Kalakshar US

Today’s Nintendo Direct kicked off with a bang, with the reveal of a new, mainline Fire Emblem game. You won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on Fire Emblem Engage either. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch on January 20th. 

A thousand years after four kingdoms and heroes from further afield worked together to imprison a Fell Dragon, this so-called great evil is poised to re-emerge. Your task is to collect Emblem Rings that are scattered across the world in order to bring peace to the Continent of Elyos.

Along with the announcement, Nintendo offered a first look at gameplay. Fire Emblem Engage appears to have grid-based, real-time strategy elements, along with turn-based battles and open-world exploration. The game will feature a new cast of customizable characters, though you’ll be able to summon heroes such as Marth (who’s making his return to the Fire Emblem series) and Celica in your quest. 

You can pre-order Fire Emblem Engage now from the Nintendo eShop. A physical Divine Edition with a steelbook and art case will be available too.

Sonos has long offered a wireless subwoofer as part of its home theater, a large and powerful product that also costs a whopping $749. For anyone with a smaller room, or a smaller budget, it was a bit of a stretch. Sonos is giving bass-lovers a new option today: the rumored Sub Mini is real — and at $429, it costs a lot less than its bigger sibling. 

The Sub Mini is a cylindrical speaker with a “center tunnel” cutout to move air around. It’s a foot tall and about 9 inches in diameter; at 14 pounds, it’s not exactly light, but that’s more than 20 pounds lighter than the Sonos Sub. It’s compatible with any amplified Sonos speaker aside from portable products like the Move and Roam, which means you can pair it with audio speakers like the Sonos One or Five as well as home theater soundbar like the Beam and Ray. (Sonos recommends pairing its high-end Arc soundbar with the full-sized Sub, but there’s no technical reason you can’t use it alongside the Sub Mini.)

Along with that center tunnel, the Sub Mini includes two 6-inch, force-cancelling woofers and two class-D digital amplifiers, along with a 5GHz wireless connection and a 10/100 ethernet port if you prefer to hardwire your speakers. As with all Sonos products, you set up the Sub Mini through the Sonos mobile app — from there, you’ll tell it which room the sub is in and pair it to a soundbar or speaker set. 

As with other Sonos speakers, you can tune the Sub Mini once it’s set up to properly balance your system’s sound using Trueplay. You’ll need a compatible iOS device to use Trueplay, as it uses the device’s microphone to listen to the room and optimize audio quality based on the acoustics of your room. My experience with Trueplay has always been positive, so this is a step worth taking if you have an iPhone or iPad. 

The Sonos Sub comes in black or white and is up for preorder today and will be widely available on October 6th. As with any speaker, we’ll need to hear this one before we can recommend it, but it’s good that Sonos finally has a more affordable option for improving bass from its products. It should also be appreciated by anyone with a smaller room or setup — I’ve long wanted a little more bass from my pair of Sonos One speakers, for example, but the bigger Sub would be massive overkill. The Sub Mini, on the other hand, could be just right.

Last year Netflix grabbed the most Primetime Emmys with 10, but this year it was only third best behind Apple TV+ and HBO Max. The latter dominated last night’s proceedings with 12 awards, including five for The White Lotus, four for Succession (including Outstanding Drama Series) and one each for Euphoria, Hacks and Last Week Tonight. 

Apple TV+, meanwhile took all four of its awards with Ted Lasso, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actor, Comedy (Jason Sudeikis), Support Actor, Comedy (Brett Goldstein) and Directing, Comedy (MJ Delany). Last year Lasso took seven primetime prizes.

Netflix’s most productive show was Korea’s Squid Game, which took two Primetime Emmys while showing off the streamer’s power as a global platform. It also took one award for Ozark, with Julia Garner taking the supporting actress prize. Meanwhile, Hulu took two awards with wins by Michael Keaton for Dopesick and Amanda Seyfried for The Dropout, while Prime Video nabbed a single award for Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.

Nearly as notable were shows that were shut out. Those include AMC’s Better Call Saul and HBO hit Barry, which have both won Emmys in the past, Apple TV+’s Severance and Netflix’s Stranger Things, which had 17 nominations but only won three non-Primetime Emmys. As with last year, streaming platforms dominated the Emmys over linear TV, with the major networks taking just three Primetime Emmys combined.

The leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee are pushing Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal to address allegations made by the company’s former head of security in a lengthy whistleblower complaint. In a new letter to Agrawal reported by CNN, the leaders of the committee pressed the CEO to address claims that Twitter’s security practices could harm national security, as well as other issues raised in Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s complaint.

Up to now, Twitter has declined to address the majority of Zatko’s claims in any kind of detail, though the company’s lawyers attempted to portray him as a disgruntled former employee during a hearing in a Delaware court last week. The letter comes the day before Zatko is scheduled to appear at a Judiciary Committee hearing to publicly testify about his experience as Twitter’s head of security.

Agrawal was also “extended an invitation” to appear at the hearing, according to the letter, though he apparently declined the offer. A Twitter spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to national security concerns, Zatko also raised significant concerns regarding Twitter’s ability to counter misinformation and its handling of basic internal security. Zatko also alleges that Twitter misled the Federal Trade Commission and other regulatory agencies.

“These allegations raise serious concerns given Twitter’s significant role in the U.S. communications landscape and its global reach,” Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley write in the letter. It asks Agrawal to respond by September 26th.

The letter is sure to increase the pressure on Twitter, which is also in the midst of a messy legal battle with Elon Musk, who has been trying to get out of his $44 billion deal to buy the company. Last week, a judge said that Musk could add Zatko’s whistleblower complaint to his legal case.

Sony’s next State of Play preview event is going down on Tuesday, September 13th at 6pm ET, the company announced via Twitter Monday. “We’ll have some great updates from our amazing Japanese partners and developers all around the world,” Sony noted in a subsequent tweet. “Expect about ~20 minutes covering 10 upcoming games.”

Further details regarding which games will be showcased were not provided, however Sony has repeatedly focused on PS VR2 titles during the past two events, seemingly intent on teasing all of the nearly two dozen “major” titles — including from the Among Us and Horizon franchises — which are scheduled to launch alongside the next generation headset.  

The State of Play will live stream through PlayStation’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Gaming fans will be in for a treat tomorrow, as this afternoon event follows Nintendo’s next Direct stream, which is happening Tuesday morning, at 10am ET.

Twitter has begun rolling out its redesigned Spaces tab. Starting today, Twitter Blue members on iOS can check out the new interface element through the subscription’s early access Labs feature. The tab brings together live and recorded Spaces, and even offers a selection of popular podcasts you can listen to directly through the app.

Evidence that Twitter was working on adding podcasts came out in March when developer Jane Manchun Wong found references to the tab in Twitter’s code. A few months later, the company began testing the interface tweak with a small group of English-speaking users on Android and iOS. In its current iteration, the tab features separate categories for current and upcoming Spaces and a Stations section that groups podcasts and Spaces under similar themes.

If the interface Twitter has gone with doesn’t look ideal for finding a specific podcast or episode, that’s by design. The tab won’t replace dedicated apps like Pocket Casts. However, it may help you discover something new to listen to, and if in the process you check out a Space or two, then the tab has done its job.