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Several Nintendo Switch users have reported being victims of an unusual crime. Instead of finding a cartridge in their brand-new game cases, they've been greeted by a single googly eye. It's unclear how widespread the issue is, but Switch fans may want to proceed with caution the next time they buy a physical copy of a game.

Marvel Rivals' inaugural season, "Doom's Rise," has undoubtedly been a massive success. Though not all players have tried Competitive, it was recently revealed that Marvel Rivals surpassed 20 million players within two weeks of launching. As a massive hit on platforms like Steam and Epic Games, the hype surrounding the superhero shooter shows no signs of slowing down.

Kengan Ashura might not look like one of those huge successes on Netflix (like Seven Deadly Sins, for example), but it's been a major hit on the platform, creating a loyal and engaged fanbase.

When DC Comics Absolute line was leaked, then announced in 2024, one arresting image sucked all the air out of the room: the widest, square-est version of Batman anyone had ever seen. The idea that when veteran Batman writer Scott Snyder had the opportunity to remake Batman from the ground up in a darker setting, his first directive to artist Nick Dragotta was to make him frick-kin yuge was intriguing, to say the least.The visuals of Absolute Batmans sibling books, Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman, werent quite so surprising. Wonder Woman has carried a sword and worn pants before; Superman has had shaggy hair. Batman was so wide, he made his fellow heroes reimagined designs look normal by comparison. Its no wonder Absolute Batman became the book to fixate on.But three months into the run of each book, Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman are sprinting toward all-time-great comic book status, in part because the writers and artists were able to keep their biggest, most of-the-moment twists on two very old superhero stories a complete secret until just the right moment. Maybe they were hidden behind the younger Batmans remarkable girth?A new year is a time for reflection. Ive been doing some reflecting, and Im willing to say it: DC Comics Absolute Universe rules much harder than I ever expected it to, in a way I thought was impossible. Its giving me a dark timeline that actually feels good to visit.[Ed. note: This piece contains some spoilers for the first three issues each of Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman.]I get now why writer Kelly Thompson and artist Hayden Sherman wanted to keep the details of Absolute Wonder Woman on the down-low during the initial project announcement. Even though their first issue literally takes place in hell, its wonderfully quiet, slow, and soft in a way that monthly superhero books rarely ever get to be, and in a way that would suffer in summary. They deliver a Diana who has been separated from her Amazonian heritage by divine edict, but who is determined to be a bulwark between humanity and terrible monsters, even if that requires spitting in the face of gods. Also, I wont spoil it here, but #3 reveals something about Dianas physicality in such a casual way that it hits like a Mack truck.Meanwhile, in the first three issues of Absolute Superman, writer Jason Aaron and artist Rafa Sandoval have drummed out a steady series of subversions to the Superman story we think we know. Better yet, theyve taken the time to show those differences have meaning, outside of the shock of the unexpected. Their Superman still grew up on a farm a farm on Krypton, an extremely stratified society in which his family is from the laborer caste.Supermans relationship to his doomed homeworld is traditionally distant, but Kal-El the curious preteen gives Aaron and Sandoval a vehicle to display the flaws of Kryptonian society from a close-up view, opening Absolute Superman #2 with little Kal getting written up at school (remote class only) for writing an essay himself, instead of using the computer to AI-generate one, based on the Kryptonian database of all approved knowledge. They establish all this detail in a mere two panels that will hit any school-age kid, parent of such, or teacher with the chilling punch of an effective ghost story.The third issue, released on the first day of 2025, gives the familiar Superman origin tale another trenchantly modern twist. In this version of the story, the leaders of Krypton dont refuse to believe the warnings that their planet is dying, thus perishing along with it. Here, they support the illusion that everything is normal and under control, while secretly building massive escape ships for the elite castes alone.Kal-Els parents, meanwhile, have been constructing their own ship for the paltry few laborers they can fit on it. What happens next? Do the elite Kryptonians survive? Do Kals parents? So far, theyve only been seen in flashback, so I guess Im waiting for Absolute Superman #4 to find out.For comics readers, the Dark Timeline is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Maybe theres a dark future the heroes need to avert, or a thing could have gone terribly wrong if only What If? Or its the future and nothings as good or easy as it used to be. Or maybe theres an entire multiverse where things turned out so bad that the universes inside it are good for nothing more than kindling in a cosmic forge. A familiar setting, but shockingly worse is an easy well to return to.When the Absolute setting was announced as a darker version of the DC universe, created by the evil god Darkseid for someday-to-be-revealed dark purposes, it felt like mere repetition. In this universe, the heroes come up in ways that make them underdogs, Scott Snyder said in an announcement video, making the case that direr origins would make it resonate even more when Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and upcoming Absolute heroes like Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash inevitably made the decision to fight against the darkness anyway.I didnt think Snyder and the rest of the folks on DCs Absolute books would be able to execute on that idea so quickly and consistently across three creative teams and three very different revisionary concepts. These first three Absolute books arent just solid, theyre incisive, meaningful, and gorgeously told.Thompson and Shermans Wonder Woman is about love in the face of self-denial, and claiming your identity even in the face of divine censorship. Aaron and Sandovals Superman is about action and striving and tragedy, but also the joy of writing and the power of telling the truth.In an era where corporations are censoring references to queer or trans characters out of fear of backlash, theres a resonance in having Wonder Woman defy divine law to speak the word Amazon aloud. In particular, theres resonance in giving that moment to a queer-coded character. (And often, lately, thank goodness, a straight-up queer one.) I do want to see Wonder Woman defying rules imposed on her from above. I do want to see Superman rejecting generative AI as a homogenizing, lie-spreading force. I do want to see him navigating a metaphor for the billionaire-backed push to escape Earths climate problems by building a Mars base on the backs of indentured labor.Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman are going there:Not just making up harsh alternate futures for the sake of grim-and-gritty storytelling, but presenting them as our harsh futures, with the promise that theyre shaping heroes to fight back. I get enough dark timeline vibes from life in the 2020s. The least my comic book dark timelines can do is punch the real ones in the face once in a while.

Last year, frequent Apple collaborator Belkin released what might be the most over-the-top phone stand of all time, doubling as a cameraperson to track and record you as you move. The catch? It didnt come with a tripoduntil now.The Belkin Auto-Tracking Stand Pro is a $150 motorized MagSafe phone charger that, in addition to providing standard 15W wireless charging, also works with Apples DockKit framework to rotate 360 degrees and tilt 90 degrees so that it can always keep you in frame. Its intended for livestreamers and vloggers and can automatically follow you around as you present or act out a skit, making it easier to shoot while solo. (That said, you can also use it casually, say to make a FaceTime call).But at just under nine inches tall, its usability out of the box was severely limited. Its great for shooting from a desk, but if your videos require you to stand up or get further away from your phones microphones, it can be a bit trickier to place. That made it difficult to sell to its core influencer audience.You could get around this using third-party solutions, since the stand comes with a standard tripod screw hole on the bottom, but now Belkin is offering a more official answer. Announced during this years CES, the Belkin Stage Creator Bundle adds on to the Auto-Tracking Stand Pro with a 5.6-foot tripod and a pair of wearable clip-on microphones. It also comes with a magnetic phone mount, so technically, you could still use the bundle without the tracking stand as well, assuming you dont need your phones camera to follow you around. Credit: Belkin Theres still no word on Android support, although its probably not likely, given the tracking stands reliance on DockKit. Even if you put a MagSage sticker on your Android phone, it just wont play well with its software.Pricing is MIA for the moment, as are specs for those clip-on microphones, as the bundles release is a bit far out. (It's currently set for May.) Still, even if itll have to compete with third-party alternatives (tripods and wireless mics arent exactly new), the bundle will go a long way towards making Belkins motorized stand feel like a more complete product. Credit: Belkin Also set for May is the Stage PowerGrip, which is similarly still waiting on a price. This is a bit more of a novelty product, as its a MagSafe power bank that also makes your phone look a bit more like an instant camera. Completing the aesthetic (yes, it does come in multiple colors) is a grip for lining up your shots as well as a button for taking them, but where a camera viewfinder would be, youll instead find a small screen depicting the banks remaining battery percentage. Like some other MagSafe Belkin power banks, you can also stand up the PowerGrip vertically to use it as a sort of phone kickstand as well, and it has a built-in USB-C cable for wired charging. Credit: Belkin Belkin does also have some CES 2025 products with pricing already announced. In addition to a new BoostCharge Compact USB-C wall charger and new BoostCharge Power Bank with 20,000 mAh of capacity and an integrated USB-C cable, the BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad is a small wireless charging puck that should be great for travel. This small circular charger connects to the back of your phone using MagSafe (or a MagSafe style sticker) and is about as thick as a power bank, but takes up much less space overall. Because of its integrated kickstand, the idea is you can easily use it as your phone charger while on-the-go, propping your phone up overnight so it can work like an alarm clock. The only catch? Youll still need to plug its 6.6-foot USB-C cable into some kind of power source. Luckily, you can get a power supply with the unit, or forgo one for a supply already have, so you at least have options there.The BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad will release in the U.S. in April and will run you $20 without a power supply and $30 with one. If you do want to provide your own power supply, the BoostCharge Compact USB-C charger will work for that, and will release in March for $30, coming with 45W of max capacity and one USB-C port. A 65W version of the BoostCharge Compact will also start selling in March for $40, while the BoostCharge Power Bank with 20,000 mAh capacity and an integrated cable hits shelves in April for $50. The USB-powered products should work with any product that charges via a compatible port, while the BoostCharge Pro Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad will work with any Qi2 compatible device.

Belkin has a new phone accessory at CES 2025 that somehow brings something fresh to the crowded field of magnetic charging accessories (in other words, MagSafe and non-Apple-certified alternatives). The companys Stage PowerGrip is a wireless power bank, camera-like grip and stand rolled into one. It even has a little screen and comes in several fun colors.Belkin pitches the PowerGrip as an accessory for creators and travelers. While modern smartphones are all most people need for photography, holding a candy-bar-shaped handset in landscape mode for long periods doesnt feel as comfortable or natural as the heartier grip of a dedicated camera. This accessory remedies that with a thick bulge similar to what youd find on a DSLR or mirrorless camera.BelkinInside that lump is its 10,000mAh battery, which offers 7.5W magnetic wireless charging. An LED on its backside gives you a quick way to check its battery level. And a retractable USB-C cable is tucked inside the accessory, so you dont need to remember to throw a separate one in your bag.Belkin says the PowerGrip will be available in powder blue, sandbox, fresh yellow, pepper and lavender (the companys press images show a sixth black option, too). Its scheduled to ship this May. Unfortunately, Belkin hasnt yet announced pricing.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/belkins-new-accessory-is-a-magnetic-power-bank-and-camera-grip-rolled-into-one-170057685.html?src=rss

Robot vacuums can remove the dust and dirt on your floor, but you still have to pick up stray socks and and any item strewn about your home. Now Roborock, a Chinese company that manufactures robot vacuums and other household cleaning appliances, has unveiled a new model that can pick up small objects so you don't have to. The Roborock Saros Z70 has a foldable robotic arms that the company calls the "OmniGrip." It has five axis and can lift objects under 300 grams like socks, light sandals and small dog toys to put them away.Apparently, the AI-powered vacuum marks objects it can lift while going about cleaning the floor and then circles back to pick them up when it's done. It then cleans the areas underneath the objects during its second pass. The OmniGrip uses its equipped precision sensors, camera and LED light to determine its position and whether an item is too heavy to pick up. Before you can use it, you will have to activate the arm through the Roborock app, where you can also set what kind of objects it can interact with and where they should be placed. While not quite Rosey the Robot, Saros Z70 has the potential to make tidying up a lot easier. And it's not just a prototype Roborock is planning to make it available for purchase this year.In addition to Saros 270, Roborock has also launched two more robot vacuums, a lineup of handheld wetdry vacuum cleaners, as well as three all-in-one washer-dryers. It will be showcasing its home cleaning products at CES this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/roborocks-new-flagship-robot-vacuum-has-an-arm-that-can-grab-small-objects-170020390.html?src=rss

Belkin just unveiled a unique bundle at CES 2025 thats being described as a comprehensive toolset designed to meet the needs of budding creators. The appropriately-named Creator Bundle comes with a bunch of useful accessories and offers everything needed for hands-free recording.So what comes in the bundle? It ships with a pair of tiny wireless clip-on microphones with a 100m transmission range. These mics are battery-powered and last up to 5.5 hours per charge. They operate via a handy push-button design, making it easy for folks to mute, record or make adjustments to the sound.The kit ships with a sturdy tripod and a magnetic mount for a smartphone. The tripod reaches 1.7m in height and the mount can be adjusted to suit different shooting angles. The Belkin Creator Bundle also comes with a USB-C cable for charging up those mics.The combo of a tripod, a mount and wireless microphones will indeed allow for hands-free recording. However, the camera wont track people as they move around the room, so creators will have to stay in the center of the frame. The company does note that the bundle has been designed to integrate with its Auto-Tracking Stand Pro, which does track movement, but that costs an extra $180.Speaking of pricing, Belkin hasnt announced how much this bundle will cost. Thatll likely come closer to the launch date, which is in May.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/belkins-new-creator-bundle-makes-hands-free-recording-easy-170006787.html?src=rss

The new Saros 10 and 10R are ready to bust dust in places other bots can't go.