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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio simply cannot stop pumping out Like A Dragon (aka Yakuza) games. The studio and publisher Sega have revealed that the next entry will hit PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Steam on February 28, just 13 months after Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth debuted. The latest spinoff has a typically kooky twist thats not exactly kept secret by its title: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. A seven-minute announcement trailer shown at the studio's RGG Summit features Goro Majima, a regular of the series, explaining what's been going on with him recently. About six months earlier, Majima washed up on an island near Hawaii with no memory of how he got there, only to be helped out by a child with a pet tiger cub. It didn't take long until Majima ran afoul of some pirates and swiftly became a pirate captain himself. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii takes place a year after the events of Infinite Wealth and Ichiban Kasuga's exploits in that game. You'll assemble your crew, upgrade your ship, engage enemy vessels and discover hidden islands. Majima will have two fighting styles that you can switch between on the fly. Opt for the Mad Dog option to vex enemies with "speed, agility and flair," and then switch to Sea Dog to dual wield short swords and "pirate tools," according to a press release. However you slice it, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii already looks way more fun than the 45 minutes I spent playing Skull and Bones. While February 28 isn't too far away in the grand scheme of things, there are plenty of other Like A Dragon-related things to help keep you occupied in the meantime. Like A Dragon: Yakuza, a live-action TV show based on the series, will debut on Prime Video on October 24. The franchise is also debuting on Nintendo Switch the same day with a port of Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first game.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-next-like-a-dragon-game-recasts-a-series-regular-as-an-amnesiac-pirate-142935001.html?src=rss
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The biggest theater chains in the US and Canada are giving their cinemas a major upgrade in hopes of enticing more people to watch movies outside of their homes. According to Variety, they're planning to spend $2.2 billion to modernize 21,000 screens over the next three years even adding activities audiences can do, like pickleball and ziplining. Michael O'Leary, the president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), told the publication that the industry feels it has "turned a corner" and that "audiences are coming back to the theaters." However, they have to do more to make the shared cinematic experience more enjoyable. People have become used to waiting for films to come out on streaming over the past years, after all, and they're not going out for movies they don't feel compelled to see as soon as they come out. The total US domestic revenue for this year's summer box office, for instance, is over 10 percent lower than last year's. Variety says AMC, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark, Cineplex, Marcus Theatres, B&B Theatres, Harkins Theatres and Santikos Entertainment have all told NATO that they're investing money to better their facilities. The companies are expected to spend their budgets on upgrading their laser projectors and their sound systems, as well as on installing more comfortable seating, better AC, lighting and carpeting. And, yes, they're adding new attractions like pickleball courts, arcades, ziplines and bowling alleys, which could change what it means to go to the movies. The image above is a pickleball court at a B&B Theatre cinema. "This investment of resources is the next step in our industrys ongoing commitment to ensuring that going to the theater remains a unique and special experience for generations to come," O'Leary said. Whether the strategy works or not remains to be seen, but that these companies are willing to spend a collective amount of $2.2 billion in upgrades signifies that they're at least in a better place than they were in at the height of the pandemic. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/theater-chains-will-spend-22-billlion-to-lure-you-back-to-the-movies-140054935.html?src=rss
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The AirPods story actually begins with the iPod. With Apples popular personal music player, the company shipped its first set of earbuds. Sure, they were wired and very basic, but the accessory laid the groundwork for what would eventually become AirPods. Along the way, the EarPods would be bundled with the iPhone in 2007, and a 2012 redesign produced something more akin to what would eventually become the first-gen AirPods in 2016. The work the company did to improve the fit of EarPods continues to pay off as Apple prepares to ship the noise-canceling AirPods 4. We had started trying to learn a bit about human physiology and what shapes would fit better in people's ears, Apples Vice President of Hardware Engineering Kate Bergeron told me about those early days. We started doing some MRI scans and trying to figure out how to gather data, but we didn't have a sense of how many scans we'd be looking for, or how many different kinds of ears we needed. Over the years, Apple has developed more efficient methods for gathering data, so it was able to build out its database of ear shapes quicker than in the early days of EarPods. Bergeron explained that she expects the company to be continuing that journey forever when it comes to developing new versions of AirPods. Billy Steele for Engadget During what Bergeron described as the dark days of COVID, a small group from the AirPods team was trying to solve a dilemma. They wanted to bring effective active noise cancellation (ANC) to the open design of the regular AirPods. The crew had already successfully done so on two models of the AirPods Pro and on the AirPods Max headphones. But this time around, it was essential that the open nature of the AirPods remain while also providing the technology to block out distractions. So in 2021, over the course of several days, Bergeron and AirPods marketing director Eric Treski met up at one of Apples acoustic labs for a demo. At that point, the team was unsure if they had anything viable, but they wanted the executives feedback on it nonetheless. We were just blown away, Bergeron recalled. We said we absolutely have something here, we need to go after this and weve got to make it happen. Acoustic and computational work that was required for an effective ANC algorithm was happening simultaneously with iterations on improving the fit and overall comfort for the AirPods 4. After testing the AirPods 4, I can say that the fit and comfort have improved since the third-gen model. But Apple also expanded the earbuds capabilities with the H2 chip and microphones from the AirPods Pro 2. This combination of advanced tech enables Apple to continuously monitor fit in a users ear, updating the ANC algorithm in real time so that the noise blocking is still effective even as the AirPods move around. Its even computationally more intense in many ways than it is with the AirPods Pro, Bergeron said. The ear tip gives you a fit thats pretty consistent. Apples journey with ANC began with the development of the first-generation AirPods Pro that debuted in 2019. Effective active noise cancellation was usually more common on over-ear headphones, with a few exceptions, but Apple realized that making a distraction-free listening experience pocketable was attractive to its users. Of course, the company would follow up with its own headphones, the AirPods Max, before the powerful second-gen AirPods Pro. Treski explained that the ANC setup, or the third generation of Adaptive EQ as he described it, is constantly managing and adjusting any equalizers for both active noise cancellation and audio quality at the same time and in real time. So in addition to the revised shape, the acoustic architecture of the AirPods 4 is also instrumental in providing effective ANC on the open earbuds. Its really, really hard to create this great ANC quality in a non-ear-tip product, he said. The power of the H2 allows that, so were actually doing a lot with the H2 chip to manage ANC quality and listen from the mics for environmental noise to make sure were canceling as much as possible. Billy Steele for Engadget The lack of an ear tip on the AirPods 4 also creates a challenge for transparency mode. Treski noted that its arguably even harder than mastering ANC on open earbuds since youre having to blend ambient sound from the microphones with what youre hearing naturally through your unplugged ears. Theres a perfect mix that will seem real to your brain, but also it has to all be done with extremely low latency so the automatic adjustments dont lead to any delays in what comes through the AirPods. The new shape for the AirPods 4 also provided an opportunity to improve overall sound quality on the earbuds. The front end of the buds, which Bergeron revealed the team calls the snorkel, is very different from the AirPods 3. Since the previous model was more open, she said, the engineers had more freedom to operate. With the new version, the driver had to be adjusted so that it didnt reflect sound to the internal microphone that monitors noise inside your ear. Thats why the drivers are now pointed down your ear canal, and why theyre slightly recessed. In order to get the improved fit, that necessitated adjusting the driver and the front of the product, she said. The mechanical engineers are doing the packaging of the entire product, trying to fit everything in. Acoustic engineers are saying, okay, based on those constraints, this is the best place that we can put the driver. The design overhaul on the AirPods 4 extends to the case as well. Apple was able to slim down the accessory while also simplifying how you interact with it. The end result is the same magic experience, Bergeron noted, but the lack of a button allowed engineers to eliminate overall thickness and rely on an accelerometer. Removing the button also gets rid of one place where liquid could potentially get in, so the case has the same IP54 rating as the new AirPods. We get a double win there for sure, Bergeron said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/weve-got-to-make-it-happen-how-apple-designed-airpods-4-for-effective-anc-130008844.html?src=rss
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