Disney is making the most out of May the 4th (aka Star Wars Day) beyond a Mandalorian documentary and streaming Rise of Skywalker. On top of a new movie from Taika Waititi, the company has confirmed reports of a Disney+ Star Wars series from Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland. The official news revealed precious little about what it entails, but did say Headland would be a showrunner, executive producer and writer.
The earlier Variety scoop claimed the series would be “female-centric” and wouldn’t be linked to the timelines of other Star Wars movies and shows.
He’s a highly-regarded filmmaker, who’s behind the likes of Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do In The Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Waititi won an Oscar this year for writing Jojo Rabbit, and he’ll collaborate on the Star Wars script with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
It’s probably safe to say most people haven’t been to a concert or a record store in the past month or so. And while streaming isn’t a completely fulfilling replacement for going to shows or spotting that rare LP, SoundCloud hopes to at least fill the void a bit with some live content on Twitch. Starting on May 6th, the music platform will host four shows that will help viewers to discover new music, connect with experts and experience live performances.
In Studio Sessions with Soulection, the hip-hop collective’s founder, Joe Kay, will share his picks of SoundCloud’s hidden gems. Fresh Pressed will feature the best new tracks of the week, and provide insights into the songs from the artists themselves. Cloud Bar will present topics ranging from self-care to navigating the business of live music. Similar to Fact Magazine’s Against the Clock, Fast Track will see beatmakers create a backing track, from start to finish, in the span of one hour. Producers will be able to download the track and use it in their own creations.
The system, which Apple and Google are calling exposure notification, involves anonymous Bluetooth keys exchanged between phones to track potential contact with the coronavirus causing COVID-19. The companies are collaborating on an interoperable API which should be released this month. But the two tech giants won’t be the ones building the actual apps — that falls to national or regional public health agencies. Apple and Google can therefore build privacy into their API regardless of what varying political regimes may want to do once this functionality rolls out globally.
Apple / Google
Last week, the two companies seeded the API to developers in preparation for a full rollout. In the months to come, exposure notification functionality may be built into operating systems, allowing them to be sent out without the use of separate app. And once the pandemic is over, Google and Apple have said they’ll disable the system.
As to how the Warzone will connect to future Call of Duty titles, we’ll likely see Infinity Ward release in-game cosmetics that will be available in both Warzone and whatever the new Call of Duty game is at the moment. We already saw that at play with Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered. Moreover, those two statements would suggest the gamewill have a dedicated team working on it well into the future. In fact, when asked about whether Infinity Ward plans to port Warzone to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, Kurosaki said, “…as soon as those new systems are out and available, I’m sure we’ll support them.”
A couple of other interesting tidbits came out of the interview. At the moment, Kurosaki said Infinity Ward doesn’t plan to port Warzone to Google Stadia. Hodge also spoke a bit about how quickly Warzone has tried and dropped some features. “… if you look [at] Modern Warfare, they’re constantly rotating modes in and out […] so we’re just trying to find our footing on that, what are the core modes and what we can rotate in and out.”
The decision to treat Warzone as its own separate thing is good news for fans of the franchise. When Call of Duty first dipped its toes in the battle royale scene, it did so through Black Ops 4’sBlackout mode. Ultimately, the connection to Black Ops 4 hurt the mode’s longevity more than it helped. But moving forward, it sounds like you won’t have to buy the latest Call of Duty game to continue playing the series’ battle royale mode with your friends.
We’ve asked Amazon for comment. In the past, the company has insisted that climate change activists were violating policies on external communication, and that it fired COVID-19 protesters for violating social distancing rules. Bray didn’t buy those claims, however, noting that leaders could have set conditions for participating (or at least objected) instead of simply firing people outright. “It was clear to any reasonable observer that [the workers] were turfed for whistleblowing,” he wrote.
The former executive stressed that he “escalated through the proper channels” using many of the arguments he’s making now, and that he won’t disclose what happened in those discussions.
It’s too soon to say if this will prompt other high-profile departures, let alone any changes in Amazon’s operations. However, this clearly isn’t what the internet giant would hope for. It draws more attention to labor issues at a time when the world is already looking closely — as Bray put it, Amazon is invoking the “Streisand effect.”
You won’t need to don an Oculus headset to play Vader Immortal in the near future. ILMxLAB has revealed that the episodic Star Wars virtual reality game will be available for PlayStation VR sometime this summer. There isn’t much news as to what (if anything) has changed on a technical level for the title, but you at least won’t have to buy it piece by piece. All three episodes and Lightsaber Dojos will be purchasable together, the studio said.
The immediate appeal of Vader Immortal is fairly obvious: it’s an immersive Star Wars experience that has you wielding a lightsaber, jumping into hyperspace and otherwise living out your childhood dreams. We also enjoyed the well-written storyline, though. While this is arguably a technical showcase for VR, it’s also a solid game in its own right.
May the 4th means a wave of Star Wars debuts and promos, and that even includes deals on kitchen tech. Williams Sonoma is discounting its Star Wars Instant Pots, with a 3-quart BB-8 model selling for as low as $60, the 6-quart Stormtrooper model going for $80 and the 8-quart Chewbacca pot on sale for $100. That’s $20 off in each case. You can also plug in the code SHIP4FREE to get free shipping on any order over $50 (in other words, any of these pots).
Yes, the rumors were true: Apple has banished the butterfly keyboard once and for all. The company has introduced a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro with the same basic Magic Keyboard and Touch Bar combo you’d find in its 16-inch counterpart. You can also expect 10th-generation Intel Core processors with boost speeds up to 4.1GHz, a minimum 256GB SSD (with a max of 4TB) and 16GB of RAM on some stock configurations (upgradable to 32GB). It’s available today starting at $1,299, although that’s with an 8th-generation chip — you’re looking at $1,799 for the latest Intel hardware, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
Don’t expect radical revisions, as the screen size implies. Most of the improvements come through baseline performance. The newer Intel processors tout Iris Plus Graphics that promise 80 percent faster visuals and support Apple’s Pro Display XDR at its native 6K resolution. You know, in case you’re willing to connect your laptop to a monitor that costs nearly four times as much. The quad-core CPUs in the new MacBook Pro pack up to 2.8 times faster performance than earlier models with a dual-core 3.5GHz chip, although we suspect the gains won’t be nearly so high coming from a 2019 quad-core model.
Tech companies around the world are facing the same difficulties in maintaining their businesses as everywhere else. Over the weekend, crowdfunding site Kickstarter has discussed layoffs as the COVID-19 pandemic ravages both projects and backers. The company has confirmed plans to cut a large portion of its workforce after the union representing Kickstarter employees said it had ratified a layoff agreement on May 1st. Layoffs could affect up to 45 percent of Kickstarter staff.
Last week, Lyft laid off nearly 1,000 of its employees, and rumors suggest Uber may have to address its headcount, again, soon. GoPro and Magic Leap have also adjusted their staffing levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s a time of mixed fortunes. We’re in the middle of earnings season, and tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Apple have had mixed fortunes. The latter has suffered from reduced hardware sales — that happens when your stores are closed — while Microsoft saw ‘minimal’ impact on its business and Facebook has seen a jump in its audience figures as people stay indoors and connect to their screens.
-Mat
Tesla has applied for a license to become a UK energy provider
The company may bring its PowerPack battery technology to Britain.
Mark Brake via Getty Images
Tesla has reportedly applied for a license to become an energy provider in the UK. That means it might bring its PowerPack battery technology to Britain, much as it did with its 100-megawatt installation in South Australia. It may also be a way for the company to introduce a platform called Autobidder, which allows renewable power suppliers to trade energy.
The company hasn’t confirmed any plans for large-scale PowerPacks in the UK, but the country generates 40 percent of its energy from renewables, including wind and solar, which means the system would make sense, smoothing out gaps in renewable energy production.
Tesla could also deploy its new platform, Autobidder, which uses machine-learning tech and cloud platforms to optimize power distribution. It’s a dry topic but could make power production more efficient. Continue reading.
Google is working on 4K/HDR streaming to Android TV for Stadia
And a built-in messenger
INA FASSBENDER via Getty Images
Stadia, Google’s game streaming service has already rolled out 4K streaming on the web and 5.1 surround sound for players using a browser? So what’s next? Something pretty interesting, according to code dug up by 9to5Google. As there’s only a handful of Android phones with a 4K-ready display, these settings are likely in preparation for Stadia’s Android TV app. The company may be preparing to add the option of 4K and HDR-quality streaming on Android-powered TVs, as well as built-in messaging to match other modern gaming services. Continue reading.
Juul may exit France, Spain and other European markets
It reportedly has nothing to do with COVID-19.
Josie_Desmarais via Getty Images
Juul is preparing to leave five European countries within the year. Unlike all the shutdowns and layoffs reported over the past months, BuzzFeed’s source says the decision didn’t have anything to do with the coronavirus pandemic.
The e-cigarette maker is reportedly planning to pull out of Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Spain in July, followed by France at the end of the year. Juul enjoys relatively high sales in Spain and France compared to the rest of the continent, but not high enough to justify the costs and the trouble of dealing with regulators. The European Union has stringent requirements when it comes to e-cigarette products, as the publication notes, requiring companies to stick to a nicotine limit of 20 milligrams per milliliter of fluid. Meanwhile, in the US, a single Juul pod can contain up to 59 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter. Continue reading.
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‘Half-Life: Alyx’ added nearly 1 million VR users to Steam
It’s a start.
Valve
Half-Life: Alyx appears to have given VR gaming a serious boost. Road to VR has used historical data and direct Valve data to calculate that Steam users added nearly 950,000 VR headsets in April — a huge spike over March. The data also provides some insight into what headsets people were using: Valve’s own Index headset did see more adoption, but not by nearly as much. Most gamers are using either Oculus or HTC headsets. Continue reading.
