Month: June 2018

Enlarge / "AirPower" wireless charging mat.

Alongside the debut of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 handsets, Apple talked about a wireless charging mat it would debut to complement those new devices. But the company has been incredibly quiet about the mat, dubbed AirPower, ever since.

According to a report from Bloomberg, "technical hurdles" have delayed the launch of the AirPower wireless charging mat. The device was slated to be released in June 2018, but it will now likely be released either before or in September of this year.

Apple has had to address issues regarding overheating and the "complexity of the circuitry" within the mat. The device will be designed to wirelessly charge up to three devices at once; compatible products include the iPhone X, iPhone 8 models, Apple Watch Series 3 devices, and AirPod earbuds once their rumored wireless charging case comes out.

Enlarge / President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at the Amsoil Arena on June 20, 2018 in Duluth Minnesota.

Fresh off an appearance at a National Space Council meeting Monday, space was evidently on his mind when President Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Duluth, Minn., on Wednesday night. "Our beautiful ancestors won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and put a man on the face of the Moon," he told his adulatory crowd. "And I think you saw the other day, we're reopening NASA. We're going to be going to space."

The crowd responded by chanting, "Space Force! Space Force!"

The most obvious response to such a comment is to laugh. NASA has never closed, of course. NASA's budget, in terms of raw dollars, has never been larger. Additionally, the Space Force has nothing to do with NASA, it is a military enterprise. And the United States, thanks to SpaceX, is launching as many orbital rockets today as almost any time in history. We have never been more in space than we are now.

Enlarge (credit: Larian Studios)

LOS ANGELES—Larian Studios had been making OK-to-pretty-good PC RPGs for years. The company had its dedicated fans, but it was hardly mainstream. So 2014's Kickstarter-driven Divinity: Original Sin surprised many by being not just the studio's best game, but maybe one of the best PC-style RPGs ever made.

You could argue that Original Sin didn't quite reach that state until the Enhanced Edition, though. That launched alongside console ports for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2015. The update added full voice acting, greatly improved the multiplayer experience, added couch co-op and a 360-degree camera, and made significant changes to content.

Last year, critics and fans seemed mostly to agree that the sequel, Divinity: Original Sin 2, was even better than the first game's Enhanced Edition. It included all the enhanced features from that title and more. So with the Definitive Edition of Original Sin 2 coming August 31, what is there left to add?

Enlarge (credit: Larian Studios)

LOS ANGELES—Larian Studios had been making OK-to-pretty-good PC RPGs for years. The company had its dedicated fans, but it was hardly mainstream. So 2014's Kickstarter-driven Divinity: Original Sin surprised many by being not just the studio's best game, but maybe one of the best PC-style RPGs ever made.

You could argue that Original Sin didn't quite reach that state until the Enhanced Edition, though. That launched alongside console ports for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2015. The update added full voice acting, greatly improved the multiplayer experience, added couch co-op and a 360-degree camera, and made significant changes to content.

Last year, critics and fans seemed mostly to agree that the sequel, Divinity: Original Sin 2, was even better than the first game's Enhanced Edition. It included all the enhanced features from that title and more. So with the Definitive Edition of Original Sin 2 coming August 31, what is there left to add?