R2-D2 might be the most beloved character in the entire Star Wars universe. But some might change their tune about the adorable droid if he becomes too annoying in his latest form: a Tamagotchi.
Disney and Bandai have teamed up to bring Artoo to the pockets of fans who don't mind training, cleaning and looking after a needy, digital version of the droid wherever they are. The egg-shaped R2-D2 Tamagotchi will be available in two color schemes. There's a mostly white model that looks like the droid, and a transparent blue model. As you might expect from a Tamagotchi, you'll interact with the toy using three physical buttons.
There are 19 skills for Artoo to learn. You'll need to keep him charged and clean. It's unclear as yet whether this version of R2-D2 poops like other Tamagotchis. Engadget has asked Lucasfilm whether the Tamagotchi version of R2-D2 does, in fact, poop.
There are nine mini-games you can play with him, including firefighting and Star Wars staple Dejarik (or holochess). If you don't keep the droid happy, some Jawas might arrive to take him away.
Bandai/Disney
We're long removed from Tamagotchi's heyday. The digital pet was everywhere in the late '90s and early 2000s until it plummeted out of the cultural zeitgeist. There have been other Tamagotchi crossovers. A model based on Neon Genesis Evangelion hit the US earlier this year. A Star Wars collaboration might help revive the brand, but surely a model based on Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) from The Mandalorian would have been a better fit.
As July comes to a close, a number of laptops, earbuds, games and more have gone on sale across the web. Students planning their back-to-school shopping list have a few ways to save on Apple products — the latest MacBook Air M1 is $150 off at Amazon (that's better than Apple's own education discount) and the iPad Air remains $100 off as well. All capacities of Samsung's T7 portable SSD have been discounted, so you can grab one for as low as $70, while Microsoft's Xbox Ultimate Game Sale knocks up to 80 percent off console and PC titles. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
MacBook Air M1
The latest MacBook Air M1 is down to $850 at Amazon, or $150 off its regular price. The 512GB model has the same discount, so you can grab it for $1,099. It's one of the best laptops for most people, and it's a great option for students going back to school. The Air M1 earned a score of 94 from us for its incredibly fast performance, excellent keyboard and trackpad, good battery life and lack of fan noise.
The latest iPad Air is down to the best price we've seen it, just $500 for the base model. That's $100 off its normal price and a great deal on what we think is the best iPad for most people. We gave the slab a score of 90 for its fast performance, speedy WiFi, healthy battery life and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil.
The AirPods Pro are back on sale for $190, or $60 off their normal price. While not a record low, it's still one of the best prices we've seen all year. The AirPods Pro earned a score of 87 for their improved audio quality, comfortable fit, solid ANC and IPX4 water resistance.
Apple's 10.2-inch iPad is still on sale for $299, or $30 off its normal price. It's arguably the best iPad for new tablet owners and we liked its improved performance, familiar design and support for the first-generation Apple Pencil.
Nintendo's Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit game for the Switch is down to $75, or $25 off its normal price. This add-on set lets you bring the action of Mario Kart into your real-life living room, creating your own racetracks and zooming around them using a tiny kart driven by either Mario or Luigi.
Samsung's T7 portable SSD in 500GB is down to a record-low of $70, or $30 off its normal price. Other capacities are on sale, too — you can get a 1TB model for $150 and a 2TB model will set you back $300. We like these drives for their portability, durable design and speedy performance.
Amazon's latest Echo Buds are on sale for $80, which is a discount we saw last during Prime Day. You can also get the buds with their wireless charging case for only $100. We gave these a score of 80 for their improved sound quality, good ANC and smaller, comfortable design.
Amazon's first-generation Echo Show 5 returned to its all-time-low price of $45 at Best Buy. If you're looking for a smart alarm clock of sorts, this is the best option if you already use Alexa as your primary voice assistant. The second-generation Echo Show 5, which came out recently, has a few minor differences, but we think the first-generation remains a solid buy — especially at half off its original price.
A bunch of Roku devices are on sale at Amazon, including the Roku Streambar, which is down to a record low of $99. This compact soundbar is a convenient gadget to get if you want to upgrade your home theater system without spending a ton of money. We gave it a score of 86 for its space-saving design, Dolby Audio support and built-in 4K streaming technology. If you want to spend even less, a handful of Roku streamers have been discounted, including the Express ($25) and the Streaming Stick+ ($39).
The Thermapen Mk4 has been discounts to $69 as ThermoWorks makes room for the new Thermapen One thermometer. The Mk4 is the best instant-read thermometer we've used so far —the backlit display makes it easy to read in almost any situation and the display rotates depending on how you're holding the pen. Plus, you never have to remember to turn it off because the pen automatically turns on when you pick it up and will shut off after some time of no use.
Through December 8, you can enter to win four-day passes to San Diego Comic-Con 2022. Along with the passes, you'll get access to a special preview night, reserved seating in Hall H, a personal concierge, a private tour of the Comic-Con Museum, dinner in Balboa Park and tickets to the "Night at the Comic-Con Museum" event. It's free to enter, but funds from this sweepstakes will go to the San Diego Comic Convention.
In this Omaze giveaway you can win two seats on one of the first Virgin Galactic flights to space. In addition, you'll go on a tour of Spaceport America in New Mexico with Richard Branson. You don't have to pay to enter, but funds from all paid entries will support Space for Humanity, an organization that hopes to make space more accessible for all.
Omaze is giving away another $20,000 to build your ultimate gaming PC. This sweepstakes is free to enter, but funds donated with purchased entries will benefit Schools on Wheels, an organization that provides free tutoring and mentoring services to children experiencing homelessness across Southern California.
Pricing and availability is subject to change. No donation or payment necessary to enter or win this sweepstakes.See official rules on Omaze.
New tech deals
DJI OM4
DJI's OM4 smartphone gimbal is $20 off right now, bringing it down to $129. It uses 3-axis stabilization to let you shoot smooth video with your smartphone, and it's new, magnetic quick-release makes it easy to snap your phone in and out of it. It also supports gesture control and Active Track 3.0, which lets you lock on to the subject you're filming with better accuracy.
Mirror's summer sale knocks $400 off its high-tech fitness system when using the code JULY400 at checkout. The discount breaks down to $150 off the mirror device itself, plus free delivery and installation. Just know that the sale is only on the product itself, not on the subscription needed to take the Mirror's fitness classes.
Arturia has knocks 50 percent off all of its individual software titles through August 8. That means you can get some of our favorite music software, including Pigments and Analog Labs, for $99 each. This is a good opportunity to add new synths and other software instruments to your collection for less.
One of our recommended VPNs is running a good sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up for NordVPN for only $89 for the first two years, which comes out to $44.50 per year — and an additional summer promotion adds three free months on top of that. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.
How do you create DLC for a game whose very purpose is to offer a confined, looping world? Honestly, after watching the trailer for Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, I still have no idea. Outer Wilds was one of our favorite games of 2019, building an enthralling mystery into a non-linear exploration game that effectively restarts every 22 minutes.
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, the game's first and final DLC, will build on the game with new narrative threads and locales. Not much is known beyond that, but based on the strength of the original, I'm down to play an expanded version. Hopefully, the expansion will persuade more people to try out this gem of a game, which, as Devindra Hardawar wrote in ourFavorite games of 2019 article, "demands patience and an adventurous spirit," but "promises adventure like nothing else." Echoes of the Eye will be available September 28th for PS4, Xbox One and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store for $14.99
Brendon Chung knows what people expect out of a first-person shooter. Guns? Check. Strafing? Yep. Ammo drops in strategic yet predictable locations? You betcha.
A sneezing system? Uh, sure. Noxious green clouds that follow you when you're smelly, giving away your location? Um. Actually, yes.
Skin Deep is the latest project out of Chung's studio, Blendo Games, and it's his first-ever FPS title. He's known for developing clever first-person action and puzzle games including Gravity Bone, Thirty Flights of Loving and Quadrilateral Cowboy, and visually, Skin Deep fits perfectly into his repertoire. The only difference is the gun.
"I'd never done one where you just have a gun and you straight-up shoot people," Chung said. "I thought, you know what? This is something that I love. This is a game genre that has been so important to me for a long time... This is kind of my attempt at making a bunch of little things that I like in first-person shooter games, and putting them into a game that I think will be funny."
Annapurna Interactive
Chung started coding back in elementary school, when he would spend hours between classes customizing levels in FPS classics Doom and Quake, and he continued modding as titles like Half-Life, Quake 2 and Doom 3 hit the scene. He got a job at a mainstream studio in Los Angeles, but continued working on his own projects and eventually went fully independent, picking up a handful of accolades in the process.
Despite a deep personal connection to the FPS genre, Chung hasn't released a shooter of his own — but that's going to change when Skin Deep hits Steam. The actual release date is still up in the air, a fact that may be concerning for anyone who remembers waiting for Quadrilateral Cowboy, a game that was "six months away" for well over three years. (On the Skin Deep FAQ page, one of the Qs reads, "Is Skin Deep going to take 4+ years of development time like your previous game Quadrilateral Cowboy?" and the accompanying answer is, "I hope not.")
Regardless of a release date, today publisher Annapurna Interactive showed off a new trailer for Skin Deep. A new, extra-smelly trailer.
Skin Deep is a non-linear espionage shooter set on a spaceship and played from the perspective of an armed, cryogenically frozen insurance agent whose job is to protect the vessel from invading space pirates. The game looks lighthearted yet sophisticated, in classic Blendo fashion; it involves shooting, sneaking and solving puzzles, and all of it is animated in Chung's signature cubist style. This ties back to FPS history, too — Skin Deep and most of Blendo Games' titles are built on a modified port of the Doom 3 engine, idTech4.
"I've played like a bazillion FPS games because I just really enjoy them, but I feel like there's so much that can be explored and that I wish these games would explore," Chung said.
One of the many odd mechanics in Skin Deep is a sneezing function that appears in particularly dusty or peppery environments.
"If you're crawling through a dusty vent your little sneezy air level will increase, then you'll do a big sneeze noise," Chung said. "And there's a bag of pepper that we have. If you shoot it, a big cloud of pepper flies out. You can pick up a pepper bag and throw it at someone and they'll start sneezing."
And then there's the odor system, which leaves literal clouds of stink behind the player, alerting the space pirates and generally causing problems. There's logic to this system: The player becomes smelly only once they're expelled from the space ship's trash chute, fish bones and all, and then they climb back aboard. The smell clouds disappear once the player figures out how to wash up. All of this falls under a mission titled, Protocol 832: Being Smelly And What To Do About It.
Annapurna Interactive
"I love it when games just do things that you don't expect," Chung said. "Like for me, one of the big games that was important for me back in the day was Far Cry 2, back in 2008. That game did so much cool stuff for the first-person genre that was not technologically advanced, but they just made design choices that were just interesting and funny. Like you had this map that you had to pull out but it didn't pause, and you had to look at a map while getting shot at with guns. And so I thought, there's so much space to do stuff like that. Why not make people smelly?"
All of Chung's games are part of the same cinematic universe, so to speak, and Skin Deep is closely tied to Flotilla, a space-based battleship game he published in 2010.
"They all kind of talk to each other, they all kind of share characters," Chung said. "We're still figuring out details, but right now the character that we're playing as in this game is the character from a game I made before called Flotilla. It's fun to make these little connections between the different games and have them all kind of share things between them."
There's no word on which of Chung's future projects will receive the smell clouds from Skin Deep.
Tesla is adding another popular streaming service to its in-car infotainment system. As part of its latest software update, you can now watch Disney+ when you have some downtime during charging. Tesla's Theater Mode already offers Netflix, Disney-owned Hulu, YouTube and Twitch. All it's missing is HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+ before it can call itself a true video hub. A Tesla owner shared screenshots of the "2021.24" update, which includes several additional features, in a Reddit post.
Another highlight is the new "Car Wash Mode" that secures the vehicle for a scrub down. Once activated, it can close or disable everything from the windows to wipers to sentry mode and the parking sensor chimes. For car washes with conveyor belts, the mode can switch the free roll option to neutral to prevent the car from auto-braking if you leave.
There's also a new dashcam auto-save that automatically stores clips whenever the vehicle detects a safety event (like a collision or airbag deployment). To stave off any more damagingprivacy concerns, Tesla has chosen to make the feature opt-in. Clips will also be stored locally and never shared with the automaker.
Rounding out the new additions are auto-dimming for mirrors, more battery info, remain connected to WiFi in drive, along with language support for Russian, Romanian and Hungarian. As usual, the quality of life improvements are designed to keep Tesla owners satisfied long after they've shelled out thousands on an EV.
The worlds of fashion and gaming are cozying up to one another. From Gucci selling digital items in Roblox to Vogue's virtual fashion spread starring Gigi Hadid, the two industries are increasingly overlapping to capture a young, tech-savvy audience. Now, Louis Vuitton is jumping on the bandwagon by releasing a mobile video game to celebrate its founder's 200th birthday. Louis: The Game stars the fashion house's mascot Vivienne, a wooden doll embellished with the company's flower insignia, on a journey through the brand's history, reports Austrian newspaper Kurier.
The iOS and Android game reportedly tasks players with exploring a colorful world by completing various quests — all pretty generic so far. Whether it turns out to be more than just an unashamed bit of promotional fluff remains to be seen. The game drops on August 4th. If LV goes all-out psychedelic like it did with its recent UFO-style speaker, then it could be worth a look.
The PlayStation 5 just crossed a significant milestone. Sony has revealed that it has sold 10 million PS5 consoles as of July 18th, eight months after the system's November 12th debut. The company considered that no mean feat between the pandemic and ongoing chip shortages that reportedly held sales back. It's now Sony's fastest-selling console to date, outpacing the PS4 by nearly a month.
Sales have slowed down since launch. Sony racked up 4.5 million PS5 sales in 2020, but sold 3.3 million in the first quarter of 2021 — it took another four months to add 2.2 million to the tally. That's not surprising between supply constraints and the usual mid-year slump, but you might not see sales climb until the holidays.
PlayStation chief Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview that it was "too early to tell" which markets were the hottest given widespread demand, but pointed out that China was a pleasant surprise. The company sold out its PS5 launch stock "very, very quickly" despite a local market focused on mobile games and the free-to-play model.
The PS5 doesn't have an easy road ahead. Even if Sony could quickly overcome hardware shortages, it still has a dearth of PS5-exclusive titles outside of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal. The biggest games tend to be enhanced versions of games available for the PS4, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and even upcoming blockbusters like Horizon Forbidden West will have PS4 releases. While demand still appears to be brisk, there might not be much added incentive to buy a PS5 until Gran Turismo 7 and other system exclusives arrive in force.
Sony has launched its first vlogging-specific mirrorless camera, the ZV-E10, that borrows a number of features from ZV-1 compact vlogging model. At the same time, it's roughly based on the A5000 and A6000-series APS-C mirrorless cameras, with all the good (and bad) that entails.
The two biggest advantages of the ZV-E10 over the ZV-1 are the larger 24-megapixel APS-C sensor and interchangeable mirrorless mount. The latter feature opens Sony's range of 60-plus E-mount lenses to vloggers, making the ZV-E10 much more versatile than the fixed-lens ZV-1. The larger sensor, meanwhile, will deliver improved light sensitivity and a shallower depth of field.
The ZV-E10 uses the aging 24-megapixel APS-C sensor found in the A6100 and other recent Sony models. While that delivers sharp, downsampled 4K video at up to 30 fps (or 120 fps 1080p), it's likely to have a serious amount of rolling shutter that's not ideal for its intended purpose.
On the more positive side, it offers optical and active electronic image stabilization, just like the ZV-1. That should smooth out handheld shooting pretty well, though don't expect miracles for walk-and-talk type vlogging — especially if rolling sensor wobble proves to be an issue.
Sony
Size-wise, the ZV-E10 is smaller than any of the A6000-series cameras and isn't much larger and heavier than the ZV-1. It lacks an electronic viewfinder, but it's Sony's first APS-C mirrorless camera with a fully-articulating flip-out screen — a basic requirement on any vlogging camera these days.
The ZV-E10 comes with Sony's latest phase-detect autofocus system, both for video and still shooting. That means you should get incredibly quick subject tracking, along with reliable eye, face and head detect autofocus. It also has an S&Q (slow & quick) feature that lets you record time-lapse and slow motion footage in-camera without the need for any post processing work.
It borrows several vlogging features directly from the ZV-1. The first is called "product showcase," a setting that allows it to instantly focus away from your face and onto an object placed in front of the camera. That's particularly handy for vloggers reviewing products, devices, etc.
The other is a bokeh switch that instantly sets the lowest f-stop available for lighting conditions. That way, you can have the background as defocused as possible, allowing your subject to stand out clearly.
The ZV-E10 has a built-in, high-quality three-way microphone (left, right and central channels) that's designed to pick out your voice. That means you can vlog without the need to buy a microphone, though it still won't match the quality and voice isolation of a dedicated shotgun or lapel mic. It also comes with a hotshoe-attached muff to help block wind noise, and if that's not enough, a wind noise reduction setting. It also comes with a microphone input, though not a headphone output.
Finally, if you're into live streaming, you can connect the ZV-E10 directly to a smartphone and stream directly to YouTube or other services — much as you can with Panasonic's latest GH5-II. It will also work directly as a webcam, streaming both video and audio (not just video like other cameras) so you can take advantage of its high-quality microphone.
The ZV-E10 will be available in either black or white by the end of August and will cost $700 for the body, or $800 in a bundle including Sony's 16-50mm F/3.5-5.6 power zoom lens.
Luke Skywalker's CGI face in the character's The Mandalorian cameo was met with a lot of criticism, and fans even tried to fix the scene with various tools and programs. One of those fans did so well, Lucasfilm has hired him to help it ensure its upcoming projects won't feature underwhelming de-aging and facial visual effects. That fan is a YouTuber known as Shamook, who uses deepfake technology to improve upon bad CG effects and to put actors in shows and movies they never starred in.
In the comments section of a video that replaces Christian Bale with Robert Pattinson as the Batman in Christopher Nolan's film, Shamook wrote that he joined Lucasfilm/Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) a few months ago. When asked what his role within the company is, he said his official title is "Senior Facial Capture Artist." The studio has confirmed the hire with IndieWire, telling the publication that it's always on the lookout for talented artists. A representative said in a statement:
"Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances."
In addition to working on a deepfake version of Luke in The Mandalorian, he also deepfaked Tarkin's and Leia's appearances in Rogue One. Shamook's videos don't always show the most realistic results, but the great ones like Luke's truly look impressive. Lucasfilm could his technical know-how to make sure de-aged characters and CG faces won't take us straight to uncanny valley anymore.
How much would you spend for a no-compromise mini-LED gaming monitor? Samsung thinks it has an answer. The company will start taking pre-orders for its long-teased Odyssey Neo G9 display on July 29th for $2,500. Yes, you could buy a nice PC for less than the cost of this curved, 49-inch beast — although you might have good reasons to buy this over smaller, flatter Odyssey screens.
As you might have guessed, the use of mini-LED delivers very high contrast ratios for an LCD monitor. Samsung claims a black level of just 0.0004. However, you're also getting extremely bright HDR thanks to a peak brightness of 2,000 nits that makes many TVs seem dim by comparison. Customizable lighting effects help add to the flash.
You should also see the same 5,120 x 1,440 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms pixel response time from last year's Odyssey G9, not to mention connectivity that includes two HDMI ports, DisplayPort and a pair of USB 3.0 connections.
You're clearly getting features that are hard to match. However, it's also apparent that Samsung is targeting a fairly narrow audience — The Neo G9 is meant for well-heeled gamers who want the most immersive non-VR experience possible. It could easily hit the sweet spot if you're in that demographic, but creative pros (and anyone on a budget) will probably want to look elsewhere.
