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Beat ’em up revival ‘River City Girls’ arrives September 5th

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It’s handled in a suitably retro style, although it’s thankfully not hewing too closely to the blocky NES original apart from “guest appearances” by River City veterans. You can also expect anime- and manga-style cutscenes and a soundtrack from indies like Chipzel and NateWantsToBattle.

The $30 beat ’em up arrives September 5th on PC (through GOG, Humble Bundle and Steam) as well as PS4, Switch and Xbox One. A physical version will be available later through Limited Run Games. We wouldn’t expect a radical departure from the core punch-everything-that-moves mechanic of the River City franchise, but there’s enough here that it might be worth a look if you miss the days of fighting through hordes of thugs in glorious 2D.

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LightSail 2 sends its first signals back to Earth

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“We’re all very happy — after years of preparation, we are flying an operational spacecraft!” Bruce Betts, said LightSail program manager and Planetary Society chief scientist in a statement. The spacecraft sent its first signal back to Earth yesterday as it flew over mission control in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Mission ground stations at Georgia Tech and Purdue University have also received signals from LightSail 2.

So what’s next for the mission? The spacecraft’s cameras and momentum wheel will be tested to ensure that they’re working properly. This is expected to take roughly a week. After the tests, the mission team will deploy LightSail 2’s 32-square meter solar sail. For a highlight reel of the spacecraft’s mission by the Planetary Society, check out this video.

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4K ‘Akira’ Blu-ray arrives next year before the series continues

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Before that appears, a new Akira 4K Remastered set will be released — both in Japan and the US — with a 4K and HDR conversion based on the 35mm master, complete with a 192Khz audio transfer using Dolby TrueHD. It’s set to arrive in Japan on April 24th, 2020.

That wasn’t the end of the reveal, however, as manga publisher Kodansha plans to release an Otomo: The Complete Works set, and Sunrise is teaming up with him on an all-new animated feature. Just his third after Akira (1992) and Steamboy (2004), the new project Orbital Era is an action adventure flick following young boys living in a space colony as it’s being built.

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Samsung expects another big slump in profits

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While Samsung hasn’t explained what dragged it down this quarter, its performance early in the year suffered primarily due to a drop in memory chip sales. While its increased profits over the first quarter suggest that the Galaxy S10 and A-series launches helped, they weren’t popular enough to reverse trends.

The tech giant certainly faces a mixed summer. While the Galaxy Note 10 launch is right around the corner, the Galaxy Fold’s redesign has yet to get a release date. It’s also facing legal trouble in Australia and France over its advertising and labor practices. And then there’s the simple matter of competitive pressure. Even with Huawei’s troubles, Samsung still faces fierce rivalry from Chinese vendors and others that have historically hurt its sales.

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Apple will soon ditch its butterfly keyboard design

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Apple’s butterfly keyboards have been troublesome from the get-go, and are well known to fail as a result of debris or overheating. Apple rolled out a worldwide repair program for 2015-and-later MacBooks, and subsequently updated the keyboard last year to include a thin silicone barrier behind each key to help thwart dust and crumbs. However, it was still prone to faults.

From a technical standpoint, this would be something of a step backwards. Butterfly keyboards are thinner and supposedly more durable than their scissor counterparts. However, these benefits are completely irrelevant if the device can’t be used in the first place, so MacBook owners will undoubtedly welcome any move that will improve the usability of their expensive gear.

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‘Stranger Things’ x ‘Fortnite’ crossover adds a couple of skins

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Netflix’s release of Stranger Things 3 has brought along an unprecedented number of marketing tie-ins, which include a link to Fortnite. Some familiar-looking teleporters popped up in the game’s mall area yesterday to join already-included Scoops Ahoy ice cream powerups, and tonight Epic announced the full details of their crossover. Unfortunately, unlike the Avengers: Endgame and John Wick collaborations, there doesn’t appear to be any kind of new limited-time game mode.

Instead, as expected, there are a couple of new skins available allowing players to take on the appearance of Chief Hopper or the Demogorgon (that cost 1,500 and 1,200 “v bucks” respectively), plus a “Vines” weapon wrap. If anything else appears in-game, let us know — but no spoilers, not everyone has finished season three yet.



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China’s Alipay will add beauty filters when you pay with your face

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The change comes shortly after a Sina Technology poll found that 60 percent of respondents think next-gen payment systems make them look ugly. According to TechCrunch, Alipay announced the update on Weibo yesterday, and the company plans to bring the feature to retail stores within a week.

Some might worry about living in a world where we’re constantly being digitally altered. Others might have qualms about our obsession with beauty and looking good in photos. But the filters might appeal to anyone who’s ever taken a bad passport or license photo. Beauty filters could also give companies an advantage. If you have the option to make an early morning coffee run to a store that will filter away your sleep deprivation, there’s a chance you’ll opt for that. Regardless of where you stand, the growing popularity of filters is undeniable.

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Court says Amazon could be liable for third-party vendors’ products

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By siding with the plaintiff, the appeals court reversed a lower court’s decision over a lawsuit filed by Heather Oberdorf, who was blinded when a retractable dog leash she bought from the website recoiled and hit her face. None of the parties involved in the lawsuit could get in touch with the vendor, The Furry Gang, which hasn’t been actively selling since 2016.

Oberdorf’s lawyer, David Wilk, said it feels “gratifying that the 3rd Circuit agreed with [their] argument and recognized that the existing interpretation of product liability law in Pennsylvania was not addressing the reality, the dominance that Amazon has in the marketplace.”

While Amazon does have a first-party retail business, over half of the items it sells come from independent businesses. In 2018, Amazon’s first-party sales amounted to $117 billion, which while nothing to sneeze at, is still much smaller than third-party sales that came in at $160 billion. It plays host to such a vast number of products that it can’t even stop businesses from selling counterfeit products on its website.

We’ll likely see a lot more lawsuits against the company, not only because of the Philadelphia appeals court’s decision, but also because Amazon is bound to sell more and more independent businesses’ products in the future. That said, Oberdorf’s case still has to go back to lower court to determine whether the leash that blinded her was truly defective.

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Samsung under fire for its Australian advertising

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Despite what the marketing materials implied, Samsung phones can’t survive being submerged in anything other than fresh water. On the company’s website, it says that the Galaxy S10 series can resist dust and (fresh) water for 30 minutes at depths up to 1.5 meters. Of course, the small print on Samsung’s website did say that its Galaxy series phones are “not advised for beach or pool use.”

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was particularly unimpressed because the issue of water resistance is a big selling point in Australia. A now-removed post on Samsung’s Australian website said “Samsung Electronics Australia Vice President of IT and Mobile Richard Fink believes water resistance is something that ‘should come standard’ on mobile phones released in the Australian market, given our lifestyles.”

“Samsung showed the Galaxy phones used in situations they shouldn’t be to attract customers,” Chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims, said. “Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses cannot mislead consumers about their products’ capabilities.”

This comes on the heels of a rough period for Samsung, with the CEO admitting that he pushed the launch of the Galaxy Fold before it was ready, leading to a host of design flaws. The company is also being accused of deceptive advertising about its labor practices. It is facing a lawsuit in France over reports that it employed under-age workers and that conditions in its Asian factories were abusive, despite claims on its website that it adheres to “a strict global code of conduct to all employees” and that it practices “ethical management… [w]ith an aim to become one of the most ethical companies in the world.”

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Netflix’s ‘Pacific Rim’ anime will debut in 2020

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The show will center around a pair of siblings who take charge of an abandoned Jaeger mech and use it to try and find their missing parents. No points for guessing whether they’ll encounter some enormous Kaiju monsters along the way. It’s one of several anime series Netflix is working on, including an animated take on its original series Altered Carbon.

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