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'Kingdom Hearts 3' journeys to the 'Frozen' universe
Five years after the last title of the franchise first reached store shelves, Microsoft revealed a slew of new details about Kingdom Hearts 3, which the company announced last night will hit the PS4 and Xbox on January 29th, 2019. In KH3, players will be tasked with navigating a winter wonderland while guiding Elsa, of Frozen fame, past her feelings of self-doubt and towards a more heroic path in life. Beyond helping Elsa, Sora, Donald, and Goofy also find themselves in search of the seven guardians of light and the "Key to Return Hearts." Further gameplay details remain scarce roughly six months out from the game's official release, but stay tuned to Engadget for more information as soon as it becomes available.
Apple, Pixar and Adobe back a standardized AR file format
Apple announced at the WWDC 2018 keynote in San Jose on Monday that sharing AR files across will be much easier under iOS12 thanks to a new file format the company has developed in conjunction with Pixar. The Universal Scene Description file, or USDZ for short, will offer the ability to display 3D rendered AR objects within a single "zero compression, unencrypted zip archive" file, optimized for sharing.
Jeff Bezos announces Amazon is picking up 'The Expanse'
It's been a few days since reports indicated Amazon was close to a deal that would extend the life of sci-fi series The Expanse, and tonight at a National Space Society event Jeff Bezos made it official. Alcon Entertainment makes the show, which is currently airing season three on Syfy, and said in a statement: "We couldn't be more excited that The Expanse is going to continue on Amazon Prime!" The press release confirmed season four, while Bezos said the show will be a Prime Original "for the coming seasons."
NBC picks up 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' after Hulu, Netflix pass
After Fox canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, fans hoped a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu might pick up the show to extend its run. Tonight members of the cast and crew announced that NBC has chosen to air a 13-episode long season six of the cop sitcom, a move many attributed to fans getting loud and saving the show. Similar to Syfy's recently-canceled The Expanse, an issue with the show on its old network was a lack of streaming rights for past seasons that in this case belong to Hulu. That, in turn, made it less compelling for a service like Netflix. Deadline reported on which networks passed, and notes that at NBC it's a show made by "sister studio" Universal, which does bring in profit from off-network airing and streaming.
Japan Display built a 1,001-ppi screen for VR headsets
Japan Display (JDI) has unveiled plans for high resolution LCD screens that could substantially improve the displays found in current VR headsets. JDI -- a joint enterprise made up of Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi -- says it's developing a 3.25-inch 1,001 ppi (pixels per inch) LCD, which will also purportedly feature lower latency and energy consumption levels. According to JDI, these are the key ingredients required to unlock natural-looking video on higher resolution displays.
Pretty sure Google's new talking AI just beat the Turing test
So that whole Turing test metric, wherein we gauge how human-like an AI system appears to be based on its ability to mimic our vocal affectations? At the 2018 I/O developers conference Tuesday, Google utterly dismantled it. The company did so by having its AI-driven Assistant book a reservation. On the phone. With a live, unsuspecting human on the other end of the line. And it worked flawlessly.
Facebook's upcoming dating service will be a heartbreaker
Facebook is getting into the dating game, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to the assembled crowd at its annual F8 developers conference today. Citing a 2017 Forbes article about how one in three US marriages now start online, Zuckerberg pointed out that some 200 million Facebook users currently list themselves as single on the social media site. So why not use Facebook's practical monopoly in online social interactions to help folks find lasting love?
Stephen Hawking passes away at age 76
Late Tuesday night the family of Stephen Hawking announced that the physicist has passed away at the age of 76. Awarded more than a dozen honorary degrees, Hawking theorized that black holes emitted a form of thermal radiation, and contributed to work trying to unify Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum physics. In 1988 he wrote "A Brief History of Time," serving as an overview of astronomy and modern physics, which went on to sell more than 10 million copies, spurring a biographical documentary directed by Errol Morris and produced by Steven Spielberg. In 2014, Eddie Redmayne won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking in The Theory of Everything, based on accounts of his early life by his first wife Jane Hawking.
Shigeru Miyamoto will co-produce a 'Mario' animated movie
Nintendo's third big announcement of the evening (after Switch Online and Mario Kart Tour) comes right back to its main star, Mario, and the news that he will star in an animated movie. Confirming earlier rumors, Shigeru Miyamoto is listed as co-producer along with Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Minions, Ice Age) head Chris Meledandri, but the announcement didn't mention other details like a title or release date. The press release notes that Universal Pictures is co-financing the project and will handle worldwide distribution, and it seems ripe for a tie-in with theme park plans both companies are working on. The big question now is if it will live up/down (depending on how you feel about it) to the reputation of 1993's Super Mario Bros. movie.
Nintendo Switch Online will launch in September
We knew Nintendo's new online service would launch this year, and now we know Switch owners will be waiting until September for it. The company tweeted that Nintendo Switch Online will launch then, but didn't reveal much else, other than the fact that it will remain free to use until the official launch (which will come about a year after gamers were expecting it). Meanwhile, Nintendo also recently announced that with the Wii Shop channel scheduled to close in a year, it will stop letting owners add Wii Points to their account on March 26th. Nintendo has revealed a few of the features (like access to archived titles) and that it will cost $20 per year, but that's about it for now. Right now, its use is limited to a few games making use of its mobile apps for things like voice chat and game invites. For now, Nintendo's flooding the channel with news, including word of its Mario Kart Tour mobile game, and a Mario movie in development.
OnePlus says up to 40,000 customers affected in credit card breach
After learning that fraudulent charges were appearing on its customers' credit cards, smartphone maker OnePlus disabled support for credit card payments and launched an on-going investigation. The preliminary results are in, however, and they're definitely concerning. In a statement released today, OnePlus said credit card information belonging to up to 40,000 customers was captured by a malicious (and currently unknown) actor between November 2017 and mid-January 2018.
Democrats are just one vote shy of restoring net neutrality (Update)
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer now says Democrats in the Senate are a single vote away from restoring net neutrality. According to the senator from New York, they now have a total of 50 votes for a Senate resolution of disapproval that would restore the Open Internet Order of 2015 and deliver a stiff rebuke to Ajit Pai and other Republican members of the FCC. It would also prevent the agency from passing a similar measure in the future, all but guaranteeing Net Neutrality is permanently preserved.
Ford teases 'Mach 1' electric performance SUV for 2020
At its NAIAS 2018 preview event, Ford just dropped a few details about an electric vehicle it plans to release in 2020. The "Mach 1" (cribbing its name from the famous Mustang model) is an all-electric performance SUV under development by Team Edison in Ford's recently-opened Corktown facility. It won't be the company's only EV either, as chairman Bill Ford revealed the company plans to have 40 electric vehicles by 2022 while investing $11 billion in them.
False alarm: Emergency alert in Hawaii claims 'missile inbound'
A few minutes ago, phones across Hawaii received the above emergency alert about a "ballistic missile threat inbound," but according to state officials, it isn't true. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii's governor David Ige and the state's Hawaii Emergency Management Agency all chimed in on Twitter to confirm the alert is false. It took 38 minutes before a second alert reached phones, confirming that the first one was a mistake. Honolulu police confirmed in a post that "State Warning Point has issued a Missile Alert in ERROR!," while Buzzfeed reporter Amber Jamieson tweets that one EMA employee said it was a part of a drill. US Senator from Hawaii Brian Schatz said the "inexcusable" alert "was a false alarm based on a human error" while the National Weather Service called it a "test message."
Facebook will focus on friends over publishers in the News Feed
Facebook just announced that it will make sweeping changes to the News Feed, the primary place where users find content on the social network. Over the next few months, users will see "more from your friends, family and groups" and " less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media," so says CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company says that it has heard from users that the so-called "public content" is crowding out "personal moments" that the Facebook platform was built on.
LAPD arrested a 25-year-old suspect in Wichita 'swatting' case
Thursday night Wichita police killed Andrew Finch after responding to a call claiming a man at his address had shot someone and was holding others hostage. That call was a hoax, commonly referred to as "swatting," and in this case, it's apparently linked to a Call of Duty match, where one player passed a fake address to another before someone called the police to it. Now NBC News reports that police in Los Angeles have arrested 25-year-old Tyler Barriss, who is believed to have made the call inciting the incident. Barriss may be the "SWAutistic" who tweeted about making the call and later participated in a phone interview with the DramaAlert show on YouTube. An LAPD spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that Barriss is in custody, no bail has been set, and that they are working with Wichita police on the case. The LA Times reported in 2015 that he had been arrested for calling in a bomb threat to a TV studio, and in the YouTube video, SWAutistic claims to be responsible for bomb threats that interrupted an MLG Call of Duty event in Dallas earlier this month.
Disney buys Fox's studios and cable TV channels for $52 billion
After weeks of rumors, the deal is done -- Disney will buy up large chunks of Rupert Murdoch's Fox media empire for $52 billion. The list of what it won't take is shorter: the Fox News cable channel, broadcast networks and Fox Sports, which are expected to spin off as their own business. The Disney conglomerate adds the Fox movie and TV studios (including big-name franchises like X-Men, Avatar, Alien and The Simpsons), majority control of Hulu, FX cable networks and $13.7 billion in debt. On top of that, Fox is attempting to acquire the parts of UK's Sky that it doesn't already own, and if that's successful then Disney will get it too.
Netflix: We won't make 'House of Cards' with Kevin Spacey involved
If House of Cards comes back for its planned sixth and final season, it won't happen on Netflix with Kevin Spacey attached. After accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced yesterday from crew members working on the show, the streaming video company issued a statement tonight saying "Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey." The studio that produces House of Cards for Netflix, Media Rights Capital, quickly followed up with a statement of its own, saying that Spacey "has been suspended, effective immediately." Based on the two company's releases, while that puts an end to the actor's participation, they're still considering options for the future of the show.
Jack Dorsey responds to #WomenBoycottTwitter: New rules incoming
Last night #WomenBoycottTwitter spread among many high profile accounts that stood in solidarity with "victims of hate and harassment Twitter fails to support." The boycott itself wasn't without controversy and spawned responses including a push to highlight and appreciate women of color on the platform under the hashtag #WOCAffirmation. While many weren't sure it would have any impact, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded with a thread promising that after a day spent focusing on "making some critical decisions...We decided to take a more aggressive stance in our rules and how we enforce them." Changes that he says are coming in the next few weeks include "New rules around: unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence." Of course, we've heard these kinds of statements from Twitter before, and critics may note it only plans to deal with "violent" groups and overt symbols of hate. Will that be enough to make any real difference in the experiences so many people report on Twitter? Unfortunately, we're still waiting to find out.
Google is buying HTC's Pixel team for $1.1 billion
After weeks (months, and years) of speculation, HTC has announced that its "Powered by HTC" R&D division -- the team behind Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones -- will be purchased by Google for $1.1 billion in cash. According to HTC's CFO Peter Shen, this will mean about half -- yes, half -- of the 4,000 people in his company's R&D team will be joining Google, but he emphasized that HTC will continue developing its own range of smartphones, including its next flagship product. The agreement also grants Google a non-exclusive license for a large part of HTC's intellectual property. The deal is expected to be approved and closed by early 2018. Curious about what all of this means? You could do worse than to check out our guide to the subject from last week.
