Month: August 2017

Enlarge / The Super NES Classic Edition is out standing in its field. (credit: Seb Anthony)

Update: Lightly sourced scuttlebutt online suggests retailers may make new supplies of the Super NES Classic available at 1 p.m. ET today. Here are landing page links for Gamestop, Target, and Wal-Mart to keep an eye on, plus pages for Amazon and Best Buy if they happen to open up additional pre-orders.

Original Story

When Nintendo warned in early August that preorders for the Super NES Classic Edition would start "later this month," we had no idea that two major retailers would sell out of their allotments in the middle of a random Monday night. That's just what happened late last night, though, with Amazon and Best Buy both selling out while most of the country slept.

Enlarge / The Note 8 invitation.

It's about time for Samsung to take the wraps off its latest flagship, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. On Wednesday, August 23 at 11am ET (8am PT) , the company will hold a massive event in New York City to show off its latest flagship.

We know pretty much all the basics about the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung gave the Galaxy S8 a big redesign with slimmer bezels, on-screen navigation buttons, and a rear fingerprint reader, and we're expecting that to carry over to the Galaxy Note 8. The main differences will be a slightly bigger screen, the usual addition of an S-Pen, and Samsung's first dual-camera setup with a 3x optical zoom.

SoCs haven't changed much since the release of the Galaxy S8, so we're expecting the Note 8 (in the US, at least) to also pack a Snapdragon 835 SoC. The Note 8 should get a boost to 6GB of RAM, though. With the release of the Note 8, Samsung can also finally put the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco behind it.

Enlarge / The UV3 Nautilus in early sea trials in 2008. (credit: Frumperino)

On Monday, a Copenhagen Police spokesperson released new information regarding the investigation into the disappearance of Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist who had been last seen aboard the UC3 Nautilus—the crowd-funded, amateur-built diesel-electric submarine designed and piloted by Peter Madsen. Madsen now confirms that Wall died aboard the submarine, and that he dumped her body overboard. But he claimed to police and prosecutors that her death was accidental.

Details of the investigation had been sealed (protected under the "closed doors" provisions of Danish law), as the criminal investigation is still underway. But after a request from both prosecutors and Madsen's defense attorney, the court allowed the police department to release the following statement:

The defendant has explained to the police and the Court, that there was an accident on board which caused Kim Wall’s death and that he consequently buried her at sea at a non-defined location in the Bay of Køge. Copenhagen Police may additionally disclose that the preliminary charge of manslaughter is upheld. As the investigation of the case is still covered by "closed doors," no further information can be given.

Madsen continues to be held on charges of involuntary manslaughter, as the investigation continues.

Enlarge (credit: Adobe Stock)

With 1.3 billion daily users, the Facebook site and its apps are the most-used pieces of software in the world. Only a handful of software companies have ascended to a similar echelon of ubiquity, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple. For better or worse, that is the world we now live in, where a large percentage our waking hours is spent interacting with software—and Facebook leads the pack, with the average user spending 50 minutes per day mostly watching videos and liking photos of babies. Television is the only leisure activity in the world that receives more attention than Facebook. And don't forget that Facebook now owns Instagram and WhatsApp, too.

It is understandable, then, that Facebook cares a lot about the quality of its software. If Facebook pushes out a new version of its Android app with a crashing bug, millions of users could be affected. Those users might be inclined to switch to another social network, or even worse: put down their phone and interact with the real world. The net effect is the same, either way: Facebook's share of your attention, and thus potential revenue, decreases.

That's why Facebook has some advanced bug-finding tools—including a devilishly clever dynamic analysis tool, initially devised by students at University College London and then acquired and further developed by Facebook's London office. This is the first time they've shown the inner workings of this new tool, dubbed Sapienz, to the press.

Sebastian Anthony

I have an awkward confession to make: growing up, I never owned a SNES. I had a NES, but then no other console until the N64: my dad brought an Olivetti 8086 PC home from the office, and I was much more interested in learning how to use MS-DOS than play games. Imagine the collective chagrin, then, when I was first to receive the SNES Classic Mini, rather than Kyle, Sam, or Mark.

All this is to say: forgive me if I don't do the SNES and its hallowed history justice. I am vaguely aware of what a barrel role is, but I have never performed one. The purpose of this story is to give you a good idea of what's inside the Mini SNES box, and to tell you about a few other special features that haven't been widely publicised. More in-depth coverage from one of the aforementioned Nintendo fanboys will follow.