Despelote is heading to Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 1. Despelote is a super stylish soccer game that's secretly about life in the Ecuadorian city of Quito in 2001, and it comes from local developers Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena, and published by Panic.
You play as 8-year-old Julián, and spend your time kicking the ball, meeting people and exploring life during Ecuador's economic recovery just ahead of the unifying 2002 World Cup. The in-game city comprises actual photographs of places around Quito, but the backgrounds are covered in a layer of high-contrast grit, while people and the soccer ball stand out as stark line drawings. The audio was recorded on location, too, and the result is a game that looks and sounds like a soothing memory.
Despelote was announced in 2023 and originally due to land in 2024, but it now has a firm date of May 1. It's already picked up a handful of accolades, including four nominations at the 2025 Independent Games Festival. There's a demo on Steam, if you're intrigued.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/slice-of-life-soccer-game-despelote-kicks-off-on-may-1-234256915.html?src=rss
COVID-19 vaccines cut the risk of long COVID by between 57–73 percent in kids and teens, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open. And there's more good news: A second study published today in the journal offered more data that the now-annual shots are not linked to sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death in young athletes—a claim that gained traction on social media and among anti-vaccine groups during the acute phase of the pandemic.
Together, the studies bolster current recommendations that children and teens should stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines, which are estimated to have prevented more than 3 million deaths and more than 18 million hospitalizations in the first two years of their use. So far, the recommendations for kids have largely gone unheeded; only 14 percent of children aged 5 to 17 are up to date on their 2024–2025 COVID shot. Surveys suggest that parents largely think the vaccines are unnecessary, given that most children only have mild COVID infections.
Still, not all infections are mild, and even mild cases can lead to long COVID, according to the authors of the first study. An estimated 1 percent to 3 percent of children infected with SARS-CoV-2 will develop long COVID, defined as having symptoms that continue or develop four or more weeks after the initial phase of infection. With tens of millions of kids getting infected with the pandemic virus, a large number of them are at risk of developing the condition.
The cryptocurrency industry and those responsible for securing it are still in shock following Friday’s heist, likely by North Korea, that drained $1.5 billion from Dubai-based exchange Bybit, making the theft by far the biggest ever in digital asset history.
Bybit officials disclosed the theft of more than 400,000 ethereum and staked ethereum coins just hours after it occurred. The notification said the digital loot had been stored in a “Multisig Cold Wallet” when, somehow, it was transferred to one of the exchange’s hot wallets. From there, the cryptocurrency was transferred out of Bybit altogether and into wallets controlled by the unknown attackers.
This wallet is too hot, this one is too cold
Researchers for blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, among others, said over the weekend that the techniques and flow of the subsequent laundering of the funds bear the signature of threat actors working on behalf of North Korea. The revelation comes as little surprise since the isolated nation has long maintained a thriving cryptocurrency theft racket, in large part to pay for its weapons of mass destruction program.
In a bold move last month, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang took out a full-page ad in the Washington Post, telling President Trump that “America must win the AI war.” The statement sparked mixed reactions, as seen during Wang’s appearance Sunday during the opening night of Web Summit Qatar. When Wang’s interviewer Axios’s Felix Salmon […]
Anthropic’s next funding round is reportedly growing larger. Anthropic, which makes the AI chatbot Claude, is finalizing a $3.5 billion fundraising round that values the company at $61.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Anthropic initially set out to raise $2 billion, but investors have now agreed to a larger tranche, per the WSJ. […]
The Nintendo-branded Alarmo will yell at you for sleeping in if Mario’s leer of disapproval isn’t enough.
Ongoing scarcity has made it challenging to purchase Nintendoâs adorable Alarmo since its soft launch last year, but it appears those days are behind us. The $99.99 alarm clock is now readily available from third-party retailers in the US, starting with Best Buy. You can also buy it directly from Nintendo without a subscription, with the only caveat being that you must sign in with a Nintendo account.
Nintendo announced its alarm clock in October while we patiently awaited (any) news regarding the Nintendo Switch 2, which is set to launch later this year. Although the Alarmo is certainly not as exciting as a new console, it is unapologetically Nintendo, with a cartoonish look that calls to mind a vintage alarm clock â albeit with a few modern features.
Nintendoâs bright red alarm clock features an illuminated button on top and a rounded face that houses an LCD display. The 2.8-inch panel shows the time/date and will attempt to wake you each morning with scenes and sounds from several iconic franchises. It makes room for visits from beloved characters like Link and Mario, as well as pikmin. There are currently 35 scenes across five franchises available, and Nintendo says yo …
You can't keep a good owl down: Duolingo's owl mascot Duo, who met his demise on Feb. 11, has apparently survived his encounter with a Tesla Cybertruck after all. Duo was resurrected on the company's social channels Monday, with posts featuring a video of a person in a Duo mask and neon green suit busting...
We’re nearing the deadline that Elon Musk imposed for government workers to reply to a mass email about productivity, and the results have been predictably confusing — with even a direct statement from President Donald Trump failing to clear things up.
Government agencies have taken significantly different tacks toward the Musk-promoted email, which he announced to the public midday on February 22nd. Sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the message demanded all federal employees respond by the end of the 24th with “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week,” and Musk said on X that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” The email reportedly didn’t include this noteworthy detail.
Other agencies have issued more nebulous guidance. In an email obtained by The Verge, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson told staff that responses were “voluntary” — but he added that “I enthusiastically responded” to the message and “strongly encourage you to respond as well.”
As of this article’s publication, the White House has done little to clarify the situation. An unnamed administration official said on Monday morning that employees should defer to their agencies’ guidance, reported Politico. An OPM official further told The Washington Post that the office was “unsure what to do with the emails” and had “no plans” to analyze them. Yet more anonymous officials, however, said that workers’ reports would be “fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether those jobs are necessary or not,” per NBC News.
Meanwhile, on the same day, Trump said publicly that people who failed to respond would be “sort of semi-fired,” adding that “a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.” He denied that agencies were clashing with Musk by issuing conflicting guidance, saying it was “done in a friendly manner.”
Musk’s email echoed his behavior after taking over Twitter, where he demanded employees do things like print out 50 pages of their recent coding work or write a memo justifying their jobs to receive previously promised company stock. But unlike at Twitter, where he held sole unquestioned control, he’s dealing with formal chains of command and many other stakeholders here.
Still, the whole impossibly tangled situation is conducive to Musk and Trump’s goal of paralyzing the government, letting them instill fear in employees while creating an excuse to fire people as desired. (If they work on nuclear safety or bird flu, maybe they’ll get semi-rehired afterward.)
Like many moves by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the latest action ignores existing government structures in a way that may be aimed at avoiding legal or political accountability. The email nonetheless drew an immediate challenge in court. It was included in an amended suit filed by groups including the American Federation of Government Employees, which condemned the email as “thoughtless and bullying … meant to intimidate federal employees and cause mass confusion.”
Ironically for figures who claim to be fighting bureaucratic confusion, Musk and Trump have created one of the most downright kafkaesque scenarios imaginable. We’re now looking at a government order presenting a drastic ultimatum that is never mentioned in the order, in which a response may be either mandatory or forbidden, and failing to respond may or may not get you simultaneously fired and not fired. Also, you may not actually exist.
Edtech company Chegg has sued Google claiming that the tech giant’s AI summaries of search results have hurt Chegg’s traffic and revenue. In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Chegg accuses Google of unfair competition — specifically reciprocal dealing, monopoly maintenance, and unjust enrichment. Google, Chegg claims, forces […]
Anthropic is closing in on a massive $3.5 billion funding round that would push its valuation to $61.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The AI startup, known for developing the Claude chatbot, continues to attract deep-pocketed investors eager […]
NORTH DAKOTA, UNITED STATES – 2017/02/22: Defiant Dakota Access Pipeline water protectors faced-off with various law enforcement agencies on the day the camp was slated to be raided. | Photo: Getty Images
A pivotal trial over the embattled Dakota Access Pipeline opens today that could have grave consequences for protests in the US and the future of the environmental group Greenpeace.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux and more than 500 other tribes protested the development of the pipeline alongside demonstrators who joined from across the US nearly a decade ago. Legal battles are still in motion, even after oil started flowing through the pipeline that runs from North Dakota to Illinois in 2017.
The company that operates Dakota Access, Energy Transfers, is suing Greenpeace for $300 million in a lawsuit that goes on trial this week. Energy Transfers claims that Greenpeace supported protestersâ âunlawful acts of trespassâ and property destruction to stop construction. It also alleges that the organization spread false information about the company and concerns about the pipelineâs impact on the environment and cultural sites to the public and to banks financing the project.
âThis directly impacts everybody, not just Standing Rock, not just Greenpeace.â
Paying that amount in damages would be equivalent to about 10 times Greenpeace USAâs annual budget, according to …
Sigma has announced the BF, a new 24.6-megapixel full-frame, mirrorless camera that has a built-in SSD rather than an a CFexpress or SD card slot. The company is known for making lenses and unconventional cameras, and the BF's design and unique approach to storage definitely fit the bill.
The Sigma BF is milled from a single block of aluminum, and looks it, with mostly flat, angular edges that don't seem entirely designed for human hands, save for a thumb rest on the back. This is all part of the BF's deliberately minimalist approach, which extends to the lack of text on the body of the camera and the camera's haptic buttons. Besides the thumb rest, the back of the BF features a high-resolution display, pill-shaped status monitor for highlighting whatever setting you're adjusting, a dial for navigating menus, an option button, a power button and a playback button. The top of the BF is even simpler: there's just two microphones and a shutter button.
The BF is compatible with L-mount lenses, and on top of photos, its 35mm full-frame sensor can capture 6K video, and supports things like HEVC encoding and recording at up to 120 frames per second. The built-in 230GB SSD in the BF is "capable of storing more than 14,000 JPEG files, 4,300 uncompressed RAW images or 2.5 hours of video at the highest-quality setting," according to Sigma. Like plenty of modern mirrorless cameras, the BF also comes with several different color modes that can tweak the look of your photo. Options include modes like standard and rich, and color specific settings like powder blue, forest green and sunset red.
Sigma
All of that sounds cool in theory, especially if you're interested in a camera with an idiosyncratic design, but you have to be willing to pay for it. PetaPixel writes that the Sigma BF will be available body-only for $1,999 in April 2025, in either black or silver.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/sigmas-latest-camera-is-so-minimalist-it-doesnt-have-a-memory-card-slot-223502411.html?src=rss
On Monday, Anthropic announced Claude 3.7 Sonnet, a new AI language model with a simulated reasoning (SR) capability called "extended thinking," allowing the system to work through problems step by step. The company also revealed Claude Code, a command line AI agent for developers currently available as a limited research preview.
Anthropic calls Claude 3.7 the first "hybrid reasoning model" on the market, giving users the option to choose between quick responses or extended, visible chain-of-thought processing similar to OpenAI's o1 and o3 series models, Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, and DeepSeek's R1. When using Claude 3.7's API, developers can specify exactly how many tokens the model should use for thinking, up to its 128,000 token output limit.
The new model is available across all Claude subscription plans, and the extended thinking mode feature is available on all plans except the free tier. API pricing remains unchanged at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, with thinking tokens included in the output pricing since they are part of the context considered by the model.
Do you sometimes refer to X by its old name, Twitter? That’s okay. Even Elon Musk, the man who changed Twitter’s name to X, still occasionally refers to the social media platform he runs as Twitter. “Twitter added far more features with fewer people,” said Musk in a post on X Monday. The owner of […]
Perplexity is moving beyond AI search and into the crowded web browser market. The $9 billion startup teased its new browser, Comet, on X, calling it an "agentic search" experience. It launched a signup list but offered few details on how the browser will stand out from competitors. Comet: A Browser for Agentic Search by...
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SpaceX believes it has determined why Starship exploded during its seventh test flight. | Image: SpaceX
SpaceX believes it knows what caused the explosion during the seventh test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster on January 16th, 2025. Fires in the aft section of Starship, located between the bottom of its liquid oxygen tank and rear heat shield, caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences” leading to a loss of communication and eventually the spacecraft’s safety system triggering its own destruction.
The goal of the seventh test flight was to test several upgrades SpaceX made to its heavy-lift rocket system. After a successful launch and completing a full duration burn, the Super Heavy booster separated from Starship and triggered a boostback burn designed to return it to the launch site. Following a landing burn, the Super Heavy booster was successfully caught mid-air by the launch tower at Starbase for the second time.
The mission didn’t go quite as well for Starship. Approximately two minutes after the spacecraft ignited its second stage Raptor engines following separation, a flash was observed in the aft section of Starship known as the attic, followed by sensors detecting a pressure rise from a leak. Two minutes after that, a second flash was observed, followed by sustained fires in the attic section that eventually “caused all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship.”
Post-flight analysis indicated that Starship’s Autonomous Flight Safety System triggered a self-destruct approximately three minutes after the ground crew lost contact with the spacecraft. According to SpaceX, the most probable cause of the incident was vibrations that were much stronger during the flight than had been experienced during testing. That resulted in increased stress on the propulsion system’s hardware and, eventually, a propellant leak that “exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires.”
The explosion created falling debris that looked more like a meteor shower over the islands of Turks and Caicos to several tourists who shared videos of the aftermath on social media. Although SpaceX says all the “debris came down within the pre-planned Debris Response Area,” the Federal Aviation Administration briefly slowed and diverted several flights in the area on January 16th as a result of the incident.
As part of the investigation into the explosion involving SpaceX, the FAA, NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the U.S. Space Force, the company conducted a 60-second static test fire with the Starship that will be used on an upcoming eighth flight. Following the results of that test, SpaceX has made hardware changes to fuel feedlines as well as adjustments to propellant temperatures and operating thrust targets.
The company has also added additional vents and a “new purge system utilizing gaseous nitrogen” to the attic section of Starship designed to make that area more robust to propellant leakage.
SpaceX currently plans to launch an eighth test flight of Starship on February 28th, 2025, but is still “working with the FAA to either close the mishap investigation or receive a flight safety determination, along with working on a license authorization to enable its next flight of Starship.”
Starting with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm will offer device manufacturers (OEMs) the “ability to provide support for up to eight consecutive years of Android software and security updates.”
