Month: November 2016

Enlarge (credit: GoPro)

Amidst the election news last night, GoPro announced through a release on its website that the company will recall its new $799 Karma drone. This is the first drone from the action-cam company, and it's only been on the market since October 23, 2016.

GoPro estimates that 2,500 Karma drones have been sold so far, and all of them are subject to this recall. The company decided to issue the recall because a small number of drones reportedly "lost power during operation" for unknown reasons. GoPro did state that no injuries or property damage have been reported as a result of this issue, but it's unknown exactly how many of the 2,500 drones have been affected by this problem.

"Safety is our top priority," GoPro Founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman wrote in the release. "We are working in close coordination with both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Aviation Administration. We are very sorry to have inconvenienced our customers and we are taking every step to make the return and refund process as easy as possible."

(credit: Lindsay Fox at EcigaretteReviewed.com)

Nonsmoking teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to turn to the real thing compared with their nonvaping counterparts, according to a new study that made for bold headlines Tuesday. The authors of the study also reported that vapers were more likely to become daily and heavy smokers, underscoring the potential danger.

At first glance, the findings appear to confirm fears that e-cigarettes act as a gateway to tobacco, potentially fixing life-long addictions in young people. Health organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have repeatedly raised red flags that the electronic smoking devices could undo the hard-won successes of decades-old anti-tobacco campaigns. Many experts have advocated for tight regulations.

But others argue that e-cigarettes should be kept easily accessible because they’re unquestionably less harmful than traditional cigarettes and could help smokers quit. Proponents also rightly point out that data backing the notion that e-cigarettes act as a gateway to tobacco has been thin at best. Cigarette use among teens has hit historic lows. And despite upticks in the number of kids experimenting with e-cigs, smoking has continued to decline.

Enlarge

Since the release of Modern Warfare back in 2007, the Call of Duty series has increasingly flirted with futuristic combat—each new iteration has brought us a little closer towards full-blown sci-fi, adding advanced weaponry, introducing jetpacks, and making wall-running a method of traversal through its many war-torn environments.

With Infinite Warfare that skirting flirtation goes out the window completely. This is a game rife with spaceships, warp drives, and laser weapons, which feel more in line with Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica than Call of Duty. Rather than fight through the cities of Earth, Infinite Warfare sends you to the far reaches of the solar system to battle above planets; instead of ultranationalist radicals you fend off a Martian insurgency, hell-bent on taking your home world for its own.

It makes for a far fresher game, at least in single-player. This is a campaign that not so much shrugs but violently shakes off the lacklustre Ghosts moniker—Infinity Ward’s previous entry in the franchise—which many people (myself included) interpreted as a sign that the developer was out of ideas. While it’s clear that its ideas are still relatively thin on the ground, Infinite Warfare is by far the best campaign the series has seen in years. It’s just a shame that its multiplayer, while robust, is substantially lacking where rivals like Battlefield 1 have excelled.

Going it alone

This large shift in focus is the most surprising thing about Infinite Warfare. For years now, multiplayer has always been the main draw in Call of Duty, but here that’s different, with the seven-hour campaign taking centre stage. It’s the writing that really seals the deal; despite its huge leap into the intergalactic future, Infinite Warfare retains a relatable sense of humanity that grounds its hyper-intense action. You might be fighting against mechanised infantry and skating across the frozen surface of Europa, but developer Infinity Ward delivers the most intelligently scripted Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare, one that avoids absurd ideas like Ghosts’ obsession with VR and strips things back. It focuses on a single band of soldiers, the pressures of leadership, and whether the success of a mission is more important than the lives of the men carrying it out.