairly easy to take advantage of.
Healey’s office argues that the companies don’t meet a three-part test under state law that would let them classify drivers as independent contractors. They’d have to prove that “the worker is free from their direction and control; the services the worker performs are outside the usual course of their business; and the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the service performed for the party.” The AG’s office asserts that none of those are the case for Uber and Lyft.
Despite various efforts to force the companies to class drivers as employees, Uber and Lyft have long defended their practice of treating them as independent contractors. They have both suggested that drivers prefer to set their own hours and have the freedom to work for several ride-hailing and gig-working services. However, many drivers have complained about low pay and the lack of protections and benefits. The AG’s office has asked drivers for the companies to weigh in through a complaint form.
“At a time when Massachusetts’ economy is in crisis with a record 16 percent unemployment rate, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning an income,” an Uber spokesperson told The Verge. “We will contest this action in court, as it flies in the face of what the vast majority of drivers want: to work independently. We stand ready to work with the state to modernize our laws, so that independent workers receive new protections while maintaining the flexibility they prefer.”
“This lawsuit threatens to eliminate work for more than 50,000 people in Massachusetts at the worst possible time,” a Lyft spokesperson told the publication. “Drivers don’t want this — 89 percent of Massachusetts Lyft drivers drive fewer than 20 hours per week and choose to drive rideshare precisely because of the independence it gives them to make money in their spare time. Across the country, drivers have said they want to remain independent contractors over employment by a 4 to 1 margin.”
The Origami King plays with the texture and malleability of paper in brilliant ways, mixing 3D animations and realism with 2D visuals. Mario’s journey spans a handful of large, unique maps that players can explore freely once they’re unlocked, complete with puzzles, secrets and lots of confetti.
Confetti is one of the main mechanics in The Origami King. Mario collects this magical stuff by smashing flowers, bushes and tree trunks with his hammer, and walking over the rainbow strips of paper that fall to the ground around him. A bag in the upper-lefthand corner of the screen glows red, yellow or green depending on how much confetti Mario has on-hand. This is important, because one of Mario’s tasks throughout the game is to paper over holes that have appeared in the landscape, revealing wire frames and unknowable depths below. Some of the holes are merely cosmetic, but many of them appear in locations that Mario has to walk over or otherwise interact with. When he successfully covers a hole in confetti, it glows white and makes an extremely pleasant womp noise.
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I live for this noise. Even if the holes are cosmetic, I find it nearly impossible to pass one up without throwing fistfuls of confetti all over it. It’s incredibly satisfying, and Mario looks so pleased as he does it. Plus, it seems there are always sources of more confetti close by, so running out is more of a temporary inconvenience than a game-over situation.
Speaking of game over — The Origami King definitely has a fail state, and if you play, you will experience it. This is another feature that differentiates The Origami King from New Horizons, and it’s a driving force behind the game’s sweet tension.
Save cubes are scattered across The Origami King’s maps, but there are generally hordes of enemies, intriguing new storylines and a handful of riddles standing between Mario and salvation. If (When) Mario dies, he starts at the most recent save cube he’s hit, which could be a world away, if you get the timing exactly wrong. The stakes are high enough to make dying a true punishment here.
Most Mario deaths will likely occur in the game’s ring-based battle arena. When Mario encounters an origami enemy like a Goomba, Spiny or Shy Guy in the wild, he’s thrown into the center of a circular stadium surrounded by Toad cheerleaders. The battlefield is made up of four concentric rings, with individual spots for enemies to occupy.
Mario stands at the center of the circle and players rotate or slide the rings until the bad guys are grouped up to take the most damage possible (generally in a straight line or two-by-two square). There’s a timer on this section and a limit on the number of ring rotations players can make, adding a ton of pressure to each move. Mario then picks an appropriate weapon and attacks, with bonuses applied if players tap the jump button at the indicated times. There are also twists on this basic setup: In one iteration, Mario has to rotate rings emblazoned with arrows, items and attack moves in order to carve a path to a mini-boss or boss.
Almost a year after Google introduced Play Pass on Android, it’s expanding the game and app subscription service outside of the US. It’ll be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom this week.
If you’re interested, you can check out Google Play Pass for free with a one-month trial. You’ll find it in the Play Store menu. After the trial’s up, it typically costs $4.99/month for US users. However, Google is introducing an annual plan that’ll help subscribers save some money. It costs $29.99/year for users in the US — essentially making Play Pass half price. Family managers can share a subscription with five other people too.
Uppercut Games is working on a Stadia exclusive too. Google noted that the Australian studio specializes in “immersive environmental storytelling, powerful emotional experiences, and boundary-pushing creativity.”
Meanwhile, it emerged earlier this year that Gears Tacticsdeveloper Splash Damage was working on a Stadia exclusive and we have some details on that front. Outcasters is a competitive multiplayer title “set in a distinctly stylized vinyl world,” with millions of ways to customize your character. You can compete in matches with up to eight players and “bounce and spring your way to success across colorful combat arenas,” Google said in a press release.
Google previously announced that Orcs Must Die! 3 would be a Stadia exclusive, and that got a little shine in the spotlight during the Connect. Stadia Pro subscribers can claim it for free and start playing now. During the Connect, Google also revealed a string of third-party games that are coming to Stadia.
Stadia subscribers should also be excited that NBA 2K21 is hitting the streaming service and other major platforms simultaneously. It usually takes a little longer for games to make it to Stadia after they’ve reached consoles. So, it’s a good sign that developers are giving Stadia a serious look.
Outriders is due to hit Stadia in 2021, though it’ll come to other platforms at the end of 2020. Also be on the lookout this fall for Hitman2 and 3, Super Bomberman R Online, Dead By Daylight, Serious Sam 4 and several others on Stadia. Finally, Google is also announcing new Stadia exclusive games from music game specialist Harmonix, Until Dawnstudio Supermassive and Australian studio Uppercut Games.
Update (7:30PM ET): The article has been updated to reflect Outriders’ correct release window.
The Stadia library is seriously starting to take shape. Not only did Google just reveal that El Nino and indie smash hit Celesteare coming to the service, but during Ubisoft Forward this week, we learned more of that publisher’s titles are heading to Stadia too, including Far Cry 6. And guess what? There are even more games on the way to Google’s streaming platform.
You’ll learn about a bunch of them during the latest Stadia Connect, which is taking place today. You can expect to find out about some Stadia exclusives as well as some other third-party titles that’ll drop on the service in the near future. Google said back in January that it planned to add more than 120 games to Stadia this year, and we’ll learn more about its plans to round out that lineup during the Connect. You can watch it right here at 1PM ET.
