NVIDIA GPUs are ‘Star Wars’ merch now

It’s easy to find flashy video cards that look good through a case window, but NVIDIA may have just kicked things up a notch. It’s releasing two Star Wars-themed GeForce Titan Xp Collector’s Edition GPUs that are very nearly art pieces, if also a classic example of arbitrary movie tie-ins. The Galactic Empire card is lit up in a sinister red and has a casing reminiscent of the dark, orderly nature of the Death Star, while the Jedi Order card is lit in a friendlier green and has the “battle-worn” finish you’d expect of Rebel gear. There are even nods to the hilt of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber.

These are Titan Xp cards, so they’ll be extremely quick… and extremely expensive. Each card will sell for the same $1,200 as a standard Xp, so you’d better wear your Star Wars fandom on your sleeve if you’re going to justify these (especially if you want an SLI setup with both cards). Also, you’ll need be a GeForce Experience member to get in early. The GPUs will be generally available on November 17th, but Experience members can pre-order on November 8th. It’s up to you to decide whether or not these boards merit the effort, but look at it this way: if you’re already the sort to spend hundreds on RGB lighting and liquid cooling, what’s a few hundred more for conversation-worthy graphics?

Source: NVIDIA (1), (2)

Samsung’s hardy Galaxy S8 Active comes to Sprint and T-Mobile

It used to be that getting one of Samsung’s toughened-up Active phones meant signing up with AT&T. What if you’d rather not switch carriers just to make sure your phone can survive a hiking trip without a case? As of now, you (probably) won’t have to make that choice. Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S8 Active will be available through Sprint and T-Mobile later in November, with the latter network selling it online as of November 17th (in stores on the 22nd). You won’t get the desert-themed titanium gold color (just meteor gray), but you’re getting everything else that your AT&T friends have had since August.

The S8 Active shares much in common with the standard S8, including the processor, cameras and 64GB of expandable storage. Really, it’s all about a design that can take a bruising: the bumper-clad design can take falls from up to 5 feet high, and the flat 5.8-inch screen is designed to be shatter-resistant. Naturally, dust and water resistance are part of the package. There’s only one internal change, but it’s a big one — the S8 Active touts a hefty 4,000mAh battery (versus 3,000mAh on the regular S8) that should last through day-long adventures.

Sprint hasn’t detailed pricing as of this writing, but T-Mobile will sell the S8 Active for $30 per month over 2 years (plus $100 down), or $820 outright. That’s not a trivial outlay, especially when the base S8 is several months old, but it could be justifiable if you can’t stand the thought of your phone breaking mid-expedition.

Source: Samsung Newsroom, T-Mobile

What we’re playing: ‘Super Beat Sports’ and ‘Animal Crossing’

Welcome back to Gaming IRL, a monthly segment where several editors talk about what they’ve been playing in their downtime. This month we’ve been loving Super Beat Sports and Stardew Valley and taking an early look at Nintendo’s Animal Crossing mobile game. But first, let Kris Naudus tell you about the scariest dating sim she’s ever played.

This article contains spoilers for ‘Doki Doki Literature Club.’

Doki Doki Literature Club

Kris Naudus
Senior Editor, Database

It’s sort of impossible to not have expectations when you start a game. I certainly had preconceived notions when I began playing Doki Doki Literature Club. I’d seen headlines that proclaimed it one of the scariest games of the year, and I certainly knew I was in for something… interesting when one of the opening screens warned that people with depression should not play.

The game looks like another dating sim, with your main character wooing the girl of his choice from among three options: the cheerful best friend (Sayori), the quiet geeky lady (Yuri) and the nasty but secretly nice freshman (Natsuki). Your courtship is conducted by writing poems, angling your word choices toward the girl you hope to end up with. I found the whole thing rather tedious. But when the girls would show me their own works of poetry, the cracks started to show. They were weird. They were unsettling. Clearly we were heading somewhere outside of the normal bounds of otome games.

The more I progressed with sensitive girl Yuri, the more my relationships with the other girls unraveled. Monika, the president of the eponymous literature club, was catty and passive-aggressive. Natsuki hated me. Sayori confessed that she suffered from severe depression. But it was when Sayori revealed her true feelings to me that things fell apart.

I could either tell her I loved her or reject her with an affirming “You’re my best friend.” I became disgusted with the game. I was angered by the obvious emotional blackmail, even if Sayori never actually said, “I will hurt myself if you reject me.” I had already committed myself to choosing Yuri. So I rejected Sayori. And the game did exactly what I expected it to.

Still, I felt awful, and resolved to do “right” by her on my next playthrough.

That’s one of the things we count on with video games. You live, you die, you live again. You can always reload your last save, start from the beginning of the board or even reset and do the whole thing all over again. This is especially important with visual novels and dating sims, where you might want to play it again to see all the paths untaken. This is expected enough that some games now count on it, requiring multiple playthroughs to reach the “true” ending like the Zero Escape series, or rewarding you with new story paths and game modes like Hatoful Boyfriend does.

Doki Doki Literature Club punishes you.

I figured I’d pick Sayori the next time around, if only to see what her story would have been like, to see how things would have been different if only I had just chosen her. But when I loaded the game, she was nowhere to be found. She had been removed from the game.

The choices are always wrong. You’re always going to fail.

So, with that choice removed, I made a play for Natsuki instead. And while I did everything I was supposed to do, I somehow ended up getting scenes with Yuri again and again and again, until… well, things continued to go wrong.

In the end, that’s the real horror of Doki Doki. In visual novels, you’re supposed to make choices and have those decisions matter. Sometimes you’re wrong and you fail, but you try again. Here, the choices are always wrong. You’re always going to fail. The game will emotionally abuse you as long as you continue to play. It will even break down the fourth wall to do it, something that made me scream, even though I knew the entire time it was just a game.

I’m constantly reminded of the ending of War Games, where “the only winning move is not to play.” And if you never open Doki Doki Literature Club, all of the girls get to live and be happy. Or not. It’s Schrödinger’s cat, but in a file folder.

Opening this box made me feel awful. But it also constantly surprised me. It’s like riding a roller coaster, or watching a jump scare in a horror movie. You feel a terrible shock for a brief moment, and then you find yourself laughing afterwards. Doki Doki didn’t make me laugh, but it subverted my expectations and denied my choices so brazenly, I can’t help but smile a bit.

Stardew Valley

Rob LeFebvre
Contributing Writer

Oh, I do love Stardew Valley on the Nintendo Switch. I’ve just gotten through winter, my least favorite season so far, and my virtual farm is finally shaping up again. I’ve got beanstalks, parsnips and a few other “springtime” seeds in the ground, and I’m watering them daily with my upgraded watering can, which can pour across three different plants at once. I’ve got a full chicken coop with four egg-layers in there and a barn with a couple of cows that just started producing milk. I know pretty much all of the folks in town, including the wizard and that weird ancient mariner who has a magic amulet he refuses to sell to me.

If video games are all about a sense of progression and mastery, Stardew Valley ticks all the boxes. It’s clearly inspired by the Harvest Moon games, though it also has a touch of Animal Crossing thrown in for good measure. You are given a farm by a relative and tasked with meeting the residents, amassing a fortune and (of course) growing crops and raising animals. That’s really not the whole of it, though.

Stardew Valley offers quite a bit of exploration, combat (while in the deep mines — I’ve only made it down to level 65) and supernatural mystery to boot, with a haunted community center, the aforementioned wizard and some weird totems scattered around town. There are holiday festivals for each major season change too. Taking it on the go is even better; I’ve whiled away plenty of time, while waiting for my kid to finish a piano lesson, harvesting blueberries and fighting off slimes in the mines. Overall, Stardew Valley is a charming title with a ton of things to do; you won’t get bored if you enjoy the gentle Zen of growing crops and exploring your little corner of the world.

Super Beat Sports

Timothy J. Seppala
Associate Editor

Like many others, I got my first exposure to Harmonix’s work through Guitar Hero 2. But outside of The Beatles: Rock Band, I didn’t spend a ton of time with the studio’s band-simulator franchise. Usually I didn’t have friends around to play it with, and lugging out a plastic drum set for a quick song was always a pain. I’ve loved the studio’s one-off games like Rock Band Unplugged for PSP and Rock Band Blitz for consoles, though, because they took what I loved about the full-on games — awesome licensed music and beat-matching gameplay that was second to none — and stripped away the bulky plastic instruments. Imagine my surprise when I fired up the team’s Nintendo Switch effort Super Beat Sports and discovered it was basically a portable Rock Band in disguise.

I’m talking specifically about the “Whacky Bat” mini game. On the surface, it looks like a simple batting practice exercise, with adorable pink monsters hurling baseballs at you in time with music. You have to knock them back from whence they came, using audio cues to get the timing right. It all seemed a little familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. After a few rounds of this, I unlocked “Pro Mode,” which had me facing down multiple monster pitchers across five lanes, swapping between each. That’s when it hit me: This was basically one of the pared-back Rock Band games on my Switch.

The balls are the note gems; each pitcher’s lane is the note highway; and swinging my hockey stick (it makes sense in the game) to the beat, keeping a streak going, is nailing a full combo on a plastic instrument. Of course, there are other mini-games (“Net Ball,” a take on volleyball, and “Gobble Golf” are great as well) and deeper multiplayer offerings, but none of them grabbed me quite like “Whacky Bat.”

Super Mario Odyssey is one of the best games I’ve played in years, sure, but I’d rather experience that at home on my TV with surround sound. If I’m on the go, you can bet I’m playing Super Beat Sports.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Aaron Souppouris
Features Editor

On first impression, I was as entranced by Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as I was by New Leaf on the 3DS. Just as Fire Emblem Heroes is exactly what I want from a mobile Fire Emblem game, Pocket Camp seemed to be the perfect distillation of what makes the series so special. You shuffle around, solving various animals’ problems (mostly by gathering fruit, bugs or fish), and in return you get materials to add furniture to your campsite and camper. Pick the right objects and animals will come visit your camp, making space for more characters to appear around the game’s small world. It’s a nice loop that works great on mobile.

After a week or so, though, I felt like I was running out of things to do. The NPCs were giving me similar lines of dialogue, and the challenges were all the same. Perhaps that’s by design. A lot of the game seems to hinge around real people — you can make friends with people you know and don’t, and then team up to complete challenges or wander around their campsite looking at how they’ve chosen to decorate it. Because I played the game on a throwaway account, I’ve been unable to add any people I actually know to the game, and the world Nintendo has crafted began to feel oddly dull and lifeless.

This isn’t really Nintendo’s fault. I jumped through hoops to download Pocket Camp early, essentially lying to my iPhone until it believed I was living in the Sydney Opera House. I’m cautiously optimistic that when the game is released worldwide later this month, I’ll find more to do, because I’ll be playing with friends.

The other lingering question is about the payment structure. Pocket Camp is free to play, and the gifts that Nintendo gives away to new players dry up very quickly. Doing anything after a week seemed to take forever unless I paid to speed things up. Fire Emblem Heroes mostly strikes a good balance here, providing enough hooks for big spenders to keep spending while ensuring that you could choose never to part with real money and still have fun. That equilibrium doesn’t seem to be there for Pocket Camp.

This is definitely Animal Crossing; it’s just not very good right now. But even with these pre-launch issues, I’m still hopeful. The monthly updates to Fire Emblem Heroes over the past eight months have consistently improved it, and if Nintendo pays that much attention to Pocket Camp, it could grow into a great game.

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

Instagram opens its paid post tools to more ‘influencers’

In June, Instagram introduced a new tool that makes sponsored content a little more obvious. The feature allows users posting images and stories that qualify as ads to make that clear right up top with a “Paid partnership with [brand]” tag. That tool was expanded to more users in August and now, Instagram has made it available to users with a high level of engagement and anyone with access to its Insights data — Instagram’s analytics tool for those with a business account. Additionally, those that can use the tool will also begin receiving notifications when Instagram systems detect a post that could be an ad but hasn’t been tagged as such.

Making ads stand out from other Instagram posts is good for consumers but it’s also becoming more and more necessary as the FTC continues to crack down on celebrities and influencers who aren’t complying with its advertising regulations. In April, the FTC sent over 90 letters to individuals it found weren’t disclosing ads properly and followed up with another 21 in September that required responses from the recipients detailing if they were getting some sort of payment from brands in their posts and how they were planning to make sure they disclose those relationships properly. A Mediakix study released in June found that 93 percent of ads posted by top celebrities weren’t disclosed in the manner required by FTC regulations.

Instagram’s paid partnership tag is a step in the right direction, but the FTC says it might not be enough. During a Twitter chat hosted by the agency in September, it said that it didn’t think these sorts of built-in tools sufficed.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Instagram

Apple Pay Cash is available in iMessage to iOS 11.2 beta users

If you’ve been waiting like we have for Apple to finally launch its Venmo-like competitor after the release of iOS 11, now’s the time. According to reports at TechCrunch and CNET, Apple is soft launching peer-to-peer money transfer via iOS 11.2 beta right in the Messages app.

You and the recipient of your money will need to have the latest iOS 11.2 public beta installed on your phone to opt-in, but once you do, you’ll apparently be able to send money to your friends right in Apple’s messaging app. According to TechCrunch, you’ll see an Apple Pay button in the apps area of the Messages app. Tapping that will let you initiate a payment, as will asking for money in a message or tapping on a message from your friend that asks for cash.

CNET notes that funding will come from debit or credit cards you’ve already set up in Apple Pay, and there will be no fee for debit cards, a small fee for credit cards. Money received will apparently be available immediately or transferred into a bank account with a short waiting period. You’ll need at least $10 loaded into Apple Pay Cash to use it, and you’ll need to have two-factor authentication enabled. The site also reports that you can initiate Apple Pay Cash payments in Siri and Contacts, as well.

Via: CNET

Source: TechCrunch

Apple Glasses Rumors Resurface as iPhone Supplier Tapped to Make Parts for Augmented Reality Product

Catcher Technology, a Taiwanese company that manufacturers metal casings for Apple products like iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, will make parts for an augmented reality product, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Apple Glasses concept via Gadgets Arena
Catcher chairman Allen Horng reportedly said augmented reality products “need to look good” and “be light enough to wear.”

“Based on what we have learned, [new AR products] need to look good and be light enough to wear … that makes the casings for such device very complicated to manufacture and there are still a lot of challenges to overcome currently,” Catcher Chairman Allen Horng told analysts and reporters in an earnings conference on Tuesday.

Horng would not disclose which company was behind the augmented reality product, but given the comments and Catcher’s relationship with Apple, the report has reignited speculation about so-called Apple Glasses.

Apple is reportedly exploring digital glasses that would connect wirelessly to iPhones and “show images and other information in the wearer’s field of vision.” The company supposedly has prototyped “several different kinds” of wearable augmented reality products, but a launch is still far away.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has repeatedly expressed a “profound interest” in augmented reality, recently said “the technology itself doesn’t exist” to make the glasses “in a quality way.” He said there are “huge challenges” with “the display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face.”

Jeff Pu, an analyst at Taipei-based Yuanta Investment Consulting, believes Apple’s glasses will go on sale as soon as the end of 2019. Earlier reports mentioned 2018 as a possible timeframe, but that sounds increasingly unlikely.

Today’s report marks the second time Catcher Technology has surfaced in the Apple rumor mill this week. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on Monday said the company will supply Apple with “more complex” metal frames for iPhones launching in 2018 for the purpose of improving cellular signal and data transmission.

Related Roundup: Apple VR Project
Discuss this article in our forums

Fix for iOS Autocorrect Bug Reportedly Arrived in Latest Developer Beta, Coming to Public Beta This Week

For well over a week, many iOS 11 users have been noting a strange autocorrect bug plaguing their devices, which autocorrects the letter “i” to the uppercase letter “A” and a question mark symbol. Apple has issued a support document to help anyone facing the problem figure out a temporary workaround, but The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the bug has been fixed in the second iOS 11.2 developer beta released yesterday.

A few MacRumors forum members also mentioned a fix appearing in the second developer beta of iOS 11.2, although none seem to have yet confirmed the fix is implemented, likely because they never faced the bug in the first place. In The Wall Street Journal’s report, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that an update fixing the problem “will be included in this week’s public and developer beta releases.”

A window for the non-beta fix wasn’t given by Apple, but the company said the wide release rollout will follow, which was expected. At this point, it’s unclear whether Apple will introduce the autocorrect bug fix in a quick update, or wait and launch it in iOS 11.2. It’s been one week since iOS 11.1 launched, so 11.2 will probably not drop until later in November.

Nevertheless, Apple said it would patch the problem in an iOS update. “A fix will be released very soon,” an Apple spokeswoman said. It will be included in this week’s public and developer beta releases, with wide rollout to follow.

Although Apple originally stated that the bug was related to iOS 11.1, Apple confirmed that it “could also appear in earlier versions of iOS 11.” Both The Wall Street Journal and multiple MacRumors forum members mentioned seeing the issue surface on devices running iOS 11.0.3.

If you are having trouble with the bug, Apple’s temporary solution is to set up a Text Replacement for the letter “i” by visiting the Settings app > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. After tapping the plus button to add a new replacement, in the Phrase field type an uppercase “I”, and in Shortcut type a lowercase “i”.

You can also toggle “Predictive” off completely in the Keyboard section of Settings, although that would greatly hinder the keyboard usability for many users. Third-party keyboard apps like Gboard are also available to type on without having to worry about the autocorrect bug.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Discuss this article in our forums

New ‘Pixelmator Pro’ Photo Editing App Launching November 29 for $59

Earlier this year, the team behind the popular Pixelmator photo editing app for iOS and Mac announced plans to unveil a new pro-level Mac app, Pixelmator Pro.

At the time the app was announced in September, the Pixelmator team had not provided a release date, but today announced that the new software will be coming on November 29.

Pixelmator Pro features a reimagined editing workflow with simplified editing tools and intelligent image editing features powered by machine learning. It uses a single-window interface and has been built from the ground up for the Mac.

The software uses the new Core ML framework built into macOS High Sierra to power a range of features like automatic horizon detection, a faster and smarter quick selection tool, and an improved repair tool for effortlessly removing objects from photos.

Nondestructive color adjustment tools are available for editing the colors in photos, and there are tools for easily resizing and rearranging layers, plus there’s an entirely new painting engine and dynamic paint blending technology powered by Metal 2.

When it launches on November 29, Pixelmator Pro will be priced at $59, a special introductory price. The Pixelmator team plans to raise the price eventually as new updates and features are added, with the intended price for the software set at $99. As with the current Pixelmator app, Pixelmator Pro will be a one-time purchase and updates will be provided to customers for free.

Tag: Pixelmator
Discuss this article in our forums

Corephotonics Sues Apple Over Dual-Lens Cameras in iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus

Corephotonics, an Israeli maker of dual-lens camera technologies for smartphones, has filed a lawsuit against Apple this week alleging that the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus infringe upon four of its patents.

The patents, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office between November 2013 and June 2016, relate to dual-lens camera technologies appropriate for smartphones, including optical zoom and a mini telephoto lens assembly.

• U.S. Patent No. 9,402,032
• U.S. Patent No. 9,568,712
• U.S. Patent No. 9,185,291
• U.S. Patent No. 9,538,152

Corephotonics alleges that the two iPhone models copy its patented telephoto lens design, optical zoom method, and a method for intelligently fusing images from the wide-angle and telephoto lenses to improve image quality.

iPhone X isn’t listed as an infringing product, despite having a dual-lens camera, perhaps because the device launched just four days ago.

Corephotonics showed off some of its technologies at Mobile World Congress last year. In particular, it demonstrated software capable of combining the images of two separate camera lenses to create a more detailed picture, including the ability to optically zoom up to 5x with no moving parts.

Corephotonics, founded in 2012, describes itself as a pioneer in the development of dual camera technologies for mobile devices. The company’s founders, led by Tel Aviv University professor Dr. David Mendlovic, have decades of experience in the fields of optics and miniature digital cameras.

In its complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by MacRumors, Corephotonics said one of its first acts as a company was to contact Apple. Despite receiving “many encouraging reports” and “positive feedback” from the iPhone maker, the companies never reached a license of any kind.

As one of its first acts as a company, Corephotonics reached out to Apple in the hopes of establishing a strategic partnership. Corephotonics received many encouraging reports and positive feedback from Apple about its technology, but the parties never concluded a license to the Corephotonics technology.

Corephotonics said Apple proceeded to release the iPhone 7 Plus with a dual-lens camera in September 2016, and has been willfully infringing upon its patents since that time. Corephotonics says Apple has knowledge of its patents, one of which the iPhone maker allegedly submitted as prior art in a patent application.

Corephotonics even claims Apple’s “lead negotiator” said it “would take years and millions of dollars in litigation” before Apple might owe anything.

In fact, after one failed effort to negotiate a license, Apple’s lead negotiator expressed contempt for Corephotonics’ patents, telling Dr. Mendlovic and others that even if Apple infringed, it would take years and millions of dollars in litigation before Apple might have to pay something.

It’s worth noting that Apple acquired another Israeli camera company, LinX Imaging, back in 2015. LinX also specialized in creating multi-aperture camera equipment for mobile devices, and Apple presumably incorporated some of its technologies into the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus cameras.

Corephotonics is seeking damages of an amount to be proven in a jury trial, plus permanent injunctive relief. The complaint was filed with a U.S. District Court in Northern California, where Apple is headquartered.

Related Roundups: iPhone 7, iPhone 8Tag: patent trialsBuyer’s Guide: iPhone 8 (Buy Now), iPhone 8 (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Releases Second Public Beta of iOS 11.2 for Public Beta Testers

Apple today released the second public beta of iOS 11.2 to its public beta testing group, one week after releasing the first public beta and a little over a week after the release of iOS 11.1, the first major update to the iOS 11 operating system.

Beta testers who are members of Apple’s beta testing program will receive the iOS 11.2 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.

Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple’s beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. iOS betas are not always stable and should not be installed on a primary device.

Apple is allowing public beta testers to test Apple Pay cash starting with today’s iOS 11.2 beta. iOS 11.2 beta 2 also fixes an autocorrect bug plaguing many people. The bug autocorrects the letter “i” to “A[?].” Apple has recommended a temporary workaround in the form of a Text Replacement, but the problem will be fixed for good once iOS 11.2 is released.

iOS 11.2 fixes an animation bug in the Calculator app that caused some numbers and symbols to be ignored when entered in rapid succession. The update removes the animations from the calculator app so calculations can be done quickly with no need to pause between entering numbers to obtain the correct result.

In addition to the Calculator bug, iOS 11.2 introduces a new Now Playing option for controlling content on the Apple TV in Control Center, redesigned camera emoji, and a new loading animation for Live Photos effects.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Discuss this article in our forums