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Amazon’s colonial MMO ‘New World’ enters closed beta on July 23rd

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Amazon’s colonial online RPG New World is arriving later than expected, but you might not have to wait much longer to give it a try. The PC-only MMO’s closed beta is due to start on July 23rd, with sign-ups available now. The finished game is due to arrive just over a month later on August 25th. The news comes alongside a trailer that shows off the game’s action-oriented combat — unlike many such games, your reflexes and tactics should matter as much as your stats.

The title is a supernatural riff on colonialism during the Age of Exploration, with would-be settlers building homes and whole companies as they fight off undead legions (and each other) on a magical island. You can see up to 100 players on the battlefield at the same time, making for some particularly epic fights.

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Australia aims to launch locally-made hybrid rockets by 2022

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Australia is increasingly keen on greater independence in spaceflight. The University of Queensland and Gilmour Space are moving forward on a domestically-made “next-generation” hybrid rocket that could start launching satellites into low Earth orbit in 2022. Crucially, all the rockets and components would be made in Australia — they wouldn’t have to lean on other nations for engines.

The university’s team is focusing its energy on the fuel system, which Dr. Ingo Jahn characterized as “one of the most complex engineering challenges” for a rocket.

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Amazon offers steep discounts on a host of Echo speakers

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All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. If you buy something through one of the links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Amazon is known to discount an Echo device every now and then, but now? It’s going all-out. The internet retailer is running a sale for many of its smart speakers, and in some cases they’re steep bargains. The drops are sharp enough that they may be just what you need to get started on a smart home, or to finish a setup that might have been too costly before.

Echo Studio with Hue bulb

The best deal may be for an Echo Studio (pictured above) bundled with a Philips Hue bulb — you can buy it for $170, or $60 off. It clearly has the best sound quality of the Echo lineup, and it supports both high-resolution audio as well as home theater integration. The Hue bulb makes it that much more tempting if you’re looking to dip your toes into smart lighting.

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Interstellar is still struggling to put private rockets in space

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Japan’s budding private spaceflight industry is still struggling, even with some early signs of success. Interstellar Technologies’ MOMO-5 sounding rocket failed to reach space after its launch from Hokkaido early on June 14th. The engine was “manually stopped in an emergency” about 70 seconds into the flight, the company said. Interstellar pinned the flaw on a swinging “attitude angle” that threatened the launch’s safety, and suspected that a damaged nozzle was to blame. You can see hints of this in the Necovideo Visual Solutions clip below — the nozzle appeared to have shed debris early into the launch, and the rocket lost control soon afterward.

The company did manage to reach space once, with its MOMO-3 rocket in 2019. Its ultimate goal is to wield conventional rocketry in a way that makes it feasible to cheaply launch payloads into orbit.

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Card battle hit ‘Slay the Spire’ comes to iOS

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Here’s a pleasant treat: one of the better-known collectible card games is suddenly available on your phone. Mega Crit has surprise-released (via Polygon) Slay the Spire for iOS, making the popular title available on mobile for the first time. The concept remains the same. It’s a mix of Magic-style card gaming with a roguelike dungeon crawler, challenging you with creating a deck that can conquer the monsters of the spire. The paths, enemies, cards and even bosses change every time, so it’s seldom predictable.

The title will cost you $10. There are plans for an Android version, so don’t despair if you’d rather play on a Google-powered device. It’s a relatively late release when console editions of Slay the Spire showed up roughly a year ago, but look at it this way: you now have a way to feed your monster-killing habit when the PC or TV just isn’t an option. It’s also a viable alternative to some of the other big card games on phones and tablets.

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Tesla’s US-made Model 3 now has standard wireless phone charging

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Tesla hasn’t changed many visible features on the Model 3 since its debut, but it just made one that you’re bound to notice if you like to keep your phone topped up while you drive. An Electrek reader has confirmed that US-made versions of the Model 3 now come standard with wireless phone charging and USB-C ports. Until now, you had to buy either the Chinese Model 3 or a Model Y to get these creature comforts.

You can buy the official wireless charger from Tesla for $125 if you missed out, though adding USB-C will require turning to third-party alternatives.

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Get a Lenovo Smart Clock for $40 at Best Buy

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All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. If you buy something through one of the links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Remember when you could check the time in the middle of the night without grabbing your phone and getting sucked into a vortex of work email and Twitter notifications? Lenovo has a good solution: the company’s Smart Clock is now $40 at Best Buy, a $20 savings off its usual sale price and half the $80 price tag it carried at release. 

Buy Lenovo Smart Clock at Best Buy – $40

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The ‘Resident Evil’ series has sold over 100 million copies

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Capcom just reached a major milestone for itself and the survival horror genre: the developer has sold (via PC Gamer) over 100 million copies of Resident Evil games since the franchise kicked off in 1996. It didn’t break down the sales by series, but it noted that RE7 by itself sold 7.5 million units. The Resident Evil 3 remake sold 2 million copies in its first five days.

The company chalked up the success to a few factors, most notably a “consistent schedule” for new games. That is, it hasn’t let the franchise stay dormant for long — while that isn’t as good as Capcom claims (don’t ask about stinkers like Operation Racoon City), it does mean the series has stayed in the limelight virtually since launch.

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Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 updates come with nasty printer bugs

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The latest updates for Windows 10 give the platform’s security a boost, but they unfortunately come with nasty bugs that make printing impossible, as well. Microsoft released the buggy updates — KB4560960 and KB4557957 — on June 9th, and users started experiencing issues as soon as they installed them. As Bleeping Computer notes, user reports on Reddit and the Microsoft Answers forum show that the issue affects various HP, Canon, Panasonic, Brother and Ricoh printer models. Some users even reported being unable to print files as PDFs.

Microsoft has published a notice acknowledging that update KB4557957 may render certain printers unable to print. The tech giant warns users that the “[p]rint spooler may error or close unexpectedly when attempting to print and no output will come from affected printer.” Also, it says the app users are attempting to print from may close unexpectedly. Finally, it admits that the issue “might also affect software-based printers, for example printing to PDF.”

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The next ‘Outlast’ game is a Cold War co-op fight for survival

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Red Barrels is moving in a different direction for its next Outlast game: namely, the cooperative multiplayer experiences you see with titles like Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th. It just used the PC Gaming Show to reveal The Outlast Trials, a co-op survival title set in a Cold War mind control research facility. There’s no gameplay to see yet, but you’ll clearly be running through creepy hallways as untold horrors chase you down.

The title arrives sometime in 2021. This might not be what you’re hoping for if you prefer the solitary adventures from earlier titles. It may be more appealing if you prefer to share your fright with others, though, and it’s a recognition that multiplayer elements have become popular even in traditionally single player genres.

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