The Switch 2 is bigger, more powerful and more expensive than the original Switch, but the tech specs for the new console reveal at least one key way it's worse: The Switch 2's battery life is shorter.

Nintendo says that battery life on the Switch 2 varies depending on the game you play, but that it estimates the console should last approximately "2 – 6.5 hours." That's notably shorter than the battery life you'll get out of a current Switch or Switch OLED, based on the company's support page. Nintendo estimates that a Switch OLED "with a serial number that starts with 'XT'" should last around "4.5 to 9 hours." Non-OLED Switch consoles "with a serial number that starts with 'XK'" are expected to last the same amount of time. Even the original Switch, which has "a serial number that starts with 'XA'," gets a minimum of 2.5 hours of battery life. Apparently, the extra power of the Switch 2 comes with a price.

Nintendo's tech specs confirm a few other notable details. The Switch 2 supports Wi-Fi 6, which should mean you'll get faster internet speeds when the console isn't docked and connected over ethernet. Based on Nintendo's guarantee that the console "supports 120 fps when 1920x1080/2560x1440 resolutions are selected," it seems like the Switch 2 won't support HDMI 2.1.

As far as controllers are concerned, Amiibo support remains, but if you have special place in your heart for the Wii-esque motion controls you could use on the original Switch, it looks like you're out of luck on the Switch 2. Neither the left or right Joy-Con 2 controllers have an IR sensor, one of the ways Nintendo tracked motion on the Wii and Switch. That doesn't mean you can't use motion controls on the Switch 2, just that Nintendo isn't using IR to make them work. (At least in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, it seems like "mouse control" fills the role motion controls used to on older games.) 

Do any of these changes dramatically alter the calculus on whether the Switch 2 is worth buying? Maybe not, but it is interesting to see some of the compromises and decisions Nintendo made to offer what is effectively "the Switch, but better."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-switch-2s-battery-life-is-shorter-than-the-current-switch-211753028.html?src=rss

©

© Nintendo

Following its big Switch 2 presentation, Nintendo revealed in an interview with the team behind the console that one of the (arguably better) names the company was considering before it landed on Switch 2 was "Super Nintendo Switch."

"There were a lot of ideas for the name, and we really struggled to find the right one," Kouichi Kawamato, the producer on the Switch 2, says. "We even considered ideas like 'Super Nintendo Switch.'" The issue with the name was that even though drawing a parallel to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was fun, it was also potentially confusing. The SNES was the successor to the NES, but it couldn't play NES games. "Since Switch 2 can play Switch games, it didn't feel right to use the same naming convention as Super NES."

Adding a number to the end of the original console's name (the general strategy Nintendo's competitor Sony has taken with the PlayStation) just made things a lot simpler and easier to understand. Nintendo's caution isn't totally unfounded. The Wii U was more powerful than the Wii and featured a unique controller in the Wii U GamePad. Because it's name was so similar to Nintendo's older console, it was backwards compatible with the Wii and it supported pre-existing accessories like Wii Remotes, though, it was viewed as an add-on rather than a new device worth upgrading to.

There were other problems that helped do the Wii U in, like a steep decline in support from third-party game developers and a failure on Nintendo's part to explain what made the console distinct, but the name certainly didn't help. The Switch 2 is much better set up for success than the Wii U, but "sticking to what works" seems like the defining idea of the new console, so the name is following suit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-switch-2-was-almost-called-the-super-nintendo-switch-184243089.html?src=rss

©

© Nintendo

The wait is finally over: The appropriately titled "Nintendo Direct: Switch 2" presentation will start today (April 2) at 9AM ET / 6AM PT, and will stream on Nintendo's YouTube channel. Today's presentation follows a shorter Direct video last week, in which the company teased a Tomodachi Life sequel and the last few Switch 1 games (all of which will also run on the new console, thanks to backward compatibility).

Because of the short teaser video Nintendo released in January, we already know the basic details of the Switch 2's look and feel — a larger screen, some sort of mouse functionality for the Joy-Con controllers — and we even got a glimpse at what looks like a new Mario Kart game. But the company's April 2 presentation should answer a litany of remaining questions about the Switch successor, including the price and release date.

You can read our article collecting Switch 2 rumors and reports for a preview of what Nintendo might cover. Particularly pertinent for anyone thinking about buying the new console, recent leaks indicate that Nintendo could open up pre-orders for the Switch 2 as early as April 9, and ship out the device in June.

We'll have to wait for the Nintendo Direct to finalize those details, of course. Nintendo has indicated that the presentation will last about an hour, so that should be enough time to present a longer list of Switch 2 games beyond those initial fleeting seconds of a new Mario Kart. You can watch along on Nintendo's YouTube channel or right in this article once the stream goes live. We've also go a Switch 2 liveblog going for real-time commentary. Stay tuned to Engadget in the hours and days that follow for complete coverage.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/how-to-watch-todays-switch-2-nintendo-direct-210632768.html?src=rss

©

© Nintendo

Substack is taking one more step towards becoming an all-in-one social media / creator platform by adding a vertical video feed to its app. Technically, the new TikTok-style feed is a redesign of the existing Media tab that the company added to the app in 2024, but either way Substack's intentions are clear: It wants a piece of the short-video pie currently being shared by Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

The feed features scrollable videos from creators you're subscribed to and others that have been algorithmically suggested. Multiple forms of short-form content can be included, like videos posted through Substack Notes, the company's Twitter-esque microblogging feature, clips from longer video posts and eventually previews of podcasts.

Adding multimedia features like podcasts and videos has been a boon to creators, according to Substack. The company says that "82% of Substack’s top-earning writers are using multimedia, up from just over 50% last April." Supporting short-form videos is an attempt to push things even further.

Substack added support for native video in 2022, expanded those features in 2023 and more recently, gave creators the ability to host live video streams in 2024. The company has been pretty upfront that it views Substack as a home for more than just newsletters, and it's been trying to court TikTok creators specifically since at least 2024. 

Redesigning the Substack app gives subscribers a new way to find creators to follow, and makes the platform a better home for a whole new type of creator. The timing of Substack's change is purposeful. The extra breathing room President Trump gave TikTok by not enforcing the app's ban is supposed to end in April, meaning there could be room for alternative vertical video apps.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/substack-updated-its-app-to-make-it-even-more-like-tiktok-193415204.html?src=rss

©

© Ian Campbell for Engadget

Apple has released iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4 and visionOS 2.4, bringing a grab bag of new features to the companies devices and expanding Apple Intelligence to new countries and languages.

As previously announced by Apple iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 include a new Apple News+ Food section in the News app that collects recipes and food-oriented articles, including exclusive recipes for Apple News+ subscribers. The updates also introduce new emoji, AI-sorted Priority Notifications in Notification Center, new ways to filter photos in the Photos app and lossless audio on the AirPods Max. That's on top of a random assortment of other quality-of-life features like:

• AI-generated summaries of App Store reviews

• An Ambient Music tool in Control Center

• The ability to add and control Matter-compatible robot vacuums to the Home app

• New widgets for the Podcasts app

• A new "Sketch" style for images in Image Playground

Apple

The update to visionOS 2.4 will add Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools and Image Playground to the Vision Pro for the first time, on top of a streamlined process for sharing your headset with another person, a new Apple Vision Pro app for the iPhone to download apps and experiences to your Vision Pro remotely, and a Spatial Gallery app for the headset itself that features a rotating collection of spatial videos and photos curated by Apple.

After a bit of a delay, Apple says Apple Intelligence will be available in the European Union for the first time on iPhone and iPad. The suite of AI features will now also work in several new languages "including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) — as well as localized English for Singapore and India," Apple says.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-18-4-available-now-175358838.html?src=rss

©

© Billy Steele for Engadget

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has purchased X, according to a post shared by Musk. Besides their similar names and owner, the companies are already connected through xAI's chatbot Grok, which is integrated into X.

X was acquired by xAI through an all-stock transaction. "The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)," Musk writes. "xAI and X’s futures are intertwined." The companies plan on combining "data, models, compute, distribution and talent," using X's reach as a social platform to spread "xAI’s advanced AI capability." The post offers little detail beyond that, but the motivations could be as financial as they are practical.

X, then Twitter, was acquired by Musk in 2022 for $43 billion. xAI, like many leading AI companies, has been raising money as often and as quickly as possible. Combining the two companies, besides the fuzzy potential benefits social media posts could have for training AI, helps ease some of the debt that Musk took on taking Twitter private. The billionaire pulled a similar stunt in 2016 with Tesla, when the car maker merged with SolarCity for $2.6 billion. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xai-elon-musks-ai-company-just-purchased-x-elon-musks-social-media-company-221503759.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

Lenovo has the honor of releasing the first SteamOS handhelds not made by Valve, and it looks like you won't have to wait long to get them. Legion Go S handhelds with SteamOS ship May 25, according to a new Best Buy listing spotted by The Verge, but go for at least $50 more than the original $499.99 price Lenovo promised.

The Legion Go S powered by SteamOS now starts at $549.99, which gets you an 8-inch, 120Hz OLED display, comfortable controls, a fingerprint reader / touchpad, 16GB of RAM and the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip. If you're willing to pay $749.99, you can get the same package, but with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which originally appeared on the Legion Go, and 32GB of RAM.

Perhaps more important than the specs, both handhelds come pre-loaded with SteamOS, which means they should be as easy to setup and use as the Steam Deck, and be able to play the vast majority of games thanks to Valve's Proton compatibility software.

Lenovo already released its first Windows 11 version of the Legion Go S back in February for $730. We found it expensive and a bit hampered by Windows in our review, but otherwise solid. At the time, a SteamOS version for $500 seemed like a promising alternative. But for $50 extra, some of that shine has come off, particularly when you can get the already excellent Steam Deck OLED for the same price. 

It'll take a full review to suss out how different SteamOS makes the Legion Go S, whether paired with the Ryzen Z2 Go or the more powerful Ryzen Z1 Extreme. At the very least, it's nice to have more SteamOS devices in the wild.

The Legion Go S powered by SteamOS is available to pre-order now for $549.99, and will ship on May 25. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme model ships on the same date for $749.99. Lenovo is also offering a version of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme Legion Go S with Windows 11 for $829.99, too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lenovo-legion-go-s-with-steamos-will-land-may-25-for-50-more-than-expected-213820420.html?src=rss

©

© Sam Rutherford for Engadget

YouTube is testing turning off notifications from channels viewers don't engage with in attempt to tame the number of notifications they receive. The video platform says the test will specifically impact viewers who've chosen to receive "All" notifications from a channel.

During the experiment, notifications will still appear in the notification inbox, but "viewers who haven’t recently engaged with a channel despite having been sent recent push notifications will not receive push notifications," YouTube says. The goal is to get viewers to not disable notifications entirely just because they've received too many.

Many YouTube creators specifically ask people to subscribe and enable notifications so they know when a new video has been uploaded. The problem is, when you agree to receive "All" notifications, you'll also get pestered about things that aren't new uploads. There are ways to manage your notifications, but YouTube claims it's common for people to disable them at the app-level once they get annoyed (impacting every channel they're subscribed to), rather than try and tweak things. For a creator who wants to maximize the number of people that watch their videos, not being able to rely on push notifications to grab subscribers' attention is a problem.

YouTube deciding that some viewers shouldn't receive notifications from a given channel seems like an extreme solution, though. The company describes this test as "small," but it certainly feels like there could be a more nuanced way to weed out the push notifications people don't need.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/youtube-may-mute-notifications-from-channels-you-dont-watch-202802028.html?src=rss

©

© YouTube

The latest image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, pictured above, also happens to be a stunning illustration of Einstein's theory of general relativity. So much so that the cosmic phenomenon is called an "Einstein ring." 

Einstein rings happen when light from one distant object is bent around the mass of another, slightly closer and even larger object. The effect is normally too subtle to observe up close on a local level, "but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales," NASA writes. In the case of this image, when the light from one distant galaxy is warped around the mass of another.

This "gravitational lensing," as it's technically called, is Einstein's general relativity in practice. Spacetime (the fusion of space and time that makes up the fabric of the universe) curving around an object's mass, with the curve itself being gravity. Objects like the ones pictured in the image — an elliptical galaxy wrapped in a spiral galaxy — are "the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see."

This Einstein ring was captured by the "Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey" conducted at the University of Liège in Belgium. The survey is led by a team of astronomers looking "to trace eight billion years of galaxy cluster evolution," according to NASA.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/latest-webb-telescope-image-shows-a-cosmic-phenomenon-called-an-einstein-ring-185911553.html?src=rss

©

© NASA

In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern.

Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another. The only catch is that the consoles need to be connected over local wireless (as in, be physically near each other) when the trade happens, and be able to access the internet to download the game and run it for the first time.

You can similarly share a Virtual Game Card with anyone in the same Nintendo Account family group for two weeks, after which the game automatically returns. In both cases, saves for each game stay on the console where the game was played, making it simple to share the Virtual Game Card again and keep playing.

In comparison to Nintendo's current system, which requires defining a Switch console as "primary" and able to be used offline and other devices as a "secondary" and needing an internet connection to play shared games, Virtual Game Cards are a meaningful improvement. If you're a parent trying to share games with your kids or a super-fan with multiple Switches (something Nintendo no doubt wants to encourage), Virtual Game Cards have basically solved the problem — or at least made it much easier to manage and understand. The company isn't exactly leading the pack here, though.

If I own a game on PlayStation, I can download it on my Playstation 4 and PlayStation 5, and play on either console, without needing to go through the rigamarole of ejecting virtual cards. The same goes for Steam games. Valve even goes further and lets the vast majority of games be shared and played on accounts connected to the same Steam Family, without your computers needing to be near each other when you "hand-off" games.

People are highly sensitive to any kind of DRM. Just ask Xbox, which had big plans to change how loaning games work when the Xbox One was announced, but had to dramatically backtrack after basically everyone complained. 

Nintendo isn't pulling an Xbox, per se, but it is pitching something adjacent. Virtual Game Cards are inarguably better than how things work now, but they require an internet connection and they still limit how many people can play a game at once. Nintendo came up with a better mental model for sharing games, but not necessarily a better way to do it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendos-digital-switch-game-sharing-plan-could-be-so-much-simpler-190353732.html?src=rss

©

© Nintendo / Engadget

Amazon has updated Kindles with a new way to navigate books. While nothing will recapture the tactile pleasure of physical page turn buttons, anyone with a Kindle running Version 5.18.1 of Amazon's software will now be able to double-tap the side or back of their e-reader to turn pages.

"Double Tap to Page Turn" can be turned on in the Settings menu under Device Options. Amazon says it works for more than just turning pages. You can also use double taps to scroll through your Home and Library pages, too. Interestingly, the option doesn't use the touchscreen at all. Good E-Reader speculates Amazon is relying on the accelerometer inside Kindles to detect taps.

Along with the update, Amazon is also adding a feature it calls "Recaps for Books in Series." These are short summaries "for thousands of bestselling English language Kindle books in series you have purchased or borrowed." The company already does things like automatically group books from the same series to make them easier to find, but this should save you the trouble of looking up a summary of A Dance with Dragons before diving into The Winds of Winter — assuming it's ever released.

The 5.18.1 update is rolling out now newer Kindles, like the Kindle Colorsoft, and devices as old as the 10th generation Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite. It will also be available on the last of Amazon's e-readers to have physical buttons, the Kindle Oasis. If you don't see it on your device now, you can manually download the update from Amazon's website and install it yourself.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/the-latest-kindle-update-lets-you-turn-pages-by-double-tapping-175452454.html?src=rss

©

© Valentina Palladino for Engadget

Netflix has announced that it's adding support for HDR10+ streaming, on top of the existing HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats that are already offered on the streaming service. HDR10+ should offer greater visual fidelity on a per-frame basis for Netflix's frequently dark original programming.

The company is enabling HDR10+ with the AV1 codec, the specification originally released in 2018 that's gradually become the standard for streaming 4K video without gobbling data. Netflix first adopted AV1 as a way to help customers save data while watching on their phone, but the compression tech works just as well for streaming large HDR files. Netflix is enabling HDR10+ on select popular titles now, and hopes to eventually offer all HDR content in the new format. Anyone with a Netflix Premium subscription and a device that supports both HDR10+ and AV1 (which includes most modern mobile phones and tablets) should be able to watch compatible content in HDR10+.

After 4K, high dynamic range (HDR) has come to define the look of modern TV and movies, particularly on streaming. HDR content makes clear the stark differences between the light and dark parts of an image. The under-exposed, muddy quality of modern streaming TV is frequently due to an expectation that audiences will be viewing on a device that supports HDR. Without it, you can't see anything. With it, you can pick up all the various shades of gray that have become the norm in prestige TV. 

Netflix first rolled out support for HDR in 2016 with the debut of Marco Polo, and in the years since, has made supporting Dolby Vision and HDR10, the most common HDR format, the norm on its service. If you've been watching Netflix on a display that already uses Dolby Vision, you likely won't notice a difference, but if you're TV only offers HDR10+, adding support for the format should make watching everything a little bit better.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-will-stream-shows-and-movies-in-hdr10-on-supported-devices-222134243.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

Disney is giving Disney+ subscribers the ability to edit their "Continue Watching" lists, a quality-of-life feature that's been oddly missing from the streaming service up until now.

Continue Watching collects all of the TV shows, movies and live events you've started watching, saving your place so you can pick up right where you left off. If you dip in and out of watching things, it's very easy for the list to get unwieldy quickly, so being able to edit it is helpful.

You can remove something from Continue Watching in two different ways: directly from the list itself or the Details page of a given show or movie. If you're on your TV and want to edit your list, you just highlight a movie or show with your remote, press and hold the remote's button (on the Apple TV remote, for example, its the center button) and then select "Remove" when the menu slides over. From the Details page of the show or movie you want to remove, just highlight and select the "Remove" icon (it's a minus symbol) to get it out of your list.

The process is similar on the web or in Disney+ mobile app. If you're watching Disney+ on your phone, you can just tap on the three dots in the corner of a show or movie in Continue Watching and then tap on Remove. On the web, just hover your mouse over anything in Continue Watching and click on the Remove icon in the corner of the movie or show. The only thing you can't remove from Continue Watching are live events, which will stay until they officially end. 

Disney says the ability to edit Continue Watching is available today on the web, iOS devices and Apple TV, and will be coming to the other platforms Disney+ is on in the coming weeks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-adds-option-to-edit-continue-watching-list-182856588.html?src=rss

©

© Disney

Amazon is suing the Consumer Product Safety Commission over its decision to hold the company legally responsible for faulty products on its platform, The Associated Press reports. Amazon's suit demands that the shipping giant be considered a "third-party logistics provider" instead of a distributor and also calls the CPSC "unconstitutionally constructed."

The origins of the legal fight can be traced back to 2021, when the CPSC sued Amazon to force it to recall faulty carbon monoxide detectors, unsafe hair dryers and flammable children's sleepwear. At the time, Amazon had already taken some steps to address the issue, like informing customers who purchased the products that they were hazardous and offering store credit, but the CPSC wanted the company to go further.

The CPSC move to classify Amazon as a distributor in 2024 made the company responsible for issuing recalls and refunds for products sold through its Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program. FBA lets sellers send their products to Amazon warehouses, where Amazon then handles picking, packing and shipping those products to customers, along with things like customer service and returns. Amazon takes issue with its classification as a distributor because it doesn't own or make the faulty products the CPSC is concerned with — it sees itself as more of a hands-on FedEx.

Besides wanting to be reclassified and not held responsible for issuing more refunds, Amazon also has problems with the CPSC itself. The CPSC's commissioners are appointed by the President, approved by the Senate and serve for seven years, unless they're removed for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office." Amazon feels the commission's relative invulnerability is unconstitutional and makes them "judge, jury, and prosecutor" in proceedings.

Amazon's made similar claims about the National Labor Review Board, the organization in charge of protecting workers' right to unionize. The timing of these complaints is key. The Trump administration is not particularly interested in maintaining any government organization empowered to regulate business, and it seems likely it will side with Amazon in disempowering the CPSC, one way or another.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-wants-the-consumer-product-safety-commission-deemed-unconstitutional-211037804.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

New studies from OpenAI and MIT Media Lab found that, generally, the more time users spend talking to ChatGPT, the lonelier they feel. The connection was made as part of two, yet-to-be-peer-reviewed studies, one done at OpenAI analyzing "over 40 million ChatGPT interactions" and targeted user surveys, and another at MIT Media Lab following participants' ChatGPT use for four weeks.

MIT's study identified several ways talking to ChatGPT — whether through text or voice — can affect a person's emotional experience, beyond the general finding that higher use led to "heightened loneliness and reduced socialization." For example, participants who already trusted the chatbot and tended to get emotionally attached in human relationships felt lonelier and more emotionally dependent on ChatGPT during the study. Those effects were less severe with ChatGPT's voice mode, though, particularly if ChatGPT spoke in a neutral tone. Discussing personal topics also tended to lead to loneliness in the short-term, and interestingly, speaking to ChatGPT about more general topics was more likely to increase emotional dependence.

The big finding from OpenAI's study was that having emotional conversations with ChatGPT is still not common. "Emotionally expressive interactions were present in a large percentage of usage for only a small group of the heavy Advanced Voice Mode users we studied," OpenAI writes. That suggests that even if MIT's findings are as concerning as they are unsurprising, they're not exactly widespread outside a small group of power users. 

There are important limitations to MIT Media Lab and OpenAI's research, like both studies covering a short period of time (one month for MIT, 28 days for OpenAI) and MIT not having a control group to compare to. The studies do add more evidence to something that seemed intuitively true for a while now — talking to AI has a psychological impact on the humans doing the talking. Given the intense interest in making AI a compelling conversation partner, whether its in video games or as a way to simplify the job of YouTube creators, its clear that MIT Media Lab and OpenAI are right to want to understand what'll happen when talking to AI is the norm.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/joint-studies-from-openai-and-mit-found-links-between-loneliness-and-chatgpt-use-193537421.html?src=rss

©

© Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

Console makers and game developers like Microsoft, Nintendo and Electronic Arts have created a new initiative, managed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), that aims to make it easier to know what accessibility features games have. 

The new Accessible Games Initiative has defined a set of 24 accessibility tags that will appear in participating game storefronts and product pages so players can know what features a game has before they buy it. The tags have easy to understand definitions and cover a range of accessibility features games offer, like subtitles, input remapping for controls, text-to-speech and speech-to-text in chat and narrated menus. All of the tags and definitions are available to view on the Accessible Games Initiative's website. The ESA also says it will provide developers with criteria for the tags so they can develop accessibility features with them in mind.

The new tags are designed to co-exist with existing accessibility information on product pages, but some companies may choose to focus exclusively on the new "cross-industry" standard. For example, Microsoft plans to "replace existing Xbox Game Accessibility Feature tags with their equivalent Accessible Games Initiative tags" to avoid duplication, while keeping its own tags that aren't in the initiative's list.

The idea for the Accessible Games Initiative "was first developed by Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Ubisoft," according to the ESA, and new companies have joined in time for launch, like "Amazon Games, Riot Games, Square Enix and Warner Bros. Games." 

Offering some kind of standardized way to know what accessibility features a game has is desperately needed. While developers have gotten better at offering accessibility features in their games by default, players interested in a specific feature have mostly had to rely on third-party resources like Can I Play That? to figure out how well they've been interpreted and implemented. These tags should start to fix that. 

The only open question is when they'll be adopted. The ESA told The Verge that "the timeline for implementation of the tags is company-dependent," meaning there could be a wait ahead for players hoping to take advantage of the Accessible Games Initiative's work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/game-companies-will-standardize-accessibility-labels-on-storefronts-and-product-pages-211335539.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

If you own a Honda Prologue or Acura ZDX, you'll soon have a lot more places you can charge your car. Honda and Acura EVs will be able to access the Tesla Supercharger network in June 2025, when Honda's official NACS-CCS adapter goes on sale.

Adapters will be available to purchase from authorized dealerships, and EV owners will receive a notification from the HondaLink and Acura EV apps when they're available. The apps will also be able to locate Tesla Superchargers around the same time. Honda says the adapter is the safest way to charge on Tesla's more than 20,000 chargers in the US, but hasn't shared how much it'll actually cost once it's available. For a preview of the possible price range for Honda's adapter, car makers have charged anywhere from nothing (Rivian) to $230 (Ford) for an NACS adapter.

Honda's plan to adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) has been in the works since 2023. In finally offering its own adapter, Honda joins other EV makers like Mercedes-Benz, Rivian, Polestar, Lucid and Ford in giving existing EV owners a way to take advantage of Tesla's expansive charging network.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/honda-and-acura-evs-will-be-able-to-use-the-tesla-supercharger-network-in-june-185608357.html?src=rss

©

© Honda

Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast has laid off 30 people who built Sigil, its recently released virtual tabletop experience, Polygon reports. The app allows Dungeons & Dragons players to build virtual, 3D game boards, complete with miniatures and dice, so they can play the classic tabletop roleplaying game remotely.

News of the layoffs were first shared on March 18 in a LinkedIn post from Andy Collins, the design lead on Sigil. "Today, approximately 30 talented developers (90 percent of the team) were laid off from the Sigil (virtual tabletop) team at Wizards of the Coast, including yours truly," Collins wrote. "I wish my former colleagues success in their future endeavors. I'll also be pulling for the crew left behind who'll do their best to keep improving and iterating the experience we shipped last month."

The layoffs leave Sigil with a skeleton crew of three people to support the app, Rascal reports. Sigil launched in early access on February 28, 2025 as a perk for subscribers to D&D Beyond, and early reviews found it to be both limited and a little broken.

The problems may have started even earlier, though, according to at least one Wizards of the Coast employee Rascal spoke to. Management at Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, were reportedly uninterested and "constantly moving goalposts." There may have also been a fundamental misunderstanding over what Sigil was: Hasbro didn't know the difference between a video game and the VTT (virtual tabletop) app it ultimately got.

Sigil remains live and will continue to be a perk of paying for a D&D Beyond subscription, Wizards of the Coast's tool for playing Dungeons & Dragons virtually.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/hasbro-laid-off-the-team-behind-its-virtual-tabletop-app-only-weeks-after-it-was-released-214024876.html?src=rss

©

© Wizards of the Coast

Verizon has announced that it will now support sending text messages via satellite on phones from the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 lineup. Both Google and Samsung's current phones support satellite connectivity, but neither has really leveraged the skill outside of the Satellite SOS feature that was added to Android 15.

Sending texts via satellite will be available when Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 phones are "outside the reach of terrestrial cellular networks," Verizon says, and should come with same limitations as other satellite tools, like the need to position yourself so that there's no large structures or tree cover getting between your phone and the sky. It's also worth noting: the necessary changes "enabling this service start today and will continue over the next two weeks," so you might want to wait a bit longer before you start your next off-grid adventure.

Apple introduced Messages via Satellite alongside iOS 18, which doesn't rely on carriers for support, but should offer a good illustration of how Verizon's satellite messaging will work when it's fully available on the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25. 

The carrier is partnered with satellite providers AST SpaceMobile and Skylo for its expanding list of satellite-connected services, and the company has experimented with AST to offer video calls over satellite. Competitors like T-Mobile already offer satellite messaging through a partnership with SpaceX's Starlink.

Update, March 20, 1:41PM ET: Added information on Verizon's other partner for satellite services.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/verizon-now-supports-texting-via-satellite-on-the-pixel-9-and-galaxy-s25-193348606.html?src=rss

©

© Google

Google's software fix for older Chromecasts devices that weren't casting is rolling out now, according to an email the company sent to impacted owners. You can view the text of the email in the Google Nest Community pages. If you didn't factory-reset your device, it may already be working.

If you're still not able to cast, though, Google recommends rebooting your device and trying again. Any Chromecasts that were accidentally reset to factory settings will need to be reconnected in the latest version of the Google Home app (either version 3.30.106 on iOS or version 3.30.1.6 on Android). The app update is apparently still trickling out to all devices, so if you don't see it now, you will in a few days.

Some second-generation Chromecasts and Chromecast Audio dongles first became unable to cast early last week. Before Google promised a fix, many assumed this was the beginning of the slow death of Google's Chromecast line. Google no longer sells Chromecasts, retiring the name and dongle-style device after the Google TV Streamer was released in August 2024. As this relatively speedy fix suggests, even if it isn't selling them, Google doesn't intend to end support for existing Chromecasts — at least not yet.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/googles-fix-for-busted-chromecasts-is-out-now-211334639.html?src=rss

©

© Nicole Lee for Engadget