Month: September 2022

Enlarge (credit: Mao et. al.)

Scientists at Johannes Kepler University (JKU) have created steerable soft robots that are capable of running, swimming, and jumping at high speeds. During testing, the robots achieved a speed of 70 BL/s (body lengths per second). These results are striking because even a cheetah (the fastest land animal on Earth) can only run up to 23 BL/s. But don’t expect absolute speed records, as the robots have millimeter-scale bodies—although these tiny machines are probably the fastest soft robots on the planet.

Soft robots are different from the conventional robots you see in factories, restaurants, and science exhibitions. They are constructed using flexible materials like polymers and shape-memory alloys (these alloys change their form with a change in temperature). Soft materials allow the robots to function in a way similar to that of a living organism (or a living tissue). By contrast, conventional robots are made from rigid materials like plastic, aluminum, and metal.

For a long time, scientists have been trying to create soft robots fast enough to work in extreme environments where no other machines would function. Such robots could play an important role in the medical field. For instance, ultrafast robots might replace invasive methods like a colonoscopy. Doctors could use fast soft robots to check for any anomalies in body organs (like the stomach) that are difficult to examine with conventional diagnostic robots.

Somehow, it's easier to get a camera connected to a Pi to detect dogs than it is to find a Raspberry Pi in stock at retail price. (credit: Raspberry Pi)

The latest Raspberry Pi OS version adds menu search, a more mainstream network and VPN manager, and plenty of camera and machine learning possibilities through a new open source camera package.

None of these additions will do much for you if you can't find a Raspberry Pi for less than twice its price, but they'll likely make setting up a Pi much easier when you're able to get one.

The main menu of the Pi OS is now searchable by text and provides instant results as you type. It's not a dedicated search box, but it shows up if you hit the Raspberry/Windows key or click the menu button and start typing.

While details about the next Zelda game provided Nintendo's big kicker this morning, the company's latest 45-minute "Direct" presentation was packed full of first-party Nintendo creations, Japanese RPGs, and a lot of remakes and ports from other platforms. Here's a quick roundup of everything we managed to jot down:

First-party Nintendo releases

Fire Emblem Engage is set after the main character's thousand-year slumber.

• Fire Emblem Engage is coming to the Switch on January 20, 2023, and it features familiar characters like Marth and Cecilia, alongside new partners. While the game is set after the protagonist wakes up from a 1,000-year slumber, its tactical positioning and ally recruitment will look familiar to anyone who knows the series.
• Shigeru Miyamoto was excited to announce Pikmin 4, coming to the Switch in 2023, as the next game in the two-decade-old franchise. Very few details were revealed, but Miyamoto seemed excited about an included low-angle, Pikmin-eye-view of the action.
• More N64 games are coming to Nintendo's expanded Switch Online subscription. GoldenEye 007 is the highlight here, and it's "coming soon" to the Switch, complete with online play. Aside from that, Pilotwings 64 and Mario Party 1 and 2 will hit in 2022, while Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, 1080 Snowboarding, and Excitebike 64 will be released "gradually" in 2023.
• Bayonetta 3 is still barreling toward its October 28 release, which will come with an optional "put on more clothes" mode.
• Nintendo's next partnership with Ubisoft in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is planned for October 20 and features many new characters and abilities to spice up the tactical battles.

Japanese RPGs galore

More like Nonopath Traveler, amirite?

• Square Enix's Various Daylife is available for Switch download later today. It combines elements of adventure and simulation-based RPGs and focuses on its characters' day-to-day activities.
• A sequel to Square Enix's stylish 2018 release Octopath Traveler will hit the Switch with eight new, highly varied adventurers on February 24, 2023.
• Koei Tecmo's Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key looks like an extremely generic fantasy RPG from its brief teaser. It hits the Switch on February 24, 2023.
• Fae Farm will be a Switch exclusive in the spring of 2023, combining the serene relaxation of a farming sim with magical spells, mischievous foes, and exploration through mystical realms.
• From the makers of Danganronpa, Master Detective Archives: Raincode follows a group of detectives that come from all over the world to solve the mystery of a city covered by perpetual rain. Look for it in the spring of 2023.
• Farming RPG Harvestella will release on November 4, but those who play a free demo available today can transfer their progress over to the full release.

Ports and remasters abound

Who's in the mood for some new (old) Kirby?

• Nintendo is remaking the Wii's Kirby's Return to Dream Land into a Deluxe Switch release with four-player local co-op, now with the ability for all four players to control a version of Kirby. A large collection of "subgames" will also feature when the remake hits on February 24, 2023.
• Square Enix's Front Mission tactical mech RPGs are getting Switch re-releases. The first game will hit the Switch in November, with Front Mission 2 coming in 2023 as that game's first Western release. Front Mission 3 will be released on the Switch "sometime in the future" as well.
• Koei Tecmo's Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse will see its first Western release in early 2023 with a Switch port of the 2008 Wii release.
• Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life remakes the 2003 Gamecube farm sim, complete with characters that can have kids that grow up to choose their own paths through life. It's coming in the summer of 2023.
• Speaking of Harvest Moon, Rune Factory 3 Special remakes the 2010 Nintendo DS spinoff for the Switch next year with a new mode focused on spending "quality time with your spouse," according to a press release. A new Rune Factory series has also been promised "in the future."
• A cloud-streamed version of Resident Evil Village will be playable on the Switch on October 28. A free demo is available today, and DLC will be added on December 2.
• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion remasters the FFVII prequel with new combat and HD graphics, coming to the Switch on December 23.
• A port of well-loved color-based shoot-em-up Radiant Silvergun is available on the Switch starting today.
• A remastered version of Gamecube RPG Tales of Symphonia is coming to the Switch in early 2023.
• Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song was a 2005 PS2 remake of the SNES RPG original. That remake is now getting a "Remastered" Switch take on December 1.
• Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection comes to the Switch this month.
• Language-focused Zelda-like Tunic is coming to the Switch on September 27.
• Survival/production sim Factorio is coming to the Switch on October 28.
• Multiplayer-required platformer It Takes Two is coming to the Switch on November 4.
• Martial arts/aging simulation Sifu is coming to the Switch on November 8.
• Just Dance 2023 Edition will release in 2022. November 22, to be precise.
• Psychological horror/art gallery game Ib is coming to the Switch in spring 2023

And the rest...

Exercise is much more interesting when it involves punching muscular anime men.

• A free update to Nintendo Switch Sports will add golf to the game, complete with a simultaneous multiplayer mode. That addition has been delayed from the fall to a planned "Holiday 2022" release.
• Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star was the weirdest game of the day, asking you to punch and dodge to the beat to take out the requisite anime beefcakes. Look for it in March 2023.
• Oddballers is a cute local multiplayer game with various takes on dodgeball for up to six players. It hits the Switch next year.
• SpongeBob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake looks like a bog-standard licensed platformer and is planned for sometime next year.
• Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line will include a whopping 385 songs from the Final Fantasy series to tap and swipe along to, plus DLC with tracks from SaGa, Nier, Octopath Traveller, and Live a Live. Local and online multiplayer modes will also be included when this hits the Switch on February 16, 2023.
• Sega's roguelike Endless Dungeon will let up to three players join together in exploring a series of pretty generic-looking underground caves that are never the same twice. It hits the Switch next year.
• Dreamworks' Super Mario movie and Universal Hollywood's Super Nintendo World are still both on track to open next spring, according to Shigeru Miyamoto.

Enlarge / A series of four example color palettes extracted from short written prompts by Matt DesLauriers. (credit: Matt DesLauriers)

A London-based artist named Matt DesLauriers has developed a tool to generate color palettes from any text prompt, allowing someone to type in "beautiful sunset" and get a series of colors that matches a typical sunset scene, for example. Or you could get more abstract, finding colors that match "a sad and rainy Tuesday."

To achieve the effect, DesLauriers uses Stable Diffusion, an open source image synthesis model, to generate an image that matches the text prompt. Next, a JavaScript GIF encoder named gifenc extracts the palette information by analyzing the image and quantizing the colors down to a certain set.

DesLauriers has posted his code on GitHub; it requires a local Stable Diffusion installation and Node.JS. It's a bleeding-edge prototype at the moment that requires some technical skill to set up, but it's also a noteworthy example of the unexpected graphical innovations that can come from open source releases of powerful image synthesis models. Stable Diffusion, which went open source on August 22, generates images from a neural network that has been trained on tens of millions of images pulled from the Internet. Its ability to draw from a wide range of visual influences translates well to extracting color palette information.

Enlarge / Former Twitter security executive Peiter Zatko testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 13, 2022. (credit: Senate Judiciary Committee)

The Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate Judiciary Committee blasted Twitter for alleged security failures in a letter last night on the eve of today's hearing featuring testimony from whistleblower Peiter "Mudge" Zatko.

"We write regarding recent allegations that Twitter has turned a blind eye to foreign intelligence infiltration, does not adequately protect user data, and has provided misleading or inaccurate information about its security practices to government agencies," Judiciary Committee Chair Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

Zatko, who was Twitter's head of security from November 2020 until being fired in January 2022, alleged in his complaint that he "uncovered extreme, egregious deficiencies by Twitter in every area of his mandate including... user privacy, digital and physical security, and platform integrity/content moderation." Zatko also claimed Twitter is guilty of "lying about bots to Elon Musk," though his complaint doesn't seem to disprove Twitter's public disclosure that less than 5 percent of its monetizable daily active users (mDAU) are spam or fake.

Enlarge / Amazon's newest Kindle e-reader. (credit: Amazon)

For years, Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite has been the best Kindle for most people to buy, compared to the standard no-adjective Kindle. It was the first to get a front-lit, high-resolution screen; waterproofing; and USB-C... the list goes on. But today, Amazon announced a new $100 Kindle that includes almost all of the best features from the latest Paperwhite for $40 less. The new device is available for preorder now and will be released on October 12.

Compared to the previous-generation Kindle, the new 11th-generation model bumps the pixel density from 167 PPI up to 300 PPI, the same level as Amazon's other Kindles. This makes text appreciably sharper and nicer-looking. Storage is doubled from 8GB to 16GB, not something you'll notice if you primarily read text but more useful if you listen to lots of audiobooks. And the micro USB charging port is gone, replaced by a modern USB-C port that will let you charge the device using the same connector you use for most modern laptops, phones, tablets, and game consoles.

The new Kindle is $10 more expensive than the one it replaces, and the price goes up to $120 if you want the version with no lock screen ads. A Kindle Kids edition with an extended two-year warranty, one of three colorful covers, and a one-year subscription to Amazon's Kids+ service is also $120 (it won't show your kids ads by default, but Amazon says it will display ads if you exit Kindle Kids mode).

Enlarge / It's back, "soon." (credit: Danjaq / MGM)

One of retro gaming's worst-kept secrets has finally been confirmed by a tangled web of game publishers and license holders. GoldenEye 007, the legendary 1997 first-person shooter that changed the genre on home consoles, is coming back.

This Nintendo 64 game's revival is a case of "mostly good news, some bad news," as we're left reading between the lines of two vague announcements from the two biggest companies involved. The best news, at least, is that we now have two announced re-releases for the game, each covered in copyright notices from the Bond license holders at MGM (now wholly owned by Amazon) and longtime Bond series handler Danjaq.

Switch: “Coming soon with online play”

The first confirmation came from Nintendo itself as part of its latest Nintendo Direct announcement frenzy (which, among other things, finally confirmed the next mainline Legend of Zelda game's name). One portion of the showcase focused squarely on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription service, which costs $50 per year and includes a number of downloadable N64 games.