Technology

Nintendo is lowering the price of its base Switch model across Europe ahead of the OLED version’s launch next month. The Nintendo Switch is now priced at €299.99 in Europe, down €30 from the previous €329.99 pricing. In the UK, Nintendo has adjusted the base model to £259.99, down £20 from the previous £279.99 pricing. The new pricing can be found at Nintendo’s own store, and Eurogamer notes it hasn’t been reflected at other retailers like Amazon just yet. Given the small changes, it’s likely more of a currency-related change in pricing, but it does arrive just under a month before Nintendo’s OLED Switch is due to go on sale. The Switch OLED model arrives on October 8th.Image: Nintendo The OLED model will be priced at €364.99 in Europe and £309.99 in the UK. This small price drop creates a...

Following a limited-edition collaborative Q2 with James Bond actor Daniel Craig and British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ official photographer Greg Williams back in February, Leica is now celebrating the release of No Time to Die with yet another special edition of the camera model. Dubbed the “007 Edition,” the new Q2 features an all-black construction paired with a dark, ocean green leather body wrap. The franchise’s iconic “007” logo can be found on the deck cap while the Bond gun barrel emblem adorns the camera’s lens cap. Each unit will receive individual numbering as well as a custom, handcrafted case designed by Globe-Trotter in the same green tone. On top of the camera release, Leica will also be hosting an exhibition at its London gallery titled No Time to D...

Last week, the judge in the Apple vs. Epic Games lawsuit rewarded Epic with a victory that ordered Apple to make changes to its app store. However, Epic was also ordered to pay Apple $3.7 million USD in damages plus 30% of what Epic earned through its in-app payment system from November 2020 to now. It seems that Epic is not entirely thrilled with the outcome as they have now filed an appeal. The case has been ongoing since August 2020 and was centered around Epic Games updating its iOS app which subsequently allowed its players to bypass Appel’s payment system to pay the Fortnite parent company directly. During the recent trial, Epic claimed that Apple holds a monopoly. The judge seems to think that Epic has failed to make the case for Apple as a monopoly explaining that their antitr...

NASA’s Perseverance Rover has collected its first rock samples from and it is already suggesting that life may just have a chance at flourishing on the Red planet. NASA researchers have analyzed the sample which has now indicated that water has been present on the planet for a while now, namely tens of thousands, or perhaps millions of years. The team has detected crucial salt sediments that appear to have formed when water flowed through the sampled rock. The salt is expected to have trapped some of Mars’ old water in its pockets, confirming that there could be preserved signs of life. Though there have only been two samples from this one rock, it will take a much longer time for scientists to unveil more about Mars’ makeup and the extent to which life could flourish on the planet. The sa...

The latest live Fortnite event saw the return of a familiar friend, with an explosion-filled spectacle involving aliens, cubes, and lots of strange bits of lore. And now that it’s over, the game is down in the lead-up to season 8. Before the event started, players were able to hang out in a sort of holding pen, located on some chunks of farmland floating above the island. They were greeted by the booming voice of Doctor Slone — the main protagonist, or possibly antagonist, of this season — who warned “the aliens are about to start their biggest abduction yet.” In my instance of the game, everyone jumped on top of the same grain silo and danced for 20 minutes before the event actually kicked off. When that happened, players were initially sucked onto the giant alien mothership that has floa...

Just weeks after forcing the Groovy Discord music bot offline, Google-owned YouTube is now turning its attention to Rythm, the most popular music bot on Discord. The search giant has sent a cease and desist to the owners of Rythm, a bot that lets Discord users play music from YouTube videos and is used by more than 560 million people. Google wants the Rythm bot closed down within seven days, and the service is complying by shutting down its bot on September 15th. Rythm is currently installed on more than 20 million Discord servers alone. Rythm has more than 560 million Discord users, making this shutdown a huge blow to a core feature of Discord. “One way or another we knew this was due to happen eventually,” admits Yoav, the creator of Rythm bot, in a Discord message to The Verge. “Which i...

The clues were there all along if you were paying attention, but I still gasped at the very big reveal in the latest episode of Ted Lasso. I won’t spoil it except to say: it was very well done from beginning to end, my crush on Roy Kent continues, and I’ve had Somewhere Only We Know in my head all weekend. Trailers! Let’s get right to it because pretty much every one of these trailers is extremely relevant to my interests and I just don’t know how I’m going to find the time to watch everything. [embedded content] The Matrix: Resurrections The first trailer for the fourth Matrix movie has arrived at last along with some robust internet analysis of whaaaaat is going on here. It seems Neo doesn’t know what’s real and isn’t in the Matrix, but maybe he also is? Also his name is Thomas again. Al...

On Friday, a California judge ruled on the influential Epic v. Apple lawsuit, and both sides lost. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers concluded that Apple wasn’t unfairly monopolizing the mobile app space with iOS or its in-app purchasing system, and she ordered Epic to pay damages for violating its developer agreement with Fortnite. At the same time, she ordered Apple to remove its anti-steering rules — policies banning developers from telling users about alternatives to Apple’s in-app purchase system. For readers outside those two companies, though, Judge Rogers’ opinion has a lot to offer. Rogers clearly considers much of Epic and Apple’s behavior silly and many of both companies’ arguments bad. But she seriously examines all these arguments and lays out a blueprint for further legal argument...

Tim Cook has just marked 10 years as Apple’s CEO, and while he’s grown Apple into the most valuable company in the world, it’s reasonable to argue he hasn’t yet introduced a signature, industry shaking product like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did with the iPhone, iPad, Mac and more. But if you’ve been following Apple for a minute, you’ve probably heard Cook talk about the game-changing potential of augmented reality. While he once said it was hard to see the appeal of Google Glass, the AR wearable that proved unpopular with consumers, he’s held a consistently positive opinion on AR since at least 2016. While most of the industry was putting all its eggs in the VR basket, Cook repeatedly expressed support for what he views as the far superior AR. This would become a running theme: AR good, ...

Days before Apple’s California Streaming event on September 14th, a new investor report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says he expects the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max to each have a 1TB storage configuration (h/t 9to5Mac). Kuo also says the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will have storage configurations of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, but no 64GB option. Kuo also said he expects Apple to reveal AirPods 3 at Tuesday’s event, but that Apple will probably keep the AirPods 2 available. He cautions that the iPhone 13 could be affected by supply chain shortages, as has been previously reported, but expects there will be limited impact on iPhone 13 shipments. Previous leaks and rumors have pointed to an iPhone 13 lineup that will include four models in the same sizes as last year’s models. The new p...

Epic Games has filed an appeal to a Friday’s ruling in its lawsuit against Apple, calling on a higher court to reexamine the case and overturn the judge’s ruling. “Notice is hereby given that Epic Games, Inc…. appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from the final Judgment entered on September 10, 2021,” the document reads. Few details are given about the legal basis for Epic’s appeal, but it is likely to continue to press on the federal antitrust allegations dismissed by the court. At trial, Epic argued Apple had a monopoly because of how it requires developers to use its payments system for in-game purchases. But Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled Friday that Epic should pay damages to Apple for violating rules around its in-app purchasing system, while ...

Salesforce has told employees that the company will help them and their families relocate if they’re concerned about abortion access in the state where they live. According to a Slack message obtained by CNBC, the company didn’t refer to any specific state, but the message was sent to thousands of employees late Friday, a day after the US Department of Justice sued Texas over its new abortion law. “These are incredibly personal issues that directly impact many of us — especially women,” the Slack message reads, according to CNBC. “[I]f you have concerns about access to reproductive healthcare in your state, Salesforce will help relocate you and members of your immediate family.” The Slack message didn’t suggest the company was taking a position on abortion or the new Texas law, noting that...