Meta didn’t wait for Tuesday’s LlamaCon keynote to unveil its first big AI announcement of the week. The company launched a standalone app that competes with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other multimodal AI chatbots. Sticking to the company’s roots, the app also includes a social feed and the ability to draw on info from your profile and posts you’ve shared.
The Meta AI app offers similar features to rival chatbots, including text and voice chats, live web access and the ability to generate and edit images. But it also includes a Discover feed that (for better or worse) adds a social element to your AI queries. The company describes it as “a place to share and explore how others are using AI.” It highlights the prompts that others share and lets you “remix them to make them your own.”
Meta stresses that none of your private chats will post to others’ feeds unless you explicitly choose to share them.
Meta
For users in the US and Canada, Meta AI can personalize its answers based on data you’ve shared with Meta products. This includes info like your social profile and content you like or engage with. The company says linking your Facebook and Instagram accounts to the same Meta AI account will provide “an even stronger personalized experience.” If you don’t want that, this might be a good time to check your privacy settings.
The app has a live conversation mode for users in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Much like a similar feature in ChatGPT and Gemini, Meta’s version lets you and the AI assistant listen and speak simultaneously, with a natural flow that should feel more like a real conversation. However, Meta only describes it as a demo that provides “a glimpse into the future,” suggesting it’s still in an early stage. This mode also doesn’t offer live web access.
Meta
The Meta AI web version includes the app’s new features, including voice interactions and the Discover feed. This version has a few differences, including enhanced image generation (more presets and new editing modes for style, mood, lighting and colors). The web version also lets you test a rich document editor (in some countries) that can spit out text- and image-rich docs to export as PDFs.
The app has merged with the Meta View companion app for the company’s Ray-Ban glasses collab. The company says it will include a handoff feature that lets you start a conversation on the glasses and then access it in your history tab on the app or web. After installing the update, you can manage your glasses in the Meta AI app’s Devices tab.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/metas-chatgpt-competitor-includes-conversational-voice-chat-and-a-social-feed-164735307.html?src=rss
Sometimes, in fiction, you don’t need to say a Very Important Thing in a Very Important Way to make a good point, just ask how a thing would work if it played out in the world. This week’s episode of Doctor Who, “The Well,” does exactly that, and brilliantly.
Picking up straight after “Lux,” the Doctor and Belinda, still in their ‘50s outfits, are trying to get the TARDIS to work. Belinda helps with the controls, but the vessel still refuses to land on May 24, 2025, which panics the nurse even more. If the TARDIS isn’t broken, she assumes that the date or the Earth itself could be broken, and frets about her parents. The Doctor shares her concerns, but promises that she will be reunited with her family.
The Doctor persists with his plan to land in a few more spots with the Vindicator (the gadget he built last week) to orient the TARDIS. This time, it’s 500,000 years in the future, and Belinda asks if humanity even exists by now. He assures her it does, as humans spread to the stars and wormed themselves into every corner of the universe. The pair head to the TARDIS wardrobe to get into some appropriate clothes before heading out.
They step out onto the gantry of a spaceship where an advance party of marines are leaping into the void. With no choice but to join them, they land on the planet below, enabling the Doctor to take the Vindicator reading. But, alas, the planet’s heavy radiation means the ship (and by extension, the TARDIS) has to glide down slowly over the next five hours. So they tag along with the mission, the Psychic Paper enabling the Doctor and Belinda to insinuate themselves with the team.
The planet is inhospitable, occupied only by a small mining colony that has dug down into the world to extract its last remaining useful resources. The colony went silent a few days before and, before you can say “Oh, is this going to be an(other) Aliens riff?” one of the marines suggests it would have been wiser to “nuke the site from orbit.”
All of the colonists are dead, half from gunfire, half from injuries that look like they fell and broke every bone in their body. The mirrors are all smashed and the systems are offline, the records of what went on inaccessible. But there is one survivor, the colony’s chef, Aliss Bethick (Rose Ayling-Ellis) who, like the actress who portrays her, is deaf. Aliss has been waiting in the middle of a large cargo turntable (which reads on camera as a big circle) for days.
Aliss is isolated, both physically in the staging and because of her hearing loss, and while she can lipread, it’s still a barrier between her and the soldiers. The Doctor can communicate with Aliss in sign, and the soldiers all have their own captioning screens on their lapels. Much of the second act is taken up with the interrogation of Aliss as the marines work through the logistics of how to communicate with her. For instance, getting her attention by casting to another soldier’s screen in her eye-line to get her to turn around. Belinda enters the circle to treat Aliss’ injuries but keeps seeing something lurking behind her new patient.
It isn’t long before the Doctor learns that the desolate planet they stand on was once covered in diamonds. This is the planet Midnight from the series four episode of the same name when the Doctor, trapped in a shuttle, tries and ultimately fails to defeat a sinister entity that possessed one of the passengers. Like then, the Doctor’s pleas for calm fail. Two of the soldiers mutiny and attempt to lure the entity out and kill it. They do not survive.
It’s Belinda who works out and explains the rules: If you imagine the host — Aliss — at the center of a clock, then whoever stands directly behind her is attacked by the unseen monster. If you stand at six o’clock then you’re fine, but “you’ll die at midnight.” Quite literally, as whoever is in the entity’s way gets thrown around like a ragdoll — half the crew shooting each other to kill the entity, the other half getting minced by the alien.
The Doctor approaches Aliss to speak to the monster but since it’s time for the third act to start wrapping up, he just stares for a bit before working out the solution. In order to mine the diamonds the colonists would dump down mercury, using a pipe which is conveniently running behind Aliss’ head. Shooting the pipe will cause a river of mercury to cascade down, creating a mirror that should be enough to banish the monster.
They make their escape, but the Doctor can’t help but wait behind to see the monster, giving it a chance to latch onto Belinda. The captain of the marines shoots Belinda enough that the entity thinks she’s about to die and switches hosts, after which point they leap into the mineshaft. Belinda wakes up in the TARDIS in the Doctor’s care, ready for the next adventure. Meanwhile, the marines debrief their boss — Mrs. Flood! Who knows all about the Vindicator, too — before revealing the alien did make it on board their spaceship after all.
One of the threads in the episode is Belinda keeps discussing human terms and superstitions to shrugs from everyone around her. It’s something that’s got both her and The Doctor puzzled, as there seems to be something very wrong with all of reality.
You die at midnight…
James Pardon / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf
Showrunner Russell T. Davies was asked about bad faith criticisms that the show had somehow gone woke. “Someone always brings up matters of diversity and there are online warriors accusing us of diversity and wokeness and involving messaging and issues and I have no time for this,” he said. “What you might call ‘diversity’ I just call an open door,” he added, “it’s cold and it’s bracing and there’s a world in front of you! There’s a blue sky, there’s clouds and there’s noise, there’s birdsong, there’s people arguing.”
What’s notable about this is that Davies’ open-minded (and open-hearted) approach to making the show creates storytelling possibilities. For instance, the last time an episode of Doctor Who featured a deaf character (2015’s “Under The Lake”), she relied upon a colleague to interpret on her behalf. And her ability to lipread wound up being part of the solution to the episode’s problem — reducing her to little more than a plot mechanism.
Here, while Aliss’ deafness is a core part of the plot, it doesn’t feel as if she’s defined by that one facet. Effort has been made to flesh out her character, and it’s more a venue to explore how technology and communication intersect with someone with different accessibility needs. Especially as (co-writers) Sharma Angel-Walfall and Russell T. Davies made the effort to think through how this would work.
BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf
Whenever I’m watching an episode of nü-nü-Who, in the back of my mind I’m mulling what the injection of Disney money changed. “Midnight,” the episode “The Well” is a sequel to, was produced as a “double banked” episode — splitting the leads to shoot two episodes at a time. “Midnight” was also intended as a cheap story, with the bulk of the script taking place in a single room. If we’re being honest, “The Well” could have worked just as well given the bulk of the action takes place in a handful of rooms.
That’s not to say the extra cash lavished upon this episode is wasted: “The Well” feels almost indulgent by Doctor Who standards for the sheer breadth and depth of its sets. I can’t help but recall the Aliens riff Strange New Worlds produced in its first season, which re-used the series’ standing sets for the wreck of the USS Peregrine. It sounds weird to say that Doctor Who is luxuriating in the fact it can afford to show a trashed bunkroom for all of a minute, but it is.
Perhaps part of the reason it does feel indulgent is that this is an episode relatively low on incident and high on character. Belinda gets a real showcase here, both asserting herself on the narrative at several points, but also being rebuked for doing so. She tries to take charge to help the injured Aliss but the medical kit is so advanced she’s not able to use it. She’s smart enough to work out the rules of the alien, but also it gets the better of her in the end.
Whereas the first two episodes this season felt overstuffed and rushed, the smaller story and focus on character lets everything breathe. That an accessibility tool is a key focus of the plot and used as a venue for storytelling and character development is marvelous.
Look, I’m as bored saying it as you are reading it, but once again I can’t help but point out the influence of Steven Moffat on this season. One of the inspirations for monsters like the Weeping Angels and the Silence was the idea of them being easy to turn into a schoolyard game. The unnamed entity here, with the mechanic that if you stand directly behind the host you will die, seems perfectly in that tradition.
But “The Well” also offers instances where Davies is in conversation with the rest of this season and his earlier work. In both “Midnight” and “The Well,” the Doctor is at risk of losing his grip on the situation because the threat of the unknown makes people paranoid and jumpy. A streak of deeply dark pessimism runs through all of this work and while it’s also on show here, there’s a little more hope than there was before.
It’s also interesting how Davies, who has always structured his seasons in a fairly rigid manner, seems to be deliberately repeating motifs and beats. The parallels between this season and the last feel almost like they’re trying to draw attention to themselves. “Space Babies” and “The Robot Revolution,” “The Devil’s Chord” and “Lux” and now the “Boom” paired with “The Well” feel like episodes vying for the same space in different realities. Not to mention the repetition of moments from episode to episode — like the TARDIS wardrobe sequence and the repeated hand injuries. If next week's "Lucky Day" is predominantly featured on Ruby Sunday without the Doctor and revolves around physical distance and / or the supernatural, then perhaps we might assume that this is more than coincidence.
Mrs. Flood Corner
I’ve always hated “The End… or is it?” fake-outs that often undermine the drama of whatever denouement they’re tacked on to. Sure, it can be effective if you want to cheapen the sacrifices your characters made to vanquish the villain, but often it comes across as hacky. Not to mention that people with poor media literacy will assume that it’s actually a teaser for a cliffhanger to be resolved the following week.
Here, eh, it’s essentially a way to shoehorn Mrs. Flood in as the soldiers' boss taking the debrief after the Doctor and Belinda depart. She knows about the Doctor’s use of the Vindicator, and has now seen it in action thanks to the soldier’s recording. But there’s no breaking the fourth wall, which means she’s operating here in the same manner as Susan Twist did last year. Which is, uh, interesting.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/doctor-who-the-well-review-signing-makes-you-feel-heard-200528202.html?src=rss
As nice as it is to have a projector wired up in your home cinema, the flexibility a portable model offers is equally valuable. It means you can set up an impromptu big screen in your back yard during those glorious long summer evenings. But portable projectors also carry that whiff of not being as good, or being compromised, with less powerful sound and vision. It’s this issue that Nebula is looking to tackle with its latest flagship portable projector, the X1, which is designed to offer the power of a home projector in the body of a movable one.
The X1 is a triple-laser unit promising 4K UHD, Dolby Vision video with 3,500 ANSI lumens that should easily fill a 300-inch screen. You can place it on a stand, table or the floor, with the array capable of tilting up to 25 degrees to find wherever you’ve placed your screen. There’s a 14-element glass array inside the body, which the company says should provide reliable image quality for the life of the unit. It’s flexible, too, with an optical zoom letting you cast on a screen up to 200 inches wide from between 13 and 22 feet away.
Nebula
The other big problem with projectors is the sound quality, but Nebula thinks it’s solved that issue as well. The X1 not only has a quartet of side-firing internal speakers, but you can pay a little more to pick up a pair of wireless 20W satellite speakers with their own built-in batteries. Each satellite connects to the X1 over Wi-Fi and has a rated battery life of eight hours, plus they’re IP54 rated to ensure they won’t break if your movie night gets interrupted by a rain shower.
Nebula is also proud to boast that the X1 is the company’s first portable projector to get its own internal liquid cooling system. Liquid cooling is commonplace on higher end wired projectors, and Nebula says that its inclusion here enables it to get the fan noise down to 26 dB. That may or may not be a good thing depending on the talent levels of your friends given you can also buy a pair of wireless karaoke microphones with a rated battery life of 40 hours.
The rest of the spec list is what you’d expect, with the X1 running Google TV, plus a pair of HDMI ports (one with eARC). It’ll be available to purchase in the US on June 20 for $2,999, while the accessory pack on its own will set you back $999, but you can bundle both for $3,298. It’s a similar situation in the UK, where it’ll be ready to buy on May 21 for £2,199.99, with the accessory pack costing £500, but if you order between May 21 and June 15, you’ll get both for £2,350.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/nebulas-new-x1-4k-portable-projector-is-liquid-cooled-233025705.html?src=rss
It’s an interesting time to be a long-running science fantasy media property in the streaming TV age. Star Trek is in the grip of an existential crisis as it (wrongly) fears it’s too old-aged to be relevant. Star Wars became a battlefield in the culture war and, to duck all future bad faith criticism, gave us The Rise of Skywalker. And then there’s Doctor Who, which is somehow managing to plough a 62-year furrow and still fill it with original ideas. Don’t believe me? This week the Doctor and Belinda go up against a sentient cartoon holding the patrons of a 1950s cinema hostage.
James Pardon / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf
It’s 1952 in a sparsely populated cinema as the audience watches a breathless newsreel on the power of the atomic bomb. The projectionist flips over to a Merrie Melodies-style cartoon of Mr. Ring-A-Ding (voiced by Alan Cumming), an old-timey song-and-dance character. Just then, a beam of moonlight shines through the window, reflecting off a teaspoon and strikes the screen. Mr. Ring-A-Ding comes to life, talking directly to the scoffing audience before emerging into the theater to the sound of screams.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Belinda are in the TARDIS trying to work out why it’s refusing to land on May 24, 2025. Belinda asks why he doesn’t just take the ship back to his home planet for a fix, but she doesn’t get a satisfactory answer. Instead, the Doctor has built a gadget that will help pull the TARDIS back to the present day, it just needs to land in a few other places first. The pair wind up in Miami in 1952 and while the Doctor initially insists Belinda stay indoors, she’s eager to see what it’s like.
They step out into the night (slash early morning) of 1952 Miami, outside the cinema from the pre-credits, albeit three months after Mr. Ring-A-Ding came to life. Since then, the theater has been locked shut, with the 15 patrons in the audience going missing; the projectionist, Reginald Pye, has stayed behind to act as caretaker, playing films to an empty room.
They visit the diner across the street and meet the mother of one of the missing patrons, Mrs. Lowenstein, who fills in the backstory. They head into the cinema and Mr. Ring-A-Ding makes it clear he’s about to trap them in film before a Mr. Ring-A-Ding short stays playing on the screen. While he’s distracted, the Doctor and Belinda hot-foot it to the projection room where they meet Pye, who has been looking after the cinema patrons, all of whom have been trapped in a strip of film.
Pye has been keeping Mr. Ring-a-Ding alive and appeased by playing movies for him every night. But the sinister cartoon has also given Pye something in return: He has a film of his late wife who Mr. Ring-A-Ding can bring back as a “real” person, at least for a few moments each night. Following on the theme of coercion from last week, the carrot is also a stick, since Mr. Ring-A-Ding also threatens to destroy that film if Pye steps out of line.
Naturally, Mr. Ring-A-Ding isn’t just a beloved old-timey cartoon character but a god, one of the same pantheon as the Toymaker, Maestro and Sutekh. His real identity is Lux Imperator, or Lord of Light, and he's determined to consume all the light he can, including the most delicious (potential) meal of all — the atom bomb he’s been learning about in the newsreels. To prevent the Doctor and Belinda frustrating his plans, he manages to trap them in a cartoon.
The Doctor and Belinda are turned into two-dimensional drawings, with two-dimensional minds and characterizations. In their panic, they confess their anxieties, including the Doctor’s worries he can’t get Belinda home. As they do so, they acquire physical depth until they return to their normal selves, and then break (okay, knocking over) the fourth wall into… someone’s living room.
The Doctor and Belinda are greeted by a trio of Doctor Who fans watching the episode who are shocked and delighted to meet their heroes. The fans, Hassan Chowdry (Samir Arrian), Lizzie Abel (Bronté Barbé) and Robyn Gossage (Steph Lacey) explain, uh, Doctor Who to the Doctor. The season’s subconscious theme of Steven Moffat envy continues, with the trio saying their favorite episode is “Blink.” Robyn also points out that the end of the episode is pretty obvious given that celluloid is highly explosive. There’s even time for the fans to be called annoying — a facet they (like all “good” Doctor Who fans) will admit to with a heavy dose of self-awareness.
The trio ready to kick the Doctor out as the episode hits the 30-minute mark, which means it’s time for the third act. But they’re also sad, realizing that they’re the fictitious ones, not the Doctor and Belinda, as they don’t have surnames. They know the characters that don’t have surnames are unimportant, incidental figures in the story that will die when the time travelers crawl back through the screen. (Aside: They do in the closing credits, something that Davies’ alluded to in his most recent column for Doctor Who Magazine talking about the realities of giving one-shot characters names for the credits.)
The Doctor and Belinda return to the cinema, where the previously kind Mrs. Lowenstein has hauled a police officer in to arrest the pair for trespassing in a whites-only cinema. The Doctor fairly instantly calls BS, especially since the police officer is wearing a New York-style uniform: They’re still in the film, and when they break out, the Doctor and Belinda meet Lux / Mr. Ring-A-Ding once again. Lux magically summons up long lengths of filmstrips that act like ropes, wrapping them around his wrists and raising him up high. He turns on the projector which draws the Doctor’s regeneration out as light, projected onto Mr. Ring. A Ding.
Belinda, meanwhile, heads off to a storage cupboard, pulls out lots of film and throws it on the floor. But Reginald the projectionist won’t give her the matches she needs to start the fire until, uh, the ghost of his wife, briefly returning as a solid person, hands him the matches. Belinda then blows a hole in the roof of the cinema big enough to expose Mr. Ring-A-Ding to sunlight, which causes him to exponentially grow until he’s not just bigger than the planet but bigger than the universe itself. Or something.
In the daylight of Miami, Belinda asks the Doctor how exactly Lux / Mr. Ring-A-Ding was destroyed. “We’re 60 percent water and we can still drown,” he explains as the formerly trapped patrons of the cinema emerge from their three month imprisonment. The Doctor and Belinda have bonded over their shared worries, and Belinda is a lot more comfortable with her slightly longer route home. As they head into the TARDIS, Mrs. Flood greets the crowd and tells them if they want to see a really exciting sight, they should watch the ship disappear. Sadly, she adds, it’s a “limited run,” which will end on May 24th.
BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf
Eight disconnected thoughts about “Lux.”
Density
Like “The Robot Revolution” before it, “Lux” is packed full of concepts and themes that could easily be the sole subject of a story. This thematic density has always been a part of Doctor Who — a show that has often worn its deep political and literary ambitions on its sleeve — but it can be both a blessing and a curse.
Just think about the sheer number of ideas this one episode is playing with, touching upon:
How time travel as a plot device can be implicated by race.
How media habits and consumption have changed in the last century.
How human nature hasn’t changed in the last century.
How awful it is to be held hostage by your own desire.
What it would be like if a fictional character discovered they were fictional.
That’s a hell of a lot of stuff to get through in 45 minutes, even if you’re not going to explore any of them. Though it may be a thrilling high-wire act Davies is pulling off, the result doesn’t have anything weighty to say. Not that I expect or need every episode to be About Something In A Very Special Way, but these themes aren’t meant to be just window dressing.
Ironically, and to contradict what I just wrote, I found “Lux” to be far more enjoyable than “The Robot Revolution.” Free of the burden of having to introduce Belinda and lay down the shape of this year’s overarching storyline, the episode is able to focus on just being itself. Everything here joins up in a more satisfying way, and the emotional beats, while rushed, at least make sense.
Rhyming history
As soon as Ncuti Gatwa was held aloft by moving filmstrips, I realized how closely the scene mirrored the conclusion of “The Devil’s Chord.” I’m not surprised, given both episodes feature the Doctor fighting a member of the Pantheon’s roster of rogue gods. After all, our heroes turn up in what is ostensibly the past of our living memory (‘60s last year, ‘50s here) to battle a god using pop culture as a vehicle (music then, cinema now). For the filmstrips here, Maestro dragged the Doctor and Ruby around Abbey Road with ribbons of music notation.
Soft Elbows
In the few times Doctor Who has acknowledged its fanbase, it’s with a loving elbow to their ribcages. It helps that the series is so tied to the UK’s cultural DNA that everyone is a fan, even if they’re not a fan. Perhaps more importantly, Davies, Moffat and Chibnall were all prominent fans before they had TV careers. All of us are capable of conceding we are (or can be) bloody annoying at times and insufferably smug at others.
One thing did occur to me: All three times Doctor Who has acknowledged its fanbase — Whizzkid in “Greatest Show", the members of LINDA in “Love and Monsters” and here — the themes are the same. Doctor Who fans are always kind-hearted, a little bit annoying and they get taken advantage of by a bad faith figure (Captain Cook, Victor Kennedy and Lux). Isn’t that interesting?
Importance
A key trait of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor is his compassion, even going so far as to kiss a Roomba to apologize for turning it off. When Hassan, Lizzie and Robyn say they're "not important" as surname-less side characters, it irked me that the Doctor didn't push back.
Production
Much like last week’s episode, “Lux” is wonderfully well-made with every quarter of the production team operating at their peak. Mr Ring–A-Ding is a triumph, capturing the rubber hose style of animation from that era utterly perfectly. The 2D version is great, and the 3D edition he tries to evolve into at the conclusion is the right sort of horrifying.
Belinda
After “The Robot Revolution,” plenty of fans online suggested Belinda knew a little more than she was meant to. Specifically, she knew the name of the TARDIS despite the Doctor calling it his spaceship earlier in the episode. At the start of “Lux,” Belinda says the Doctor is a Time Lord so his people should be able to fix the malfunctioning TARDIS.
I can see why fans, trained on mystery box shows, would be intent on mining lines of dialog in this fashion. But I think they’re chasing shadows: Davies has never been that sort of writer and probably isn’t going to start seeding his dialog with hints that subtle now. The way I read it, the Doctor has probably gotten used to giving new friends an (off-screen) introduction of the basics.
You could easily imagine a cut-for-necessity scene where the Doctor rattles off the whole “time lord with their own time and space machine” spiel. And you’d expect them not to race toward the more trauma-dump-y elements of their biography, like being the last of them still alive. Belinda was also surprised to see the TARDIS land in 1950s Miami, even after seeing it in space last week. Given the theme of the episode was Belinda slowly embracing her time with the Doctor it makes more sense.
That said, it’s interesting that Davies’ specifically focused on the surnames of minor characters for his column in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine. Naturally, he was wrapping a tease for a future episode inside an anecdote about having to clear even minor character surnames with the show’s legal department. And when the Doctor meets the fans, Robyn points out she knows how the episode ends because she read the leak about it online. I should admit, too, that I read the fairly detailed leak about this episode that included the reveal of this fourth-wall-destroying scene. I would never suggest Davies is playing four-dimensional chess with the audience, but if the detailed leak of this episode came from the production office as a further tweak of the metafiction then, bravo.
Queer representation
The awning outside the cinema is advertising a Rock Hudson movie, and Belinda comments that she learned about the late actor on a HIV training course. He was one of the first people in the public eye to pass away from AIDS, causing a shift in public attitudes. Before Hudson’s death, the US had refused to sanction additional funds to support research into combatting the disease.
Doctor Who has shied away from directly addressing plenty of social issues during its long run, or even allegorically. Despite the vast number of queer people who were involved in its creation and production, such topics were treated as taboo. That the show can now make such a direct reference to Hudson feels refreshing, especially if it prompts some folks to read up on the issue.
The politics of race
There are better qualified writers who can discuss the issues around race and racism that the episode features. “Lux” is set in 1952, two years before Brown v. Board of Education, in a Miami that is segregated. It’s not the first episode of Doctor Who to deal with this, nor the first of Ncuti Gatwa’s tenure that has intentionally highlighted that the Doctor is played by an actor of color.
I suspect that one moment in particular will provoke discussion: When Belinda is outraged to learn the diner is segregated. The Doctor shuts down her objections, saying that he has toppled worlds, and has sometimes lived in worlds and let them “topple themselves.” For the latter, his approach is to “shut up and shine,” suggesting he sits on the respectability politics-end of the spectrum.
It’s perhaps here that we see the limits of what stories Doctor Who can tell given these events took place in our own recent history. The lead character can topple other worlds in any era, but given we’re all aware of human history, can’t act to rid the world of this injustice. Which affirms the theory that the show is fundamentally conservative in nature since one of the Doctor’s main driving forces is to protect the course of history as it presently is.
Mrs. Flood corner
Now we know Mrs. Flood can appear wherever the TARDIS is, so it’s likely she’ll be popping up in every episode, just like Susan Twist did last year. Here, she simply repeated her ominous threat that the Doctor’s time is running out, which is due to happen on May 24th. May 24th is when this season’s seventh and penultimate episode will air.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/doctor-who-lux-review-hope-can-change-the-world-190033447.html?src=rss
Xbox’s Spring Sale is live, with big discounts on old and new classics and plenty of forgotten gems. But the deals aren’t limited to Xbox console games; there’s plenty on tap for PC, too. (You can filter by platform under the “Play with” option in the sidebar.)
If you’re one of the two gamers who don’t already own it, you can even snag Grand Theft Auto V for a mere $20. (Even if you have the 2013 mega-hit on another platform, this is the enhanced version for Xbox Series X/S.)
Espresso Displays makes some of our favorite portable monitors, but up until now, it felt like there was a hole in its portfolio. That’s because aside from its flagship model — the $800 Espresso 17 Pro — the other members of the family are slightly more affordable fare like the $469 Espresso Touch 13 and $499 Touch 15. Today, the company is plugging that gap with the Espresso 15 Pro, which packs everything I like about its bigger sibling in a more portable package for $699 (with a stand included).
Design and display
One of the things I appreciate about Espresso is that it doesn’t try to do too much. The 15 Pro features an ultra minimalist design made from simple sheets of matte black aluminum along with glossy glass in front (if you prefer matte displays, you can always add one of the company’s textured screen protectors). Granted, the monitor does have a bit of a chin, but aside from two USB-C ports stashed in the corner, that’s really the 15 Pro’s only defining exterior feature, so I’m not that bothered. All told, the display weighs 1 pound and 11 ounces, which sounds a lot heavier than it feels.
As for its specs, the Espresso 15 Pro’s 4K LCD panel delivers nearly everything you want and then some. Brightness tops out at 550 nits (it was actually 556 nits according to my light meter), which is higher than the 450 nits on the 17-inch model. It also covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum with 10-bit color (8-bit + 2-bit frame rate control). The one thing I wish Espresso included was a 120Hz refresh rate instead of being capped at 60Hz. That said, unless you’re gaming or editing videos, that limitation may not be a huge factor.
Setup and special features
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Getting the 15 Pro up and running couldn’t be easier. Each USB-C port has enough bandwidth to carry power and data over a single cable, so you just need to plug in the included cord, and off you go. The one exception is for laptops that can’t send out much power via USB-C, but I tested the monitor with 4 different laptops (both Mac and PC) and none of them had issues. The display even automatically downloaded the EspressoFlow software, which adds touch support to your Apple notebooks. You also get the new Glide feature that automatically positions the monitor in the right place depending on how you have it arranged next to your laptop. And by some black magic, the 15 Pro nailed it when it correctly laid out the monitor to the left of my notebook’s built-in screen.
As someone who has recently been forced to use a Mac for work, the ability to quickly and easily add touch support to Apple’s laptop is super nice. And while I’m far from a digital Degas, you can even use the display for drawing and sketching as the monitor also works with the company’s optional stylus. This makes the 15 Pro an ideal travel companion for both people who want more screen real estate or a portable way of creating art on the go.
Accessories
In addition to screen protectors and pens, there are also a couple of important stand accessories for the 15 Pro. The first is the $49 Espresso Case, which is more of a magnetic folding cover that protects the screen while in transit that can also flip around back to become a kickstand when you’re working. Like the display itself, it’s a fairly simple affair that does exactly what you expect it to.
However, for those who want something more substantial, the 15 Pro also works with Espresso’s $69 Stand+. It’s more like what you’d see on a traditional desktop monitor, except that it can fold up for improved portability while also packing a really strong magnet that allows you to mount the monitor in a variety of positions. This thing might be too pricey for some, but I’ve quickly grown to appreciate how easy it makes putting the 15 Pro in the perfect position. It’s more well-built than a lot of the desktop monitor stands I have. The obvious drawback is that at 1 pound and 4 ounces, the Stand+ weighs almost as much as the display itself, which is rather hefty.
Wrap-up
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The Espresso 15 Pro has nearly everything I look for in a premium portable monitor. It features well above average brightness, a sleek but sturdy design and super simple setup. It also comes with a few special features like Glide and added touch support for Macs that help you get more out of the devices you already own. And thanks to a wealth of accessories, it can adapt to almost any use case.
While I’d like a higher refresh rate, not having it is far from a deal-breaker. That would almost certainly increase its price, and considering that the 15 Pro is already somewhat costly, starting at $699 for the monitor and the Stand+, I’m not sure the added expense would be worth it. Regardless, if you want a really portable monitor that’s also more than good enough to use at home, there aren’t many other displays that can match the Espresso 15 Pro.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/espresso-15-pro-review-just-a-really-nice-though-pricey-portable-monitor-230046315.html?src=rss
With Nintendo's April 2 Direct showcase over and done, we now know more about the Switch 2 than ever before, including its release date (June 5) and price ($450!). We're also keeping a close eye on how the recently-announced tariffs in the United States are affecting Nintendo's launch plans — the company has already paused pre-orders in the US that were set to take place on April 9.
Thanks to Nintendo's January 16 teaser trailer, we've long known what the Switch 2 will look like, and that it will arrive in 2025 — over eight years after its predecessor. The Nintendo Switch 2 looks very similar to the original system, albeit with a larger display, magnetic Joy-Cons and a sleeker design. The company also reaffirmed that the upcoming console will be backwards compatible with Switch games.
Looking to catch up on everything we know about the Switch 2? Read on.
What are the key new features of the Nintendo Switch 2?
Display and dock
The Nintendo Switch 2 has a 1080p 7.9-inch display with a 120Hz refresh and HDR compatibility. It also supports up to 4K output at 120Hz (with variable refresh rates) when docked.
Joy-Con and Pro Controller
The new Joy-Con 2 for Nintendo Switch 2 attaches magnetically with a button to release them. They have larger SL and SR buttons (the ones hidden when the Joy-Con are attached) to make playing multiplayer games on individual Joy-Cons more feasible. These buttons are also made of steel and attach to the Switch 2's magnets.
The analog sticks are no longer tiny nubs, and are closer in size to the ones you might find on a PS5 or Xbox controller. However, they do not have Hall effect sensors, the use of which can minimize the risk of the "stick drift" issue that plagued the original Joy-Cons.
The new Pro Controller for the Nintendo Switch 2 comes with everything you’d expect based on the refreshed Joy-Con 2: Namely HD Rumble 2 and the C button. There are also remappable GL/GR buttons around the back and a standard audio jack for connecting a headset.
Both options come with Amiibo support built in. The Switch 2 comes with two Joy-Con 2, as you’d expect, and additional pairs are priced at $90. The Pro Controller will cost $80.
The C button stands for “chat”
The new C button is a dedicated way to enter a chat session with friends. As well as the standard features you’d expect from voice chat, Nintendo has built a Discord-like video-sharing feature, which lets you show your gameplay to others and see other people’s screens while you’re playing.
The GameChat function works with a mic built into the console, though headsets are also supported. Nintendo will also sell a $50 camera that plugs into the USB-C port on the top of the console, which will allow you to stream your face along with your game.
Nintendo
GameCube support
The Switch 2 will work with GameCube games via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. The three titles available at launch will be F-Zero GX, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Soul Calibur II.
Improved specs
Perhaps the biggest feature, though, is one you can’t see: The Switch 2 has an all-new processor and GPU and significantly more storage (256GB vs 64GB in the Switch OLED), along with support for faster and more capacious microSD cards. This will obviously lead to better first-party games and upgraded Switch experiences, but more importantly it will mean multi-platform games that had to skip the original, underpowered Switch will be able to be ported over. With games like Cyberpunk 2077 coming to the Switch 2 at launch, it seems like far more ports will be feasible than on the original console.
Another major improvement comes in the form of networking — the Switch 2 supports Wi-Fi 6, which will improve the original's often glacial download speeds. Similarly, the new dock sports an Ethernet port for a rock-solid connection.
What's it like to play?
Nintendo gave the press a chance to check out the Switch 2 and a few of the games it highlighted. You can read our impressions of Mario Kart Worldas well as more general thoughts on how the Switch 2 feels in person. Right off the bat, Mario Kart World feels like an outstanding launch title, with more depth and better visuals than we've ever seen from a Mario Kart game. The core formula is intact, but there are a lot of new features and play styles to dig into.
As for the Switch 2 hardware, it feels like a major step forward from the original Switch — it has grown up a lot and feels far more polished and refined. And while it may not have an OLED screen, the 7.9-inch LED display Nintendo did use is outstanding.
When will the Nintendo Switch 2 come out?
June 5, 2025.
When do pre-orders open for Nintendo Switch 2?
Pre-orders were originally set to begin on April 9, but on April 4 Nintendo announced it was suspending pre-order plans in the US "indefinitely" in reaction to the original slate of tariffs imposed by President Trump. However, Nintendo says that the release date for the console is unchanged.
An April 11 report from IGN originally elevated May 8 as the new US pre-order date, but the publication has since walked that back. In fact, that date was already the one slated for Nintendo to confirm the first batch of pre-orders through its site.
How much will the Nintendo Switch 2 cost?
On April 2, Nintendo announced that the Switch 2 would cost $450 standalone, or $500 with a bundled digital copy of the new Mario Kart game, Mario Kart World. That’s significantly more expensive than the original Switch, which launched at $300, and has remained at that price ever since. It’s also more expensive than the entry-level current-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft.
The comparison looks a little better up against Valve’s Steam Deck, which costs $400 for the LCD model or $550 for the basic OLED model. The Steam Deck is more affordable than most PC handhelds.
Within 48 hours of the pricing announcement, however, Nintendo delayed the original pre-order schedule "in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions." With heavy US tariffs levied on Nintendo's Asian production centers, the implication was that would have little choice but to pass at least some of those costs on to American consumers. But Trump's April 9 tariff pivot — reverting to 10 percent across the board for 90 days for all countries except China, which now gets a triple-digit hit — further muddied the waters. That's because it's unclear how much, if any, of the components and assembly of US-bound Switch 2 consoles will originate in China.
How long will the Switch 2's battery last?
Nintendo says that the Switch 2 will last between 2 and 6.5 hours on a single charge. This is similar to the original Switch, which was rated for 2.5-6.5 hours, though later revisions upped that figure significantly. The company cautions that "this time is an estimate … battery life will depend on the games you play and usage conditions."
When can I try the Nintendo Switch 2?
Nintendo is planning a worldwide roadshow to let gamers go hands-on with the console. These events started in New York and Paris on April 4-6, with others taking place throughout the following two months.
Ticket registration for many of the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience events has closed, but waitlists are available. However, given that Nintendo is taking a first come, first served approach, your chances of attending the roadshow if you don't already have a ticket (or unless you signed up for the waitlist immediately) seem very small at this point.
The full list of Nintendo Switch 2 Experience dates is as follows:
North America:
New York, April 4-6, 2025
Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025
Dallas, April 25-27, 2025
Toronto, April 25-27, 2025
Europe:
Paris, April 4-6, 2025
London, April 11-13, 2025
Milan, April 25-27, 2025
Berlin, April 25-27, 2025
Madrid, May 9-11, 2025
Amsterdam, May 9-11, 2025
Oceania:
Melbourne, May 10-11, 2025
Asia:
Tokyo (Makuhari), April 26-27, 2025
Seoul, May 31-June 1, 2025
Hong Kong, To be announced
Taipei, To be announced
Is the Nintendo Switch 2 backwards compatible?
Nintendo confirmed in November 2024 that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible. It will also feature access to Nintendo Online, so users will be able to play all of those old retro titles.
In the initial Nintendo Switch 2 press release, Nintendo reiterated that physical and digital Switch games will work on the new system. However, it noted that "certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2." We now have more information on which games are working thanks to a guide Nintendo put together.
Nintendo's software compatibility chart on April 2, 2025.
Nintendo
As of April 1, the vast majority of Switch 2 games are marked as compatible, but many popular games are said to have some issues. Nintendo has marked most of these as “under investigation,” suggesting a fix may be on the way in time for launch. Nintendo says it is manually testing every Switch game for compatibility.
Only one title is marked as incompatible: Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit. This was part of Nintendo’s Labo range of games that worked with Cardboard accessories, and is incompatible as the Switch 2 doesn’t physically fit in the VR headset.
Will old games be enhanced in any way?
The original Switch has, to put it mildly, struggled to run some of the late-generation software that's come down the pike. Could these games be enhanced to take advantage of the increased horsepower of the Switch 2? That’s unclear. In an “Ask the Developer” page on its site, Nintendo says that old games are working through a real-time translation system, which sounds similar to how Rosetta allows modern Macs to run old software. With that said, the new and old Switch are much closer in hardware than that.
In the same developer interview, it’s said that in its testing of old games for compatibility, there were some occasions “where loading times became faster, or game performance became more stable,” but we don’t have any detail beyond that.
As well as backward compatibility, Nintendo is also offering up premium "Switch 2 Edition" upgrades for a select few games. These have improved resolutions and frame rates, and (in some titles) some bonus features and content. What exactly that means will vary, but Nintendo did confirm that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will have 4K/60 fps and 1080p/120 fps options on the Switch 2.
Games confirmed to have a Switch 2 Edition to date include:
Super Mario Party Jamboree
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
In the case of the two mainline Zelda games, those upgrades will be included with a Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership or cost $10 each. Upgrades for the other games are also paid, but Nintendo has not said how much those will cost.
What will the cartridges taste like?
You may remember that the original Switch cartridges taste absolutely awful. This was on purpose, to discourage folks from putting the games in their mouth.
Similarly, the Switch 2 carts are also said to taste terrible, in large part to stop children or pets from accidentally ingesting them. It is not yet clear what substance Nintendo has coated the Switch 2 cartridges in to make them taste foul, but Nintendo's Takuhiro Dohta advised against licking them all the same.
"We don't want anybody to be at risk of any unwanted consumption," he told GameSpot. "We have indeed made it so that if it enters your mouth, you'll spit it out."
What are the launch games?
We expect this list to change substantially over the coming weeks and months, but the titles currently confirmed to be available on day one follow:
Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster
Cyberpunk 2077
Deltarune
Fast Fusion
Fortnite
Hitman: World of Assassination
Hogwarts Legacy
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Mario Kart World
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S
Split Fiction
Street Fighter 6
Survival Kids
Yakuza 0: Director's Cut
That's everything we know about the Nintendo Switch 2 today. We'll update this article with any information we can gather directly from sources. Any changes made to the article after its initial publishing will be listed below.
Update, January 24, 2025, 12:36 PM ET: This story has been updated to include speculation about price, potential game enhancements and the taste of cartridges.
Update, February 5, 2025, 9:30AM ET: This story has been updated to note the time when the April 2 Nintendo Direct starts.
Update, February 24, 2025, 12:30 PM ET: This story has been updated to include speculation about storage and information about the new microSD Express standard.
Update, March 6, 2025, 2:30PM ET: This story has been updated to note recent FCC filings to indicate the presence of Wi-Fi 6 and NFC support.
Update, March 14, 2025, 12:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include pricing and sales speculation from analysts.
Update, March 20, 2025, 12:45PM ET: Updated to include a note about the Seattle Mariners new jersey patches featuring Nintendo and the Switch 2.
Update, March 27, 2025, 3:50PM ET: Updated to add details about the C button, Nintendo Today! and Virtual Game Cards.
Update, April 1, 2025, 10:16AM ET: Updated to add link to livestream and details on its length.
Update, April 2, 2025, 4:40PM ET: Added details from the April 2 Nintendo Direct event, including specifications, price, release date and launch titles.
Update, April 4, 2025, 11:17AM ET: Added details about pre-orders being put on hold.
Update, April 7, 2025, 1:56PM ET: Added details about the Switch 2 cartridges still (reportedly) tasting terrible, the lack of Hall effect sensors in the controllers and game upgrade pricing.
Update, April 9, 2025, 5:41PM ET: Added context on how the changing rules on the Trump tariffs may or may not affect Switch 2 pricing in the US.
Update, April 11, 2025, 7:11PM ET: Re-affirmed that May 8 is when Nintendo is confirming the first batch of pre-orders through its site, after a faulty report online suggested otherwise.
Jeff Dunn contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-recent-updates-release-date-price-new-games-and-everything-else-you-need-to-know-175623663.html?src=rss
Razer laptops are now among the latest collateral damage of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Days after Nintendo paused Switch 2 pre-orders, The Verge reported that Razer has paused direct sales of devices like the Blade 16 gaming laptop in the US.
The Blade 16’s product page, which recently included a pre-order link, now only offers a measly “Notify me” button. In addition, its configurator page, which allowed you to choose a graphics card, processor and other specs as recently as a few days ago, now draws a 404 error. You can still pre-order it in Europe and other regions.
Razer’s laptop product page for US customers now only includes live order links for items like skins, docks and cooling pads.
Razer
Although Razer hasn’t publicly linked the pause to Trump’s tariffs, it isn’t hard to connect the two. The levies are scheduled to kick in at 12:01AM ET tonight, dramatically affecting companies that build products in or source parts from countries like China and Taiwan. Tariffs are a tax on imported foreign goods, and businesses often pass the higher cost to consumers. Economists have estimated that consumers will pay an extra $3,800 annually due to Trump’s policy — and that was before Trump announced additional tariffs on China, totaling a staggering 104 percent.
Razer’s pause follows the halting of Switch 2 US pre-orders as Nintendo gauges the situation and ponders its next move. Similarly, Framework stopped selling some of its laptops in the US, and Reuters reported on Tuesday that memory chipmaker Micron plans to add a surcharge to some products. Expect the “Liberation Day” hits to keep coming as tonight’s official beginning of the biggest US tax hike since 1968 approaches.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/razer-laptops-are-the-latest-trump-tariff-casualty-204844654.html?src=rss
Meta has released the first two models from its multimodal Llama 4 suite: LLama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick. Maverick is “the workhorse” of the two and excels at image and text understanding for “general assistant and chat use cases,” the company said in a blog post, while the smaller model Scout could tackle things like “multi-document summarization, parsing extensive user activity for personalized tasks, and reasoning over vast codebases.” The company also introduced Llama 4 Behemoth, an upcoming model it says is “among the world’s smartest LLMs” — and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said we’ll be hearing about a fourth model, LLama 4 Reasoning, “in the next month.”
Both Maverick and Scout are available to download now from the LLama website and Hugging Face, and they’ve been added to Meta AI, including for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram DMs.
Meta
Scout has 17 billion active parameters with 16 experts, Meta says. According to Zuckerberg, “It’s extremely fast, natively multimodal, and has an industry leading, nearly infinite 10 million token context length, and it is designed to run on a single GPU.” Maverick on the other hand has 17 billion active parameters with 128 experts. The company says it beats competitors like GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 on coding, reasoning, multilingual, long-context and image benchmarks, and stacks up against DeepSeek v3.1 on reasoning and coding.
Zuckerberg is already calling the upcoming Behemoth model, which is still training, “the highest performing base model in the world,” with 288 billion active parameters, according to the company. It may not be here yet, but it’s likely we’ll be hearing a lot more about that and the Reasoning model soon; Meta’s big AI developer conference, LlamaCon, is just a few weeks away.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-introduces-llama-4-with-two-new-models-available-now-and-two-more-on-the-way-214524295.html?src=rss
With Nintendo's April 2 Direct showcase over and done, we now know more about the Switch 2 than ever before, including its release date (June 5) and price ($450!).
Thanks to Nintendo's January 16 teaser trailer, we've long known what the Switch 2 will look like, and that it will arrive in 2025 — over eight years after its predecessor. The Nintendo Switch 2 looks very similar to the original system, albeit with a larger display, magnetic Joy-Cons and a sleeker design. The company also reaffirmed that the upcoming console will be backwards compatible with Switch games.
Looking to catch up on everything we know about the Switch 2? Read on.
What are the key new features of the Nintendo Switch 2?
Display and dock
The Nintendo Switch 2 has a 1080p 7.9-inch display with a 120Hz refresh and HDR compatibility. It also supports up to 4K output at 120Hz (with variable refresh rates) when docked.
Joy-Con and Pro Controller
The new Joy-Con for Nintendo Switch 2 attaches magnetically with a button to release them. They have larger SL and SR buttons (the ones hidden when the Joy-Con are attached) to make playing multiplayer games on one Joy-Con more feasible. The analog sticks are no longer tiny nubs, and are closer in size to the ones you might find on a PS5 or Xbox controller. They have what Nintendo is calling “HD Rumble 2” built in, which seems to be a refinement of the original (and still very good) vibration function. Finally, each Joy-Con has an optical sensor that allows you to use it as a mouse, and a C button, which we’ll get to in a minute.
Nintendo
The new Pro Controller for the Nintendo Switch 2 comes with everything you’d expect based on the refreshed Joy-Con: Namely HD Rumble 2 and the C button. There are also remappable GL/GR buttons around the back and a standard audio jack for connecting a headset.
Both options come with Amiibo support built in. The Switch 2 comes with two Joy-Con as you’d expect, and additional pairs are priced at $90. The Pro Controller will cost $80.
The C button stands for “chat”
The new C button is a dedicated way to enter a chat session with friends. As well as the standard features you’d expect from voice chat, Nintendo has built a Discord-like video-sharing feature, which lets you show your gameplay to others and see other people’s screens while you’re playing.
The chat function works with a mic built into the console, though headsets are also supported. Nintendo will also sell a $50 camera that plugs into the USB-C port on the top of the console, which will allow you to stream your face along with your game.
Nintendo
GameCube support
The Switch 2 will work with GameCube games via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. The three titles available at launch will be F-Zero GX, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Soul Calibur II.
Improved specs
Perhaps the biggest feature, though, is one you can’t see: The Switch 2 has an all-new processor and GPU and significantly more storage (256GB vs 64GB in the Switch OLED), along with support for faster and more capacious microSD cards. This will obviously lead to better first-party games and upgraded Switch experiences, but more importantly it will mean multi-platform games that had to skip the original, underpowered Switch will be able to be ported over. With games like Cyberpunk 2077 coming to the Switch 2 at launch, it seems like far more ports will be feasible than on the original console.
Another major improvement comes in the form of networking — the Switch 2 supports WiFi 6, which will improve the original's often glacial download speeds. Similarly, the new dock sports an ethernet port for a rock-solid connection.
How much will the Nintendo Switch 2 cost?
The Nintendo Switch 2 will be available for $450 standalone, or for $500 with a bundled digital copy of the new Mario Kart game, Mario Kart World. That’s significantly more expensive than the original Switch, which launched at $300, and has remained at that price ever since. It’s also more expensive than the entry-level current-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft.
The comparison looks a little better up against Valve’s Steam Deck, which costs $400 for the LCD model or $550 for the basic OLED model. The Steam Deck is more affordable than most PC handhelds.
When will the Nintendo Switch 2 come out?
June 5, 2025.
When do pre-orders open for Nintendo Switch 2?
Pre-orders begin on April 9, from a variety of retailers and Nintendo itself.
How long will the Switch 2's battery last?
Nintendo says that the Switch 2 will last between 2 and 6.5 hours. This is similar to the original Switch, which was rated for 2.5-6.5 hours, though later revisions upped that figure significantly. The company cautions that "this time is an estimate … battery life will depend on the games you play and usage conditions."
When can I try the Nintendo Switch 2?
Nintendo is planning a worldwide roadshow to let gamers go hands-on with the console. These events start in New York and Paris on April 4-6, with others taking place throughout the following two months.
Ticket registration for many of the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience events has closed, but waitlists are available. However, given that Nintendo is taking a first come, first served approach, your chances of attending the roadshow if you don't already have a ticket (or unless you signed up for the waitlist immediately) seem very small at this point.
The full list of Nintendo Switch 2 Experience dates is as follows:
North America:
New York, April 4-6, 2025
Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025
Dallas, April 25-27, 2025
Toronto, April 25-27, 2025
Europe:
Paris, April 4-6, 2025
London, April 11-13, 2025
Milan, April 25-27, 2025
Berlin, April 25-27, 2025
Madrid, May 9-11, 2025
Amsterdam, May 9-11, 2025
Oceania:
Melbourne, May 10-11, 2025
Asia:
Tokyo (Makuhari), April 26-27, 2025
Seoul, May 31-June 1, 2025
Hong Kong, To be announced
Taipei, To be announced
Is the Nintendo Switch 2 backwards compatible?
Nintendo confirmed in November 2024 that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible. It will also feature access to Nintendo Online, so users will be able to play all of those old retro titles.
In the initial Nintendo Switch 2 press release, Nintendo reiterated that physical and digital Switch games will work on the new system. However, it noted that "certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2." We now have more information on which games are working thanks to a guide Nintendo put together.
Nintendo's software compatibility chart on April 2, 2025.
Nintendo
As of April 1, the vast majority of Switch 2 games are marked as compatible, but many popular games are said to have some issues. Nintendo has marked most of these as “under investigation,” suggesting a fix may be on the way in time for launch. Nintendo says it is manually testing every Switch game for compatibility.
Only one title is marked as incompatible: Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit. This was part of Nintendo’s Labo range of games that worked with Cardboard accessories, and is incompatible as the Switch 2 doesn’t physically fit in the VR headset.
Will old games be enhanced in any way?
The original Switch has, to put it mildly, struggled to run some of the late-generation software that's come down the pike. Could these games be enhanced to take advantage of the increased horsepower of the Switch 2? That’s unclear. In an “Ask the Developer” page on its site, Nintendo says that old games are working through a real-time translation system, which sounds similar to how Rosetta allows modern Macs to run old software. With that said, the new and old Switch are much closer in hardware than that.
In the same developer interview, it’s said that in its testing of old games for compatibility, there were some occasions “where loading times became faster, or game performance became more stable,” but we don’t have any detail beyond that.
As well as backward compatibility, Nintendo is also offering up premium ‘Switch 2 Edition” upgrades for a select few games, which have improved resolutions and frame rates, and (in some titles) some bonus features and content. What exactly that means will vary, but Nintendo did confirm that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will have 4K/60 and 1080p/120 options on the Switch 2.
In the case of the two mainline Zelda games, those will be free to Switch Online Expansion Pack members, while others will be paid upgrades. Games confirmed to have a Switch 2 Edition to date include:
Super Mario Party Jamboree
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo has not said how much the paid upgrades will cost.
What will the cartridges taste like?
You may remember that the original Switch cartridges taste absolutely awful. This was on purpose, to discourage folks from putting the games in their mouth. Will the successor follow suit and continue to dip cartridges in a foul-tasting bitter coating? Only time will tell.
What are the launch games?
We expect this list to change substantially over the coming weeks and months, but the titles currently confirmed to be available on day one follow:
Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster
Cyberpunk 2077
Deltarune
Fast Fusion
Fortnite
Hitman: World of Assassination
Hogwarts Legacy
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Mario Kart World
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S
Split Fiction
Street Fighter 6
Survival Kids
Yakuza 0: Director's Cut
That's everything we know about the Nintendo Switch 2 today. We'll update this article with any information we can gather directly from sources. Any changes made to the article after its initial publishing will be listed below.
Update, January 24, 2025, 12:36 PM ET: This story has been updated to include speculation about price, potential game enhancements and the taste of cartridges.
Update, February 5, 2025, 9:30AM ET: This story has been updated to note the time when the April 2 Nintendo Direct starts.
Update, February 24, 2025, 12:30 PM ET: This story has been updated to include speculation about storage and information about the new microSD Express standard.
Update, March 6, 2025, 2:30PM ET: This story has been updated to note recent FCC filings to indicate the presence of Wi-Fi 6 and NFC support.
Update, March 14, 2025, 12:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include pricing and sales speculation from analysts.
Update, March 20, 2025, 12:45PM ET: Updated to include a note about the Seattle Mariners new jersey patches featuring Nintendo and the Switch 2.
Update, March 27, 2025, 3:50PM ET: Updated to add details about the C button, Nintendo Today! and Virtual Game Cards.
Update, April 1, 2025, 10:16AM ET: Updated to add link to livestream and details on its length.
Update, April 2, 2025, 4:40PM ET: Added details from the April 2 Nintendo Direct event, including specifications, price, release date and launch titles.
Jeff Dunn contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-everything-we-know-after-the-direct-announcement-195136505.html?src=rss
