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After Math: Playing around on the PS5 while Blizzcon goes bye-bye

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sony

Engadget

This holiday season likely won’t particularly be a holly or jolly affair what with the [wave broadly at the current state of everything] but at least we’ll see the debuts of not one but two next-generation gaming consoles. Ahead of its release at the end of this year, Sony plans to show off more than an hour’s worth of games from the upcoming PS5. So clear your schedule at 4pm ET on June 4th, grab a bucket of popcorn (or popcorn chicken, even) and hunker down for 60-some-odd minutes of digital escapism.

NFL

Engadget

It’s hard to imagine playing a MAdden NFL game not produced by EA. I mean the company’s been rolling out annual updates to the iconic sports title since 1990! And it looks like they’ll continue doing so for the foreseeable future as EA announced last week that it had yet again renewed its licensing deal with the NFL through the 2026 season… assuming there even is a 2026 season.

gold

Engadget

Fool me once, Roberto Escobar, shame on me and my reskinned Galaxy Fold. Fool me twice, shame on you and your “gold plated” iPhone 11 Pros. At least throw in a cocaine hippo to sweeten the deal. Just what sort of game are you playing at here?

fortnite

Engadget

Epic Games has juked its Fortnite players for a second time, once again delaying the release of Chapter 2 Season 3 until June 11th. But the folks at Epic are a thoughtful bunch and are making up for the lag by holding a one-off event net Saturday (June 6) at 2pm ET.

apple

Engadget

It’s incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it. Judging by the length of his his last movie, Apple’s paying one dollar per minute for Martin Scorcsese’s next film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. Eat your heart out Irishman, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ will still be running long after we’re all dead.

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SpaceX Crew Dragon docks with the International Space Station

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SpaceX just completed another milestone in Crew Dragon’s historic journey. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have successfully docked the capsule with the International Space Station just under 19 hours after launch from Cape Canaveral. The largely automated process was uneventful. The crew tested manual operation at one point, which they said behaved much like the simulator.

Don’t expect a hasty return after this. Behnken and Hurley are expected to spend weeks aboard the ISS before returning to Earth. The capsule’s solar arrays are only rated for 119 days in space, so it will have to return by the fall no matter how eager the astronauts might be eager to stay. However long they stay, it’s a historic moment — this is the first time a crewed private spacecraft has docked in orbit. If all goes well, this is an important step toward making space more accessible.

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Samsung’s next Galaxy Watch gets spoiled by the FCC

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If Samsung was hoping to keep plans for a Galaxy Watch sequel under wraps, it’s probably disappointed. Droid-Life (via 9to5Google) has discovered a series of FCC filings that not-so-subtly reveal the next version of Samsung’s flagship smartwatch. It’s superficially similar, complete with 5ATM water resistance, GPS and LTE models. However, Samsung is backing slightly away from its tendency toward giant smartwatches — the larger model will have a 45mm case instead of the current 46mm, while the more reasonably-sized 42mm model will shrink to 41mm.

What few images are available only show the back of the watch, so it’s unclear if the control scheme will change to the touch-based bezel of the Watch Active 2. SamMobile sources insist that the rotating bezel of the Galaxy Watch will return, though, so fans of direct physical control might get to breathe a sigh of relief.

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Amazon sellers use ‘collectible’ label to dodge price gouging rules

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Amazon’s measures to prevent price gouging have a relatively simple workaround. The Verge has learned that some third-party sellers are marking products as “collectible” to evade Amazon’s automated price controls. The internet retailer reportedly has price ceilings that normally kick in when a product is listed as “new,” but that ceiling apparently doesn’t kick in with collectible items. There also isn’t much transparency regarding those ceilings, either.

The quirk has been around for a while, according to sellers. However, it wasn’t really an issue before the COVID-19 pandemic, when competition kept prices reasonable. Now that there’s high demand and low supply, unscrupulous sellers have more incentives to hike prices.

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OnePlus and McLaren have ended their phone partnership

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“Our partnership with OnePlus, which came to its scheduled conclusion recently, has been a highly successful collaboration between two iconic and innovative brands. Since the start of this partnership in 2018, OnePlus has been a supportive, valued partner and we wish them well and hope to see them in the future.”

The rep didn’t explain why the two companies are no longer working together, but it sounds like they decided not to renew their deal after their collaboration ended. OnePlus’ McLaren phones are usually souped up versions of their basic counterparts. The OnePlus 6T McLaren packs 10GB of RAM instead of just 6GB or 8GB, for instance, while the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren has 12GB of RAM and 5G connectivity, which the standard 7T Pro doesn’t have.

At CES earlier this year, OnePlus also showed off a phone called Concept One that’s clad in papaya-hued leather that McLaren uses for some of its cars. Since it’s still a concept device and the companies’ collab has ended, we might never see the device make its way to shelves.

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Microsoft cuts dozens of staff as it shifts to AI for MSN news stories

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Workforce automation is about to cost dozens of news contractors their jobs. The Seattle Times and The Guardian report that Microsoft is letting go of dozens of news contractors (about 50 in the US, 27 in the UK) after June 30th due to a shift to AI news production on MSN. The workers were responsible for choosing, editing and curating stories. People employed full-time by Microsoft will stay at the company.

In a statement to the Times, Microsoft said it “evaluate[s] our business on a regular basis” like most companies and that this could involve “re-deployment.” It stressed that the contractor job cuts were “not the result of the current pandemic.”

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Senator Ted Cruz asks DOJ to investigate Twitter over Iran sanctions

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Cruz rejected both claims. He noted that Iran bans citizens for accessing Twitter, and that both Khamenei and Zarif posted “disinformation and conspiracy theories” in early April. The senator likewise said that the licensing Twitter refers to “expressly” doesn’t allow services to people under sanctions.

This is part of an ongoing issue and doesn’t appear intentionally timed, but it couldn’t come at a worse moment. President Trump is already attacking Twitter for applying a fact check notice on one of his tweets, not to mention hiding a post for “glorification of violence.” There’s a lot of government scrutiny of its practices, and it’s not guaranteed to emerge unscathed.

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Toyota’s RAV4 plug-in hybrid will be available this summer for $40,000

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The RAV4 Prime will come in two versions: SE and XSE. While the basic SE grade will set you back $38,100, the more premium XSE grade will cost you $41,425, excluding the delivery fee. The latter has a two-tone exterior paint scheme, including a Supersonic Red version, 19-inch two-tone alloy wheels, a moonroof and a Qi-wireless phone charger. It will also be equipped with a 9-inch touchscreen display with Toyota’s Audio Plus system, whereas the SE grade will have a 8-inch touchscreen entertainment console. As Autoblog notes, the vehicle might not cost you that much overall, since its price could still be offset by up to $7,500 in federal tax credit, as well as potential state incentives.

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SpaceX’s historic launch succeeds on its second attempt

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Officially designated Demonstration-2, or Demo-2, this mission is the final test before NASA certifies the Dragon system for regular use in shuttling astronauts to and from the ISS.

separaton

Engadget

Roughly nine minutes after the Falcon 9 took off, the first stage rocket successfully set down on its autonomous sea barge, “Of Course I Love You” and, at T+12:30, the Crew Dragon capsule successfully separated from its second stage. Behnken and Hurley will now spend the next 19 hours en route to the ISS and are expected to reach the station at roughly 10:30 am ET on Sunday, May 31st.

If you’d like to try your hand at steering the Crew Dragon capsule yourself, SpaceX has recently released a docking sim but be warned, it makes Top Gun’s carrier landing seem like a cake walk.

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