Go beyond Quicktime by converting your MOV files to MP4

If you’re a Mac user who deals with video, you’ve likely come across a MOV file at one point or another. This is the proprietary format Apple uses for Quicktime, the built-in media player that comes with nearly all iterations of MacOS. Much like MPEG-2 files, however, the MOV format never achieved widespread usage, rendering it a pain to use for users who opt for an operating system or device that doesn’t fall under Apple’s umbrella. If you watch or edit your videos on a Mac, you can probably stick with using MOV files, but if you’re looking for a format with greater support, you’ll likely want to convert them MP4. Here’s how to do so, using both desktop and web-based tools.

How to convert MOV files using iMovie (MacOS)

Step 1: First, launch iMovie, the proprietary video-editing software that came with your Mac. If the program isn’t already housed in your dock, click the Finder icon, select Applications in the left-hand pane, and select the program from the resulting list. Once open, click the File menu in the application toolbar and select New Movie from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: When prompted to select a theme, just choose No Theme.

Step 3: In iMovie, click the button labeled Import Media…

Step 4: Find the MOV file you want to convert, select it, and click Import Selected button in the bottom-right corner.

Step 5: Once done, iMovie will open the video as a new Project. Then, click the File menu in the application toolbar and select Share from the drop-down menu.

Step 6: Select the File option in the resulting menu and edit your preferences — if you wish — before clicking Next in the bottom-right corner.

Step 7: A window will open, asking you to choose a location on your hard drive to save the file. Do this, then click Save. Your movie file will be exported to that location as an MP4 file!

How to convert MOV files using CloudConvert (web-based)

If you’re using a device other than a Mac — such as a Windows-based PC — you can still easily convert MOV files to MP4 using an online application. As an example, we’ll use CloudConvert, a freemium piece of software designed to handle a wide range of file formats with little to no hassle. It’s been our go-to choice for years, but given you have to upload your video files to a remote server, keep in mind that the company that converts your video may have access to it. We sincerely doubt anything would come of it, but keep in mind if you wish to continue.

Step 1: First, navigate to the CloudConvert website and click the Select Files button near the top of the page. Afterward, select the MOV file you wish to convert and click Open in the bottom-right corner of the pop-up window.

Step 2: Click the down arrow beside the format type — in this case, MOV. Then, select video from the drop-down menu and click mp4 from the resulting list of options.

Step 3: Once you’ve made your selection, click the red Start Conversion button in the bottom-right corner. The process may take a while, depending on the size of the file, but once done, click the green Download button near the top of the page. Then, choose a save location for the resulting video, click Save, and enjoy!

Asus Zenbook Flip S preview: Super thin convertible jam packed with top-shelf kit

Asus started off its press conference at Computex in Taipei on Monday by announcing an all-new device: the 13 inch Zenbook Flip S.

As you may have inferred from the name, this is convertible, and we have to say it looks pretty sleek. At just 1.1kg and 10.9mm thin, it’s both slimmer and lighter than the MacBook Air and HP Spectre X360. However, it is jam packed with some top-shelf kit.

The highest-specced model boasts Intel’s Core i7 CPU and a more than respectable 1TB PCle SSD and 16GB of RAM, which, combined, provide some serious performance power. Asus says it has invented a 0.3mm fan as part of a very sophisticated sounding “ultrathin vapor-chamber cooling system” to keep things chill while all this is going on.

As you’d expect there are two USB-C ports, which handle the charging and can support two 4K external displays. The device itself has up to a 4K UHD display with a slim bezel (6.1mm). The display is fully flippable, allowing it to convert into a tablet, or be set up tent style, etc. The display is matte and features the reassuringly strong sounding Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

• Asus ZenBook 3 review: A super-thin MacBook killer?
• Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom preview: The mid-ranger cameraphone

It comes bundled with a mini dock that adds on an HDMI port, a USB3.1, and a further USB-C port, which apparently “supports fast charging” though that sounds a touch odd to us since the in-body USB-C would still be handling the connection. Asus claims an 11.5=hour battery life and charging to 60 per cent power in 49 minutes.

For the more creative amongst you, there’s also a 1024-level stylus available, the Asus Penm which is compatible with Windows Ink with a 1-300g pen tip force. Asus also emphasised that the Flip S fully supports all the latest whistles and bells from Windows including Modern Standby, an ultra-fast restart option that we haven’t yet tried.

There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the edge of the display, which will recognise partial fingerprints to allow logging in with Window’s Hello.With our limited-time hands-on we found the keyboard pleasant to use and touchpad well-sized and responsive. The hinge movement was fluid and seemed to be a solid design.

• Asus ZenFone AR preview: A solid introduction to mixed reality
• Asus Chromebook Flip is now a 12.5-inch awesome machine

Weighing in at just over 1kg, it was light in the hands but didn’t feel flimsy in the slightest. Like other Zenbooks, the chassis is aluminium alloy and features Asus’ trademark spun metal concentric design. The display was crisp and the colours were on point.

The Zenbook Flip S is particularly fetching in the Royal Blue, which has a surprisingly ungarish gold trim. The display models were picking up fingerprints like flies, but it was a crowded event with lots of eager grubby mitts. The Smokey Grey model seemed to suffer from this slightly less but is a little bit less glam.

Product launch is set for the back-to-school September window and lowest-specced models will start at $1,099 (around £850).

Asus Vivo Book Pro S15 preview: The world’s first laptop with Intel Optane

Asus spruced up its Vivo Book range, with the Vivo Book S and Vivo Book Pro S15, which appeal to the budget-conscious end of the market.

Vivo Book Pro S15

Pocket-lint

The Vivo Book Pro S15 is looking like a steal, starting at just a shade over £600. For your money, you can get a classy-looking machine with some interesting hardware. The display is up to a 4K UHD and will support the Asus Pen stylus. It comes with an option of Intel’s speedy Optane memory, which essentially means you’ll get the capacity of a hard disk drive with the performance levels of an SSD. It’s the first laptop announced to use the Optane, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on it to give it a proper work out.

• Asus Zenbook Flip S: Super thin convertible jam packed with top-shelf kit
• Asus ZenBook 3 review: A super-thin MacBook killer?
• Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom preview: The mid-ranger cameraphone

At this price level, of course, you don’t get a full aluminium body; the base is plastic, but it does feature the brushed metal lid and deck that looks very classy. It’s also pretty light at just 2.2kg, which is not at all bad for a 15.6-inch. It’s also reasonably thin at 19.2mm.It’s powered by Intel’s H-series Kaby Lake Core i5 or i7 quad core processors, and the entry-level model comes with the Geforce GTX 1050 graphics card and up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM, which is pretty impressive given the price. Top of the range options boast up to 2TB HDD, too, or a 512GB SSD. All this is cooled down with dual fans to keep your device from overheating.

There’s a solid selection of ports, too, with a full-size SD card slot, Ethernet, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, and a USB-C port. It’s lacking a Thunderbolt 3 port, but again, at the price, this is reasonable. The keyboard is backlit and seemed to be sturdy and responsive. The touchpad also has a fingerprint scanner (optional) for those who want to use Windows Hello.

Pocket-lint

Vivo Book S

Asus also announced the Vivo Book S, which is a 15.6-inch. With a starting price of just over £380, it’s not as fancy as the Pro, of course; there’s no aluminium chassis here, but it’s lighter at 1.5kg and slimmer to boot at 17.9mm. The display also has 7.8mm bezels – a feature that Asus is naming NanoEdge. It’s running on the lower-specced Intel U-series Core i-7 and can come with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory.

There are up to 2TB HDD and 512SSD. The graphics card is Nvidia’s 940MX, so it’s gaming capacity is a touch limited. Asus reckons that the Vivo Book S can charge to 60-per cent capacity in 49 minutes, but there was no word on the battery life.

The Vivo Book S promises to be a great basic laptop for general users and the Pro to offer more for creative leaning people when they come out but no release dates were given for either model.

• Asus ZenFone AR preview: A solid introduction to mixed reality
• Asus Chromebook Flip is now a 12.5-inch awesome machine

Asus Zenbook Pro UX550 preview: Next-level machine with a 4K touchscreen

Asus’ Zenbook range has quite the followingm with its glorious designs and excellent specs at very competitive prices.

At the Asus press conference held ahead of Computex on Monday, the latest addition to the family was announced, and it appears to be a more-than-worthy successor. We managed to get to have a quick play with it, and we were impressed.

Zenbook Pro UX550 is a revamp of the original Zenbook Pro launched a couple of years ago, and it looks like Asus has really gone to the next level in terms of battery life and portability. It’s slim, light, rocking some great specs, and as we’ve come to expect from the Zenbook range, it’s a bit of a looker. Asus shaved almost 2mm off the earlier model at 18.9mm ,and the weight has dropped from 2.26kg to a mere 1.8kg.

Pocket-lint

• Asus Vivo Book Pro S15: The world’s first laptop with Intel Optane
• Asus Zenbook Flip S: Super thin convertible jam packed with top-shelf kit
• Asus ZenBook 3 review: A super-thin MacBook killer?

Asus says it has a whopping 14-hour battery life and can charge to 60-per cent capacity in 49 minutes. All of which is even more impressive when you look at what’s under the hood. The top-shelf model runs on Intel’s H-series core i7 processor and boasts a Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. With up to 1TB of PCIe x4 SSD storage and 16GB DDR4 RAM, this machine is packing serious power in a small package.

The display is another strong point with a 15.6-inch UHD 4K NanoEdge – meaning super slim, 7.3 mm bezels that give an 83-per cent screen-to-body ratio. Asus says it runs at 100 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut and certainly was a vibrant pleasure to behold. There’s a quad speaker set up for the Harman Kardon surround-sound audio, which we didn’t manage to test but which sounds promising.

One rather odd decision for a device which otherwise seems to be catering to people working with video and photos is the lack of a full-size SD card slot. However the rest of the port set up is more than reasonable with two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB 3.1 ports a full sized HDMI port, and a micro SD card reader. We liked the feel of the keyboard, too.

Pocket-lint

• Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom preview: The mid-ranger cameraphone
• Asus ZenFone AR preview: A solid introduction to mixed reality
• Asus Chromebook Flip is now a 12.5-inch awesome machine

It seemed like it would be comfortable to work on, and the touchpad has a fingerprint scanner for Microsoft Hello. The Zenbook Pro will ship with either Windows 10 Pro or Home. The now-familiar concentric brushed aluminium finish and diamond-cut silver edges round off a nice-looking machine. Arguably, the best bit is the price, though.

Asus says it will start off at just over a £1,000, which, considering that this is a top-end device with some excellent capabilities, is an extremely competitive price. The Zenbook Pro is set to hit the streets in July, and we look forward to reviewing it between now and then.

Mercedes-AMG’s F1-based Project One rewrites the hypercar rulebook

“We are the first to make pure bred F1 technology roadworthy.” AMG has finally shown the mechanical layout of its thousand-horsepower, Formula 1-inspired Project One hypercar at a sneak reveal at the Nürburgring 24 Hour race. AMG Chairman Tobias Moers insists the car will become the new hypercar benchmark, with an F1-based 1.6-liter, electrified, turbocharged V6 and four electric motors.

The all-wheel drive hypercar won’t just deliver levels of performance unparalleled outside the world’s racetracks, but will be able to run as a pure battery-electric car for up to 15 miles and, unique for a hypercar, its zero-emission mode will be front-wheel drive. That should make it capable of circumventing limitations on internal-combustion, high-powered cars in some city centers around the world.

“It shifts up the boundaries of what is technically feasible,” AMG Chairman Tobias Moers said, with production limited to just 275 models. “We are the first to make pure bred F1 technology roadworthy.”

“Our objective is not speed, but to be the benchmark. If we have a strategy and we move into a new era of performance at AMG, maybe it’s good to have something that opens the door in a very authentic way to that new era and this is it. “Plug-in hybrid is going to be the future for AMG. We get more performance and more efficiency and what’s wrong with that?” he asked.

Technically, though, Ferrari used a Formula One engine as the basis of its F50 supercar back in 1995, though Moers insists the Project One would be a class forward from the least loved of the hypercar Ferraris. “We are talking about a high-performance hybrid, with one combustion engine and four electric motors. The combustion engine comes from Brixworth, from the same people who delivered three consecutive Formula One World Championships for drivers and manufacturers.

“The redline is at 11,000 and it has a high-tech turbo, which is driven by a 107-horsepower electric motor. Its batteries are the same technology and arrangement as in F1, but we will build four times the storage, with about 25km of pure electric range.

“We have reached thermal efficiency of 43 percent. Nobody else has managed anything like that, street legal.”

By comparison, AMG’s 4.0-litre biturbo V8 has a thermal efficiency of around 25 percent.

At $2.54 million, the two-seat, hard-top coupe follows Formula One practice by basing the entire car around a carbon-fibre chassis tub, then mounting the engine directly to the tub and mounting the gearbox and differential unit directly to the engine.

Both the engine and eight-speed gearbox will be fully stressed parts of the chassis layout, while AMG has chosen to use a computer controlled clutch on a traditional manual gearbox, rather than the dual-clutch transmission layout most supercar makers, including Bugatti, favor.

The first deliveries of the car are due late next year, with Moers hoping to finish its production run by the end of 2020, and AMG already has one “mule” prototype running to help with initial verification of the powertrain and chassis concept.

But the key part of the technology is the Project One’s powertrain itself, which AMG insists it pulled directly from its Formula 1 program. Though heavily revised from the W08 EQ Power+ F1 car used by Lewis Hamilton and Valteri Bottas this weekend in Monaco, AMG Chairman Tobias Moers insists the modifications are only basic.

“The idle speed is 1,100 rpm and in F1 it’s 3,800 or 4,000. It revs to 11,000 rpm, but in F1 it’s 13,500 rpm.

“We have to move combustion ratio, for example, that’s what changes. In F1 they run Lambda that’s way more than one. But we can’t because of emissions. We have the same cylinder head, same crank housing but a different crankshaft.”

For all that, though, Moers insists customers won’t need the usual array of Formula One race engineers and laptop computers to start the engine.

“Prospective buyers have been asking if they will require a support crew or dedicated lubricants to run it. My answer is always ‘no.’ It will be a street car. You keep it plugged in in the garage. You fill it with 98 (Ron fuel).”

The trickier parts of the powertrain will be the way it combines its electrified and internal-combustion power. A ground-breaking engine in Formula One, the AMG V6 splits its single, large turbocharger, with the exhaust turbine moved to the back of the engine with the exhaust system and the compressor wheel sitting at the front of the engine where the cooler air is. A shaft runs through the engine’s vee angle to join them together.

Firstly, there is the power and torque from the tiny 1.6-liter V6 (which AMG wouldn’t talk about, but which must be somewhere around 470 hp). Then it also has a 134-hp electric motor (the MGU-K for “kinetic” in AMG-speak) directly attached to the engine’s crankshaft and another 107-hp (the MGU-H for “heat”) electric motor that spins up the turbocharger to eliminate turbo lag.

“The 80kW from the MGU-H is not so important to rev it (the turbocharger compressor) up but it’s important for regeneration,” Moers insisted. “It could be a lot smaller to rev and still spin it up.”

Any excess energy the MGU-H harvests can be sent directly to the MGU-K to punch more electric torque directly through the crankshaft.

Then there a 161-horsepower electric motor for each front wheel, which use essentially the same construction and design as the MGU-K, but in different housings.

While Moers would not be drawn on the car’s target weight, he did confirm that the entire powertrain would weight about 926 pounds, with the battery pack accounting for 220 lbs of that. The battery, built by its F1 supplier ABC, runs the same chemistry, cells and connectors as Hamilton’s racer, but is four times larger to add in the Project One’s zero-emission capability.

What makes the Project One particularly complicated is that all of its electric motors act as both motors and generators to recharge the fast-discharge battery, which has a converter to turn 800 volts into 12 volts sitting on top of its housing.

The extreme forces acting inside the highly stressed 1.6-liter V6 mean AMG will only rate it for 31,000 miles before it needs to be “remanufactured”.

“We have an understanding of about 50,000 km. This is OK for us. I think that’s good enough,” Mr. Moers insisted.

“That’s the life of the engine. Then we do some rework, like in a race car.”

After 31,000 miles, the engines would either be rebuilt by AMG or, depending on the work needed, replaced, and AMG didn’t rule out customers choosing to buy the car with a spare engine ready to go. As an aside, it has yet to put a price tag on either a new engine or a rebuild.

This year’s Formula One rules dictate that each driver can only use four hybrid power units for the entire 20-race season, though that drops to three of the V6 internal-combustion engines next year. While that’s just over 3,728 miles of Grand Prix racing, the engines and electrified power units could easily double that with four hours of practice and a one-hour qualifying shootout each race weekend.

The supercar industry’s widespread reaction to Moers’ claims of using a Formula One motor has been disbelief.

Ferrari basically said it doesn’t believe Mercedes-AMG. Ferrari, the only other race-winning Formula One engine supplier this year, clearly doubts whether AMG’s hypercar was a) using an F1-sourced engine and b) whether that was a good idea in the first place.

In an interview back at the Geneva Motor Show, Ferrari’s road-car chief engineer, Michael Leiters, said there was no way Ferrari would follow suit.

“Putting an F1 engine into a road car? We already did it with the F50 and I’m not convinced it works. An F1 engine runs at 16,000 rpm. How can you use a car that revs to 16,000 rpm on the street? You can’t, and if it doesn’t rev to 16,000 rpm, you have to ask the question, what remains of the Formula 1 engine?

“Instead of actual F1 engine, I’m convinced it’s better to take some concepts and innovations from a Formula 1 car. To make a supercar, I prefer to do it from scratch,” he insisted.

The all-wheel-drive Project One hypercar has fine torque vectoring at both ends, and eliminates the packaging difficulties of anti-roll bars via five-link suspension systems at both ends.

AMG has separated the vertical bump and roll tasks in the suspension with two springs in series sharing a single damper, while the longest rear pushrod in the car world is mounted directly to the upright and in large part defines the car’s aerodynamic package.

It will use a variable ride height and a variable aerodynamic package, to get the best from its custom-developed Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 285/35 19 front and 335/30 20 tires, which ride on center-lock wheels.

The transmission, too, will be similar to the Formula One car’s eight-speed unit, strengthened for longevity, and using the electric motors to “fill in” any acceleration holes during gear changes.

Moers insists the car will have different driving modes, ranging from the zero-emission front-drive BEV mode to a mode so aggressive it will be similar to a Grand Prix qualifying setup.

What we played in May

From in-depth features and interviews to the daily torrent of trailers and news, we write a lot about video games here. But there’s only so much one team can cover, and often some of our favorite games never grace the digital pages of Engadget.

To remedy that shortcoming, we’re introducing Gaming IRL, a monthly segment where several editors talk about what they’ve been playing in their downtime. Sometimes these’ll be the latest AAA game, but you’ll also see free-to-play mobile distraction and classics revisited (or criminally ignored until now).

Gaming IRL is part of a broader series in which you’ll find stories from all of the areas we cover: gadgets we use every day, the apps and services we adore, what we’re watching and the music and podcasts we can’t live without.

Today is all about gaming. In the future, expect to find some essays and personal stories mixed in with the endorsements, but for now, sit back and enjoy an eclectic mix of console, hand-held, online and mobile recommendations.

Timothy J. Seppala
Associate Editor

Tumbleseed

I’m not good at video games. Well, most of them, anyway. Sit me down with anything that requires a lot of dexterity or memorization (like a fighting game) and I’ll get frustrated. As such, I’ve never really seen the appeal of rogue-likes. My free time is limited, so why would I want to keep restarting a game from scratch because I had an unlucky run? That’s why I was surprised by how much I like Tumbleseed.

It’s a charming, physics-based rogue-like where you use the Nintendo Switch’s dual analog sticks to independently manipulate a balance beam of sorts. On said balance beam resides the titular seed, which rolls this way and that based on the angle of the balance beam. The ultimate goal is to take Seedy to the top of a haunted mountain. Seems simple enough, right? It isn’t. There are plenty of holes to fall into and enemies that crave your blood along the way.

I haven’t made it very far up the mountain and I’m far too embarrassed to print the exact distance of my best ascent here, but I keep coming back to it when I have a few minutes to squirrel away. The game’s gorgeous color palette and art style do a lot to make my fruitless journey bearable, and that’s to say nothing of the synth-heavy soundtrack. Does it make me want to try other rogue-likes? No, because other rogue-likes aren’t Tumbleseed.

Tom Regan
Contributing Editor

Rime

From the second I saw its reveal trailer back in 2013, I was ready to love Rime. I pictured the perfect cel-shaded combination of Journey and Windwaker that I’d always dreamed of. Yet, unfortunately for me, I had to make that trailer last, as for the next three years, that lone video was all that Tequila Works showed of the alluring project. Absence made the heart grow fonder, and my imagination run even wilder. Soon, I’d built Rime up to be something that was almost impossibly awesome.

Sure enough, when I finally got to play it in February this year I found myself feeling slightly disappointed. Rime wasn’t this Zelda-esque, narrative-led adventure that made a life-changing statement — it was something else entirely. Three months later, I’ve got the full game, and I love what it has become.

Playing like a mix of Journey and Ico, Rime is an experience that puts atmosphere first. Featuring barely any narrative, developer Tequila Works simply throws you onto a beautiful, mysterious island and has you journey across it. But boy, what a beautiful island this is. While cel-shaded visuals aren’t exactly revolutionary anymore, this is one of those rare games that somehow sports a familiar art style but still looks completely unique. Rime’s world feels utterly enthralling because its developer has succeeded at doing the one thing that few can – creating a game that feels like a living, breathing, work of art. To be totally honest, I still haven’t finished it, as I keep getting completely lost in the beauty of its setting. If you’re looking for a soothing, gorgeous experience to take you away from it all, then Rime is your game.

Jessica Conditt
Senior Reporter

Hidden Folks

Something strange happens every time I play Hidden Folks. It doesn’t matter what kind of mood I’m in or how hangry I am — whenever I load up a new Hidden Folks map, my mouth subconsciously stretches into a grin that doesn’t quit until I put the game down again.

Hidden Folks has a simple premise: It’s an interactive, animated version of Where’s Waldo, featuring the cutest black and white sketches of people, animals and industry. The drawings are intricate and expansive, hiding a thousand more mysteries than it would initially appear. Plus, everything in the game — each tiny human, alligator, spider, pig, car, tree, lake, banana and cloud — makes the most adorable, amateurish sound effects when you tap it. An obviously-human voice tweets and squawks when you click on a bird, and humans whistle and hum to themselves as you search for their secrets.

The landscapes of Hidden Folks are constantly moving, with miniature people waving their arms in the air, mowing their lawns or wandering around big cities as butterflies and bugs flit among them. This subtle motion and quiet, steady chatter makes the game feel downright meditative. Searching for a new figure isn’t as simple as staring at the screen for hours on end — some folks are hidden behind tent flaps or doors, and you have to truly play with the world to reveal them. It’s this unspoken invitation to be curious and poke around in a pleasant space that makes Hidden Folks joyful, calming and truly special.

The only problem with Hidden Folks? It’s not on Android yet.

David Lumb
Contributing Editor

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

I made a fateful choice in the fifth grade to ask for a Nintendo 64 and forswear all PlayStation experiences — including classics like Metal Gear Solid. I could have bought the game on PSN, I suppose, but I knew my friend had a copy of the GameCube redux (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes) stowed away. I tried to get it running on my old Wii, but needed to walk back to the same friend, hat in hand, and borrow his memory card (oops) and HDMI-to-Wii adapter. Playing the top games from the Console Canon gets harder every year.

If I never again have to fumble with the game’s awkward, awful combat system, it’ll be a good day. But muscling through it led me exactly where I wanted to go: Down the weird, zany black ops rabbit hole Metal Gear Solid always promised to be. It’s part post-Cold War military spy mystery, part charmingly ridiculous character face-off, part anti-nuclear PSA and part Solid Snake hype train. David Hayter’s growl and the charmingly aged macho dialogue talking up the legendary Solid Snake (women want him, men want to be him) are high on the list of reasons to grind through the stuff controls and learn-by-dying difficulty.

But you don’t fire up old games to feel grateful for modern engines and graphics — you dig backward in time to discover moments you’ve heard so much about. Or try, anyway: Just as I’ll never be 11-years-old prying open the jewel case of a brand-new cutting-edge PS1 game, I can’t see the first real entry in mainstream gaming’s ultimate weird spy dynasty with fresh eyes. And speaking of game packaging, without a case, I couldn’t find the answer to a puzzling line of dialogue — “Her frequency is on the back of the package, Snake.”

The search for a quick answer led me down another strange alley from the past…to several ASCII walkthroughs on GameFaqs, the earliest of which were uploaded in September of 1998, immediately after MGS came out. These basic text tomes are relics of an age when gaming secrets were moving on from monthly publications to a permanent life on the internet, where enthusiastic strangers wrote guides to help players, it turns out, across time. Yet no walkthrough will give me the patience to get past Metal Gear Solid’s second boss and his obnoxious tank, but who has time for that? Maybe I’ll just watch a Let’s Play to make sure I don’t miss anything good in the rest of the game.

Sean Buckley
Associate Editor

Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia

Ever since March 3rd I’ve been wondering what, if anything, was going to pull me away from the Nintendo Switch. Turns out, the answer was the company’s other portable console: The 3DS. Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia reminded me of how much I love Nintendo’s stereoscopic portable — from it’s tiny size, to it’s visual gimmick — but, above all reasons, its games. It’s true, I wish I was able to play this on Switch, but I’ll pick up the 3DS again for the sake of its engrossing story, charming characters and classic strategic gameplay. Despite being a remake of a Japan-only Famicom game, it does a fair job of mixing up the Fire Emblem formula, too. Two simultaneous campaigns and fully explorable third-person dungeons? What’s not to love?

… And PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds

My PC LAN group also tricked me into playing PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds, a murder competition multiplayer game akin to the arena shenanigans of The Hunger Games and Battle Royale. It’s a buggy, broken mess and might possibly have the worst name of any video game I’ve ever played, but it offers a genuinely fun twist on the multiplayer survival genre by slowly funneling surviving players into smaller and smaller areas. It’s not half as frustrating as games DayZ or H1Z1 either — games are so short, it’s hard to be upset when you lose. Oh, and the lack of zombies is a plus. I am so sick of zombies.

“IRL” is a recurring column in which the Engadget staff run down what they’re buying, using, playing and streaming.

15-Inch MacBook Pro Delivery Estimates Slip Ahead of New Models Expected Next Week

Apple has updated its online store to indicate that 15-inch MacBook Pro orders placed today are now estimated for free delivery between June 6-8 in the United States, coinciding with its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

The delivery estimates lend credence to a report claiming Apple plans to announce new MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook models at the WWDC keynote on June 5. The notebooks are expected to receive internal improvements only, including an upgrade to Intel’s faster Kaby Lake processors.

13-inch MacBook Pro models remain in stock for delivery as early as tomorrow in the United States and several other countries. It’s unclear if that’s because Apple plans to refresh only the 15-inch MacBook Pro next week, or if supplies of the 13-inch models are simply more plentiful ahead of WWDC.

Kaby Lake processors appropriate for a 13-inch MacBook Pro appear to be readily available, so a refresh shouldn’t be ruled out.

Nevertheless, Apple has staggered the release of the MacBook Pro in the past. In 2015, for example, it released a 13-inch model in March, and a 15-inch model in May. In 2012, Apple unveiled the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display at WWDC in June, while a 13-inch model didn’t launch until October.

A spot check shows 15-inch MacBook Pro delivery estimates are similarly as long in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and several other countries.

Apple last refreshed the MacBook Pro in October 2016, after the notebook went 527 days without being updated. By comparison, only 220 days will have passed if Apple launches new MacBook Pro models on June 5, below the average timeframe of 320 days between any two MacBook Pro generations.

(Thanks, Martin!)

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, WWDC 2017
Tag: Apple retail
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Caution)
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SongCast is a viable music discovery option for fans and bands alike (review)

As a music listener and fan, while a great choice of upper-tier music streaming services is out there, it can be difficult to find a new venue to discover independent music….it can be lost in the grand sea of mainstream artists and playlists.

And believe it or not, as an independent artist or band, it can be equally difficult to get airtime (and screen-time) to the masses of music fans. It’s analogous to a Christmas shopper looking for a unique crafted gift and the target craft business trying to find each other in the sea of Black Friday madness.

Add to that cost. For a listener, to gain true freedom on a mobile device requires monthly subscription costs. And for the bands & artists, long and costly up-front costs and contracts can be common. All this leaves a true need for an alternative music discovery service that allows bands and fans to find each other, and is financially friendly to both in the process.

Enter SongCast, an Android radio app (think Pandora here) that aims to solve these problems for music fans and artists alike. For us fans, SongCast is a free app that plays only independent music for our discovery and consumption. For artists, SongCast provides a reasonable cost and flexible way to upload music for distribution and purchase.

Setup

How does this work? Well, for us fans it’s easy enough: simply download the SongCast app from the Play Store (link here). Then you are taken to a setup screen looking for your name, email, age, etc. SongCast will then ask you to highlight your preferred genres of music to get you started down the right road. You can also link your Facebook and Twitter accounts for sharing purposes.

For artists, you set up an account, and are free to upload music as you wish. You can upload individual singles or whole albums; up to you.  And you pay-per-month for each single or album uploaded and active. No long-term contracts.
Plus, SongCast distributes your music to all the popular online retail outlets (Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, etc..).

App Usage

The interface and use of the SongCast app is pretty simple and upfront. Once in, you are greeted with the option to explore music, including categories “Today’s Picks”, “Artist Spotlight”, “Trending”, and “Radio”. Once you select an artist to check out, you are presented with a list of songs to check out. Your options for moving through the music (such as repeats) are limited, but you can expand your options with certain actions such as sharing a particular song on Facebook or Twitter. Otherwise, you’re free to back out of an artist you’re not digging and check out others in the main screen. You can also save specific songs with a heart button, or block artists entirely if you really don’t like it.

For artists, you are provided a dashboard to follow in essentially real-time how your music is being received (number of streams, streams-to-completion, blocks, etc). On the payment side of things, you are paid at the same level as you would be on the mainstream sites (see SongCast’s FAQ page for more info). SongCast also sends a monthly sales report, detailing how your music is performing across each retail outlet.

What We Liked

As a music fan, SongCast is valued for its simplicity, cutting through the clutter to let you peruse and find new music that you may otherwise never even get exposed to. It operates as a hybrid radio/streaming service, avoiding the extraneous features to focus on the music. I personally ran across several bands and/or songs that I’ve saved and plan on exploring more in Spotify.

There is also a dedicated website (songcastradio.com) that allows you to explore on your desktop.

What Could Use Improvement

In my opinion, the interface could be a little too simple, in that there isn’t a lot of tutorial options available to you….you’re left to figure it out on you own. Which was fine by me anyways (I’m an app fiddler); but others could get a bit frustrated in getting the lay of the land. And given the competitiveness of this app market, that could spell trouble for getting a bigger footprint.

A small thing that was both frustrating and a bit laughable; upon entering my personal information to set up an account, there is a box to enter your birthday. But when you click on it, it takes you to a monthly calendar view, set to today. The ONLY way to get to your birthday is to tap the month-back button. I’m in my 40’s, which equates to 50-plus taps on this button to simply input my birthday. I have no idea why this exists, but I do hope it gets rectified, and soon. Again, a small but frustrating, and laughable, issue.

Conclusion

I really enjoy the SongCast app; it gives a true break from the usual music streaming interface and main music selection formats. While the interface can be a bit barren in terms of guiding the user, it also excels in trying to stay in the background, allowing the artists and the music to stand front-and-center. For both music fans looking for new favorites, and for artists/bands looking to become a favorite of more fans, it could be a true match made in (Stairway to) heaven.

Download SongCast from the Play Store here.

LG G7: News and Rumors

Why it matters to you

LG settled on a winning formula with the G6, and the company will look to take what it’s learned into making the G7 an even better product.

LG pulled out all the stops to deliver one of the year’s best smartphones in the G6. With its breakthrough design, massive display for its size, excellent wide-angle camera, and dependable performance, it was a return to form for the company that had something of a misstep with 2016’s G5.

Although the G6 only just hit the market in March, rumors are already beginning to swirl about the company’s next top-of-the-line handset. Here’s everything we think we know about the LG G7.

Specs

LG is already hard at work with Qualcomm on the chipmaker’s next-generation 845 processor, industry sources have told South Korea’s Aju Business Daily. According to the report, the two companies have been partnering on developing the chipset since early May. The article states the 845 will utilize a new 7-nanometer construction process, making it more compact and less power-hungry than Qualcomm’s current range-topping silicon, the 835.

While LG decided to settle for the outdated 821 processor in the G6 to accelerate the process of bringing its product to market, competing devices, like Samsung’s Galaxy S8, recently launched sporting the more powerful 835. In working alongside Qualcomm now, the phone maker looks to avoid a similar situation next year when it launches the G7. According to Aju Business Daily, LG is planning on fitting the G7 with an 845, as is Samsung for next year’s Galaxy S9.

The 845 is rumored to be anywhere from 20 to 30 percent more powerful than the 835 — which itself was already about 30 percent more powerful than the 821, while consuming 40 percent less energy, according to Qualcomm’s estimations at the time.

Meanwhile, a report from The Investor earlier in May claimed that the G7 will receive an OLED display, like Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and, according to rumors, the upcoming iPhone X. The new industry trend has shifted toward OLED technology, which offers improved contrast, power efficiency, and thinner screens compared to LCD. Moving to an OLED panel would also make the G7 compatible with Google Daydream VR — a feature the G6 missed out on.

That’s all the information we have on the LG G7 at the moment, but we’ll continue to update this article over the coming months as we hear more.

Leak says Intel’s credit card-sized PC will pack 4GB of RAM and Core i5 processors

Why it matters to you

Intel’s fast but tiny Compute Card pushes the limit on what small PCs can do, and may enable new, more powerful IoT products.

The specifications of several Intel Compute Cards have been leaked, giving us our first look at what the interior hardware of the super-slim, fully-functioning PCs will be like. Along with a selection of differently specced processors, they all come with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of onboard PCI Express, solid-state (SSD) storage.

Taking micro-computing in a more powerful direction than the Rasbperry Pi and its contemporaries, Intel’s Compute Cards are designed as a spiritual successor to the Compute Stick. Slim and entirely self-contained, they’re designed to offer powerful, fully capable computing functions for modular systems. In the future, upgrading your laptop or smart appliance could be as simple as removing the old card and plugging in the new.

As well as not being marketed to bedroom hackers like many credit card-sized systems, Intel’s Compute Cards are much more capable, if the leaked specifications are anything to go by (thanks CNX-Software).

Besides the RAM and storage mentioned, Compute Cards offer quad core and dual core processors ranging from the sixth-generation Celeron N3450 and Pentium N4200, to the seventh-generation M3-7Y30 and i5-7Y57. With up to 3.3GHz with onboard Intel HD graphics, the chips consume no more than 4.5 watts of power, making them very efficient and capable of performing in such a small space without overheating.

Storage options include 64GB of eMMC flash storage with the older, Apollo Lake CPUs, while the more modern Kaby Lake options come with 128GB of PCIExpress SSD storage.

These systems are mainly aimed at manufacturers and partner firms, rather than consumers right now, which is why the Compute Cards don’t come with standard connectors like USB. However, using a bespoke Compute Card connector, they can output to just about anything you want. With the addition of a wireless module, they can also connect over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Designed to act as the core of a standalone computer or smart appliance, the rumored pricing for these Compute Cards ranges from $150 for the low-end models, up to $500 for the more expensive options.