NASCAR is still determining how it would use hybrids. They may be better suited for shorter courses with more turns and braking, which would put the regenerative braking to use. The hybrid tech would likely be used in parallel with internal combustion engines to add power, rather than solely improve gas mileage. For instance, Probst says the hybrid tech might provide a kind of strategic supercharge that could be used to provide extra power to complete a pass.
Probst said NASCAR is “pushing to go full electric,” too. But the association is taking things one step at a time. Its Next-Gen race car just completed its first on-track tests and is set to debut at the 2021 Daytona 500. It will release its Next-Gen race car guidelines in 2021. Then, we’ll likely see some type of hybrid tech. NASCAR isn’t alone in this push. IndyCar is planning to switch to 900-horsepower hybrids in 2022 as well.
When senior editor Devindra Hardawar tested the Oculus Rift S, he kept asking himself: Who really needs this VR headset? With built-in tracking, sharp resolution and a comfortable headstrap, the $399 Rift S makes a convincing argument for an entry-level VR purchase. However, it still needs to be tethered to a computer, its design and build quality aren’t better than the original Rift and the identically priced Oculus Quest has higher resolution displays. That all adds up to a tough recommendation. In the end, the newest Oculus system earned a fair score of 80.
The music and sound effects are similarly minimal but completely appropriate for the game. In fact, the music is one of my favorite things in the entire game. It’s a simple, mellow piano score that drops in and out of the game depending on what you’re doing. It hilariously ramps up in intensity the more chaos you cause, with dramatic hits punctuating moments where the villagers are surprised by the goose.
But the best thing about Untitled Goose Game is the honk button. It’s the first thing you learn how to do, and it’s both a useful tool to achieving your devious means, while also being straight-up fun to mash for no reason. The game requires a surprising amount of stealth to check things off your to-do list — but sometimes I’d get caught by a human and start mashing the honk button, flapping my wings and causing pure mayhem as a way to blow off steam and just goof off. That would often lead me to spend a few minutes just messing up as much stuff in the area as I could, to pay back those nasty humans for catching me in the act.
The only downside to Untitled Goose Game is that it’s too short. More accurately, I wish it was longer, but House House made a tight game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. And even though I now know how to do everything required to finish the game, I’ll definitely drop into the goose’s world again, because startling these goofy humans is just too satisfying.
Apex Legends Season 3
Richard Lawler Senior News Editor
At this point in my gaming career I can usually only keep up with one game at a time. After a nearly two-year stretch of constant Overwatch play, Apex Legends brought me into the battle royale fold and I haven’t looked back. The team at Respawn tweaked formulas established by giants in the genre like PUBG and Fortnite, while bringing a feeling I remembered from the Titanfall and Call of Duty games they’d worked on.
And then the map changed.
Apex has been out for less than a year, and its last update is bigger than anything the game had previously seen. While there’s still only one large area, players said goodbye to the lush forests and dry deserts of King’s Canyon before dropping into the land of fire and ice that is World’s Edge.
While I didn’t think the game needed a map revamp, I’ve loved learning a new map that rewards different styles of play, and it seems to have brought back many people who tried the game early on before ditching it.
With a lot of action taking place in urban areas, gameplay is more vertical than ever before, but careful terrain design means snipers don’t always rule supreme. I haven’t yet gotten the hang of the new character, Crypto, or his drone abilities, but he adds more to the game than he takes away from other characters. I find that he provides the challenge of turning the hunter into the hunted whenever you see one of those machines flying by.
I’m still not sure about Apex’s frustrating dual-currency setup and lootboxes. While I’m not overly concerned for myself — being mediocre at the game means I have very little blame to assign for things I haven’t earned — it’s a system that tiptoes around the line of being predatory to collectors. If I want a particular cosmetic, just let me pay for it and decide if it’s worthwhile instead of trying to go 50 levels up a Battle Pass or praying for RNG blessings.
The same goes for teammates. While a Halloween event will bring back single player for a limited time, a lot of the fun of the game depends on the commitment of whoever is in your trio. While penalties for leaving early in the game’s ranked mode have given players a reason to stick around and see if teammates can help them up, its standard mode could use some Overwatch-like endorsements or LFG to keep everyone’s expectations on the same page.
Even with those caveats, I’d recommend giving Apex a shot — it’s free, you can’t get cheaper than that — and if you’re on a team with me then congratulations! I bring a 5% winning percentage, inconsistent aim and a constant flow of loot pings, but I won’t leave a downed teammate behind if I can help it.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Kris Holt Contributing Writer
It’s been a long time since I fell in love with a game as hard and as fast as I have with Sayonara Wild Hearts. It’s a gorgeous, thrilling experience about heartbreak that’s filled with surprises.
Developer Simogo drew from broad reaches of the cultural spectrum for its stunning work here, packing a ton of ideas into the “On-rails Action Ballet.”Sayonara Wild Hearts constantly slings new mechanics at you — I didn’t quite expect it to invoke Titanfall 2, for one thing. I was able to wrap around my head around most of them quickly, but for those I didn’t, numerous checkpoints meant I didn’t have to retread my steps too much.
Most levels clock in at under a couple of minutes and I finished my first runthrough in a little over an hour. Stages often felt a hair too short to me, though. I wanted many of them to last a bit longer, but I’ll be replaying this often enough that it’s not a major concern. Meanwhile, playing on Apple Arcade, I found it much easier to use a DualShock 4 than to frantically swipe across my iPhone’s screen.
And then there’s the glue that holds it all together: that sublime soundtrack by Daniel Olsén and Jonathan Eng. It’s an umami bomb for the ears that I’ve been mainlining almost non-stop since my first playthrough. It’s filled with techno-pop gems (“Mine” and “Inside” are particular faves), and it works flawlessly with the rest of the game’s rhythms. I expect I’ll be bopping along to those tunes for a while yet.
What the Golf?
Devindra Hardawar Senior Editor
During my recent trip to the Oculus Connect conference, I thought I had all my gaming needs solved with the Nintendo Switch. I loaded it up with Fire Emblem Three Houses, Hollow Knight and plenty of games I’ve been planning to spend more time with. Then I started playing What the Golf, which I downloaded on a whim as part of Apple Arcade, and I couldn’t stop.
For the majority of my five and a half hour flight to San Jose, I carefully plotted golf trajectories and sussed out the solutions to some of the game’s more nefarious puzzles. What the Golf starts out as a mere golf game — then you start throwing your character around the stage to hit the flag. Before long, you’re introduced to an overworld where your sentient golf ball has to complete levels and fight an evil computer. It turns out, it’s anything but a normal golf game.
Triband, What the Golf’s developers, describe it as a “physics-based golf parody.” That’s an understatement. It’s not just a fun spin on the rules of golf, it’s a love letter to classic and modern games. It transforms the mechanics of a platformer into something you could play with a golf swing. Somehow, it turns everything into golf. (I won’t spoil it’s many wonderful references.)
What the Golf is basically the perfect phone game. You can play it mostly one-handed, and it’s the ideal thing to load up when you’re exhausted and don’t even have the energy to hold up a Switch Lite. And yes, it’s another sign that Apple Arcade is one of the best deals in gaming today.
What HP is really touting, though, is the “advanced security, flexible access, and simplified orchestration of Chrome Enterprise.” Specifially, it said that its “Device as a Service” (DaaS) that’s aimed at IT departments for security compliance, hardware health and more now supports Chrome Enterprise devices. That should scare Microsoft a bit, as both Dell and Google have now created Chrome Enterprise-specific devices that will compete with the Office365 ecosystem.
If speed isn’t paramount, HP also unveiled a 14-inch laptop for “frontline workers” with AMD A4 and A6 CPUs, USB-C and HP fast-charge tech. Finally, it’s offering the HP Chromebox Enterprise G2 with Intel 7th- or 8th-generation CPUs with up to 16GB of memory. It can power up to two 4K displays and is designed for call centers, shared workspaces, public business centers and digital signage.
None of these devices are particularly interesting for consumers, but it’s significant that HP has added Google Enterprise to its enterprise-centric DaaS ecosystem. HP hasn’t released prices yet, but the laptops will go on market later this month.
Those who want a more substantial upgrade can pay $130 for the AX3000 (below). It boosts the peak speed to 2.4Gbps (574Mbps on 2.4GHz) and adds a USB port for your sharing needs. There’s also a slight computational boost through a leap to an unspecified Intel dual-core chip.
Both routers will reach Walmart sometime next week. You can certainly find more powerful WiFi 6 routers, and those might be better if you’re transferring large files or have a busy household with multiple people hopping online. However, that’s not really the point here. These are more entry points into WiFi 6 for those who want compatible gear but aren’t particularly demanding.
My Blue Thoughts is a concept that started three years ago, when Lauv, whose real name is Ari Leff, installed simple blue boxes at his concerts where attendees could drop pieces of paper with their thoughts. After each concert, Leff (or his team) would share pictures of the collected thoughts to his Instagram. Leff called it his “compassion project,” and envisioned it as a way for people to anonymously air what was on their minds. “It’s sort of like a non-religious confessional,” Leff told Engadget.
This time around, people can enter a private booth and record a 60-second audio clip or write a 1,000-character blurb and take a selfie to go along with their submission. The sign outside the booth calls it a “quiet, safe place to let go of anything on your mind anonymously.” To protect identities, voices are distorted and images are silhouetted (in the style of the singer’s “Superhero” music video).
Microsoft enables the transcription, anonymizing and collection of these posts. These are then displayed on Lauv’s website, which was relaunched today with Microsoft to coincide with World Mental Health Day. “For us at Microsoft, it was really an amazing opportunity to work with somebody who is so open about mental health and the need for people to understand,” said Amy Sorokas, director of strategic partnerships. “It was exciting to get involved in to help figure out how we could increase awareness and amplify the message.”
Getting your deepest thoughts off your chest is only half of the process. The other part is seeing what others have said and learning you are not alone in feeling the way you do. That’s where the website comes in. The home page opens on a map of the world with circles showing the number of thoughts shared in each region (including a locale in the middle of the ocean called Lauv Island). You can search for specific keywords and find relevant submissions. Looking up “sad” yielded 45 thoughts, for instance, while “love” returned 192. You can also share your own thoughts through the site.
It’s surprising how candid people have been thus far. Through the thousands of thoughts on the site, people have aired feelings like fear of coming out to an abusive family, guilt over a breakup, sadness over loss of a support system or regret from unfulfilled ambitions. One recent post, for example, states “These last few years I’ve felt like a failure… I just don’t know how to get back up, and feel happy with myself again.”
Even though the word “sad” isn’t explicitly written in this submission, Microsoft’s AI has tagged it with the keywords “failure” and “sad.” The system will also tag the voice entries with keywords, scanning the clips to recognize specific terms, as long as the user spoke in one of the 16 supported languages. Unfortunately, the clips collected so far were mostly so distorted I couldn’t make out what was being said. Still, I was content looking at just the text entries — they were easier to browse anyway.
It might seem strange that people would share such intimate thoughts at a concert, but Lauv says it’s pretty common. Even with the earlier version of My Blue Thoughts, he said, “People really open up.” But some fans just have fun with it. “Sometimes they write ‘chicken tenders’.”
Thankfully, that example isn’t more offensive or disturbing. To keep malicious content or trollers from sullying the spirit of My Blue Thoughts, Microsoft put in place a Content Moderator that scans for profanities, and Leff’s team has the ability to remove inappropriate submissions.
It might not seem like simply recording and sharing your troubles with the world and scrolling through endless submissions from strangers is the most effective strategy for improving mental health. But for some, the simple acts of putting their thoughts down and reading about another person going through the same thing are small comforts.
“For me, music was my place to kind of confront my own emotions,” Leff said. “I sit down and hit on a piano or guitar, and whatever subconsciously comes out is like, ‘Okay, wow, like shit, that’s what I feel.'” So he wanted to create an outlet for people who might not have similar creative outlets and give them that opportunity when they attend one of his concerts.
Other artists’ performances might feature laser projections and augmented reality holograms, creating visual spectacles to distract and entertain. Compared to those efforts, My Blue Thoughts’ tech crossover seems relatively low-tech. But when it comes to mental health, maybe something quiet and distraction-free is more appropriate.
Leff’s music, with titles like “fuck I’m lonely,” “I’m so tired” and “Sad Forever,” has never shied away from the issues of emotions and mental health. The artist has been vocal about the importance of mental health and started The Blue Boy Foundation to raise money to help young people access relevant resources.
His personal experience also shaped his attitude towards mental health issues. “My dad was really depressed for a long time. And I was a little kid, and it was really hard,” he said. Music-making helped him confront and process his feelings, but it was when he began sharing that things felt more meaningful. “The more I was open and shared with my friends and our music, the more I felt like it was a rewarding human experience.”
“I have always taken the approach of being as open as I can,” Leff said. Indeed, his Instagram feed paints a picture of a person who is often cheerful and upbeat, yet at times shares about feeling numb and creatively stifled. In these posts, he opens up the conversation to his followers, asking if they’ve felt the same and how they’ve dealt.
In this way, Leff is using social media and his revamped website to connect with his fans on the topic of mental health. Though, the internet can be a double-edged sword; it is often the cause of many people’s troubles. “So much of the internet is sort of like this false reality that people want to portray,” Leff said. He sees My Blue Thoughts as a more authentic zone. “I think it’s cool to have a place where they can actually share really what’s going on.”
While Leff’s fans may be more open to the concept of being in touch with their emotions, he wants to reach more people. “I have hopes that this is the kind of thing that could reach beyond my fan base (and) reach some type of critical mass,” he said. On a larger scale, My Blue Thoughts could gain the recognition and pop culture cache to become the Postsecrets of the Instagram generation or an online confessional for the youth.
The app, which shares information on the location of pro-democracy protests and police activity in Hong Kong, was slammed by China Daily — owned by the Communist Party of China — for enabling “rioters in Hong Kong to go on violent acts,” adding that Apple has to “think about the consequences of its unwise and reckless decision.”
HKmap’s creators, however, say that there is no evidence that the app has been used to target police or threaten public safety. They added that apps such as Waze, which use crowdsourced information to help users avoid traffic cameras and police, are still permitted on the App Store, and noted that they are sure there have been occasions where criminal activity has been discussed and encouraged on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. HKmap is still available on desktop.
Critics say that Apple’s decision to remove the app is just another example of the company kowtowing to the economically influential country. Two years ago Apple pulled all the VPN apps from its App Store in China, while more recently it removed the Taiwan flag emoji from the iOS keyboards of users in Hong Kong, in a move many claim was designed to appease Apple’s third biggest market.
Aimed at preschoolers, Ghee Happy will feature characters like Ganesha, Saraswati and Kali. “I’m so excited and lucky to be able to create a preschool series that introduces the great pantheon of Hindu Deities, not just into a beautiful and colorful series that is truly entertaining and original to my kiddos, but to families around the world,” Patel said.
We can expect a lot from the show, given Patel’s previous work on Pixar films like Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, Cars, Toy Story 2 and both of The Incredibles movies. He’s also behind the short animated film Sanjay’s Super Team, which was nominated for an Academy Award and an Annie Award. The only bad news is that it will take a couple years before Ghee Happy is ready and available on Netflix.
The phone itself shares many traits with the OnePlus 7T from next door, namely Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+ chipset, a silky smooth 90Hz AMOLED screen (6.5 inches, 2,400 x 1,080 resolution, “waterdrop” notch), in-display fingerprint reader, a 48-megapixel main camera (but f/1.7 instead of f/1.6), UFS 3.0 fast storage and stereo speakers. The quad camera on the back also features a 13-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto camera, an 8-megapixel 116-degree ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera. Oppo seems to be quite proud of its video stabilization tech which supports up to 60fps at 1080p, and you can also achieve 5x hybrid zoom with video recording.
Oppo has taken one step further by positioning the Reno Ace as a gaming-centric smartphone. The 135Hz touch sampling rate helps gamers aim and respond more accurately, while the “4D” vibration uses a linear motor to provide more immersive haptic feedback — this will apparently be supported by several major titles. There’s also a set of software boosting features and wireless connectivity optimizations to ensure stability. Similarly, Oppo added a layer of composite carbon fiber between the chipset and the vapor cooling chamber, which supposedly triples the heat conductivity to maximize CPU and GPU load. But that’s as far as gaming features go; there’s no shoulder button, built-in fan nor dual-screen accessory.
The Reno Ace will be available in China starting from October 17th, with the 8GB RAM plus 128GB storage version asking for 2,999 yuan (about $420), going all the way up to 12GB RAM with 256GB storage for 3,799 yuan ($534). The Gundam edition packs 256GB storage but with just 8GB RAM, so it’s only asking for 3,599 yuan ($506) which is 400 yuan ($56) more than the standard version, and pre-orders start on October 21st ahead of the November 11th launch.
For those who want to take things up a notch, Oppo is offering an optional Unicorn Gundam edition C1 attachable gamepad for 299 yuan (about $42), with pre-orders starting on October 10th ahead of the same launch day as the Gundam edition Reno Ace.
Control-wise, the Z 50 is stripped down a bit compared to the Z 6 and has no joystick, but it does feature a control wheel, two top control dials, two function buttons and a main function dial. Overall, the ergonomics look good for such a small camera, with a nice mix of menu-driven and manual controls.
As for the battery, Nikon is using an all-new 1,120mAh type called the EN-EL25, and is promising 280 or 320 shots on a charge with and without the EVF, respectively. The single storage slot supports slower SDXC UHS I cards. That’s too bad considering that Canon’s new M6 Mark II supports UHS II, which delivers triple the speed.
On the performance front, Nikon says that the Z 50 can shoot bursts at up to 10 fps, both in mechanical and fully silent electronic shutter modes, which matches most of its rivals. Furthermore, it can hit those speeds with continuous AF and auto-exposure enabled.
It comes with a 207-point phase-detect autofocus system, complete with AI powered eye-detection. On the video side, the Z 50 can handle 4K video with a full sensor readout, just like Sony’s A6400 and the Fujifilm X-T30. In comparison, Canon’s M6 II only does 4K with an annoying 1.5 times crop that makes it tough to vlog or shoot in tight spaces.
As for ISO speeds, you can shoot in low-light at up to ISO 51,200, expandable to ISO 204,800, which is not bad at all for a crop-sensor camera.
Those are the specs, but I also had a chance to use it for a bit at Nikon’s event. Despite the smaller size, the Z 50 means business thanks to that protruding grip. It’s almost comically large compared to the size of the camera and gives you a vice-like hold on it. I really liked the Z 6’s ergonomics, and the Z 50 is similar, albeit with fewer buttons and no joystick. So far, I’d rank its ergonomics as best in class, followed by the Canon M6 II, Fujifilm X-T30 and Sony’s A6400, in that order.
You will need to dive into the menus more often because of the lack of buttons, but Nikon’s menu system is better than what Sony and Canon offer, though a bit below Fujifilm. Thanks to the logical layout, I was able to find all the functions I needed and never got lost. You can also use the touch-operated function menu to do most common chores. You should be able to avoid using the full menu completely for the most part if you set up the manual controls the way you like.
I was impressed with the burst speeds and autofocus performance. At full RAW and JPEG quality, I could fire off 10 fps bursts for nearly 40 shots before the buffer filled up. It only took a few seconds before I was ready to fire again, but to keep that time down, Nikon suggests you use a fast memory card.
While shooting those bursts, I changed from subject to subject to see if the autofocus could keep up. It did for the most part, but wasn’t as quick as Sony’s otherworldly AF system. The face and eye-detect system seemed nearly lag free, and kept up with subjects even when they turned around or momentarily went out of view.
During a quick test, I found that images yielded natural-looking colors. 4K, 30 fps video quality also looked good, with no signs of aliasing and crisp, accurate color reproduction. The Z 50 can handle 1080p at up to 120 fps, and even lets you record audio at that high framerate, unlike the Sony A6400. Unfortunately, Nikon didn’t let me keep any of the photos or videos I shot with the pre-production unit I tested, so I can’t share the results.
All told, the Z 50 looks promising so far, keeping pace with rivals and topping them when it comes to handling. It arrives next month and will cost $860 (£849) for the body only, $1,000 (£990) with the Nikkor Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR lens and $1,350 (£1,200) with both that lens and the DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR lens. Nikon UK is also offering the body, DX 16-50mm and FTZ F-mount lens adapter for £1,130, while Nikon USA may unveil a similar deal later. Nikon also revealed that its incredible high speed, manual focus Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct lens will cost a cool $8,000, which I’m assured is a deal for such a fancy piece of glass.
Meanwhile, the Z 50’s prices should appeal to serious amateurs, especially if they have some Nikon glass lying around. So far, I think the Z 50 holds its own against rivals, but we’ll have to reserve judgement until we can publish a full review.
