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Every year at CES, Stern Pinball has a new game to show off. They're one of the oldest and most well-known pinball manufacturers (not to mention one of the few left standing in 2025) so it's always fun for me, a pinball nerd, to check out what they have to show off. This year, it's a new machine meant to celebrate 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons called Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye. And like many pinball games, you can just walk up and play without knowing the intricacies of the game, but there's a lot here to uncover over time. The thing that caught my eye was the fact that you can pick a character and level them up over time, provided you use Stern's Insider Connected app. That app already lets you create a profile and keep track of achievements, games in your area, your top scores and other features (you "log in" by scanning a QR code from the app). But with Dungeons & Dragons, you can actually improve your character over time and save your progress through the game's many modes. When you first start, you choose a character and location, and those choices will affect the goals you need to achieve. Stern specifically say that its new "PinSave" system will let you save character experience points, inventory items and game campaign progress across multiple games. That's a subtly wild move for a pinball game usually you get three balls and that's it. It's a nod to how complex newer games can get these days, and Stern already experimented with something similar on its Venom game from 2023. The same lead designer built both Venom and Dungeons & Dragons, and a representative from Stern said he looked at the saved progress in Venom as a way to experiment and trial for the bigger system in place for the latest game. I got to take Dungeons & Dragons for a spin (the Stern rep told me I was the first person who wasn't an employee to play the game), and while there's only so much you can glean from a couple plays, it feels much like other modern Stern machines. That's not a bad thing the playfield is lovely, and the large dragon on the left side presents some interesting challenges. Stern told me that it can try and block shots and also it enables a wild eight-ball multiball mode, with the dragon actively trying to bounce your balls into the drain. I didn't get to try this, but I'm looking forward to seeing it sooner or later. There's also a gelatinous cube that can freeze your ball in place via magnets. Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget Finally, there's an impressive voice cast on this game, including Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek) and Kevin Smith, as well as Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray and Laura Bailey from Critical Role. That's just a handful of those participating in the game; you can check out the full list here. Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget I've never bothered using Stern's Insider Connected app before, mostly because I'm lazy but if there's a Dungeons & Dragons machine near me I'll probably give it a shot. While you can easily enjoy the game and play your three balls without making an account, more hardcore players will probably enjoy the process of leveling up over time, and it's a feature that makes perfect sense given D&D's focus on progression over time. As usual, this machine is not cheap Stern is only making 740 total, with prices ranging from $6,999 for the Pro edition up to $12,999 for the limited edition. Start saving those quarters, D&D / pinball fans. Or, on a more reasonable note, start keeping an eye out at your local arcades. Stern's app will help you find games near you, too, if you want to go the more modern route. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sterns-latest-pinball-machine-is-a-loving-tribute-to-dungeons--dragons-131053243.html?src=rss
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This is not a phone. The Comet by Mecha Systems is a modular, Linux-based handheld computer built for hobbyists, engineers, students, artists and roboticists of all kinds. The Comet is a chunky palm-sized device, and it has a 1.8 GHz ARM64 Quad-core processor, 4 GB of memory and 32 GB of on-board storage, though this space is expandable. Most of the Comet's features are customizable, in fact. The Comet's magnetic snap interface allows users to clip on a variety of control panels, called extensions, transforming the handheld into whatever device you need. For now, Mecha offers three standard extensions: a gamepad with a soft-press D-pad and four input buttons, a GPIO panel with access to 40 pins, and a keyboard with ABS keys. The whole thing runs on Mechanix OS, a custom Debian-based Linux distro, and its graphical user interface is powered by Mecha's open-source Mechanix Shell, "making it among the few small-screen touch interfaces available today for Linux," according to developers. The Comet's screen is an IPS LED display with capacitive touch and it's 3.4 inches on the diagonal. The handheld has a 5MP camera with auto focus, a mic, speaker, two USB-A ports and an ethernet port, plus Bluetooth 5.0 and 2.4 GHz wireless slash 5 GHz 802.11ac capabilities. The Comet can take any Raspberry Pi-based HAT and any mikroBUS Click board. It's designed for people to play with every part, especially its internals. The back of the Comet pops off for easy tinkering and there's even an Allen wrench embedded in the device to encourage exploration. The screen also comes off with a few quick screw turns basically, if you see something on or inside the Comet, it's customizable. All of its housing parts and extensions are available as 3D-printable files. "Comet was built over the past 3 years with a vision to create a versatile computing platform for building in the real-world," Mecha Systems said on its website. "Our target audience includes students, hobbyists, creatives and engineers." At CES 2025, Mecha Systems developers demonstrated a handful of apps running on the Comet, including a Chrome browser, notes page and camera reel, and they also showed off a video of the handheld being used to power a little wheeled robot, which was very cute. Other potential uses include a drone launcher or remote, car communicator, nano satellite, AI assistant or long-range radio transceiver, but those are just the ideas that Mecha has offered up. The truly unexpected innovations should come from users themselves. The Comet is coming to Kickstarter any moment now.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/mecha-comet-is-a-modular-handheld-linux-computer-with-snap-on-extensions-131057589.html?src=rss
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Keeping its annual tradition of announcing a literal ton of audio products at CES, JBL has loads of new devices for 2025. Amongst the earbuds and speakers, the company is debuting a set of premium over-ear headphones with an interesting feature. The Tour One M3 headphones will ship with what JBL calls the Smart Tx audio transmitter. This wireless device allows the Bluetooth headphones to play audio from sources like inflight entertainment systems and analog wired connections. Plus, the Smart Tx has touchscreen controls, offering access to playback and volume adjustments as well as EQ settings and Auracast. That last item allows you to broadcast audio to an unlimited amount of Auracast-enabled devices, like headphones, earbuds and speakers. This isn't the first time JBL has offered a wireless transmitter as the Tour Pro 3 earbuds case doubles as one. However, it is a company first for headphones. The Tour One M3 is powered by 40mm Mica Dome drivers that JBL says are "precisely tuned to deliver deep bass, balanced mids and crystal-clear highs." High-resolution Bluetooth and lossless over USB-C are available onboard, as is JBL's Spatial 360 tech with head tracking. The company's take on spatial audio is similar to Bose, taking any audio source and turning it into "a truly immersive sound experience." JBL If you don't like the stock tuning on the Tour One M3, JBL's Personi-Fi 3.0 tool can help you adjust the sound based on a quick hearing test in the JBL Headphones app. The company says a new algorithm makes this feature "more accurate than ever" when it comes to matching your listening preferences. For further audio tweaks, there's a 12-band EQ and separate left/right balance controls. The Tour One M3 comes with JBL's True Adaptive Noise Cancelling 2.0 tech as well. This feature monitors external sound and adjusts the audio in real time. An eight-microphone setup enables the noise blocking, and there are Ambient Aware and TalkThru modes when you want to be in tune with your surroundings. JBL promises that adaptive beamforming tech in four mics will also provide "crystal-clear voice clarity" for calls, as all headphone companies do. Lastly, when it comes to battery life, you can expect up to 70 hours of use on a charge. But, the company doesn't specify if that's with active noise cancellation (ANC) enabled. A quick-charge feature offers up to five hours of playback in five minutes. You can also enable a SmartTalk tool that automatically pauses music and activates ambient sound when the Tour One M3 detects your voice. The JBL Tour One M3 will be available on April 13 in Black, Blue and Mocha for a pricey $399.95. That's $100 more than the M2 model was at launch. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/jbls-tour-one-m3-headphones-come-with-a-touchscreen-transmitter-130029294.html?src=rss
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