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This pressure-sensitive stylus lets you draw on the Switch

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Since we first played with the SonarPen as a standalone product over two years ago, it has apparently boosted compatibility with “98 percent” of Android phones, as long as it’s the version shipped with a gold-colored tip. I got to try the latest SonarPen on a prototype version of Colors Live, and just like my experience with the prototype back in 2018, the stylus felt natural — my strokes of varying pressure showed up instantaneously and accurately. This is partly also thanks to the 120Hz touch sampling rate on the Switch’s screen, and together with pressure sensitivity, the SonarPen easily stands out against the cheaper, “dumber” styluses already out there. 

Colors Live with SonarPen for Nintendo Switch

Richard Lai/Engadget

The “smarter” pressure-sensitive styluses from the likes of Apple, Wacom and Logitech won’t work on the Switch due to the lack of hardware support — you’d need a different touch subsystem on the screen, for starters. Compared to my experience with the Apple Pencil on an iPad, the SonarPen’s tethered cable and transparent disc around the tip could sometimes get in the way, but the painting flow and end result felt almost just as slick. As a bonus, the SonarPen has a shortcut button above its tip for quickly changing brushes and colors, whereas the Apple Pencil only offers a similar functionality on its second-gen release by way of a double-tap gesture.

As for the game itself, Colors Live includes many elements that fans of the series will find familiar, including the color palette, brushes, stroke options and more around the canvas. Most importantly, there’s direct access to Colors! Gallery, where you can browse over four million digital paintings from the community. These vector-based files can be downloaded for a replay of how they were made, and you can even paint on top of them.

Colors Live with SonarPen for Nintendo Switch

Richard Lai/Engadget

One handy new feature in Colors Live is the ability to toggle between right-hand mode and left-hand mode with one click in the game. With the default right-hand mode, you’re holding the stylus with your right hand, so all the shortcut keys — both physical (zooming, panning, color picker, palette and undo) and virtual (drawing tools) — are pushed to the left for easy thumb and index finger access. This is all vice versa for left-hand mode. 

Another new feature in this game is “Color Quest,” in which you have to complete timed painting challenges to progress through an adventure map. According to Andersson, this single-player mode was actually crowdsourced in order to cater to artists of different levels, so think of it as a self-training exercise. But for those who are up for a global challenge, the Colors team continues to host themed weekly challenges (sometimes with physical prizes), and winners will be featured in the official gallery.

Colors Live with SonarPen for Nintendo Switch

Richard Lai/Engadget

Andersson originally pitched his idea of getting Nintendo to sell the SonarPen as an in-app purchase on its eShop, but while the gaming giant was apparently impressed by his demo, he struggled to convince the team to sell the peripheral. Andersson eventually took the Kickstarter route as a means to deliver the bundle to his early adopters. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the developer has now set up his own online store, where you can pre-order the game-and-stylus bundle for $40. Colors Live is expecting its digital release in America, Europe and Australia this summer, followed by Japan later this year/

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MIT researchers create robotic gripper that can untangle thin cables

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MIT researchers approached the problem from a different angle, building a two-fingered gripper that’s meant to more closely resemble human fingers. The fingers are outfitted with high resolution tactile sensors, known as “GelSight” sensors, made of soft rubber with embedded cameras and mounted on a movable robot arm. The system has two controllers: one that modulates grip strength, and one that adjusts the gripper’s pose to keep the cable within the gripper.

It’s difficult for robots to manipulate cables, Gordon said, because the task requires the robot to enable smooth sliding while also preventing the cable from falling from the robot’s fingers. MIT’s robot was able to reliably perform a few tasks, including finding the end of an earbud cable and plugging it in.

However, there’s still a bit of work to go before the robot is ready to handle all of our USB cables. The robot had difficulty pulling a cable back when it reached the end of a finger, which researchers attribute to the outwardly curved surface of the GelSight sensor. They’re working to adjust the finger-sensor shape to improve the robot’s performance.

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Watch Ubisoft’s Forward event in just 10 minutes

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Ubisoft unveiled games and development news at its Forward event on a Sunday afternoon when you might have been barbecuing. No need for any FOMO, however, as Engadget was there in force. We covered news of the Hyper Scape open beta, additional Far Cry 6 development info and got to preview the latest games in the upcoming Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed series. Finally, if you want to catch the gist of the livestream without spending well over two hours, we’ve got a supercut that captures the juicy parts in just 10 minutes. Enjoy!

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‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ shows the ‘scrappy underdogs’ far below the bridge

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CBS has expanded its Star Trek offerings on its All Access streaming services with an offbeat animated series. Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on the lives of the least important crew members aboard one of the least important starships, the U.S.S. Cerritos. Set in 2380, it follows ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi (voiced by Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells and Eugene Cordero) as they tackle jobs ranging from saving planets to taking out the holodeck trash.

The show sprung from a CBS deal with Star Trek: Discovery co-creator and showrunner Alex Kurtzmann, and will be guided by Rick and Morty veteran writer Mike McMahan. Lower Decks won’t be quite as risqué as the R-rated Rick and Morty, but Kurtzmann said it would lean “slightly more adult.”

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Pinterest’s moderation doesn’t catch some abusive and false material

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A spokesperson acknowledged to OneZero that policy-violating material would “sometimes appear” in results, even after it asked to have the content removed entirely. The company stuck to its emphasis on blocking search results, though, and said it “encourage[s]” people to content in addition to taking advice from “outside experts.” The representative added that it didn’t want to be a “go-to place” for politics and was trying to curb “adversarial behavior.”

Pinterest’s approach contrasts sharply with social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which typically remove offending content outright rather than hide searches. They have their own share of problems, though, including easier searches for offending material. Moderation appears to be a challenge for numerous social networks, then, and no one strategy appears to be bulletproof.

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A life-size Gundam statue will be completed outside of Japan in 2021

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You won’t have to visit Japan to see a life-size Gundam statue in the months ahead, although you may still have to book a lengthy trip. Our Engadget Chinese colleagues report that Bandai Namco will debut an 18-meter (about 59ft) Freedom Gundam statue at the LaLaport Mall in Jinqiao, Shanghai, China sometime in 2021. It’s the first large Gundam robot statue to be built outside of Japan, Bandai Namco said.

It’s unclear if this robot will have any movement like the recent Yokohama statue, but it won’t be surprising if that’s the case. These statues have been cultural draws for years in Japan, and movement (however limited) might draw more people. The pandemic complicates matters — it’s unclear how many people will want to venture outside to see a robot statue in 2021. Still, this shows that the desire to see large robots extends beyond Japan’s shores.

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‘Far Cry 6’ arrives February 18th, 2021

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Ubisoft’s Far Cry 6 announcement might have been spoiled, but there’s still more to say. The gaming giant has announced that its next open-world shooter will arrive on February 18th, 2021 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Stadia, PC (via the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store) and Uplay+. True to the early scoop, you play resistance fighter Dani Rojas as you aim to take down President Antón Castillo (played by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito) and, possibly, his son Diego (Coco’s Anthony Gonzalez).

The developer hasn’t shed much light on the game mechanics, but you’ll have to rely on weapons like a disc launcher (available in a pre-order pack) and a for-hire “wiener dog on wheels.” Star power will play a role — besides Esposito and Gonzalez, you’ll see an opening sequence from Westworld’s Patrick Clair (below) and listen to a score from Narcos’ Pedro Bromfman.

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Fitbit’s Charge 4 can wake you up when you feel well-rested

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You now have more reasons to wear your Fitbit Charge 4 around the clock. The 9to5Google team reports (via The Verge) that a Charge 4 update has introduced two major features to improve your sleep habits and encourage more exercise. Smart Wake sets alarms based on when you’re likely to feel rested, rather than a set time. So long as you have that leeway, it could help you start your days on the right footing.

The other tentpole addition, Dynamic GPS, switches to your phone’s positioning when nearby to improve battery life. You won’t have to worry about your activity tracker running out of power just because you tracked your latest bike ride. Given that the Charge 4 can’t use its own GPS for more than five hours on a charge, this could get you through more workouts before plugging in.

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‘Hyper Scape’ open beta is available on PC today

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If you missed out on early access to Hyper Scape, you now have another, much easier opportunity to try it. Ubisoft has launched an open beta for its cyberspace-inspired battle royale shooter on PC. You’ll need UPlay to install it, but it beats having to be a streamer (or get a Twitch code drop) to see what the fuss is about.

The title adds a few wrinkles into the standard battle royale formula. It’s still a last-one-standing showdown based around an ever-shrinking play space, but a crown that pops up late in the match will liven things up by giving you a chance to win without shooting your last opponent. There’s also much more vertical movement, and abilities like wall-building and teleportation can throw off your foes.



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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla made me want to visit East Anglia

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As the leaks over the past week have suggested, the demo Ubisoft has been showing journalists, YouTubers and streamers is set entirely in East Anglia, a still-fairly-rural part of the UK, situated to the Northeast of London. We’re in the late 9th century, when the Anglo-Saxons had already lost parts of the country to Viking colonists.

ACV

Ubisoft

Much of the appeal of the past two Assassin’s Creed games, for me at least, has been in sightseeing; Ubisoft builds beautiful, if somewhat empty, sandboxes that I get lost exploring for hours. What little I’ve seen of Valhalla appears to be much the same. I traveled across picturesque landscapes to historical renditions of Norwich, Thetford and Bury St Edmunds, with little to do between settlements but admire the scenery and gather some resources. Sightseeing was tough, given the aforementioned streaming issues, but viewing the local capture afterwards showed a truly stunning world.

Like Odyssey, you can choose between a male or female protagonist, in this case both named Eivor. The demo allowed for switching between protagonists on the fly, and your gender, at least from what I experienced, has no bearing on how characters interact with you, or your ability to romance them. While this, and the many gay encounters I had in ancient Greece, felt natural in the last game, it makes less sense in this time period. It’ll be interesting to see how staunchly Christian Anglo-Saxons, who viewed any casual sex as sinful, deal with my advances. With that said, the intensely awkward silence after an otherwise-chatty Ubisoft rep watched me instigate some gay Viking sex was perhaps the most memorable part of my demo, and as the series has skewed more towards RPG, I appreciate being able to roleplay as I see fit.

ACV

Ubisoft

Enough about what’s the same — what’s new in Valhalla? The big-ticket items are assaults and raids. Assaults are roughly analogous to Conquest Battles in Odyssey. I led a small army to attack a fort or castle, which, in the demo, this felt remarkably similar to a round of For Honor: managing crowds, supporting troops and taking down more powerful enemies as I battered my way to climactic one-on-one fight. Raids are a more freeform exercise. You can approach these stealthily, or just rush in with your army from the offset. I took out six or so guards without being detected, and then reached a door that required a second pair of hands to open. I then blew on a horn to summon the raiding party, forced my way in and killed the remaining enemies inside.

Being a Viking, your character is better-suited to all-out combat than past assassins. You have two weapon slots, which can be populated with a combination of items; you could dual-weild small axes, carry a weapon and a shield, or a larger two-handed weapon. There are also three distinct types of bows, all of which handle differently. This leads to a greater variety of options when approaching combat encounters, especially in the context of the assault battles.

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