There’s a loose structure for every TV story. Company X designs a TV, we talk about it, and we typically call out whatever the meaningful improvement is in the headline or the first paragraph. Higher resolutions? Quantum dots? OLED panel? Line ’em up, knock’ em down. No big deal. Except, this time, we’re not writing about whether the latest panel (now with patented Taserface technology or something) has more pixels, colors, or capabilities crammed into it. We’re writing about how much work Samsung has done to make its Frame TV concept actually look and behave like, well, wall-hung art.
Smart cars need smart drivers. Or the cars need smart (and safety-conscious) repair shops. Mike Ash replaced the windshield of his semi-self-driving Acura MDX SUV, and then found the car tugged him into the oncoming lane. It turns out the camera that peers ahead through the windshield needs to be re-aligned when the windshield is replaced. Owner’s manuals are already chock full of warnings, so many that it’s hard to know which are really important and which are the imagination of overly cautious lawyers, such as not replacing windshield wipers while the car is moving, or (this is in the Acura manual) not to put engine anti-freeze coolant in the windshield washer bottle because it makes the windshield greasy and hard to see through.
Android tablets used to be a hot ticket item, but interest in tablets generally has waned. That hasn’t stopped Samsung from pumping out tablets at varying price points. We’ve been expecting a new premium Tab S device, and . Surprise: it looks like a large, black slate. The leak suggests this tablet will feature a 10.5-inch OLED display. That would be a small increase over the Tab S3 at 9.7-inches. In general, Tab S3 emulated the iPad in size and appearance. The Tab S4 seems to go off in another direction, though. The iPad and most recent Android tablets have used shorter 4:3 ratio screens.
To celebrate Independence Day, retailers all over the web are launching massive sales. From affordable gaming rigs to 75-inch 4K TVs to early Prime Day discounts, the folks at have put together a standout list of deals. And since Prime Day was officially announced for the 16th of July, we’re quickly ramping up to even more sales. Featured Deals Intel Core i5-8400 Six-core Tower Gaming Desktop with 8GB GTX 1080 for $1149.99 at Dell (Coupon code: 100OFF999 – List price: $1249.99). Intel Core i5-8400 Quad-Core Desktop with GTX 1060 Video Card for $699.99 at Dell (List price: $849.99).
Sony must’ve felt some sympathy with Japan’s World Cup team based on its actions this morning. In the wake of Japan’s crushing loss to Belgium in the 2018 World Cup, the Japanese company managed a stunning own-goal of its own. Instead of uploading the trailer to its upcoming film Khali the Killer to YouTube, Sony managed to upload the entire film instead. This is a rather odd mistake to make. Khali the Killer has already been released in Germany on DVD and has been shown at the Portland Film Festival, Mammoth Film Festival, and at an Anthology Film Archives screening in the United States.
Open world racing games have a special kind of appeal. Not only will the dedicated car enthusiasts among us get satisfaction, but even complete novices can have some arcade-style fun as they step on the gas and explore the beautiful terrain. So the massive coast-to-coast roughly US-shaped landmass of The Crew 2 should be exceptionally exciting in the lead-up to Independence Day, right? Well, don’t light the fireworks just yet. 2014’s The Crew had some gargantuan ambitions, but the lackluster driving, technical hiccups, and problematic design lead to many shrugs from reviewers and players alike. It had incredible ideas, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
Bethesda’s Fallout 76 is the latest casualty of Sony’s refusal to open its platform and allow players from every platform to play together on a common set of servers. This situation, of course, is nothing new — Sony has been blocking cross-play this entire generation and offering up mealy-mouthed excuses about its reasons since 2013. What’s different is that now, publishers are finally and straightforwardly laying the blame directly where it ought to be, as opposed to “technical difficulties.” Last week, Bethesda’s Todd Howard was open and honest about the problem with Fallout 76 and its causes. “You cannot do cross-play in 76,” Howard told in an interview.
Tesla has been dealing with the fallout from Autopilot crashes and overly aggressive Musk tweets in recent months, so a bit of positive news will do the company good. In a recent financial filing, reports that it has reached its Model 3 electric car production goal of 5,000 per week. CEO and founder Elon Musk also calls out an even higher recent production number for all Teslas. The Tesla Model 3 is the company’s first “mainstream” electric vehicle. The Model S and Model X were both premium vehicles with starting prices around $80,000 and $60,000, respectively. The Model 3, by comparison, is a bargain at just $35,000.
Last year, the Steam Hardware Survey went crazy. With relatively little warning, most of the values reported by the company went haywire. Some of the impacts included Windows 7 suddenly becoming more popular than Windows 10, a precipitous market share decline for AMD in both CPU and GPUs, a steep drop in total VR market share, and, more generally speaking, a complete break with the previous data set that made new reports based on the SHS incompatible with any data that had been previously published. At the time, several readers that the problem was related to PUBG, which had just gone live in China.
