Fujifilm’s Instax offering is about to get even more fun. Its mini link smartphone printer and accompanying app has just been given an update called Sketch, Edit & Print (located in Fun Mode) which lets users incorporate a handwritten drawing, doodle or text into their photos. It’s basically Photoshop 101 — just import your work of art or text into the app, tidy it up with a basic editing feature and then position it on a photo ready to print. Just make sure your app is up to date and you’re ready to get creative.
We’re back to a somewhat regular week of news on this episode of the Engadget Podcast. Devindra and Cherlynn tackle the good and bad of Dell’s new XPS and Alienware laptops, before diving into Zocdoc’s telehealth play and what that could mean for our healthcare infrastructure in the future. We also contemplate the utility of VR meetings and therapy sessions, as well as the appeal of a quirky pair of wireless earbuds promising to tailor audio to the shape of your ears.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
A little more than five years after NextVR streamed its first live VR broadcast from California to my house in Michigan, Apple confirmed it’s acquiring the startup. While Apple has built AR features into some of its platforms already, rumors of a bigger push into augmented reality or virtual reality have remained simply rumors.
Engadget
In the past few years, NextVR highlights have included concert broadcasts, golf and the NBA. Still, VR’s slow adoption means only so many people could actually watch, and phone-based headsets like the one I used in 2015 have fallen by the wayside. All I can hope for now is that Apple’s move will be remembered as one that helped bring quality VR experiences to the masses, and not just another example of promising technology being acquired and shelved forever.
— Richard
‘Ghost of Tsushima’ includes a black-and-white samurai cinema mode
Plus, more gameplay details.
Sucker Punch
You’ll have to follow the wind and the wild animals to find new places and points of interest in the world of the Ghost of Tsushima. That’s one of the gameplay elements Sucker Punch Productions showcased during Sony’s latest State of Play episode, focused entirely on the new samurai game.
Expect to switch between a samurai battle style and a ghost mode, the latter being sneakier and arguably less honorable. And in a bid to truly embrace its feudal Japan roots, the game will come with a black-and-white mode to help channel your inner Kurosawa. Continue reading.
VanMoof’s S3 e-bike is better, cheaper and just as stylish
It’s almost time for the e-bike boom.
VanMoof S3 E-Bike
Engadget
VanMoof is like the Allbirds of e-bikes. The company has struck a chord with technology-loving people who care deeply about design and sustainable living. That niche, though, is only so large.
It’s stepping toward the mainstream and is making its premium bikes a tad cheaper. So how do the S3 and X3 stack up against the competition? And how far do they move the needle for e-bike adoption? VanMoof’s third-generation ride has a few frustrating flaws, but it’s still one of the most impressive pedal-assist bikes that money can buy, provided you’re okay with something that occasionally puts design and simplicity over flexibility. Nick Summers took the S3 for a ride. Continue reading.
Apple could launch an ‘affordable’ 10-inch iPad this year
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also predicts a new iPad mini model for early 2021.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple might have a few more products to launch this year. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company is planning an ‘affordable’ 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of the year. Apple’s cheapest 10-inch iPad currently costs $329.
Kuo said the upcoming models will “follow [the] iPhone SE’s product strategy” in that their main selling points are their affordable price tags and their use of Apple’s latest and fastest chips. He also expects to see a new iPad mini in the first half of 2021. Continue reading.
Sponsored Content by Stack Commerce
The Boring Company completes excavation of its Las Vegas tunnels
It’s on track to open in January 2021.
LVCVA
Elon Musk’s Boring Company has finished excavating the second of two tunnels planned for the Las Vegas Convention Center’s underground loop transit system. The mile-long system could cost up to $52.5 million and is currently slated for completion in January 2021. The Boring Company’s first foray into commercial transit will ferry people underneath the convention center via Tesla’s autonomous electric vehicles. It’s designed to move more than 4,000 people per hour across the facility, turning what is at least a 15-minute walk into a trip that takes less than two minutes. Continue reading.
Every new broadband-only subscriber gets a box for free, so it’s easy to see why the services has picked up a million users. On the one hand, it’s a reasonable concession to the cord-cutting trend, with Peacock Premium alone giving Flex users access to 7,500 hours worth of movies like Meet the Parents and Jurassic Park, along with series including 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation
However, it’s also a way for Comcast to juice Peacock subscriber numbers before it launches officially. The company has high hopes for both the ad-free $10 service and the ad-supported $5 Peacock Premium. The company will run five minutes of ads per hour on the latter service and has already signed key sponsors including State Farm, Target and Unilever, .
In the United States, TSMC currently operates a fab in Camas, Washington and design centers in both Austin, Texas and San Jose, California. The Arizona facility would be TSMC’s second manufacturing site in the United States.
TSMC is a massive contract manufacturer for numerous fabless chip makers. It builds AMD’s GPUs, Apple’s A13 processor for the latest iPhones and iPads, the Qualcomm processors used in Android devices and the chips used in both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. Even companies with their own fab plants like Intel and Texas Instruments outsource some production to TSMC.
The company is well ahead of other manufacturers including Intel, having commenced risk production for 5-nanometer manufacturing technology. It will reportedly use that process to build Apple’s next-gen A14 chip, which should increase performance but also increase costs, according to Wccftech. Intel, meanwhile, has only just moved on to 10-nanometer manufacturing and still isn’t building its high-performance 10th-generation chips using the tech. (The only company currently matching TSMC’s tech is Samsung, which focuses more on memory production.)
The White House has has also reportedly been trying to convince Intel to build its upcoming chip fab plants stateside. According to the WSJ and NYT reports, the US Defense, Commerce and other departments are concerned about outsourcing chip supplies to other countries, especially China. Experts believe the US needs to invest a lot more in the sector, much as Taiwan, China, Israel and other nations have done.
TSMC addressed that issue in its press release, implying that the government needs to step up. “US adoption of forward-looking investment policies to enable a globally competitive environment for a leading edge semiconductor technology operation in the US will be crucial to the success of this project,” the company wrote. “It will also give us the confidence this and other future investments by TSMC and its supply chain companies will be successful.” Construction will commence in 2021, with production targeted to start in 2024.
You’ll now be able to play as Resident Evil’s most iconic monster in the RE 3 remake’s multiplayer mode. The latest Resident Evil: Resistance update adds Nemesis as a playable character for the first time in the franchise and also adds former Russian special forces Nicholai Ginovaef as a Mastermind.
Resistance, which was originally supposed to be a spinoff, pits four Survivors against a Mastermind that can lay traps and sic monsters on them. If you choose to play as Nicholai, you’ll be able to control Nemesis to hunt Survivors down, though you can also use camera-mounted firearms, as well as trackers to keep an eye on them.
Basketball fans may have real basketball action to look forward to — or at least broadcasts of the NBA 2K League — but until then, there are some highlights and statistical breakdowns of the game’s simulated action to pore over.
#2KSim Finals: Los Angeles Lakers (4), Milwaukee Bucks (3)
Game 1: Lakers 129, Bucks 89
Anthony Davis: 35 PT, 19 RB
LeBron James: 24 PT, 6 RB, 7 AS
Kyle Kuzma: 19 PT
Dwight Howard: 14 PT, 12 RB
Khris Middleton: 22 PT, 6 RB, 6 AS
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 15 PT, 14 RB
Game 2: Bucks 106, Lakers 105 (OT)
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 24 PT, 12 RB, 7 AS
Khris Middleton: 24 PT, 5 RB, 4 AS
Eric Bledsoe: 16 PT, 4 RB, 7 AS
Anthony Davis: 30 PT, 18 RB, 4 AS
LeBron James: 18 PT, 12 RB, 9 AS
Dwight Howard: 17 PT, 17 RB
Kyle Kuzma: 16 PT, 6 RB
Game 3: Bucks 96, Lakers 79
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 20 PT, 10 RB, 3 AS
Khris Middleton: 16 PT, 6 RB, 7 AS
Brook Lopez: 16 PT, 4 3PT
Anthony Davis: 24 PT, 13 RB
LeBron James: 19 PT, 7 RB, 3 AS
Dwight Howard: 16 RB
Game 4: Bucks 131, Lakers 101
Khris Middleton: 37 PT, 7 RB, 7 AS, 6 3PT
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 27 PT, 14 RB, 5 AS
Donte DiVincenzo: 16 PT, 4 RB, 3 AS, 4 3PT
LeBron James: 27 PT, 7 RB, 7 AS
Anthony Davis: 19 PT, 15 RB
Danny Green: 17 PT
Game 5: Lakers 141, Bucks 112
LeBron James: 37 PT, 8 RB, 8 AS
Anthony Davis: 31 PT, 8 RB
Dwight Howard: 18 PT, 13 RB
JaVale McGee: 18 PT, 8 RB
Rajon Rondo: 19 AS (2 short of NBA Finals record – Magic Johnson, 1984)
Apple may have a couple more product launches scheduled for late 2020 and early 2021 despite production issues brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. According to notable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the tech giant could launch an affordable 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of the year and a new iPad mini that’s between 8.5 and 9 inches in size in the first half of 2021.
Kuo said the upcoming models will “follow [the] iPhone SE’s product strategy” in that their main selling points are their affordable price tags and their use of Apple’s latest and fastest chips. He didn’t mention a potential price for the models, but Apple’s cheapest 10-inch iPad currently costs $329. The analyst is known for making accurate predictions about the tech giant’s upcoming products over the years, including the new iPhone SE. Apple announced the $400 iPhone model, which is powered by the same chip found in its most expensive smartphones, in April.
You’ll have to follow the wind and the wild animals to find new places and points of interest in the world of the Ghost of Tsushima. That’s one of the gameplay elements Sucker Punch Productions showcased during Sony’s latest State of Play episode, which lasted 18 minutes and revealed more of what you can expect from the samurai action-adventure title.
The developer also showed the differences in Jin’s, the protagonist’s, fighting styles. When fighting as an honorable samurai, Jin can challenge enemies in a lethal standoff. But as a “Ghost” that’s willing to do anything to drive away Tsushima’s Mongol invaders, he can strike in the dead of night and use dirty tricks to his advantage.
Valve launched Steam Labs late last year as a way to test out new features for its PC games store. While it already brought the machine learning-based Interactive Recommender from Labs to the regular Library, the latest client update adds a wrinkle with Play Next. Instead of suggesting new games for you to buy, it has suggestions from the unplayed games that you already own.
Microsoft launched a similar feature for Xbox with a “surprise me” button that would select one of your games on its own, but this may be a noteworthy upgrade over that. After years of bundle packs and random sales, there are probably a few unplayed gems (I really should try some of Mike Bithell’s games) kicking around in everyone’s library. The trick is finding them before boredom kicks in, and that’s where this feature will shine.
