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Gaming keyboards are plentiful and diverse right now. You can buy them in black or white, wired or wireless, and with at least a dozen key switch options. And every year they’ve gotten bigger and more complex, with media buttons and macro keys and bright rainbow LED lighting. However, this past year has seen some manufacturers go in the opposite direction, introducing 60 percent keyboards that are cute and compact. But are they worth buying?

Engadget’s picks

The best for most gamers: Razer Huntsman Mini

Runner up: HyperX Alloy Origins 60

The best with arrow keys: Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini HyperSpeed

A cheaper but underwhelming option: Corsair K65 RGB Mini

How many keys does a 60 percent keyboard have?

First off, it’s worth noting that gaming keyboards tend to follow one of three different configurations. The most common one is the full-size deck, which will usually have somewhere between 100 and 110 keys, depending on whether the manufacturer includes media buttons or macro keys. There’s always a function row located along the top of the keyboard, and a number pad on the far right. Most gamers will prefer a full-size model rather than a compact keyboard because it lets them perform many different functions with just one press, and set up macros for activities that aren’t already built-in to the keyboard.

Tenkeyless decks have been pretty common for a while now; those are keyboards that omit the number pad on the right. That’s it. They still have function keys and media controls, but they’re narrower since they omit 17 keys. Yeah, it’s actually more than 10 keys but “seventeenkeyless” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Gamers might opt for one of these when they need a little more space on their desk, and they don’t need a quick way to enter numbers or do calculations (which is my number one use case for the right-hand pad).

Then there are 60 percent keyboards which, as the name indicates, cut out 40 percent of the standard keyboard size and only have 61 keys. Not only do they just remove the number pad, but the function keys are gone, along with the arrow keys and those weird system keys like “print screen” and “home” that are only useful when you happen to need them. On some computers they don’t even work.

On a 60 percent keyboard you’ll access these buttons by using the function key; there’s no standard layout between companies so you’ll have to learn new hotkeys if you switch between manufacturers like Razer, HyperX or Corsair. They also lack built-in wrist rests, though the height is at least adjustable.

Razer also just introduced a 65 percent keyboard, a less common configuration which keeps the arrow keys and some functions but still tosses the rest to maintain a reduced profile. This is probably a preferred option if you use the arrow keys a lot. I need them because I edit a lot of text, and some games may use them instead of the standard WASD array for controlling your character.

What are the benefits of a 60 percent keyboard?

With so many functions removed, why buy a 60 percent keyboard? The number one reason to use a compact keyboard is space of course. If you’re gaming in tight spaces or just have a lot of crap on your desk like I do, not having to shove stuff aside just to make some elbow room is nice. It’s especially helpful if you tend to eat near your computer, as a 60 percent keyboard’s small size makes it easy to push out of the way to rest a plate or bowl on your desk. It actually keeps the keyboard a lot cleaner, too, since I can easily shake crumbs out of it with one hand.

A smaller keyboard size also makes it more portable, obviously, with a 60 percent keyboard taking up less space than a laptop in your bag, though it’s still a little thick. They do have lower-profile keys than standard decks at least, though if thickness is your number one concern then carrying around a mechanical keyboard is probably not for you.

One big feature that doesn’t get talked about a lot is that all of the recent 60 (and 65) percent decks are not wireless keyboards and use detachable USB-C cords. So if you switch between workspaces often, you can easily leave a cord at each desk to quickly plug in your keyboard. As someone who tests a lot of keyboards I’ve found this handy because I can switch out the deck and leave the cord intact. It’s often a real pain to have to unplug cords and untangle them from my office setup every time I try a new keyboard, but for the 60 percent models I’ve been using the same wire for all of them.

The best for most gamers: Razer Huntsman Mini

The best of the major 60 percent keyboards out there right now is the Huntsman Mini. It uses Razer’s opto-mechanical switches, which I haven’t been too fond of in the past, but the company seems to have made some changes that make it a much more pleasant typing experience. This gaming keyboard is quiet and smooth with good response time, though people who prefer a springy key feel should look elsewhere. It’s not a wireless keyboard, so if you take it on the go you’ll need to make sure you always have a USB-C cord handy. The Huntsman Mini gaming keyboard also comes in white, which means it’ll blend into your decor more than most gaming accessories, especially if you choose to customize the LED lighting.

Pros: Attractive; good typing feel; comes in white.

Cons: No wireless; not everyone will be a fan of opto-mechanical keys.

Runner up: HyperX Alloy Origins 60

If you need a solid, sturdy brick of a 60 percent keyboard, the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 is a mechanical deck on a metal baseboard. It’s heavier than the other options on the market, so it might not be the best if you’re aiming to keep your travel bag as light as possible. But if you’re a particularly rough typist this is the one that will put up with hard keystrokes the best. It also earns points for being the one 60 percent keyboard that puts the secondary arrow functions at the bottom right of the deck where you’d normally look for those, instead of tucking them away in the middle.

Pros: Solidly built; cheaper than other 60 percent options; well-placed arrow keys.

Cons: Heavy; no wireless.

The best with arrow keys: Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini HyperSpeed

Razer’s BlackWidow line has long been a favorite of the gamers here at Engadget, and the V3 Mini is no exception. Unlike the other keyboards on this list it’s a 65 percent keyboard, which means it still has arrow keys and a column of miscellaneous keys on the right side that can double as macro buttons. There are two switch options available to suit different typing preferences, either clicky and tactile (green) or linear and silent (yellow). It’s worth noting that the latter description is the company’s term for it, and the V3 Mini’s typing is still noticeably audible to those around you.

Pros: Two types of key switches available; has both 2.4G and Bluetooth wireless; includes keys other keyboards don’t have.

Cons: Expensive; the lip at the bottom is bulky.

A cheaper but underwhelming option: Corsair K65 RGB Mini

Corsair usually makes pretty great keyboards, but I couldn’t necessarily say that of the K65 RGB Mini, its entry into the 60 percent market. The materials were substandard for the company, with a plastic casing that felt hollow and keys that made a ringing noise when hit. But it’s not a completely terrible accessory, and users already invested in Corsair’s iCUE software might want to keep their accessories streamlined under one customization suite instead of having to bounce between different interfaces. If that isn’t a concern for you, the HyperX Alloy Origin 60 is both better and cheaper.

Pros: Uses Corsair’s iCUE software; key feel is good.

Cons: Cheap materials; noisy typing experience; no wireless.

 

So much for a smooth rollout of Twitter’s “official” verification badges. Elon Musk claims he “just killed” the deployment hours after it began. The gray checkmarks have vanished from those accounts that only just got them, including Engadget’s and The New York Times. With that said, this isn’t necessarily a complete about-face. Twitter VP Esther Crawford clarified that you’ll still see the marks, but that the social media giant is handing them out to “government and commercial entities” at first. The focus just isn’t on individuals, the executive said.

In justifying the move, Musk reiterated his view that tying the original checkmark to a Twitter Blue subscription will democratize the service. The blue check is the “great leveler,” he said. Crawford, meanwhile, stressed that there were no more “sacred cows” and that Musk was willing to try things that might fail. The company is willing to reverse course if feature changes don’t pan out, to put it differently.

The statements add to the confusion beyond the “official” label launch. While they indicate that Twitter will concentrate on a narrower group of accounts, it’s now uncertain just when celebrities and other public figures might get (or rather, reclaim) verification. This also creates uncertainty around Twitter’s feature updates — Musk may axe or limit an update even while it’s reaching customers.

It will take some time before it’s clear just who gets what checkmarks, and what vetting will be necessary to get the “official” tag. For now, the only safe assumption is that Twitter will tie its original tick to an $8 per month Blue subscription.

 

Spotify is giving its Apple Watch users some love, adding UI and playback upgrades that more closely align with the familiar experience from larger screens. In an update that starts rolling out today, watchOS users will see a beefed-up Your Library view with more in-depth music controls and the ability to download playlists without going back to your iPhone.

Before today’s update, Spotify’s Apple Watch features were rudimentary. For starters, the app displayed the Your Library view as a text-only list of titles. The new update provides a more attractive UI, including artwork thumbnails. In the watchOS app’s old version, once you tapped on an album or playlist, it would immediately launch playback without letting you choose any options beforehand. The new update adds a screen with two prominent buttons for downloading and shuffling your music.

Spotify initially added offline playback in an update from May of last year, but that version still required you to use your iPhone to choose offline music, and you could only download individual songs to your wearable. Downloading entire playlists and albums without pulling out a phone will be a welcome addition for Apple Watch owners. The new update also lets you swipe to like a song from the list view, a gesture already familiar to users of the Spotify iOS app.

Today’s update also improves Apple Watch podcast playback, letting you view your listening progress and pick up right where you left off. The previous version would always restart podcasts from the beginning.

In addition to the Apple Watch app upgrades, Spotify also highlighted new tap-to-listen controls for Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories and music curation for the overhead boarding music on Delta airlines. The company also announced support for the “Ambient Experience” that displays playlist or podcast artwork on Fire TV Omni QLED Series TVs when you aren’t watching anything. Owners of the $800 and up television can scroll through their music using either the TV’s remote control or Spotify Connect devices.

 

IBM’s latest quantum computing processor marks a notable step forward for its ambitions in the field. At the IBM Quantum Summit 2022, the company announced Osprey, which has the largest qubit count of any of its processors at 433 quantum bits. That’s more than triple the number of cubits that the Eagle chip, which IBM revealed last November, has. IBM said it built on top of the 127-cubit Eagle’s architecture by keeping qubits on a single plane with the help of multi-level wiring.

“Unlike classical bits which have to be in a state of either one or zero, qubits can exist in a complex mix of both, tapping into the fundamental quantum nature of matter at subatomic levels,” IBM said in a press release. “As a result, quantum computers offer the possibility of vastly increased computing power that can be used to tackle calculations of much greater complexity in fields such as artificial intelligence, and the design of new materials for drug discovery and energy research.”

The company is scaling up its quantum computing efforts with the aim of building a system with 4000-plus qubits by 2025. It’s currently on target with its roadmap. Next up is a 1,121-cubit chip called Condor that IBM hopes to debut next year.

IBM debuted an elegantly designed functional quantum computer at CES 2019. Last year, it offered a sneak preview of the design for the next-gen IBM Quantum System Two (the machine that will use its quantum processors). Now, the company has revealed more details. It designed the system to be flexible and modular with the ability to house multiple architectures and processors, and claims it will include Osprey starting next year. The company claimed the System Two design “allows for an exponential step up in quantum computing scale and enabling the vision of quantum-centric supercomputing.”

Having immense computational power at one’s fingertips doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the right software to get the most out of it. Early last year, IBM said that its Qiskit program execution environment was able to blend quantum and conventional computers to carry out complex computations in hours, when they previously would have taken months. The company said it will offer new features to mitigate and suppress errors, and provide “a fast, efficient and easy-to-use programming model for quantum computers.” What’s more, these features blend into IBM’s goal of integrating quantum computers with classical computers, including supercomputers.

 

Last year’s holiday season was plagued by supply chain issues, while this coming season is looking a little brighter. We’re getting out, seeing friends and family and enjoying all the new hobbies we’ve picked up over the past two years – and that includes your kids, who’ve probably gained a few new interests. If those interests tend toward science and tech (and we don’t just mean video games), we’ve got some great ideas for you, sure to put a smile on the faces of kids of all ages, from the littles to those who are grown in body but still young at heart.

Laugh & Learn Game Controller

New gamer parents probably can’t wait to get a controller in their kid’s hands, though maybe not a $70 DualShock 5 when the child is more likely to stick it in their mouth. Train the little one with this friendly Fisher Price model instead. It won’t control a video game, but it still has everything a baby wants, with bright colors and lights, buttons to push and fun sounds. There’s even a little Easter egg for grownups who plug in the Konami code.

Buy Laugh & Learn game controller at Amazon – $11

LeapFrog Chat & Count Emoji Phone

Kids love phones, but parents don’t need to hand them the latest iPhone or Pixel to keep them satisfied. This model from LeapFrog has a small selection of minigames to teach basic counting skills and can be played by children as young as 18 months. It’s a great way to keep babies occupied on long car rides or even a short diaper change, and looks enough like a real phone to keep them from grabbing at your expensive device.

Buy Chat & Count Emoji Phone at Amazon – $16

Air Hogs Gravitor

Drones are still a pretty hot toy, but you’re probably feeling less hot about all the drama that comes with giving one to a kid, like hitting their siblings with it, or losing it in a neighbor’s yard. The Air Hogs Gravitor is a different kind of drone, one they can control with a wave of their hand. It’ll keep your kid busy learning tricks with it, and its soft edges mean less potential injuries from rough play.

Buy Air Hogs Gravitor at Amazon – $24

Hello Kitty Purse Pet

Teens can be real weirdos sometimes, and things that might creep you out will absolutely fascinate them. That includes Spin Master’s interactive Purse Pets, which are basically little handbags that blink and make noise. At least these new models have some familiar faces on them, namely Japan’s kawaii superstar Hello Kitty and her friend Chococat. Gift one to the anime-loving kid in your life and make yourself just a little bit cooler in their eyes.

Buy Hello Kitty Purse Pet at Amazon – $35

Star Wars Lola Interactive Electronic Figure

Ewan McGregor was fantastic in this year’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+, but for droid fans the real star of the show was Little Leia’s friend Lola. This diminutive personal sidekick was absolutely charming, making everyone – including adults – want one of their own. Hasbro’s $39 interactive figure isn’t quite as skilled as the one in the show, but it’s still cute as a button and adorable to boot. (If you’re looking for something more fully featured, Hasbro also sells a $90 version.)

Buy Lola Droid Toy at Amazon – $39

VTech Level Up Gaming Chair

Kids love to imitate adults, and now you get to find out if that includes your gaming habits as well by giving them their own chair! It’s sculpted to look like a custom gaming throne, but with a sturdy base instead of wheels so they don’t tip over while they’re pretending to blast n00bs. There’s a mini keyboard and headset so they can look like a real Twitch streamer, and the little tray means they can also scarf down snacks while enjoying some real play videos or the latest episode of Bluey.

Buy gaming chair at Amazon – $45

Barbie Eco-Leadership Team

Barbie’s had a ton of jobs over the years, but perhaps none as important as saving the Earth. But instead of just doing it by herself she’s going to need a whole team, and this package includes the whole environmental crew: a conservation scientist, a renewable energy engineer, a chief sustainability officer and an environmental advocate. Your child can act out the pressing issue of our time with this set and maybe even teach you a thing or two about caring for our planet.

Buy Barbie Eco-Leadership Team at Amazon – $55

Yoto Mini

When we were kids we had toys like the Fisher Price record player; children today are going to need something a little more high tech. A Yoto player is a speaker that can play kid-appropriate audiobooks, songs and other great content, like a free podcast full of fun trivia and games that airs a new episode every day. The Yoto Mini is a smaller version that you can take on planes, trains and cars to keep the kids entertained without resorting to a screen.

Buy Yoto Mini at Amazon – $70

BRIO Smart Tech Sound Record & Play Engine

This isn’t the BRIO you remember from your own youth; it’s actually an upgrade. The Record & Play Engine is a battery-operated train that can run on the wooden tracks you may already have, but adds a fun twist by playing sounds your child can record themselves. There’s also a free app with even more play options, and the engine is compatible with other BRIO Smart Tech so you can expand your child’s railway collection.

Buy BRIO Record & Play Engine at Amazon – $65

LEGO NASA Apollo Saturn V

Maybe you loved model rockets as a kid, but you’re not entirely on board with getting your own children into them because of the mess. That’s what makes this LEGO kit so brilliant: it looks realistic but requires absolutely no glue to assemble. Just snap it together like any other LEGO kit. This is a fun activity for parent and child to do as a team, or maybe just a way for grownup fans to keep busy during the chilly winter months.

Buy LEGO NASA Apollo Saturn V at Amazon – $120

Tonies Playtime Puppy Starter Set

The Yoto Player is fantastic, but smaller children might find the content cards hard to insert into the top slot. Instead, get them a Toniebox. Tonies are small RFID-enabled figurines that are easy for little hands to place on top of the speaker, and the controls are simple enough for toddlers to master. The cushioned exterior also means it takes being dropped or thrown like a champ.

Buy Tonies starter set at Amazon – $130

LEGO Motorized Lighthouse

This LEGO set is truly the kind of thing that sparks the imagination, with a small cottage for the lighthouse keeper to enjoy a warm cup of tea, a winding staircase up to the light room, and even a hidden cache of treasure in its base. But for science nerds the best part has to be the working fresnel lens at the very top of the lighthouse, just like the real thing but smaller — it can rotate thanks to the motor (which you’ll also put together). It’s a great centerpiece for your home, even if you don’t have any ships to guide across the sea of your living room.

Buy Motorized Lighthouse at LEGO – $300

 

Volvo took another step towards its 2030 goal of full electrification on Wednesday with the official unveiling of its new flagship, the all-electric EX90. The three-row, seven-seat SUV, which grew out of the Concept Recharge design, will go on sale alongside its gas-powered sibling, the XC90, in model year 2024.

The EX90 will initially come equipped with a 111 kWh battery pack powering a pair of permanent magnet electric motors for 380 kW (517 hp) and 910 Nm of AWD torque. Per the company, the pack can refill from 10 to 80 percent in under 30 minutes at 250 kWh and travel a full 600km (373 miles).

The EX90 will be the first Volvo to offer bi-directional charging capabilities, which enable drivers to use their vehicles as home-scale batteries in the event of power outages — similar to what Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and the Ford F-150 Lightning offer. Volvo plans on selling home charging equipment as well including a wall box and energy management system. What’s more the EX90 — like the rest of its EV brethren — will enjoy over-the-air software updates, though Volvo has begun expanding that service out to hybrid and ICE models as well. 

The EX90’s exterior is optimized for aerodynamics, boasting a drag coefficient of .29, just a touch behind the VW ID.4 and very respectable for a full-size SUV, electric or not. “We’ve taken inspiration from yacht design to outline the Volvo EX90’s beautiful and sleek proportions,” Volvo’s head of design, T. Jon Mayer, said in a press release. “If you look at the front, it’s proud and confident – inspired by a sailboat’s ability to shear through the ocean’s slamming waves. But it’s also rounder overall, which enables the air to flow around the car more efficiently.”

Pedestrians will sail around the car more efficiently as well, thanks to the “shield of safety” that Volvo is working on. Using a mix of LiDAR, optical, ultrasonic and radar sensors, the EX90 will offer a 360 degree view around itself to proactively react to other vehicles and pedestrians even if the driver doesn’t immediately notice the issue. The EX90’s LiDAR sensors can reportedly spot pedestrians up to 250 meters away. The company believes that the system could reduce the rate of all accidents by 9 percent and cut accidents resulting in serious injury or death by as much as 20 percent. 

“No matter how much experience you have or how much competence you have, at the end of the day, we are all still human,” Volvo President Jim Rowan quips in the walkthrough above. “We want to help people become better drivers by being there when they’re not at their very best.” The company plans to further incorporate the LiDAR sensors into its future unsupervised autonomous driving system.

But like the oozing garbage bags one finds on the side of the highway, it’s what’s inside that counts. The EX90’s cabin provides a well-lit Scandinavian minimalist design clad in sustainable and recycled materials, such as “Nordico,” a fabric made from recycled PET bottles “as well as bio-attributed material from responsibly-managed forests in Sweden and Finland. All of the interior wood panels are FSC-certified sustainable and if you opt for the wool seat fabric, that yarn will come from vetted suppliers “according to strict sustainability standards on animal welfare, environmental and social issues.” In all, more than 50 kilograms of recycled plastic are used in each EX90 interior.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into the illumination inside the EX90, trying to create a warm interior and a somewhat colder expression for the exterior,” Mayer noted. “It’s also connected to how people in Scandinavia might be perceived. There’s a calm and understated confidence that can read as cold at first – but once you get to know people, you find that they’re really warm.”

The EX90’s in-cabin LiDAR is a world-first, designed to detect the presence of occupants and alert the driver if anyone is left behind in an effort to prevent hot car deaths — Volvo notes that more than 900 kids have died in these circumstances in the US since 1998. Where allowed by regulation, the system will prevent the keyfob from locking the doors should a child or pet be detected inside and display a warning icon on the central 14.5-inch Google Auto-capable infotainment screen. 

The system also keeps an eye on occupants while the vehicle is in motion. The interior system can determine your attentiveness based on your eye gaze. “The technology allows the EX90 to understand when you’re distracted, drowsy or otherwise inattentive, beyond what has been possible in a Volvo car to date,” the company noted in a Wednesday press release. Should the system catch the driver lacking, it will issue increasingly urgent alerts until it becomes clear that they are incapacitated, at which time the EX90 will automatically pull itself over and call for help.  

“No one chooses to be distracted or tired, but we know it can happen,” Lotta Jakobsson, Volvo senior technical specialist in injury prevention. “We’re all human and distraction is a fact of life. With the help of cutting-edge technology, we’ll support you when you’re not at your best and help you avoid leaving family members or pets behind by accident.”

 

If you want to get a jump start on those inevitable New Year’s resolutions, consider picking up the Fitbit Charge 5 while it’s $50 off at Wellbots. Enter the code ENG50 and you’ll see the discount when you check out. The Charge 5 made the cut as our favorite overall fitness tracker in our 2022 guide, because it just plain does what a wearable like this is supposed to do, aka reliably delivering sleep and activity stats. As Fitbit’s flagship tracker, we don’t see deals on the Charge 5 often. A $50 discount makes it one of the best prices we’ve seen so far.    

Buy Fitbit Charge 5 at Wellbots – $100

Since the Charge 5 isn’t a smartwatch, the battery lasts longer. While Fitbit promises up to seven days on a charge, we got through about five days when the screen wasn’t set to “always on” and two and half days when it was. It’s also less bulky than a smartwatch, which is nice for workouts, and the new touchscreen is bright and clear. The Charge 5 also has GPS to record your runs and hikes and Fitbit Pay so you can leave your wallet at home. In the end, we called it one of your best options for a GPS-enabled tracker. One of our few hesitations was the price, but with that $50 discount in play, that’s less of an issue. 

If you are looking for a smartwatch and all the bonus features that brings, there’s also a discount code for Fitbit’s Versa 4 smartwatch at Wellbots. Enter the code ENG80 at checkout and you’ll get $80 off, bringing the price down to $150, which is an exceptionally low price for a smartwatch, especially one with GPS. It’s also one of the few smartwatches (apart from Amazfit devices) that come with Alexa built-in. 

Buy Fitbit Versa 4 at Wellbots – $150

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

 

Serif is determined to make its Affinity suite a more practical alternative for creatives who’d rather not pay for an Adobe subscription — or use a conventional PC, for that matter. The developer has released Affinity Version 2 apps that not only include major new features (more on those shortly), but the first edition of Publisher for the iPad. You now have all of the Affinity bundle on your tablet, and won’t have to split your attention between your computer and iPad when it’s time to design a page layout.

Regardless of platform, you should see some meaningful upgrades. Affinity Photo 2 now includes non-destructive RAW development, saved layer states, compound masks (that is, joining multiple masks together), live warping and live masks for elements like hue and luminosity ranges. Affinity Designer 2, meanwhile, adds non-destructive vector warping, a “knife” cutting tool, a shape builder and even tools for measuring lengths and areas. Affinity Publisher 2 now helps you add academia-friendly footnotes, endnotes and sidenotes. You can also create automatically repeating layouts and use a style picker. There’s even a way to stitch multiple documents into a single book, although that’s only available in desktop versions for now.

Some improvements are iPad-specific. A new radial menu provides access to common keyboard modifiers like Command and Option, while a quick menu offers clipboard options and nine customizable shortcuts. And if you’re feeling the limits of your tablet screen, a compact mode keeps the brush and layer panels open while making more room for the image you’re editing.

The one-time price may be more of a draw than before. You’d normally pay $170 for the entire Affinity suite across all platforms, but a launch sale drops that price to $100. That makes it relatively affordable compared to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which will keep you paying indefinitely. You can buy the individual Affinity Version 2 apps for $70 on the desktop ($41 on sale) and $20 (currently $12) on the iPad.

This outlay might not thrill you if you recently bought Affinity V1. You may likewise need to consider rivals like Adobe if you need further apps for animation, web design and other aspects of the creative pipeline. If these tools fit your workflow, though, the price is low enough that they should be reasonably easy to justify.

 

In a few short hours, Nintendo will stream its latest Indie World Showcase. Announced on November 7th, the company promised approximately 25 minutes worth of information about upcoming indie games that are coming to the Nintendo Switch. You can watch the entire event unfold on the gaming giant’s website, as well as its YouTube and Twitch channels. If you miss the livestream, don’t worry: we’ll have you covered with coverage of the major announcements from the event.

What will Nintendo announce Iduring Indie World? One can always hope for a more definitive release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Based on Microsoft’s recent announcement that the game would be available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on its release date, some have speculated that Silksong would arrive before June 2023. That said, Nintendo is more likely to share updates about games like Oxenfree II Lost Signals and Metal Slug Tactics. The latter was delayed this past summer until 2023.   

 

NASA has once again delayed the launch of Artemis 1 in the face of a potentially dangerous weather system. The agency had penciled in the launch for the early morning of November 14th, but it’s now retargeting liftoff for November 16th. The current two-hour launch window opens at 1:04AM ET. There’s a backup launch opportunity scheduled for November 19th.

The latest delay is due to the threat posed by Tropical Storm Nicole. The new launch window is dependent on conditions being safe enough for NASA employees to return to work, as well as inspections after the weather system has passed. The agency says that pushing back the launch date “will allow the workforce to tend to the needs of their families and homes, and provide sufficient logistical time to get back into launch status following the storm.”

Teams are securing equipment, property and facilities at the space center, which is in HURCON (Hurricane Condition) III status. Some personnel in a “ride-out” team will remain in place to monitor conditions across the site, including the SLS and Orion.

The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will stay on the launch pad this time. Before Hurricane Ian bore down on the Kennedy Space Center, NASA rolled back the rocket and spacecraft to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building. It rolled Artemis out to the launch pad again last week. The SLS can withstand winds of up to 85MPH (74.4 knots) and Nicole isn’t expected to bring winds exceeding that speed. The rocket is also able to deal with heavy rain and NASA has secured the hatches to prevent water from getting inside.

Artemis 1 is a test mission that’s scheduled to fly around the Moon. It’s a precursor to humans returning to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century. However, NASA’s attempts to launch the SLS and Orion over the last few months have been beset by technical issues and inclement weather.