‘Yooka-Laylee’ arrives on Nintendo Switch December 14th

The wait is almost over: The whimsical, N64-styled retro platformer Yooka-Laylee will arrive on Nintendo Switch this December 14th. While versions for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in April, the game seems custom-tailored for Nintendo’s hybrid home/portable console. After all, the game was made by former Rare Ware employees (which existed more or less as a second-party studio since the NES’ hey-day) and its pick-up-and-play platforming is perfect for quick sessions on the go.

If you’ve already cleared Super Mario Odyssey and still have an itch for an old-school 3D platformer, Yooka-Laylee could be just the ticket for you. The team at Playtonic promises single JoyCon play for all eight multiplayer modes and that they had help optimizing the game for the Switch from Nintendo and engine-maker Unity (the toolset the game runs on).

“We believe we’re delivering a version Nintendo fans can be proud of,” the developer writes. You can be the judge of that yourself, and see if Playtonic scrapping the Wii U version was worthwhile, in a few short weeks.

Via: Polygon

Source: Playtonic

Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of iOS 11.2 to Developers

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming iOS 11.2 update to developers, more than a week after releasing the fourth iOS 11.2 beta, a month after releasing the first major iOS 11 update, iOS 11.1, and a week and a half after releasing the iOS 11.1.2 update.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 11.2 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

iOS 11.2 introduces Apple Pay Cash, Apple’s new peer-to-peer payments service. Apple Pay Cash works through the Messages app and is designed to allow for quick person-to-person money transfers. It’s available as a dedicated iMessage app in Messages, with cash transferred through the app.

Cash can be sent from a linked debit or credit card, while received cash is stored in an Apple Pay Cash card in Wallet that can be used for purchases or sent to a bank account.

On the iPhone X, iOS 11.2 adds a small bar underneath the icons located at the upper right side of the device on the Lock screen, which is designed to make the location of the Control Center gesture more clear. On the iPhone X, Control Center is accessed by swiping down from the top of the device.

In Control Center on all devices, there are two new informational pop-ups that are displayed when using the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth toggles. These pop-ups explain that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are disabled temporarily rather than permanently when accessed from Control Center.

In iOS 11.2, there’s support for faster 7.5W wireless charging for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus. The faster speeds will be available when using third-party wireless chargers that support 7.5W charging or more.

The update also addresses 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 these bug fixes, iOS 11.2 introduces a new Now Playing option for controlling content on the Apple TV in Control Center, redesigned camera emoji, a new loading animation for Live Photos effects, and new Live wallpapers for the iPhone X, plus it adds a feature that lets developers offer new customers discounted introductory pricing for auto-renewable subscriptions on the App Store.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Seeds Fifth macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Beta to Developers

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 update to developers, a week and a half after seeding the fourth beta and a month after releasing the macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 update.

The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.

It’s not yet clear what improvements the second major update to macOS High Sierra will bring, but it’s likely to include bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren’t addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.1.

No significant new features were discovered in the first four betas of macOS High Sierra 10.13.2, but we’ll update this post should notable changes be found in the fifth beta.

The previous update, 10.13.1, introduced fixes for some serious security flaws and brought new emoji to the macOS operating system.

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of tvOS 11.2 to Developers

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2 update to developers for testing purposes, a week and a half after seeding the fourth tvOS 11.2 update and a month after the launch of tvOS 11.1.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 11.2 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that’s installed using Xcode.

According to Apple’s release notes, the tvOS 11.2 update enables a new AVDisplayManager feature for developers, designed to allow the device to automatically switch video display modes to match the native frame rate and dynamic range of video content.

The update includes support for switching the Apple TV 4K display output to SDR for apps that are GPU-bound when running in HDR and it re-introduces the Unwatched category in Home Sharing for Movies, TV Shows, and Home Videos.

Apple says tvOS 11.2 also adds new features, bug fixes, and security improvements to the tvOS operating system.

Related Roundup: Apple TVBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Australian companies may soon be using a national facial recognition database

Your face may soon be up for sale. As per a new report from the Guardian, the Australian government might allow private companies to access the national facial recognition database. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal that both “major telecommunications companies” and financial institutions have expressed interest in using the expansive database, which contains photographic data of many Australians.

In their own creation of the database, the Australian government noted that facial recognition can aid in national security, and also has the ability to reduce certain crimes like identity fraud. And while the Attorney General’s Department noted in documents that private companies would only be allowed access to an individual’s face with his or her permission, critics are concerned about the lack of transparency and regulation of facial recognition programs.

“There are questions about whether individuals are able to make voluntary informed decisions and opt out of these schemes, even if they are aware that it is happening,” Monique Mann, a director of the Australian Privacy Foundation and a lecturer at the faculty of law at the Queensland University of Technology, told the Guardian. “If the alternative would be not being able to access important services, like opening a bank account, can you really say that customers are giving their consent freely?” Mann continued, “In practice, this program will effectively encourage private companies to build their own facial recognition databases. Once that data is created, it becomes very difficult for people to know how securely it will be stored, who it will be shared with and what information it will be connected to, and to what end.”

But how would private companies use this database? As per the partially redacted documents, “the [Attorney General’s] Department is currently in exploratory discussions with some of the major telecommunications carriers [redacted] regarding their potential use of the [Face Verification Service (FVS)].” Companies who made use of FVS would take a facial image of a customer, and send it to the “Biometric Interoperability Hub.” The hub would then use the national database to verify that image against an official government record (like a passport or driver’s license).

Companies, of course, would have to pay for each transaction, and government officials noted, “Any private sector organizations using the FVS would need to demonstrate their lawful basis to do so under the Privacy Act, and could only use the FVS where they gain a person’s consent to use their images.”

How exactly this all plays out is yet to be determined, but a privacy debate seems certain to ensue in the coming months.

Developers use 750 Raspberry Pi boards as supercomputing testbed

Developers requiring a platform to test their scalable software for supercomputers now have an inexpensive solution. Designed and built by BitScope in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, this new platform relies on the popular Raspberry Pi 3 boards – 750 of them, to be exact – that are spread out across five rack-mounted Pi Cluster Modules. This platform will eliminate the need for a $250 million investment.

“It’s not like you can keep a petascale machine around for R&D work in scalable systems software,” said Gary Grider, leader of the High Performance Computing Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “The Raspberry Pi modules let developers figure out how to write this software and get it to work reliably without having a dedicated testbed of the same size.”

Each Raspberry Pi 3 board is a self-contained miniature PC packed with a quad-core processor, 1GB of system memory, wired and wireless networking, and a handful of USB ports. That means each Pi Cluster Module consists of 600 computer cores to develop scalable software for high-performance computing (HPC), large-scale sensor network simulation, and more at a fraction of the cost needed to purchase a dedicated HPC testbed.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory currently manages the Trinity supercomputer, which consists of 19,420 “nodes,” or self-contained PCs sporting Intel Xeon processors, memory, and storage. In total, these nodes add up to four petabytes of memory, four petabytes of flash-based storage, and 100 petabytes of hard drive space. These nodes are installed in clusters, which can cost $250 million each just to build along with the added cost of keeping them cool.

That said, not every HPC platform will be the same size, and this makes developing HPC-based software difficult given the different processor “pipelines,” storage architectures, and network connections. According to BitScope, software that works on a specific HPC platform may not work correctly on a larger, scaled-out design. Spending $250 million to see if the software works on larger systems just isn’t an option for many developers.

“Cluster simulations can help to some extent but in many cases real-world issues can intervene to mitigate their effectiveness,” BitScope says. “What’s really needed is a low-cost development platform on which to research the design options and prototype new ideas without the expense of building a running a full-scale HPC cluster to do this research.”

Grider got the idea of using Raspberry Pi 3 to create a development platform after searching for a low-cost, low-power solution for the HPC software development community. Given each board costs around $35 and consumes up to 6.7 watts of power, one Pi Cluster Module would cost $5,250 just in the cards alone. That’s still not cheap, but better than dumping millions into hardware just for research and development.

The five-rack platform recently introduced during the Super Compute 2017 convention in Denver is a “pilot” system. Currently, BitScope is building Pi Cluster Modules packed with 150 Raspberry Pi 3 boards each, which will be distributed by SICORP. BitScope says that it also plans to create smaller modules packing 48 and 96 boards at a later date.

Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes Apple apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest iOS app deals available from the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Insane 60 Day Workout

Insane 60 Day Workout is the easy-to-use fitness app for tracking your Insanity workout. This app is also designed to replace the standard paper calendar that comes with the Insanity workout, allowing you to easily track your progress.

Available on:

iOS

Cassette Gold

Cassette Gold is a cassette player emulator. It plays your music and shows an animated cassette, taking you back to the era when CDs, MP3s, and iPhones were nowhere to be found.

Available on:

iOS

Colorup

Kids have long known what adults are just now discovering — coloring is the perfect way to wind down and let your imagination run wild. And what better way than with the countless choices available with a digital book and a burst of bright hues?

Available on:

iOS

Universal Image Search Pro

Search a large database of images effortlessly using this straightforward app. You’ll find search results from Google, Flickr, Bing, and more, all in one place.

Available on:

iOS

AccuView

A useful tool for artists, this app allows you to analyze an image before you take to your canvas. You can select from a variety of grids to help with your painting process.

Available on:

iOS

Perfect Me

This app claims to hold you to your promises, helping you to actually cross off items on your checklist. Your to-do list will be transferred to your calendar so that you can hold yourself accountable.

Available on:

iOS

HP Spectre x360 13 vs. Lenovo Yoga 920: Fighting for convertible 2-in-1 primacy

The 13-inch (or so) convertible 2-in-1 makes for a great all-around notebook. It’s usually thin and light enough that it makes for a passable tablet for taking notes, while still performing as well as traditional clamshell notebooks for general productivity tasks. With the advent of Intel’s eighth-generation quad-core CPUs, the form factor also provides some extra oomph for more demanding tasks like video editing while enjoying some seriously good battery life for less demanding tasks like Office work, browsing, and consuming media. In our HP Spectre x360 vs. Lenovo Yoga 920 cage match, we take a look at two refreshed 2-in-1s that make great use of Intel’s latest processors.

The Lenovo Yoga 910 and the early 2017 version of the Spectre x360 were two of our favorite notebooks. In fact, the HP has been our favorite 2-in-1 that’s best for notebook use. With their latest refreshes, both machines have taken a step forward. Now, the only question is, which one takes the lead?

 HP Spectre x360 13

 Lenovo Yoga 920

Dimensions
12.04 x 8.56 x 0.53 in
12.7 x 8.8 x 0.50 in
Weight
2.78 pounds
3.02 pounds
Keyboard
Full-size backlit keyboard
Full-size backlit keyboard
Processor
Up to eighth-generation Intel Core i7
Up to eighth-generation Intel Core i7
RAM
8GB or 16GB RAM
8GB or 16GB
Graphics
Intel UHD 620
Intel UHD 620
Display
13.3-inch IPS display
13.9-inch IPS display
Resolution
Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 166 PPI)
Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 158 PPI)
Storage
Up to 1TB PCIe SSD
Up to 1TB PCIe SSD
Networking
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1
Connectivity
USB-A 3.0, USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, SD card reader, 3.5mm combo jack
 USB-A 3.0, USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, 3.5mm combo jack
Windows Hello
Infrared facial recognition
Fingerprint scanner
Fingerprint scanner
Operating System
Windows 10
Windows 10
Battery
63 watt-hour
70 watt-hour
Price
$1,150+
$1,330+
Availability
Now
Now
Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (review coming soon)
4.5 out of 5 stars

Design

HP’s Spectre x360 13 has had great design both aesthetically and structurally, since its 2016 version. It received a new Dark Ash Silver and Copper accent color scheme in early 2017 that brought it in line with the rest of the Spectre line. Now, HP has refreshed it once again, adding in yet another color, Pale Rose Gold, and chiseling the edges to give it a sleeker and even more modern appearance.

It also shaved off a fraction of a millimeter in thickness, made the display bezels even smaller, and dropped some weight. The Spectre x360 13 is now just about as thin, light, and good looking as possible, while retaining a solid build quality that’s compromised only by the slightest bit of give when squeezing the lid a bit too hard.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The Lenovo Yoga 920 also received a refresh over the Yoga 910 that preceded it. The aesthetic differences are less striking, with some subtle changes such as additional angles providing a slightly cleaner overall appearance and a total of three subtler color schemes (Platinum, Bronze, and Copper). The Yoga 920 is also fractionally thinner, with smaller display bezels allowing a reduction in overall width and depth as well. Even better — Lenovo managed to trim down the bezels without having to relocate the webcam.

That’s a very important improvement over the Yoga 910. Given that the Yoga 920 sports a 13.9-inch display versus the Spectre’s 13.3-inch version, Lenovo manage to pack a lot of PC into a relatively svelte frame. The Yoga 920 is also built like a tank, and it’s one of the most robust 2-in-1’s on the market today.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

In the end, we liked the Spectre x360 13’s lighter weight (2.78 pounds versus 3.02 pounds) and smaller chassis, and we also find the HP’s design to be stand out more in a crowded field. You’ll like the Yoga 920 better if you want to fade into the background, but the Spectre x360 13 strikes a better balance between modern good looks and conservative understatement. It’s a tough call, but in the end, we have to give the nod to HP.

Winner: HP Spectre x360 13

Performance

Both the Yoga 920 and the Spectre x360 13 are equipped with one of the latest and greatest mobile CPUs, the eighth-generation Intel Core series, both in i5 and i7 versions. Our review units used the Intel Core i7-8550U, the high-end chip in the series. This chip packs in four cores, doubling the previous generation, while managing clock speeds to provide awesome performance when needed and great efficiency when battery life is paramount. Both HP and Lenovo managed to squeeze great performance out of processors, but the Yoga 920’s slightly larger chassis gave it a thermal advantage over the Spectre x360 13.

That’s most apparent in our Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video to H.265. There, the Yoga 920 took a very short 613 seconds to complete the task, while the Spectre x360 13 took slightly longer at 723 seconds. That’s still a great result compared to seventh-generation CPUs that typically take more than 1,000 seconds, and both the HP and the Lenovo are closely matched in the shorter Geekbench 4 benchmark.

The Yoga 920, therefore, wins this round, but not by a significant margin — both 2-in-1s are remarkably good performers that can tackle some high-end tasks in a pinch. It’s worth noting that while the Yoga 920’s CPU performance is slightly better, the Spectre x360 13’s solid-state drive (SSD) was significantly faster in reading information.

Winner: Lenovo Yoga 920

Keyboard, Mouse, and Pen

The HP Spectre x360 13’s keyboard is unchanged from the previous version’s — and that’s a good thing. We found it to be a snappier and more precise keyboard that let us get up to speed more comfortably than the Yoga 920’s stiffer version. The HP’s touchpad uses Synaptic drivers rather than the more responsive Microsoft Precision Touchpad protocol, but we also found the Yoga 920’s Microsoft Precision touchpad to be a bit uncharacteristically twitchy. Both machines sport equally responsive touch displays that make swiping and tapping a breeze.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Finally, while the Yoga 920’s active pen is more precise, with the more modern 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity versus the Spectre x360 13’s 1,024, the latter supports tilt, has a rechargeable battery, and its built-in gyroscope lets it function as a sort of “laser pointer” for giving presentations. It’s better for productivity than for artists, but that makes sense for this class of machine. Along with the superior keyboard, that compels us to aware the HP the win.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Winner: HP Spectre x360 13

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity, the Spectre x360 13 and Yoga 920 are mostly equally well-equipped. They both have a single USB-A 3.0 port, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 support, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack, to go along with 2×2 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. That makes them both able to handle legacy devices while being future-proof, with the expansive display options, high-end peripheral, and external GPU support provided by Thunderbolt 3 compliance.

The only differences are that HP includes an SD card reader, which is new to this refresh, and it offers both infrared facial recognition and a fingerprint reader for Windows 10 Hello support. The Yoga 920 makes due with just the ability to swipe a finger to log in, and there’s no SD card support.

These are small things but they save the need for another dongle and provide more password-less login flexibility — and those are good things in our book. The Spectre x360, therefore, edges out the Yoga 920 in this category.

Winner: HP Spectre x360 13

Display

We found the Spectre x360 13’s 13.3-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 166 PPI) display to be average at best. Its contrast, brightness, and color support were all smack dab in the middle of the pack, according to our colorimeter, while subjectively we enjoyed the display but thought it was just the slightest bit too light for watching video. It’s also a step down from the display HP sourced for the 2016 version, which was better across the board.

The Yoga 920’s 13.9-inch Full HD (158 PPI) display was only marginally better. Its contrast and color support were slightly superior, its brightness was almost identical, and its gamma was perfect and so video was neither too bright nor too dark. At the same time, it’s not as sharp given its slightly larger dimensions but equal resolution — pixel peepers will find more to complain about. In the end, while the Yoga 920’s display tested slightly better, we really couldn’t tell much of a quality difference in day-to-day use. And, it’s worth noting that average displays today are significantly better than high-end displays just a few years ago.

Where HP wins out is in terms of the displays that are available for its 2-in-1. Both machines have 4K UHD options (3,840 x 2,160, or 331 PPI for the HP and 317 PPI for the Lenovo), but the Spectre x360 13 also inherits the HP Sure View privacy screen from the business-class Elitebook x360 G2. If you work with sensitive data that you want to keep safe from prying eyes, then the HP is the better choice. But overall, we’ll have to call it a draw given the slight drop in quality in the newest version of the Spectre x360.

Winner: Draw

Portability and Battery Life

Intel’s eighth-generation CPUs are demonstrating themselves to be incredibly efficient when performing typical productivity tasks. They’ll burn through the battery like a knife through butter if you’re encoding video, but scale back to Office, web browsing, or watching a movie and they’ll sip power like teetotalers. We were therefore hopeful that both 2-in-1s would provide some decent battery life.

As it turns out, we were impressed with both. The Spectre x360 13 packs in 63 watt-hours of battery life to the Yoga 920’s 70 watt-hours, while sporting a smaller Full HD display. In the end, the HP’s slightly lower performance when pushing the CPU hard and its smaller screen resulted in much better battery life in our aggressive Basemark browser benchmark test and just slightly better battery life when browsing the web and looping a local video.

When two machines can play video for roughly 14 hours, that’s impressive. But the Spectre x360 13 provides nearly as good performance for more demanding tasks while lasting significantly longer on a charge (51 minutes longer, in fact), and that’s nothing to sneeze at. In addition, it’s lighter frame make it easier to carry around and throw in your bag.

Winner: HP Spectre x360 13

Availability and Price

Both the Spectre x360 13 and the Yoga 920 sit firmly in the premium notebook space, especially in the configurations we tested. When equipped with the Core i7-8550U, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a Full HD display, the Spectre x360 13 retails for $1,250 while the Yoga 920 lists for $1,330. Looking at the highest configurations that up the RAM to 16GB, the SSD to 1TB, and the display to 4K UHD, and the HP costs $1,800 while the Lenovo comes in at $2,000.

In short, you’ll save a little money on the low end and considerable cash on the high end. If you’re pinching pennies, then you’ll find the Spectre x360 13 to be the more frugal option.

Winner: HP Spectre x360 13

The HP Spectre x360 13 eeks out the win, but only narrowly

Picking a winner between two such excellent machines was indeed a difficult task. Yes, the HP wins most of our categories, but the wins are very narrow. The Spectre x360 13 doesn’t blow the doors off of the Yoga 920 in any single aspect.

However, when using each machine, it’s the whole gestalt that gives the Spectre x360 13 the win. Pick the two machines apart and neither comes out on top. But take each one as a whole and the HP just feels better in actual use. We feel completely comfortable recommending either, but with a gun put to our heads, we’d have to say that the HP Spectre x360 13 is ultimately the better convertible 2-in-1.

Apple invites you to channel your inner animoji, touts Face ID in latest ads

Apple first introduced the concept of the Animoji to the world when it launched the iPhone X, and since then the concept has, for good or ill, kind of taken off. One of the most popular ways to make use of the new feature is Animoji Karaoke — a trend that Apple is capitalizing on in its latest advertising campaign.

Apple hinted at an Animoji karaoke video of its own when it launched the iPhone X in September, in which you could see a monkey mouthing the words to a song. At the time, it was just a snippet of a launch video — and now we have a full video.

The trend started gaining steam on Twitter a few weeks ago, and since then hundreds of users have posted videos of their own. Apple’s video opens with Animoji heads bopping along to the music, until the words start — at which point you start to see the models who were used to capture the motion for the Anomoji.

This isn’t the only new Apple ad aimed at promoting the new iPhone X. Apple has actually launched a series of four new ads, each of which was made to promote different standout features of the device. One such ad, for example, shows a user unlocking their iPhone X in the dark using Face ID, helping dispel some of the concerns with the technology, such as that it won’t work in the dark. Another ad shows how the feature will adapt as your face changes — whether it be through things like new glasses, or facial hair, or a haircut, or makeup. In one of the videos, Apple boasts that Face ID is “the most unforgettable magical password ever created.”

Not only that, but these ads come one week after Apple launched its annual holiday video. In that video, the company showed off the AirPods, iPhone X, and iPad Pro — which it touts as a PC replacement.

Apple has a long history of successful ad campaigns, and its latest will likely extend that trend. As we head into the holiday season, Apple is poised to make a killing, thanks in large part to the iPhone X.

How to change the screen refresh rate on the Razer Phone

How to turn your Razer Phone up to 120(Hz).

The Razer Phone comes with an astonishing 120Hz display, capable of offering high frame-rate gaming like we’ve never seen before in a smartphone. However, by default, it’s not 120Hz, and if you want that high refresh rate you’ll need to enable it yourself.

Fortunately it’s ridiculously easy:

Go into the phones Settings.
Scroll down to Display.
Tap on Refresh rate.
Choose from the three options in front of you: 60Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz.

Out of the box, the Razer Phone is smack in the middle, at 90Hz. If you’re wanting to experience the very best from some of the specially optimized games like Titanfall Assault and Vainglory, you’ll want to turn on the 120Hz option.

There doesn’t seem to be any serious detriment to battery life by operating at 120Hz, but it’s good you get the choice in any case.

More: Razer Phone review