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Technology

Nintendo eShop Selects – May 2022

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Image: Nintendo Life

Okay yes, we know we’re a tad late with May’s eShop Selects, but come on, it was not-E3 season! Nevertheless, we’re back again to round up the best offerings of the month; granted, it was a relatively quiet one for the most part, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any diamonds lying in the rough (we might have even been a bit cheeky and included one or two boxed games this month – hey, it was a quiet one, okay?!).

So let’s get cracking then! Well first round up some honourable mentions that didn’t quite make our top three, but they’re nevertheless well worth checking out regardless.

In the meantime of course, be sure to check out the eShop Selects for April while you’re at it!

Honourable Mentions

3. OPUS: Echo of Starsong – Full Bloom Edition (Switch eShop)

Publisher: Sigono / Developer: Sigono

Release Date: 11th May 2022 (USA) / 11th May 2022 (UK/EU)

Coming in at number three is the wonderful narrative driven title OPUS: Echo of Starsong. We called it “an emotional adventure that represents the apex of the series to date and easily one of the best story-driven games on Switch” in our review, highlighting the incredible atmosphere on display and the emotional heft that the story carries.

Read Stuart Gipp’s full review of the title here.

2. PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ (Switch)

Publisher: Bandai Namco / Developer: Bandai Namco

Release Date: 27th May 2022 (USA) / 27th May 2022 (UK/EU)

Bagging the silver medal this month is PAC-MAN MUSEUM+, a delightful selection of some of the iconic character’s most seminal releases over the years. It’s got plenty to offer, with online leaderboards and missions to complete, and we just loved how solid the emulation was for each game. Some of the extraneous content might have been a bit lacking, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this compilation includes some of the greatest games of all time.

Check out Tom Massey’s full review for the game right here.

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1. Citizen Sleeper (Switch eShop)

Publisher: Fellow Traveller / Developer: Jump Over The Age

Release Date: 5th May 2022 (USA) / 5th May 2022 (UK/EU)

And in first place this month is Citizen Sleeper, a game that many of our staff unanimously enjoyed. Its strong narrative and writing can be compared to the likes of the incredible Disco Elysium, and we particularly enjoyed the beautiful art style on display along with the awesome synth wave soundtrack. Definitely one to purchase if you like strong role-playing games!

Check out Mitch Vogel’s full review of the game here.

How we decide our eShop Selects top three: As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.

Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top three list, with the overall winner taking that month’s top prize.



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Technology

This $280 phone is a lesson in affordability – I hope Apple and Samsung are paying attention

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You’ll probably never use a Tecno phone. Until this week, I’d never heard of the Chinese brand or its Camon line of handsets. Now, it’s unlikely I’ll forget them.

The company recently held a swanky New York City launch for its new Tecno Camon Series 19 Pro Android 12 phones even though the products won’t be for sale in the US (or the UK, for that matter). I honestly wondered what they were doing there and, more importantly, why I was there.

Tecno insisted on describing the handsets as being “designed for fashionistas.” I could not tell you what that means, but I admit to being intrigued by the design, specs, and, especially, the price.

Key specs include:

  • 6.8-inch FHD+ virtually edge-to-edge 120 Hz display
  • Drill-hole front-facing 32MP camera
  • 64 MP and 50 MP cameras on the back
  • 2X optical zoom
  • Optical Image Stabilization
  • 5,000 mAh battery
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Face unlocking
  • Some nifty AI-infused photo tricks
  • a 3.5mm headphone jack (!)
  • A power brick, cable, and earbuds (!!)

It’s also a surprisingly attractive phone. There’s a fingerprint-rejecting diamond-coated back that looks and feels lovely. The dual circle camera array (which houses three cameras – there is a 2MP bokeh-assisting lens), is large but elegant, its premium looks assisted by its crystal glass covering. The chassis is only slightly thicker than an iPhone 13 Pro Max, but the phone feels considerably lighter.

The Camon 19 Pro comes will all this (and more) for $280. That’s a phone you could pay off in the space of five or six months (if you pay around $50 a month). The Camon Series 19 Pro 5G starts at just $320. That’s, on both phones, with 128 GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.

To put that in perspective, the cheapest iPhone you can buy is the $429 Apple iPhone SE, which has just 64 GB of storage.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

There’s a catch

There are, of course, huge caveats, the biggest one being global availability. These Tecno phones are available in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Southern Asia, but not, as I noted earlier, in the US or Europe. Pricing might also vary and the $280 and $320 Tecno offered is still just an “estimate” for my market.

There are numerous limits often associated with budget phones like no under-the-screen fingerprint reader. Instead, the power/wake button doubles as an effective fingerprint reader. The screen is still LCD and not OLED. There’s no reported IP rating (maybe keep it away from deep puddles). It doesn’t offer wireless charging.

Then there’s the mobile CPU, a MediaTek Helio G96, which is probably equivalent to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G. Its benchmark numbers aren’t even in the same neighborhood as, say, an Apple A15 Bionic or a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

So, when I unexpectedly walked out of the event with a review unit in hand and decided to spend a day or so with it, I tried to level-set my expectations.

For the most part, though, this budget device exceeded them.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Not bad at all

As I mentioned it’s an attractive big-screen phone with a vibrant display that, naturally, looks excellent indoors. Outside is a different matter. It struggled in bright light, but I could still see well enough to use its camera and rather rich settings to take a variety of shots. Everything from standard to 2x telephoto, and from Portrait to slow motion looked quite good. Even low-light and night shots were decent (nothing would qualify as remarkable). There’s no wide-angle lens, let alone ultra-wide but the included lenses captured sharp, colorful, and accurate images.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Portrait mode from the rear camera is good (the front camera had more artifacts), though you can’t adjust the level of bokeh before or after the shot (how many people do this on their iPhone 13 or Samsung Galaxy, anyway?). There is an editing tool that lets you add and adjust a bokeh effect on any image, but it’s not directly tied to Portrait Mode photography, which is kind of silly.

The AI-powered camera and its efforts to identify objects in a scene were entertaining. At one point, I pointed the phone at my hand, and it came up with “Pet.”

There are so many image manipulation options that you may never find or use them all. The set for body manipulation is, at best, problematic. It offers to slim the waistline, head, shoulder, slim and lengthen legs, “plump butt,” along with other cosmetic alterations. Perhaps this is what Techno meant by a phone for “fashionistas.”

It was, to be fair, hard to find those features and the phone certainly doesn’t push them. Still, it’s weird that they’re there.

Punching above its weight

For a sub-$300 phone, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro is quite the performer. It played taxing games like Asphalt 9: Legends without missing a beat. I think it might’ve been dropping a frame or two, and the audio could be richer, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

It’s an effective productivity platform for browsing and file management, and I do love the alphabetically ordered app list (Apple, Samsung, please do this).

That 5,000 mAh battery is, by the way, an all-day champ.

Basically, this is an above-average phone at a ridiculously good price.

Will it ever arrive in the US and UK? I don’t know and Tecno offered no guidance. I’m not sure it matters. What the Tecno Camon 19 Pro demonstrates for me is that all phone manufacturers can do better on the affordability front. We’re paying as much as $999 for powerful big-screen phones that probably do far more than we’ll ever need them to (at least for most of us).

The Camon 19 Pro sets a nice example for the possibilities of budget. I think it’s time Apple, Samsung, and others answer in kind.

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Technology

PS5 Slim That’s Just 2CM in Height Built by YouTuber

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We all know that the PS5 is a bit of a beast in terms of size – love it or loathe it, the console is borderline obnoxious, isn’t it? Given the ongoing semiconductor shortages, it’ll probably be a good few years before we get a PS5 Slim, so one industrious YouTuber has taken on the task himself. This is actually a really entertaining and watchable video – there’s a lot of digestible information on Sony’s original hardware design, for example.

The goal for DIY Perks is to shrink the entire chassis down to just 2cm in height, which if you own a PS5 you’ll know seems impossible. The way he does it is by stripping out pretty much all of its cooling and building a new water system, which he then rigs up to a gigantic power brick that’s intended to be kept out of sight. So, it’s cheating in a way, because he actually makes the system bigger if you factor in the fans and power, but we can respect the effort.

Obviously when Sony does build a real PS5 Slim, it’ll work to reduce the overall power draw of the device, allowing it to shrink the cooling components. But given that DIY Perks is working with the original hardware, we found this an enjoyable watch. Are you holding out hope for a smaller PS5 in the future? Shrink your system down in the comments section below.



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Technology

The 10 best games we physically played at Summer Game Fest, Tribeca

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Enlarge / Kiosks, controllers, masks, and games: Gaming-preview events hit a little different in 2022, but we’ll take whatever we can get.

Summer Game Fest: Play Days + Seth Cuddeback

LOS ANGELES—The past week’s Summer Game Fest has mostly been a virtual affair, full of trailers for video games that may or may not launch in the next 18 months. Still, as the game industry draws closer to convention-preview normalcy, we scored invites to two early-June events with playable coming-soon games.

You may have already seen my biggest hands-on highlights from those events: Street Fighter 6, which is fantastic, and Sonic Frontiers, which is weird but promising. This article sums up the “best of the rest,” based on hands-on tests at the Summer Game Fest Play Days event in Los Angeles and a series of remote-connection Tribeca Games Festival demos.
The events were missing some of the world’s biggest developers and publishers—arguably because many of their games have been pushed to 2023. Despite this list skewing more to the indie side, we stand behind these game preview highlights thanks to how they felt to play.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course gameplay trailer.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

Platforms: PC, Xbox, PS4, Switch
Planned release: June 30
Links: Steam | Nintendo eShop | Xbox | Official site

The bullet-hell brutality of Cuphead will return later this month as a $7.99 DLC pack. If the sample boss level I played is any indication, this DLC will hit a sweet spot for series fans instead of turning the Cuphead formula upside down.

A new playable character Ms. Chalice is available as a “charm” that one player can equip at any time, and she comes with a few novice-friendly perks, including an additional point of health, a double-jump, a parry that doubles as a forward dash, and a somersault that adds a few frames of invincibility. Her new abilities weren’t necessarily imperative in the new boss battle I played—though due to being terrible at Cuphead, I still struggled with the fight’s three phases, which included an abrupt transition to floating, rotating platforms (think Super Mario World‘s second Reznor fight).

She’s available in a new campaign that executive producer Marija Moldenhauer tells Ars is comparable to the original game’s third isle—which included seven bosses and two platforming levels. Moldenhauer says the DLC will have six bosses, which she insists are more involved and complicated than the standard game’s selection, but she wouldn’t otherwise clarify what else the DLC will contain.

Moldenhauer also says that the DLC includes nearly as many hand-drawn backgrounds and frames of animation as the entirety of the standard Cuphead campaign. This could mean that the boss battles I haven’t yet played are even more intense or that there’s another massive platforming challenge to come. Either way, $7.99 seems like a must-buy DLC option for anyone already invested in Cuphead‘s meticulously hand-drawn 2D action.

F1 2022 VR gameplay trailer

F1 2022

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4
Planned release: June 28
Links: Epic | PSN | Xbox | Official site

EA and Codemasters hosted an F1 2022 gameplay demo to show off the series’ newest feature: VR racing. Codemasters producers on site confirmed that the studio’s combined brain trust had matured enough to add a VR mode to F1, thanks to contributions from those who worked on VR modes in DiRT Rally and Driveclub VR. (Evolution Studios made the latter before Codemasters acquired it in 2016).

The game maker’s kiosk combined Fanatec’s CSL DD F1 bundle with a Quest 2 VR headset. In great news, the result strikes the right balance between fidelity and performance, along with considerations for VR comfort while navigating F1-worthy straightaways. The only comfort exception came from moments when the game’s particle-filled clouds filled my gameplay view, which made my headset’s frame rate tumble. This issue usually arose after a gnarly spinout when I drove all driving assists disabled; when I leaned on the game’s optional F1-for-dummies, all-assists mode, F1 2022 felt like a fantastic carnival ride.

Codemasters didn’t have much else to show off for F1 2022 at SGF, but the driving was fun enough to excite me for playing its VR mode on my PC when it launches on June 28.

Animal Well gameplay trailer

Animal Well

Platforms: PS5, PC
Planned release: Early 2023
Links: Steam | PSN | Official site

At some point, the oversaturation of indie “seek-adventure” games (better known as “Metroidvanias”) has to run its course, right? What can anyone else do to top the critically acclaimed likes of Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge, and Cave Story?

While I’m not immediately convinced that Animal Well will surpass the genre’s other greats, my hour-long demo has me very, very intrigued. For one, it has new, beautiful ideas for rendering pixel art, thanks to its sole designer, programmer, and artist building the game’s engine from scratch—and condensing the complete package thus far to a 10MB limit. The game’s lighting and physics models are some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen in a 16-bit aesthetic, perhaps even surpassing the pixelated, chemical-reaction madness of Noita.

Additionally, this adventure has smart ideas for how to skip combat entirely. Animal Well asks players to focus on tricky maneuvers, puzzle-solving, and hidden-path discovery as they unravel the mysteries that cloak its lack of dialogue. Instead of wielding weapons, your eight-pixel blob of a hero must make the most of items like firecrackers—which cast lighting effects on the 2D world while scaring potential foes—and a handy grappling whip that can be tossed into crevices to grab otherwise untouchable world elements.

Snappy controls and otherworldly pixel-art designs have made my demo experience with Animal Well memorable thus far, and I look forward to its eventual release (currently pegged to a vague “early 2023” window).

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Technology

Escudo Pikes Peak Returns – GTPlanet

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Gran Turismo 6 image from ZeroTheNorth

The next update for Gran Turismo 7 is coming this week, and will see one of the franchise’s most iconic vehicles return to the car list for the first time in a decade.

Polypony Digital studio head Kazunori Yamauchi revealed the update on Twitter, posting on Sunday June 19 to say it would be “coming next week” — with no specific date noted.

Alongside that, Yamauchi posted what’s become a tradition: a composite image of the cars coming to the update in profile but heavily shaded. That revealed that the update would be bringing three addition vehicles, which seesm to be the monthly norm for GT7.

The three cars appear to be pretty easy to identify, with the top one in particular being something of a giveaway thanks to a huge splitter, enormous rear wing, and colossal roof scoop.

It’s pretty clear that it’s the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak, a 1,000hp hillclimb car built for Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima to take on some of the world’s highest races.

Based on a Grand Vitara (or Escudo in its native Japan), the car features a turbocharged Suzuki V6 — 2.5-liter in the early model, 2.7-liter for the later car — producing close to four figures, in order to cope with the thin mountain air. That also explains the gigantic wings, meant to create downforce even at 14,000ft above sea level.

The Escudo Pikes Peak first appeared in Gran Turismo 2, being replaced with a later 1998 car — which the car for GT7 also appears to be — appearing from Gran Turismo 3 to Gran Turismo 6. It became a fan favorite not just for its ludicrous speed, but the fact it could break the game’s physics with certain settings and accelerate up to 2.15 billion miles an hour…

Gran Turismo 6 image via SeaNorris

While it’s going to be the obvious focus of attention, there are still two other cars in the update too. The first of these looks to be a Gr.3 version of the recent Suzuki Vision Gran Turismo.

This was a car that defied identification when Yamauchi revealed it in a previous silhouette post, but it’s an entertaining machine that pairs a Hayabusa motorbike engine with electric power. The Gr.3 model is likely to add large wings and a dose more power, though it will prove difficult to balance with the rest of the class thanks to the low weight.

That leaves the third car which appears to be new to the series, and looks like a convertible-bodied version of the 1932 Ford, or Deuce Roadster. Identifying it more precisely than that is tricky, as it’s an extremely popular hot rod — making it likely it’s a car that Polyphony Digital encountered at SEMA in the past.

There’s no indication of anything else coming to the game in the update at present, but fans will be hoping for new circuits — and new events to race on them.

Only one track has arrived in the game post-launch, and that was a very mildly rearranged version of an existing one — adding the 24h pit lane and start/finish to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. A gap in the current GT World Series schedule for July 1 indicates a new circuit is possible, but not inevitable.

In addition, players are still waiting for the ability to sell cars to come to the game, flagged by Yamauchi as a “near-term” prospect back in March, while issues with open lobbies being considerably more restricted than GT Sport’s version are also a high priority for many.

We’ll have more on the update, particularly when players can expect it, when we receive further information — so watch this space!

See more articles on Gran Turismo 7 Game Update.

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Technology

Reggie: Nintendo’s Transition From Switch Will Be A “Significant Challenge”

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Image: Nintendo Life

Former Nintendo of America boss Reggie shared his thoughts recently about how Nintendo could prepare for the Switch’s successor, and the same topic has come up once again during an interview with CNET about his new book Disrupting the Game.

He previously mentioned how important the “content pipeline” would be for Nintendo next generation, and now he’s added to this, reiterating how maintaining and capitalising on the success of the Switch will still be a “significant challenge”.

He’s simply going off the history of the video game industry, observing how certain companies (including Nintendo) have only ever gone from one “highly successful platform” to the next has only been done a handful of times.

Here’s exactly what he had to say:

“[Nintendo] also touched on recently, in their financial announcements, thinking deeply about how they transition from the Switch to whatever the next platform needs to be, and how that has to be a well-considered series of decisions. Going from a highly successful platform to the next highly successful platform… you can make the argument that it’s only been done a handful of times in the video game industry. Sony, from the original PlayStation to PlayStation 2, clearly went from strength to strength. Nintendo, from the Gameboy family of systems to the Nintendo DS. It hasn’t been done since, as I look at the industry. For Nintendo to go successfully from the Switch to whatever comes next is going to be a significant challenge that they’ve already said they’re thinking deeply about.”

Reggie, as already mentioned, has shared similar thoughts about all of this before, describing the move from one successful platform to another as “incredibly difficult and challenging to do”. You can read more in detail about this in our previous story.

What are your own thoughts about this? Do you think Nintendo will be able to make a successful transition from Switch to its next product, even if it is still five years or so away? Leave your own thoughts down below.



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Technology

iPhone 14 — 7 biggest leaks and rumors so far

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The iPhone 14 promises some of the biggest changes to the iPhone lineup in years, both in terms of a brand new model and serious upgrades for the iPhone 14 Pro series. In fact, the iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro gap could be wider than ever. 

From the design and cameras to the specs, prices and release date, here are the top seven iPhone 14 leaks and rumors you need to know. 

iPhone 14 models: Hello Max, Goodbye mini

(Image credit: Sonny Dickson)

The first thing you need to know about the iPhone 14 is that we should see a brand new model being added to the mix. That would be the rumored iPhone 14 Max, which would give shoppers a more affordable big screen option at 6.7 inches.

This also means that the iPhone mini will likely be going away, as the 5.4-inch small phone just hasn’t caught on during the last couple of generations and reportedly suffered slow sales. So think of the iPhone 14 Max as a big screen for less.

The rest of the lineup should consist of a regular 6.1-inch iPhone 14, a 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max. 

iPhone 14 design: No more notch?

(Image credit: EverythingApplePro/YouTube)

Yes, the notch could be going away, at least on the iPhone 14 Pro models. Rumor has it that Apple will replace the notch with a new punch hole for the camera and a pill-shaped cutout for the Face ID tech. The renders honestly don’t look that great, but it’s a step in the right direction. 

Based on iPhone 14 renders and dummy units that have circulated, it looks like the regular iPhone 14 won’t see many design changes at all. However, we have heard about a new Purple color for both the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro series that could spice things up.

Another rumor from JP Morgan Chase says that some iPhone 14 models could use a tougher titanium-alloy chassis design, but it’s not clear if this is going to be for just the Pro or for the regular models as well. 

What’s definitely tipped for the Pro is a larger camera bump, so those early rumors about a camera that’s flush with the design seem to be wishful thinking. 

iPhone 14 cameras: 48MP for Pro, killer selfies 

(Image credit: Front Page Tech / Ian Zelbo)

So why the bigger camera bump on the iPhone 14 Pro? That’s because the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max could get a 48MP wide camera with a larger sensor. This would deliver more detail than the current 12MP lens, and the new camera would use pixel binning when in low light to deliver better quality shots. 

Another plus? This new 48MP sensor should be able to capture 8K video, which would allow Apple to catch up to the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

While we haven’t heard much about the rear cameras for the regular iPhone 14, all four models are tipped to get a big iPhone 14 front camera upgrade for better selfies. Leaks point to an upgraded front lens with a wider f/1.9 aperture and autofocus. 

iPhone 14 specs: Surprises ahead…

Here’s a surprise. Multiple reports point to Apple potentially sticking with the current A15 Bionic chip for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max, though we may see 6GB of RAM. This would be a jump up from 4GB on the iPhone 13.

The iPhone 14 Pros will reportedly feature a faster new A16 Bionic chip as well as speedier LPDDR 5 RAM. However, the chip will apparently be built using the same N5P process as last year’s processor.

As for storage, there’s a rumor that Apple could go up to 2TB for the iPhone 14 Pros, but that doesn’t come from a reliable source. 

Always-on display for iPhone 14 Pros

(Image credit: Front Page Tech / Ian Zelbo)

The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are both tipped to feature an always-on display, which would be a first for the iPhone lineup. Yes, Apple is several years behind Samsung, but it will be very interesting to see how it tries to stand out there.

And we could have a very good clue in the form of iOS 16, which delivers a new customizable Lock Screen experience that includes widgets. Could Apple bring this to an always-on display or will it just deliver the basics like time, urgent notifications and battery life?

iPhone 14 release date rumors

(Image credit: Apple)

So what about the iPhone 14 release date? Apple will likely introduce the iPhone 14 lineup in September as it usually does, and one release date rumor from LeaksApplePro says that Apple will host a product event in the 37th week of the year. That would be the week of September 11th, and because Apple usually holds the Apple September even on a Tuesday that would be September 13.

If this rumor holds true, we could see an iPhone 14 release date of September 23rd. And pre-orders could start on September 16. 

However, there are reports that one or more models could be delayed, and it could be the highly anticipated iPhone 14 Max that gets pushed back a bit. 

iPhone 14 prices: Get ready for a hike

(Image credit: Front Page Tech / Ian Zelbo)

Last but not least, we have iPhone 14 price rumors. The bad news is that more than one source has said that we could see a $100 price hike on both the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. So you would be looking at potentially $1,099 and $1,199, which we hope is not true.

And if Apple cuts the mini from the lineup, the $699 iPhone goes away, and you’d have to pay at least $799 for a regular iPhone 14. The good news is that the iPhone 14 Max is rumored to start at $899, which would give shoppers an affordable big-screen option.

Be sure to bookmark our iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro hubs for all the latest rumors and leaks heading up to launch. 

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Technology

LEGO Reveals Super Mario Character Packs – Series 5, Arriving This August

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Image: LEGO, Nintendo

LEGO this weekend hosted its second annual ‘LEGOCON’ broadcast and during the show, new Super Mario-themed character packs were revealed.

Series 5 will include eight new characters to collect and build. There’s Nabbit, Purple Toad, Hammer Bro, Waddlewing, Toady, Baby Yoshi, a Red Yoshi and the Blue Shy Guy. Each one features an Action Tag and can be used with the Starter Course sets (71360, 71387 or 71403) for interactive play.

Image: LEGO, Nintendo
Image: LEGO, Nintendo

These sets will be available for $5.99 USD each (or your regional equivalent) and will arrive on 1st August this year.

In addition to Super Mario, LEGOCON 2022 also revealed new Minecraft sets, new LEGO Star Wars sets, and various other LEGO sets based on popular franchises such as the Marvel series and James Cameron’s Avatar movie.

What do you think of the latest Super Mario LEGO announcements? Did anything else grab your attention during the LEGOCON 2022 broadcast? Leave a comment down below.



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Technology

YouTube Music recommendations appear in Quick Settings

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In recent days, YouTube Music has more widely rolled out support for Android 12’s media recommendations feature that prominently surfaces recent albums and playlists to start immediate playback.

These media recommendations automatically appear after connecting an audio device, like headphones or other speaker systems, over Bluetooth. The app icon and name is in the top-left corner as you get three recently played works from YouTube Music towards the right. Opening Quick Settings gives you six in total, while the compact card can also show up on the lockscreen. 

A tap immediately starts playback in the background by switching you to Now Playing controls and keeping you in Quick Settings. These media recommendations will remain for a few minutes and you can swipe to access them again, though they now appear after playback controls, and start a different track.

It’s visually reminiscent to the redesigned “Listen again” shelf and Material You widget. The recommendations can be disabled from Settings app > Sound & vibration > Media and toggling off “Show media recommendations.”

As of today, these YouTube Music recommendations are appearing pretty consistently after connecting headphones on Android 12 (Pixel 6 Pro on June security patch). They are showing up much more widely for Google’s streaming service than in the past, while some Spotify users have also seen them. The card will presumably appear in full height on Android 13, where we haven’t gotten it to work yet.

More on YouTube Music:

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Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:

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Internet Explorer’s final resting place: as a ‘world-class joke’ in South Korea

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To commemorate its demise, he spent a month and 430,000 won ($330) designing and ordering a headstone with Explorer’s “e” logo and the English epitaph: “He was a good tool to download other browsers.”

After the memorial went on show at a cafe run by his brother in the southern city of Gyeongju, a photo of the tombstone went viral.

Microsoft scaled down support for the once omnipresent Internet Explorer on Wednesday after a 27-year run, to focus on its faster browser, Microsoft Edge.

Jung said the memorial showed his mixed feelings for the older software, which had played such a big part in his working life.

“It was a pain in the ass, but I would call it a love-hate relationship because Explorer itself once dominated an era,” he said.

He said he found it took him longer to make sure his websites and online apps worked with Explorer, than with other browsers.

But his customers kept asking him to make sure their websites looked good in Explorer, which remained the default browser in South Korean government offices and many banks for years.

Launched in 1995, Explorer became the world’s leading browser for more than a decade as it was bundled with Microsoft’s Windows operating system that came pre-installed in billions of computers.

But it started losing out to Google’s Chrome in the late 2000s and became a subject of countless internet memes, with some developers suggesting it was sluggish compared with its rivals.

Jung said he had meant to give people a laugh with the gravestone, but was still surprised about how far the joke went online.

“That’s another reason for me to thank the Explorer, it has now allowed me to make a world-class joke,” he said.

“I regret that it’s gone, but won’t miss it. So its retirement, to me, is a good death.”

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