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Switch exclusive ‘No More Heroes 3’ has been delayed to 2021

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Thank goodness for Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Today, developer Grasshopper Manufacture announced that No More Heroes 3, the latest adventure featuring Travis Touchdown, won’t be out this year. No More Heroes isn’t a juggernaut franchise on the scale of Metroid or Animal Crossing, but the Wii originals have a cult following and the third numbered entry was a much-needed exclusive in the Switch’s 2020 lineup. There’s still Bravely Default II, but otherwise Nintendo is banking on the aforementioned collection of 3D Mario classics, a port of Pikmin 3, Mario Kart: Live Home Circuit and a new Hyrule Warriors prequel game.

In a tweet, Grasshopper Manufacture said the delay was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team said the virus had caused “a real body blow” to its schedule and created “unforeseen delays in development.” Progress was being made, the developer added, but everyone involved wanted to “focus on prioritizing quality.” No More Heroes 3 was announced during Nintendo’s presentation at E3 2019. A beautifully-animated story trailer was then shown at The Game Awards later that year, introducing an alien called Fu that Travis will presumably need to battle. The game follows Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, a spin-off adventure that released first on Nintendo Switch but is now available on PS4 and PC, too.



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Walmart gets FAA approval for a second drone delivery pilot program

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Shortly after receiving final FAA approval for drone deliveries, Amazon already has a rival. Walmart announced that it will start a pilot program with drone company Flytrex to deliver groceries and other household essentials from its stores in Fayetteville, NC. Flytrex had previously received FAA approval for food deliveries in North Carolina.

The pilot program will mostly be used to gather information for a future service, so the Fayetteville skies won’t be filled with drones just yet. “The drones, which are controlled over the cloud using a smart and easy control dashboard, will help us gain valuable insight into the customer and associate experience — from picking and packing to takeoff and delivery,” said Walmart senior VP Tom Ward.

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Xbox Game Pass for PC will soon double in price

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All good things must come to an end. Microsoft has confirmed that the PC version of Game Pass will soon cost $9.99 per month, rather than $4.99 per month. We knew this price hike was coming: Game Pass for PC is technically in beta at the moment, and the Xbox website has long stated that $4.99 is a “limited time price.” The higher cost of entry will go into effect on September 17th, the same day the service becomes “generally available” and sheds its beta label. The new pricing makes sense, given that the console version of Game Pass — which is functionally identical, but offers a tweaked library — also costs $9.99 per month at the moment.

Unlike the console version, though, Game Pass for PC will soon come with a basic EA Play subscription. That service usually costs $4.99 per month on its own, which arguably negates the price rise of Game Pass for PC, provided you’re interested in the third-party publisher’s back catalog. Regardless, Game Pass for PC still seems like a great deal. It still has a vast library, after all, that includes every Xbox Game Studio title on the day of its release. If you have some extra cash to burn, there’s also Game Pass Ultimate, a $14.99 per month service that bundles the console and PC offerings, as well as Xbox Live Gold on console, EA Play and, starting on September 15th, xCloud game streaming on Android phones and tablets.



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Twitch makes it easier for esports organizations to hold their own tournaments

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The toolsuite will allow organizers to customize their tournaments with their own banners, images and rules. They can use it to set up participant registration, arrange matches with bracketing and then let participants know they’re competing with player notifications. At the moment, Versus is in closed beta and only available to a select group of competition organizers made up of collegiate esports leagues, game developers, as well as Twitch Rivals and Twitch Creators.

Twitch

Twitch

Twitch says it will spend the next months ensuring Versus can actually handle both casual and complex competitions before it rolls out the toolsuite. But, it intends to give access to as many people as quickly as it can. The Amazon subsidiary has been ramping up its esports efforts recently, even introducing an esports directory to help viewers find live tournaments. Twitch also vows to continue investing heavily in Twitch Rivals, which features tournaments for the website’s users.

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Portland officials pass strict ban on facial recognition systems

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Portland’s officials first revealed that they were working on the bill back in November 2019, and that if the bill passes, it will be the first to prohibit private businesses from deploying facial recognition systems. The legislation other cities approved in the past weren’t as strict: San Francisco’s ban, for instance, only applies to the city government.

A report by Motherboard says Amazon spent $24,000 lobbying council members after that in an effort to convince them to soften the bill’s language. As the publication explains, the e—commerce giant is most likely worried that Portland’s legislation would create a nationwide legal precedent that could affect its facial recognition business.

At a council meeting, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he hopes his city’s legislation would inspire other local governments to pass tougher facial recognition laws. Lia Holland from Fight for the Future agreed and said in a statement:

“Now, cities across the country must look to Portland and pass bans of their own. And, Congress should act to pass bans at the federal level. We have the momentum, and we have the will to beat back this dangerous and discriminatory technology.”

Back in June, a group of Democratic Senators and House representatives introduced a bill that would “prohibit biometric surveillance by the federal government without explicit statutory authorization” after a man was arrested due to a faulty biometric match. It would prevent state and local law enforcement across the US from using facial recognition and other similar systems.

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For Lucid’s Air EV sedan, performance and prestige come at a price

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After multiple production delays and setbacks, Lucid Motors gave the EV driving public its first look at the upcoming Lucid Air sedan during a live streamed reveal event on Wednesday. With an expected range far exceeding even the most robust Tesla Mo…

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Funimation partners with VIZ Media to expand its streaming anime catalog

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Two of the biggest anime distributors in the US are teaming up. On Wednesday, Funimation announced that it’s working with VIZ Media to bring the publisher’s catalog of anime titles to its streaming service. Some of the more notable shows making their way to Funimation with the deal include 2018 sci-fi boxing anime Megalo Box and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. The latter was penned by Psycho-Pass and Madoka Magica creator Gen Urobuchi. They’ll join existing titles from the VIZ Media catalog, such as Hunter x Hunter, on September 22nd, with more to come at a later date.  

The move is likely to affect Crunchyroll, Funimation’s main competitor in the anime streaming space. One of the things to come out of Sony acquiring a majority stake in Funimation back in 2017 was Crunchyroll losing access to Funimation’s back catalog.

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Cornell’s VibroSense makes appliances ‘smart’ by tracking their vibrations

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VibroSense’s creators see their creation as a tool to help people monitor energy usage in their homes, allowing them to reduce potentially wasteful consumption. VibroSense also promises to make your home “smart” without investing in new appliances or individual sensors for your existing ones. They say you could also use it to reduce water waste and avoid short circuits.

As compelling as all those capabilities sound, you probably won’t have a chance to buy VibroSense soon. The team plans to first present its findings at an upcoming computing conference. As you might expect, there are also kinks they need to work out. One concern is that VibroSense may pose a potential privacy risk if used in apartments and townhouses where multiple families live close to one another. In those living situations, it could pick up activities in neighboring units. Still, it’s an interesting approach that could one day inform other smart home devices.

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Google’s latest experimental app lets influencers host paid online events

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Fundo workshop

Area 120 / Google

As a regular user, you also won’t need to download any other apps outside of Fundo to take part in an experience. You can find Fundo events either through links people share or the app’s homepage. Besides YouTubers, Area 120 says it has also seen authors, fitness instructors and lifestyle consultants take advantage of the app. 

While Fundo might seem like a response to the coronavirus pandemic, Area 120’s work on the software actually predates the current situation by a couple of years. Part of the inspiration for the project came from Fundo’s creators attending VidCon in 2018 and seeing YouTubers and other content creators interact with their fans.  

Fundo is currently available in the US and Canada, with availability in more countries coming soon.  

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Motorola’s 5G Razr is better than the original in almost every way

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Motorola was always clear that the Razr is a “design-first” device, and it went to great lengths to recreate the visual vibe that its classic flip phones ran with for its first foldable. To pack some much-needed extras into this new model, though, Motorola had to make some changes: The new Razr is a little chubbier, and a features a “chin” that’s a bit less prominent than the original’s. Personally, these changes are enough to make the Razr just a little less visually striking, but they’re worth it when you consider what Motorola could pack in here as a result.

Motorola Razr 5G

Motorola

For one, Motorola squeezed a better camera into the Razr’s top half. My biggest gripe with the original Razr’s 16-megapixel rear shooter wasn’t that it was bad, per se — it just wasn’t great compared to every other camera you’d find in a similarly priced phone. In response, Motorola chose a 48-megapixel camera for this new model, which should improve photo quality substantially. (Seeing as we haven’t even touched this thing yet, we’ll have to see about that.)

The somewhat pokey Snapdragon 710 found in the first Razr also is gone, replaced here by a more modern Snapdragon 765G and 8GB of RAM. That’s the same great-but-not-quite-premium chipset you’ll see in a new batch of affordable, 5G-friendly smartphones, like the OnePlus Nord, the TCL 10 5G, and certain versions of the LG Velvet. As I said, we’re not working with flagship power here, but the new Razr has everything it needs to run much more smoothly this time around.

And speaking of speed boosts, the new Razr was built to play nice with sub-6 5G networks, like those operated by its US carrier partners, T-Mobile and AT&T. (That’s right. Despite Verizon carrying the first Razr, there are apparently no plans for it to offer this significantly upgraded model.) Naturally, that extra horsepower and networking support are likely to impact power consumption, so Motorola also gave the new Razr a slightly bigger battery. I do mean slightly bigger, too — its full capacity tops out at 2,800mAh, up from 2,510mAh in the original. I suppose any improvement is a good thing, but it also means Razr owners are working with a battery that’s still significantly smaller than most other phones out there.

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