Month: October 2019

Enlarge / Overwatch running on the Nintendo Switch. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Blizzard has canceled a planned event to promote tomorrow's launch of Overwatch on the Nintendo Switch at Nintendo World's New York City retail location. Nintendo announced the cancellation in a Twitter post late last night, attributing the decision to Blizzard and apologizing for "any inconvenience this may cause."

Blizzard has not responded to a request for comment from Ars Technica (Nintendo simply referred our request back to Blizzard). But the abrupt decision to abandon the long-planned event comes a week after the company briefly banned pro Hearthstone player Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung and stripped him of his tournament winnings. That move came after Blitzchung offered support for the ongoing and long-running Hong Kong protests during an official Hearthstone Grandmasters online broadcast.

The backlash continues

Blizzard later reinstated Blitzchung's winnings and reduced his ban to a six-month suspension, but the damage among many fans seems to have already been done. The replies to Nintendo World's announcement tweet are already filled with hundreds of angry responses, most suggesting Blizzard is kowtowing to Chinese political interests to maintain access to the country's lucrative gaming market.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a modest but notable deal on the Nintendo Switch, as Target is throwing a $25 store gift card in with the purchase of the console at its standard $300 MSRP. The deal applies to the full-fat Switch, not the more portable Switch Lite, but it covers the latest model of the larger console, which has significantly improved battery life compared to the original system that launched in 2017. Similar $25 gift card bundles were available at Amazon and Best Buy earlier this month, but those have since expired.

This isn't a massive discount, and we wouldn't blame you if you held off until Black Friday before pulling the trigger on a new console. That can be said about almost everything tech-related, though, and straight discounts on the Switch have been relatively rare from major retailers. On Prime Day, for instance, Nintendo's main Switch deal kept the console at full price but bundled it with a $35 Nintendo eShop gift card. So if you were really eager to pick up the console today, and you plan to shop at Target again, there are worse offers out there.

If you're all good on the Switch front, though, we also have a truckload of deals on PS4 and Xbox One video games, $20 off one of our favorite portable Bluetooth speakers, discounts on Apple Watches and Roku TVs, and more. Have a look for yourself below.

Enlarge / Components of an offshore windfarm await transport in Billingham, England. (credit: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

The third quarter of 2019 saw the UK's renewable generation pass that of fossil fuels for the first time, according to an analysis by the climate and energy policy group CarbonBrief. The shift is driven by the completion of several enormous offshore windfarms and has been accompanied by a near-elimination of coal on the UK grid. And it comes only four years after the very first day in which renewables outpaced fossil fuels.

Vanishing coal

CarbonBrief performs regular analyses of the UK electrical market based largely on government figures but also incorporating off-grid sources like combined heat and power facilities. In general, its results have been within 3% of the final quarterly figures for the last several years, but the numbers for 2019 are close enough that it remains possible that the first quarterly landmark will have to wait until 2020.

That said, the organization estimates that renewables produced 29.5 TeraWatt-hours in July, August, and September, while fossil fuels only produced 29.1 TW-hr. The news for carbon emissions is even better, as the UK is well on its way toward its goal of eliminating coal-fired generation—almost all of the fossil fuel generation was in the form of natural gas, which has relatively low emissions. The report estimates that less than 1% of the UK's electricity came from coal during the quarter.

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Smartwatches try to get us away from our smartphone screens, but ironically, a smartwatch's screen is one of the most important things about it. While plenty of materials have been used in smartwatch displays (including E-Ink, RIP Pebble), OLED and AMOLED panels have become ubiquitous on high-end wearables.

But Garmin, maker of some of the most comprehensive fitness wearables available, hasn't taken advantage of such screen technology until now. The $399 Garmin Venu is the first of the company's wearables to have an AMOLED display akin to that on the Apple Watch and some WearOS devices.

While it's an extension of the Vivoactive family, the Venu injects a premium feel that Garmin will clearly use to attract those who are drawn to competitors like the Apple Watch. However, just because the Venu looks lovely doesn't mean Garmin has found ways to use that pretty panel to the best of its abilities.