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BlueSuburbia takes you to a place that is filled with a lonely kind of menace – an oppressive fear that crushes you as it tells you that no one will come save...
The post ‘BlueSuburbia’ Stirs Up a Deep, Solitary Fear appeared first on Indie Games Plus.
Tchia takes us on a stunning tropical open world adventure where you play as a young, imaginative girl who can turn into animals and objects to explore. Tchia, our protagonist, is looking to...
The post ‘Tchia’ Turns Into Animals & Objects to Explore a Tropical Island appeared first on Indie Games Plus.
Trailer Tuesday listens to problems over tea, plays a tense card game against an eerie creature, and quits a job by beating down your-ex colleagues. A TAVERN FOR TEA “A...
The post Trailer Tuesday – Untitled Tavern Override appeared first on Indie Games Plus.
Sony is pulling Horizon Forbidden West from its PS Plus subscription service in the coming weeks.
The first-party Sony game is now listed under the 'Last Chance to Play' section on PS Plus, along with the likes of NieR Replicant, Marvel's Midnight Suns and Alien Isolation.
This upcoming removal of Forbidden West comes just a few months after Horizon Zero Dawn was also removed from the service, which as Tom wrote at the time seemed a surprising move by Sony.
Nintendo's 135-year history will soon be brought to life inside the walls of a new purpose-built Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, Japan - and ahead of its opening on 2nd October, legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed some of its intriguing exhibits in a new video tour.
The Nintendo Museum has been built on the site of the factory where Nintendo originally made its Hanafuda cards, and which was later used for quality checks during the Famicom era. That building and its unremarkable carpark are no longer standing, however, now replaced by a shiny two-floor monument to Nintendo's history and a Mario-themed plaza.
Miyamoto's 13-minute tour begins on the second floor of the museum, where several huge curved glass displays - containing many of the products Nintendo has released since its founding in 1889 - can be found. This whole area is intended to chart the evolution of Nintendo's approach to entertainment, from its earlier non-video game products - including copy machines, baby strollers, RC cars, and pitching machines - into more familiar territory, beginning with 1977's early video game forays, the Color TV-Game 6 and Color TV-Game 15.
Sega's Eternal Champions is the next video game franchise to get a silver-screen adaptation.
Whilst it's hardly surprising that filmmakers are still rooting through video game catalogues for ideas, I can't say I had Sega's 1993 fighting game on my bingo card for the next series to be getting an adaptation.
However, according to Hollywood Reporter, that's exactly what's happening, with Jurassic World trilogy writer Derek Connolly set to write the live-action screenplay.
The Elder Scrolls mobile game, The Elder Scrolls: Castles, is set to launch on 10th September.
The Elder Scrolls: Castles - which was quietly released into early access in September 2023 - is now open for pre-registration on both Apple and Android.
From the same "award-winning team" behind Fallout Shelter, The Elder Scrolls: Castles lets you reign supreme over your very own castle and dynasty within The Elder Scrolls universe.
For many, scaling Mount Everest has stood as the ultimate challenge of one's strength and endurance. An achievement of a lifetime. For long-time Doom players, however, there is an equivalent: NUTS.WAD. Legend has it that NUTS.WAD descended upon Doom players in the year 2001: a map from the future in which players are dropped into a single map with more than 10,000 enemies and a handful of power-ups. And now - for the first time ever - it's playable on a games console.
I'm half-joking, of course, but the ability to load in any Doom mod is just one great feature found in the latest version of Doom and Doom 2. Helmed by Nightdive in cooperation with id Software and Machine Games, this new version is worth looking at as it is the most feature rich, best-performing version of Doom on consoles. It's available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series consoles, Switch and even last-gen PS4 and Xbox hardware. The game was transitioned over to Nightdive's KEX engine and brings with it a vast array of enhancements - 120fps support on consoles, 16-player multiplayer including co-op, and a new soundtrack from the legendary Andrew Hulshult.
But it was the mod support that was my first destination and with it, the chance to see how Nightdive's work would cope with the NUTS.WAD challenge. This pushes beyond the limits of what Doom engine was intended to handle and now we can test it on console and the results are interesting. Before we go on, it's worth stressing that all current-gen machines can handle 4K gaming at 120fps - and yes, that includes Series S. The engine is optimised and fast - all the included content and every map I tested runs like greased lightning. I wanted to raise this caveat because the challenge of NUTS.WAD is so extreme and cruel that I don't want people to get the wrong idea. The fact that you can run NUTS.WAD at all is cause for celebration!
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Fans were jubilant when Persona 3 received a remake earlier this year, but this turned to disappointment when it became clear its Episode Aigis epilogue DLC was not included. Multiple versions of Persona 3 have been released since the game's initial PS2 launch in 2006 - namely Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable, each with unique additions. The release of this year's Persona 3 Reload was an opportunity to provide the definitive version of the game, but without Episode Aigis fans were upset it would remain incomplete.
That's why Atlus relented and has now additionally remade Episode Aigis: The Answer with all the trappings of Reload - though no doubt the fact it's the fastest-selling Atlus game ever was also persuasive. Finally, fans will get the complete story experience they've craved (though still without the alternative female protagonist from P3P). But after going hands-on with the DLC, I'm still left with a lingering question: what exactly was the main game missing?
I played Persona 3 for the first time this year and really enjoyed its twisted teen drama, even if the series as a whole is starting to feel formulaic. Yet after receiving the true ending, the story felt complete and I wasn't left with unanswered questions. So what kind of answer can The Answer provide?
UPDATE 20/8/24: Well, there you go. Following last week's Deadline report, Amazon has officially unveiled Secret Level, a new "adult-animated anthology series featuring original stories set within the worlds of some of the most beloved video games".
It's a 15-episode series from the creators of Love, Death & Robots, and it'll feature stories inspired by Armored Core, Concord, Crossfire, Dungeons & Dragons, Exodus, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, PAC-MAN, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament, Warhammer 40,000, and a variety of PlayStation Studios games.
And if that takes your fancy, you'll be wanting to circle 10th December on your calendar - which is when the series arrives on Prime Video - then check out its teaser trailer below.
It was announced at the Imperium fireside meeting this past Saturday that the coalition had taken 69 systems since the opening of the offensive against Pandemic Horde, Fraternity, and the assorted members and hangers on that make up their coalition. Sniggering about the obvious number aside, we have been busy.
These gains include systems beyond the Catch region, extending out to Tenerifis, Immensea, and Impass. So the sov influence map… you can see the latest one here or the full historical directory here… has changed.
Here is the pre-campaign state of the map.
Area of Operation – July 25, 2024
And here is where things stood on Sunday, August 18th.
Area of Operation – August 18, 2024
Our foes have been pushed back and you can see systems in Immensea lit and ready to be taken from Legion of xXDEATHXx. The enemy is mostly busy trying to reorganize their holdings further back to accommodate refugees and retreats from the front. The alliance they created, Goons Failed to Defend This System, which was put together to goad the Imperium into attacking, has been wiped off the map.
All of which is less a chest thumping declaration of triumph than a cold statement of fact. Pandemic Horde, Fraternity, and their gang has proven unwilling or unable to defend the space taken and has been sending messages out to its members and allies that they will just take all the space back once Goons get bored and go home.
In their narrative this has been a success in that they did, in fact, goad the Imperium into attacking. Their claim is that on their side the whole thing was just a couple of SIGs.
A little more substantial claim on the Imperium side is the structure kill count.
That list gives lie to the claim that this was just a couple of SIGs on their side. I mean, when I go out on operations with SIGs on the Imperium side we try to live out of an NPC station, or maybe a Raitaru or an Astrahus. We do not drop two Keepstars. Keepstars are a commitment, targets that attract hostiles and which, if you are not out in force, will be attacked.
Dropping a Keepstar means serious business. And two Keepstars on one grid… a potential clash of titans… I mean, unless one side just doesn’t show up.
There goes the neighborhood!
Then there was the great hell camp of Utopia.
After blowing up the two staging Fortizars in the system of Utopia in Curse, we were told that Fraternity, Horde, and their allies had moved all of their capital ships to one of the NPC stations in the system.
We dropped a Fortizar of our own in sight of the undock and setup a hell camp.
The camped station and our Fortizar
A hell camp is when you have your foes in a single location and you bubble them in and put up a guard fleet around the clock to catch them if they try to break out. Hell camps are a thing of legend, especially in Goonswarm, as they demonstrate the sometimes stupid lengths we will go to in order to best a foe. Hell camps can for run for days, weeks, or even months if the goal is clear and the foe well and truly trapped.
The hell camp of the battlefield after the clash at M2-XFE during World War Bee was a classic example. While likely a strategic mistake… to do the hell camp we had to let down the watch on the wall of Helm’s Deep, the protected industrial region we had held against overwhelming odds, and in doing so those three constellations were lost and all of our structures purged… it was tactically a very popular operation and did demoralize our foes for weeks.
The M2-XFE Keepstar grid and the hell camp
You could log in and sit around for an hour or two and suddenly some foe would get impatient or log in the wrong character and a titan or a super carrier or a fax would appear in the bubbles and a hoot would go up on coms and we’d dog pile on the unfortunate for another easy kill.
I got on a few such kills. We were all working from home during the pandemic, so I would just leave myself logged in and coms on a speaker so I could turn from my work laptop and join in if something came up. Good times.
The hell camp in Utopia though… that felt a bit weak to me. Unlike the M2-FXE hell camp, hell camping a station requires the hostiles to log in, see local, and still think they can undock. You aren’t going to get very many accidental kills and the whole thing is prone to station undock games and what not. I’ve been there and done that. I remember us bottling up the Southern Coalition at the station in 319-3D in Delve a dozen years back. As a tactic it has its place.
But this hell camp didn’t feel right to me. It wasn’t clear that the enemy was bottled up or that they cared if they were. They hadn’t bothered to show up for more than a couple of fights and their stated goal was to bore us to death, so why would they care if they couldn’t undock? They were not going to do so anyway.
The hell camp in Utopia
I nearly wrote a post about the hell camp, but my attention was elsewhere. I did go out and get a few screen shots of it and our Ferox Navy Issue fleet hanging out, ready to unleash their aimbot accurate railguns on anybody dumb enough to show up, but I didn’t join the camp.
Certainly Gobbins made hay about us and our hell camp. Apparently he openly and repeatedly pinged out on Discord to all who were listening that the Imperium were fools, that there was nothing there, that the capital ships had been withdrawn previously, and that they were gone, safely back in home space, out of reach of the Imperium and were not coming back.
The Imperium could go pound sand with their hell camp.
The Imperium took screen shots of those pings… we all have enough low level spies in each other’s organization that no general ping goes unread by all… and the coalition diplomats brought them to organizations in the area of operation who had previously declined to cooperate with us because they have assurance from Gobbins that Pandemic Horde would totally be there to help defend their space. This did not bolster confidence in PH and their promises and we now apparently have cooperation from groups who were previously willing to defy us based on the backing they assumed they had.
This was all part of the plan, or so we were told, so the hell camp served a purpose, if not exactly the expected one. And they probably got a few random kills in any case. If you wait long enough anywhere in null sec somebody will eventually blunder in and get caught.
Which brings us to the other part of Saturday’s announcement, which was that the Imperium is expanding its space. We have groups that want more space and we have a vested interest in preparing for however CCP’s plan to reinvigorate null sec with the Equinox expansion… launched back in June and expected to be a thing… maybe by November… turns out.
I previously wrote about how Equinox seemed to be the end of farms and fields, the old goal of being able to make any null sec system useful and able to support players, to the old pattern of some systems having value while others did not. This was surprisingly… to me at least, I am not used to getting the point of things without having them explained with small words… taken up by the Imperium and other null sec entities and became the wide versus tall argument.
Farms and fields was a “tall” view of null sec, where a large group could provide for itself in a constellation or two. The “wide” view of the world has only some systems providing enough value to fully upgrade so a large organization needs to grab more space to ensure it has the resources it needs to support its members.
So the Imperium is expanding as a hedge against that, getting the timers started on things because the sovereignty level take 60 days to get to five and you can’t do all possible upgrades until you get there.
We will likely be taking more than the 69 systems already acquired… and if Pandemic Horde and Fraternity want to take them back like they have said they are going to do, they might have to undock and put some effort into it.
Also, by the time this posts the Fortizar kill count will have gone up by at least one… assuming PH doesn’t come to defend it. But that has been a very safe assumption so far.
The Google Pixel 8 was officially announced in late 2023 bringing quite a few improvements with it at the time, though it’s since been succeeded by the new Pixel 9 series. The Pixel 8 can often be found at a sharply discounted price these days, but it’s also pretty similar in specs to the Pixel 8a. Which of these devices should you actually buy? Good question. Let’s dive in and take a brief look at the Pixel 8 vs Pixel 8a.
| Google Pixel 8a | Google Pixel 8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 6.1-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate 2400 x 1080 resolution 20:9 aspect ratio | 6.2-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate 2400 x 1080 resolution 20:9 aspect ratio |
| Processor | Google Tensor G3 | Google Tensor G3 |
| RAM | 8GB | 8GB |
| Storage | 128/256GB | 128/256GB |
| Battery | 4,492mAh 18W wired charging 7.5W wireless charging No charger included | 4,575mAh 27W wired charging 18W wireless charging (with 2nd-generation Pixel stand) 12W wireless charging (with other Qi-enabled chargers) No charger included |
| Cameras | Rear: 64MP wide camera ƒ/1.89 aperture OIS + EIS 13MP ultra-wide camera, 120deg FoV ƒ/2.2 aperture Front: 13MP ƒ/2.2 aperture | Rear: 50MP wide camera ƒ/1.7 aperture OIS + EIS 12MP ultra-wide camera, 125deg FoV ƒ/2.2 aperture Front: 10.5MP ƒ/2.2 aperture |
| Connectivity | 5G 4G LTE Wi-Fi 6e Bluetooth 5.3 NFC | 5G 4G LTE Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 5.3 NFC |
| Operating System | Pixel UI Android 14 | Pixel UI Android 14 |
| Water resistance | IP67 | IP68 |
| Colors | Aloe, Bay, Obsidian, Porcelain | Hazel, Rose, Obsidian, Mint |
| Dimension and weight | 152.4 x 73.7 x 10.1mm 192.8 grams | 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9mm 187 grams |
In many ways, the Google Pixel 8a and Pixel 8 are so similar that they’re easy to compare. They share nearly identical displays, dimensions, software experiences, and update commitments, many of which we’ll get to in a minute. That said, the similarities also make it far more difficult to find daylight between the two when deciding which one is right for you.
In some ways, however, the similarities pay off for fans of the more affordable Pixel A series. Both phones pack the same Tensor G3 chipset, Titan M2 security core, and identical options for both RAM and storage. As a result, they produced almost identical results in our performance benchmarks and day-to-day usage.
As you can see in the graphs, the more affordable Pixel 8a delivers results nearly identical to those of the Pixel 8 and, in our graphically intensive stress testing, actually maintains its performance better than the flagship. While benchmarking numbers don’t usually mean too much in an average day of mixed usage, they’re often a good indicator of how well a phone will keep up, and the Pixel 8a has no problem cruising through a day of web browsing, social media scrolling, and light gaming just as well as its premium counterpart.
On top of that, the Pixel 8a and Pixel 8 ship with Android 14 out of the box and one of the best update commitments in the industry. Google decided to keep pace with Apple’s lofty promise when it added seven years of Android updates, feature drops, and security patches to the Pixel 8 series in late 2023, and now the Pixel 8a gets the same benefit. That not only puts it on par with the flagships but ahead of its similarly priced rivals.
All of these shared features also mean that both the Google Pixel 8a and Pixel 8 support the same set of AI-powered features and lean heavily on Gemini as Google transitions to its powerful new assistant (with Google also confirming Gemini Nano on-device support that will land in a future Feature Drop). You can tap into helpful extras like Circle to Search, generative wallpapers, Live Translate, and several calling features like Hold for Me, Call Screen, and Smart Replies. Both phones have plenty of photo editing options, too, which we’ll come back to down below.
I don’t blame you if you feel like you’re seeing double looking at the picture above. Google’s Pixel design is pretty well nailed down at this point, with flat displays and camera bars across the board, but the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a are about as close to twins as you can get.
The two devices are nearly the same height, width, and thickness despite the Pixel 8 offering an extra tenth of an inch of display real estate, sitting at 6.2 inches to the Pixel 8a’s 6.1 inches. Yet, despite its slightly smaller display, the Pixel 8a offers almost the same specs as its more polished counterpart. There’s only a weight difference of a few grams between them, something I hardly noticed while carrying both around for a few days. Both phones have 60 to 120Hz Actua Displays with 14 hundred nits of HDR and 2,000 nits of peak brightness, and they feel just about identical if you’re swiping up and down or mindlessly scrolling social media. Just note that the Pixel 8a comes locked at 120Hz by default, so you’ll have to opt in for the variable refresh rate. On top of that, the OLED panels have the same 1,080 by 2,400 resolution, meaning that the more affordable Pixel is just a hair more pixel-dense.
Honestly, I’ve found that the best way to tell the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a apart is the latter’s much rounder corners, making it feel a bit smaller in the hand — something that I thoroughly appreciate as a person with smaller hands. Google’s premium Pixel 8 sports glossy Gorilla Glass Victus on the back, too, while the Pixel 8a has a matte composite (it’s plastic, call it plastic) back that looks a bit more like the Pixel 8 Pro. Personally, I prefer the feeling of the 8a when I reach into my pocket, mostly because I know I won’t pull out a phone that’s covered in smudges. The flagship Pixel 8 is the slightly more durable of the two, using Gorilla Glass Victus on both the front and back and carrying an IP68 rating against water and dust to the Pixel 8a’s IP67.
Both Pixels also share matching in-display fingerprint readers and matching buttons and ports scattered around their aluminum frames. To my eye, both fingerprint readers seem to register at the same speed, so it’s nice to see Google keep one standard fingerprint reader instead of going cheaper for the mid-range. Also, you’ll find the power and volume controls on the right edge with a lone SIM tray holding down the left. The USB-C port is also flanked by a pair of stereo speakers.
Although the camera bars on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a may look the same, they have a few differences across their dual-camera setups. The Pixel 8a’s budget camera setup offers more megapixels to play with, pairing a 64MP primary camera and a 13MP ultrawide sensor. Don’t be fooled by the bigger numbers, though, as the individual pixels are slightly smaller on both sensors, meaning that the cameras aren’t quite as well equipped for lower-light scenarios. The Pixel 8a’s ultrawide sensor also has a slightly narrower 120-degree field of view and misses out on Macro Vision — a software feature that both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro support.
Moving over to the more premium Pixel, it pairs its 50MP primary camera with a 12MP ultrawide sensor, both of which are larger than the options on the Pixel 8a. On top of having slightly larger individual megapixels, the Pixel 8’s primary camera is capable of a 2x in-sensor crop, giving you a little bit more optical zoom range before switching to digital zoom.
Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a have dual rear cameras, but the flagship packs a bit more punch.
The Pixel 8a has a slightly sharper selfie camera, too, with 13MP to the Pixel 8’s 10.5MP, though the results are pretty similar from both sensors based on our tests.
As you can see in the samples below, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a are just about neck and neck in some of the most common shooting scenarios. They’re well matched in color and details, and even the ultrawide shots are almost identical despite the slightly different fields of view.
Google Pixel 8a
Google Pixel 8
There are a few slight differences when it comes to capturing selfies, though. Despite both phones defaulting to 1x zoom when you flip the camera around, not all definitions of 1x zoom are created equal. The Pixel 8a offers a much wider frame than the Pixel 8, making it much easier to fit additional people and background details into your selfie. Both shots look good as far as colors go, but it’s somewhat surprising to see such a difference between the default zoom lengths.
Google’s Pixel 8 also handles its longer zoom lengths much better than the Pixel 8a. Its larger sensor seems to maintain both color and detail better than the smaller sensor on the mid-range phone. The difference is most noticeable on finer lines like the name of the ship below and the details in the wood planks of the dock.
As far as camera features go, Macro Vision is the only major omission from the Pixel 8a — everything else is almost exactly the same. Neither device offers Google’s new Pro controls, but both can tap into Night Sight, Top Shot, Portrait Mode, Cinematic Pan, and punch in with Super Res Zoom up to 8x.
Both phones also offer similar video features, with up to 4K recording from the front and rear sensors. However, the Pixel 8 packs a few more options regarding the frame rate, with 24fps available on both front and back and 60fps on the selfie camera. Google’s Pixel 8a, on the other hand, is limited to 30fps from the selfie camera at both 4K and 1080p.
Given their similar overall size and specs, it’s no surprise to see the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a toting nearly identical batteries. The Pixel 8 has the slightly larger cell of the two — 4,575mAh to the Pixel 8a’s 4,492mAh — but our battery testing showed that the mid-ranger stretched its juice further in most cases. In fact, it put up better numbers while on a Zoom call, snapping photos, recording 4K video, and even significantly better 4K playback performance. Outside of the lab, both phones can easily power through a full day of usage. I got into a habit of using adaptive charging overnight and regularly found myself hitting the end of the day with at least 20% remaining.
However, one area where there’s a little bit of daylight between the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8a is in their charging setups. The Pixel 8 is much quicker, supporting up to 27W wired charging with a compatible USB PD PPS charger, while the Pixel 8a tops out at 18W. There’s a big difference in wireless charging capabilities, too, with the more expensive device capable of up to 18W with the second-generation Pixel Stand and 12W with other Qi-enabled pads while the mid-ranger is limited to 7.5W, no matter the charger.
While the difference in charging speed from 18W to 27W may not sound too vast, our controlled testing showed that the Pixel 8a took about 20 more minutes to reach a full battery than its Pixel 8 counterpart, so it might pay to spend just a little bit more if you need to get back up and running in a hurry.
Google Pixel 8a: Starts at $499
Google Pixel 8: Starts at $699
If you’re close to making your decision between buying the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a, I guess you should know how much each phone will cost you. Well, for starters, both phones are widely available in the US, both unlocked and on deals through major carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T.
If you’re leaning toward the Pixel 8a, it starts at $499 with 128GB of storage — the same price as the previous Pixel 7a. It’s also available in four colors: Bay, Aloe, Obsidian, and Porcelain. Should you decide you need 256GB of storage right off the bat, it’ll set you back $559, and you’re limited to the Obsidian finish.
On the other hand, if you’re leaning toward the flagship Pixel 8, it kicks off at $699 with the same 128GB of storage. It launched in three colors, Hazel, Obsidian, and Rose, but Google has since added a fourth Mint color that’s a little softer than the Pixel 8a’s Aloe option. You can upgrade to 256GB of storage for the same $60 fee, bumping your price to $759.
Now that we’ve gone through every last piece of the Google Pixel 8 and the Google Pixel 8a, it’s about time to decide which one is right for you. Unlike a lot of comparisons where we end up saying that the right one comes down to your personal preference, there’s a pretty clear winner here — but it comes with a caveat.
The easy answer when choosing between the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8a is to tell you to buy the flagship Pixel 8 — one of the best Android phones around — but only to do so when you can find it on sale. These two phones share so much in common, from the chipset to the camera quality to 90% of their respective designs, that Google is relying on the difference in price to sway people one way or another.
At MSRP, it's a tricky call, but recent sales for the Pixel 8 make the Pixel 8a a tough sell.
When compared at full price, the Pixel 8a seems like a great deal, given how many flagship specs it boasts, but as soon as you factor in discounts, the $200 gap suddenly feels much smaller, and the Pixel 8’s more premium aspects like faster charging and better materials feel that much more attainable.
Google launched its flagship Pixel 8 on October 4, 2023, following it up with the Pixel 8a on May 7, 2024.
Yes, both phones support wireless charging, but the Pixel 8 is faster with 18W speeds to the 7.5W speeds of the Pixel 8a.
No, neither the Pixel 8 nor the Pixel 8a has a headphone jack.
The Google Pixel 8 packs an IP68 rating while the Pixel 8a offers IP67 resistance against water and dust. That means both phones can withstand submersion in water for up to 30 minutes.
Yes, both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a have slots for SIM cards on their left sides.
Yes, both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a support dual-SIM with a single nano-SIM and an eSIM profile.
No, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a do not have SD card slots — both come with either 128 or 256GB of fixed storage.
Meta has rolled out a new app, Meta Quest HDMI Link, designed to extend the functionality of its VR headsets. The app is available for Meta Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro models. It allows users to connect their headsets to various HDMI or DisplayPort-equipped devices, such as gaming consoles, laptops, and even smartphones, effectively turning the headset into a virtual display. (via The Verge)
The Quest headsets have traditionally been positioned as standalone devices for VR experiences. With HDMI Link, the company is acknowledging users’ desire to access content from other devices within their VR environment.
HDMI Link supports 1080p content with low latency, providing a customizable virtual screen experience. Users can resize and reposition this screen within the VR environment, making it suitable for gaming, watching movies, or even working privately.
Setting up HDMI Link, however, isn’t as straightforward as plugging a USB cable into your phone or gaming console. It requires a compatible capture card — a small device that connects your HDMI source to your headset via USB — adding an extra layer of complexity and cost. Meta acknowledges this in its blog post, cautioning users that it’s not quite as plug-and-play as they might expect.
Another important drawback to HDMI Link is its inability to display content protected by HDCP, which is common with many streaming services. This limitation means that while the feature is versatile, its utility for streaming movies and TV shows might be limited.
Meta emphasizes that HDMI Link is not meant to replace existing features like Air Link or Xbox Cloud Gaming, which offer wireless streaming options under ideal network conditions. Instead, it’s intended to provide a solution for situations where Wi-Fi is unreliable or unavailable or when users want to connect devices that aren’t supported by other methods. The app is currently available on App Lab, which indicates that it’s still in development and might need some work to iron out some kinks.
Secret Level is a gaming-inspired anthology series coming to Prime Video on December 15. The upcoming Amazon title is from the same team behind Netflix's Love, Death and Robots. From the teaser released during Gamescom, this new project will be continuing the Blur Studio specialty for creating masterful animated works for an adult audience. The creative team was looking to inspire "nerd joy" with Love, Death and Robots and from the first glimpse, Secret Level seems like a natural progression of that goal.
Each of the 15 stories in the show are inspired by a different game. The official list of inspirations is: Armored Core, Concord, Crossfire, Dungeons & Dragons, Exodus, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, PAC-MAN, various PlayStation Studios games, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40,000.
Games feel like a natural inspiration for this type of animation showcase. The cinematics in some contemporary AAA titles have all the polish and emotion of standalone films. Plus, game-inspired television series have been reaching new levels of success in recent years thanks to projects like Fallout, The Last of Us and Arcane.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/animated-video-game-anthology-series-secret-level-is-coming-to-prime-video-202027254.html?src=rss
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© Amazon
Tarsier Studios, creators of the first two Little Nightmares games, is back with another creepy adventure — and its “partially disemboweled talking pig” teaser video looks like it set the proper tone. Announced at Gamescom Opening Night, Reanimal takes two children on an adventure across land and sea as they work together to rescue their missing friends on an island filled with horrifying creatures.
The developer helmed the first two Little Nightmares installments before Supermassive Games took over for part III. The new game promises to up the ante with “a more terrifying journey than ever before.”
The horror-adventure game stars a brother and sister in an “unsettling tale” who “go through hell to rescue their missing friends.” The protagonists are described as broken but resilient, facing fragments of their troubled past in the guise of gruesome beasts. It will somehow explore themes of hope and redemption as they navigate the chilling environment.
The game lets you play single-player or co-op (local and online). In an illustration of the creators’ understanding of the horror genre, it uses a shared, directed camera “to maximize claustrophobia and tension.”
Reanimal doesn’t yet have a launch date other than “coming soon,” but we know it will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. You can check out the announcement trailer below.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/reanimal-promises-a-more-terrifying-journey-than-little-nightmares-200457474.html?src=rss
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© Tarsier Studios / THQ Nordic
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set in 1937, in the space between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and it’s being developed by MachineGames, the studio behind the most recent Wolfenstein installments. So, of course the game’s main enemies are Nazis, and obviously it has a robust range of Nazi-punching mechanics. What makes The Great Circle intriguing, even after just a 30-minute hands-off preview, is its lighthearted interpretation of classic Indiana Jones tropes, leaning into the series’ humorous tone and adding twists like open-handed Nazi slapping to Indy’s repertoire.
When it comes to combat, Indiana has a whip, a revolver and his fists (or palms). His whip appears to be the most useful tool on his belt, allowing him to swing across gaps, activate levers, and pull in enemies nice and close for a one-two punch. Hitting a Nazi with the whip briefly incapacitates them while they’re reeled in, setting up an advantageous close-quarters melee situation. Hand-to-hand combat requires precise timing in order to land knockout combos or finishing moves, and on top of throwing punches and slaps, Indy is able to block and defensively parry. In fistfights, the game’s first-person perspective crops in extra tight, filling the screen with punchable Nazi surfaces and enhancing the tension behind each blow and dodge. He can also pick up objects and hit enemies with them, and in pre-recorded gameplay footage, it all looks supremely satisfying.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just an action game, though. Many of its encounters can be approached with stealth mechanics, where players sneak past guards and perform silent takedowns without fisticuffs or gunfire at all. The revolver is really a last-ditch option in each scenario, game director Jerk Gustafsson and creative director Axel Torvenius said. Otherwise, puzzles are a pivotal component of gameplay.
Indiana is joined on his adventures by Gina, an Italian journalist who’s searching for her sister, and together they encounter a variety of logic and spatial puzzles. Some are quick, like finding an alternative entrance to a sealed room, and others are more involved, requiring a few minutes of focus to fully understand.
The preview focused on Giza, Egypt, showcasing bustling outdoor marketplaces, a depressing Nazi meeting room and a vibrant temple hidden beneath the sands of the Great Sphinx. Here, Indy and Gina had to catch the sunlight with a series of ancient mirrors, lining them up one by one until the beam bounced to the proper place. This particular puzzle room seemed straightforward and slightly clever (though maybe that’s just because The Mummy is one of my favorite childhood movies), but there are apparently more challenging riddles in the game, too. The most complex puzzles are hidden, requiring some light exploration in various regions, and they’re not necessary in order to complete the main storyline. These bonus riddles are just some of the many secrets to find around the game’s world.
“I don’t really like too difficult puzzles myself,” Gustafsson said. “I like to just enjoy the experience and not be so challenged by them. That said, we do have a mix [of puzzle difficulties] because I like a lot of variation. It’s not like we have some unique puzzle mechanic that goes across the entire game. We tried to create every puzzle in a different, unique way.”
There are also difficulty options for the puzzles overall, allowing players to choose how complex they’ll be throughout the entire game.
Indiana has a notebook that fills up with evidence, objectives and photos that he takes while investigating various relics around the globe. The camera is an essential tool in The Great Circle, and each snapped pic can unlock new clues and trails to follow. Indy also carries a lighter, which functions as a flashlight and can set stationary torches ablaze. His play style is customizable, with dozens of upgrades available as the game progresses. One potential upgrade is True Grit, an ability that allows him to recover from a fatal blow by crawling toward and grabbing his fedora within a certain amount of time. You know, classic Indiana Jones stuff.
I’ve seen some angry chatter online from people who don’t like the first-person perspective in The Great Circle, citing a desire to actually see Indiana as he does all this cool stuff, just like in the movies. I don’t think these people have much to worry about — not only are there plenty of cutscenes featuring Troy Baker’s utterly impressive 1980s Harrison Ford impression, but parts of the game are in third-person after all.
“When it comes to a character like Indiana Jones, I want to play the character and I want to be the character, I want to look through and explore the world through his eyes,” Gustafsson said. “To me that’s a very important part of what we do here. For me, it was a very easy choice. But also, we do mix in some third-person elements here. We have very much come back to our own history with games like Riddick and The Darkness where we also did this mix between first-person and third-person perspective. We do that for this game, too. Everything is not first-person, even though the core experience is in first-person.”
Torvenius added, “There’s a great opportunity here as well for us because we do have a large section of the game that is mystery, it’s solving puzzles, being up front and close to ancient relics and ruins and scriptures. So it adds an intimacy to the adventure to some aspect, that you can get really up and close and can really inspect things, which is actually pretty nice how it plays out in the game.”
Even in first-person scenes, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks, sounds and feels right so far. Baker’s Indiana Jones is nearly indistinguishable from the early film versions, his voice drawling and gravelly with a sarcastic bite. There’s a dry humor built into his interactions, as is fitting. In one scene, he’s introducing himself to a woman who has an intricately designed eye patch; she seems to be indigenous to the jungle they’re sitting in.
“I’m an archaeologist,” Indiana says.
“Another one,” she replies, clearly unimpressed.
It’s a quick moment from a short preview, but it sets a solid tone for the game as a whole: dry, lighthearted, and a little punch-drunk in between all the actual punching. Or you could say, a bit slap-happy amid all the slapping. Either way, these Nazis won't know what hit them.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC on December 9. It'll be available on Game Pass Ultimate, and it's also coming to PlayStation 5 in spring 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-has-a-nazi-slapping-mechanic-200052110.html?src=rss
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We've got our first big announcement of Gamescom: Borderlands is back. Borderlands 4 is the next entry in the franchise from Gearbox Software and 2K Games. It's due to arrive in 2025.
There's no gameplay in the announcement video released today. While that's a touch disappointing, it isn't much of a surprise for a teaser trailer or for a release that is still likely at least a year away. (And that's assuming no delays.) But the Borderlands games are known for their polished first-person shooter experience, particularly in co-op, and for their sharp sense of humor. Hopefully both of those traits will be returning in full force with the new game.
What doesn't seem to be returning is the cartoony art style that was a hallmark of the previous three titles. The teaser looks more like it's advertising a prestige television science fiction series rather than the zany Borderlands world. But it's early days yet and the studio will surely be sharing more updates as the game progresses through development.
Gearbox was likely hoping to springboard this announcement off a wave of renewed interest in the series after the blockbuster movie adaptation this summer. But since that project was a disastrous disappointment, hopefully a new game will give fans of the series something fresh to be excited about.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/borderlands-4-is-coming-in-2025-194227938.html?src=rss
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Streaming posted another banner month in July, reaching multiple new milestones in the latest issue of The Gauge report from Nielsen. The big headline is that streaming was responsible for 41.4 percent of all TV viewing during the month. That's the highest share in the report's brief history for any viewing category, meaning streaming topped past performances for both broadcast and cable TV. The result follows on the heels of the previous record set by streaming in June.
The other big success story in the July report is for YouTube. The popular video platform hosted 10 percent of monthly TV usage, marking the first time a single streaming service has reached a double-digit share. Multiple other streaming sites hit their own personal bests for viewing share in July: Disney+ jumped up to a 2.1 percent viewing share and The Roku Channel hit 1.6 percent.
There are a couple takeaways from the range of record-setting performances in July. For starters, The Gauge only tracks viewing that happens on a TV screen, meaning no mobile or laptop viewing is included. Last month's results show how much streaming video's presence has expanded beyond just smartphones and tablets to challenge and surpass the options of traditional broadcast and cable TV.
Another notable factoid from Nielsen is that 10 different titles on streaming platforms surpassed 1 billion minutes of viewing in the first full week of July — another record. Seven different streaming companies had programs on that list, and they cover a broad spectrum of genres and audiences. The lineup was led by Netflix's action flick Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which secured 2.05 billion minutes of viewership between July 1 and July 7. TV series Suits (available on Peacock and Netflix) came second with just shy of 1.5 billion minutes viewed. House of the Dragon on Max, Your Honor on Netflix/Paramount+ and The Bear on Hulu rounded out the top five, each with more than 1.2 billion minutes viewed during that week. In other words, the next breakout hit for streaming could happen on any platform.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/streaming-hit-multiple-new-viewership-records-in-july-nielsen-reports-191529705.html?src=rss
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Once upon a time in the tail-end of the last century, there was something called the Y2K bug. This bit of computer code was supposed to herald a global robot apocalypse at the stroke of midnight when 1999 became the year 2000 because of, uh, clock dates or something. Anyways, nothing happened. Or did it?
That’s the premise behind A24’s new horror comedy, the appropriately-named Y2K. The film imagines a New Year’s Eve of 1999 in which the computers really did turn on humanity. It’s written and directed by SNL alum Kyle Mooney, who made the fantastic and underrated Brigsby Bear.
As you can see from the trailer, it’s a 1990s teen party comedy, like Can’t Hardly Wait, but also an apocalyptic horror film. This particular hodgepodge brings to mind This is the End, in which Seth Rogen and other celebrities fight off a demonic horde.
However, instead of a demonic horde, these teens will be fighting for their lives against VCRs, old-school computers and, of course, murderous Tamagotchis. Also, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst is somehow involved. The cast is composed primarily of unknown teenagers, but the adults are played by Tim Heidecker, Alicia Silverstone and Mooney himself. The movie hits theaters on December 6.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a24s-y2k-has-teens-battling-old-school-computers-and-bloodthirsty-tamagotchis-164537560.html?src=rss
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Waymo’s self-driving cars no longer honk when near each other, Waymo’s Director of Product and Operations Vishay Nihalani said yesterday when he appeared on software engineer Sophia Tung’s livestream. The vehicles were spotted honking at each other a few weeks ago, prompting Waymo to issue a software patch.
As reported by NBC Bay Area, residents living near the parking lot full of Waymo taxis reported that despite the patch going live, the taxis still honked at each other. Tung, who lived near the idling taxis, set up her live stream to capture the cacophony of honking vehicles.
No good stream is complete without a soundtrack, and Tung’s stream included lo-fi music in the vein of the ubiquitous “LoFi Girl" on YouTube. The title, “Self Driving Taxi Depot Shenanigans To Relax/Study To,” was an obvious tribute to the LoFi Girl channel. (And yes, she had permission to use the music.) Despite a fix being pushed out, the stream captured the cars continuing to honk at 4AM this past Saturday.
Nihalani joined the stream to speak to Tung about the ongoing honking. According to the director, the cars’ honking was an intentional feature for taxis cruising on public roads to avoid collisions, but honking at each other while idling in the parking lot was never intentional. The taxis have now all been updated to solve the issue.
The Waymo service is available for those living in San Francisco, Phoenix, and 79 square miles of Los Angeles, stretching from Santa Monica to Downtown. In May, the company announced that its taxis were making 50,000 paid trips per week. Back in San Francisco, though, you can still tune in to Tung’s chill livestream of a parking lot — just without the honking.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/waymo-director-says-the-companys-cars-wont-honk-at-each-other-anymore-132812747.html?src=rss
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Lucasfilm has decided not to renew The Acolyte for a second season, according to Deadline and Variety. Fans won't get to see how the show was supposed to end and won't get to know how the plotlines its creator, Leslye Headland (Russian Doll), teased at the end of the first season would unravel. Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar called The Acolyte "Star Wars at its best" in his review, discussed how unique its premise was, and drew parallels between the series and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Deadline says the show had a strong start and garnered 4.8 million views in the first day it became available for streaming, reaching 11.1 million views after five days. However, viewership fell in the coming weeks, and its finale was reportedly the poorest performing finale for a Star Wars series.
The Acolyte was a mystery-thriller story featuring a former Jedi trainee played by Amandla Stenberg, who's suspected of committing a series of crimes. Her former Jedi Master played by Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) now has to find her to get to the bottom of things. Manny Jacinto, who played the smuggler Qimir, gained a lot of attention online due to this shirtless scenes. It was revealed in the later episodes that he plays a bigger role in the story, and viewers were even supposed to learn his real name in the next season.
The show is still available to watch on Disney+ for those who don't mind not getting closure for its story.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-wars-the-acolyte-isnt-getting-a-second-season-120033350.html?src=rss
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© Lucasfilm Ltd.
The next entry in the Pacific Rim franchise could be an origin story for the universe, set before the events of the 2013 film by Guillermo del Toro. According to Variety, the franchise's producer Legendary Entertainment has signed a first-look TV deal with Eric Heisserer. One of the first projects he's developing with Carmen Lewis, his co-founder for his production company called Chronology, is a prequel series for Pacific Rim. Heisserer won several awards for his screenplay for Arrival, the Denis Villeneuve-directed sci-fi movie starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. He also wrote the script for the Netflix post-apocalyptic movie Bird Box, which starred Sandra Bullock.
It sounds like the project is still in its very early stages, so we'll have to wait for its storyline and projected release date if it does get the green light. Seeing as it's supposed to be the Pacific Rim origin story, though, we may get to see the first kaijus emerging from the interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. We may also get to see how the first Jaegers, or the gigantic mechas controlled by human pilots to fight the alien monsters, were designed and created.
The original Pacific Rim movie was followed by Pacific Rim Uprising, its 2018 sequel film that starred John Boyega and was directed by Steven S. DeKnight. If the series pushes through, it'll follow Pacific Rim: The Black, an anime series that streamed on Netflix in 2021 and 2021, which serves as the continuation of the two films.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a-pacific-rim-prequel-series-is-being-developed-by-the-scriptwriter-of-bird-box-110043597.html?src=rss
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Non-subscribers who open the Apple Music app on a new iPhone or iPad typically see an offer for a free month of the service. The trial was once three times as long, but Apple quietly shortened it in early 2022. But now through September 23, anyone new to Apple's music streaming service will get to try it out for free for three months. The deal only applies to first-time subscribers; if you've never succumbed to the music app's temptation, now is as good a time as any to check it out. Just keep in mind that the service will automatically renew for $11 per month after the trial ends. Be sure to cancel if you don't want to pay.
Apple Music has a lot to offer. It's currently our top recommendation in our guide to the best music streaming services. We like its approach to recommendations, balancing a good amount of editorial playlists and stations with algorithmic suggestions. Every song is available at CD-quality or better and lossless streaming doesn't cost extra.
For computer-picked listening, there's a "Discovery Station" that helps you find new music by playing songs you've never streamed before, both from artists you know and others the algorithm thinks you'll like. And, in my experience, saying, "Hey Siri, play me some Apple Music," produces pretty good mix of stuff I like that's novel enough to be interesting, but not so familiar I'm sick of hearing it.
There are a few caveats to note about the service: It's really made for Apple devices, though its available on Android devices too. You won't find podcasts on Apple Music. And, aside from this deal, there's no free version of Apple Music. Pay your $11 monthly or listen elsewhere.
As for the deal, we'll restate that it's only for new subscribers — previous subscribers and even those who've had access to Apple Music through a Family plan aren't eligible. You also have to sign up using the Apple Music app on an iPhone, Mac or iPad running the latest software. An Apple ID is also required. You can read all terms of the deal here.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apple-music-is-currently-offering-new-subscribers-three-months-free-185834470.html?src=rss
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© Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget
Zoom just announced that webinar calls can now support up to one million simultaneous participants. This is happening after various political groups used the video conferencing platform to raise money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign, often by hosting calls with hundreds of thousands of people.
The company now offers various tiers to accommodate large events. Customers can choose from webinars that feature max capacities of 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, and, of course, 1M attendees. These are single-use webinar packages that come with support from Zoom’s Event Services team to ensure a “professional, engaging experience” for all.
“Now event organizers have the flexibility and power to host truly interactive experiences on an unprecedented scale and the ability to purchase large single-use webinars,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom.
Despite being recently used for political fundraising, Zoom envisions a future in which these large-scale virtual events are common across the enterprise, entertainment and public sectors. The company says, for instance, that celebrities and entertainers can use these webinar capabilities to host fan meet-and-greets and other kinds of virtual events.
These events, however, don’t come cheap. Booking a one-time webinar for a million people will set you back a cool $100,000. That’s actually a good deal, as a webinar for 10,000 people costs $9,000, which is almost a dollar per person.
Before this change, Zoom only offered official support for up to 100,000 attendees. However, reporting by Bloomberg indicates that the company recently changed course so as to accommodate the aforementioned fundraising events.
This all started in July when an organization called Win with Black Women held a Zoom call with more than 40,000 attendees in which they raised $1.5 million for the Harris campaign. This was followed by White Dudes for Harris, with 190,000 attendees, and White Women for Harris, with 164,000 attendees.
This could be a lucrative new revenue source for Zoom. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that its stock sold for $560 per share before dropping to around $60 per share. This rapid decline was expected, as the world moved on from virtual meetings and started going outside again.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/zoom-can-now-handle-one-million-simultaneous-participants-170919609.html?src=rss
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PC gamers have almost too many options when it comes to titles to play, which is a great problem to have. With decades of games to choose from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), the options are endless. You also get the perks of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance — if you've got the coin for it when you’re building your perfect kit or picking up a high-powered gaming laptop. The whole idea of what a gaming PC is and where you can play it is shifting, too, with the rise of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck. We've tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose; here are the best PC games you can play right now.
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It’s that time of year again. Gamescom is nearly upon us. For the uninitiated, Gamescom is a huge gaming trade show held annually in Germany. This year, Microsoft has announced a major Xbox presence throughout the event. All told, four streams will highlight upcoming Xbox games.
The first is the opening night livestream. This stream isn’t Xbox-centric, but we’re expecting some relevant news during the keynote. The event kicks off on August 20 at 2PM ET and it will be available via the Gamescom YouTube page and the official Twitch page. The event’s website will also host a stream or, you know, just click play directly below this sentence.
After that, there will be three streams from Xbox, each focusing on a unique slate of upcoming games. You can watch all of them via the Xbox YouTube page or the official Twitch page. The company hasn’t said how long each stream will last, but it’ll be popping up individual trailers after the fact.
The first one goes down on August 21 at 9AM ET. Xbox has announced an array of games that’ll get covered here. These include Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the upcoming expansion Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Atomfall and the long-awaited Starfield DLC.
The next stream starts on August 22 at 9AM ET. This one will spotlight Star Wars Outlaws, which actually hits store shelves at the end of the month. The stream will also feature trailers or information for Towerborne, Little Nightmares 3 and Fallout 76: Milepost Zero, among others.
August 23 at 9AM ET brings the final stream. This is likely to be the most exciting one for many Xbox fans. There will be news about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Tails of Iron 2 and a whole lot more.
That’s it! Four streams. If the idea of remembering when and where to watch all of these events gives you the anxious sweats, just keep this page open. Beyond that, we’ll have separate posts for all of the big news from Gamescom.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-all-of-xboxs-gamescom-streams-130034008.html?src=rss
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What's cuter than a capybara? A baby capybara, of course. And what's even cuter than a baby capybara? THREE baby capybaras!
This video of the Capybara triplets recently born at the Sydney Zoo to Capybara parents Zoey and Sanchez is unbearably cute. — Read the rest
The post These new baby capybara triplets are adorable! appeared first on Boing Boing.
Friday Night Videos was a weekly dose of music videos for those without cable and, therefore, no MTV. I hadn't thought about it in years until this episode from 1984, complete with commercials, popped up on YouTube. It is pure 80s nostalgia with Tracey Ullman, who I honestly forgot had a music career, Rockwell, whose Somebody's Watching Me video still creeps me out, a "brand new video by John Cougar Mellencamp," and a talking head of Freddie Mercury smoking like a chimney in an intro to the Radio Gaga video. — Read the rest
The post Friday Night Videos is a blast from the past appeared first on Boing Boing.
Here's a great resource to learn how Project 2025 will affect you or those you love and care about on specific issues such as health care, food assistance, education, etc. The site is called "25 and Me" and is a collaboration between Rajat Paharia and Google Gemini. — Read the rest
The post "25 and Me" is your guide to the horrors of Project 2025 appeared first on Boing Boing.
In Decatur, Georgia, a momument to the Confederacy stood for 100 years before being removed in 2021. Yesterday it was replaced by a 12 foot statue of John Lewis, the civil rights leader and U.S. Representative who died that year. — Read the rest
The post Statue of civil rights leader John Lewis replaces 100-year-old slaver monument appeared first on Boing Boing.
Two months into what was scheduled to be an eight-day mission, we learn that spacesuit compatibility problems are also keeping NASA's astronauts stuck in space.
I missed something in the recent discussion about the possibility of Starliner's stranded crew returning to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon. — Read the rest
The post Starliner spacesuits not compatible with SpaceX Dragon appeared first on Boing Boing.
Of all the memes inspired by Rachael "Raygun" Gunn, the B-girl from Australia who scored zero points in breakdancing at the Paris Olympics, my favorite spoof is this one shared by the Sydney Zoo, titled "Everyone is doing the Raygun!" The video features adorable otters showing off their Raygun-like moves, such as wriggling in the grass and squirming on the rocks. — Read the rest
The post Australian otter's tribute to Rachael "Raygun" Gunn appeared first on Boing Boing.
So what is Qualcomm launching at IFA this year?
Read more ▶
The post What is Qualcomm launching at IFA this year? appeared first on SemiAccurate.
Last week AMD did their 'Tech Day' and it was anything but.
Read more ▶
The post AMD’s Zen 5 is a missed opportunity in messaging appeared first on SemiAccurate.
Take a look at open source certifications for the month of June.
The post Open Source Hardware Certifications for June 2024 appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
Gabrielle Wood, a junior at Howard University majoring in chemical engineering, is on a mission to improve the sustainability and life cycles of natural resources and materials. Her work in the Materials Initiative for Comprehensive Research Opportunity (MICRO) program has given her hands-on experience with many different aspects of research, including MATLAB programming, experimental design, data analysis, figure-making, and scientific writing.
Wood is also one of 10 undergraduates from 10 universities around the United States to participate in the first MICRO Summit earlier this year. The internship program, developed by the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), first launched in fall 2021. Now in its third year, the program continues to grow, providing even more opportunities for non-MIT undergraduate students — including the MICRO Summit and the program’s expansion to include Northwestern University.
“I think one of the most valuable aspects of the MICRO program is the ability to do research long term with an experienced professor in materials science and engineering,” says Wood. “My school has limited opportunities for undergraduate research in sustainable polymers, so the MICRO program allowed me to gain valuable experience in this field, which I would not otherwise have.”
Like Wood, Griheydi Garcia, a senior chemistry major at Manhattan College, values the exposure to materials science, especially since she is not able to learn as much about it at her home institution.
“I learned a lot about crystallography and defects in materials through the MICRO curriculum, especially through videos,” says Garcia. “The research itself is very valuable, as well, because we get to apply what we’ve learned through the videos in the research we do remotely.”
Expanding research opportunities
From the beginning, the MICRO program was designed as a fully remote, rigorous education and mentoring program targeted toward students from underserved backgrounds interested in pursuing graduate school in materials science or related fields. Interns are matched with faculty to work on their specific research interests.
Jessica Sandland ’99, PhD ’05, principal lecturer in DMSE and co-founder of MICRO, says that research projects for the interns are designed to be work that they can do remotely, such as developing a machine-learning algorithm or a data analysis approach.
“It’s important to note that it’s not just about what the program and faculty are bringing to the student interns,” says Sandland, a member of the MIT Digital Learning Lab, a joint program between MIT Open Learning and the Institute’s academic departments. “The students are doing real research and work, and creating things of real value. It’s very much an exchange.”
Cécile Chazot PhD ’22, now an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University, had helped to establish MICRO at MIT from the very beginning. Once at Northwestern, she quickly realized that expanding MICRO to Northwestern would offer even more research opportunities to interns than by relying on MIT alone — leveraging the university’s strong materials science and engineering department, as well as offering resources for biomaterials research through Northwestern’s medical school. The program received funding from 3M and officially launched at Northwestern in fall 2023. Approximately half of the MICRO interns are now in the program with MIT and half are with Northwestern. Wood and Garcia both participate in the program via Northwestern.
“By expanding to another school, we’ve been able to have interns work with a much broader range of research projects,” says Chazot. “It has become easier for us to place students with faculty and research that match their interests.”
Building community
The MICRO program received a Higher Education Innovation grant from the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab, part of MIT Open Learning, to develop an in-person summit. In January 2024, interns visited MIT for three days of presentations, workshops, and campus tours — including a tour of the MIT.nano building — as well as various community-building activities.
“A big part of MICRO is the community,” says Chazot. “A highlight of the summit was just seeing the students come together.”
The summit also included panel discussions that allowed interns to gain insights and advice from graduate students and professionals. The graduate panel discussion included MIT graduate students Sam Figueroa (mechanical engineering), Isabella Caruso (DMSE), and Eliana Feygin (DMSE). The career panel was led by Chazot and included Jatin Patil PhD ’23, head of product at SiTration; Maureen Reitman ’90, ScD ’93, group vice president and principal engineer at Exponent; Lucas Caretta PhD ’19, assistant professor of engineering at Brown University; Raquel D’Oyen ’90, who holds a PhD from Northwestern University and is a senior engineer at Raytheon; and Ashley Kaiser MS ’19, PhD ’21, senior process engineer at 6K.
Students also had an opportunity to share their work with each other through research presentations. Their presentations covered a wide range of topics, including: developing a computer program to calculate solubility parameters for polymers used in textile manufacturing; performing a life-cycle analysis of a photonic chip and evaluating its environmental impact in comparison to a standard silicon microchip; and applying machine learning algorithms to scanning transmission electron microscopy images of CrSBr, a two-dimensional magnetic material.
“The summit was wonderful and the best academic experience I have had as a first-year college student,” says MICRO intern Gabriella La Cour, who is pursuing a major in chemistry and dual degree biomedical engineering at Spelman College and participates in MICRO through MIT. “I got to meet so many students who were all in grades above me … and I learned a little about how to navigate college as an upperclassman.”
“I actually have an extremely close friendship with one of the students, and we keep in touch regularly,” adds La Cour. “Professor Chazot gave valuable advice about applications and recommendation letters that will be useful when I apply to REUs [Research Experiences for Undergraduates] and graduate schools.”
Looking to the future, MICRO organizers hope to continue to grow the program’s reach.
“We would love to see other schools taking on this model,” says Sandland. “There are a lot of opportunities out there. The more departments, research groups, and mentors that get involved with this program, the more impact it can have.”
© Photo courtesy of the DMSE
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