When we went hands-on with the iPhone XS and XS Max, we were mainly struck by how similar they felt to the iPhone X—particularly the iPhone XS. But it turns out that inside, it's the iPhone XS that diverges with an unusual new battery design. iFixit tore down both phones and provided analysis and gorgeous pictures as always. Be sure to check out their full teardown, but a few highlights stand out.
Let's be clear: both of these phones are the iPhone X in more ways than not. Last year brought that quasi-radical redesign of Apple's product, but what was quasi-radical in 2017 is standard in 2018. Most of the components in both phones are the same, or very close, to what we saw in the iPhone X. Small changes include an added antenna band on the bottom of each device near the Lightning port (which iFixit speculates has to do with Gigabit LTE), a 32 percent larger wide angle sensor and increased pixel size for the rear camera in both phones, and a larger taptic engine and extended logic board in the iPhone XS Max.
Enlarge / If today's news about Telltale Games' closure is true, that "final" season description may prove more accurate than Telltale originally intended. (credit: Telltale Games)
Update, 5:49 p.m. ET: Telltale Games has issued a statement to Ars Technica confirming that the game maker has begun taking steps to shut down completely. The full statement, below:
Today Telltale Games made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges. A majority of the company’s employees were dismissed earlier this morning, with a small group of 25 employees staying on to fulfill the company’s obligations to its board and partners. CEO Pete Hawley issued the following statement:
“It's been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.”
Original report:
A wave of layoffs has apparently hit the video game studio Telltale Games, responsible for popular branching-narrative games based on the Walking Dead franchise. According to online reports, those affected by the layoffs have alleged that the studio is either shutting down entirely or staying afloat as a meager skeleton crew, ahead of The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series' final season launch throughout this fall.
It's time for a monster-sized mea culpa. Earlier this year, I made the mistake of assuming the worst about Rampage. The April film, directed by Brad Peyton and starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, is based on the arcade games of the same name, which is already a bad start, since that franchise ranks well below the likes of pretty much any other game license ever slapped onto a film. (What, Mr. Do was unavailable?)
And its pre-release hype and trailers consisted mostly of Johnson alternating between agony, screaming, and sympathizing with a giant CGI ape. What hope did this film have?
Turns out, filmgoers had no idea what a treat Peyton and co. delivered. Hindsight is already incredibly kind to Rampage's tongue-in-cheek fun and action, and that's thanks to the triceratops-sized dump that the Crichton empire laid in June with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
