Timing is everything. Hours after I published our Friday newsletter, debating the price of Nintendo’s new console, the company announced it would delay US pre-orders for the Switch 2 as it wrestled with a new set of tariffs introduced by President Trump.
“Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the US will not start April 9, 2025, in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,” Nintendo told Engadget. It added that the console is still set to launch on June 5, however.
Last week, the Trump administration announced a set of new tariffs on a swath of countries, including Japan (Nintendo’s base of operations), China and Vietnam. Those last two countries, where Nintendo manufactures much of its hardware, will be subject to import duties of 54 percent and 46 percent.
Nintendo said the Switch 2 would cost $450 at launch — and we’ve discussed the rises enough — but there’s no word yet on whether that price will get readjusted, or whether the company will just distribute fewer consoles to the US.
It’s not the only one reassessing things in the wake of the recent tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover is pausing shipments to the US. Vehicle imports face a 25 percent tariff, and the company told the AP it was “taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”
Relatively smaller companies are also figuring things out: Framework, best known for its modular, repairable laptop series, announced it was also suspending US sales for some of its laptops.
— Mat Smith
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Eufy’s new robot mowers use smart vision to trim your grass
No GPS needed.
Anker’s lifestyle brand, Eufy, is expanding from its successful move into robot vacuums and going outdoors. The company has been sharing details of its first two robot mowers for a few months, but now the pricey robo-gardeners are on sale: The Eufy E15 ($1,599) can cover up to 800 square meters (sqm) and the E18 ($1,999) can handle 1,200 sqm, and they’re available to order today from Eufy and Amazon. We’ve been testing them, and we’re impressed. They’re also surprisingly quiet. Read on for our full verdict.
Amazon’s new AI feature will buy stuff for you
Brands still need websites in the Amazon app for it to work.
Amazon’s latest AI-powered feature to make you buy more things is called Buy for Me, where the company can make purchases for you from other websites. The feature is built into the Amazon app. When you search for an item from a particular brand, you may see results labeled Shop brand sites directly, separate from your usual results. Amazon will purchase the item for you, using agentic AI, a type of AI that doesn’t need human intervention, to provide your name, address and payment details for the checkout process. Amazon says it’s not getting a cut from these sales, at least at this experimental stage, but there must be something in it for Amazon.
Miso from space
It’s apparently nuttier than terrestrial miso.
In a study published in the journal iScience, researchers from the US and Denmark say they were able to make decent-tasting miso on the International Space Station — but the flavor and smell was different from similar miso made on Earth. The team suggests the findings reflect a sort of space terroir, playing off the term used in relation to wine grapes to describe unique, location-specific flavor characteristics.
“There are some features of the space environment in low earth orbit — in particular microgravity and increased radiation — that could have impacts on how microbes grow and metabolize and thus how fermentation works,” co-lead author Joshua D. Evans of Technical University of Denmark said in a press release.
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