Almost exactly two years after Rogue Legacy 2 was announced, Cellar Door Games has revealed when the sequel is coming out of early access. It will officially arrive on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on April 28th.

Cellar Door has switched up the art style, creating 3D characters that are set against hand-drawn backgrounds. There are new classes, weapons and abilities, and the studio has freshened up the procedurally created environments with fresh biome generation. There's also an heirloom system that grants heroes permanent new abilities and accessibility features designed to help "players succeed even when they’re struggling," according to a press release.

Rogue Legacy 2 has been in development for almost four years and it'll arrive nearly nine years after its predecessor. Rogue Legacy helped usher in an era of successful indie roguelikes like Hades. 

Cellar Door Games

What helped set Rogue Legacy apart from many of its peers, such as Spelunky and FTL: Faster Than Light, was a system that allowed players to continue their journey by selecting an heir of their previous character. Each heir has their own traits.

If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, you can check out Rogue Legacy for free by claiming it from the Epic Games Store. It'll be available as a freebie until April 13th. Given that it takes most players around 16 hours to complete the main story, you might even finish it in time for the sequel's proper debut.

If you're looking to build out your smart home setup, it's worth considering a bundle of two Google products that are now on sale. You can save $50 if you buy the Nest Hub smart display and Nest Cam together. They typically cost $100 each, but you can scoop them up from B&H for $150.

You'll get the second-gen Nest Hub, which Google released last year. We gave it a score of 89 in our review and felt that it had better audio than its predecessor. We appreciated Google Assistant working faster this time around as well as the lower price. The radar-powered sleep tracking feature (which doesn't require the use of a camera to detect movement) is pretty accurate too.

You can use the device to watch shows and movies from streaming services, listen to music and control your smart home devices. The Nest Hub can help keep you organized through access to your calendar, reminders and to-dos.

Google

Of course, you can use the smart display to monitor the Nest Cam as well. It's important to note this is the wired model designed for indoor use, rather than a battery-powered one you can place anywhere.

The camera can capture 1080p video at 30 fps. Google claims the infra-red LEDs allow the Nest Cam to have night vision detection for objects up to 15 feet away. There's a 135-degree diagonal field of view, two-way audio (with a noise cancellation feature) and motion detection.

Nest Cam can tell the difference between people, animals and vehicles that enter the frame (though you'll likely need to be pointing it at a window to detect the latter). You can receive alerts for various activities it observes and you can view a live feed on your phone, computer, tablet or smart display at any time. You'll get up to three hours of event video history at no extra cost, though you can subscribe to Nest Aware for features like continuous recording and detection of familiar faces.

It’s been clear for a while that bad actors are planting location trackers on other people without their knowledge to track their locations. Trackers have been used in car thefts as well. Now, Motherboard has obtained some police data that casts some light on extent of the issue.

The publication requested records mentioning Apple AirTags (which the company announced a year ago) from dozens of police departments from across the US. The requests covered an eight-month period. 

Motherboard received 150 reports from eight police departments and found that, in 50 cases, women called the cops because they received notifications suggesting that someone was tracking them with an AirTag or they heard the device chiming. Half of those women suspected the tags were planted in their car by a man they knew, such as a current or former romantic partner or their boss.

The vast majority of the reports were filed by women. There was just one case in which a man made a report after suspecting that an ex was using an AirTag (which costs just $29) to stalk him. Around half of the reports mentioned AirTags in the contexts of thefts or robberies.

Just one instance of AirTag-related stalking would be bad enough. Fifty reports in eight jurisdictions in eight months is a not insignificant number and there are likely other cases elsewhere that haven't been disclosed. Engadget has contacted Apple for comment.

Although iPhones already automatically detect unwanted nearby AirTags, Apple said in February it will do more to mitigate the issue. Later this year, it will rollout an AirTag precision tracking feature for iPhone 11, 12 and 13 to help people more easily find unknown trackers. It will also inform iPhone users more clearly when someone may be using an AirTag to follow them.

In December, Apple released an Android app to help people using phones powered by that OS detect errant AirTags. Tile updated its Android and iOS apps with a similar feature. But those require users to both be aware of the threat posed by unwanted trackers and to scan for them manually. Last week, however, it emerged that Google is exploring OS-level tracker detection for Android, which could help keep people safe should it roll out the feature.

For well over a century, baseball catchers have signaled pitches with their fingers, but that could soon become a thing of the past in the big leagues. Major League Baseball has approved the use of a system that will allow catchers to send directions to their pitchers electronically.

The PitchCom system centers around a sleeve catchers wear on their forearm. They can press buttons to identify the pitch type and location. The pitcher hears the call through a bone conduction listening device. The channels are encrypted and teams can program codewords to replace terms like "fastball" or "curveball."

According to the Associated Press, MLB is providing every team with three transmitters, 10 receivers and a charging case for the system, which works in Spanish and English. Teams can use one transmitter and up to five receivers at any time. Along with catchers and pitchers, three other fielders can use a receiver, which is tucked inside the cap. The devices can only be used on the field during games — not in clubhouses, bullpens or dugouts.

PitchCom is optional and teams can still use traditional hand signals if they wish. Around half of MLB teams are said to have expressed interest in using PitchCom. Some players tested the system during spring training and it was broadly well-received, as ESPN reports.

"I think it can be beneficial when it comes to August, September and October and you're pushing towards the playoffs, with all the scouts in the stands and eyes on you trying to decipher what you're throwing," Chicago White Sox pitcher Dallas Keuchel said. "It'll be nice not to have to go through several sets of signs."

The tech could help teams ward off the threat of sign stealing by their opponents, an issue that has hung over the sport for the last several years. The Houston Astros were infamously caught stealing signs using a camera and monitors during their run to the 2017 World Series title. Teams have even been accused of using fitness trackers to signal the opposing catcher's pitch calls. Widespread adoption of PitchCom could eliminate such attempts at cheating and help speed up games.

Meanwhile, the creators of PitchCom are working on a version of the system that will provide visual indicators of pitch calls. That's expected to be available next year.

PitchCom Sports

Ubisoft says Ghost Recon Breakpoint will no longer receive content updates, leaving the tactical shooter essentially frozen in time. In the last few months, the developers added a mode called Operation Motherland and a bunch of items. In all, Ubisoft released 11 content updates for Breakpoint. The publisher will keep the servers for both that game and its predecessor Ghost Recon Wildlands online for the foreseeable future.

Breakpoint wasn’t well received when it was released in October 2019. Ubisoft swiftly went into damage control mode to resolve some of the bugs and stability issues in the weeks after release. However, the game's perhaps best known these days for being home to Ubisoft’s first rollout of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

In December, the publisher announced plans to add NFTs (though it calls them "Digits") to its games through the Quartz platform. The news didn't go over well with players or employees, many of whom cited concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs and accused Ubisoft of trying to milk more money from consumers.

Breakpoint was the first target of the NFT project. Ubisoft gave away Digits to players, including gun skins with small, barely noticeable serial numbers. Players didn't exactly flock to buy them on secondary markets, though. An Ubisoft executive claimed in January that players could benefit from having a secondary market for in-game items, "but they don't get it for now."

"Thank you to all Ghost Recon Breakpoint players who claimed their first Digits," a message on the Quartz site reads. "You own a piece of the game and have left your mark in its history. As the last Digit for Ghost Recon Breakpoint was released on 3/17/2022, stay tuned for more updates with features to the platform and future drops coming with other games!"

Bringing development on Breakpoint to an end at this point isn't a massive surprise. It wasn't exactly designed to last as a live service title for many years, and Ubisoft is well-known for churning out sequels to its core franchises. 

Still, the move will severely diminish the perceived value of Breakpoint's NFTs. It's unlikely that interest in Breakpoint will increase in the future, which will make it more difficult for Digits owners to sell them. Holders of the NFT items won't be able to transfer them to other titles either, leaving them in possession of in-game goods with little real-world value.

Even though Breakpoint is on life support, the Ghost Recon brand isn't going away anytime soon. In October, Ubisoft announced a free-to-play battle royale title called Ghost Recon Frontline.

Epic Games has built a mobile app that can turn photos into 3D scans. Capturing Reality, a company Epic bought last year, created photogrammetric software called RealityCapture. It can quickly convert laser scans or images into 3D scans of assets. With the RealityScan app, Epic is hoping to give users access to the same tech right on their phone. 

The idea is that creatives will be able to scan real-world objects at any time to use in their projects. After you sign in with your Epic Games account, the app will prompt you to take at least 20 photos of an item. You can also hold down your finger on the capture button as you move around the object. 

After the app processes the images and turns it into a 3D object with the help of RealityCapture's servers, you can export the scan to Sketchfab (a 3D asset platform Epic also bought in 2021).

You'll then be able to sell the asset to other creatives or use them for your own 3D, virtual reality and augmented reality projects. Game developers might find the app particularly useful if they're in need of a particular item to place in a virtual environment. As it happens, Epic just opened up access to Unreal Engine 5.

Epic is testing a beta of the app with a limited number of iOS users before a broader, early access rollout on iPhone this spring. An Android version of RealityScan will arrive later this year.

Rocket Lab is developing Electron as a reusable orbital launch vehicle and it has revealed details about the next step of the program. After the rocket’s 26th launch, which is scheduled for later this month, the company will attempt to snatch the first stage out of mid-air with a helicopter.

The mission has a 14-day launch window starting on April 19th. Electron is scheduled to lift off from a launchpad in New Zealand and will carry satellites for a number of companies. 

Around an hour before launch, the helicopter will move into position approximately 150 miles off the coast. Two and a half minutes after lift off, the first and second stages of the rocket will separate, with the latter carrying the payload to orbit. The first stage will descend back to Earth. It will deploy a drogue parachute at an altitude of 13 km (8.3 miles) and its main parachute at an altitude of roughly 6 km (3.7 miles).

The Sikorsky S-92 helicopter will then attempt to retrieve the stage by snagging a hook onto the parachute line. If all goes as planned, Rocket Lab will analyze the stage to see if it's suitable for another launch. Rocket Lab has carried out three successful recoveries of Electron's first stage from the ocean on previous missions. 

"Trying to catch a rocket as it falls back to Earth is no easy feat, we’re absolutely threading the needle here, but pushing the limits with such complex operations is in our DNA," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a press release. "We expect to learn a tremendous amount from the mission as we work toward the ultimate goal of making Electron the first reusable orbital small sat launcher and providing our customers with even more launch availability.”

The company first tested the mid-air retrieval process in March 2020, when it dropped a first stage from one helicopter and another successfully snagged the parachute on the first attempt. Just over two years later, it's finally ready to try capturing the first stage of the rocket after a full launch.

As part of its hybrid work event, Microsoft revealed some system-wide features designed to improve virtual meetings on Windows 11. Some are hardware-dependent, however, so if you have an under-powered machine, they might not necessarily be available on your PC.

The features include automatic framing (which will refocus your camera on you when you move around), voice focus, voice clarity and background blur. An AI-powered feature called eye contact could make people seem more present in meetings too.

In February, Microsoft started testing a system-wide live captions feature, which could prove helpful for deaf and hard of hearing folks, as well as those for whom a meeting isn't being held in their first language. The tech generates captions for any audio content, including audio from microphones and web-based audio (such as from video platforms like Twitch and YouTube).

Microsoft

The upgrades might seem familiar to those who've spent time in video calling apps over the last couple of years. The likes of NVIDIA, Dolby, Zoom,Skype and Google Meet have tackled issues like environmental noise and visual background distractions. 

Microsoft itself announced some intelligent camera features for Teams in September and has been working to improve meetings in Teams. Integrating these features at the OS level, though, should make virtual meetings more accessible and user-friendly for more people.

June is fast approaching, which means it's almost time for Apple to hold this year's Worldwide Developer Conference. The company has announced that its WWDC 2022 event will be held between June 6th and June 10th. The conference itself will be virtual, but there will be a limited opportunity to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos in-person at Apple Park on June 6th.

The last twoWWDC events were online-only and free for everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple is gradually returning to in-person activities and will require corporate staff to work from the office at least one day per week by mid-April. Google I/O will go ahead in April with limited in-person attendance from employees and some partners.

Unless Apple changes the script dramatically at WWDC this year, we should get our first proper looks at iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16 and whatever the next version of macOS is called. There's always the possibility Apple will show off some new hardware. It hasn't done so at WWDC since 2019, when it revealed the third-gen Mac Pro and the Pro Display XDR. We could also learn more about Apple's next-gen silicon chips, a few months after it announced the M1 Ultra.

VanMoof is updating its core e-bike lineup for the first time in two years. There are two new models designed for different use cases.

The company created the S5 with longer rides in mind. It reworked the straight frame to increase the height of the riding position. It's for riders between 165 and 210 cm tall (approximately 5'5" to 6'11"). There are larger, 27.5-inch wheels and the base e-bike weighs 23kg (51 lbs).

As for the A5, that's designed more for shorter trips and city rides. It has an angled frame with a lower step-in and it's for riders between 155 and 200 cm in height (roughly 5'1" to 6'7"). It has 24-inch wheels and weighs 22kg (48.5 lbs). There's support for both rear and front carriers as well

The front one is designed to carry up to 10kg (22 lbs) and has an elastic cord to secure items. Both bikes can be equipped with rear carriers. The regular rack is designed for loads up to 15kg (33 lbs), while the heavy-duty option should comfortably support up to 27kg (59.5 lbs).

VanMoof

VanMoof has upgraded the motor on both bikes as well. With the 250W, 5V Gen 5 motor, the company says these models will provide the smoothest rides around. The motor has an e-shifter, torque sensor and integrated battery. The improved Turbo Boost will provide 68 Nm of torque, compared with 59 Nm in 2020's S3.

Both models have a 26-cell, 47V permanent battery, though there are slight differences. The S5 has a 487Wh capacity, while the A5's has a 463Wh capacity. At full power and in economy mode, the S5 will offer a range of up to 150 km (93 miles), while the A5 has a range of up to 140 km (87 miles). You can extend those by up to 140 km with the click-on battery.

Using the Gen 5 charger, you'll be able to charge the battery to 50 percent of capacity in two and a half hours and fully in six hours and 30 minutes. The speed charger shortens those times considerably. You'll be able to juice up your e-bike's battery to half capacity in an hour and to 100 percent in four and a half hours.

VanMoof

New to the S5 and A5 is a halo ring interface with LED display integrated in the handlebar. There's a phone mount with a USB-C charging port too.

The anti-theft tech includes a Gen 5 kick lock that you can arm with a tap of your foot. It'll unlock automatically when you return. VanMoof is working on certification for Apple Find My support, and it'll continue to employ its Bike Hunters. If that team can't find and recover your bike within two weeks of it being lost or stolen, it will send you a replacement.

The S5 and A5 are both pricier than the S3 and X3, which cost $2,448. They'll each cost $2,998/£2,298/€2,498. The company didn't mention when it'll ship the new models.