Tag: matters
WaveDancer closes investment in Gray Matters, explores strategic alternatives
This week in data: What matters (and what doesn’t) in the data world
Octopath Traveler 2 plays it safe, but it’s subtly better than its predecessor in every way that matters
Video games are reaching that sort of age where throwbacks are a lucrative business. High-profile remakes, remasters and revivals are ten-a-penny now – but one of the most successful is undoubtedly Octopath Traveler, the Square Enix made and Nintendo-published SNES-era style Japanese RPG that gripped audiences in 2018. Now Square Enix is back with a sequel, the succinctly titled Octopath Traveler 2.
Back in 2018, I called the original Octopath Traveler “beautiful, brilliant, and flawed” – and honestly, that description still rather holds up for the sequel. Make no mistake, however: this second game is superior to the first in just about every way that you’d really care about – even if certain niggling shortfalls of the original remain.
Nintendo’s been pushed out of the picture for this sequel, meaning Octopath Traveler 2 is a multi-platform affair from day one, available on PC and PlayStation as well as Switch – but that’s not the only expansion going on here. It’s a larger and more in-depth game in general – and this is offered without dampening the sense of open-ended freedom that was one of the first game’s trump cards.
JAN MOIR: If Madonna looks in the mirror and likes what she sees, surely that’s all that matters?
Ireland’s biggest video game tournament is gone: here’s why that matters
Two men, AJ and Brian, are driving in a white van, proudly donning Republic of Ireland plates, into Northern Ireland. It takes no time at all for them to be stopped by police once they cross the border. Questioned by the cops, the pair had to explain they weren’t headed to Belfast with nefarious intent. They were heading there to pick up 30 monitors for a gaming event: Celtic Throwdown.
This is just one of the small stories attached to the belt of Ireland’s biggest competitive gaming event. For over a decade, the pair who created it — alongside a weekly tournament series with AsOne — built a hub where the world could get a taste of Ireland’s passionate community and that community could be spotlighted to the world in turn. Last week, Celtic Throwdown ceased to be. Hanging up their sticks, both AJ and Brian are moving onto new adventures.
This is obviously rough news, but understandable. Look at the reactions to the announcement and see the waves of respect and gratitude from people who had enjoyed Celtic Throwdown. To many, it was the best event this side of Europe. But no one in their right mind could blame AJ and Brian from retiring from these events: the money, the time, the amount of legwork needed – it stops you from working a better job, from having a better work-life balance, from taking a trip to the Bahamas.
What matters about Matter, the new smart home protocol
How Matter works, when it’s coming, what you’ll need to use it, and how it integrates with Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.
Apple contributes MagSafe to Qi2 standard — why it matters
Apple is serious about sustainability, which is important if you want billions of smartphone users to move to wireless charging. That likely explains why it has put its MagSafe tech forward as a standard for use by others via the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC).
Apple’s MagSafe is all aboard the Qi2
Wireless chargers use more energy (up to 39% more) than wired chargers to pump power into phones. Granted, phones don’t consume vast quantities of power on a per unit basis, but when you multiply billions of phones by 39% wasted power, you’re looking at a significant amount of squandered electricity.
Did Physicists Open A Portal To Extra Time Dimension, As Claimed? – Mind Matters
— Delivered by Feed43 service