Amazon Luna arrives on Samsung’s latest smart TVs

Earlier this year, the Samsung Gaming Hub brought Xbox Game Pass, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Google Stadia and other gaming services to Samsung smart TVs and smart monitors, promising to add new services like Amazon Luna “soon.” Soon, it turns out, is today: Amazon’s cloud gaming service is now available on 2022 Samsung smart TVs.

Samsung says that with Luna, the gaming hub now has more than 1000 games available to play. Most of these games will require an extra subscription fee, though if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you already have access to a small library of games. Very small. Right now Prime users can play four games (Steel Assault, MYST, Control: Ultimate Edition and Garfield Kart: Furious Racing) included with their subscription.

The selection of free with Prime games changes every month, but users can subscribe to additional channels to expand their library. Luna Plus, for instance, includes games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Mega Man 11, Ghostrunner and Resident Evil VII. Luna’s Retro Channel has a collection of classic games, from Centipede to Street Fighter II. Users can also subscribe to channels featuring Ubisoft and Jackbox game packs, all priced between $4.99 and $17.99 a month. If you do subscribe, your games won’t be locked to your TV: Luna games are playable on PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones.

How well all these games work, however, depends on your connection speed. Amazon Luna and Xbox Game Pass both recommended minimum internet speeds of 10Mbps to 20Mbps on a 5GHz WiFi connection — and of course, you’ll also need the aforementioned 2022 Samsung Smart TV and a Bluetooth gamepad. If you have all that, Luna’s Free with Prime games are a great way try game streaming on your TV.

Dead by Daylight’s ‘Hooked on You’ dating sim spin-off is out now

Behaviour Interactive is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and it marked the occasion with a stream that showed off some things it has in the pipeline, including what’s next for Dead by Daylight. Back in May, Behaviour revealed that a DBD dating sim would arrive sometime this summer. Fans can now dive into Hooked on You, since it has just landed on Steam.

Hooked on You is the first DBD spin-off and it was developed by I Love You, Colonel Sanders! studio Psyop. It’s a visual novel in which you can romance four of the killers from the main game on (where else?) Murderer’s Island. The stories it tells combine humor, romance and horror, though they aren’t canon. Still, they could let fans live out some of their DBD fantasies.

As for Dead by Daylight itself, Behaviour shed more light on what to expect from the second Resident Evil chapter, which is coming soon. The Resident Evil: Project W DLC will introduce Albert Wesker (who is called The Mastermind in DBD) and two new survivors: Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers. In addition, Behaviour is reworking the Raccoon City Police Department map that debuted as part of the original Resident Evil chapter, which arrived last year.

The first Behaviour Beyond showcase included some new game announcements as well. One of them is Meet Your Maker, a base building and raiding game that’s slated to arrive next year. You can assemble deadly maze-like outposts packed with traps and guards to protect sought-after genetic material from other players. Of course, you (perhaps with a friend’s help in co-op mode) will infiltrate other players’ bases to try and steal material from them. A closed playtest starts later this month.

Also on the way is a 3D brawler called Flippin Misfits. Up to four players can battle each other in space. The game will hit Steam in September. In addition, the stream offered a look at a title codenamed Project S. It’s an open-world puzzle game that features single-player, co-op and large multiplayer modes. Behaviour is working on Project S, which it plans to release next year, with Lunarch Studios. More details will be revealed soon.

Indonesia restores access to PayPal, Yahoo and Valve services

Indonesia has unblocked PayPal, Steam owner Valve and Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company), allowing them to resume operations. The country prevented residents from accessing services of several companies that missed a July 29th deadline to register with a government database. The Communications Ministry reopened access to PayPal, Yahoo and Valve services after they signed up.

“PayPal is fully committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations in the markets where we do business,” a PayPal spokesperson told Engadget. “We have registered as an Electronic Systems Operator in Indonesia, having connected directly with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics. PayPal customers can send, receive, and access their money as usual. We regret any disruption our customers may have experienced last weekend.”

Controversial licensing rules that Indonesia established in 2020 allow authorities to force registered platforms to turn over data from certain users. There’s a content moderation aspect as well. Platforms are required to remove content that “disturbs public order” or is considered unlawful. If the content takedown demand is urgent, they have just four hours to comply. Otherwise, they have 24 hours to yank the offending content.

Even though the rules were brought in two years ago, some notable companies are said to have scrambled to register on time and keep their services available. According to Reuters, Meta, Amazon and Google signed up just days before the deadline. However, it seems Epic Games Store and EA’s Origin service remain blocked.

Scientists revived organ cells in dead pigs

Medical science is nowhere near overcoming death, but it might be closer to delaying harm in dying and seriously damaged organs. The New York Timesreports that Yale University researchers successfully revived cells in the organs of pigs that had been dead in the lab for an hour. Hearts started beating, and the pigs’ bodies didn’t stiffen like they normally would. 

The team mixed the animals’ blood and an artificial hemoglobin with OrganEx, a solution that includes anti-inflammatory medicine, nerve blockers (to prevent a return to consciousness), nutrients and drugs that fight cell death. The project is a follow-up to a years-old breakthrough where the scientists revived dead pigs’ brain cells using a precursor solution, BrainEx. After that finding, the group wondered if it could revive an entire body.

The work isn’t close to helping human patients. Further studies will show if the organs are functioning. Researchers will also have to gauge the effects of OrganEx without nerve blockers, and eventually test their work on humans. There are ethical concerns that pigs might regain brain function, and it’s not clear just when it would be viable to experiment with people. If synthetic blood isn’t yet ready for emergency rooms, this is even further away.

The ramifications could be huge if and when solutions like OrganEx are suitable for humans, though. They could extend the viability of organ transplants — it might be possible to collect healthy organs long after the moment of death. That, in turn, could make more transplants available and save additional lives. The technology could also limit the damage to organs after serious heart attacks and strokes. Ideally, this will give people a fighting chance to recover from potentially fatal conditions.

Your favorite podcast might be making thousands for inviting guests

That big-name guest might not have appeared on your favorite podcast out of the kindness of their heart. Bloomberg has learned that podcast guests are routinely paying big money to appear on popular podcasts. Guestio, a marketplace for these deals, has seen huge transactions in the past six months. Four podcasters made $20,000 from charging for appearances, while one made $50,000. The most profitable show, Entrepreneurs on Fire, regularly charges $3,500 for guest spots and has sometimes taken a cut of product sales.

It’s not clear how widespread this activity is. However, Bloomberg interviews suggest pay-to-appear systems are popular for business, cryptocurrency and wellness podcasts. Hosts like Entrepreneurs on Fire‘s John Lee Dumas see appearance fees as filters. Guests will be well-prepared if they’re making an “investment” in airtime, the creator said.

However, there are ethical and legal concerns surrounding the practice. This could be considered a modern take on payola, or the pay-for-play schemes used to boost songs on the radio — is a guest appearing because they’re relevant, or just because they’re willing to pay? And while disclosures are mandatory for those radio plays, the situation isn’t so clear with podcasts. While many shows on Guestio have disclosures, not all of them properly reveal when an interview subject is paying to show up.

That could pose a problem in the future. A Federal Trade Commission spokesperson said that there’s deception whenever consumers are mislead about the nature of advertising and promotional messages, regardless of the media format. The regulator didn’t say if it would crack down on podcasters who improperly disclose paying guests, but the message could serve as a warning to show hosts.

OnePlus 10T review: Speed above all

When OnePlus does a mid-year refresh of its phones, typically you end up with a slightly snappier device with a handful of slight refinements. But with the new OnePlus 10T, it feels like a lot was sacrificed for the sake of going all-in on speed. Updat…

New ‘FIFA Mobile’ mode puts the focus on strategy, not action

Would you rather oversee your FIFA Mobile team than control your players’ every last step? You now have your chance. EA has introduced a Manager Mode to the Android and iOS title that has you focusing on strategy and tactics rather than action. You choose the starting lineup, set the tactics in real-time (such as attacking or countering) and let your team play. You can even queue multiple matches as you climb the division ranks.

The corresponding game update also improves goalkeepers, adds player switching options and offers kits for 30 national teams. The upgrade is available now.

This doesn’t turn FIFA Mobile into a management sim like Football Manager. You aren’t scouting talent, shaping training programs or wrestling with the team’s board. Think of this more as the soccer equivalent to an auto battler like Auto Chess or Teamfight Tactics — it’s a slightly more relaxed experience that does more to reward situational awareness than fast reflexes.

Tinder scales back its plans for dating in the metaverse

Don’t expect to find a Tinder date in the metaverse any time soon. The Vergereports Match Group chief Bernard Kim has asked Tinder’s Hyperconnect unit (acquired in 2021) to scale back its metaverse dating plans. In his shareholder letter, Kim said “uncertainty” about success with virtual worlds required that the team “not invest heavily” in the metaverse. Match further blamed the Hyperconnect purchase for a $10 million operating loss in the latest quarter where it made a $210 million operating profit in the same period a year earlier.

The company is also taking “a step back” on plans to introduce its in-app Tinder Coins following questionable test results, Kim said. While he didn’t scrap the digital currency outright, he wanted it to “more effectively contribute” to Tinder’s bottom line. Any virtual items would have to be a serious contributor to Tinder’s next phase of growth, the executive added.

Tinder is facing a leadership upheaval at the same time. CEO Renate Nyborg is leaving the company after joining last September. It’s not clear why she’s leaving, but Kim said Match was looking for a replacement.

There’s little doubt Tinder is dealing with an uncertain future. On top of the Tinder loss, Match forecast a only small growth and said it was still grappling with changes in behavior prompted by the pandemic. While there was a jump in activity in the second half of 2021 as vaccines made it safer to meet others, there hasn’t been a similar spike in 2022. The willingness of first-timers to try online dating hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, Kim said. The exec hopes more aggressive product rollouts will spur newcomers, such as live video and “alibi” dating services.