The Morning After: Tuesday, March 7th 2017
Switch sales and how to fix your Joy-Con.
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.
Some good news / weird news for the Nintendo Switch, a video game cheating service lost in court and a look inside Sonos' newest speaker. Keep an eye on the site for news today from the Geneva Motor Show (spoiler: electric cars, hybrid cars and drones + cars), but first, here's everything you might have missed on Monday.
'League of Legends' developer wins $10 million settlement from a cheating service
LeagueSharp offered a sort of subscription hacking service for people who wanted to win at League of Legends instead of playing League of Legends. Last fall, League developer Riot sued the company, claiming a DMCA violation, plus alleged attacks on company servers and the doxxing of one of its employees. Now, LeagueSharp is shut down after a court-ordered ban, and other makers of cheating software may have been put on notice.
The Switch is the fastest-selling console in Nintendo history
Nintendo told a New York Times reporter that the Switch is off to a flying start. It claims the new console is its fastest-selling launch ever, with sales over its first two days topping even the Nintendo Wii. While that number mostly represents its ability to build more devices these days, it means the unusual console is experiencing a warm reception, while it's new Zelda game is the top-selling launch title.
Can a DIY antenna upgrade fix the left Joy-Con?
Some Switch owners are already complaining the left side Joy-Con input has a tendency to lose sync with the console. As iFixit's teardown showed, the two remotes are not identical, and YouTuber Spawn Wave decided to try to address the issue on his own. By soldering a bit of extra wire onto the circuit board he was able to not only stop the disconnects, but even get some extra range.
NASA wants to protect Mars with a magnetic shield
NASA wants to protect what's left of Mars' atmosphere, and it involves creating a magnetic shield that would deflect solar winds and radiation.
A naked barbarian simulator saved a game developer from bankruptcy
Sometimes you just don't hear about game development struggles until the company goes bust. FunCom was teetering on the brink before it decided to make Conan Exiles. Despite the popularity of its previous Conan games, critical acclaim for titles like The Park and being the developer behind the LEGO Minifigures Online MMO, the company was hemorrhaging money. Exiles reversed the company's fortunes, thanks to streaming gamers' support... and some in-game nudity.
Imagine the perfect Surface office
With the Surface Book, Surface Studio and other products, Microsoft has managed to attract graphics pros, designers and engineers, many who were used to working with Apple products. It's now taking it further, by expanding into workspace lifestyle concepts via a partnership with Steelcase. The two companies have unveiled "Creative Spaces," which are office furniture layout concepts optimized to work with Surface products. I hope you're in the market for a $1,000 chair.
Fitbit introduces new sleep monitoring features, plus the Alta HR
The latest piece of hardware from Fitbit is an update to its style-conscious Alta line, now upgraded with a heart rate monitoring sensor. The Alta HR will go on sale for $150 in early April, but that's not all that's new. Every Fitbit tracker that supports sleep tracking is getting an update later this month for "Sleep Insights," a new feature that combines sleep data with your workout and weight loss info to make recommendations. Meanwhile, "Sleep Stages" adds heart rate tracking and other metrics to the usual accelerometer-based data to get a better idea of how much sleep you're really getting each night.
Trump's new immigration ban restricts residents of six countries
After multiple court decisions put the brakes on Donald Trump's first ban restricting immigration and travel from several countries with majority Muslim populations, the president is trying again. A new Executive Order has been signed and will go into effect March 16th, with a number of changes including the removal of Iraq from the list. A number of tech companies spoke out against the previous order and supported lawsuits against it and now we wait to see what happens this time around.
