Despite a rise in shipping and manufacturing expenses, Nintendo is standing firm on the price of their Switch console, with plans not to raise it to avoid scaring off new customers.
In an interview with NikkeiAsia, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said that the company wants to “avoid pricing people out” and that it thinks “about pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer.”
Like many tech companies, Nintendo has been hit hard by the global semiconductor shortage and supply chain crisis. The console, which is now 5 years old, saw a 23 percent decline in sales during the April to June quarter.
The 2017 launch of the console tripled the company’s profits, however Nintendo’s annual net profit is expected to follow the same decline as the console, as the company forecast a 29 percent decline for the fiscal year ending March 2023.
Nintendo has sold over 100 million units of its Switch console range to date, and Furukawa says that its important that the company continue to push their software products to maintain business momentum and demand for the console.
“Our products also include software. Nintendo has sold more than 100 million Switch units so far, and it’s important to maintain the momentum of our overall business.”
Despite the stock shortages and sales decline, Nintendo aims to reach its target of 21 million units sold for the year. While consoles generally slow down around the 5 to 6 year period, Furkawa says that upcoming titles are set to provide a boost in sales.
“Having hit software also gives a boost to hardware. We have a lineup of new games that will allow us to take a crack at meeting our sales forecast, including Splatoon [3] coming out in September and Pokemon [Scarlet and Violet] in November.”
Anne Heche is on life support after suffering a brain injury in a fiery crash a week ago and her survival is not expected, according to a statement from a representative.
Key points:
Anne Heche was taken to hospital after her car smashed into a Los Angeles house on August 5
She suffered a severe brain injury and is not expected to survive
Representatives say she is being kept on life support for possible organ donation
The actor — who is in a coma and in critical condition — is being kept on life support for possible organ donation, according to the statement released Thursday night on behalf of her family and friends.
Heche — who’s been hospitalized at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital north of Los Angeles — suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury,” the statement said.
Such an injury is caused by a sustained lack of oxygen to the brain.
“She is not expected to survive,” the statement said.
“It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”
On the morning of August 5, Heche’s car smashed into a house in a neighborhood in west Los Angeles and a fire erupted, with the car embedded inside the home.
Earlier on Thursday, local time, police said they were investigating Heche for driving under the influence.
Detectives with a search warrant took a sample of her blood and found narcotics in her system, LAPD spokesperson Officer Jeff Lee said.
Toxicology tests — which can take weeks to complete — must be performed to identify the drugs more clearly and to differentiate them from any medication she may have been given for treatment at the hospital.
Evidence is still being gathered from the crash, police said, and they would present a case to prosecutors if it is warranted when the investigation is complete.
A representative for Heche declined comment on the investigation.
Anne Heche (right) had a high-profile relationship with Ellen Degeneres in the late 1990s. (AFP: Hector Mata)
On Tuesday, Heche spokesperson Heather Duffy Boylston said her client had been in a coma since after the accident, with burns that required surgery and lung injuries that required the use of a ventilator to breathe.
“Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit. More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love,” Thursday’s statement said.
“She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light.”
Heche, 53, was among the most-prominent film stars in Hollywood in the late 1990s, playing opposite actors including Johnny Depp (Donnie Brasco) and Harrison Ford (Six Days, Seven Nights).
Her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000 heightened her fame and brought immense public scrutiny.
In a 2001 memoir, she discussed her lifelong struggles with mental health.
She recently had recurring roles on the TV series Chicago PD and All Rise and, in 2020, was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars.
In an article published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfacesresearchers have presented an infrared (IR)-based highly flexible soft optoelectronic sensor with pigmented cladding that is efficient in multimodal sensing.
Compared with optoelectronic sensors based on the visible spectrum, this novel method makes the sensor more suitable for low-powered devices as the IR-spectrum signal allows it to operate with a fraction of the power than what would have been initially used.
The reliability of soft optoelectronic sensors that can perform multimodal sensing makes them a desirable option for applications involving strain sensors. However, the constant electrical power input required to transmit the light signal through the core of these strain sensors is a drawback that results in excessive power consumption for low-powered devices. The present work demonstrates that utilizing an IR-spectrum signal for signal propagation can effectively counter the problem.
The soft optoelectronic sensors were highly resilient due to using pigmented elastomers as the fiber optics or waveguides cladding. These strain sensors were installed into a soft robotics gripper that could control its contact force despite severe extrinsic disturbances.
Improving the Performance of Soft Robotics
Soft robotics has promoted tremendous interest in creating devices that can interact safely with humans and the environment. However, since these devices are incredibly deformable, much work has been put into designing stretchable and soft strain sensors to assess the deformation effectively.
The optoelectronic sensors employ numerous operating theories and are ideally reliable, precise, resistant to interfering noise sources, and suitable for low-powered devices. However, physical and non-physical disruptions occurring in the environment where these soft strain sensors are operated can impact their measurements. Therefore, research on reducing the impact of environmental disturbances on soft optoelectronic strain sensors is crucial to make them appropriate for practical applications.
The waveguides in fiber optics typically consist of two components: a core that directs light and cladding that shields the core from interference. A cladded fiber that can detect excessive strains of up to 300% can be manufactured by carefully choosing the materials for the core and cladding and co-extrusion of both the materials. Such optical linear strain sensors are frequently used for sensing the deformation of linear actuators such as the McKibben actuators.
The soft optoelectronic sensors were made robust for sensing operations by the IR resilient pigments utilized in fiber optics for the cladding material of the waveguides. These pigments also helped block the optical penetration of IR and visible light.
The researchers proposed a viable production process for the pigmented soft waveguides in fiber optics and investigated their optical properties for multimodal deformation sensing.
The researchers also characterized the power consumption of IR- and visible-based waveguides in fiber optics and studied the impact of noise interferences on pigmented and non-pigmented soft waveguides.
The current paper also introduced a soft pneumatic gripper with implanted IR-based pigmented soft waveguide in fiber optics for its resilience to outside interference and grasping applications.
Fabricating and Enhancing the Resilience of the Optoelectronic Sensor
The existing soft optoelectronic sensors were made of an optical waveguide in fiber optics, a photodiode (PDE), and a light-emitting diode (LED). However, in the current work, the visible spectrum PDE and LED were substituted with IR-based ones to reduce power consumption, making them suitable for low-powered devices. The working principle of soft optoelectronic sensors requires the PDE and LED to be constantly active to detect variations in the flowing optical signal.
The energy requirement problem in soft robotics was resolved using longer wavelength signals with lesser energy expenditure, such as IR wavelengths. Using an IR signal instead of a visible wavelength signal affected the resilience of the sensor as IR-based spectrum light can flow through diverse mediums, such as the cladding of the sensor, more effortlessly than visible light.
The researchers built an IR-based soft optoelectronic sensor suitable for low-powered devices. The sensor was protected from interference effects and was resilient to infrared and visible spectrum disturbances.
Aside from the sun, there are relatively few external IR optical sources in the environment that can disturb a single IR-based soft optoelectronic sensor. However, multiple IR-based strain sensors working in proximity interfered with each other as each signal leaked from the cladding and created cross-interference between each sensor. Therefore, the researchers added black silicone pigments to the cladding of the soft waveguides in the fiber optics.
They also developed a soft robotics pneumatic gripper using IR-based resilient, soft optoelectronic strain sensors for measuring the contact force of the fingers. Each finger consisted of a PneuNet actuator with rigid reinforcements onto which hybrid optical fibers were fixed. These hybrid optical fibers consist of rigid fibers connected to a soft core.
The soft robotics gripper was highly responsive to external optical disturbances. The suggested resilient and sensorized IR-based soft robotics pneumatic gripper grasped various objects and measured and controlled its grasping force. The soft robotics gripper could follow the desired reference command even in the presence of an external IR source acting as a disturbance.
IR-Based Soft Optoelectronic Sensors and the Way Ahead
The paper primarily focused on introducing pigments to the cladding of soft optoelectronic sensors, enhancing their resilience and ability to prevent optical interferences. As a result, the researchers produced soft and stretchable optoelectronic sensors that were robust, efficient in multimodal sensing, and suitable for low-powered devices.
The visible spectrum-based LED and PDE employed in previous soft optoelectronic sensors resulted in significant power consumption due to their constant operation.
The researchers substituted the visible spectrum PDE and LED with IR-based ones, which resulted in the sensor using only a tiny fraction of the power of a comparable visible spectrum sensor.
The cladding of the soft waveguide in fiber optics was coated with black silicone pigments to make the sensor extraordinarily robust and suitable for low-powered devices. The silicone made the cladding highly resistant to interferences by preventing the external and internal IR signals from passing through the cladding.
The sensors proposed in the present paper were integrated into a soft robotics gripper that could sense contact force.
The gripper controlled the contact force despite extrinsic IR optical disturbances.
The soft optoelectronic strain sensor is a promising candidate for various applications due to its low power requirements and remarkable resilience.
Reference
J. Babar and R. Hugo. (2022) Low-Powered and Resilient IR-Based Pigmented Soft Optoelectronic Sensors. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.2c07318
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.
One day on from the birth of his first child, radio host Kyle Sandilands has given his co-host Jackie O her first look at her new godson.
And the heartwarming moment played out live on-air, as Sandilands brought cameras inside the hospital to see how his fiance Tegan Kynaston and their newborn son Otto were both doing.
Sandilands told listeners he didn’t cry during the birth, but that it was “an overwhelming feeling,” particularly as Tegan had a cesarean section, which “petrified” him.
“They put up a sheet, and then I could see (her) intestines,” he said.
Sandilands then wheeled baby Otto into view, the newborn looking peaceful as he slept in a cot.
Also making a brief appearance on camera: Kyle’s Tegan, dressed in a black silk gown and up and walking just a day after her C-section birth.
“Oh my god, she looks fabulous,” said Jackie O.
“I said, it looks like you’ve had a baby on Day of Our Lives,” Kyle said.
Kyle, a first-time dad at 51, was beaming with pride as he told his longtime co-host about his plans for fatherhood.
“You are going to give Otto the life you always wanted. The chandeliers, the gold crib, and everything gold,” said Jackie O.
Tegan went into labor midway through Thursday’s episode of The Kyle and Jackie O Showforcing Kyle off-air as he made a desperate dash to the hospital to be by her side.
“I think I might have to leave the show… and go to the hospital,” he said.
“Oh, it’s time!” said his elated co-host.
“Calm down, we don’t want the kid coming too soon,” he said. “Guys, I’m so sorry. I feel very unprepared. I’ve got to run … I feel like I’m abandoning you, but I’m there for my child.”
A short time later came the happy news: All had gone well and Kyle and Tegan were now proud parents to baby Otto.
Speaking on-air today, Sandilands revealed the couple had organized an at-home nurse to stay with them when the new family leaves hospital.
And that house is a sprawling Bellevue Hill mansion that Sandilands paid a whopping $13.8m for in June.
The family’s new home features five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a two-car garage, a plunge pool, spacious wine cellar, and lift access to all four of its spacious levels.
Kyle and Tegan announced they were expecting back in February – the same month they had an extravagant gender reveal party on a yacht in Sydney Harbour, where they announced they were having a boy.
No More Robots has announced Soccer Storyan “open-world RPG about solving puzzles and saving the world.”
Set to launch later this year, Soccer Story will task players with solving puzzles and saving the world with their football.
An open-world RPG, Soccer Story‘s 15 plus hour runtime will involve a mix of quests, side-missions, and events; along with a four-player local multiplayer match mode.
As for the game’s plot, No More Robots has shared the following:
“It’s been a year since The Calamity tore apart the very foundations of soccer as we know it. Since then, Soccer Inc. has made dang well sure that not a soul has been allowed to even look at a soccer ball, let alone kick it. It’s a real Messi situation, no doubt.”
Soccer Story. Credit: No More Robots.
No More Robots add that after a “magical football” chooses the player, they are tasked with “saving the future of sport, and bringing harmony to the world once more” – a mission that will involve doing battle against rival teams including “literal sharks , toddlers, old-age pensioners and ninjas.”
Soccer Story will be available on PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Google Stadia when it launches in 2022. The game will also be available on Xbox Game Pass, as one of “half a dozen” games that No More Robots director Mike Rose says will arrive on the subscription-based service over the next 12 months.
Earlier in the year, Rose told NME that putting No More Robots’ titles on Game pass “makes them sell so much more,” and refuted concerns surrounding the service.
“That’s the thing that gets me the most in all of this, people making out like that is what’s harming the industry,” said Rose. “When really, it’s dinosaurs, not realizing that things are moving on. And if you don’t get on the train, you can’t then complain when it’s passed you by.”
In other news, Microsoft has alleged that Sony pays developers to keep them from making games available on Xbox Game Pass.
There’s more than one fashion plate in this famous family.
While appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” music and style icon Madonna revealed her son David Banda, 16, is already out-dressing her, The NY Post reported.
“He can put on any outfit and look swag as you know what,” she told Fallon on Wednesday night.
“It’s really irritating. He wears my clothes and looks better in them. He can even wear a dress and look butch.”
The “Material Girl” wasn’t joking. Back in May, the mother-son duo matched in Adidas outfits at the WBA World Lightweight Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Banda, who’s known for his gender-fluid fashion choices, stole the show in a bright red three-stripe dress from Adidas’ collaboration with Gucci. The teen paired the eye-catching look with a pair of yellow sunglasses, layered silver jewelery and black sneakers.
But David inherited more from his mother than just her fashion sense.
The “Like a Virgin” singer went on to tell Fallon that her son, whom she adopted in 2006, is working on music of his own.
“He’s going to end up being one of your guests,” the 63-year-old gushed about Banda, saying he has “everything” needed to be a star.
Fallon agreed with the Queen of Pop, saying, “He’s got ‘it.’ He’s got magic. He’s funny, he’s charming, he’s athletic, he’s a good-looking dude.” During the same interview, the hit maker revealed the moment she believed her career was “over with” after accidentally flashing the crowd during her performance of “Like a Virgin” at the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.
According to Madge, after her stiletto slipped off onstage, she dived to grab it — accidentally flipping up her dress and exposing her backside to the audience.
“Those were the days when you shouldn’t show your butt to have a career,” the singer joked. “Now it’s the opposite.”
Although her reps thought her career would crash after the incident, the superstar went on to become one of the best-selling female artists of all time.
This article was originally published by The NY Post and was reproduced here with permission.
In the 30 second spot, Apple gives a quick rundown of the services that are included: Apple Music, Apple Fitness+, Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud+. “What’s in Apple One? The best of Apple,” reads the tagline at the end of the video.
There are multiple tiers of the Apple One subscription service with prices that start at $14.95. The highest-tier Premier plan is the only one that includes all of the services in the video, and it is priced at $29.95 per month with access available for up to six family members.
For those curious about the Apple One subscription service, we have a dedicated guide that goes over all of the details.
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Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, he was attacked and apparently stabbed in the neck Friday (Saturday morning AEST) by a man who rushed the stage as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man confront Rushdie on stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing him 10 to 15 times as he was being introduced. The 75-year-old author was pushed or fell to the floor and a state trooper at the scene took the suspect into custody, New York police said.
Rushdie was taken by helicopter to a hospital, police said. His condition was not immediately known. The moderator at the event was also attacked and suffered a minor head injury, police said.
Rushdie was taken by helicopter to a hospital, police said. His condition was not immediately known (Grant Pollard/Invision/AP)
Rabbi Charles Savenor was among the roughly 2,500 people in the audience. Amid Gasps, spectators were ushered out of the outdoor amphitheater.
The assailant ran onto the platform “and started pounding on Mr. Rushdie. At first you’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then it became abundantly clear in a few seconds that he was being beaten,” Savenor said. He said the attack lasted about 20 seconds.
Another spectator, Kathleen Jones, said the attacker was dressed in black, with a black mask.
“We thought perhaps it was part of a stunt to show that there’s still a lot of controversy around this author. But it became evident in a few seconds” that it wasn’t, she said.
A bloodied Rushdie was quickly surrounded by a small group of people who held up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest.
Rushdie has been a prominent spokesman for free expression and liberal causes. He is a former president of PEN America, who said it was “reeling from shock and horror” at the attack.
“We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil,” CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement.
“Salman Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades but has never flinched nor faltered,” she added.
His 1988 book The Satanic Verses was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims. Often-violent protests against Rushdie erupted around the world, including a riot that killed 12 people in Mumbai.
Rushdie and moderator Henry Reese were set to discuss “the United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression” (AP)
The novel was banned in Iran, where the late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death. Khomeini died that same year.
Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran in recent years hasn’t focused on the writer.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s attack.
A bounty of more than $US3 million ($4.22 million) has also been offered for anyone who kills Rushdie.
The death threats and bounty led Rushdie to go into hiding under a British government protection program, including a round-the-clock armed guard. Rushdie emerged after nine years of seclusion and cautiously summarized more public appearances, maintaining his outspoken criticism of religious extremism overall.
He has said he is proud of his fight for freedom of expression, saying in a 2012 talk in New York that terrorism is really the art of fear.
Rushdie rose to prominence with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel Midnight’s Children, but his name became known around the world after The Satanic Verses (Getty)
“The only way you can defeat it is by deciding not to be afraid,” he said.
Iran’s government has long since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, but anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered. The Index on Censorship, an organization promoting free expression, said money was raised to increase the reward for his killing of him as recently as 2016, underscoring that the fatwa for his death of him still stands.
In 2012, Rushdie published a memoir, JosephAnton, about the fatwa. The title came from the pseudonym Rushdie had used while in hiding.
Rushdie rose to prominence with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel Midnight’sChildrenbut his name became known around the world after The Satanic Verses.
The Chautauqua Institution, about 120 kilometers southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, has served for more than a century as a place for reflection and spiritual guidance.
Rushdie has authored 13 novels (Frank May/dpa via AP)
Visitors don’t pass through metal detectors or undergo bag checks. Most people leave the doors to their century-old cottages unlocked at night.
Police said a state trooper was assigned to Rushdie’s lecture.
The Chautauqua center is known for its summertime lecture series, where Rushdie has spoken before. Speakers address a different topic each week.
Rushdie and moderator Henry Reese were set to discuss “the United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duels has proven to be one of the most popular mobile spin-offs of the trading card franchise, providing a highly-competitive online multiplayer experience (with the benefit of enhanced animations, of course). As such, the game has received new updates which add to in-game content and overall player experience.
Among the new updates to the game is the “Duellist Cup,” a new two-stage event that lets players earn several rewards, including currency gems, for example. Duellists who manage to complete the first half of the Duellist Cup will be entered into a ranked second half, with even more potential rewards. It should be said that the event is only up until August 21.
There’s also a newly added Solo Mode dubbed “The Invincible Beetroopers,” which is based on the Beetrooper Scout Buggy monsters, marking their in-game debut. The game will now have “Casual Duels” as well, letting players battle it out without affecting their rank. The update also brings in a new batch of accessories which include the “Destiny Hero” icon, a “Token Collector” protector, “Vivid Abyssal” duel field, and a “Trishula” mate.
Additionally, the game will receive new changes to certain animations, as well as the game’s user interface.
In an interview with Nikkei, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says that, while semiconductor supply issues are looking to improve for the remainder of this fiscal year, next year looks more “uncertain.” This follows the publication of Nintendo’s financial report for Q1 2022-2023.
In last week’s financials, Nintendo reported a 22.9% drop in profits for April – June 2022, but the company also reassured people that it would not be increasing the price of the Switch and that the semiconductor shortages would improve over the summer and autumn period.
Furukawa says that Nintendo will “work out the best strategy” as it goes along and that it’s doing its best to “procure high-quality products at an appropriate price”, but that things are only clear for the remainder of the current fiscal year:
“With cooperation from various business partners, we’re on track for improvement from the latter half of this summer. But in terms of our sales forecast of 21 million units for the fiscal year through March 2023, we only have a clear production outlook for this year. Beyond that, things are uncertain.”
This cooperation means that Nintendo Switch supply should improve for the rest of the year, as Nintendo already laid out in its latest financial report, but it’s unknown what the demand and supply will be like next year. Furukawa also states “I can’t say specifically what is in short supply”, but that Nintendo will still be selling all three Switch models — Standard, Lite, and OLED.
While Furukawa once again reassures that Nintendo isn’t considering a price increase “at this point”, the President was asked about rising material and shipping costs.
“For the time being, our OLED model will continue to be less profitable than our other models. Costs have undoubtedly increased for shipping not only by air, but also by sea. We’re thinking about what we can do.
The weak yen may be seen as a benefit for Nintendo, since such a large share of our sales comes from abroad, but our overseas promotional and staff costs also go up. We’re making more inventory purchases in foreign currencies to counter that.”
While the yen is indeed weakening, costs across the world are also rising, causing Nintendo to consider more options, including — as Furukawa states above — buying more inventory in other currencies.
And even though a large percentage of sales come from abroad, Furukawa brings up the issue of shipping costs, and the company needs to think of a way to get around this.
The OLED costs more to produce, and, while it’s more expensive than the standard model (and frequently the best-selling Switch console week-on-week in Japan), it’s only marginally more so.
Still, despite any potential issues with supplies, semiconductors, and prices, Furukawa believes that “hit software” in the latter part of the year will help the console massively, specifically citing Splatoon 3 (9th September) and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (18th November ).
Other major platform exclusives coming out for the remainder of 2022 are Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Bayonetta 3, while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 has a chance of squeaking in before the end of the financial year (March 2023) as it’s tenuously dated for Spring 2023.
What are your thoughts on Shuntaro Furukawa’s words? Do you think the semiconductor shortage will improve more next year? Let us know in the comments.
