Vampire Survivors, if you haven’t heard of it, is a delightful game about leveling up and destroying literally thousands of monsters in a single run. I’d describe it as roguelike-ish; you pick a starting character with certain attributes and a specific weapon, and you’ll level up that weapon, other weapons, and other items as you collect gems by defeating enemies. Your weapons fire automatically, so you mostly just have to worry about picking up experience and items while avoiding baddies.

The game launched in Early Access on Steam late last year, and has received regular updates that add things like new characters, weapons, power-ups, stages, and special items, though you typically have to unlock them by completing certain requirements. The game is an absolute blast, but unlocking everything can be challenging and time-consuming. I’ve already put 40 hours into Vampire Survivors, but the in-game menu tells me I still have 26 things I can unlock. When I look at that list, I sometimes get demotivated and choose to play something else.

THE NEW “SECRETS” MENU ACCEPTS “SPELLS”

The new cheats menu — in game, it’s called the “Secrets” menu — might solve that demotivation in a big way. It accepts codes (“spells”) to unlock characters, special items (“relics”), and stages, meaning that I now can choose what I want to unlock myself and what to just cheat for. I still want to unlock most things by actually completing the requirements, but there are a few things that I just haven’t wanted to bother with, and thanks to this Secrets menu, I can easily get what I’m less interested in.

A tale of life, tying past to future

A heartfelt RPG adventure awaits in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Join Noah, Mio and their friends as they traverse epic landscapes, battle ferocious creatures and fight to break the never-ending cycle of violence that binds their homelands. Through a chance encounter, a group of six soldiers hailing from rival nations resolve to put aside their differences and work together to expose a new threat – far greater than that of the ceaseless war.

Fight to live and live to fight

Aionios is a world of natural splendour, and the backdrop to an endless conflict between two opposing nations: Keves and Agnus. Time is of the essence for the people of Aionios, who fight relentlessly to extend their lives long enough to realise a 10-year period of service.

RELATED STORYNathan Birch

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Story DLC Same Size as Torna, Series to Go on “as Long as Possible”

Keves

A nation where mechanical technology was developed. Its armies deploy units comprised mainly of combat vehicles – small, mobile weapons operated by soldiers riding them.

Agnus

A nation strong in ether, a magical technology. Its forces are built around units that specialise in ether combat, and they fight with small, mobile, autonomous weapons that use ether technology.

In his most recent Power On newsletter, Gurman says the Apple Watch “Pro” will incorporate a fresh design. The company hasn’t redesigned its wearable line since it introduced the Series 4 in 2018. Gurman notes the new model will be “a good bit bigger” than Apple’s current Series 7 models to accommodate a screen that is seven percent larger. “It also won’t have those rumored flat sides,” he adds, noting the redesign will represent “an evolution of the current rectangular shape.”

Additionally, Apple will reportedly employ “a more durable formulation of titanium” for the casing that should make the smartwatch better suited for extreme sports. With a bigger battery and Apple’s long-rumored “Low Power Mode,” Gurman says the Apple Watch Pro could go multiple days on a single charge. It will also include the rumored body temperature sensor Apple is preparing for the entire Series 8 line.

A high-end Apple Watch is one of many products Apple is reportedly working on for the fall and beyond. Gurman previously said the company plans to

“Stray,” a new videogame for Sony’s SONY, +3.42% PlayStation and Microsoft MSFT, +2.08% Windows, lets players explore a subterranean, cyberpunk city as ginger tabby that’s trying to claw its way back to its family. 

The $29.99 third-person platform adventure and puzzle game — from French development studio BlueTwelve, and published by Annapurna Interactive — has drawn plenty of hype since it was first teased during the 2020 PS5 reveal event. (A newer trailer released on June 2 has already been viewed more than 1.7 million times on PlayStation’s YouTube account.) 

And now the long awaited “cat game” is here — and players and their feline friends are already obsessed. 

Some mild spoilers follow: The gist of the game is that you play a lost, stray cat navigating a subterranean city populated by robots. The goal is to get back to the surface world, where your feline friends live. Your stray soon teams up with a sentient drone named B12 (who can talk to the humanoid robots for your cat character), and the two of you explore the city and solve puzzles to find your way home, discovering what happened to all of the humans along the way — while also avoiding hungry monsters who want to eat this cute kitty up almost as much as the players do. 

“Stray” was trending on Twitter on both Monday and Tuesday, around the game’s launch, drawing more than 363,000 tweets by late Tuesday afternoon. And perhaps the most adorable early trend featured gamers posting videos of their own cats being transfixed by the nameless, pawed

Pei’s peculiarly named start-up officially pulled the wraps off its debut smartphone Tuesday, after months of dropping hints and teasers about the look of the device. Called Phone 1, it’s the second product launch from the company to date.

Based in London, Nothing was established by Pei in 2020. The firm launched its first gadget last summer, a set of wireless earbuds called Ear 1 and has sold 560,000 units so far.

On the face of it, Phone 1 is similar to Apple’s latest iPhones. The phone runs Android features a dual-camera with two 50-megapixel sensors and 5G mobile connectivity, along with standard hardware you’d find in a mid-range smartphone, like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G+ chipset.

Edgy design

The most intriguing thing about Phone 1 is its design.

WATCH NOW

VIDEO02:35

China’s Realme discusses its expansion into Europe’s high-end market

The phone has a transparent back that shows off a unique pattern of shapes and lines, or “glyphs.” The company says it was inspired by a modernist version of the New York City subway map from Italian designer Massimo Vignelli in the 1970s.

Another quirk to the phone is that it lights up — literally — when you receive a call or app notification. The device is kitted out with 900 small LED lights that flicker intermittently in tandem with a range of robotic-sounding ringtones when you get a call from someone.

There’s also a feature called “Flip to Glyph,” which mutes the phone when you turn it face down, showing only blinking lights when receiving a call or notification.

In an interview with CNBC last year, Pei described Nothing’s product design as “retro-futuristic,” drawing inspiration from numerous subjects ranging from old Sony products to luxury fashion designs.

The Chinese-Swedish tech entrepreneur said he thinks modern hardware feels “cold” and that “innovation has slowed down a lot” at Apple, which changed the world with the launch of the first iPhone in 2007.

In terms of software, the Phone 1 runs on the latest version of Android. It includes a feature that lets Tesla owners open their car’s doors, among other interactions, thanks to a partnership with Elon Musk’s electric vehicle firm.

The answer to the July 8 Wordle, puzzle #384, can be found at the end of this article, with the spoiler clearly signposted. If you're not ready to find out the solution yet, read on for a few tips, gentle hints, and strategies to help you puzzle it out today and every day.

Who made Wordle? Where did Wordle come from?

Wordle's sudden explosion at the end of 2021 led to a round of press focused on its creator. Former Reddit engineer Josh Wardle actually came up with the game in 2021 as a private exercise for him and his word game-loving partner. It eventually became a staple of their family WhatsApp messaging, and that's when Wardle started to suspect he might have something special enough to merit a wider release. (So special, in fact, that the New York Times bought it from him in early 2022.)

This isn’t the first time Gurman has brought up the possibility of the Series 8 including a temperature sensor. He first mentioned Apple was working on the feature back in June 2021, reporting that it would likely arrive with the company’s 2022 wearable lineup. He backtracked on that prediction in January, warning fans that blood sugar monitoring was among a handful of capabilities that were a few years away.

However, a few months later, he said the Series 8 would include a body temperature sensor, provided the feature passed Apple’s internal testing guidelines. Now, writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says he believes the feature is “a go” for the standard Series 8 and the oft-rumored rugged edition Apple is creating for extreme athletes.

Gurman says other changes to the Series 8 “will probably be minor.” Reiterating his reporting from last week, he suggests the wearable will feature the same processing power as the Series 7 and Series 6. He also mentions that higher-end Series 8 models could include an updated display. Another device that reportedly won’t come with many upgrades is the second-generation AirPods Pro. Gurman writes that they won’t include heart rate or body temperature monitoring features, as had been suggested by some reports. “I’m told that neither feature is likely to arrive in the 2022 upgrade, though both enhancements have been explored inside the company and could arrive one day,” he says.

Stranger still, Amazon framed this copycatting ability as a way to commemorate lost loved ones. It played a demonstration video in which Alexa read to a child in the voice of his recently deceased grandmother. Prasad stressed that the company was seeking ways to make AI as personal as possible. “While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, he said, "it can definitely make the memories last.” An Amazon spokesperson told Engadget that the new skill can create a synthetic voiceprint after being trained on as little as a minute of audio of the individual it's supposed to be replicating.

At Amazon’s Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for the Alexa team, detailed a feature that allows the voice assistant to replicate a specific human voice.

In a demonstration video, a child said, “Alexa, can Grandma finish reading me the Wizard of Oz?”

Alexa confirmed the request with the default, robotic voice, then immediately switched to a softer, more humanlike tone, seemingly mimicking the child’s family member.

The Alexa team developed a model that allows its voice assistant to produce a high-quality voice with “less than a minute of recorded audio,” Prasad said.

The feature is currently in development, Prasad said. Amazon did not say when the feature will roll out to the public.