Nightdive Studios’ immersive sim franchise System Shock franchise is being turned into a live-action TV show. You'll be able to watch it on the upcoming streaming service Binge, which is also working on a show based on Ubisoft's Driver.

More details about the System Shock TV show will be revealed in due course. It will tell "a harrowing story of Citadel Station and its rogue AI that subjects the crew to unimaginable horror," Binge said. The service, which is set to launch next year, didn't reveal when the series will premiere.

Meanwhile, Nightdive is working on a System Shock remake. The game was supposed to arrive this past summer, but it's now scheduled to debut by the end of 2021.

System Shock joins a long list of shows and movies based on games that are in the pipeline. Among them are Twisted Metal, Firewatch, Disco Elysium and a ton of Netflix projects, like League of Legends series Arcane. Rumors are also floating around that Epic Games might be making a Fortnite movie.

Elsewhere, Sony is supposed to release the Uncharted film in February at long, long last. Has, uh, anyone happened to see a trailer lying around somewhere?

Amazon allegedly "ran a systematic campaign" of copying other companies' products in India and gamed search results to promote its own versions. Reuters obtained thousands of pages of internal documents including emails and business plans that detail the practices.

A private brands team in India (which works on the company's own products) used data from Amazon's marketplace in the country to find and target goods and create knockoff versions, the agency reported. The goal was to find “reference” or “benchmark” wares and copy them. A document from 2016 detailed a plan for an Amazon brand called Solimo, which is tailored toward the Indian market. The aim was to “use information from Amazon.in to develop products and then leverage the Amazon.in platform to market these products to our customers.”

The document indicated that the private brands group aimed to form partnerships with the manufacturers of the benchmark items, because those companies use “unique processes which impact the end quality of the product.” The team sought to gain insights from the manufacturers and use the so-called "Tribal Knowledge" in its own versions to "fully match quality with our reference product."

After it made the knockoffs, the company manipulated search results with a method called “search seeding” so that AmazonBasics and Solimo items would pop up near the top of the page, according to the document. The company also "aggressively" used a technique called “search sparkles on PC, Mobile and App to specifically promote Solimo products on relevant customer searches from ‘All Product Search’ and Category search,” per the document. Sparkles are the banners placed above search results.

"As Reuters hasn't shared the documents or their provenance with us, we are unable to confirm the veracity or otherwise of the information and claims as stated," an Amazon spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "We believe these claims are factually incorrect and unsubstantiated."

"Amazon identifies selection gaps based on customer preferences at an aggregate level only and shares this information with all sellers," the spokesperson added. "Amazon’s policy strictly prohibits the use or sharing of non-public, seller-specific data for the benefit of any seller, including sellers of private brands. This policy applies uniformly across our company to all employees — our internal teams receive regular trainings on its application and we thoroughly investigate any reports of employees acting contrary to this policy."

This is far from the first time we've heard reports of Amazon allegedly copying other companies' products. Over the years, the company has been accused of cloning the Instant Pot, Allbirds sneakers and a camera bag from Peak Design to name a few. A 2020 Wall Street Journal investigation also indicated that Amazon studied sales data of third-party products on its platform to inform the design and pricing of its own goods.

Regulators in India, the US and Europe have targeted Amazon over alleged anti-competitive practices. Reuters points out that an investigation in India is looking into whether the company unfairly promoted its own branded goods.

Just in time for the holiday season, Bose has released a new portable Bluetooth speaker designed for both strong audio performance and durability. The SoundLink Flex has an IP67 rating, meaning it's water, dust and dirt resistant, and the company even claims that the speaker will float to the surface if you drop it in water (but you should probably fish it out quickly if it drops into a bathtub or the ocean).

The silicone rear and powder-coated steel grille should protect the speaker from drops and bumps, according to Bose. The company also claims the device is resistant to UV light and corrosion and it won't peel or flake.

But it's not just the speaker's apparent toughness that makes it interesting. Bose says it packed the SoundLink Flex with features "to deliver astonishing audio performance." It claims that the custom transducer provides maximum audio clarity and "bass that you can feel in your chest.” The SoundLink Flex also has dual-opposing passive radiators, as well as Bose's digital signal processing tech, which should minimize distortion.

Bose

The speaker can detect its orientation and adjust the audio output accordingly. So, whether it's horizontal, vertical or hanging from the utility loop, the sound will be optimized. It's the company's first Bluetooth speaker that uses this Bose PositionIQ tech.

SoundLink Flex can remember up to eight Bluetooth connections to make it easy to switch from one device to another. You can adjust the settings using the Bose Connect app and control your phone's voice assistant and take calls using the speaker's microphone.

You can pair a second Bose Bluetooth speaker for stereo or simultaneous playback. The SoundLink Flex can connect to other Bose speakers and soundbars as part of a home audio system. Bose says you'll get up to 12 hours of playback on a single charge and you can recharge the lithium-ion battery with a USB-C cable.

The SoundLink Flex is just under eight inches wide, 2.1 inches deep and 3.6 inches tall. It weighs just over a pound and is available in black, white smoke or stone blue. The speaker costs $149 and you can pick it up from Bose's website starting today.

Some Snapchat users are having problems with the app this morning, with several noting on Twitter that they're unable to send snaps. The company acknowledged the outage and said it was looking into the matter. 

Outage reports from users skyrocketed on Down Detector just before 7AM ET before tapering off somewhat at around 9:30AM. A heat map indicated that reports were coming in from across the US and, at the time of writing, users are still grousing about the outage on Twitter. Engadget has contacted Snap for more details, and we'll update this post when things look like they're getting back to normal.

This is the latest big outage to affect a major social media service over the last week or so. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for more than six hours on October 4th. Facebook blamed the outage on a "faulty configuration change" that caused havoc with the DNS servers. Facebook's apps went down yet again for a couple of hours last Friday. Twitter, meanwhile, briefly had issues of its own on Tuesday evening, with tweets not loading for some users for a spell.

NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition is one of several games that's bound for Apple Arcade in the coming weeks. The follow-up to NBA 2K21, which is also available on Apple's game subscription service, includes a new mode called The Association. You can become the general manager or head coach of an NBA franchise and put together your own team by scouting rookies, making trades and scooping up free agents while managing the budget.

The game features current NBA rosters and modes including quick match, online multiplayer and Blacktop, a 3v3 street basketball option. In MyCAREER mode, you can create your own player with a custom look, position, jersey number and play style. You can run drills on a custom court to practice and level up your player in the MyCOURT mode. NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition will debut on the same date as the NBA's 75th season tips off: October 19th.

Elsewhere, a classic iPhone title is coming to Apple Arcade this Friday. Tiny Wings first made waves back in 2011 as a one-button game in which you control a bird that slides down hills and launches into the air. It's one of those simple-in-concept, great-in-execution games that works so well on a mobile device. It'll be a solid addition to Apple Arcade.

Looking further ahead, Apple has announced the sequel to tower defense game Kingdom Rush is on the way to the service too. You'll protect your domain from dragons, human-snaffling plants and other deadly enemies in Kingdom Rush Frontiers TD, which first hit iOS back in 2013. It's coming to Apple Arcade soon.

Twitter's latest test is all about how you view tweets in the app. Some users on iOS will be able to swipe between the Home feed, which shows the top tweets in your timeline, and a chronological look at the latest tweets (the proper way to use Twitter, but you do you).

It's a fairly small user interface change, but a handy one for those who dart between the two views. The current method of switching between the views is through the button on the top right of the screen, but a swipe is quicker than a couple of taps.

The update could make the app's home screen a little messier if you have pinned lists that you swipe through. Still, it could be a welcome quality of life change for some folks while making the two options more prominent.

The animated League of Legends series Arcane will hit Netflix on November 6th and Riot Games is marking the launch with an in-person immersive experience connected to the series. The publisher teamed up with Secret Cinema to host the Arcane experience, which will only be available in Los Angeles.

You'll get to explore the Undercity, where you'll delve into the origins of two LoL champions. You'll take on missions, find secret hideouts, form alliances and evade enforcers. The ending of the story will be different depending on the choices you make, so Arcane might encourage repeat visits.

Riot is pushing into another realm of entertainment here. “For the launch of Arcane, we really wanted to find the right partner who shared our vision for bringing such a rich IP and to life in an interactive, immersive way," Brandon Miao, cross-product experiences and partnerships lead for Riot Experience, said. "Bringing players new, authentic out-of-game experiences that tie back to the narrative of the show is a first for us, and something we are incredibly excited to share with players as we expand to entertainment.”

The Arcane experience will debut on November 21st and tickets cost $70. You'll get your first chance at snagging a ticket through a presale that starts on October 13th at 3PM ET. You can sign up for ticket alerts through Secret Cinema. General admission starts 24 hours later.

Secret Cinema has built a reputation for creating immersive experiences based on movies and, more recently with its Stranger Things adaptation, TV shows. This is the first time it has taken on a project with roots in gaming.

Roland's V-Moda brand is moving into the true wireless earbuds market. The initial Hexamove lineup includes two models: Lite and Pro. V-Moda says you'll get up to six hours of use on a single charge. The included charging case will bump up the playback time by 18 hours in total. The hexagonal earbuds have 6mm drivers that deliver what V-Moda describes as "powerful bass, vibrant mids and pristine highs," though there's no active noise cancellation.

The Hexamove Lite buds are available in three colors: red, white and black. There are three fitting options as well. As for Hexamove Pro, there are six custom fitting options (though it's only available in black or white). V-Moda says you'll be able to mix and match fins, ear-hooks and three in-ear fittings to discover the right combo for your ears. You can also attach the earbuds to a neck strap and stabilizer to prevent you from losing them. In addition, you'll be able to customize audio on the Pro earbuds using the equalizer tool in the V-Moda app.

The brand says both models are IPX5-rated for sweat, water and dust resistance. The Hexamove earbuds are available now from the V-Moda website and Amazon. Hexamove Lite costs $130 and a pair of Hexamove Pro earbuds will run you $170.

V-Moda

Google Cloud has added tools to help users gain a better understanding of their environmental impact as part of the company's broader efforts to combat climate change. The Carbon Footprint feature shows the gross carbon emissions linked to the electricity consumption of someone's Cloud Platform use. It displays emissions over time and can break down the data by project, product and region.

Companies will be able to roll this information into their own emissions data for internal audits and making carbon disclosures (they can export the data to Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, for instance). Google stressed that the figures relate to a user's gross carbon emissions, since the company has been carbon neutral for over a decade. It plans to run entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030.

Google Cloud will also flag applications that are not in use, as well as their carbon emissions. Google suggests that deleting apps identified by the Unattended Project Recommender will help companies mitigate security risks, lower costs and reduce their carbon footprint.

In addition, Google is bringing Earth Engine to the Cloud Platform for select users. Using satellite imagery, data sets and other tools, companies can harness Earth Engine to "track, monitor and predict changes in the Earth’s surface" caused by extreme weather events or human activity. That, Google says, will enable businesses to reduce and mitigate risks, "become more resilient to climate change threats" and save money. Companies can apply for access to Earth Engine through Google Cloud.

Last week, Google unveiled a string of features that highlight the environmental impact of consumer choices. Shopping results can promote greener options, while Google Flights started showing carbon emission estimates for almost all trips. The Nest Renew program, meanwhile, can switch your thermostat on or off depending on the availability of clean energy. In addition, Google is hoping to use AI to improve the efficiency of traffic lights and reduce pollution from idle cars.

E-bike maker VanMoof is looking to help riders get from A to B more swiftly with its first high-speed model. The VanMoof V is the company’s first hyperbike, which will be able to hit a top speed of 31 MPH (50 km/h).

VanMoof is pitching this as a car replacement for city life and longer commutes. The VanMoof V will have two-wheel drive, thicker tires, a new frame design and front and rear suspension, which could make lengthier trips more comfortable. Other features include intelligent motor control, VanMoof's Turbo Boost, a Kick Lock for keyless locking, automatic gear shifting and measures to combat theft.

Details about the e-bike's range haven't been revealed, but VanMoof noted the battery has a 700 wH capacity. The VanMoof S3 has a 504 Wh battery capacity and a promised range of 60-150 km (37-93 miles). The company sells a PowerBank accessory that can increase the range, but it's unclear whether that device will be compatible with the VanMoof V.

VanMoof

Speed limits vary across cities and counties, and the e-bike will have matching integrated speed settings. As it develops the VanMoof V, the company plans to work with lawmakers and local governments on e-bike rules, including geofencing and speed regulations.

VanMoof plans to start deliveries of the hyperbike in late 2022. The VanMoof V costs $3,498/£3,498/€3,498. The company is offering invite-only reservations for $20/£20/€20 starting today, with its current customers getting first dibs. Alternatively, you can join a waitlist on the VanMoof website. Reservation codes will be sent out periodically.