Category: Technology

Nintendo is cutting out the middle man (us). In Thursday’s Nintendo Direct presentation, the company announced its new smartphone app, Nintendo Today!, that will provide daily updates on games, characters and events. These tidbits might show up as videos, comic strips or quick break downs. 

The app also has an animated calendar that is customizable to themes from some of Nintendo’s biggest titles, like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario and Animal Crossing. Plus, it will include a schedule of events based on categories you choose or your favorite games. Similarly, you can add a widget to your home screen and then add art from one of Nintendo’s game series. 

These news blasts will soon include more information on the Nintendo Switch 2. The company is holding a separate Nintendo Direct on April 2 just for the new system and will subsequently share updates on it and its games on the app. 

Anyone with a Nintendo account can access Nintendo Today! app on an iOS or Android device. It should be available to download today.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-today-app-will-provide-updates-on-games-events-and-the-switch-2-150808151.html?src=rss 

Robinhood might have broken into the zeitgeist as a platform for trading meme stocks and cryptocurrencies, but now it’s following through on long-held ambitions in the hope of becoming a one-stop shop for all your finance needs. Starting this fall, it will offer banking services.

Those with a Gold subscription will have access to Robinhood Banking, billed as a private banking offering with individual and joint checking and savings accounts as well as luxury benefits on offer. There will be the option to send money to others in more than 100+ countries and, handily for those who are tired of traipsing to an ATM, you can have cash delivered to your door the same day you request it (depending on your location).

Features include access to estate planning and tax advisors, round-the-clock support, instant transfers between Robinhood accounts and up to $2.5 million in FDIC insurance through partner institutions. From the jump, there will be accounts for kids with spending controls and allowance options. You can have a debit Mastercard for your spending needs. Robinhood already offers a credit card. There will be the ability to link external bank accounts so you can better track your total net worth too. 

As for those perks, Robinhood says it will offer the likes of “tickets to exclusive events like the Met Gala, Oscars, F1 Monaco Grand Prix, The Masters and more, as well as private jet travel, global private chauffeurs, luxury helicopter rides and members-only vacation clubs.” Some of those seem like lofty promises. The Met Gala or the Oscars don’t exactly just let anyone in, no matter how deep their pockets may be.

Robinhood has also revealed other notable updates. Robinhood Strategies is open to Gold members today and other users will get access next month. This is billed as a low-cost wealth management service. The annual management fee is 0.25 percent but that’s capped at $250 per year for Gold members with at least $100,000 in investments (Gold costs $5 per month or $50 per year). Portfolio offerings include single stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with your risk tolerance, time horizon and other factors taken into account.

Later in 2025, the platform will debut an AI-powered investment feature called Robinhood Cortex. The aim here is to provide real-time market analysis and insights, such as what may be impacting changes to a stock price. The tool will offer trading suggestions based on your goals as well.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/robinhood-is-moving-into-banking-services-with-luxury-perks-and-same-day-cash-delivery-152523887.html?src=rss 

Amazon’s Spring Sale is bringing a lot of tempting deals on everything from robot vacuums to AirPods. The latest discount is also an Apple markdown, with the new 128GB iPad Air with M3 chip dropping to $549 from $599. 

Apple only released the 11-inch iPad Air M3 at the beginning of this month and it’s already our pick for best iPad for most people in 2025. We gave it an 89 in our recent review thanks, in part, to the M3 chip’s power. Geekbench 6 scores showed the iPad Air M3’s single- and multi-core scores as about 16 percent more powerful than its predecessor. We also didn’t notice any dip in battery life in exchange for the boost. 

You can pick up the discounted iPad in Starlight, Blue, Purple or Space Gray. Other perks of the new iPad include a better screen and multitasking capabilities than you’ll get with Apple’s baseline model. It also offers a separately available and much improved Magic Keyboard that’s similar to the one you’ll find in Apple’s iPad Pro M4. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazon-spring-sale-apple-deals-include-a-50-discount-on-the-new-ipad-air-m3-141441087.html?src=rss 

After years of delays and at least one complete reboot, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is coming in the near future. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on Thursday, Nintendo offered a closer look at gameplay.

The trailer shows Samus exploring a jungle planet called Viewros that “she was unexpectedly transported to.” She’ll battle malevolent alien creatures and scan relics to learn information that may help her escape. Not only that, Samus will receive new psychic abilities she can use to open doors and manipulate mechanisms, as well as control the direction of beams that she fires. There’s a bit of a mystery as to why she receives these powers, but we’ll probably learn that through the course of the story.

There’s still no specific release date as yet. However, Nintendo reaffirmed that the game is coming to the Switch in 2025. It will presumably run on the Switch 2 as well thanks to that system’s backwards compatibility.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/metroid-prime-4-beyond-gameplay-trailer-shows-off-samus-new-psychic-abilities-143326681.html?src=rss 

MEMS solid-state drivers have provided a big sound boost to wireless earbuds recently, offering the ability for companies to pack in a hybrid setup for a wider, more immersive soundstage. xMEMS’ silicon-based micro speakers have been a popular choice for this purpose, with the company’s Cowell and Muir drivers already appearing in products from Creative Labs and others. Now, xMEMS has developed what it calls the first amplifier-less silicon tweeter for wireless earbuds in a bid to take improved sound and efficiency even further. 

Officially dubbed Lassen, the tweeter is a lower-cost option for companies. Since it doesn’t require a separate piezo amplifier chip like Cowell and Muir, it’s more cost effective to integrate with savings of up to 25 percent compared to the other MEMS drivers. Ditching the amp also increases power efficiency without sacrificing performance. xMEMS says that Lassen can provide up to a 115dB boost in the 6kHz to 20kHz frequency range, which it claims surpasses the output of existing tweeter tech. Plus, xMEMS promises the “same superior sound quality and soundstage” as its previous solid-state micro speakers. 

Like Cowell, Lassen will be used in a dual-driver or hybrid setup in wireless earbuds. When paired with a dynamic driver, for example, the MEMS tweeter boosts the high-frequency details and clarity while the dynamic driver provides the necessary low-end thump. Based on our experience with current MEMS integrations, the ability for more companies to easily implement xMEMS’ tech is a welcome proposition. 

xMEMS says there’s also a space savings with Lassen, which is due to it rendering the amplifier chip unnecessary. The company argues that this should offer more room inside wireless earbuds for “advanced technologies.” 

xMEMS says samples of the Lassen tweeter are available for audio manufacturers now and it plans full production in September. This means we’ll likely see products with the new component early next year, which could make the annual earbud deluge at CES very interesting.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/a-new-mems-tweeter-for-wireless-earbuds-doesnt-require-an-amplifier-130007809.html?src=rss 

President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation imposing 25 percent tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States” on top of taxes that are already in place. The tariffs will apply to all imported sedans, SUVs, crossovers, minivans, cargo vans and light trucks. They will also apply to key automotive components not made in the US, including engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components, and they could expand to cover additional parts if necessary. The new tariffs will take effect on April 2, and the US government expects to start collecting on April 3.

According to CNBC, the president assured automakers that there will be “absolutely no tariff” for cars made in the US. The administration is also giving automotive companies importing goods under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement time to get their US-made parts certified so that the additional taxes will only apply to the value of their non-US-made components. Trump first announced that his administration was going to impose 25 percent tariffs on automobile imports back in February. He also said at the time that the government intends to collect an additional 25 percent in taxes, or higher, on semiconductor imports. 

Trump White House aide Will Scharf said that the new automobile tariffs will earn the US “over $100 billion of new annual revenue.” European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, criticized the US government’s decision. “As I have said before, tariffs are taxes — bad for businesses, worse for consumers equally in the US and the European Union,” she said in a statement. In the White House’s announcement, however, the administration insisted that tariffs are good for the country’s economy and will not lead to inflation or an increase in prices.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/trump-to-impose-25-percent-tariffs-on-all-cars-not-made-in-the-us-120026997.html?src=rss 

Free ChatGPT users will have to wait a while longer to be able to use its built-in image generation capability. OpenAI has just launched a feature that will allow users to generate images directly inside of ChatGPT, and it was supposed to roll out to all Plus, Pro, Team and Free users. But according to company CEO Sam Altman, it has been way more popular than OpenAI had expected even though they already had high expectations to begin with. As such, its rollout to the free tier is “unfortunately going to be delayed for a while.”

People have been posting ChatGPT’s output all over social media. One popular trend that emerged from the launch is turning existing photos into Studio Ghibli-style illustrations. Even Altman poked fun at it and used a Ghibli-fied photo of himself as his profile picture on X/Twitter. Users have been creating Ghibli versions of everything from personal images to photos of political figures and memes. As VentureBeat has noted, Ghibli creator Hayao Miyazaki likely wouldn’t approve of them, seeing as he reacted quite negatively to AI-powered animation years ago, but we doubt that would stop the trend until people get tired of it. 

Altman didn’t give a timeline for when the feature will make its way to free users. For now, those who want to use the chatbot’s built-in generator will have to log into ChatGPT with a Plus, Pro or Team account and then select GPT-4o as their AI model in the lower left-corner. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-delays-rollout-of-chatgpts-image-generator-to-free-users-123041109.html?src=rss 

Uber has new shuttle routes for NYC travelers. Less than six months after launching bus rides between LaGuardia Airport and Manhattan, the company is adding four routes between John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Manhattan.

Beginning on Thursday, you can book up to four seats for one of the new routes. You can reserve them as early as seven days in advance or as late as two minutes before you hop on. Each bus has a 14-passenger limit at launch. Much like your flight, you can bring one piece of luggage weighing up to 50 lbs and a personal item that fits in your lap or under your seat. When you get onboard, the driver will verify your identity with a QR code and PIN.

The four new routes include stops at either Port Authority Terminal and Grand Central Terminal or Chinatown and Atlantic Terminal. Each of those two Manhattan courses is split into two additional routes — one to JFK’s Terminal 4 and another to Terminal 5. They run every 30 minutes, from 5AM to 10:45PM, all week.

The JFK shuttles will typically cost “up to $25” for one way, but Uber is launching the new rides with introductory one-way pricing of $10 through April 30.

Uber says it’s booked hundreds of thousands of shuttle seats since it launched its LaGuardia routes last fall. Although it can be a handy way to get around (and cheaper than hailing a cab), there’s a free public transit shuttle running between the airport and the subway. As Redditor u/Kufat opined about Uber’s shuttles in October, “This is for tourists who think they’ll get stabbed the moment they enter the subway.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-adds-new-shuttle-rides-between-jfk-airport-and-manhattan-100039821.html?src=rss 

Utah Governor Spencer Cox has signed the App Store Accountability Act into law, making it the first state to require that app store makers verify their users’ ages. Under this law, people in Utah will need to be over age 18 to make a new account with an app store; underage users will either need to link their account to a parent’s so that the adult can give permission for the child to use certain apps.

The legislation is intended to protect children and teens, according to bill sponsor Todd Weiler, a Republican state senator. However, it has also raised questions about privacy and where the burden of responsibility falls to ensure that underage users don’t see inappropriate content. Meta, Snap and X have supported the measure. “We applaud Governor Cox and the State of Utah for being the first in the nation to empower parents and users with greater control over teen app downloads, and urge other states to consider this groundbreaking approach,” the three companies said in a joint statement Wednesday. “This approach spares users from repeatedly submitting personal information to countless individual apps and online services.”

Google, which runs the Play Store, had opposed the bill, and called on the governor to veto the measure. We’ve reached out to Apple and Google for comment now that the bill has been signed into law.

As it stands, the App Store Accountability Act is slated to take effect on May 7, but it seems likely that it will face legal challenges. Digital privacy groups have opposed the law and others like it, noting security concerns about how sensitive age verification data will be used or protected. Other state laws requiring online services to confirm users’ ages have also prompted lawsuits.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/utah-just-became-the-first-state-in-the-country-to-pass-an-age-verification-law-for-app-stores-225846117.html?src=rss