The passing no doubt causes grief for many e-cigarette companies, but it’s a particularly serious blow to Juul, which now faces a ban in its home town just days after it bought a 28-floor office tower. The company is already campaigning for an option on the November ballot to reverse the ban, and has claimed that the law “puts politics before public health.” It wants “responsible policymaking” that helps prevent youth vaping without denying access to adults.
It won’t get much sympathy from officials. While Juul and other brands have made efforts to curb youth access to e-cigarettes, Breed and others (including the FDA) have accused them of deliberately targeting younger audiences. They don’t want to repeat the years-long battles over conventional cigarette marketing, especially not at a time when the potential danger of e-cigs is still a major concern.
Each home listed must pass a rigorous evaluation, which considers more than 300 criteria, so you can expect to find elevated design standards, rare and unique features, chef-grade appliances and at least one bathroom per bedroom. You’ll also get a dedicated trip designer, who’s on hand to make sure your “bespoke experiences” are “truly magical” — and to arrange childcare and personal trainers. Some homes come with additional services, like chefs, butlers and drivers, and experiences, like medieval farm-to-table dinners. Since fancy places aren’t restricted to remote corners of the world, you’ll also find a handful of listings in cities like London and Los Angeles. Airbnb Luxe plans to add properties in at least 12 more cities this year.
The new luxury service speaks to how far Airbnb has come from its humble beginning as three friends with air mattresses in a San Francisco apartment. The company has been steadily adding new services — like adventure holidays and “heritage travel.” And as it pushes into the traditional hotel industry, it faces competition from the likes of Marriott, which launched a luxury home and villa rental service earlier this year. Airbnb says its customers are ready for high-end getaways, too. In 2018, the number of bookings for listings worth at least $1,000 per night increased more than 60 percent, and with the luxury travel market estimated at $200 billion, the company sees room for growth.
Some Google employees are planning to protest YouTube’s muted reaction to conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s harassment of LGBT journalist Carlos Maza. By itself, criticizing Google publically is not a violation of the company’s code of conduct. In the case of the Pride Parade, employees who hoped to protest Google or YouTube were warned that doing so in their official capacity would be in violation of the company’s code of conduct.
A Google spokeswoman told Engadget that there was no leaked internal memo. A member of the Gayglers (which is a group for Google’s LGBT employees) met with Google’s Employee Engagement team to discuss whether employees marching in Pride with Google could protest the company at the same time. The Gaygler member was told that if employees chose to protest the company at Pride, they had to do so in their personal capacity (and not with the Google float and contingent). The employee then emailed his recap of the meeting to an internal email alias.
Google has been participating in Pride Parades around the world since 2007. But the company is facing backlash from some members of the LGBT community over YouTube’s ineffective anti-harassment policy. Earlier this month, a group of activists — including current and former Google employees — demanded that the company be banned from the San Francisco Pride Parade at a board meeting. While Google still remains in the parade, it’s blatantly clear that company will have to do a lot more to protect its LGBT employees and user base.
At last, there’s a full-fledged One Punch Man game coming to consoles and computers. Bandai Namco has announced work on One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows, an “action fighting” game for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It’s a three-on-three brawler that will include many of the characters from the series, including its centerpiece Saitama as well as his sidekick Genos, the selfless Mumen Rider and the obsessive Speed-o’-Sound Sonic.
The company has previously provided French judges with data it has related to people suspected of terrorism and violent acts. Facebook’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg and O met last week, and the company has reportedly agreed to expand its data sharing practices to hate speech suspects. Engadget has contacted Facebook for comment.
O said Facebook’s decision came after talks between it and French officials, beginning with a meeting last year between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg France’s president Emmanuel Macron, who’s been open about his ambition to regulate hate speech and disinformation. Macron’s party has a majority in France’s parliament, which is considering legislation that would grant powers to fine tech companies up to 4 percent of their worldwide revenue if they aren’t effective enough in curbing hate speech.
Until now, Facebook had declined to provide details on hate speech suspects as it wasn’t obligated to do so, and it was reportedly concerned the data might be abused without an independent judiciary in place. Facebook said in November it would cooperate with a French investigation into its content moderation policies and systems, with a focus on how it addresses hate speech.
Meanwhile, O said in an interview that France will lay out a framework requiring platforms to remove dangerous or illegal content from the internet within 24 hours. A body will be set up to provide guidelines on what should be deemed hateful or insulting. He said there has to be a balance between affording freedom of expression and protecting citizens.
The writers hired a legal adviser, too, to ensure every sequence was realistic. “We had a part in the story where someone gets detained,” Nagoshi said, “and five days later they come out. But then the legal advisor said, ‘You know, they can’t be detained for that long. They would be released much sooner.’ So then we had to go in and change the whole storyline.” The team also had to alter the game to reflect any laws that were passed or altered mid-development. “That kind of stuff was all taken into consideration,” Nagoshi said. “And in hindsight it was like, well, we chose a really difficult genre to craft a story for. It was definitely a challenge.”
Judgment does, occasionally, take a break from the mole murders and explore some secondary characters. These often feel like “filler” episodes and vary wildly in quality, however. Kaito’s expulsion from the Matsugane Family, for instance, is a welcome breather, while tailing a woman with a mysterious career is dull. Judgment, like its Yakuza predecessors, is also packed with optional side-stories that are both zany and heartwarming. “We want players to feel like there’s more to this world because a city is full of people with different perspectives and different personalities,” Nagoshi said. “It’s not just the main character. So that’s what we want players to feel as they’re going on these side stories.”
The excellent story takes place in Kamurocho, a modern-day metropolis based on the Kabukichō district in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It’s littered with bars, host and hostess clubs, underground casinos and narrow back streets that give every scene a dirty, corrupt and somehow intoxicating feel. You truly believe that it’s a world governed by a chaotic blend of Yakuza, police, and peaceful civilians just trying to get by.
The Yakuza franchise takes place in Kamurocho, too. Its streets will be familiar, therefore, to anyone that has played the last six-or-so games by RGG Studio. Still, the district has a grittier, bleaker look to reflect and compliment its hard-boiled detective drama. “[The game] has more of a suspenseful theme than the Yakuza series that showed Kamurocho,” Nagoshi said. “And that affected the way that we colored and created this different mood for Kamurocho. So it’s a little bit darker. There’s more contrast there, in the colors and things like that. So that’s one main difference. It looks a little bit darker.”
Judgment does introduce some new locales, including a cutting-edge medical facility called the ADDC (Advanced Drug Development Center). You also visit plenty of courtrooms and detention centers through interactive cinematics.
Judgment leans too heavily on its Yakuza roots sometimes.
At its best, Judgment feels like the Marvel Defenders game I’ve always dreamed of. The courtroom antics of Daredevil mixed with the detective work of Jessica Jones, the back-flipping combat of Iron Fist, and the community-first heroics of Luke Cage.
There’s a slight imbalance, though, with those elements. Judgment leans too heavily on its Yakuza roots, sometimes, with battles that take place across multiple floors of a building. Roundhouse-kicking your way through enemies is a thrill, but sometimes the seemingly endless waves of enemies can be a pain. Toward the end of the game, I also grew tired of the near-constant street battles that erupt while you’re wandering through the city. You can run away from these thugs, but weaving around them can be tiring when you’re hooked on the story and just want to see what happens next.
Nevertheless, Judgment is an excellent game for anyone that has never touched the Yakuza franchise. It has a fresh, endearing cast of characters and a story that requires zero past knowledge. The sleuthing, while simple, makes the game approachable for people who spend most of their spare time watching or reading detective stories. Judgment even has a ‘Simple’ mode that effectively automates the combat. On Normal and Hard, of course, you’ll need dexterity and strategy to power through some of the bosses and reach the end credits. But if you want a casual experience that’s closer to Until Dawn or Detroit: Become Human, the option is there.
Judgment isn’t a grand departure from the classic Yakuza formula. You’re still beating up street thugs and, at times, defying some seemingly-impossible odds with the strength and vigor of Captain America. The story the game presents, though, is of a caliber usually reserved for prestige TV (heck, I’m sure someone will stitch the cutscenes together into a terrific YouTube ‘movie’). It’s perfectly paced and, in my opinion, can be appreciated by anyone. Coupled with some excellent vocal performances — both in the Japanese original and English localization — this 20-ish hour adventure ranks among the best narrative experiences on the PS4.
Judgment is available now on the PlayStation 4 for $59.99/£49.99.
During a follow-up test over the weekend, though, scientists found that the methane levels around the rover already dropped sharply. Curiosity detected normal methane levels (1 part per billion by volume) following the sudden elevation, suggesting that the abnormally high values came from transient methane plumes. So, what does that mean? Well, Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator for Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, said during a townhall event: “A plume came and a plume went.”
Curiosity unfortunately doesn’t have the instruments to determine whether the source of methane is biological or geological. Further, scientists have yet to figure out a pattern for Martian’s transient plumes. In other words, they’re still nowhere close to unraveling the planet’s methane mystery. They need to gather more information through Curiosity and from other missions to gain a deeper understanding of the plumes. When they finally understand where the plumes are coming from, maybe then they can figure out whether the presence of methane on the red planet truly is a sign of life.
Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA’s JPL, said:
“The methane mystery continues. We’re more motivated than ever to keep measuring and put our brains together to figure out how methane behaves in the Martian atmosphere.”
In 2017, the New York Public Library (NYPL) struck a deal with Kanopy allowing any library cardholder to use the streaming service for free. That gave library users access to 30,000 movies including recent hits like Moonlight, Lady Bird and The Florida Project. It also offered access to harder to find movies which were not available on other streaming platforms, as the collection was focused on documentaries, classics and independent films.
If it seems odd that a library would offer a movie streaming subscription, it’s because Kanopy was aimed at the educational sector, and got its start selling DVDs to college libraries. It gradually expanded into streaming and partnered with a number of public libraries.
Although the service is free for users, it is paid for by the library. Rather than the flat subscription fee charged by services like Netflix, Kanopy works by charging libraries a license fee of around $150 for each title, triggered by just three viewings.
These fees can eat up a considerable portion of a library’s budget. Stanford library chose to drop its partnership with Kanopy last year, saying the change was made “as a result of the increasing cost of the service, which have escalated significantly in the past year and is no longer sustainable.”
It seems the same issue has led the NYPL to stop offering the streaming service. The library released a statement saying that it would no longer offer free access to Kanopy.
“The Library made this decision after a careful and thorough examination of its streaming offerings and priorities,” the NYPL said. “We believe the cost of Kanopy makes it unsustainable for the Library, and that our resources are better utilized purchasing more in-demand collections such as books and e-books.”
The founder of Microsoft recently admitted in an interview at venture-capital firm Village Global that his biggest mistake was not making what Android came to be. Gates admitted that the company struggled to adjust to mobile, as both the iPhone and Google’s Android swept up customers in the smartphone revolution. If you don’t remember Windows Mobile, well, let’s just say you’re not missing out on much.
The company described last night’s STP-2 mission as one of the “most challenging” launches in its history. It’s also the first Falcon Heavy launch to reuse side boosters, which previously took flight just 74 days ago on the Arabsat-6A mission.In order to deploy two dozen satellites, it had to execute “four separate upper-stage engine burns, three separate deployment orbits, a final propulsive passivation maneuver and a total mission duration of over six hours.”
Most of that went according to plan, but an attempt to land the center core on a drone ship didn’t quite make the target. Better luck next time?
At its NextGen event in Munich, Germany, BMW took the wraps off the Vision M Next concept. This i8 inspired plug-in hybrid promises the best of both worlds. An autonomous car that’ll get you to your destination while you relax or catch up on work; and a sports car with enough power to quicken the pulse while under a driver’s control.
Also unveiled at BMW’s NextGen event, the Vision DC Roadster concept takes the iconic design of the company’s two-cylinder boxer engine and puts a battery inside. The result is a naked bike that, while very much a concept design, still looks the part of a BMW bike.
After using the tablet edition of iOS 13 for a few days, Chris Velazco says he’s “already impressed with the changes Apple has made… Apple addressed many of the criticisms that prevented the iPad Pro from being the do-it-all computer it aspires to be. As for everyone else, they’ll benefit from subtle performance improvements and some extra polish.”
Mat Smith and Dan Cooper grew up in the UK at the right age to witness the birth of Pottermania. The Harry Potter novels are firmly encoded in their very British psyches, and both are fans of augmented reality, GPS-connected mobile games. So it made plenty of sense that they spend a weekend playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
Gorgeous, pricey camera company Leica has announced an M-E (Typ 240) model that keeps the petite rangefinder design, paired with a 24-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor. It’ll land on July 25th for $3,995, which makes it a keenly priced camera… for a Leica. (Recall that other M-Series cameras hover around eight thousand dollars. I spelled that out for emphasis.)
But wait, there’s more…
The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.
You will have to be one of StubHub’s most lavish spenders to qualify, though. The initial form of Beyond auto-enrolls US customers who’ve spent at least $10,000 in tickets over the past 12 months — this is for the kind of person who insists on the best seats and always has the money to make it happen. The program will roll out “globally” over time, but we wouldn’t count on this being available to people with more modest entertainment budgets.
