Blue Origin, the aerospace venture launched by Jeff Bezos, has marked a major milestone 24 years after its inception. In the early hours of January 16, 2025, the company’s towering 320-foot New Glenn rocket achieved orbit for the first time, […]
The post Blue Origin successfully launches New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time first appeared on Tech Startups.
Recent updates to Waze and Android Auto appear to have broken volume controls, as users are widely reporting problems.
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The iPhone has lost its crown as the best-selling phone in China, dropping to 3rd place in the latest market intelligence data.
One factor is the company’s struggle to launch Apple Intelligence features in the country after being unable to get permission to use its own generative AI model there …
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The long wait is finally over. In a YouTube video with little fanfare, Nintendo officially introduced the long-awaited Switch 2. The first true next-gen follow-up to the original Switch includes backwards-compatibility for owners of existing Switch hardware and we'll learn more about the console in a Nintendo Direct presentation on April 2, 2025. There's still no firm release date, though.
Nintendo is also planning to host first-look experience events in cities around the globe starting in April, the first of which takes place in New York City and Paris from April 4 to April 6. More cities around North American, Europe, Oceania and Asia will follow.
This trailer and accompanying press release are truly light on details. We see how the Switch 2 evolves from the original, with a larger screen and accompanying Joy-Con controllers that do appear to be attachable via magnets and a tiny port on the side of the controller.
The announcement of the Switch 2 has been a long time coming. Today's news caps off months of speculation about when the company would unveil new hardware. The community interest in a Switch 2 was vocal enough that president Shuntaro Furukawa posted on X ahead of the June 2024 Nintendo Direct not to expect any new console news, although he did confirm that the Switch's successor would be introduced by March 2025.
Nintendo has given players some minor upgrades over the years since the Switch first arrived on the scene in 2017. The Switch Lite offered a more compact handheld ideal for gaming on the go, and the Switch OLED delivered a premium screen. But even within the limitations of a portable gaming device, the Switch has lagged far behind other consoles when it comes to power and performance. Once we get our hands on the Switch 2, we'll know whether it delivers enough oomph to feel worth the wait.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-arrives-on-april-2-2025-131325195.html?src=rss©
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For the past seven months—and likely longer—an industry-wide standard that protects Windows devices from firmware infections could be bypassed using a simple technique. On Tuesday, Microsoft finally patched the vulnerability. The status of Linux systems is still unclear.
Tracked as CVE-2024-7344, the vulnerability made it possible for attackers who had already gained privileged access to a device to run malicious firmware during bootup. These types of attacks can be particularly pernicious because infections hide inside the firmware that runs at an early stage, before even Windows or Linux has loaded. This strategic position allows the malware to evade defenses installed by the OS and gives it the ability to survive even after hard drives have been reformatted. From then on, the resulting "bootkit" controls the operating system start.
In place since 2012, Secure Boot is designed to prevent these types of attacks by creating a chain-of-trust linking each file that gets loaded. Each time a device boots, Secure Boot verifies that each firmware component is digitally signed before it’s allowed to run. It then checks the OS bootloader's digital signature to ensure that it's trusted by the Secure Boot policy and hasn't been tampered with. Secure Boot is built into the UEFI—short for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface—the successor to the BIOS that’s responsible for booting modern Windows and Linux devices.
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Nintendo is finally making a new Mario Kart. While the official announcement of the Switch 2 didn’t feature much in the way of game announcements, the company did tease the next entry in the Mario Kart series. We don’t know anything about it really, though. There’s currently no title or details about the game. That should change later this year, as Nintendo is planning a Switch 2 Direct event for April.
It’s been a long time coming. Mario Kart 8 originally launched in 2014 for the Wii U, before an upgraded edition hit the Switch three years later, where it became the platform’s bestselling title, moving more than 64 million copies. Of course, it’s not like fans have been without new content; the Switch version of Mario Kart 8 got a huge number of DLC add-ons, which doubled the number of available tracks. Nintendo also released a mobile spinoff called Mario Kart Tour in 2019, though it stopped receiving updates as of 2023.
Now that Nintendo’s reveal of the Switch 2 has put to rest years of anticipation and rumormongering, it’s time to hear more information about the console and, importantly, all the games. The company has announced it will hold a Switch 2 Direct scheduled for April 2nd.
The Switch 2 reveal trailer showed footage that looks to be a new Mario Kart game, which is a good indication it’ll be a launch title. There’s speculation that the forthcoming Metroid Prime 4 might straddle both consoles the way Breath of the Wild launched on both the Wii U and the Switch back in 2017. The Switch 2 Direct might also reveal the follow-up to Super Mario Odyssey. Who knows?
But we do know that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of a Switch 2 must be in want of games to play on it, and we’ll get a good idea of what those games will be in early April.
The day is finally here.
It’s finally time: after months of teases and rumors, Nintendo has finally revealed the successor to the Switch. A new console generation is always a big deal, but this is an especially pivotal one for Nintendo.
Since its debut in 2017, the Switch has become Nintendo’s second-bestselling piece of hardware ever, trailing only the Nintendo DS. And it has been home to some of the company’s most successful games, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the juggernaut that is Mario Kart 8.
Those are some big shoes to fill, which means there are some important questions for Nintendo to answer about what comes next. The lead-up to today was filled with questions: What will the hardware look like? Will the big franchises be there at launch? Will games like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends: Z-A be cross-generation?
Now we have official answers to at least some of them — you can keep up with everything we learned from the reveal right here.
Nintendo has a new console on the way, but you can still hang onto those old games. The company has confirmed that the just-announced Switch 2 device will support cartridges from the original Switch.
The news shouldn’t be too surprising. Late last year, Nintendo confirmed that the then-unnamed console would be backward-compatible with the Switch. However, that original statement — “Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch” — wasn’t clear on whether that included physical games as well as digital. Now we know for sure. Additionally, Nintendo Switch Online, which includes a growing library of retro games and other features like a music app, will also carry over between the two devices for subscribers.
However, there appear to be some restrictions, as Nintendo notes that “certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2.” It’s not clear yet which games that might include.
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Image: Nintendo
The big reveal of the Switch’s successor comes after a long period of leaks and rumors, culminating in today’s official announcement. Here’s the full video of the reveal, which includes the tidbit about backward compatibility.
Last year I reviewed the Insta360 Flow Pro, the first iPhone gimbal to support Apple’s DockKit technology for seamless integration with the iPhone. Insta360 is now introducing Flow 2 Pro, an improved version of its gimbal with multiple improvements – and I had the chance to try it out in advance.
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It seems to be a week for interesting peeks at Apple history, a new piece telling the story of Softbank founder Masayoshi Son making a $17B gamble on the basis of a gentleman’s agreement with Steve Jobs.
Invariably known as Masa, the Japanese entrepreneur – who holds the interesting record of having been the richest man in the world for three days – figured out that Apple had to be working on a phone, two years before it was announced …
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Insta360 is back with another smartphone gimbal and it looks pretty darn great. The Flow Pro 2 is an upgrade over its predecessor in nearly every major way, and we already loved the original. This is another great tool for any content creator to have at the ready.
First of all, the Flow 2 Pro offers a sturdier build, for enhanced durability, and a much stronger tripod. The unit also includes an exterior selfie mirror, so users can quickly get a fit check in the middle of a vlog or whatever.
The new design allows for something called Free Tilt Mode, which means that users can angle the gimbal in unique ways to get creative shots. The company says folks will be able to use this mode to get crane shots, tilt shots and multiple combinations thereof. The stabilizer also supports 360-degree pan tracking.
The software suite has received a major upgrade. Just like the original iteration, the Flow 2 Pro integrates with Apple DockKit for automatic tracking. However, there’s also something called Active Zoom Tracking, which can close in up to 15x while following a moving subject. The company says this will ensure that shots are “crystal clear and perfectly framed, no matter the distance”
The company’s Deep Track AI-powered tech has also gotten an update. Deep Track 4.0 brings new capabilities and quality-of-life features to make sure that all shots are “perfectly framed and effortlessly smooth.” The software even allows for multi-person tracking.
The gimbal can be controlled via an Apple Watch or a secondary smartphone and the battery lasts around ten hours per charge. The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro is available right now for $160, with availability in gray and white.
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Electric vehicle chargers are increasingly a target of vandals, often in search of copper. "Even at our headquarter site here in Campbell, in Silicon Valley, we've had our site vandalized twice," said Rick Wilmer, CEO of ChargePoint. His customers are starting to get fed up with the problem, too, and so Wilmer has had the company hard at work on a solution: an uncuttable cable, which should be ready to deploy by early summer.
"I literally got so frustrated ... I was at home in my own workshop, building prototypes and taking all my nastiest tools to them, to try and cut them, to see what we could come up with," Wilmer told me. It's a simple idea, involving hardened steel and "some other polymer materials that are just really hard to cut through," Wilmer said.
As well as making cables for its own chargers, ChargePoint plans to license its invention to others in the industry. "So we've collaborated with a few [cable vendors] to build these cables... and we can refer anyone that's interested to those vendors and give [them] permission to build cables with this technology for someone other than us," Wilmer said.
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Nintendo shared the first details about the Nintendo Switch 2 in a video published Thursday. Nintendo doesn’t give a specific release date for the console besides “2025.”
The console looks a lot like the original, but it’s bigger. In the video, the Joy-Con controllers are black with colored accents, and they attach to the side of the console instead of sliding on and off. There’s a new button under the home button on the right Joy-Con, which had shown up in leaks. The video also appears to show the Joy-Cons being used similarly to a mouse. And the SL and SR buttons on the Joy-Cons are bigger than on the original Switch.
On top of the Switch 2, there’s a new USB-C port. The kickstand has a new design, too — it’s shaped more like a U. The dock for the Switch 2 has a more rounded design. And, like with the original Switch, there will also be a separate controller grip that you can snap the Joy-Cons into.
The only game shown is what appears to be a new Mario Kart title. But the console will be backward-compatible with both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games — though the video cautions that “certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2.”
Nintendo is promising to share more details in a Nintendo Switch 2-focused Direct on April 2nd, 2025.
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Image: Nintendo
The Nintendo Switch will be a tough act to follow. The device was a clever hybrid of a home console and a handheld, and the formula resulted in one of the bestselling consoles of all time. A huge part of the console’s success was that it was home to some of Nintendo’s best-ever games, including hits like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Prime Remastered, and the very popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Fortunately, you’ll be able to play all of those games on the new console — Nintendo said in November that the Switch’s successor will be compatible with Switch games and will have Nintendo Switch Online.
The first Switch was also a massive sales hit. The company says that, so far, it’s sold 146.04 million units, making the console its second-highest-selling video game system behind the original Nintendo DS, which sold 154.02 million units. The Switch’s sales figures also mean that it has surpassed the Nintendo Wii (101.63 million units), the Game Boy (118.69 million units), and the Nintendo 3DS (75.94 million units).
While we’ve been waiting years for a true Switch successor, the console had mid-cycle hardware refreshes along the way. The Nintendo Switch Lite was a great way to play Switch games on a smaller device, and the Nintendo Switch OLED added a beautiful display and a handful of other nice upgrades.
Starting in December, supposed information about Nintendo’s next console began to trickle out from accessory manufacturers. Dbrand, for example, gave us what it believed to be actual dimensions of the hardware and said that its “understanding” was that the Joy-Con controllers would be magnetically attached. And at CES 2025, Genki showed off a 3D-printed mockup of what it believed the Switch’s successor would look like.
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Insta360 has announced a new version of its Flow Pro stabilized smartphone gimbal after releasing the original last July. The new Insta360 Flow 2 Pro introduces the company’s upgraded Deep Track 4.0 AI tracking technology that can now track multiple people while also providing more flexibility in how tracked subjects are framed. The company says it has also strengthened the gimbal’s retractable tripod legs, improving its use as a hands-free autonomous camera operator.
The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro is available starting today for $159.99 in stone gray and summit white color options. That’s about $10 more expensive than the Flow Pro but the same price as Insta360’s first Flow gimbal that debuted in early 2023.
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Image: Insta360
As with the original Flow Pro, the Flow 2 Pro supports Apple’s DockKit framework, allowing the gimbal to track people while using the iPhone’s native Camera app as well as other third-party camera apps, including Blackmagic Camera. A glowing ring light on the gimbal lets users know when tracking is active and working.
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Image: Insta360
But the Flow 2 Pro becomes far more capable when used with Insta360’s own camera app, available for iOS and Android. Using its Deep Track 4.0 technology, the app can now track multiple subjects and ensure that an entire group remains centered in frame, even while they’re moving. It also supports tracking nonhuman subjects like animals and random objects and tracking while zoomed in on a subject up to 15x.
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Image: Insta360
Insta360 is also introducing another new tracking feature called Pro Framing Grid. Users can select one of nine different grid squares to change where a tracked subject appears in frame, allowing for more creativity with framing than just having the target centered at all times.
The new Insta360 Flow 2 Pro is slightly lighter than its predecessor — 357 grams compared to 366 grams, respectively — with the same estimated 10 hours of battery life while perched on a flat surface using its tripod legs. When using it handheld, which requires continuous stabilization, battery life will be reduced, but Insta360 doesn’t say by how much.
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Image: Insta360
A new mirror on the back of the gimbal’s mount allows users to frame themselves while shooting selfies using their smartphone’s higher-quality rear cameras when the screen isn’t visible. For other times when the screen isn’t visible, like when a subject is filming themselves at a distance, Insta360 now allows the gimbal and recording to be controlled remotely using either an additional smartphone or an Apple Watch. Framing can be adjusted by swiping the Apple Watch’s screen to pan the gimbal around, while its zoom can be changed by turning the Digital Crown.
ChargePoint has had enough of vandalizing thieves who saw through EV charger cables to steal valuable copper — so now it’s making new “cut-resistant” cables and adding alarm systems in an attempt to mitigate the damage.
ChargePoint’s VP of product management Steve Farrell tells The Verge the cable uses a patent-pending technology that includes strategically placed steel to provide protection. Although the design may make the cables a bit larger and less flexible, Farrell wrote that usability won’t be impacted, and that most users “will not notice the difference” with the changes. The new cable can be retrofitted on commercial and fleet charging stations (both AC and DC models) made by the company.
Farrell also says the cables were tested against “commonly used devices,” including wirecutters, bolt cutters, and battery powered tools. ChargePoint was “satisfied with its ability to significantly increase the time, effort, and resources (i.e. tools) required to sever cables.”
ChargePoint is planning to license out the new cable design to other “select” EV charger OEMs that may want to try it out to combat copper crooks. Vandalized EV stations are a rising problem that adds to the already unreliable electric vehicle infrastructure in the US. The new cables are expected to be available for licensing by the middle of 2025.
Tougher cables aren’t the only theft deterrent ChargePoint is launching soon. The company has also developed new “ChargePoint Protect” security software that turns its EV stations into “highly effective” alarm systems. The software can detect tampering with the cables in real-time and engage alarms to scare thieves away while also sending out text messages and email alerts to EV stall owners.
ChargePoint Protect works on most of the company’s existing commercial EV charger models except for some older models, according to Farrell. The update is free to station owners, will arrive over the air, and will be available later this month.
