Tesla produced 258,580 vehicles in the second quarter of 2022, the automaker announced on Saturday. While that’s a 25 percent year-on-year increase from the number of cars it made during Q2 2021, it’s also fewer vehicles than the company produced at th…
NASA targets late August to early September launch for Artemis 1 Moon mission
NASA has set an aggressive launch target for its Artemis 1 Moon mission following the successful June 20th “wet dress rehearsal” fueling test of the SLS rocket that will carry the flight to space. In an interview with Ars Technica, Jim Free, associate administrator with the agency’s Explorations Systems Development program, said this week NASA is working toward an August 23rd to September 6th launch window for Aretmis 1. “That’s the one we’re targeting,” Free told the outlet. “We’d be foolish not to target that right now. We made incredible progress last week.”
For those keeping track, NASA recently announced the earliest it could get Artemis 1 in space following a successful fueling test of the SLS was between July 26th and August 10th. Instead, NASA selected the second earliest launch window it had open to it.
Before the flight can get underway, technicians must complete final preparations on the SLS rocket, including replacing a seal that led to a hydrogen leak during its June 20th test. NASA began rolling the SLS back to the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where staff will work on the launch vehicle, on July 1st. “I don’t think we’re stretching ourselves to get there,” Free said. “We’re probably pushing ourselves a little bit, but we’re not going to do something stupid.”
Once Artemis 1 is finally underway, it will carry an unmanned Orion module on a trip around the Moon to study how the flight might affect the human body. Artemis II will later take four astronauts to the satellite ahead of a planned lunar landing sometime in the second half of the decade.
Formula E’s Gen3 car will make its race debut on January 14th
Formula E’s Gen3 all-electric car will make its race debut on January 14th, 2023 in Mexico City. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) announced the date on Wednesday and shared the preliminary schedule for Formula E’s upcoming ninth seas…
Google’s Switch to Android app on iOS now works with all Android 12 devices
Google is making it easier for new Android users to transfer their data from an old iPhone. As of today, the company’s Switch to Android app on iOS will work with all Android 12 devices. Previously only compatible with Pixel phones, the software is useful if you’re about to move from iOS to Android.
Once you have your new phone, connect it to your old Apple one. Your best bet is a Lightning to USB-C cable, but you can also link the two devices together over WiFi. Once they’re connected, select what data you want to be moved over. Your options include apps, contacts, photos, videos, music and messages. At that point, the software will take care of the rest.
The timing of the wider availability of Switch to Android is interesting in part because WhatsApp recently made it easier for new iOS users to move their chat histories over from an old Android phone. Obviously, Google’s app won’t help if you switched to Android before today’s announcement, but if the headache of transferring your data is what held you back previously, now you have one less reason to wait.
‘Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration’ brings together more than 90 games this fall
With Atari turning 50 this year, the brand’s current owner plans to celebrate with a collection that brings together five decades of games. Announced today, the aptly named Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration will include more than 90 titles spanning the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, ST, Jaguar and Lynx. What’s more, Atari hired Digital Eclipse, a studio that’s best known for its work on The Disney Afternoon Collection and the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, to oversee the project.
“When it comes to emulation or bringing classics back or doing really any sort of remastering or reimagining, I don’t know if there’s anybody who does it better than Digital Eclipse, so they were always our first choice,” Atari CEO Wade Rosen told Game Informer.
Atari has yet to share a complete list of the games that will appear on the compilation, but in addition to many classics, the collection will include six new retro-inspired games. One of those is a sequel to 1981’s Haunted House for the Atari 2600. Haunted Houses will feature modern 3D voxel-based graphics and new levels for players to explore. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration will cost $40 when it arrives later this year on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC and Atari VCS.
Tesla reportedly lays off 200 Autopilot employees in latest jobs cut
Tesla has reportedly laid off approximately 200 workers from its Autopilot team and closed an office in California. According to Bloomberg, the company notified staff of the move on Tuesday. Many of the affected employees were annotation specialists whose jobs involved evaluating and labeling Autopilot data obtained from customers. Along with the layoffs, Tesla closed its San Mateo location; Bloomberg reports what remained of the 350-person team was transferred to another nearby office.
Tesla did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The automaker has not operated a public relations department since 2020.
The cuts are almost certainly part of a broader effort by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to reduce costs at the company ahead of a potential recession. At the start of June, Musk told employees in a company-wide email he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and that layoffs were coming. He later told Bloomberg he planned to reduce Tesla’s salaried workforce by about 10 percent over the next three months. The admission came after Musk told remote workers to return to the office or lose their jobs. Tesla reportedly bungled its back-to-office plan, with The Information reporting that many employees returned to the company’s Fremont facility to find there weren’t enough parking spots and desks.
Sony’s new hardware brand will launch with gaming headsets and PS5-optimized monitors
Sony has announced the launch of Inzone, a new brand of PC gaming displays and headsets. They’ll be coming out of the company’s Electronics division (not to be confused with its Interactive Entertainment unit) and its flagship product will be the Inzone M9, a 27-inch 4K monitor. The M9 boasts an IPS panel with full-array local dimming, a 144Hz refresh rate and a claimed 1-millisecond gray to gray response time.
Sony says the panel is also DisplayHDR 600-certified and covers 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Additionally, the monitor is G-Sync compatible and features support for variable refresh rate (VRR) gaming thanks to the inclusion of an HDMI 2.1 port. If you connect the M9 to a PS5 through that port, you’ll get access to a feature that will automatically switch the monitor between its included low-latency and picture processing modes when it detects you’re about to play a game or watch a movie. Sony has also optimized the PS5’s HDR output for the M9, and you’ll see the benefits of that tuning automatically as well. Sony’s M9 will hit shelves this summer and retail for $899.
Alongside a 4K display, Sony will also offer a 240Hz Full HD monitor. Like the company’s new flagship, the M3 will boast a 1-millisecond gray to gray response time, PlayStation 5-specific features and compatibility for both G-Sync and VRR. As you might expect, high dynamic range performance won’t be as good as the 4K variant, with the monitor only earning VESA’s DisplayHDR 400 certification. Sony plans to begin selling the M3 sometime this winter for $529.
If you’re looking for a new gaming headset, Sony has you covered there too. For those who want it all, there’s the $299 H9. It features active noise cancellation, Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, support for spatial audio and the same synthetic leather found on Sony’s recently announced WH-1000XM5 headphones. For a more affordable option, there’s the H7. It omits the H9’s ANC and “soft fit” leather features for a $229 price tag. The H7 will also come with better battery life. Sony claims you can get 40 hours of use from its new mid-tier headphones compared to 32 hours from the H9. Lastly, there’s the $99 H3, which you can connect to your PC or PS5 through a 3.5mm headphone jack or wired USB adapter. Sony will release all three models this summer.
Red Bull is building a $6.1 million F1-inspired hybrid hypercar
Taking a page from on-track rival Mercedes, Red Bull plans to produce its own hypercar. On Tuesday, the company took to Twitter to announce the RB17, which is slated to be a two-seater with a hybrid V8 engine and 1,100 horsepower. Production will start…
Return to Monkey Island’s first gameplay trailer is a swashbuckling trip of nostalgia
When Return to Monkey Island arrives later this year, players will finally discover the secret of Monkey Island. That’s the pitch series creator Ron Gilbert made in the game’s newest trailer, which premiered today during Nintendo’s latest Direct s…
ARM’s Immortalis GPU will bring hardware-based ray tracing to more Android devices
ARM’s newest flagship GPU will offer hardware-based ray tracing, a first for the company. Announced today, the Immortalis-G715 promises a 15 percent performance boost compared to the firm’s previous generation of premium Mali GPUs. The performance impr…