Make it stop! CrackBerry Kevin busts a Galaxy S8 on the way to KEYone durability redemption

The BlackBerry KEYone is stronger than you think.

The BlackBerry KEYone has been through the wringer over the past week or so, with claims that its screen, bereft of sufficient adhesive, easily detaches from the body with only a small amount of force. Popular YouTube channel JerryRigEverything entered the phone into its oh-so-sad Hall of Shame after Zack was easily able to break the phone with his bare hands. A small number of people had already reported the screen detaching through normal everyday use.

Shortly afterwards, BlackBerry Mobile released a statement saying it was looking into the problem — which has only affected a handful of units — and may alter the manufacturing process to include additional adhesive in future units.

Still, CrackBerry Kevin took the assertion that the KEYone was weak as a challenge, pitting the phone against the Galaxy S8+ and iPhone 7 Plus in a number of durability challenges. I won’t spoil the surprise, but suffice it to say the KEYone did better than even I expected.

More: BlackBerry KEYone review

Strange Brigade gameplay preview: Undead onslaught is oodles of fun

Ah, the Brits. Cups of tea. Stiff upper lips. Crumpets with jam. Undead zombie hordes. We have it all.

UK studio Rebellion’s latest title, Strange Brigade, is a 1930s-style adventure which throws you into an adventure in forgotten civilisations. Track down treasure, decimate hordes of mythological menaces, laugh at the sheer insanity as dozens of undead nasties are taken out by triggering traps. It’s quite the detour from the studio’s Sniper Elite series, for which it is best known.

What makes Strange Brigade particularly special is the way in which it’s delivered: with British panache. The narrator sounds so spiffingly English, like a classic 1930s announcer, that it transports you into this other world with a nod and a wink; it’s not the ultra-serious shoot ’em up that are becoming ten a penny in the games industry these days.

The game features four characters, each with differing abilities to suit different play styles or tactical co-operative play: there’s Professor Archimedes De Quincy, an archaeologist and Oxford scholar, whose special weapon in a Kingsley Special; Frank Fairburne, described as “the man with the coldest eyes in the Empire”, a marksman whose special weapon is a Huntsman rifle; Gracie Braithwaite, a Northern lass from the textile towns of Lancashire, whose special weapon in a Double-Barrel shotgun; and Natangu Rushia, a female Massai warrior from Kenya, whose special weapon in a Chamberlain Automatic.

Rebellion

We weren’t totally sure what to expect from Strange Brigade, but the game gives no time to overthink things. Scores of undead enemies raise from the ground, leaving you to shoot, shoot, run and shoot some more. It’s a hectic third-person shooter, with additional traps, puzzles and detours from it being just non-stop shooting mayhem. 

Far from a single shot taking out any given foe, the game also throws in trickier enemies. There are mummies, fast-moving Pharaoh-like warriors and, as was introduced within mere moments of starting to play the game, an armoured Minotaur. The last of these beasties, in particular, takes a lot of damage before he’s down – plus he can surprise with special fast attacks.

Rebellion

A level-up power bar increases with each foe you take down, which eventually fills your character’s special attack for use. This differs depending on character choice, but is ultimately similar in delivering a rush attack with a greater spread of devastation. It doesn’t take too long to fill up either, which is handy given the relentless onslaught of enemies.

All of this is peppered with narration shtick between stages of the game, which helps the title stand out as and can even tickle out the odd laugh.

Rebellion

There’s nothing strange about Strange Brigade. If you like non-stop third-person shooters – whether solo or up to four player – then this British treat will be as satisfying as a chocolate Hobnob dunked in a cup of char. One to keep an eye out for when it launches on PS4, Xbox One and PC. There’s no release date set as yet, but we’re hoping it’ll make it out before the end of 2018.

New iPhones will feature wireless charging, Apple supplier confirms

Two major features coming to Apple’s next iPhones have been revealed by Apple’s own manufacturer in India.

Wistron, which Apple recently began working with in an effort to keep prices down, confirmed that Apple’s next-generation iPhone models will be waterproof and include wireless charging technology, according to Japanese website Nikkei Asian Review. Speaking to the media after the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on 14 June, Wistron CEO Robert Hwang reportedly said the following:

“Assembly process for the previous generations of [iPhones] have not changed much, though new features like waterproof and wireless charging now require some different testing, and waterproof function will alter the assembly process a bit.”

Currently, Wistron makes the iPhone SE, which doesn’t offer wireless charging or waterproofing, obviously. But it’s important to note that Hwang specifically said “new features”, in comparison to older iPhones, such as the iPhone SE. He didn’t say iPhone 8 or iPhone 7S. That means, if we’re being particular, he might not be talking about the very next iPhones but rather future-generation models.

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That said, several reports over the last year have claimed that Apple will release a higher-end “iPhone 8”. It is expected to be a premium model that sits above the new iPhone 7S Plus. The iPhone 8 is thought to feature wireless charging and improved water resistance, among other things, though it’s reasonable to assume any smaller iPhone models could have improved water resistance as well.

Check out Pocket-lint’s rumour round-up for more details about the next iPhones, which are expected to release later this year.

The Crew 2 gameplay preview: Planes, Boats and Automobiles

The Crew was an ambitious game when it launched in 2014: an always online racer that left players to freely roam five regions of America as they pleased. Whether in single player or competing other online players, it was a racer unlike any other. 

The Crew 2 takes that blueprint and goes to town with it, introducing boats, planes and off-road vehicles into the mix. The map and concept are ultimately similar, offering locations across America which can be selected from the map and explored casually, or with other players where races and missions become available.

It’s possible to switch between these three vehicle types at any point you please in The Crew 2. And we do mean at any point, as we transformed our plane into a car 1,000 feet up in the air and watched it plummet onto a bridge with hilarious results.

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The introduction of these different vehicles makes the The Crew 2 play really differently to the original. Boats go faster when pulling down on the left control stick, offer boost that’s integral to use when in a race, and steer rather differently to cars.

Planes are a whole other aspect to master. Pull of loop the loops and barrel rolls as you please, fly through towns and cities at low altitude, even pull of sideways stunts to skim between tight spots and buildings. It’s a much tougher mechanic to master.

Ubisoft

We played an off-road player vs player race, which was set against the clock. Within the landscape there were jumps and all manner of routes – it’s down to the player to pick what they think will be quickest, to beat their opponent.

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Points awarded mean prizes, with vehicles available for purchase. We had a pre-assigned sum to spend on a street racing car in the demo, a rather delicious looking Porsche 911 in luminescent orange.

Of all the demos that Ubisoft presented at E3 2017, we thought the Inception-style “folding of worlds” looked staggering. But that’s not solely in the trailer: certain race modes require you to go from car to boat to plane, the fluid transition between each showing the world beyond literally folding over like a book to open your onward path. It’s a very cool effect.

Ubisoft

If you were into the original game then The Crew 2 makes perfect sense as that upgrade. There’s a lot more to master on the vehicles front and a lot of laughs to be hand on the way if our 20 minute demo was anything to go by. The main question is whether after 20 hours of play the game will continue to engage players or not – which was a criticism of the original.

The Crew 2 will be released on PS4, Xbox One and PC in early 2018. You can sign up for an early access beta right now.

Library of Congress archives select webcomics for posterity

Webcomics have been around for a long while, and that’s raising a question: who’s going to preserve those comics for online viewing outside of non-profits like the Internet Archive? The Library of Congress, that’s who. It just launched a Webcomics Web Archive that curates stand-out strips. Many of them are award-winning or otherwise stand-out comics that you may have read — the nerdiness of XKCD and the historical spoofs of Hark! A Vagrant are among the initial batch.

You likely won’t see absolutely everything from a given artist, let alone every artist under the sun. As the Library’s Megan Halsbland explains, it’s more about representative works, including from cultural groups that don’t get much attention in the conventional collection.

The institution isn’t stopping there, either. It’s also launching a Web Cultures Web Archive that will pick sites that document cultural development on the internet, such as legendary GIFs or memes. It’ll join the Library’s American Folklife Center, so those viral images won’t be left in isolation — they’ll be treated with the same respect as a classic song and other slices of Americana.

Via: Washington Post, io9

Source: Library of Congress

Our sun used to have a twin star named Nemesis

Astronomers have long been puzzled by the fact that our sun doesn’t have a companion star. After all, most similar stars are part of a binary, or even triplet, system. Now, scientists may have confirmed a long-held theory: The sun did once have a companion star that has been dubbed “Nemesis.”

Scientists Sarah Sadavoy and Steven Stahler were studying the Perseus molecular cloud, packed with newly formed stars, to determine what percentage of stars like our sun form in pairs. (The young stars within Perseus are less than 4 million years old. Our sun, by comparison, is roughly 4.6 billion years old.) Their notion, that the majority of stars don’t form as single stars, isn’t new; the question is more about numbers. Just how many sunlike stars form as binaries?

To find the answer, the scientists used existing data from a survey of every star in the Perseus stellar nursery. They ran a series of statistical models that took into account the numbers of both single stars and binary stars within the cloud. What they discovered surprised them: It appears as though all sunlike stars initially form as wide binaries, with 500 AU between them (a distance 17 times that of Neptune to our sun). Over the first million years of the stars’ lives, the systems either shrink into a truly binary system or break apart, like our sun and Nemesis.

But will we ever find our sun’s lonely companion, Nemesis? It’s unlikely. The press release states, in a melancholy fashion, “Based on this model, the sun’s sibling most likely escaped and mixed with all the other stars in our region of the Milky Way galaxy, never to be seen again.” While this study has fascinating implications for what we know about how stars are born, it also underlines the fact that there’s still a lot left to learn about our own star; that’s why NASA is launching the Parker Solar Probe, the first spacecraft to touch the sun’s atmosphere, in 2018.

Source: UC Berkeley

Engadget at E3: How video games and film are merging inside VR

In Door No. 1, a new virtual reality comedy show coming to Hulu, the audience becomes the director, choosing not only where to look, but also selecting certain actions and propelling the story forward in unique ways. You’re at your 10-year high school reunion and there are plenty of characters to interact with, including a janitor who wants to smoke you out and a faded former best friend. Viewers pick people to hang out with just by directing their sight toward the desired action, no gamepads required.

Regardless of the input method, Door No. 1 is essentially a live-action choose-your-own-adventure game, a comparison that crystalizes as the creative team at RYOT explains their approach to development. Hulu’s Noah Heller, and RYOT’s Nora Kirkpatrick and Molly Swenson joined us on the Engadget stage to talk about the differences — and similarities — between film and video games in VR.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Netflix has more American subscribers than cable TV

If it wasn’t already clear that Netflix has become a mainstay of the American media landscape, it is now. A combination of official data with Leichtman Research estimates shows that, as of the first quarter of 2017, there are more Netflix subscribers in the US (50.85 million) than there are customers for major cable TV networks (48.61 million). This doesn’t make it bigger than TV as a whole (the figures don’t include 33.19 million satellite viewers), but it’s still a big milestone for a streaming service that had half as may users 5 years ago.

Also, internet-only TV subscriptions are playing a small role. Leichtman reckons that there are 1.36 million Sling TV subscribers, and 375,000 DirecTV Now members.

The shift in power comes in part through Netflix’s ever-greater reliance on originals. There’s enough high-quality material that it can compete with more established networks. However, it’s also getting a boost from the decline of conventional TV. Those traditional sources lost 760,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year versus 120,000 a year earlier. Leichtman believes a combination of cord cutters and reduced marketing toward cost-conscious viewers is to blame. Cable giants might not be in dire straits, but they’re clearly focusing on their most lucrative customers as others jump ship for the internet.

Via: Forbes

Source: Leichtman Research

‘Call of Duty’ goes back to what it does best: historic warfare

After Infinite Warfare, I was ready to give up on Call of Duty. I just didn’t think the futuristic space setting was very compelling and couldn’t bring myself to finish the campaign. Just when I thought I was out though, Sledgehammer Games pulled me back in. For the next installment of the franchise, the title is going back to its roots: World War II in Europe. To me, the historical Call of Duty games are the best ones and this year’s installment looks very promising.

Here at E3, Activision and Sledgehammer are showing off the campaign in a cinematic setting while letting us put our fingers on the trigger in multiplayer. I got a look at Team Deathmatch, Domination and War Mode in my brief time with Call of Duty: WWII. Antique weapons, trench warfare and close quarters combat make the team play here very fun. There are a ton of blind corners and places to hide, so you can walk right past an opposing player without knowing it until it’s too late. It happened to me a lot.

As far as the campaign is concerned, the story focuses on Private “Red” Daniels as he fights for the Allied Powers in Europe during 1944 and 1945. Yes, that includes the beaches of Normandy and D-Day. Some key aspects of the campaign mode include using health packs (first-aid kits) to heal yourself and relying heavily on the members of your squad to complete objectives and avoid dying on the battlefield. As you might expect with Call of Duty, there’s plenty of violence and gore and the gameplay I saw included multiple gruesome decapitations.

Divisions also play a big role here, as you can select which job you want to have during each match. Of course, each one comes with its own weapons, uniforms and responsibilities. There’s also a headquarters in the game where you can do all of those training exercises, including one-on-one combat. Unfortunately, Sledgehammer wasn’t showing off that Nazi zombies mode, but we already knew it would be part of the game.

I’ll have to reserve any definitive judgment on Call of Duty: WWII until I’m able to play through the campaign and spend more time getting owned in multiplayer. Thankfully, I won’t have to wait too long to do that. Sledgehammer says a private beta will be available this summer and the full game is set to launch November 3rd on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One — just in time to offer some respite from your holiday madness. Going back in time could bring fans back to the series, it’s just too early to tell how compelling a case Activision and Sledgehammer will make.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Elon Musk brings his Mars plan before the scientific community

In this month’s issue of New Space, Elon Musk outlined his plan to colonize Mars. His article discusses how to bring down the cost of Mars flights as well as some of the specs of necessary equipment.

The article is adapted from Musk’s presentation at the International Astronautical Congress and begins with an argument for why we should focus on Mars for our move towards interplanetary life. Musk then notes that with current technologies, a ticket to Mars would cost around $10 billion, which he correctly deduces is a prohibitive amount if we want to actually colonize another planet.

Getting that cost down to the median price of a house — around $200,000 — is key to making the Mars plan viable, says Musk. And he outlines four essential steps that will need to be taken if there’s any hope of doing that. First, the transportation would have to be fully reusable because any amount of waste would significantly increase the cost. And ships would need to be refilled while in orbit. Additionally, we would need to be able to produce propellant on Mars and it would have to be optimized for cost, reusability, and easy production — Musk proposes methane.

Musk then proceeds to detail the proposed engine, rocket booster and ship as well as how many ships we would need and how many people each one should be able to carry. For the crew compartment Musk says, “There will be movies, lecture halls, cabins, and a restaurant. It will be really fun to go. You are going to have a great time!”

Musk sketches a rough timeline for these events, but keeps it purposefully vague. It’s clear, however, that this is something he’s actively working towards. The fifteen-page journal article is not quite what you expect to see in a peer-reviewed journal — there are some humorously unnecessary venn diagrams and a few tables that are nothing more than bullet points. But it’s a much more flushed out write-up than we usually get from Musk. To see the presentation the article is based on, check out the video below.

Via: Eurekalert

Source: New Space