Sunday, 1 September 2024

PSA: All Astro’s Playroom Special Bots Out Now, Will Transfer to Astro Bot PS5

Astro's Playroom update for Astro Bot PS5 special bots

The final Astro’s Playroom update for all four special bots is out now, and the DLC can be carried over to Astro Bot when it launches on Friday, September 6, for the PS5. The special bots are from Bloodborne, Returnal, Gran Turismo, and Ape Escape. All four come with separate trophies in Astro’s Playroom.

Astro’s Playroom special bots update isn’t the end of celebrations for Astro Bot PS5

Alongside releasing the four special bots and a new launch trailer for Astro Bot, Sony has announced a “special celebration countdown” for the game in Astro’s Playroom. Players have until September 6 to pre-order the game and unlock costumes and paints for the DualSpeeder before everyone else.

Pre-ordering the digital edition comes with the above as well as Astro Bot’s digital artbook and soundtrack. Sony‘s really going all in on the upcoming adventure, and gauging fan response, it’s working wonders.

In case you’re having trouble unlocking the four special bots, make sure to check out Astro’s Playroom’s community on PSNProfiles, which has solutions to the most common issues players are facing.

We’ll be playing Astro Bot for our readers and will have our thoughts ready in time for the game’s launch.

The post PSA: All Astro’s Playroom Special Bots Out Now, Will Transfer to Astro Bot PS5 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.



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Saturday, 31 August 2024

Everything Shown At The Latest Nintendo Direct, Fresh Details On Dragon Age: The Veilguard, And More Of The Week's Top Stories

This week, we got a Nintendo Direct that was one part Indie World, one part partner showcase. We’ve got a roundup of every game featured in the 40-minute presentation. Also, new leaks suggest that an official announcement of Sony’s PS5 Pro is imminent, the hottest incarnation of Indy ever (Temple of Doom Indy, of…

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You'll Literally Never Guess Which Group "Crown" Belongs To In Today's NYT Connections

It’s called Labor Day Weekend, but the only work you should be doing is flipping burgers on the grill and deciding which college football game you’ll be watching as the season fully kicks off this week. Or you could fire up College Football 25 instead and see if you’re a better coach than the knucklehead who just went…

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Friday, 30 August 2024

The Morning After: X labeled an NPR story about Trump as ‘unsafe’

X briefly discouraged users from viewing a link to an NPR story about Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery. NPR reporter Stephen Fowler posted a link to a story in which he quoted an Army official who said an employee at Arlington National Cemetery was “abruptly pushed aside” during an event attended by Trump and members of his campaign earlier this week. Clicking on the story generated an X warning message saying, “this link may be unsafe.” It stated it could be malicious, violent, spammy or otherwise violate the platform’s rules. In a statement to an NPR reporter, an X spokesperson claimed the warning appeared due to a “false positive.” It’s now been removed.

It might be an innocent mistake, but X owner Musk has been a vocal supporter of Trump this election. Musk has also publicly feuded with NPR in the past — weird fight to pick — adding a “state-affiliated media” label to its account for several months last year. NPR hasn’t posted from its main account on X since the label was added.

— Mat Smith

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The PS5 Pro could be announced in mid-September and will likely hit store shelves sometime during the holiday season, according to insider information published by VGC. First of all, it’ll actually be called the PS5 Pro, with the leaker claiming to have access to the packaging design, but they didn’t feel comfortable sharing copyrighted images. However, specs? We don’t know. Disc drive option? Maybe. Other leaks have hinted at the console’s power. A YouTuber leaked apparently official documentation from Sony that shared some of the console’s specifications, but the video was pulled down at Sony’s behest. It has also been rumored the GPU will have 33.5 teraflops versus the standard PS5’s 10.28 teraflops. Don’t expect a three-times more powerful console: Recent changes in AMD’s architecture make it difficult to directly compare teraflop numbers.

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Researchers at Cornell University tapped into fungal mycelia to power a pair of proof-of-concept robots. Mycelia, the underground fungal network that can sprout mushrooms as its above-ground fruit, can sense light and chemical reactions and communicate through electrical signals. Researchers created two robots: a soft spider-like one and a four-wheeled buggy. The researchers used mycelia’s light-sensing abilities to control the machines using ultraviolet light.

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The latest round in the Spotify vs. Apple battle concerns… volume. According to Spotify, Apple “discontinued the technology” on volume buttons for Spotify Connect. Yeah, it’s baffling.

Spotify Connect allows you to sync with speakers, TVs and other devices from inside the streaming app. It works with either Bluetooth or WiFi. Apple told Spotify it requires apps to integrate with HomePod to access the technology that controls the volume on iPhones. The streaming company added this issue doesn’t affect Bluetooth or AirPlay connections, nor does it impact Android users.

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Nintendo has stopped offering repairs for the New Nintendo 3DS. Sure, it’s a decade old, but apparently Nintendo has simply run out of parts. Third-party repair platform iFixit currently has a stock of replacement parts and guides for the handheld in its online catalog. US customers can still take advantage of Nintendo’s repair service for late-model 3DS XLs. For now.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/El6s53D

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Labor Day sales to shop right now: The best tech deals we found from Apple, Amazon, Samsung and others

The final holiday weekend of summer is here and there are Labor Day sales to be had. Historically, Labor Day isn't a boon for tech deals but there are always a few decent ones that pop up, particularly in the outdoor tech space. Labor Day sales often overlap with back-to-school sales as well, so there's a good chance you can save on tech like tablets, speakers, kitchen tech, charging gear and other items that can help make for a smooth return to campus.

We've collected the best Labor Day deals on tech here, including discounted gear from Apple, Amazon, Anker and others. Particularly if you're an Amazon Prime member, just be mindful that the company's "big deal days" will return in October — if something on your list isn't on sale now, there's a chance it will be in a few weeks' time.

Apple iPad (2021) review photos
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Ooni Karu 16
Ooni
Paramount+
Paramount+
Ninja Creami
Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget
A power bank attached to a phone.
Anker

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Thursday, 29 August 2024

Meta will open up Horizon Worlds access to preteens

When I was a preteen, social media was just getting going, so there weren't many restrictions in place regarding access. Now, regulations — and the consequences of not having them — are everywhere, with the latest example coming courtesy of Meta (a case study for all the good and bad social media has to offer). Meta has announced it's opening up Horizon Worlds to preteens with parent-approved access to a Meta account.

Anyone aged 10 to 12 can soon request entry to the VR game and explore different worlds like The Space Station or Citadel. Each world is also getting a rating of ages 10+, 13+ or 18+, with ones in the last category not shown as an option to anyone 17 or younger. Parents can either approve all worlds in a specific age bracket, go through and pick specific ones or wait for their kid to send a request.

Further safety features in Horizon Worlds for preteens include the fact that voice chat is disabled for everyone except parent-approved contacts, there are no follow suggestions and there are automatic offline status and visibility settings — something only a parent can change. All parent-managed accounts will also permanently have the personal boundary feature turned on, stopping other avatars from getting too close. Plus, anyone using a Meta Quest 2 or 3 headset will have to re-enter their birthday before playing.

As thought out as these measures seem, parents and guardians might not want to trust that Meta will take care of everything without question. The company has hardly kept young people's well-being at the forefront of their decisions, with lawmakers slamming (and suing) Meta for its disregard. Nearly every state across the US has taken part in lawsuits alleging Meta hooks teenagers onto its platforms and repeatedly promotes safety features while ignoring staff pleas to devote more time and resources to protecting children. Our deep dive into all of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's dangerous decisions (including the company taking minimal action to stop adults from sexually harassing children on Facebook and Instagram) is available here.

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The Morning After: GameStop’s retro gaming pivot

GameStop has announced it’s launching a group of retro game retail locations, which will stock physical consoles, discs and cartridges from classic Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and Sega platforms. The company announced on X it’ll cover 18 classic systems, from NES through to PS Vita. You can search for retro-friendly locations within a 100-mile radius on Gamestop’s website, but most will find these stores as rare as a mint-in-box copy of Chrono Trigger.

It does make a degree of business sense for the games retailer. When most of us download our games from online stores — or get them delivered by Amazon — a combination of physical media and a degree of expertise could capitalize on GameStop’s strengths. The biggest challenge could be piracy.

— Mat Smith

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been formally charged by French prosecutors and is barred from leaving the country. Durov was officially charged on Wednesday with “complicity in distributing child pornography, illegal drugs and hacking software” on the messaging app he founded. He must stay in France “under court monitoring” and check in at a police station twice a week while the investigation continues.

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Concord
Firewalk Studios

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a first-person shooter from PlayStation. Firewalk Studios’ debut game, the 5v5 team shooter Concord, however, hasn’t captured the imagination of gamers. Is it the lackluster characters or the at-times unashamed Guardians of the Galaxy vibe theft? Well, they probably don’t help, but under 700 concurrent players on Steam (and no fanfare announcements from Sony on player counts / copies sold) point to a dud.

Anecdotally, no one’s been asking me to play the team shooter — no one’s even asked what I thought about Concord.

However, Engadget’s Kris Holt points out that PlayStation has been having a good year. Helldivers 2, published by Sony, is having a great year while the PlayStation Portal and PSVR 2 hardware continue to find willing buyers, thanks to strong support from handheld gamers. And some VR headset discounts.

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Apple’s latest iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 developer betas include a few more Apple Intelligence features. The most notable is a Clean Up tool in the Photos app, very much like Google’s Magic Eraser. The Photos app will identify distracting background elements for you, so you should be able to remove them with a tap. Otherwise, you can circle or brush over an object you want to nix. The tool is compatible with every image on your camera roll too.

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