Sand Land, a game adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s manga, drops on April 26

Bandai Namco’s Sand Land finally has a release date of April 26. This is a video game adaptation of a classic manga by artist Akira Toriyama. That’s the same Akira Toriyama who created Dragon Ball, and also created the character designs for Chrono Trigger and many entries in the Dragon Quest series.

Sand Land is a manga dating back to the mystical year of 2000 and it follows the adventures of the literal Devil’s son, Beelzebub, as he explores a desert world accompanied by a human sheriff and a demon thief. Interestingly, the game seems like a beat-for-beat recreation of the anime, only in the form of a fast-paced action RPG.

There’s also a heavy emphasis on vehicle customization in the game, as the desert is vast and requires diverse transportation methods. This allows you to fuse different weaponry and components to improve performance or offer unique tactical advantages. However, your first vehicle will be a bare-bones golf cart, another nod to the source material.

Sand Land releases for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with pre-orders available now. There’s a number of different versions available for collectors. The Standard Edition includes just the base game, while the Deluxe Edition comes with various digital add-ons, along with decals. The Collector’s Edition comes with everything listed above, plus postcards and Steelbook packaging.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sand-land-a-game-adaptation-of-akira-toriyamas-manga-drops-on-april-26-184008528.html?src=rss 

The FDA has reportedly approved an AI product that predicts cognitive decline

The US government has reportedly approved AI-based memory loss prediction software for the first time. Darmiyan, a San Francisco-based brain imaging analytics company, says the FDA has granted De Novo approval for its product BrainSee. The software platform assigns “an objective score that predicts the likelihood of progression from aMCI to Alzheimer’s dementia within 5 years,” according to the medical company. Fierce Biotech first reported the announcement.

Darmiyan says BrainSee can predict memory loss progression using clinical brain MRIs and cognitive tests, which are already standard for patients worried about early signs of decline. After the program analyzes the imaging and cognitive assessments, it assigns a predictive score indicating the patient’s odds of memory deterioration within the following five years. At least in theory, that would lead to early treatment for some and peace of mind for others.

“This shifts the patient experience from prolonged anxiety to proactive management, which is crucial in an era of emerging Alzheimer’s treatments where accurate prognosis can help determine suitable treatment candidates,” Darmiyan wrote in a press release announcing the FDA approval. “The economic impact of BrainSee will be significant for all stakeholders in healthcare, promising to reduce the billions of dollars annually spent on Alzheimer’s care, through more effective management and treatment.”

The FDA’s “De Novo” designation means the product has no clear market predecessors but has proven its effectiveness and safety in clinical trials. BrainSee first received FDA “breakthrough” designation in 2021, an earlier stage of the approval path for a first-of-its-kind treatment. 

Darmiyan says BrainSee is fully automated and provides results on the same day the scans and cognitive test scores are entered. The company views the tech as shifting the treatment of mild / early cognitive decline from biomarker-based methods to “non-invasive and actionable forecasts of future improvement or progression.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-fda-has-reportedly-approved-an-ai-product-that-predicts-cognitive-decline-184534034.html?src=rss 

The Aroma Shooter Wearable blasts scents while you watch videos

One of the missing pieces of puzzle for VR is scent, but at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Japanese startup Aromajoin showed off a wearable that may be up to the task. Simply dubbed Aroma Shooter Wearable, this neckband houses six replaceable scent cartridges, and it’s controlled by a mobile device or PC over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB. The product is still in its early days, and the Kyoto-based company is targeting developers and business clients, who can pick from a library of “hundreds” of scents — or even custom scents from, say, fragrance brands — to suit their needs.

In Aromajoin’s demo, a video player app was programmed to cycle through those six scents — lavender, blueberry, shampoo, caramel, smoke and fresh cut grass — to match the six scenes in the short clip. Even though I was watching what was otherwise a regular video on an iPad, the scent definitely boosted the immersion, and I can imagine this making an even bigger impact when paired with VR.

Photo by Richard Lai / Engadget

For the purpose of CES, Aromajoin only had one demo on hand, but the app did show how one could program any video clip to trigger certain cartridges — yes, you can have multiple scents at any instance — at certain times. You can also adjust the intensity of each scent, which came in handy as I found the grass smell to be a bit too strong at first. As for the neckband itself, it weighs around 300 grams, but I didn’t feel much burden thanks to its ergonomic shape around my collarbone area.

Aromajoin plans to launch its Aroma Shooter Wearable via crowdfunding this May, with shipment expected by the end of this year. Target price for the device is around $350, with each scent cartridge likely to cost around $30. Each cartridge should last for around 3,000 shots or up to three months, though this depends on the intensity and the nature of each mixture.

Photo by Richard Lai / Engadget

Aromajoin also applied the same video demo to a larger setup dubbed Aroma Speaker 60, which is aimed at retailers, cinemas and VR arcades. As the model name implies, this pair of tower can be equipped with up to 60 scents, with each of the 10 magazines housing six scents, thus supporting a wider range of scenes or use cases. The Aroma Speaker 60 will also be launched via crowdfunding, but expect it to cost a lot more than its neckband counterpart.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-aroma-shooter-wearable-blasts-scents-while-you-watch-videos-180006793.html?src=rss 

NASA confirms 2023 was the hottest year on record

Want some bad news as a lead up to the weekend? NASA just released its annual global temperature report and, lo and behold, 2023 was the hottest year on record since measurements began back in 1880. Global temperatures last year were approximately 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period of 1951 to 1980.

Compared to the 1880s, the planet was 2.5 degrees warmer in 2023. If you do the math, you’ll find that the vast majority of that increase occurred after NASA’s baseline period. In other words, the past several decades have been the worst of the worst. July of 2023 was the hottest month ever measured, which is a record nobody wanted or asked for but, well, here we are.

“NASA and NOAA’s global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing.”

NASA’s not burying its head in the sand and pretending this is a natural phenomenon. We did this, with Gavin Schmidt, director at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), saying the temperature shift was primarily caused by “our fossil fuel emissions.”

2023 was not an outlier. The past ten consecutive years have been the warmest on record. To that end, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reported that 2024 has a one-in-three chance of being even hotter. Yay.

It’s also worth noting that 2023 featured some cooling events that actually worked to lower temperatures a bit, including volcanic aerosols in the atmosphere due to the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano. However, these events couldn’t keep up with constant greenhouse gas emissions and the heating effects of this year’s El Niño weather event.

“We will continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas emissions keep going up,” Schmidt said. “And, unfortunately, we just set a new record for greenhouse gas emissions again this past year.”

The Biden-Harris administration has done a few things to try to slow down our transformation into a Mad Max dystopia. The White House recently launched the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center to make critical climate data readily available and last year’s Inflation Reduction Act set aside $369 billion for climate and clean energy programs. President Biden has also pledged to bring emission levels to at least 50 percent below what we experienced in 2005 by 2025. These are good incremental moves, of that there’s no doubt, but we seem to have sped past “f*ck around” and are careening wildly into “find out.” What was that curse again? Oh yeah. May you live in interesting times.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-confirms-2023-was-the-hottest-year-on-record-193626460.html?src=rss 

Khloe Kardashian Opens Up About Why She Doesn’t ‘Badmouth’ Ex Tristan Thompson in Front of Her Kids

The ‘Kardashians’ star explained in a new interview that it’s ‘way harder to be nice’ to her ex. 

The ‘Kardashians’ star explained in a new interview that it’s ‘way harder to be nice’ to her ex.  

The best laptops of CES 2024

CES 2024 in Las Vegas had all kinds of tech, from attention-grabbing AI gadgets to, uh, whatever this is. There were also a whole bunch of laptops. Like, an endless array of laptops. So many laptops, in fact, that we had a real tough time deciding between them to choose our best of CES award winners.

These weren’t just any laptops with minor spec bumps. The theme of the year was, of course, AI, with many computers adopting dedicated AI chips. OLED displays with speedy refresh rates were also all over the show floor and, of course, there were several unique designs that just about defy description. We’ve gone through them all and come up with a list of the best laptops at CES.

ASUS Zenbook Duo

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The dream of a dual-screen laptop isn’t dead! The ASUS Zenbook Duo is a technical marvel, with a dual-screen display and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. In other words, you can use it in a traditional clamshell mode, with a keyboard in front of one of the displays, or you can balance the screens on top of one another. This is great for those who want the convenience of a laptop, but with added screen real estate.

The aesthetics are on point and the Duo includes high-end hardware like Intel’s Core Ultra chips and gorgeous OLED screens. The price is also fairly reasonable, given the tech, as this laptop starts at $1,500.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

ASUS strikes again. The ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 line has gotten a full redesign, with an attractive aluminum chassis and plenty of power underneath the hood. These laptops can run just about any AAA game on the market, thanks to its AMD Ryzen 8000 series processors and the optional NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU at the high end.

We called it a “grown up” and “sophisticated” gaming laptop because, well, that’s what it is. It’s incredibly sleek and would feel at home in an office and in a basement-turned-gaming-paradise. It’s also lighter than previous generations, making it more portable. Each model ships with a simple LED slash across the front that can be programmed to glow in gray or white, instead of the typical Skittles rainbow of colors found with most gaming laptops. There’s no pricing on these yet.

HP Omen Transcend 14

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

There’s a new record-breaker in town. The HP Open Transcend 14 is the lightest 14-inch gaming laptop in the world, weighing just 3.5 pounds. Even cooler? HP seems to have hit this milestone without cutting too many corners. Despite being closer in size and weight to an ultraportable than an average gaming laptop, you still get support for the 14th-gen Intel Core Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 processor, up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 2TB of storage and an RTX 4070 GPU. This thing won’t struggle to play modern games.

Despite the teeny-tiny dimensions, you still get two USB-A and two USB-C ports (one of which supports Thunderbolt 4) plus a full-size HDMI 2.1 jack on the back. You’ll also have the option to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 card with Bluetooth 5.4. This laptop starts at $1,600 and goes on sale later this year.

Dell’s new XPS line

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Dell has upgraded its entire XPS line, with form factors that resemble last year’s XPS 13 Plus. The redesign covers the new XPS 13, 14 and 16, and there’s no longer a Plus line. Each of these laptops boasts a glass wrist wrest that hides an invisible haptic touchpad. There’s also touch-sensitive function buttons above the keyboard and large key caps for comfortable typing.

The XPS line includes Intel’s Core Ultra chips, which feature NPUs for AI tasks. The ports are on point, with the XPS 14 and 16 boasting a headphone jack, three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C slots and a microSD card reader. The minimalist design here is gorgeous and these laptops nearly made our best of CES list, but not quite. Once these are out in the wild, however, they could wind up on our list of the best laptops in 2024, just like the XPS 13 Plus.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

We promised unique and funky designs, and here’s one. The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is a Frankenstein’s monster of sorts, with a design that’s basically two gadgets smashed together. This is anything but your typical 2-in-1 device. At first glance, the ThinkBook Plus looks like an ordinary clamshell, but the display lifts right off and becomes a 14-inch tablet.

Not that big of a deal right? Here’s where things get interesting. Once removed, both components remain fully functional. So you can use the tablet as a standalone Android device, a wireless monitor for the laptop base or a Wacom-like inking display via Lenovo’s Freestyle app. Meanwhile, you can also use the deck as a mini desktop by plugging in an external screen. Now that’s some modular thinking. This thing starts at $2,000, however, which is fairly steep.

Everything else

There were many laptops that just missed this list, but still deserve mention.

MSI 18-inch laptops – The company went big this year, introducing a trio laptops with 18-inch displays. Now you won’t have to sacrifice screen real estate for portability.

Acer Predator Helios 18 – This is another large laptop with an 18-inch screen. However, the Predator Helios 18 also features a uniquely-designed hinge absolutely stuffed with RGB lights.

Acer Swift and Aspire – These are basic refreshes that don’t offer much by way of innovation, but will certainly sell like absolute hotcakes. They are stuffed with AI, however, with Intel’s new Core Ultra processors and dedicated keys that can summon Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant.

Razer Blade line – Razer offered a refresh of its entire Blade gaming laptop line. The biggest news here? The Razer Blade 16 features a glorious 240Hz OLED display.

Alienware m16 R2 – What would CES be without some Alienware goodness? The m16 R2 is a sleek gaming laptop with a large 90 Whr battery, slim bezels and a beefy touchpad – all in a package with a 15 percent smaller footprint than previous iterations.

Lenovo Legion updates – Lenovo announced a slew of new Legion gaming laptops at CES, each featuring proprietary cooling technology and performance-enhancing AI chips. These all ship with Windows 11 and come with three free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Sightful Spacetop – Well, here’s another funky one. The Spacetop doesn’t have an actual screen. It ships with AR glasses that allow for a 100-inch virtual display. The design is nifty, but the execution is iffy.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-laptops-of-ces-2024-174531438.html?src=rss 

I can’t stop touching the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

Call it love at first sight. Every year, I come across a handful of products that elicit instant joy, a sense of elation that’s so strong I forget about the many ways the tech industry is actively making our world worse. As we wrap up CES 2024 in Las Vegas, I can’t stop thinking about the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, the latest edition of one of our favorite gaming laptops. 

As we covered in our initial hands-on, the Zephyrus G14 features the spec bumps you’d expect: new Ryzen 8000 CPUs and the return of NVIDIA’s RTX 4070. But really, it’s the all aluminum case and minimalist aesthetic that I’ve fallen for. When I touched it for the first time, it felt like I was holding a piece of high-grade scientific equipment. The case feels almost too good for a gaming laptop.

Couple that with the cleanest layout ever on an ASUS machine, and you have an evolutionary design leap for the company. (It’s particularly shocking seeing it next to the new ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED, which looks practically ancient in comparison.) We’ve called Razer’s Blade laptops the gaming equivalent of Apple’s MacBook Pro for years — but now the torch may have been passed to ASUS. The Zephyrus G14 more closely resembles the boxier refreshed aesthetic from Apple’s Pro machines. (If you’re looking for an even bigger screen, there’s also a new G16 with the same design and it can hold more powerful hardware, like NVIDIA’s RTX 4090.)

The G14 is more than just a design showpiece, it’s also a far better gaming laptop than before. Its new keyboard, which sports 12 percent larger key caps, makes hours-long Halo Infinite matches feel far more comfortable since there’s more room for my fingers to spread out. Just about everything shines on its new 3K 120Hz OLED screen, which makes colors pop perfectly. And I was even able to hear a decent amount of positional audio from its revamped speakers (20 percent larger than before) when I was too lazy to grab a pair of headphones.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

While I can’t divulge any benchmarks from our RTX 4070-equipped preview unit, I can say that Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring and the new uber-stylish Metroidvania Cookie Cutter all played like a dream at the G14’s native resolution with maxed out graphics quality. Cookie Cutter, with its fluid and expressive art style, was practically made to be shown off on OLED screens. And in Cyberpunk, the G14’s HDR capability made the neon lights in Night City almost searingly bright.

The Zephyrus G14 also excelled at game streaming, something I like to test to stress a laptop’s networking capabilities. I was able to hop into Forza Horizon 5 in around 30 seconds while I was sitting 20 feet and a floor away from my router. And once I hit the road, I was able to zoom through a few races without any noticeable video artifacts, tearing or slowdown. Anyone walking by might think I was playing the game locally.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Beyond gaming, the G14 just kept surprising and delighting me. Its larger keyboard feels great for typing, with more depth and responsiveness than before. Its touchpad is one of the smoothest I’ve used on a Windows laptop. And I can’t help but love that it has all the ports I want: HDMI, mini-SD and both USB-C and Type A on both sides of the case. I was less enamored with ASUS’ new power connector — it’s a bit stiff, and a slight tug could easily send the G14 flying. It would have been nice to see a pure USB-C charging solution, but the company told our senior reporter Sam Rutherford that the cost and efficiency of using that port for high-powered charging still isn’t good enough for wide deployment.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with the ROG Zephyrus G14 during our review. But until then, we’ll always have CES 2024.

We’re reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-preview-180025962.html?src=rss 

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