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How to Stop Robocalls—or At Least Slow Them Down WIREDLet's be honest, you can't kill robocalls completely. But you can block more of them than you might think.
E3 news clearly can’t be contained to E3 week or E3 press conferences anymore, as Square Enix just debuted a trailer for a Kingdom Hearts III downloadable add-on during a concert for the franchise’s music in Los Angeles.
After some initial panic from fans who couldn’t see the trailer, it popped up on the company’s YouTube page. The 80-second video hypes Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind and dates it for winter for PS4 and Xbox One.
In footage from the trailer’s debut at the concert, the crowd can be heard cheering wildly during what appear to be moments when the player can battle as Aqua, Roxas and Riku.
It’s unclear exactly what the DLC consists of and how extensive it will be. Fans online are discussing whether Re:Mind changes situations from the main game, is more of an expansion or what. Sadly, Kotaku’s biggest Kingdom Hearts experts are all asleep, away from their computer or otherwise celebrating the weekend, so you’re all left with a writer who is squinting at comments on Kingdom Hearts fan sites and trying to parse things. Here’s a comment from a reader over at KH13.com:
I-IS THAT YOUNG XEHANORT TALKING TO THE FCKING MoM!?!?!?!
YXs EYES ARENT YELLOW!?!?
Right, everyone? Right??
Square Enix will presumably reveal more about Re:Mind at the company’s Monday night E3 press briefing, which is running when E3-skipping Sony would normally do their event. Square’s event was already going to showcase more of the Final Fantasy VII remake and the debut of Crystal Dynamics’ Avengers game. Credit to them for filling the void.
There’s been plenty of speculation over the past few months on Apple porting MacOS to the ARM platform. Apple’s SoC team has been on fire, producing industry-leading processors for the iPhone and iPad that can match, or even beat Intel’s offerings in certain tasks.
But with the announcement of iPadOS, I wonder if Apple has now changed directions and instead, is looking to bridge the gap between MacOS and iPadOS.
Ever since Apple introduced the iPad Pro, I have tried numerous times to replace my MacBook with an iPad when traveling, but that's never worked out.
From a hardware perspective, the iPad has always been ahead of the curve but its iPhone-based operating system has always held it back. That changed with the announcement of iPadOS at WWDC 2019. Maybe that ARM-based Mac that we’ve been hoping for is actually the iPad growing up to become a replacement for some of our Macs.
I’ve had many work-related travels where assets and materials are offered through a USB drive - something that I just couldn’t work with on the iPad previously. I also carry a camera to events and take tons of photos and some video. Bringing those to the iPad has also been challenging.
With the new iPadOS, Apple is opening up the Files app to access external storage and also allowing third party apps direct access, so you should be able to import images directly to them.
I’ve tested the USB functionality and it works well, but for apps to have direct access to my SD card, we’ll have to wait till official versions of such apps which will only be released after the iPadOS is released in fall.
The second issue I’ve faced is mobile Safari where I am unable to access many specialized websites such as my bank’s website or the CMS at TechRadar. This is where Chromebook has been more usable than the iPad in the past.
The web browser is still my most used app on the Mac and while there are some iPad “apps” such as Google Docs etc., they’re usually under-powered versions of web apps. With iPadOS, Apple is trying to get websites to show the full desktop version, and I can confirm some sites that didn’t work well previously are now much better. Also, the iPad now supports downloads in Safari which, along with file management, makes it much closer to a computer.
Prior to WWDC, I had posted a tweet asking for three specific areas that I would love to see on the iPad to make it more Mac like, two of which I’ve stated above.
My top 3 wants from #ios13 1) MacOS like Safari2) A more open and accessible file system3) Better support for 3rd party background appsJune 1, 2019
Apple is delivering on all three.
For my last request, Apple has added a new API called BackgroundTasks. I don’t really know how well this will work with third-party apps, so we will have to wait till iPadOS and compatible apps are released to take advantage of this to see any difference. But I’m hopeful this will allow apps such as email clients the ability to sync and download emails, or news readers to download new stories in the background instead of syncing data when the app launches.
There’s been quite a few other new additions to iPadOS such as widget support on home screen, gestures for copy/paste and undo, and multi-tasking features that improve handling of multiple apps. Also new is the ability to have multiple windows open within one app.
With all of these massive improvements that Apple has made to the iPadOS, it seems obvious that the direction they want the iPad to take is to replace your portable computer - whether that is a Chromebook, a Surface or a MacBook.
And if that is the case, then why work on porting MacOS to the ARM platform? The new Mac Pro is insanely powerful and based on the x86 architecture, where I think the MacOS platform will continue to stay.
But for portables such as the MacBook and MacBook Air, I’m not sure I see a bright future. The iPad will be replacing them sooner or later.
Kingdom Hearts 3’s new story DLC, ReMind, is set for a release this winter. And the first look at what’s to come teases some major story and gameplay additions to the RPG.
Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts 3 follow.
The trailer showed the following scenes:
During a teaser trailer exclusively screened to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra: World of Tres performance in Los Angeles, Square Enix highlighted in-development footage of the DLC. It confirmed more playable opportunities for Roxas, Riku, and Aqua. The scenes shown appeared to offer these characters as playable fighters during certain end-game boss battles during the Keyblade Graveyard sequence.
Another scene appeared to show Sora changing into what may have been an Oathkeeper Keyblade form, wearing a new white outfit while wielding the Oathkeeper Keyblade. The sequence occurs in Scala ad Caelum, but it's unclear at what point Sora can obtain the new form.
The trailer also offered a number of intriguing story teases. The first seemed to show Young Master Xehanort speaking with the Master of Masters. Young Xehanort indicates he's realized he's more important than he thought, but to what end is unclear.
Another scene showed Luxord and Xigbar speaking in a manner that tied to Kingdom Hearts 3’s epilogue.
Luxord tells Xigbar he’ll play dumb and pretend not to know who Xigbar is. But, intriguingly, when Luxord leaves, Xigbar wonders aloud who Luxord may actually be.
While no exact date was given, and all the footage shown was in-development gameplay, the trailer promised a winter release, and Kingdom Hearts franchise director Tetsuya Nomura promised more scenes fans will want to see to come.
The Orchestra itself, which is currently going on tour, offered a journey through the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise, and in particular Kingdom Hearts 3. The first half of the concert ran through each Kingdom Hearts game before KH3, with medley suites of music, or specific pieces performed for some of the non-numbered entries. The first half of the show ended with the raucous "Diabolical Bash."
The second half of the show featured music from Kingdom Hearts 3 specifically. Suites based on one or several worlds brought listeners through the story of Kingdom Hearts 3, culminating in a powerful medley accompanied by footage of the final, emotional stretch of the game. Kingdom Hearts franchise composer Yoko Shimomura opened and closed the show, and even took to the piano for an outro piece.
Kingdom Hearts 3 received an 8.7 in our review. If you're working through the game, be sure to check out the Kingdom Hearts 3 wiki to find all its secrets, including a guide on how to how to unlock the epilogue.
Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's News Editor, PlayStation lead, Beyond! host, and resident Kingdom Hearts fan. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
by Adam Vitale,
During today's Kingdom Hearts Orchestra: World of Tres concert in Los Angeles, Kingdom Hearts boss Tetsuya Nomura took the stage to show a new trailer for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III: ReMIND DLC. He announced that it is set to launch this Winter.
We don't have too many details of the DLC so far, but at the moment we know it contains the following content from the Tokyo concert in April:
Title: “Kingdom Hearts III ReMIND”
- Additional Scenario “ReMIND”
- Limit Episode + Boss
- Secret Episode + Boss
- English VA Option (In Japan, no certainty on a similar Japanese VA option for the West)
While today's trailer was shown exclusively to attendees with recording restricted, nothing stays secret for long. An offscreen recording of the trailer is embedded below (via YouTube user NexusEX), showing playable Aqua and Roxas, and some key scenes between Young Master Xehanort, the Master of Masters, Xigbar, and Luxord.
Update: Square Enix has officially posted tonight's trailer on their YouTube channel. We've updated the embed below.
We'll have to wait for Square Enix's stream on Monday to learn more about the future of Kingdom Hearts.
It's expected that some of the announcements coming at E3 are going to leak, but E3 2019 is looking to set a new record. Much of what's to come at the various E3 press conferences over the next few days has already been spoiled, though today's EA Play has remained notably leak-free (which could have more to say about a lack of surprises than anything else). But Friday night saw a flurry of big upcoming announcements revealed ahead of time.
This particular batch concerned published Bandai Namco's E3 lineup. The most significant of the bunch is undoubtedly the new game from From Software, reportedly called Elden Ring. A new From game would be big news under any circumstances, but this one is a collaboration with George RR Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire--the basis for Game of Thrones. The Elden Ring name and accompanying art are new, but even this leak concerns something that had previously surfaced online; previous reports already stated that Martin and From were working together on a new game.
Bandai's other leaks concerned a Ni no Kuni remaster and a new RPG in its Tales of series called Tales of Arise. It's unclear how this occurred--the three leaks were in such rapid-fire succession that it seems as if the publisher had some kind of security issue. Whatever the particulars, Bandai Namco's Katsuhiro Harada summed things up nicely:
rrrrrrrhsnsnsjdbxnajakalskdkckrjrujdnnshdbcbufuwwwtwyurtnznzmShkKj¥&/&:738/kkHHSBSJjJjjkkJsywioakdhdjjwnwsjzkkN!&382!$,€€.€|\€_€€_!|!!’!%|##]^]^$$$\]>]$\€^]^%[#[#$’b¥¥:¥:72¥-!&^%]%][££[¥272)!’NanhdhdjskakaqiuqkqkururuwyqtqtakldfkvjwhjakakqiiN’nnsiwokHmK&¥$\*]%]%[#}&kjsjdjk
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) June 8, 2019
All of this follows the very credible-looking leak of a video from Bleeding Edge, the new game from DMC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade developer Ninja Theory. And the retailer listing for Watch Dogs Legion, prompting Ubisoft to confirm the game ahead of its press conference. And Destiny 2 dataminers discovering cross-save support and a new Shadowkeep expansion that takes players back to the moon. And Baldur's Gate III, the existence of which was buried in markup code on Larian Studio's teaser website. And Death Stranding's release date, published on PlayStation Taiwan's Facebook account. And Call of Duty 2019 being a new Modern Warfare.
And so on.
This is to say nothing of other leaks that we're still waiting for clearer confirmation of, such as the next-gen Xbox console, Fable 4, Ubisoft Play, and Ubisoft's roller derby game. With more than a day to go before most of the press conferences get underway, there's still time for even more to leak.
At this rate, don't be surprised if there's nothing left to be surprised by.
