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Nintendo Switch update 10.0.0 | Engadget

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The latest software update for Nintendo’s Switch consoles has arrived, and version 10.0.0 is finally ready to fix an issue that has plagued the system since it debuted: moving games between internal storage and an SD card. Until now, if a game was in either place and you wanted it in the other, then the only solution was to redownload it. Now Switch owners can move “downloadable software, update data, and DLC” with ease — game saves and some update data is still excluded.

Another change should make gameplay accessible for many people, since you can remap the controller buttons, similar to a change Microsoft made on the Xbox One a few years ago. According to the notes, up to five stick and button configs can be changed for each paired controller, as long as it’s a Joy-Con, the buttons on the Switch Lite system or the Nintendo Pro Controller.

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ESRB’s in-game purchases label now includes a warning about loot boxes

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The ESRB’s loot box label is becoming decidedly clearer. The ratings board has started applying an “In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)” label that warns when games include loot boxes and other luck-of-the-draw items. And yes, the ESRB has reasons for not writing “loot boxes.” It wants a catch-all phrase that could include similar elements, and wants a term that non-gamers (say, parents buying games for their kids) could understand.

The badging should help buyers make “more informed decisions” rather than finding out after the fact, the ESRB said. The previous approach only listed the presence of paid items on a basic level, which could refer to more benign purchases like DLC and season passes. You still had to do separate research if you were worried about loot boxes.

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Streaming on Roku devices jumped nearly 50 percent

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It won’t surprise you to hear that streaming video demand is surging as people stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now there are more tangible figures for that demand. Roku expects the total number of streaming hours in the first quarter of 2020 to have jumped 49 percent, to 13.2 billion. It added nearly 3 million subscribers in the process. The company hinted at even larger numbers to come, too, as the spike only began late in the quarter (that is, March) when lockdowns spread around the world.

This doesn’t mean Roku is profiting from the wave of demand. The company estimated that it could post a $60 million loss in the quarter, pulled its outlook for 2020 and drew down $70 million in credit to deal with “current financial market conditions.” More people were watching, then, but that didn’t necessarily translate to a rush in player sales or ad revenue.

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Oppo’s Reno Ace 2 has the world’s fastest wireless charging (for now)

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The rest of the Reno Ace 2 is very much a moderate flagship phone based on the increasingly common Snapdragon 865 platform. Starting off with the display, this device comes with a 6.5-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel featuring 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+ certification and a 16-megapixel punch-hole camera. This is all sandwiched between Dolby Atmos stereo speakers. Alas, the headphone jack is gone this time.

As for the rear cameras, we’re looking at a 48-megapixel f/1.7 main shooter with a Sony IMX586 sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera and two gimmicky 2-megapixel special effects cameras — one for vintage portraits and one for light leak effects.

Oppo Reno Ace 2

Oppo

The Reno Ace 2 comes in grey, silver or purple, and much like how its predecessor got a Gundam edition, this time we can expect an Evangelion special edition in the near future. For now, the phone starts at 3,999 yuan or about $570 for 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 3.0 storage, then capping at 4,599 yuan or about $650 for 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB storage. As for the optional AirVOOC wireless charger (which doubles as a 10W Qi charger), it’s asking for 249 yuan or about $35. Pre-orders are already open in China ahead of the April 20th launch.

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FCC filing suggests Microsoft’s Surface Go sequel is almost here

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Microsoft might be close to updating the Surface Go nearly two years after its debut. As noticed by Windows Latest and Windows Insider, a seemingly mysterious “portable computing device” from Microsoft has passed through the FCC. While there aren’t any telltale clues in the filing, the EV2 codename is the same used for the Surface Go (and from early signs, a sequel) in Geekbench tests. Likewise, blogger Dan Charlton spotted European retail listings for a “Surface Project V” whose prices line up with what you’d expect from a Surface Go sequel, along with a “Surface Project U” that could be a Surface Book 3.

While it hasn’t been confirmed, a Petri rumor from February suggested that a Go refresh would largely stick to the familiar design, including the 10-inch screen. The base model would stick with a low-end Pentium Gold processor, but there would reportedly be a version with a Core M processor (likely a Core m3) as well. You might not have to splurge on the Surface Pro just to get a reasonably speedy CPU inside a Microsoft slate. There may be an LTE version as well.

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After a year on the Epic Store, ‘Journey’ is heading to Steam

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More than eight years after it first came out on the PlayStation 3, almost five years after its PlayStation 4 rerelease and about one year after coming out on PC, Journey is finally making its way to Steam. The game’s PC publisher, Annapurna Interactive, announced today you’ll be able to buy the indie gem on Valve’s digital store starting on June 11th. At the moment, it’s currently exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC.

By this point, Journey needs no introduction. In its short, two-hour runtime, it manages to pack a lasting emotional punch, unlike almost any other game. In the intervening years, it’s inspired a documentary and an interactive symphony tour. Both thatgamecompany and some of the other creators who worked on the game went on to try and recreate its magic, but Journey still stands apart. With this upcoming release, Journey fans have yet another way to play the masterpiece.



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Razer Pikachu True Wireless Earbuds

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Much like the Hammerhead, these Pikachu buds feature a 13mm driver each, IPX4 water resistance and Bluetooth 5.0 radio. There’s also the same low latency mode, which reduces the latency to 60ms for the sake of competitive gaming. The Hammerhead’s voice prompts are replaced by Pikachu’s voice, though I do wonder if the translations will be accurate.

Razer Hammerhead Pokemon Pikachu Edition

Razer

The earbuds alone can last for around 3 hours per charge (one hour short of the Hammerhead’s, for some reason), and it’s a total of 15 hours if you include the charging case. Even though the earbuds do snap onto their charging ports magnetically, the product page asks that you do not throw the Poké Ball at the earbuds to “capture” them. Pikachu is an electric type Pokémon, not a fire type.

Sadly, these Pikachu earbuds will only be available in China, but if you have a really good friend on that side of the world, you may be able to grab a pair for 849 yuan or about $120 on Tmall starting from midnight on April 16th local time.

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Instagram’s redesigned IGTV app helps you find new creators to follow

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Borrowing a page from Instagram’s main app, the updated software features a “Discover” tab that surfaces video from a greater variety of creators. In its previous incarnation, the IGTV app mostly highlighted content from people you followed, as well as videos that were popular on the platform.

Speaking of Instagram, the company has also tweaked how IGTV videos post as Stories. As before, people can share their IGTV videos to Stories, but instead of the app highlighting a single frame of the video, you’ll now see a 15-second preview. Presumably, the goal here is to encourage people to tap through and watch a full video. To make it easier to film a video, Instagram has also added a hands-free recording mode.

Whether any of Instagram’s tweaks will push you to download the standalone IGTV app if you hadn’t already is hard to say. For the most part, it doesn’t seem most Instagram users have embraced the platform. At the start of the year, the company removed the IGTV icon from its main app. At the time, it said “very few” people had used the shortcut. However, at the very least, the updated app takes what was a sparse and simple offering before and gives it some much-needed life.

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Astronomers observe the brightest supernova on record

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In 2016, astronomers spotted the brightest supernova ever observed. They watched as the supernova, named SN2016aps, continued to emit radiation for more than 1,000 days. Today, in a paper published in Nature, they describe how this “extremely energetic supernova” could help them understand the universe’s evolution and the formation of the most massive stars.

SN2016aps flared so brightly that it outshone its own galaxy, and over its long span, it emitted more light than any supernova on record, Matt Nicholl, the study’s first author from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, told Gizmodo. At five to 10 times the mass of a typical supernova, it was one of the largest stars ever seen to explode. The total mass of the object and the material it ejected before exploding could have been 50 to 100 times the mass of the Sun, Gizmodo notes.

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Amazon lets sellers resume shipping ‘non-essential’ items to warehouses

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In an effort to better meet the surge in consumer demand, Amazon announced last month that its fulfillment centers would only accept shipments of medical supplies and household cleaning goods from independent merchants. At the time, the company said that the restrictions would last until April 5th. That date came and went, but the company announced today that third-party sellers will be able to store some “non-essential” goods at Amazon warehouses starting later this week. An Amazon spokesperson previously told The Wall Street Journal, “Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritizing products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities.”

While it’s important that everyone in need has access to a reasonable amount of medical supplies and household goods during the coronavirus pandemic, third-party sellers rely on the company’s fulfillment centers to hold their inventory. Amazon’s recent restrictions — though arguably necessary — may have hurt small businesses who didn’t have a fall-back plan, so this update could be good news for vendors who heavily leverage Amazon’s facilities. Between this and the company’s decision to hire 75,000 more employees, customers could also start seeing faster deliveries. Even some Amazon Prime members — who are entitled to two-day shipping — have been waiting weeks to receive their orders.

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