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Troy Baker will don the cartoon fedora and play the lead role in Mouse: P.I. For Hire. The game has garnered buzz for its unique blending of genres. Imagine a film noir-infused cross between Cuphead and Doom.

Baker will play Private Investigator Jack Pepper, the game’s protagonist. He’s a war hero turned detective who begins his journey responding to a cliché damsel in distress. Pepper’s investigation then peels back the layers of the city’s dark underbelly. It sounds like developer Fumi Games ticked all the items off the noir checklist.

Oh, and don’t forget the minor detail that he’s a rodent. Expect plenty of cheesy (meaning puns about cheese) one-liners.

Being a first-person shooter, Mouse: P.I. For Hire has plenty of Rambo-style room-clearing. Pepper’s weapons range from conventional (shotgun) to comically ludicrous (turpentine cleanser). There’s even an ode to Popeye: Down a can of spinach to beat your foes to smithereens.

The game’s animation draws inspiration from the same 1930s cartoons as Cuphead. Like that game, Mouse: P.I. For Hire‘s monochromatic visuals are all hand-drawn. (But whether it’s as punishingly difficult as the 2017 classic remains to be seen.) Watching the delightfully wacky trailers, it’s easy to see why gamers are keeping an eye on this one.

It sounds like a wild ride. But that doesn’t necessarily point to a game in need of an industry titan like Baker. So, perhaps there’s more to the game’s narrative than you might expect. Or, maybe The Last of Us actor is merely checking “played rodent” off his bucket list. (Couldn’t blame him!)

Baker said he’s been following the game’s development from its first teaser. “Its art style, gameplay and 1930s film-noir aesthetic continue to win me over. I cannot wait to keep working with the team to bring Jack Pepper to life and hope to have some exciting things to share as we get closer to launch!”

You can check out the game’s new trailer here. Mouse: P.I. for Hire arrives later this year. It will be available on all major platforms, including Switch 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/troy-baker-is-the-big-cheese-in-mouse-pi-for-hire-220033867.html?src=rss 

President Donald Trump plans to extend the pause on enforcing the TikTok ban once again, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump previously extended the pause on April 4 to give TikTok, its potential US buyers and the Chinese government more time to reach an agreement, but the deal has made little progress since then.

The current pause on enforcement is supposed to end on June 19. Given the state of the negotiations between the US and China, the odds of a deal being reached before then seem highly unlikely. The issue hasn’t been helped by the fluctuating tariffs the Trump administration has attempted to levy on goods manufactured outside of the US, which started on April 2 and at one point included a 125 percent tariff on everything shipped from China.

The two countries are expected to restart trade negotiations at some point in the near-future, according to The New York Times, but there’s been no public mention of a TikTok sale being a key part of the discussion. A number of investors are still looking to own a piece of the US version of the app, including the software company Oracle, which has a pre-existing relationship with TikTok as a cloud provider.

The TikTok ban went into effect on January 19. TikTok tried to appeal the ban beforehand, but the Supreme Court ultimately decided to uphold it, prompting Trump’s first executive order pausing the ban on January 20, 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/trump-reportedly-plans-to-extend-the-pause-on-the-tiktok-ban-yet-again-200408397.html?src=rss 

The techs over at iFixit have completed their teardown of the Nintendo Switch 2, which launched this week. After completing a thorough analysis of the newest Nintendo console, it appears this generation of Switch is even harder to repair than its predecessor. iFixit has assigned the Switch 2 a repairability score of three out of 10. This represents an even lower score than the retroactive four out of 10 they awarded to the original model.

A substantial consideration in iFixit’s scoring system is the availability of repair parts from the manufacturer for the device in question. While there was some hope that Nintendo would have to comply with Right to Repair laws, sufficiently stringent versions of these regulations have yet to materialize, and OEM parts are almost impossible to come by.

Further complicating the repairability is that the charge ports, main storage and a game card reader that are all soldered to the board. The USB-C charge ports are a particular pain point here, as disconnecting and reconnecting the charging cable wears on the charge port over time. A bad yank on the charging cable or a fall while it’s connected could damage the charge port, which would require re-soldering a new one.

iFixit found that the battery was also frustratingly difficult to remove — another major detractor to repairability, as batteries by their nature degrade over time. Beyond being difficult to access without the proper tools, it’s held down with strong adhesive that requires a lot of effort (and isopropyl alcohol) to remove.

So if you happen to get your hands on a Switch 2, buy a case and baby that battery, because if it needs any repairs you’ll likely be shipping it to Nintendo and paying a pretty penny.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/you-probably-wont-be-fixing-your-own-nintendo-switch-2-180833765.html?src=rss 

The latest Apple iPad Mini is on sale via Amazon, bringing the 128GB model down to a record-low price. Each Wi-Fi-only model has been discounted by $100, so the 128GB version is $399, the 256GB tablet is $499 and the beefy 512GB model is $699. This deal applies to multiple colorways. 

This is one of the best Apple tablets, and the only choice for those looking for a compact iPad. It’s the company’s most powerful tablet in this size, as the A17 Pro chip is plenty capable. An M-series chip would have been nice, but it’s not in the cards just yet. Having said that, this is still a full-featured iPad that can hang with its larger cousins.

It offers support for the Apple Pencil Pro, which is handy, and the 12-megapixel camera on the rear takes decent shots, even in low light. The camera is also a decent choice for scanning documents and QR codes, as noted in our official review. The speakers sound much better than one would expect, though this has become the norm with recent Apple products.

The display looks nice, but it is just a standard LCD with a 60Hz refresh rate. Apple tends to reserve its best screen technology for the higher-end tablets. There’s no Face ID here, but that’s not a deal breaker for me, as I actually prefer Touch ID or just quickly typing in a four digit security code.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-latest-ipad-mini-drops-to-a-record-low-price-170558317.html?src=rss 

Apple‘s AirPods Pro 2 earbuds are on sale for $170 via Amazon. This is close to a record low price and represents a discount of 32 percent, as the typical cost is $249.

This model easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds, and this is particularly true for those tied to the Apple ecosystem. The earbuds seamlessly switch between Apple devices, which is handy. The transparency mode is fantastic and the ANC is solid.

They also sound great, thanks to a new amplifier, driver and transducer, in addition to updated algorithms. We found that they offered a “massively improved” experience over the first-gen version of these earbuds. Music even sounds better at lower levels here, which is something we noticed in our official review.

The battery life is just average, with six hours of listening per charge and 30 hours with the case. The major downside with these earbuds is the price. No matter how you slice it, $249 is a whole lot of money. Luckily, today’s sale alleviates some of that sticker shock.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-airpods-pro-2-are-back-on-sale-for-170-154646082.html?src=rss 

Tesla has been awfully cagey with its self-driving data this week. Reuters is now reporting that Tesla is trying to stop the city of Austin from handing over public records involving its robotaxi operations in the city, which are set to expand this month. This comes just a few days after the automaker asked a judge to prevent the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from releasing certain data related to crashes that involved its cars with self-driving features.

Reuters says that it requested two years’ worth of communications between Tesla and Austin officials in February, shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Austin would play home to the robotaxi experiment.

Dan Davis, an Austin public information officer, told Reuters in April that “third parties” were asking the city to withhold these records in the interest of protecting “privacy or property.” After the publication escalated the matter to the Texas Attorney General’s office, an attorney for Tesla wrote Ken Paxton opposing the release of what it called “confidential, proprietary, competitively sensitive commercial and/or trade secret information.”

Reuters also spoke with Neal Falgoust, an Austin Law Department official overseeing public records issues about the matter. Falgoust told reporters that the city of Austin doesn’t take any particular position on the confidentiality of the materials involved. When Reuters pressed further, asking if the people of Austin have a right to information about the driverless cars that would be traversing their streets, Falgoust did not respond.

Tesla said just last week that it had been testing driverless Model Ys in Austin for several days, which Elon Musk said was a month ahead of schedule. This would not be the first fleet of autonomous taxis on the streets of the Texas capital, with Waymo operating there since 2023 within a specific geofenced area. Waymo has also partnered with Uber in Austin since March.

By Texas law, the Attorney General’s office has 45 business days to decide whether the city of Austin is required to make these records public, which would be next week.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-is-reportedly-blocking-the-city-of-austin-from-releasing-robotaxi-records-155643815.html?src=rss 

The first thing you do after tearing open the Switch 2’s box is snap its Joy-Con 2 controllers to the sides of the console. But unlike the Switch 1, which used flimsy rails to connect its controllers, the Switch 2’s Joy-Con rely on magnets. That leads to a visceral “thunk” whenever you snap them on — it’s as if they leap out of your hands and right onto the Switch, ready for some Mario Kart World action. And every time it happens, I can’t help but smile.

Even before you turn on the Switch 2, it’s clear that Nintendo recognized one of the biggest issues of the original Switch: Those Joy-Con rails stunk. They didn’t hold the controllers in place well, and they wore down over time, which could lead to Joy-Cons slipping out mid-gameplay. In my case, one bad drop just two weeks into owning the original Switch made one of my Joy-Con gamepads loose for the system’s lifetime. The only fix was replacing the controller’s locking buckle, or buying a new an entirely new Joy-Con set for $80.

So, at the very least, it feels nice to have a new Switch console where the controllers feel sturdy. With the Joy-Con 2 attached, the Switch 2 feels almost as solid as the Switch Lite, which doesn’t have removable controllers. To put it another way, the Joy-Con 2’s “thunk” is like the satisfying sound of a luxury car door being slammed shut rather than the sound of a cheap economy car closing. The “thunk” means security. The “thunk” means quality.

We still don’t know if the Joy-Con 2 are completely free of the dreaded drifting problem that plagued the original controllers. One Reddit user claimed their launch system arrived with drifting controllers, and Redditor moshi_yo tore their controller apart and noticed that it uses the same joystick mechanism. But Nintendo producer Kouichi Kawamoto said in an interview that the company “redesigned everything from scratch.” They added, “Compared to the Joy-Con controllers for Switch, the control sticks are larger and more durable, with smoother movement.”

Less immediately noticeable than the Joy-Con 2 “thunk” is the Switch 2’s wider kickstand, which I quickly learned to appreciate. That’s something Nintendo brought over from the Switch OLED model, but it’s still useful this time around. As I was playing Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, the kickstand easily let me balance the system on my lap in tablet mode while using the Joy-Con 2 to mouse around on my leg. Is that an ideal setup? No. But it’s certainly functional in a pinch. 

While the Switch 2 overall feels like a major refinement of the original, with its larger screen, dramatically faster hardware and more usable eShop, new issues have cropped up for Nintendo. The console’s reliance on expensive microSD Express cards will make it tough for players to deal with increasingly large games, and similarly developers seem to be balking at actually putting games on physical carts. Instead, many titles are taking advantage of Nintendo’s Game-Key Cards, which unlock digital versions of titles and can be resold like a physical used game. Unlike full-fledged carts, though, those Game-Key Cards won’t work down the line when Nintendo eventually moves on from the Switch 2 and shuts down its eShop.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-switch-2s-best-feature-is-its-satisfying-joy-con-2-thunk-150031872.html?src=rss 

Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the much-awaited follow-up to 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, is now available for pre-order. You can get the digital version for the old Switch for $60 or for the new Switch 2 for $70 from Nintendo’s website. In case you have no plans to get the Switch 2 anytime soon and you do get the game for the first Switch console, you can purchase an upgrade pack for $10 to get access to better graphics and higher frame rate for Nintendo’s new system later on. Pre-ordering lets you pre-load the game so you can play it as soon as it becomes available on October 16. 

The action role-playing game is not just a follow-up to Arceus, but also a sequel to Pokémon X and Y. It’s set in Lumiose City, introduced in X and Y over a decade ago, and features three available starters: Chikorita and Totodile from Gold and Silver, as well as Tepig from Black and White. Its gameplay is a mix of the real-time capture mechanics on Arceus and the old-school turn-based gameplay of traditional Pokémon titles. The game is also bringing back X and Y’s Mega Evolution mechanic, which can temporarily transform a Pokémon into a much stronger monster, boosting its power and sometimes even changing its type. 

The physical version of Pokémon Legends: Z-A is now also available for pre-order from retailers like Walmart (Switch, Switch 2) and Best Buy (Switch, Switch 2.). It’s not clear if pre-ordering the game will get you any bonuses, but the Walmart listing URLs hint at an “exclusive gift with purchase.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/you-can-now-pre-order-pokemon-legends-z-a-for-the-switch-and-switch-2-140004626.html?src=rss 

Maybe you’ve just picked up a Nintendo Switch 2 and want to try GameChat features with your friends in Mario Kart World, but can’t quite swing $55 for the official camera right now after plopping down $500 for the console and game bundle. The solution might be in your pocket.

The Switch 2 supports third-party USB-C webcams. However, you might be able to use your phone instead. YouTube channel Will It Work? has demonstrated how to use an iPhone as a camera for the console.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as opening the iPhone’s Camera app, plugging a USB-C cable into both devices and setting up the phone (perhaps on a MagSafe charger) so it points at your mug. I tried that, and nope, no dice. Instead, if you plug the cable into a USB-C to HDMI adapter, and that into an HDMI capture cable and hook the daisy chain into your Switch 2, your new console should recognize your phone as a camera. This process may work for Android devices too.

Since doing this will pipe whatever’s on your phone’s screen into your Switch 2, you might want to use an app that hides all of the on-screen camera controls and only shows what the selfie lens or rear-facing array picks up. There are a few free options in the App Store that can do the trick. You can check that this all works by opening up the Settings on your Switch 2 and going to Controllers & Accessories > Test USB Camera.

Links in the YouTube video that demonstrates this workaround point to Amazon listings where you can pick up the two cables for $31, but you may be able to find cheaper versions. Of course, that’s moot if you already have both cables. A regular capture card and HDMI to USB-C cable might work too. Naturally, if you have a USB-C webcam handy, that’s an easier way to go about all this.

There is one downside to note before you use your iPhone as a Switch 2 camera, as Will It Work? points out. There may be some lag, which could affect lip sync. But if you can live with that, this might be an option for you.

There’s another accessory you might already have on hand that could save you from buying an official Nintendo or third-party one. The Switch 2 fits into the Steam Deck’s case. You might want to add some padding, as the Switch 2 is a smaller device than the Steam Deck and might shift around in the case otherwise, but it’s still perhaps worth considering.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/you-can-use-an-iphone-as-a-nintendo-switch-2-camera-142622005.html?src=rss