The holiday shopping season has already begun, but Wellbots is kicking off November with a couple of deals on iRobot Roombas. Of note is the Roomba i7+ for $699, which is $100 off its normal price. The standard Roomba i7, which does not come with a Clean Base, is also $100 off. We last saw these sale prices in August, and as usual, Wellbots is offering free shipping and no sales tax outside New York.
We reviewed the Roomba i7+ when it came out and gave it a score of 87. It’s one of iRobot’s higher-end devices so it has a lot of bells and whistles that you won’t get in a cheaper robot vacuum. The most important among these is the Clean Base, which is a garbage-like attachment into which the robot dumps its dirt and debris after every cleaning. This means that you don’t have to tend to the dirt yourself — at least, not immediately. You’ll have to empty the Clean Base after about 30 robot runs, which is still better than tending to it every time the robot cleans your home.
We’re not thrilled by the fact that the Clean Base requires proprietary bags because that’s just another expense you’ll have to take into account if you buy this robot vacuum. However, this deal makes the i7+ more accessible, even if it remains on the expensive side.
Follow@EngadgetDealson Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
When people say Donald Trump is doing his level best to foment violence and unrest, this is what they're talking about.
The costume-heavy revelry of Halloween Twitter was disrupted on Saturday when an alarming clip surfaced showing what appears to be a caravan of Trump supporters chasing the Biden campaign bus on a highway in Texas. It's a frightening scene.
In a series of incidents that apparently unfolded on Friday throughout the day, Trump supporters made a dangerous public nuisance of themselves as the Biden campaign progressed through central Texas. At least one event was canceled as a result. Read more...
Specific preventative measures are essential for staying healthy while slowing the spread of COVID-19. These include everything from washing one's hands and maintaining social distance to wearing a face mask. Even though we're well into this global pandemic, most face coverings on the market remain inconvenient to use and uncomfortable to wear.
Well, those are two areas where the Electric Respirator LED Fan Mask breaks free from the pack. This innovative face covering provides you with a continuous cycle of clean, fresh air and a comfortable fit to boot.
It features a custom-four layer KN95 certified filter designed to keep the air you breathe clean. Those four layers consist of a strong antibacterial net, an activated carbon filter, a HEPA filter, and a shielding protection net.
They work together to filter large particles, impurities and bacteria in the air and handle particulate matter (PM2.5), such as pollen, smoke and dust. When you combine that all together, it means the mask removes 99.979% of fine contaminants over 0.3μm from the air and provides you with enhanced protection against viruses like COVID-19.
On the other hand, this covering also delivers convenience. A powerful LED fan motor with two speeds cycles the air to make it easier for you to breathe. Just as valuable, it prevents moisture buildup inside the mask and stops eyewear from fogging up during use. So, this mask makes the otherwise inconvenient reality of covering your face every day as comfortable and enjoyable an experience as possible.
Face masks and coverings are a practical way to keep safe and healthy during COVID-19. You can make wearing one a better experience, too, with the right equipment. Typically $139, the Electric Respirator LED Fan Mask is on sale today for $50, which is 64% off its original price tag.
Prices are subject to change.
Engadget is teaming up withStackSocialto bring you deals on the latest headphones, gadgets, tech toys, and tutorials. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement, and we earn a portion of all sales. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackSocial supporthere.
Waymo’s vehicles have driven a total of 6.1 million miles in Phoenix, Arizona, where it first started testing its self-driving technology. That’s merely one of the many, many things the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company has revealed in an in-depth report that details its activities in the Phoenix metro area. Apparently, 65,000 miles of that overall total were accomplished with no human driver behind the wheel. Also, from 2019 up until the first nine months of 2020, Waymo’s vehicles were involved in 18 minor accidents and 29 situations wherein the human driver had to seize control to avoid potential collisions.
The company’s vehicles were involved 16 rear-enders, eight of which were caused by other drivers crashing into them while they’re stopped or gradually decelerating for traffic ahead. Five of those events were caused by other drivers crashing into the vehicles while they’re slowing down to turn. Waymo was the striking vehicle in only one instance, wherein another vehicle swerved into the lane in front of it and hit the brakes hard.
There were three instances wherein a Waymo vehicle was struck by a bicycle or a pedestrian while it’s stationary. In two cases, a vehicle reversed into a Waymo while it’s not moving and moving below speed limit. Finally, the single head-on crash in the list happened at night while the other vehicle was traveling in the wrong direction. The company says nobody was seriously injured in any of the cases. “Nearly all events... involved one or more road rule violations or other driving performance deviations by another road user,” the company wrote.
Waymo said it’s releasing this information for the sake of transparency, since its vehicles are operating on public roads. It’s hoping the data can help inform policymakers, promote awareness and “foster greater public confidence in automated vehicles.” Earlier this year, the Partners for Automated Vehicle Education conducted a survey and found that a lot of Americans still don’t trust self-driving technologies. Waymo opened its driverless taxi service to the public in Phoenix earlier this month, and it needs to show the public its technology can be trusted if it’s to expand to more locations.
US officials are shedding more light on how Iran-linked hackers stole voter info to send intimidating emails to Democrat voters. The FBI and Homeland Security’s CISA have issued an advisory (via Bleeping Computer) explaining the campaign, which ran from September 20th through October 17th. There was plenty of preparation, the agencies said, and poor defenses were at least partly to blame.
The intruders spent several days just scanning sites for vulnerabilities using a security tool from Acunetix. They also spent time researching specific exploits, including ones to spot and bypass web firewalls. They used the know-how to take advantage of election site vulnerabilities, including misconfigured sites. The techniques included SQL injections, web shell uploads and even “unique” site flaws. Scripts made “several hundred thousand” queries to download voter data.
They made at least some attempt to cover their tracks. Many of the linked IP addresses come from NordVPN’s service as well as other VPN providers.
The attackers obtained voter registration info for “at least one” state, officials said, although they unsurprisingly weren’t specific about the nature of that breach or the volume of data taken.
CISA and the FBI made several recommendations that, unfortunately, would be givens for many other organizations. They advised keeping systems updated with security patches, to scan for common web flaws like SQL injections, and to protect against web shells. Administrators should have two-step verification, too. Like it or not, election systems still have basic failings — it may be a long while before your voting info is truly secure.
Earlier in October, NASA successfully collected rocky samples from asteroid Bennu, a relatively small, well-preserved space rock some 200 million miles from Earth. On Friday, NASA released footage of the spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, approaching and briefly touching down on the rubbly Bennu. The events, seen in the space agency's tweet below, show OSIRIS-REx carefully descending to Bennu's rock-strewn surface.
The spacecraft collected some 60 grams, or about two ounces, of fine-grained material during the quick touchdown, which lasted under 16 seconds. To planetary scientists, this asteroidal stuff is invaluable: Bennu hasn't changed much since the formation of our solar system (4.5 billion years ago), so the samples provide a glimpse into our past, and how our planets formed. Read more...
It's been 10 years since Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert stormed Washington, D.C. with their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, which drew more than 200,000 attendees to the National Mall. To commemorate the event – and engage in a little pre-election self-care – Stewart paid a visit to his former Daily Show correspondent on Friday's episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The two reminisced about their 10-years-gone rally, and mutually agreed that Colbert – who at the time played a blowhard conservative talk show version of himself on Comedy Central – won: In the years that followed, fear reigned over sanity. Read more...
At the outset of World War II, you’d have a better chance of finding a needle in a haystack with a camel stuck in its eye than you did shooting down an enemy aircraft in your first dozen or so shots. This is because anti-aircraft shells at the time used manual fuses that had to be dialed in for specific lengths of time to delay their explosion. The idea was that you’d estimate where the targeted plane would be in, say five seconds, based on its currently flight path, then time the shell for that length, fire the shell at the plane and hope that the timing and location were close enough that shrapnel from the exploding shell hits the plane. If your calculations were off by even a hair, the shell would miss by thousands of feet. And if shooting down piloted aircraft was this hard, intercepting Germany’s terrifyingly fast V1 and V2 rockets required far more luck than skill. But that’s exactly what the team at Section T set out to do.
In 12 Seconds of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon, author Jamie Holmes recounts the incredible story behind the advent of the proximity fuse, an innocuous device that leveraged newfangled radar technology to tell anti-aircraft shells when they should detonate for maximum effect. But this was no simple bit of R&D. The man tasked with leading the development, American geophysicist Merle Tuve, had to build the entire research effort from the ground up — facilities, personnel, logistics, testing, the whole shebang. And all while the Nazi war machine ran roughshod over the European continent. In the excerpt below, we join the Section T team on a pier in Norfolk, Virginia as they demonstrate the proximity fuse to Navy brass against moving targets in a bid for the military to adopt the technology.
From the deck of the USS Lexington, on May 8, 1942, a barrage of deafening shots flung dozens of five-inch rounds into the clear sky. They pockmarked the air with black plumes, peppering the vista with inkblots of exploding shrapnel.
In the Coral Sea, off Australia’s northeastern coast, the 888-foot Navy aircraft carrier was under heavy assault by eighteen fighters and thirty-six torpedo and dive-bombers. The Lexington and a second carrier, USS Yorktown, formed the heart of an Allied mission to stop the Japanese from invading and occupying Port Moresby, New Guinea, a strategic foothold right off Australia’s doorstep.
Frederick Sherman, the Lexington’s captain, steered sharply at high speed to dodge the falling bombs, jolting his men under the deck and causing the huge vessel to roll, sway, and moan. Bullets from Japanese gunners in the planes struck a violent staccato beat on the metal hull and echoed through the ship’s belly. Axis bombs narrowly missed the carrier deck and exploded under the water, unleashing pressurized tremors that popped the American sailors’ ears.
The ship had never faced a raid of such intensity.
On the port side, a set of three five-inch antiaircraft guns blazed away stubbornly at the bombers. Jesse Rutherford Jr., a nineteen-year-old from Kansas, hoisted the fifty-four-pound rounds from the ammunition locker at his feet. Like a link in a bucket brigade, he handed them to the “primary loader,” a fellow Marine standing at the breech of the twelve-foot, two-ton monster called gun no. 10. Rutherford was among a small contingent of Marines manning the guns. Since six a.m., the captain had them at the ready wearing “flash gear” — heavy, fire-resistant clothing that included a protective hood and gloves. The Marines had waited five hours in the baking heat before the Japanese attack was spotted.
Most of the Lexington’s planes were far away, executing their own raid on Japanese carriers. With only a handful of Allied planes remaining, the Japanese easily reached the Lexington, prompting ack-ack fire from its gunners. But the small-caliber machine guns and five-inch cannons did not deter the pilots, who flew without hesitation, largely untouched, through the porous flak.
After the first minute of the assault, it became difficult for the men to discern the exact order of events or where the bombs and bullets were coming from. Usually, four Mk 19 “gun directors” with telescopic lenses would have tracked incoming aircraft, determined the height, range, and bearing of enemy planes, and fed coordinates to the gun mounts. But the attack was so chaotic that gunners were given “local control” over where to shoot and had to select their own ammunition.
Inside the shells, time fuses adjusted by twisting a metal ring were all preset. The scheme saved men from having to calibrate them during the heat of battle, but it was wildly inflexible. As bombs fell, gunners tried to determine the flight paths of approaching raiders, and then figure out where those flight paths might meet in midair with a shell that blew up at 2.2, 3, or 5.2 seconds after being fired. The Lexington’s antiaircraft guns could not protect the ship.
Within minutes, around eleven twenty a.m., it was hit by a series of torpedoes, producing explosions so violent that they froze the elevators and fractured the aviation-fuel storage tanks, which began to leak gas and poisonous vapors. Beneath the deck, repair teams quickly dispatched crews to plug the holes in the hull, and starboard compartments were “counter-flooded.”
On the bridge, Captain Sherman craved a cigarette, but the fumes made smoking too dangerous. In the distance, he saw that the faster, more agile carrier Yorktown was also being ambushed. Naval tactics dictated that the ships in the Allied battle group (which included cruisers and destroyers) should form a strategic ring to maximize their antiaircraft guns. But the formation had broken. A bomb pierced the hull and exploded in the admiral’s and chief of staff’s living quarters, enflaming furniture and distorting the lip of the deck.
The Marines at guns 2, 4, and 6 suffered a direct hit. Marine Corps captain Ralph Houser, their commanding officer, discovered the gruesome scene. Like victims at Pompeii, the charred bodies were frozen at their gun positions. Wounded men moaned and bled on the gnarled deck. Medics applied battle dressings and tannic jelly to their burns, and administered morphine.
A jagged hole punctured the deck beside gun no. 2. The explosion splintered a storage locker of five-inch shells, scattering them. Swelling with heat, rounds slipped from their brass cases and spilled firing powder, which ignited in tails of flame and let out angry hisses.
Two Japanese planes sprayed the deck with machine-gun fire, wounding three men working gun no. 10 and ending the life of another. Rutherford was shot several times but refused to stop lifting the heavy shells, one by one, for loading. Bombs hit the water and threw up towering walls of ocean, obscuring the ship’s profile and soaking the gunners still desperately trying to save the ship.
The attack lasted only twenty-three minutes. When it was over, the Lexington’s gunners had shot down only six of the fifty-four Japanese aircraft in the assault group.
It was now just a matter of time. At 12:47 p.m., the leaking aviation fuel blew up, taking out the damage control station. Two hours later, an explosion knocked an elevator through the flight deck. At 3:25, another blast took out the water pressure in the hangar. At 5:07, Captain Sherman gave the order to abandon ship.
Floating helplessly, the crew were unable to get far away from the sinking hull as the vortex of churning currents pulled them closer, like a magnet. That night, over twenty-seven hundred men of the almost three thousand aboard were safely rescued by Allied ships.
The loss of the Lexington reinforced the lesson of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. Ships could not defend themselves without air cover. “Air offense is definitely superior to the defense,” the incident report dryly concluded.
The Battle of the Coral Sea marked the first time in history that enemy aircraft carriers waged a fight against each other. It was the first battle in history in which neither side’s ships ever saw or fired directly on the others.
Naval airpower had come of age.
It was a tactical loss but a strategic victory. Japan failed to take Port Moresby, and a Japanese carrier was sunk. The contest also marked a turn for the Navy, which was preparing to go on the offensive and, in 1943, hoped to claw back Japanese gains in the Pacific and take the war to the nation’s island citadel itself.
Japanese resistance would be deadly and savage.
After the Lexington sank to the ocean floor, the USS Yorktown limped to Pearl Harbor, where the vessel underwent a frantic repair job to return it to action.
Weeks later, the Yorktown sunk too.
***
Sailors met the scientists at the waterfront.
Dick Roberts was impressed by the Navy work party, which swiftly loaded the radios, binoculars, and batches of secret fuses.
August 10, 1942, was less than two years since Roberts initiated the fuse project, with some swagger, on Merle’s request, by firing a pistol at a vacuum tube in a bunker underneath a particle accelerator. He could not have guessed where that journey would lead. Now in front of the physicist, on a pier in Norfolk, Virginia, was a six-hundred-ten-foot Navy cruiser known as the USS Cleveland.
An imposing metal giant — a freshly commissioned ship — the Cleveland displaced some eleven thousand tons of water and carried a thousand men. At the stern was a crane used for retrieving four scouting seaplanes. In its center were stacks of circular towers, curved platforms, and boxy compartments. The ship’s core gave the impression of a small mountaintop favela made of iron, where generations of inhabitants added their own ferrous modules as space allowed.
The vessel was heavily armed. Four turrets and twelve guns used for land bombardment dotted the bow and stern. Behind them, encircling a rounded bridge, slanted masts, and dual smokestacks, were twelve five-inch guns in six turrets. The Navy was well aware by now that the guns weren’t enough, and had been busy cluttering the decks of cruisers like the Cleveland with dozens of smaller twenty- and forty-millimeter guns. The Cleveland itself had thirty-two of them. The ship was not designed to handle the weight of the extra guns and their aiming devices, and the boat — like others in its class — had grown increasingly unstable as it overflowed with more and more guns that were fitted like porcupine quills to the deck.
Roberts climbed the gangplank onto the massive carrier. With him was Section T’s “Mac” McAlister, from the Smithsonian Institution, and Herb Trotter Jr., a square-jawed physicist from Washington and Lee who looked more like an amateur boxer than a scientist. Lieutenant Deak Parsons was overseeing things.
As the Cleveland set off into Chesapeake Bay, the steam turbine engines propelled the sailors, researchers, film cameras, and precious fuses past the York and Rappahannock Rivers to Tangier Island, seventy miles north. The cruiser stopped at the widest stretch of the estuary, and made anchor for the night.
The ship’s insides were as alien to Roberts as its cluttered skin. Below deck, he encountered a maze of control rooms, berths, narrow passages, repair shops, ammunition rooms, supply rooms for spare parts, diving gear, and “chemical defense material.” The Cleveland was a tiny city with a post office, bakery, metalworking shop, optical shop, and even a room for “potato stowage.”
Roberts would not be sleeping in the “guest cabin” with its matching bath. He was bunked along a corridor and would have a more plebian naval experience. The ship was on a “shakedown” cruise to test its performance and ready the crew, and the sailors were kept busy with unexpected drills. The boatswain would blow a high-pitched pipe, and sailors would rush to their battle stations, prepare to abandon ship, or respond to “fires,” “collisions,” and “damage reports.” The physicist was sound asleep the next day, at five a.m., when he was suddenly jolted awake while “half the crew ran over” his bunk for a surprise drill.
Tangier Island warmed slowly in the August heat, and as the sun climbed in the sky, Roberts, Parsons, and the other Section T men gathered on deck. Today’s test was against moving targets.
Small drones — remote-controlled planes about the size of an albatross, used for gunnery practice — were notoriously difficult to shoot down. The tiny aircraft were so tough to knock from the sky that even though Parsons had requested six target planes for the trial, the Navy drone technicians opted to bring only four. In their experience, ambitious gunnery officers usually asked for more target planes than needed. Their drones were rarely damaged beyond repair. The Navy photographic crew assigned to document the trials told Roberts that they had never once seen a drone shot down.
The waterway was cleared. The remote-control drone pilot steadied his hands. A radar, range finder, and mechanical “predictor” would help to aim the guns. Section T fuses, fitted into five-inch shells, were duly loaded. As the first drone left the deck, the Cleveland ’s gunnery crew was primed and ready for action.
Each pair of five-inch guns on the ship protruded from an enclosed mount that resembled a squat tank with no treads. A standard gun crew consisted of twenty-six men, but twenty-seven were required for firing practice. The mount needed “powder men” to handle the powder casings, two “projectile and rammer men” to prepare rounds for firing, and two “hot case” men to catch ejected casings. “Trainers,” “sight setters,” and “pointers” were normally at the ready to aim the guns manually using optical lenses. And there would usually be a fuse setter, who was not needed that day and whose job, should Section T succeed, would no longer exist.
Under the guns, in ammunition handling rooms, thirteen of the men operated hoists and supplied powder cases and projectiles to the guns. Both rooms in this miniature, two-story arrangement had managers pre- pared to supervise the frenetic symphony of churning metal belts, valves, shells, and deafening explosions.
The first drone promptly crashed into the water, defective.
Roberts peered through binoculars at the second drone as it began a run toward the ship from three thousand yards away. The five-inch guns unleashed eighty rounds, and within seconds three shells detonated and struck the drone on the right side. It burst into flames and then spiraled into the drink. The third drone, launched off the starboard side, fell after four rounds. Over forty-five hundred feet away, a shell with a smart fuse sliced it with shrapnel and knocked it into Chesapeake Bay.
Parsons requested another target plane. But the drone operators didn’t have the last one ready. According to Roberts, Parsons was irate. He’d asked them for six drones, and they had refused. Why wasn’t the fourth drone ready, at least?
“You’ve wrecked two of my drones,” a handler said. “That’s very expensive.”
When the final plane was ready, over an hour later, its pilot simulated a low-altitude bombing run. The lower height didn’t make a difference. Eight shots and it was gone. Eighty rounds for a single target? Eight? Four? By any measure, the results of the drone trials were spectacular. The Cleveland’s captain came down to congratulate Parsons and the Section T men. As the physicists boarded a small launch to return to shore, he ordered life preservers brought for them. To prevent the hundreds of sailors aboard from spreading news of the test — of the wondrous accuracy of some new secret weapon — the Navy canceled their shore leave.
Tuve’s boss was elated. “Three runs, three hits, and no errors,” Bush wrote Conant, in a telegram. The fuse did exactly what it was supposed to.
Witchcraft isn’t just for Halloween anymore — it’s a lifestyle.
The recent rise of WitchTok (a portmanteau of witch and TikTok) is the only latest manifestation of the internet coven’s magical ascendence, ranging from your everyday basic witch to the “influencer witches” who dominate every social platform. The Witchtok hashtag currently garners a staggering 5.4 billion views, while #WitchesofInstagram boasts 5.6 million posts.
As the Trump era turned witchery into a symbol of feminist resistance, the New Agey self-care crowd began intermingling with the “mysticore” pop culture aesthetic to turn crystals, tarot, and astrology into a whole ass vibe. Read more...
You saw the video. The SSC Tuatara hit 331 MPH and set a new speed record for a production car… or did it? Car fans have been dissecting the company’s claim ever since the video was posted, and on further analysis that figure doesn’t seem to hold up.
As a result, SSC North America CEO and founder Jerod Shelby posted a video pledging to run the car again “in the near future” to remove all doubt, and invited YouTubers like Shmee150 to witness the event in person.
This week, Devindra and Cherlynn are joined by Jessica Conditt to talk about both new consoles -- well, as much as they can say anyway. Jess chats about her PlayStation 5 preview, and we can finally compare it to the Xbox Series X and S final hardware. Also, they dive into what’s up with AMD and NVIDIA’s latest GPUs, the RTX 3070 and Radeon RX 6000 series.
Apple didn’t specify a cause for the issue, but affected units could have problems with a crackling or static sound that increases when other outside noises are present, or the Active Noise Cancellation feature otherwise not working as expected. Within two years of their original sale, you can contact Apple to have them diagnose the issue and replace affected units. Continue reading.
Including early Black Friday pricing from Best Buy.
Valentina Palladino gathered some of the week’s highlights below, including deals like Apple’s AirPods Pro for $200 and Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet with extra storage for $230. Here are the best deals from this week that you can still get today. Continue reading.
A video of an unfortunate (albeit kinda hilarious) Roborace incident made the rounds on Thursday. It showed an SIT Acronis Autonomous racecar immediately veering to the right at the start of a lap and crashing into a wall. In a post on Reddit, one of the engineers explained that an error on the initialization lap caused the steering to lock all the way to the right.
“We are looking at the log values and can see that our controller was trying to steer the car back to the left, but the car did not execute the steering command due to a steering lock. The desired trajectory was also good; the car definitely did not plan to go into the wall. Continue reading.
Panic’s monochrome handheld console is getting closer to release, as the company announced it will make 20,000 Playdates in the first run, and open orders early next year. The crank-equipped game system will have more games than originally announced, and a slightly refined design over the versions we tested last year. Continue reading.
Sean Connery, the Academy Award-winning actor who was perhaps best known for his decade-long run as the original James Bond, is dead at the age of 90.
The Scottish actor "died overnight in his sleep, while in the Bahamas," according to the BBC. The same report also notes that "it is understood he had been unwell for some time." Mashable has reached out to Connery's representation for a statement and any further information on the actor's passing.
Although his acting career goes all the way back to the early 1950s, with roles in theater, TV, and film, it was Connery's star turn in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No (1962), that amounted to his breakout. He would go on to play the famed MI6 age six times in total, in some of the series' most famous films, such as Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. Read more...
Surprisingly great sound • New form factor improves in-ear comfort
The Bad
Lower battery life than previous model • Still no customization for iOS users
The Bottom Line
OnePlus Buds Z are an overall improvement over an already solid product, giving budget-minded folks in need of wireless earbuds an excellent option for the price.
⚡ Mashable Score4.5
😎 Cool Factor4.0
📘Ease of Use4.0
💪Performance4.5
💵Bang for the Buck5.0
There must be a sizable market for people who want to fool others into thinking they have AirPods because OnePlus has mastered the art of imitation. Read more...
Almost a year ago, developer Riot Games unveiled Ruined King, a story-driven title set in the League of Legends universe. We haven't heard much about the game since then, which isn't surprising -- the company has been busy with Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tacticsand countless other projects. Today, though, we finally have a release window for the turn-based RPG: early 2021. Riot has also confirmed that the game is coming to PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. A next-gen optimized version will be available "soon thereafter," with a free upgrade path for PS4 and Xbox One owners.
Riot Games
Ruined King is part of Riot Forge, an initiative that allows third-party developers to create games with the League of Legends licence. It's being made by Airship Syndicate, the same studio behind Darksiders: Genesis, and will feature fan-favorite champions such as Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Braum, Yasuo, Ahri, and Pyke. A new trailer released during the League of Legends World Championship shows the group slowly assembling in a tavern and, later, sailing toward a mysterious land controlled by the titular king. As far as we know, fellow Riot Forge project Conv/rgence, which is being developed by Double Stallion Games, doesn't have a release date yet.
Within a few days, internet sleuths had taken a more careful look at the videos SSC NA provided. They determined that when you line them up with video taken by the existing record holder (Koenigsegg’s Agera) setting a top speed on the same roadway, the Tuatara appears to be going slower between several landmarks. They also checked the math on the known distances of the highway, and estimated what was possible based on the car’s gearing, and called into question whether the information provided was accurate.
Since then, SSC NA has said the wrong video may have come out, but stood by tis numbers, and said the record was certified using Dewetron GPS equipment. However Dewetron said it could not certify the results, and did not have the raw data, as Autoblog’s explainer breaks down in full.
Now, early on Saturday morning, SSC NA founder and CEO Jerod Shelby posted a video acknowledging the record-setting run as “tainted,” and said he dropped the ball on properly packaging the announcement in a way that could be verified and indisputable. While he didn’t break down details of what did or did not happen on October 10th, he promised that “in the near future” SSC North America will do the top speed run again, complete with witnesses and additional support from GPS companies to verify the data. He also invited Shmee150, Misha Charoudin and Robert Mitchell — some of the YouTubers who posted videos digging into the data — to come see SSC NA next attempt in person, and thanked everyone who looked into the facts of the run.
After a long day, nothing beats settling into your favorite chair and cracking open a beer. But imagine if you could get your favorite beer at home and on-demand — in delicious tap form.
The Tapology Microfoam Beer Tap looks like a cooler but works to transform canned beer into high-quality tap beer. All you have to do is pop six cans of your beer of choice into the insulated cooler.
As a bonus, the insulated cooler keeps beer ice cold until you drink all six cans through the tap. It's also portable, which means it's perfect for outdoor hangouts. Since it's battery-operated you won't have to worry about plugging it into an outlet. Read more...
For novice sewers, fancy features on a sewing machine can be more of a hindrance than a help. They'll want something minimal and super easy to operate, like the 301 Multifunctional Electric Micro Sewing Machine.
Great for beginners who aren't quite sure what type of sewing they're into yet, the 301 Micro Sewing Machine is simple to operate, has very few buttons, and supports circular sewing on the cuff or pocket of trousers. It's great for sewing insoles, jeans, curtains, bags, and more. Read more...
If you want to learn more about the cybersecurity field, the Master Cyber Security 65+ Course Certification Bundle can help you get your foot in the door.
Developed by LearnNow (LNO), an online learning platform for IT and software development skills, this collection includes over 65 lessons to equip you with the cybersecurity skills that matter most today — CompTIA, CISSP, OWASP, CISM, and more.
From OWASP and penetration testing to CompTIA Security+, CISSP, CISA, CISM, and security for AWS and Azure, it will teach you the most relevant concepts that can help you advance in the field. You'll get a mixture of both beginner and advanced courses, as well as pre- and post text exams to fortify your learning. Read more...
If you're on the hunt for a new pair of headphones but are counting the days until Black Friday deals come pouring in, we have good news: Some great deals are already here.
We've rounded up six pairs of Sony headphones on sale this weekend. Whether you're looking for earbuds for daily workouts or headphones for Netflix binge-watching, there's probably a pair here for you.
Take your pick from these options, which are on sale as of Oct. 31. (Note: Some of these deals are "open box," which typically means they've been removed from the box before, but not used.)
These extra-bass headphones have ultra-comfortable ear pads. They also come with a cable with an in-line remote and microphone, allowing you to take hands-free calls. They are typically $80, but you can grab a pair on sale for $24.95 for a limited time. Read more...
To snap the photo of your dreams, you might have to get creative. You know, like climbing to the roof, flying over a cityscape, or scaling buildings.
Oh, you're not Spider-Man? No problem. Just get a drone.
Here are 12 drones on sale as of Oct. 31, including drones designed specifically for photography, micro drones, and drones suitable for beginners. Check them out below.
The E88 Four-Axis High-Definition Aerial Photography Drone is both lightweight and durable. Plus, with the one-key return function, it'll fly back to you easily without stressing you out. This drone is on sale for 21% off for a limited time, making it just $59.95. Read more...
An first reported by The Streamable, an email just went out to subscribers notifying them of the change, saying “Unfortunately, we were unable to reach a new agreement to continue offering you this network. Starting Saturday, October 31st, 2020, NESN will no longer be available on YouTube TV, and you will no longer have access to any previous recordings from NESN.”
In a statement posted to Twitter, NESN described its side claiming that “Despite offering our most favorable rates and terms for carriage, YouTube TV chose to deny fans our top-rated programming on October 30th.” NESN notes that the options for internet TV access to the network are now limited to AT&T TV Now or Fubo TV, as it also doesn’t have a deal with Sling TV or Hulu.
It’s the latest tough break for subscribers who want those channels, particularly after YouTube TV raised its prices this summer. However, with most of the sports in between their seasons, there’s time for a new agreement to be reached before the leagues figure out when and where they’ll play next.
The seemingly endless legal battle between Apple and VirnetX still rages on, and the latest development may cost the tech giant half a billion dollars. A jury in Tyler, Texas has ruled that Apple has to pay VirnetX $502.8 million in royalties for VPN on Demand, the iOS feature that lets users configure their devices to automatically start or stop a VPN connection. According to Bloomberg, it took the jury 90 minutes to come to a decision.
This courtroom saga started a decade ago after VirnetX accused Apple of infringing on its intellectual properties. It says FaceTime, iMessage and VPN on Demand violate patents it owns related to secure communications, particularly from technology it developed for the US Central Intelligence Agency. VirnetX originally asked the court for $700 million, while Apple told the court it believed it owed the other party a much smaller amount ($113 million). The tech giant was ordered to pay VirnetX $450 million a few months ago, but that was for earlier versions of the features VirnetX says infringe upon its IPs. This ruling means Apple has to pay $502.8 million on top of that amount.
Eastern Texas courts, known for ruling in favor of companies infamous for filing patent litigations, have made several decisions favorable to VirnetX over the past years. Apple always pushed back and appealed, though, and it’s no different this time. An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg:
“We thank the jury for their time and appreciate their consideration but are disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal. This case has been going on for over a decade, with patents that are unrelated to the core operations of our products and have been found to be invalid by the patent office. Cases like this only serve to stifle innovation and harm consumers.”
Occasionally Apple identifies a problem significant enough to launch a program to repair or replace an issue with one of its products, and today it revealed a service program for the AirPods Pro. According to the notice, in devices manufactured before October of this year, “a small percentage of AirPods Pro may experience sound issues.”
Apple didn’t specify a cause for the issue, but affected units could have problems with a crackling or static sound that increases when other outside noises are present, or the Active Noise Cancellation feature otherwise not working as expected.
“An affected AirPods Pro may exhibit one or more of the following behaviors:
Crackling or static sounds that increase in loud environments, with exercise or while talking on the phone
Active Noise Cancellation not working as expected, such as a loss of bass sound, or an increase in background sounds, such as street or airplane noise”
We didn’t experience problems with our review unit last year, but when we asked readers for their opinions on Apple’s high-end ear buds, some of you reported these exact symptoms. Yianni noted in June “The problem is an extremely annoying crackling noise when you talk while you are on the noise cancellation mode and gets worse over time.”
Apple’s repair program doesn’t extend the warranty on the AirPods Pro, but covers replacements for one or both buds, if necessary, for two years after they were first sold. If you’re having issues, contact Apple Support, an Apple Store, or an authorized service provider so they can check them out and, if they identify a flaw, replace the affected ear buds.
As soon as Arizona fitness coach Torrey Penn bought his new Tesla Model Y online this September he knew what extras he would need for his new ride — and it didn't involve an extra $10,000 Full Self-Driving advanced driving package with automatic steering, braking, and turning while on any road.
Instead Penn, 43, left Tesla.com and headed to Amazon and eBay, where he quickly found what he wanted: a Tesla key card ring to open and start his new electric vehicle. He bought it on eBay for $99 as a replacement for an ill-fitting wedding band. The ring arrived last weekend and he immediately programmed it. Now he can put his hand near the front door and the car unlocks and starts, even if he doesn't have his connected smartphone or key card on him. (Instead of traditional car keys, Teslas have key cards, like a hotel.) Read more...
At Wednesday's Senate hearing on (at least in theory) Section 230, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg let slip a slight behind-the-scenes change his company has taken in the lead up to Nov. 3. Specifically, Zuckerberg offhandedly mentioned that Facebook has temporarily stopped recommending political issue Facebook groups to its users.
Of course, Facebook intends to spin this presumably dangerous — or, at the very least, worrisome — recommendation feature right back up again after the election. So reports BuzzFeed News, which was able to confirm that the new policy is only temporary. Read more...
TikTok has, once again, been spared from a ban in the United States. A Pennsylvania judge temporarily blocked a ban that was set to take effect November 12, in response to a lawsuit from three TikTok stars.
The latest ruling is the second time an intended ban has been blocked by the courts. Back in September, a judge prevented a Trump Administration effort to remove the app from US app stores. But that ruling didn’t address another aspect of the Commerce Department order, which would have blocked any use of TikTok beginning November 12.
The impending November 12 became the basis of the lawsuit from three popular TikTok stars who sued because a ban would harm their businesses, which rely on TikTok.
“We are deeply moved by the outpouring of support from our creators, who have worked to protect their rights to expression, their careers, and to help small businesses, particularly during the pandemic,” TikTok’s Interim Global Head Vanessa Pappas wrote in a statement. “We stand behind our community as they share their voices. And we are committed to continuing to provide a home for them to do so.”
As The Washington Postnotes, the Justice Department could appeal the latest ruling so TikTok isn’t entirely out of the woods just yet. TikTok is also still waiting for its deal with Oracle and Walmart to be finalized, though Trump has voiced support fo0r the move.
