Hori is meeting the demands of Nintendo fans who want the company name on anything and everything. The problem is that a 32GB Switch-branded SD card will run you about $50 more than your typical Sandisk, Lexar, or Samsung variety, going off the pricing information on Amazon.co.jp. If you’re going to charge me that much, you could at least release a green or pink version with Yoshi or Peach on it. What’s your opinion on branded storage, anyway? Another one I can think of is Seagate’s green Game Drive for Xbox—why not just get a matching black (or white) one?



…Nintendo has partnered with HORI for “official” Switch-branded 16 GB and 32 GB SD cards. While it may be logical that Nintendo would sell official cards (these are for the Japanese launch, but there may end up being Western equivalents) the problem is in the price. The 32 GB card is ¥7,900, or about $70 USD. But on Amazon, the “high end” 32 GB SD card from Sandisk is ¥2,690, or about $23 USD. Past that, if you want a cheaper version with the same amount of storage (but with slower read/write speed perhaps), you can find one for as little as ¥1,180/$10. All of this is to say that it is probably not the smart play to purchase the officially branded SD cards because of this rather severe price mark-up. Paying three times as much as necessary just to get the official Nintendo seal of approval isn’t worth it, and I’m not sure why the price point is what it is here. Keep in mind these are not proprietary memory cards like what we’ve seen with Sony handhelds. Any SD card will work in a Switch.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – New Nintendo Switch Branded SD Cards Cost 3X More Than Normal Ones

If you have recently submitted a public records request for some of the Cockrell Police Department’s evidence, you are probably out of luck, as the agency has lost practically all of their files stored digitally since 2009. This includes body camera video, in-car video, in-house surveillance video, photographs, Microsoft Office documents—you know, stuff that prosecutors and defendants may be interested in. Basically, someone at the agency clicked on the wrong link, and instead of paying up to have the files “unlocked,” the department just decided to wipe it all.



…”none of this was critical information.” “Well, that depends on what side of the jail cell you’re sitting,” said J. Collin Beggs, a Dallas criminal defense lawyer who has a client charged in a Cockrell Hill felony evading case involving some of the lost video evidence. The lost evidence surfaced publicly Wednesday after Beggs questioned a Cockrell Hill police detective in a hearing convened before Criminal District Court Judge Dominique Collins to compel the department to explain why it had not turned over video evidence in his client’s case. Beggs said he had been asking for it since the summer — well before the hacking incident was discovered on Dec. 12. Beggs said the loss of video evidence is significant for his client and others charged in Cockrell Hill cases involving police video. “It makes it incredibly difficult if not impossible to confirm what’s written in police reports if there’s no video,” Beggs said. “The playing field is already tilted in their favor enormously and this tilts it even more.”

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Police Department Loses Years Of Evidence In Ransomware Incident

Some might find it sad that the mere existence of an uncapped framerate option is considered news and cause for celebration, but that is one of the latest reports surrounding the PC version of BioWare’s space RPG. What there won’t be, however, is crossplay, which means we won’t be playing along with console gamers. We also learn a little bit about romancing options, which have always been an amusing aspect of the Mass Effect franchise. The difference in Andromeda, however, is that most of the characters seem dull or simply butt ugly—why would you want to actually kiss one of them?



…Mass Effect Andromeda developers have been drip feeding the fans with a lot of information over social media channels. On the hardware side, those who love to play on PC with unlocked frame rate, have a reason to celebrate, because the option will be supported by the game. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to play with our friends on consoles, because cross-platform multiplayer won’t be included either with PS4 or Xbox One. If you’re wondering what kind of romance options will be included for each gender within the game, you’ll have to wonder for a while longer. Developers have decided not to disclose the full matrix until launch. That said, Gamble appeared to tease that we’ll be able to kiss members of the new alien race presented with the latest cinematic trailer (the name of which has been confirmed to be Angara), so there should be at least one romance option between them.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Mass Effect: Andromeda: No Crossplay, Uncapped Framerate (PC), Romance Details