Category: Technology

Try before you buy.

A Splatoon 3 demo will be available later this month ahead of the game’s release in early September, Nintendo today advised as part of a larger Splatoon 3 NintendoDirect.

The demo will be offered in the form of a multiplayer Splatfest World Premiere which kicks off on 28 August.

According to the publisher, it “offers every Nintendo Switch owner the chance to take part in this global event before the full game launches.”

Access to the demo opens up a couple days earlier, from 25 August; players have seven days to try out the new ink-shooter.

Nintendo also detailed more of what to expect from the full game.

“All main weapon types from previous splatoon games will be available in Splatoon 3 from the start,” Nintendo said. “New, Splatlands-specific weapons have been added as well: the bow-like Tri-Stringer, which can fire in three directions simultaneously and unleash charged shots that briefly freeze before exploding. The Splatana Wiper sends blades of ink flying with the centrifugal force generated by swinging it. If swung after charging up, it’ll transform into a charged slash.”

Players will take part in one of three modes: the story-based Return of the Mammalians, the multiplayer Turf War, or co-op Salmon Run.

You can watch the full Direct below.

Splatoon 3 heads to Nintendo Switch on 9 September.

Mercedes-Benz’s current MBUX infotainment system is really, really good. It’s smart, responsive, easy to navigate and simple to use. How then is Mercedes supposed to improve on that for its next-generation platforms? Well, I’ve got two words for you: Pokémon Go!

OK, hold on. I’ll explain. When I say Pokémon Go, what I actually mean is that Mercedes is partnering with a company called Unity Technologies, whose technology powers the graphics of tons of super popular games – both mobile and on desktop – one of which is Pokemon Go.

The new infotainment system will be called MB.OS, and according to a report published on Monday by Automotive News, it’s set to make its debut on 2024 model Mercedes-Benz vehicles. If Mercedes follows the same kind of rollout that it did with MBUX, we’d expect to see MB.OS in A-Class and C-Class models first, followed by everything else.

“With our own operating system, we want to achieve three key things: to shape the user interface according to a luxury brand, to create a bidirectional communication with the customer and to integrate the digital lifestyle of the customer into the vehicle domain,” said Magnus Östberg, chief software officer for Mercedes-Benz, in a statement to Automotive News.

While we won’t see MB.OS until at least next year, we have already seen some of the work that Unity and Mercedes have been doing together with the Mercedes Vision EQXX, which debuted earlier this year at the CES show in Las Vegas.

Just in case talking about Pokémon has, for some reason, gotten you hungry. Here are 15 Pokémon that we would like to eat.

News

Today Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse released a brand new trailer of its super-popular online RPG, showing the characters of Sumeru.

Today Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse released a brand new trailer of its super-popular online RPG.

This time around it’s a very fetching anime-style cinematic trailer starring some of the characters that will appear in the new area, Sumeru.

Specifically, we get to see Tighnari, Collei, Alhaitham, Dori, Cyno, Dehya, Nilou, and Nahida.

Some of these characters already appeared in a previous trailer, which shows what they look like in the game.

The trailer is narrated by the voices of Nahida, Kimberley Anne Campbell in English and Yukari Tamura in Japanese (you may know her as the voice of Qiqi, Beatrix Brehme from Muv-Luv’s prequel Schwarzesmarken, Talim from SoulCalibur, and many more roles).

You can check it out below both in English and Japanese, depending on your voiceover preference.

If you want to learn more about Genshin Impact, you can read our review and watch the trailer dedicated to Kamisato Ayaka, one starring Yoimiya, one showing Sayu, two focusing on Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn and Kujou Sara, one showing the Raiden Shogun, one focusing on Sangonomiya Kokomi, one showing Thoma, one featuring Arataki Itto, one starring Gorou, one showing Shenhe, one focusing on Yun Jin, one showing Yae Miko, another focusing on Kamisato Ayato, one starring Yelan, and one focusing on Kuki Shinobu .

The game is currently available for PS5, PS4, PC, iOS, and Android.

You can also read and see more about the update 2.8, on top of the characters and a story trailer for the upcoming update 3.0, and a video on the new Dendro element.

Batteries suck, which has become even more of an issue over the past few decades as the battery-dependent mobile devices we’ve become addicted to now demand more power than ever. But as long as you’ve got a source of light — be it the sun or soul-crushing office fluorescents — Urbanista’s new wireless earbuds will keep charging all day long.

It’s an idea the company introduced last year with its Urbanista Los Angeles wireless headphones. Integrated into the headband was Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cell material, which was be screen-printed onto flexible materials, allowing the Los Angeles headphones’ headband to still flex and bend without damaging the solar cells. The other advantage to Exeger’s tech is that it can harness energy from both direct sunlight as well as less indoor intense light sources, which allowed the headphones to recover a charge even when used at night next to a lamp.

Although most reviewers found the solar cells worked best in bright sunlight, charging the headphones’ battery faster than it was being drained even while listening to music, it was a clever idea, and one that Urbanista is now bringing to its wireless earbuds. But for the $US149 ($207) Phoenix buds, which will be available later this year, Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cells aren’t included on the buds themselves, but on the charging case. Given earbud charging cases are usually kept in pockets or deep in bags, that makes recharging these headphones a little harder than the Los Angeles, which expose the solar cells all the time while in use. But Urbanista promises that for every hour the case is left out in the sun, enough charge should be collected for an additional hour of powering the buds.

Battery life is rated at eight hours with the buds alone, plus an additional 24 hours with the charging case, assuming you’re trapped on the dark side of the moon without access to any light. The case can also be charged with a USB-C cable, and the buds feature ANC, multi-device connectivity, and IPX4 water resistance for shrugging off sweat and occasional splashes. As for colorways, you’re limited to a choice of either black or pink, and we’d probably recommend the latter if these are going to be sitting out in the sun for hours at a time.

Nope, Elden Ring definitely isn’t on Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft has confirmed that, while some users saw Elden Ring appear on Xbox Cloud Gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass, it was just a bug that has now been fixed.

“If you’ve seen Elden Ring and other games appear as if they might be playable on Xbox Cloud Gaming or Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft says this is a bug and it has rolled out a fix,” said The Verge editor Tom Warren via Twitter.

if you’ve seen Elden Ring and other games appear as if they might be playable on Xbox Cloud Gaming or Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft says this is a bug and it has rolled out a fix pic.twitter.com/cnYuANBaBo

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 10, 2022

Several games including Elden Ring, GTA V, and Soul Hackers 2 appeared on store pages and an ad promoting Xbox Cloud Gaming earlier today. But while many speculated that this meant an Xbox Game Pass debut for the titles, it looks as though it was all an unintended mistake.

“We’re aware of a bug that incorrectly displayed some titles as available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer. “We rolled out a fix and this is now updated.”

Of course, it’s no surprise that gamers and Game Pass subscribers jumped to conclusions. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a game had leaked in this manner before being added to the Game Pass catalog.

Madden NFL 23 was previously listed on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in the same manner that Elden Ring appeared here.

Equally, we’ve seen plenty of red herrings too. Cyberpunk 2077 was rumored to be added to Xbox Game Pass when in-game footage was spotted in an advertisement for the online service. The game is still yet to appear on Game Pass.

Best Xbox Game Pass Games

However, it looks as though Elden Ring, GTA V, and Soul Hackers 2 remain off the service – a quick look at Xbox Game Pass and Cloud Gaming now confirms that they’re not available to play.

Still, Xbox has an impressive array of games available with Fortnite recently added to its cloud-based service.

Want to find out more about Xbox Game Pass? Check out our rundown of the best Xbox Game Pass games as well as our review of the Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.