During a new interview, Ariana addressed the allegations made in the ‘Quiet on Set’ docuseries and reflected on her experience with the ‘Victorious’ cast.
During a new interview, Ariana addressed the allegations made in the ‘Quiet on Set’ docuseries and reflected on her experience with the ‘Victorious’ cast.
Jabra is exiting the consumer earbuds business. The move is shocking, as Jabra’s parent company made the announcement at the same time it unveiled new models of its Elite earbuds. Peter Karlstromer, CEO of parent company GN, said the decision is “part of our commitment to focus on attractive markets where we can deliver profitable growth and strong returns.”
The company will discontinue the Jabra Elite (consumer earbuds) and Talk (mono Bluetooth) product lines. In late 2023, it pivoted the Elite line towards the premium segment in a move designed to compete with industry heavyweights Apple, Sony and Bose. However, the company lamented that its target markets “have changed over time.” Its current assessment is that “we cannot generate a fair return on investment compared to the many other opportunities we have within our Hearing, Enterprise, and Gaming businesses.”
Jabra will reduce the inventory of the to-be-discontinued products, and it expects to complete the wind-down by the end of the year. However, GN says it will service and support its devices “for several years.”
Although a bit farther under the radar than obvious competitors like AirPods, Jabra made some high-quality audio gear. Engadget’s audio expert Billy Steele called the 2021 Jabra Elite 3 “the new standard for affordable wireless earbuds,” as the company struck an alluring balance between quality and value.
Now, who’s pumped for the new Jabra Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active earbuds coming later this month?
Update, June 12 2024, 1:15PM ET: This story and headline have been updated to note that Jabra’s parent company made the announcement it was exiting the headphone business the same day it released new earbuds, not the day after.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jabra-says-its-exiting-the-consumer-headphones-business-a-day-after-launching-new-earbuds-164518215.html?src=rss
Tile owner Life360 says a hacker obtained personal information on customers of the Bluetooth tracker brand. The details include names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and Tile device ID numbers. Life 360 CEO Chris Hulls said in a statement that the stolen data does not include credit card numbers, passwords, other login credentials, location data of Tile devices or government-issued ID numbers.
“Similar to many other companies, Life360 recently became the victim of a criminal extortion attempt,” Hulls wrote. “We received emails from an unknown actor claiming to possess Tile customer information. We promptly initiated an investigation into the potential incident and detected unauthorized access to a Tile customer support platform (but not our Tile service platform).”
Hulls added that Life360 believes the stolen data was limited to customer names, their physical and email addresses and device IDs. “We have taken and will continue to take steps designed to further protect our systems from bad actors, and we have reported this event and the extortion attempt to law enforcement,” Hulls wrote. “We remain committed to keeping families safe online and in the real world.”
The attack appears to have gone beyond pinching user data, however. According to 404 Media, which first reported on the intrusion, the hacker was able to gain access to some of Tile’s internal tools, including one used to process any location data requests submitted by law enforcement.
The hacker says they used login credentials that apparently belonged to a former Tile employee to access the customer support systems (Tile said in a separate statement to 404 Media that it later deactivated these credentials). The information they obtained is also said to include order and return details along with the payment method used by the customers. They were also seemingly able to access tools that, for instance, allow Tile to transfer ownership of a Bluetooth tracker from one email address to another, create administrator accounts and send push notifications. The hacker told 404 Media that they didn’t use these functions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-hacker-obtained-tile-customers-personal-information-171632302.html?src=rss
The couple have reconciled and ‘resolved our differences’ less than a month after divorce papers were served.
The couple have reconciled and ‘resolved our differences’ less than a month after divorce papers were served.
Fans were treated to an unexpected mini-concert despite the lead singer’s recent vocal cord struggles.
Fans were treated to an unexpected mini-concert despite the lead singer’s recent vocal cord struggles.
Sony takes games seriously. That’s reflected in its tentpole releases, which are overwhelmingly gritty, adult affairs like Horizon, God of War and The Last of Us. It’s surprising, then, that its Summer Game Fest demo area replaced Sad Dads and apocalypses with cutesy Astro Bot figurines and Lego. Lots of Lego.
Lego Horizon Adventures might not have generated the Summer Game Fest headlines that the new Doom and Assassin’s Creed games did, but in many ways its legacy may be more interesting. Co-developed by Guerilla Games (known for the Horizon and Killzone series) and the AAA support team Studio Gobo, it aims to bring the world of the Horizon games to a new generation — and a new platform, the Nintendo Switch.
Horizon Adventures isn’t the first Sony game on Switch. MLB: The Show routinely comes to both Nintendo’s console and Xbox, but that’s a licensed sports game, and Horizon is a key PlayStation franchise. It has a VR spin-off, a live-action adaptation confirmed for Netflix and an MMO heavily rumored in its future. Bringing the latest iteration of the series day one to Switch, then, is unusual.
“We’re trying to bring in as broad an audience as possible,” Guerilla Games narrative director James Windeler told Engadget. “The collaboration with Switch, that’s an incredibly unique opportunity … it will really help bring in a family-friendly audience.”
It’s also just a plain bigger audience. Nintendo’s console has been around since 2017, and the market for Switch games is over 140 million. (For context, there are around 58 million PlayStation 5s in the wild.) Lego titles are also in a tiny minority of non-Nintendo games to top the Switch retail sales charts.
The game itself, from the 30-minute demo I played, seems delightful. The world of Horizon translates well to Lego, with the robodinos in particular being a highlight. There is already a Forbidden West Tallneck Lego set and it would be extremely surprising if we don’t see Thunderjaws and Scrappers showing up in Lego stores soon. Combat is surprisingly faithful to the original games, with Aloy sneaking around tall grass to get a good angle on an enemy and using her Focus to spot weak points. Also faithful to the original games is that stealth can very quickly fall by the wayside in favor of frenetic dodging. Less faithful: I got through one tricky fight by repeatedly summoning a hot dog vendor to throw exploding franks all over the place. It is a Lego game, I guess.
Tone-wise, Guerilla is shooting for the Lego Movie-like cross-generational irreverent humor, which isn’t really my jam but I appreciate it. Windeler said Guerilla is trying to hit key elements of the first game without directly remaking it: “It’s definitely not a one-to-one retelling, but neither is it a parody in the sense that you don’t need to be a Horizon aficionado to really kind of respond to the humor. It’s broader in that way.” The voice cast from the original games, including Ashly Burch as Aloy and JB Blanc as Rost, is back for Horizon Adventures and seemingly having a lot of fun. Burch’s delivery in particular is ultra wide-eyed and excited, more like her work as Tiny Tina in the Borderlands series or one of her many animated characters. It’s a fun spin on a traditionally stoic character.
Co-op is a big feature for Horizon Adventures. Local co-op is a drop-in, drop-out affair, which, as with most Lego games, enables an adult to easily help a kid get past a tricky area. But Lego games are also a lot of fun to play among consenting adults if you’re both into the particular franchise — I know plenty of grown-ups who live for Lego Star Wars. Away from the couch, there is online multiplayer, which is obviously more targeted at adults.
I am not a huge Horizon fan. Of all the open-world collect-a-thons, it’s one of my favorites, but it is very much not my genre. My partner is a fan, though, and we’re always on the lookout for middle-ground co-op games that can bridge the gap in our tastes. Maybe Horizon Adventures could be that, and I’ll become a real Horizon head because of it?
Finding new audiences is something Sony and Microsoft have been grappling with over the past couple of years. This Xbox-PlayStation generation has not seen as explosive growth as the last, and the kind of AAA experiences they typically shoot for are expensive to produce.
Microsoft seems to be committed to multiplatform releases for several established franchises it’s acquired, like Call of Duty, Diablo and Doom. It also ported four formerly exclusive titles — Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, Pentiment and Sea of Thieves — to rivals’ machines earlier this year.
Sony’s approach has, until recently, been to court PC players with ports of older titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War. This year it also released Helldivers 2 on PC day one, which went very well until it didn’t. Company president Hiroki Totoki told investors in February that he “would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance” (what a gamer!) by focusing more on multi-platform releases. The assumption at the time was that he was solely referring to PCs, but the Switch release of Horizon Adventures seemingly opens this effort up to more platforms.
It’s unlikely that Sony will bring its giant AAA games to a rival console at launch. But it could be that Sony begins to treat the Switch much like Nintendo used to treat mobile devices. The mid ’10s saw an influx of Nintendo games on iPhone and Android, including Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Mario Kart Tour. The strategy was pretty clear: Introduce Nintendo characters to a more casual audience, and convert a number of them over to the “full” experience. If Horizon Adventures goes well — and why would it not? — it’s easy to see Sony opening the floodgates and sending a bunch of its franchises to Nintendo’s mass-market console.
Lego Horizon Adventures launches ‘Holiday 2024’ on PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lego-horizon-adventures-might-be-sonys-most-important-game-of-the-year-160026354.html?src=rss
Summer nights are ideal for gathering around a fire pit — but smoke in your eyes is less than fun. Solo Stove makes stainless steel numbers that minimize the smoke thanks to a double wall design that recirculates the air and reburns the particulate, resulting in less of it getting in your face and in your hair. If you’ve got an outdoor space that could use a little night time fire ambiance, now is a good time to get a Solo Stove as the company is hosting a sale on bundles of its more popular models. That includes the Ranger Essential Bundle for $210 instead of $320 (a $110 discount).
The Ranger is billed as the portable model — big enough for people to gather around, but at 15-inches across, you can easily take it with you on camping trips and the like. The bundle includes the stove ($230 at full price on its own) plus a stand to give the stove a little lift, an ash plate for easier cleanup, a lid to keep the rain out and a carry case to help with portability.
The bundle comes as part of a larger Father’s Day sale, with discounts across the site, including a set based around the mid-sized, 19.5-inch Bonfire for $80 off at $340. The largest stove, the 30-inch diameter Canyon, is part of a bundle that’s seeing the smallest discount, with $20 off to make it $820. Whichever size you go for, we think you’ll enjoy the mostly smoke free experience — and recommend it in our guide to outdoor gear. One of our favorite pizza ovens from that same guide, the Solo Pi dual fuel is also on sale, for $70 off the starter bundle (it’s now $380).
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/solo-stove-fire-pit-bundles-are-up-to-110-off-right-now-161521027.html?src=rss
It looks like the sun hasn’t quite set on Finn, Jake, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum and the rest of the post-apocalyptic gang. The iconic cartoon Adventure Time is coming back in a big way, according to a report by Variety.
Cartoon Network Studios is working on three new entries in the franchise, one movie and two TV shows. There are no plot details regarding the movie, which makes sense given the end of the show and those follow-up specials, but there’s a bunch of talented people behind the scenes.
Rebecca Sugar is back, who made many of the best episodes of the original run before creating Steven Universe. The same goes for Adam Muto, the showrunner throughout the latter half of the series, and Over the Garden Wall co-creator Patrick McHale. We don’t have any release date or platform information for the movie, but it’ll likely stream on Max.
Adventure Time: Side Quests is a kids’ show that looks similar in theme to the early seasons of the OG series. It stars a younger Finn and Jake as they get their start in adventuring throughout the Land of Ooo. This won’t be a heavily serialized show. It’ll mostly be standalone episodes starring earlier versions of beloved characters, like The Ice King. Nate Cash, who was an animator on the original series, is attached to this one.
“ADVENTURE TIME: HEYO BMO” is in development at Cartoon Network Studios. The first-ever #AdventureTime preschool series follows little BMO as he approaches each challenge he faces with his unique brand of enthusiasm and a curiosity to learn and fill his database. #AnnecyFestival pic.twitter.com/ifsOsNFbaz
— Animation on Max (@AnimationOnMax) June 12, 2024
Finally, there’s Adventure Time: Heyo BMO. This show won’t just be for kids, it’s being made for preschoolers. As the name indicates, it stars everyone’s favorite sentient portable gaming console, BMO. An early promotional still indicates that the animation will be some sort of riff on claymation. Adam Muto will also be involved with this project.
It looks like there’s something here for everyone. The movie should please adults who grew up on the show. Side Quests is for kids, like the original Adventure Time was at first, and Heyo BMO is for preschool-aged children. Also, Max recently greenlit the alt-universe spinoff Fionna and Cake for a second season. The adventure truly will never end! For the record, I’m here for it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adventure-time-is-coming-back-with-a-movie-and-two-spinoff-series-163357706.html?src=rss
The actress shared a challenge she has faced in her relationship as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.
The actress shared a challenge she has faced in her relationship as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.
The Fenty Hair founder also revealed how she would react to a summer pregnancy.
The Fenty Hair founder also revealed how she would react to a summer pregnancy.
