has gotten a lot of praise from Playdate owners, and it’s easy to understand why. The art is beautiful, the story feels personal and the soundtrack is the perfect thing to lull you into a chilled-out state. But Bloom is also a weird one, in that it doesn’t feel quite like a game with its narrative-heavy presentation, but also doesn’t exactly feel like a visual novel.
Bloom mostly plays out through text messages, and corresponds to real time. You play from the perspective of Midori, who has decided not to attend college (unbeknownst to her parents) and instead opens a flower shop. As she chats with her family, her girlfriend, friends and other characters, you read along and choose her responses. There’s also a simple gardening element — in which you buy and plant seeds, water them and harvest them to make some money — and an arcade-style mini game.
Bloom is the kind of thing you check in on a few times a day until you’ve reached the end, which could take several weeks. There’s not that much to it in the sense of gameplay, but there is something very satisfying about the way it uses the crank to switch floors, moving from Midori’s apartment room to the roof where her garden is. It probably won’t be for everyone, but it’s worth trying if you like social sims.
2023 was . This past year is on track to beating it and it caused more problems this past year than just spiking thermometers.
(WWA) released its annual “Extreme Weather” report showing how the record-breaking 34.34 Fahrenheit increase in man-made warming from the past year caused “unrelenting heatwaves, drought, wildfire, storms and floods.” The WWA estimates that climate change was responsible for at least 3,700 deaths and 26 weather events in 2024 that led to “the displacement of millions.”
The report recorded a total of 219 events from 2024 that met its “trigger criteria” for identifying impactful weather events. Many of the events were influenced by the natural climate pattern known as El Niño (which has only under the effects of climate change) but the WWA studies “found that climate change played a bigger role than El Niño in fueling these events, including the historic drought in the Amazon.”
Climate change added on an average 41 additional dangerous heat days and fueled record-breaking rain and flooding across the globe. A study of 16 floods found all but one of them were caused by warming atmospheres that retained more moisture leading to heavier rainfall. These climate conditions can also fuel bigger and deadlier hurricanes and typhoons such as the Helene, the Category 4 Hurricane that hit America in September. North Carolina’s estimates that Helene caused $53.8 billion in damage in its state alone.
Two of the world’s most important ecosystems were also “hit hard by climate change in 2024,” according to the WWA report. The Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal Wetland, the largest tropical wetland in the world, experienced severe droughts and wildfires that created “huge biodiversity loss” in the past year.
Both areas are critical for maintaining the strength of the Earth’s ecosystems, climate and economies. removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and releases water into the atmosphere that helps control the climate and circulate ocean currents. houses tens of thousands of species of wildlife and provides much needed flood control for the region and creates global economic activity for cattle ranching and soy production, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The WWA’s report set some critical resolutions for 2025 to combat the rising influence of climate change. The report calls for a “faster shift” away from fossil fuel usage, improvements in early warning systems for extreme weather events, a greater focus on reporting of heat related deaths and financing for developing countries and regions hit hardest by the effects of climate change.
Android phones have been the first to feature a bunch of notable standards. They were the first to support 4G, 5G, USB-C (way back in 2015 no less) and in-screen fingerprint sensors. And when it comes to wireless charging, you can trace that lineage all the way back to the Samsung Galaxy S3 from 2012 (though the webOS-poweered Palm Pre and its Touchstone charger is the true OG). Unfortunately, when it came to adding support for the Qi2 wireless charging standard to devices in 2024, it feels like Android phone makers were stuck on outdated patch notes.
The Qi2 standard was officially announced in early 2023 during CES. We even gave it an award, as the spec looked to bring 15-watt wireless charging (and possibly more in future revisions), improved safety and critically the introduction of Magnetic Power Profiles that make it a cinch to align and attach compatible charging pads. In essence, Qi2 was set to bring the simplicity and ease of use iPhone owners enjoy with MagSafe products to the Android ecosystem.
Not a single phone from any of the top three Android phone makers in the US (Samsung, Google and Motorola) offered support for Qi2 in 2024. (Photo by Sam Rutherford)
Even more surprising is that in a rare move for a company that likes keeping its tech siloed neatly inside the walls of its ecosystem, Apple shared core parts of the MagSafe spec with other members of the Wireless Power Consortium (which is the governing body that oversees the Qi and Qi2 standards) to speed up development and interoperability. So you’d think after seeing the convenience and popularity of MagSafe accessories among iPhone users, Android phone makers would have rushed out to add Qi2 to as many devices as possible. But nearly two full years after the spec was finalized, the grand total of Android handsets that support Qi2 stands at one: the HMD Skyline.
At this point, you might be saying that product development cycles are multi-year processes that are difficult to change prior to launch. And in most cases, you’d probably be right. But let’s be honest, it’s not like Samsung, Google, Lenovo and others didn’t see this coming. Like Apple, practically all of the big Android phone makers are also members of the WPC, so they would have known about the development of Qi2 long before it was officially announced. On top of that, the first iPhone with MagSafe was the iPhone 12, which came out four years ago. So even if we assume that the first time Samsung, Google et al were presented with the idea of a magnetic wireless charging system was during Apple’s keynote in the fall of 2020, you’d imagine that’s still more than enough time to engineer similar technology for use on today’s Galaxy and Pixel handsets.
The HMD Skyline was the only Android phone to feature Qi2 this year. (Photo by Sam Rutherford)
For manufacturers, another concern when adopting a new standard is that there may not be enough accessories and other compatible peripherals on sale to make implementation of new tech worth it. We’ve seen this in the past with modular phones like the LG G5 and Moto Z Force line and the funky palm-reading tech on the LG G8. However, because Qi2 and MagSafe gadgets are largely interchangeable, there’s already a huge market of options like Anker’s MagGo line of power banks, which are some of my current favorite portable battery packs.
Another annoyance is that some phones like the Razr Plus and Pixel 9 Pro Fold will even stick magnetically to some Qi2 accessories and may even suck down a tiny bit of juice. Unfortunately, this is more of a coincidence caused by the magnets used to help keep foldables open or closed, rather than an intentional use case. This means that even though these devices may appear to support Qi2 at first glance, accessories don’t maintain a firm grip and often slide off even in what appear to be ideal circumstances. Even cases that claim to add support for Qi2 are hit or miss, resulting in a poor experience for Android phone owners hoping to recreate the magic of MagSafe on their own. It’s really a shame, because it almost feels like with a few small tweaks Google, Moto and others could unlocked Qi2 support on a wider range of devices without a ton of extra effort or cost.
The lack of Qi2 support on Android phones is preventing users from enjoying a huge range of handy charging accessories. (Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget)
Unfortunately, while many Chinese phone makers have avoided Qi2 up until this point, that’s sort of to be expected with manufacturers like Oppo often favoring proprietary tech like its 65-watt AirVOOC wireless charging instead of more widely accessible industry standard. And because the Galaxy S24 family came out at the very beginning of 2024, Samsung didn’t have quite as much time to add Qi2 to its current flagship lineup as Google, which launched the Pixel 9 series just a few months ago. Regardless, this still doesn’t explain the general reluctance of OEMs to adopt what I’d argue is one of the most meaningful upgrades in accessibility and general usability you can add to a smartphone today.
But the most frustrating thing is that six months ago, our friends at CNET pondered why we had yet to see any Qi2 Android phones. And as we’re nearing the end of the year, there’s still only a single model trying to spark hope that 2025 will be different. So kudos to HMD for doing what Samsung, Google et al. couldn’t be bothered to figure out. Now I’m just worried that if things don’t change next year, one of the most promising standards could end up in the graveyard (at least for Android phones) before ever getting a chance to thrive.
After announcing this week that it , EV startup Canoo emailed remaining workers to inform them they were being placed on a “mandatory unpaid break” and would be locked out of the company’s systems at the end of the day Friday, reports. The email viewed by TechCrunch reportedly said the break would last at least through the end of the year. Canoo announced on Wednesday that it was idling its Oklahoma factories “while it works to finalize securing the capital necessary to move forward with its operations.”
Canoo has faced , and the departure of multiple executives over the last year. It it was furloughing 30 employees just this fall. Canoo’s announcement on Wednesday said that the company is now in “advanced discussions with various capital sources.” In a statement about the cuts, Canoo said, “We regret having to furlough our employees, especially during the holidays, but we have no choice at this point. We are hopeful that we will be able to bring them back to work soon.”
The pornographic website PornHub is adding Florida to its list of states to block starting next year. reported that Floridians who visited the porn website recently were greeted with a warning that says “You will lose access to PornHub in 14 days” thanks to a new state law that requires an ID to visit the website.
PornHub has already blocked a number of states from accessing its wealth of sexually explicit content because of new state laws that require visitors to provide a valid government ID to verify their age for access. Florida’s legislature passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law on March 25 as part of a series of regulations intended to protect minors from explicit materials. The adult entertainment trade association The Free Speech Coalition is fighting Florida’s law in federal court, according to .
Florida will become the 13th state to institute an age verification law for adult websites. Florida follows , , Arkansas, Virginia, , Mississippi, that all have ID verification laws on its books.
“Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing [the state’s] stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors,” according to
The PornHub blog also states that the company is concerned about the safety and welfare of children but the idea of using identification creates more risks with users’ safety and privacy. The Louisiana law in particular has no state regulator overseeing the new laws’ implementation “which results in a flawed enforcement regime,” the PornHub blog states.
Hackers behind a cyberattack that targeted Rhode Island’s public benefits system were able to get the sensitive data — including Social Security numbers and some banking information — of hundreds of thousands of people, and they have threatened to release it as soon as this week if they aren’t paid a ransom, Rhode Island governor Dan McKee said in a press conference on Saturday night. The Rhode Island government opened a toll-free hotline on Sunday (833-918-6603) to provide information on the breach and how residents can protect themselves, but you won’t be able to find out for sure if your data was stolen by calling in. People who may have been affected will be notified by mail.
The attack targeted the RIBridges system, maintained by Deloitte, which is used to apply for Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), HealthSource RI healthcare coverage and other public benefits available to Rhode Islanders. A press release from McKee’s office notes that “any individual who has received or applied for health coverage and/or health and human services programs or benefits could be impacted by this leak.”
It’s thought the hackers were able to get information including names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and “certain banking information.” Deloitte first detected the breach and notified state officials on December 5, and determined on the 11th that there was “a high probability that the implicated folders contain personal identifiable data from RIBridges.” It confirmed the presence of malicious code on December 13 and subsequently shut the system down, before officials announced the attack to the public the same day.
The system is now offline while Deloitte works to secure it, which means that anyone who needs to apply for one of the affected programs will have to do so by mail, and people who are currently enrolled won’t be able to access the online portal or app. The state said it so far hasn’t detected any identity theft or fraud relating to the attack, but it will be offering free credit monitoring to anyone affected by the breach.
Radio-Canada says (viaGame Developer) that many of the laid-off employees were subcontractors through Keywords Studios, a company that provides technical and creative services for gaming companies. Keywords worked on quality assurance for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Speaking of which, the layoffs coincided with Rocksteady’s announcement that it would stop supporting the Suicide Squad game on January 14. (WB Games Montreal helped develop the game.) The game launched last February, giving it the dishonor of lasting less than a year before its publisher pulled the plug. Its upcoming Season 4 Episode 8 will be its last.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, one laid-off staffer told the French-language Radio-Canada that they were given eight weeks’ notice before termination. WB Montreal is said to have given them a choice between joining a recall list for upcoming projects or receiving help from a job counselor. However, the source said the company doesn’t expect the registry to have any opportunities until 2026. That’s not much of a choice unless someone has savings to burn.
The news follows recent layoffs at Ubisoft, Xbox / Activision Blizzard and… far too many others to list. The gaming industry is projected to generate over $187 billion in 2024, a 2.1 percent annual growth.
Musicians Tegan & Sara, Open Mike Eagle, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and more organized by Fight for the Future demanding music labels drop their , the online library and nonprofit best known for the Wayback Machine.
“We, the undersigned musicians, wholeheartedly oppose major record labels’ unjust lawsuit targeting the Internet Archive,” the reads. “We don’t believe that the Internet Archive should be destroyed in our name.” Instead, the letter offers three alternative ways the lives of musicians could be materially improved: By partnering with organizations like the Internet Archive to preserve original recordings and music culture, allowing musicians to keep 100 percent of merchandise sales and ending vertical investments in streaming services like Spotify.
The advent of streaming services already made being a working musician highly unprofitable, but as the letter notes, things like the and have made it nearly impossible to perform without some kind of extra expense.
The original lawsuit put forth by labels like Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group was specifically targeted at the Internet Archive’s , which aims to preserve music recorded on 78 RPM records. The project has over 400,000 recordings available to stream, including music from well-known artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra. If the labels win their lawsuit, the Internet Archive could be on the hook for up to $621 million dollars in damages to account for the music streamed through the Archive since 2006, .
Music isn’t the only front where the Internet Archive is fighting. The organization recently in an ongoing lawsuit with publishers . The Internet Archive claims its digital book library can lend out eBooks under the fair use doctrine, but multiple judges have now disagreed.
SpaceX completed its first Starlink direct-to-cell satellite constellation this week. On Wednesday, the company launched 20 satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, 13 of which can communicate directly with cell phones without extra equipment.
The completed constellation follows the FCC’s approval of a deal between SpaceX and T-Mobile last week. The companies announced the partnership in 2022, touting plans for a future where phones can be connected to the world even in the middle of the ocean. SpaceX says the satellite constellation acts “like a cellphone tower in space, allowing network integration similar to a standard roaming partner.”
On Thursday, SpaceX posted on X that the direct-to-cell satellites will “immediately connect over laser backhaul to the Starlink constellation, eliminate dead zones and provide peace of mind when customers need it most.” The company sent and received its first text messages through T-Mobile’s network early this year.
The low-earth-orbit constellation has 6,799 operational satellites, and Space.comreports that about 330 can communicate directly with cell phones. On Thursday, Elon Musk said unmodified cell phones would enjoy a bandwidth of around 10Mbps per beam. He said future constellations will be capable of much greater throughput.
The companies will presumably go into more detail for consumers once Starlink Direct to Cell is available. It’s currently targeted for next year. However, the constellation isn’t locked into T-Mobile alone. Android Centralreports that SpaceX senior director Ben Longmier said shortly after the deployment that the satellites are “open for business for any teleco in the world.”
This is not a drill, people: Tetris for the NES will join the Nintendo Switch Online library on December 12. Nintendo of America this exciting arrival out of the blue today on X. The NES port of Tetris initially launched all the way back in 1989, so it’s been a very long time coming for this classic title to return to Nintendo hardware.
That’s not to say there haven’t been many other ways to get your tetrimino fix. Tetris is a perennially popular puzzle game, with many official releases and plenty of knockoffs. And plenty of them, like the dazzling Tetris Effect, are extremely good. But the NES version is the one most frequently hailed as the best of the bunch. It’s the iteration primarily used in the fascinating , and even after more than three decades, a player only just managed to by, well, breaking its little computer brain. For those of us who missed out on the NES era, or those whose NES hardware bit the dust long ago, finally having a modern-day way to play this iconic version of Tetris is very exciting news.
The Switch Online service has gotten a couple notable updates in the past few weeks. A of Sega Genesis games joined the online Switch library, and Nintendo also released app for members of the subscription plan. While that’s all well and good, the really exciting development will be the hotly anticipated announcement of the , expected in March.
