In the same interview, Dill also said EA is working on a mobile port of Skate 3. “So this woman [from Skate series publisher EA] emailed me and said ‘Hey Jason we want to do a mobile version of Skate 3,‘” he told the show. “I wrote back and said, ‘What else?’. She wrote back and said, ‘No, that’s it.'”
Dill decided not to contribute to the mobile port, for reasons that will likely resonate with some fans. “So I wrote back and said, ‘Look, no big deal, [but] no one wants your stupid mobile version of Skate 3. Make Skate f*****g 4 already.” Afterward, Dill says he told EA, “good luck on Need for Speed 29.” Ouch.
Again, it’s probably best not to get too excited about a mobile port of Skate 3. So much of what made the Skate games compelling were their precise analog controls, an aspect of the series that likely won’t translate to touchscreen devices. At the same time, maybe a successful re-release leads to future Skate games down the road. In any case, we’ll likely learn more about both titles courtesy of the upcoming Summer Game Fest.
With E3 cancelled for the first time ever, game publishers and console makers are resorting to online presentations to show off their latest creations. Microsoft isn’t just streaming one event, though — the company will detail its upcoming Xbox Series X console, new games and additions to Xbox Game Pass every month for the rest of the year. Dubbed Xbox 20/20, these sneak peeks will likely cover all the news Microsoft planned to announce at E3, but spread across several months. The first entry in Xbox 20/20 will be part of the Inside Xbox event on May 7th at 11AM ET.
According to the post announcing Xbox 20/20, Microsoft is still planning to have the Xbox Series X ready later this year. According to Jerret West, CVP of Gaming Marketing, the company’s “goal remains to launch Xbox Series X and Halo Infinite this holiday.” That wording doesn’t inspire confidence — it feels like Microsoft is leaving some room to backpedal in case the company needs to delay the console, presumably due to the coronavirus pandemic. That said, all the games shown during the Xbox 20/20 events will be “Xbox Series X Optimized” — they should run in 4K at up to 120 frames per second, feature DirectX raytracing and take advantage of the Series X’s SSD technology.
The trailer also teases some deeper philosophical debates, with John Malkovich’s character arguing that “space should be a zone of wonder, not conflict and death.” And Naird telling an audience, “as a scientist you have loyalty to reason. Makes you a little untrustworthy.”
We won’t have to wait long for the first episode, which drops May 29th. The trailer gives us a glimpse of the star-packed cast, including Lisa Kudrow, Jane Lynch, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Fred Willard and Jimmy O. Yang.
You’re probably used to news outlets on YouTube asking you to subscribe to their channels. Before long, though, they might hawk their own offerings. Digidaysources say YouTube is creating a tool that would let publishers sell subscriptions to their in-house digital services through their YouTube channels. Talks have yet to hash out details like the revenue split, but it would only give you perks from that publisher, not the YouTube platform.
The outlets expect that YouTube would share user information like names and email addresses with publishers, much like it already does through Subscribe With Google. News companies could then create a direct relationship with you much like they would if you’d subscribed through their websites.
There’ll be three modes at the outset. Heart of the Hives pits two four-player teams against each other as well as large boss hives that pop up throughout the map. Each hive contains a heart, and the first team to snag three wins the game. In Harvester Command, two squads of eight players will race to earn 100 points by holding control of Essence Harvesters. Alpha Hunters, meanwhile, is a mini-battle royale for eight pairs of hunters. Last duo standing wins.
You won’t only have to deal with your opponents, but dangers that the hostile planet you’re based on lobs your way. The hero-focused gameplay may be somewhat familiar if you’re au fait with the likes of Overwatch, Valorant, Apex Legends andTeam Fortress 2, though Essence and environmental hazards might bring fresh twists to Crucible. It remains to be seen exactly how the game will tie into Twitch, which Amazon owns.
Crucible will be available on Steam. It’s the first AAA title from Amazon, which also plans to release another major title in August, the long-awaited MMO New World. The company is also working on a cloud gaming platform called Project Tempo that could compete with Google Stadia, GeForce Now and Project xCloud.
Was Devindra Hardawar wrong about something? Our fellow editor explains why he purchased a standalone Ultra HD Blu-ray player in 2020, after declaring the format “already lost” to streaming four years ago. Apparently the Xbox One X’s built-in player and streaming options just can’t beat the standalone’s ease of use or Dolby Vision HDR picture quality from a disc.
Sony
Plus, the $250 Sony UBP-X800M2 can play his SACD and DVD-Audio discs. Guess some people just can’t stay away from “dead” disc formats.
— Richard
Apple brings its new Magic Keyboard to the 13-inch MacBook Pro
The butterfly keyboard is dead, but the touch bar remains.
Apple
Five years after Apple introduced the “butterfly” keyboard that had so many issues, the company has excised it from the lineup. The 13-inch MacBook Pro was the last device to get refreshed with the Magic Keyboard that our reviewers prefer, along with available 10th-gen Intel CPUs for more power and a physical escape key. The new laptops are available to order now, starting at $1,399 (for a 10th-gen CPU with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, the price starts at $1,799). Continue reading.
Microsoft shifts the focus on Windows 10X to single-screen devices
Stay tuned.
Engadget
According to Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay, “single-screen devices will be the first expression of Windows 10X that we deliver to our customers, and we will continue to look for the right moment, in conjunction with our OEM partners, to bring dual-screen devices to market.”
Reading between the lines, it appears that dual-screen machines, like Microsoft’s Surface Neo, the Dell Duet concept or a future Yoga Book, will take a bit longer to ship than anticipated. In the meantime, Windows 10X will deliver its more efficient version of computing to traditional single-screen laptop hardware. Continue reading.
How to buy a smart display in 2020
Amazon vs. Google
Amazon
Smart displays are the second-wave devices born out of the success of the Amazon Echo, Google Home and others. Companies recently decided to make new smart speakers with touchscreens of all sizes, adding visual and tactile components to what were once devices you could only bark orders to. While this may seem counterintuitive, there are a number of reasons to choose a smart screen instead of a smart speaker — glanceable information and video streaming are just a couple of them.
Amazon and Google dominate the space, but your decision of which smart speaker to buy isn’t as simple as choosing between the two tech giants. Check out our guide to buying a smart display and our list of the best smart displays you can get today. Continue reading.
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Updated Theraguns run quieter and have a companion app
The Theragun mini might be the most interesting one.
Theragun
You can’t browse social media without coming across massage guns from the likes of Theragun. Using a jackhammer motion to soothe aching muscles, they’re apparently an expensive hit. The company, now known as Therabody, has revealed its fourth-generation series, including a new petite (and cheaper) model, the mini, which comes in at under $200. The top-end models come with exchangeable batteries, wireless charging (why?!) and swap-out massage accessories, including a thumb. They’re available to order now. Continue reading.
Super Mario 64 has been modded and emulated for years now, so playing Nintendo’s 1996 classic on a PC is certainly nothing new. Now, however, a fully-functional, native 4K port of the game has appeared for the first time, built from the ground up specifically for PC, which means it runs cleanly, has built-in controller functionality and even supports additional modding.
The surprise arrival was showcased in a 12-minute-long YouTube clip posted by a user called “Unreal” (no apparent relation to Epic Games), with players noting that the entire game — rather than single levels — was released online over the weekend. You’ll have to know where to look if you want to try it yourself, though. As Unreal notes on the YouTube video, “I can’t give a download link for obvious reasons and DON’T ask a [sic] download link in the comments.”
Tumblr has started a mass reblog deletion meant to purge traces of hate speech from suspended blogs on its platform. In a post announcing the move, the company said it’s in the midst of removing 4.47 million posts reblogging content from nearly a thousand Nazi-related blogs that had already been frozen and deleted.
Tumblr explained that most of the existing hate speech posts on its website came from those blogs, living on as reblogs even after they’d been removed. And since the reblogs “rarely contained the kind of counter-speech that serves to keep hateful rhetoric in check” — they weren’t being used as educational examples by people making counter-arguments to hate speech, for instance — Tumblr decided to change the way it deals with them. In the future, it will evaluate blogs suspended for hate speech and decide on whether mass deleting reblogs from them is the best course of action.
Earlier this year, Google revealed that all Nest accounts will require extra sign-in security starting this spring. For those who haven’t enabled phone—based two factor authentication or have migrated to a Google account yet, that means having to verify their identities via email-based authentication every time they log in. Now, the tech giant has announced that it will begin enforcing that extra security measure for its Nest products starting this month.
Users will soon receive an email from accounts@nest.com with a six digit code whenever they log in to verify that they truly own the account they’re trying to access. The only way users can avoid email verification — in case it’s too much of a hassle to check for an email every log in — is to activate two-factor using their phone numbers or to migrate to a Google account. The company says it will notify users before making the security change. For now, it’s advising Nest owners to ensure they still have access to the email they use for Nest.
This week sports fans have live action to tune into once again, as ESPN has cut a deal with a league in Korea, where they’re starting the season. The first game will air on Tuesday morning at 1 AM ET, and the plan is to broadcast six games a week. Me…
This week sports fans have live action to tune into once again, as ESPN has cut a deal with a league in Korea, where they’re starting the season. The first game will air on Tuesday morning at 1 AM ET, and the plan is to broadcast six games a week. Me…