Splatoon 3 will arrive on September 9th and Nintendo is setting the table with a dedicated Direct showcase. The stream will get underway at 9AM ET on August 10th and will contain around 30 minutes of updates. It's likely to be a deep dive into one of Nintendo's tentpole Switch releases for this year. You'll be able to watch the presentation on Nintendo's YouTube channel.

Nintendo often holds dedicated Direct events for its core games in the lead up to their release. It's a smart way for the company to get more eyes on those titles and give folks who are undecided whether to buy them some more insight. Meanwhile, Nintendo will release a Splatoon 3-themed Switch OLED later this month, with a Pro Controller and carrying case featuring designs from the game arriving on September 9th.

Many classic fighting game series have a reasonably consistent stream of sequels, but not Fatal Fury — the last title (Garou: Mark of the Wolves) made its appearance on the Neo Geo in 1999. SNK is ready to make amends after 23 years, however. The developer has confirmed work on a new Fatal Fury game. The teaser trailer below reveals nothing about the gameplay, plot, platform support or release date, but the company claimed the sequel would represent a "new turning point" in fighters — don't expect much humility, then. 

The franchise played an important role in SNK's history, and by extension fighting games as a whole. The first game, 1991's Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, made a splash at a time when Street Fighter II dominated the genre. It was designed by the original Street Fighter's Takashi Nishiyama, and focused more on story and special moves than SF2's combos. It showed that there was room for multiple games in the upper pantheon of fighting games, and ultimately spawned the still-active King of Fighters series.

The challenge, of course, is persuading gamers to revisit Fatal Fury. The fighting game world has evolved considerably in the past two decades, ranging from 3D series like Tekken through to many-character extravaganzas like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It's a crowded arena, and there's no certainty that nostalgia will give SNK an edge.

Now's a good time to pick up a new charger for your phone, tablet and other devices while a number of Anker's charging accessories are down to record-low prices for Amazon Prime members. Standouts among the discounts are Anker's 521 magnetic battery pack for MagSafe-compatible iPhones, which is 40 percent off and on sale for $30, and Anker's 511 2-in-1 power bank, which is 30 percent off and down to $35.

Both portable batteries have a 5,000 mAh capacity, but they're each versatile in their own ways. The 521 magnetic power pack will snap onto the backs of the latest iPhones, charging them up wirelessly. It'll provide almost a full extra charge for your iPhone, depending on the model you have, and it'll even snap on and power up the handset when it has a MagSafe case on it.

The 511 battery pack is essentially a wall charger and a portable battery in one. If you're near an AC outlet, it can act as a USB-C adapter for all of your mobile devices — provided you have a USB-C charging cable with you. And when you're not near a power source, you can use its built-in battery to charge up your gadgets. Unlike the 512 magnetic pack, the 511 battery will work with iPhones as well as Google Pixel smartphones, Samsung devices and others.

Prime members can also get the Anker Nano Pro 20W charger with a USB-C to Lightning cable for $28, which is 30 percent off its usual rate. The bundle gives you everything you need to charge your iPhone as quickly as possible, and we like that Anker's 20W adapter is more compact than Apple's version. Other accessories on sale include the 623 MagGo 2-in-1 wireless charging station, which you can pick up for a record low of $70, and a two-pack of wireless charging stands, which is on sale for $35.

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Amazon made a $1.7 billion offer for iRobot, the company that makes Roomba robot vacuums, mops and other household robots. The deal will keep Colin Angle as iRobot's CEO but is still contingent on the approval of regulators and iRobot shareholders.

iRobot has an intriguing origin story. Founded in 1990 by MIT researchers, the company initially focused on military robots like PackBot. It marked a major turning point in 2002 when it unveiled the first Roomba — the debut robovac racked up sales of a million units by 2004. The company eventually bowed out of the military business in 2016.

There are many iRobot rivals now, including Anker's Eufy brand, Neato, Shark, even Dyson. But with the power of Amazon, iRobot should be able to dominate. Just think of the Prime Day deals! Some of Amazon’s own robots often look like Roombas already — like its first fully autonomous warehouse robot, Proteus.

— Mat Smith

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• What to expect from Samsung's August 10th Unpacked event

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• Senate passes sweeping climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act

• Hitting the Books: How much that insurance supervision discount really costs you

• UK may use facial recognition smartwatches to monitor migrant criminals

• FCC votes to boost manufacturing in space

Physicist posts a photo of chorizo to troll James Webb Space Telescope fans

Looks like a planet to me.

On July 31st, Étienne Klein, the director of France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, shared an image he claimed the JWST captured of Proxima Centauri, the nearest-known star to the sun. "It was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope,” Klein told his 91,000-plus Twitter followers. “This level of detail... A new world is unveiled every day."

Except, it was actually a photo of a slice of chorizo against a black background. "In view of certain comments, I feel obliged to specify that this tweet showing an alleged picture of Proxima Centauri was a joke,” he said. Klein added he posted the image to educate the public about the threat of fake news.

Continue reading.

Samsung’s Z Fold 3 durability one year in

Tougher than you might think, but…

Engadget

Samsung has made major strides with its foldable phones, paving the way for innovative (though sometimes quite pricey) alternatives to the typical glass brick. On the advent of the fourth-generation of foldables from the company, likely to include both a new Galaxy Z Fold and the Galaxy Z Flip, Engadget’s Sam Rutherford reports on his own foldable purchase of a Z Fold 3 last year. The phones are increasingly tough, but that foldable display innovation gets derailed by bubbling under the screen protector after roughly half a year.

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Steam is finally adding support for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers

You can use the gamepads individually or as a matched pair.

Valve is finally adding Steam support for the console’s controllers. In an announcement spotted by PC Gamer, the company said the latest Steam beta adds Joy-Cons support. With the new software, it’s possible to use Joy-Cons either individually or as part of a matched pair for playing games. If you want to try the feature, you need to opt into the Steam beta. You’ll either need a Bluetooth adapter or a motherboard with Bluetooth connectivity to use your Joy-Cons with Steam because there’s no way of connecting a cable to the Switch controllers.

Continue reading.

Baidu's robotaxis can now operate without a safety driver in the car

The company says it's running the first fully driverless service in China.

Baidu has permits to run a fully driverless robotaxi service in China. It says it's the first company in the country to obtain such permissions. Back in April, Baidu got approval to run an autonomous taxi service in Beijing, as long as there was a human operator in the driver or front passenger seat. Now, it can offer a service where the car's only occupants are passengers. There are some limits to the permits. Driverless Apollo Go vehicles can roam designated zones in Wuhan and Chongqing during daytime hours only. This does cover a good 13 square kilometers (5 square miles) in Wuhan alone, though.

Continue reading.

Anglo-American EV startup Arrival is putting its groundbreaking bus and car projects on ice as it struggles to manage its cash reserves. The Financial Times reports that the company, which said it would lay off a third of its staff last month, would now focus on completing its delivery van. Arrival said that it had anything up to 20,000 orders with UPS for the vehicle, and is expecting to get the first models out of the door later this year. That will hopefully reduce the pressure on the company’s bottom line, and boost its share price, which has fallen 90 percent since it went public via a SPAC last year.

The company was unable to comment to Engadget about the FT’s report, as it is preparing to release its financial results this week.

Arrival actually started with its electric bus project, and has already built several models ready for real-world testing. Its car, designed to be sold to ride-share drivers, was at the prototype stage (I saw it first hand last December), and the company had recruited Tom Elvidge from Uber to run the program. The FT’s report says that both projects are in stasis for now, and are likely to be revived as soon as Arrival begins making money. The car project may, however, find itself squeezed by the looming recession and that so much VC money, which was dumped into transportation startups like Uber, has now dried up, leading to a wave of closures.

The biggest tragedy from all of this is that Arrival’s focus on revolutionizing public buses was a genuinely different approach from most EV makers. Buses are a fixture in pretty much every city, and while it’s always better for the environment to use one over a car, making them even cleaner was a great plan. That the public project has been iced in favor of the fleet of logistics vans is not surprising, but it’s certainly not a great sign for the future of public transport.

Last month, MG revealed the all-electric MG4 hatchback with range of up to 281 miles (on the WLTP system). Now, we know it will be one of the least expensive EVs available in the UK with a starting price of £25,995 ($31,400). It's set to arrive in the UK in September this year.

As a reminder, China's SAIC Motors now owns the MG brand following the collapse of MG Rover in 2005. The vehicles are manufactured in China, but SAIC has a design studio in London. It also has joint venture partnerships with Volkswagen, GM and others to produce branded vehicles in China.

The MG4 first arrived as the Mulan in China, built on SAIC's MSP (Modular Scalable Platform) architecture that will be used on future MG EVs. It'll come in three versions in the UK. The starting SE Standard Range model is priced at £25,995 with a 51kWh battery delivering 218 miles of WLTP range, compared to £36,195 ($43,800) for the ID.3 with a 58kWh battery and 265 miles of range.

The £28,495 ($34,490) Long Range SE model uses a 64kWh battery to go 281 miles on a charge, which takes about 35 minutes to go from 10-80 percent thanks to the 135kW charging capacity. 

And finally, the EV Trophy costs £31,495 ($38,120) and offers 270 miles of range with the 64kWh battery. The extra cash gets you features like an upgraded version of the MG Pilot system (with lane-keeping, blind spot warnings, etc.), a leather interior and more.

As for performance, the highest-powered 201 bhp version with the 64kWh battery can go from 0-62 MPH in under eight seconds, with the top speed limited to 99 MPH. On all vehicles, MG is promising copious storage, an "Active Grille Shutter" that improves aerodynamics, a 10.25-inch infotainment screen, Car Play and Android Auto connectivity and more. However, the price will likely be the main draw, particularly as the UK recently eliminated its EV rebate incentive.

Activision and Infinity Ward are set to reveal Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II's multiplayer mode along with other details at the Next showcase event on September 15th. They also announced that the early access beta will start rolling out on September 16 and 17 on PlayStation consoles and arrive in an open crossplay beta to all consoles and PCs starting September 24th.

As shown below, you'll need to pre-order to get the open and early access beta releases, with PlayStation owners getting first dibs. After the early access, PlayStation 4 and 5 users will get the open beta from September 18-20, and then Xbox and PC will get early access (crossplay beta) from September 22-23, with PlayStation getting the open crossplay beta on the same dates. Finally, the open beta (crossplay) will be available on all platforms from September 24-26.

Infinity Ward

Along with the multiplayer mode, Infinity Ward said it would show "the imminent future of [what] Call of Duty will look like, including many more details regarding Modern Warfare II, information on the next Call of Duty: Warzone, and more on the mobile version of Call of Duty: Warzone (also known as Project Aurora)." It also promised you'd see YouTubers streamers playing the games in real time, along with surprise information. 

If you haven't pre-ordered, you may still be able to get a beta code for early access from various streamers and YouTubers. Modern Warfare II is the successor to 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, based on the original Modern Warfare subseries launched in 2007. The new title is set to arrive on October 28th and cost $70 across all platforms. 

Samsung has launched its Android 13-flavored One UI 5 OS in beta for Galaxy S22 smartphones, the company announced. Much like Android 13 itself, most of the changes are minor, with some cosmetic improvements along with enhancements for security, notifications, the camera and more. However, Android 13 may offer significant improvements for foldable phones like the Galaxy Fold 4 set to arrive at Samsung's August 10th Unpacked event. 

One UI 5 takes advantage of Android 13's theme makeover with 12 new color options for the home screen, icons and quick panels. It also lets you save a bit of space by stacking widgets, while adding accessibility options like a Magnifier tool to zoom in on texts and objects. It also adds a system that can read your keyboard entry out loud. 

Samsung

You'll also see Android 13 updates like new notification settings that require apps to request permission before sending notifications. A new security dashboard can check perform a security and privacy check, and you'll be able to setting your preferred language on an app-by-app basis. 

Android 13's foldable enhancements appear designed for devices like the Fold 3 that have different sizes, resolutions and pixel densities on the inner and outer displays. Samsung already offers that feature for the Fold 3, but native Android 13 support might open up more options like enhanced productivity tools.

We'll find out more in a few days at Unpacked, set for August 10th at 9am ET. Meanwhile, if you live in the US, South Korea or German and have a Galaxy S22, you can try out the One UI 5 update using the Samsung Members app — just bear in mind the usual risks of using beta software.

Baidu has obtained permits to run a fully driverless robotaxi service in China. It says it's the first company in the country to obtain such permissions. Back in April, Baidu received approval to run an autonomous taxi service in Beijing, as long as there was a human operator in the driver or front passenger seat. Now, it will be able to offer a service where the car's only occupants are passengers.

There are some limits to the permits. Driverless Apollo Go vehicles will ferry paying passengers around designated zones in Wuhan and Chongqing during daytime hours only. The service areas cover 13 square kilometers in Wuhan's Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ) and 30 square kilometers in Chongqing’s Yongchuan District. The WHDZ has been overhauled over the last year to support AV testing and operations.

Baidu says its robotaxis have multiple safety measures to back up the core autonomous driving functions. Those include monitoring redundancy, remote driving capability and a safety operation system.

This is a notable step forward for Baidu as it looks to offer robotaxi services at a large scale. The company has also been testing its vehicles in the US for several years and it could ultimately prove a competitor to the likes of Waymo and Cruise.

LG has launched its Tone Free wireless earbud lineup for 2022, and the new flagship model comes with built-in equalizer and support for Dolby's Head Tracking technology. Similar to Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro, which also has Dolby's 360 audio feature, the T90 has the capability to recalibrate sounds as you move your head to make it appear as if they're truly coming from all around you. LG says the T90s are also the first earbuds to feature an audio virtualizer that Dolby designed for the form factor in order to expand its "spatial dimensionality" for a more immersive experience. 

The company's other new Tone Free model is its first fitness-focused earbuds called the Tone Free Fit or TF8, which were designed with a secure fit to keep them in place so they don't fall out in the middle of workout sessions. This model can last for up to 10 hours without its hybrid Active Noise Cancellation switched on, while the T90 can last for up to nine hours so long as its adaptive ANC is not in use. 

Both models' charging cases come with a feature that kills 99.9 percent of bacteria on the earbuds using UV-C light. Plus, the T90's charging case doubles as a Bluetooth transmitter that lets you add wireless connectivity to source devices that don't it. If you have sensitive skin or get an allergic reaction to most earbuds, it's worth noting that the T90s have medical-grade, hypoallergenic ear gels, as well.

LG Tone Free T90

LG has yet to reveal how much the new earbuds cost, but they will be available in the US starting in September.