The Morning After: NASA makes more flight plans for the Mars copter
Ingenuity could scout the terrain ahead of Perseverance.
Remember game demos? While there are many free-to-play titles these days, it seems like most high-profile games don’t give players a way to try them out without paying the full price up front. That’s not the case for Resident Evil Village, although an odd time-locked system has made it frustrating for fans to dive into the game before it's released next week.
The good news is that Capcom has relaxed its policy a bit. The final demo will unlock tonight on PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Stadia, and players can get a 60 minute taste of the game — complete with towering vampire ladies — at any point over the next eight days.
— Richard Lawler
NASA wants to use its Mars helicopter to support Perseverance rover
NASA says it could send Ingenuity on short flights ahead of the rover to scout potential routes.
On Friday, NASA announced it plans to transition the rotorcraft to an operational role once it completes its remaining test flights. NASA says those flights will involve more precise maneuvering, greater use of its photographic capabilities and, most of all, more significant risks. That's a substantial change for a craft that was initially only supposed to show whether flying through the atmosphere of Mars was even possible.
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Is Microsoft siding with Epic over Apple?
By cutting Xbox PC revenue share to 12 percent.
Microsoft has long employed a revenue-sharing model of 70 percent for creators and 30 percent for Xbox, but starting August 1st, that’s shifting to 88 percent for developers and 12 percent for Xbox, at least when it comes to PC releases. Xbox console developers won’t see a change to the existing revenue-sharing model.
The reason those numbers stick out, is that while Microsoft didn’t mention the words Epic or Apple while speaking to Engadget about the change, the fact is that the old split mirrored Apple’s App Store, while the new one is in line with Epic’s game store on PCs.
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This week's best deals
40 percent off Amazon's Echo Dot and more.
Amazon's latest Echo Dot is down to just $30 and you can still save up to $200 on Samsung's Galaxy S21 smartphones. Fitbit's Mother's Day sale is in full swing, bringing record-low prices to many of its wearables, and May the 4th sales began early this year with discounted Star Wars Instant Pots.
Here are all the best deals from the week that you can still snag today, and remember to follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for more updates.
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The Engadget Podcast
Samsung's slew of Galaxy Book laptops
On this episode of the Engadget Podcast, Cherlynn and Devindra chat about all of Samsung’s new laptops from its latest Galaxy Unpacked fiesta, and why they matter (or don’t). They also talk about the company sneaking in mention of NVIDIA's still unannounced RTX 3050 cards in the Galaxy Book Odyssey.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or Stitcher.
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'Returnal' captures the beauty (and frustration) of failure
With references to films like ‘Edge of Tomorrow.’
Here’s what Devindra Hardawar has to say about the new PS5 exclusive: “It's at times frustratingly difficult, and its systems are sometimes tough to suss out. But I just can't stop playing it.”
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But wait, there’s more...
Roku pulls YouTube TV from its store as Google feud deepens
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: Can just 'good' be good enough?
Engadget Deals: Apple's new 11-inch iPad Pro is already $50 off at Walmart
NASA, SpaceX pause work on the lunar lander as Blue Origin and Dynetics object
Former Netflix CTO convicted for taking more than $500,000 in bribes
The best tech gifts for new moms
Apple's next-gen 'M2' Mac processor has reportedly gone into production
Deepfake satellite images pose serious military and political challenges
The new iMac's paltry port selection doesn't bode well for the next MacBook Pro\
Razer Anzu review: Smart glasses that are almost great
Why Elon Musk's first Loop is, and isn't, as silly as you think
'The Falcon and Winter Soldier' fails to pay off on its initial promise
Microsoft is fixing wonky Windows 10 layouts with multiple displays
Surface Laptop 4 review (15-inch): A bigger, better ultraportable
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