Lenovo has revealed its latest batch of devices geared toward students. Perhaps the most eye-catching offering is a Snapdragon 7c-powered Windows 11 tablet. The company suggests the 10w Tablet might be a great fit for younger students, since the device has a rugged design with a rubber bumper and Corning Gorilla Glass on the Full HD, 10.1-inch display. The screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio and 400 nits of brightness. There are 2MP front-facing and 8MP rear-facing cameras too.

The tablet comes with a detachable keyboard and there’s an optional pen. The 10w Tablet has a 30Whr battery and comes with up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 128GB of eMMC storage. Unfortunately, there’s only one USB-C port, but there is a headphone jack, which should help students avoid having to fiddle with the Windows Bluetooth settings. The tablet weighs 573g (1.26 lbs) and 1.1kg (2.42 lbs) with the keyboard.

Lenovo suggests the Snapdragon platform will help deliver responsive performance, dependable WiFi connectivity and an extended battery life. The ARM-based Windows experience hasn’t historically beengreat, but we haven’t seen Windows 11 running on Snapdragon 7c chipsets as yet. Microsoft has seemingly improved the Windows-on-ARM experience, however. 

The 10w Tablet and keyboard bundle starts at $239 and it’s expected to ship in the US in April.

For (perhaps older) students who need extra power, Lenovo is also planning to ship the 13w Yoga convertible laptop in April. The system is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5000 U-series processor with on-chip graphics.

The laptop has a 13.3-inch, Full HD display with 300 nits of brightness. The front-facing 1080p camera has a privacy shutter and you’ll find a 5MP camera on the rear. There’s an optional fingerprint reader on the power button too.

The 13w Yoga includes up to 16GB of 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM (which users can upgrade) and up to a 512GB SSD. Lenovo says it has Dolby Audio and a 51Whr battery.

The connectivity options are far more generous than on the 10w Tablet. Along with an audio jack, there are two USB-C 3.2 ports, one USB-A 3.2 port, a full SD card reader and HDMI 2.0. There’s WiFi 6 and optional 4G LTE support as well. The 13w Yoga will start at $749.

In addition, Lenovo announced a partnership with VictoryXR to offer educational experiences in virtual reality. Students will be able to access more than 60 VR titles from VictoryXR, centered around science, history and career and technical education. They’ll be able to virtually visit the likes of The Great Wall of China and see California Redwoods.

Source: Engadget – Lenovo made a 9 Snapdragon-powered Windows 11 tablet for students

Microsoft’s bid for Activision Blizzard may be the highlight of the day, but the company also revealed a major milestone for its Game Pass service in the process. The all-you-can-play offering now has over 25 million subscribers, a nearly 39 percent jump over the 18 million it had a year earlier. The company didn’t say how many of those customers were using the service on Xbox consoles, Windows PCs or both.

It’s a significant figure for the service, if not as big as the company would have liked. As Axiosnoted, Microsoft missed its Game Pass growth target for the fiscal year that ended in June 2021 — it hoped for a 48 percent year-over-year jump in members, but ‘only’ managed 37 percent. While this was still strong and preceded the release of Halo Infinite, the company is clearly eager to improve Game Pass’ performance.

That, in turn, explains one of the reasons for the Activision Blizzard deal. Microsoft has made clear that it intends to offer Activision Blizzard games through Game Pass. The $10 or more you’re asked to pay each month might become far more compelling if you know you’ll always have the latest Call of Duty or World of Warcraft release on top of Game Pass’ other titles. Although the merger might not complete until 2023, it could preserve Game Pass’ momentum and help fend off looming competition from Sony.

Source: Engadget – Microsoft Game Pass tops 25 million subscribers

It took more than a decade, but Weird Al is finally about to get the documentary he has always deserved. You may recall back in 2010 Funny Or Die released a trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The clip promised an unflinching look at Yankovic’s life with performances from actors like Aaron Paul, Olvia Wilde and Gary Cole. We’re not about to get that film (sadly), but Roku may just give us the next best thing.

Fortnite may be on to a new chapter, but Epic Games is keen to bring back the past in more ways than one. To begin with, the developer has added decidedly Toothless-like climbable monsters (Klombos) that traverse the map. You can use the blowholes on their heads to fly away from pursuing rivals, and feed them fruit (Klomberries) to get items. They’re normally peaceful, but can be provoked into a frenzy.

The latest update also revives Tilted Towers, arguably Fortnite‘s best-known location. While there appear to be some cosmetic changes, you’ll have the chance to revisit the sniper-friendly clock tower, scour restaurants for items and otherwise take a nostalgia trip. While we’d expect this to be a hot drop zone for at least a little while (i.e. don’t expect to last long), it might be worth a visit to see an iconic area that hasn’t been available for two years.

Whatever your travel plans, you’ll want to be aware of a couple of smaller gameplay-related updates. The grenade launcher has returned with more direct firing and rounds that explode after their first bounce. And if you’re skilled enough to earn more than 99 Crowned Victory Royales, the matching Crowning Achievement emote now displays that number. Your bragging rights remain intact, and you might just have the weapon needed to back them up.

Source: Engadget – Fortnite’s latest update adds climbable monsters and brings back Tilted Towers

Grilling season will be here before you know it, so one of the biggest names in backyard cooking is tipping its hand for spring. Today, Weber announced it’s 2022 lineup of smart grills with options for cooks who prefer gas or pellet-burning options. No matter the fuel source, all of the new models teased here are equipped with the company’s WiFi-enabled Weber Connect technology. With it, you can control and monitor your grill from your phone, keeping tabs on the cooking process while you work on side dishes or relax with guests. 

Weber Connect was first available on the Smart Grilling Hub, but its big debut came on the first-gen SmokeFire pellet grills. The technology not only provides recipes, but it also guides you through the entire cooking process on a step-by-step basis, from how to prepare meat to when to flip and how long to rest before slicing. In a bid to outsmart the competition, the app also provides estimated doneness times so you’re not left guessing when that brisket will finally hit 205 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2021, the company brought the technology to its Genesis line of gas grills, offering the same convenience as SmokeFire with a more commonly used fuel source — plus the ability to monitor your propane tank level. 

For 2022, Weber is taking convenience a step further with a range of new Genesis gas grills and a new version of SmokeFire. First, the Genesis lineup of smart grills still feature Weber Connect on top of PureBlu high-heat burners, sear zone, side table, expandable top cooking grate and “Nightvision.” As the name implies that last item allows you to see the grilling surface after dark, with motion-sensing LEDs that can illuminate the entire cooking area when you open the lid — including the side tables/burner. The lights are on the reverse side of the handle, with a power button on outside to turn them completely off. Weber says the new Genesis models will come in both three- and four-burner options as well as models with porcelain-enamel or stainless steel finishes. 

For the SmokeFire pellet grill this year, Weber is going all black. Dubbed the Stealth Edition, the black-on-black color scheme nixes the silver accents from the original along the sides of the lid, the side shelf and the handles. Weber Connect is still on board, helping you with everything from high heat searing to low-and-slow smoking. The overall design is the same, except for the addition of an interior light for better visibility. As someone who has used a SmokeFire grill before sunrise and after dark, some built-in illumination is a welcome change. 

Alongside the grills, Weber is also introducing new accessories it’s calling Weber Crafted. The collection of tools includes a dual-sided sear grate, flat-top griddle, baking stone (for pizza, etc), roasting basket, wok/steamer combo and rotisserie skewers. Special grates and an insert allow you to swap out the accessories on charcoal, gas or pellet grills. The company explains that these add-ons let you steam, bake, roast and more, and you can do so on the grill rather than having to venture inside. Plus, the new Genesis grills have a compartment and hooks for storing the new goods. No word on pricing yet, but each item will be sold separately when they arrive this spring.

The new Genesis models and the Stealth Edition of SmokeFire will also go on sale this spring. The former will range from $1,049-$2,149 while the latter is $1,599. 

Source: Engadget – Weber’s 2022 smart grill lineup includes gas and pellet options

OlliOlli and its sequel, OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood, are notoriously difficult to master. These side-scrolling skateboarding games start out easily enough, but if you want to complete every challenge, get ready to play and replay some levels dozens of times over. It can be infuriating, but also extremely satisfying to pull off just the right combo of tricks and grinds needed for a big score.

I was worried that OlliOlli World, a new direction for the series that arrives on February 8th, was going to dispense with that level of challenge. After playing an extended preview of the game over the last week, I’m no longer concerned. Developer Roll7 has made a game that’s significantly more approachable than the original titles — but one that keeps the twitch-response gameplay and score-chasing highs intact for those who crave them.

For the uninitiated, OlliOlli World is a, 2.5D skateboarding platformer where your character simply has to make it from one end of the course to the other while pulling off as many tricks and combos as possible. That’s the same basic formula as the original games, but the scope of OlliOlli World is much greater. The game is split into five different areas, three of which were playable in my demo. The first one, Sunshine Valley, had close to 20 distinct levels, a handful of which were merely training levels meant to introduce the basics of skating, grinding and pulling off different tricks. But even if you don’t count those levels, there’s far more to explore in OlliOlli World than the two earlier games, each of which had 50 levels total.

There’s a host of ways to challenge yourself as you skate through these levels. For starters, you need to navigate grind rails, gaps, ramps and other obstacles to get to the end before you can progress. In a concession to the game’s history of bruising difficulty, though, levels now have checkpoints — so if you blow it 90 percent of the way through the level, you can try that last segment again. Of course, if you had a huge combo going that got interrupted, you’ll lose out on that opportunity for big points. But this at least makes it easier to learn levels and work on problem spots without having to tackle the entire course again.

But the levels are both extremely well designed and visually interesting, so I was eager to play and replay them until I mastered all the challenges and found as many secrets as I possibly could. The world is populated with colorful and fantastical creatures like walking bananas, smiling trees, giant bees holding signs for you to wall ride on, huge frogs (sometimes riding those giant bees) and, of course, the Skate Godz that you meet at the end of each world.

See, your character is on a quest to become the new Skate Wizard, with the help of a goofy and delightful animated crew, including Chiffon, the one-eyed, pipe-smoking current Skate Wizard who’s ready to retire. To take their place, you’ll need to meet all of the Skate Godz that inhabit the five different zones you can play through. Each level has some banter with your crew as well as people you meet on your journeys, full of ridiculous puns and occasional advice on how to improve your scores or pull off new moves. You can skip it if you want, but it helped me get in the headspace of the gorgeous world of Radlandia.

It’s hard to sum up in words what makes the individual levels in OlliOlli World so compelling, but they mix serious challenge in with moments that let you really get into that elusive flow state, where you’re just pulling off tricks, riding rails and generally tearing through a course without thinking too much about what you’re doing. The music, sound effects, art style, level design and variety of moves you can pull off all contribute to this vibe — and even though the game looks entirely different from its predecessors, the end result is the same: skateboarding bliss.

My skills from the original OlliOlli games translated here, but there are plenty of new things to challenge long-time players. The game isn’t straight 2D anymore, which means there are multiple paths you can discover through many levels, something that seriously adds to replayability and challenge of these levels. Each level has multiple goals you’re presented with at the beginning, and meeting them all will almost certainly require multiple plays, especially as the game goes on and the tracks get more complex. 

Indeed, by the time I got about halfway through the third world in the game, I was seriously struggling to check off all of a level’s goals. The good news is you can keep progressing without beating all three challenges, nor are you penalized for using checkpoints, but the game is so well designed that I wanted to keep going back and trying to best my earlier scores and nail those goals.

There are plenty of new moves like grabs to pull off, and quarter-pipes let you change the direction your skater is going in. It sounds simple, but having your skater go right-to-left instead of the opposite really threw me for a loop, but I also audibly cheered the first time I skated into one of those quarter-pipes. They add a whole new dimension to the game that I wasn’t expecting.

It’s also worth mentioning some of the other ways Roll7 made this game more approachable than the earlier ones. Besides the aforementioned checkpoints, it’s a lot harder to wipe out now. Earlier games required you to press a button when landing, or else you’d lose all your momentum as well as the points you accumulated from a trick. Now, you can land without having to worry about that step — but pulling off so-called “perfect” landings increases your speed and score.

The main game is a deep experience, but Roll7 added new features for those who love to chase high scores. Every time you finish a level, you’ll see a rival player’s score that you’re then challenged to best. It’s subtle, just showing your rival’s high score beneath your best score — but these challenges taunted me into playing a few extra rounds to try and beat that challenge. OlliOlli World is smart enough to match you with players of your own skill level, so if your high score tops out at 100,000, you won’t be challenged to beat someone who got 1 million on a level; the rival scores are usually around 20 percent higher than your own best. It’s good encouragement to push yourself even harder through a level.

OlliOlli World also offers daily challenges through the Gnarvana League, which you unlock once you finish the game’s first area. Here, you join a league where you’re pitted against nine competitors who again skate at a similar skill level to you. The levels change every day, and you’re simply trying to put up the best score in your group. As you play, you can get promoted to other leagues, where the courses presumably will get trickier. I’ll readily admit that after putting up a score that put me on top of my group, I kept my eyes on the league throughout the day to see if I’d have to replay it and improve my score to keep that top spot.

Finally, there’s a random level generator that you can use to challenge your friends or strangers to put up their best score. The Gnarvana Portal is extremely simple, letting you pick a level’s “style,” which is based on the five main worlds in the game. You can then choose one of four difficulty levels and set the course’s length. Once it’s generated, you can share that course via an eight-digit postcode. That code lets anyone else try your level, regardless of what platform they’re playing on, and you again compete to see who can put up the highest score. The fun thing is that anyone can try this, so you can give the postcode to a few close friends, or post it online and challenge anyone you want.

For the first time in an OlliOlli game, you can also customize your character to your heart’s content. There are a ton of clothing options, hairstyles, skateboard designs, skin color options and much more here, and you’ll unlock much more as you check off the different challenges each level offers. Unlike the first two games’ single, generic male skater design, you can make a character here that truly fits your personality.

There’s a ton of game here for $30, and the Roll7 team has at least two DLC expansions planned for later this year (both of which are included if you order the $45 Rad Edition). If you have even a passing interest in skateboarding or platformer games, OlliOlli World is absolutely worth your time. It’s deeper, brighter, bigger and more fun than the original games, and I expect it’ll be a hit with hardcore OlliOllli fanatics as well as a much bigger new audience experiencing the thrill of this meditative skating series for the first time.

OlliOlli World will be available on the Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC on February 8th.

Source: Engadget – ‘OlliOlli World’ is a friendly but deceptively difficult skateboarding game