Technology

Sony has been announcing new games coming to PlayStation 5 all day as part of a spotlight on indie titles. Included in that list is Disco Elysium – The Final Cut, a “definitive edition” of the game, launching on March 30th. The Final Cut includes new quests, quality of life improvements, and voice work from professional actors across the world. The game, previously a PC exclusive, is heading to the PlayStation store, alongside Steam, GOG, Epic Store, Google Stadia, and the App store. Here’s the full list of other games announced today: Operation: Tango Operation: Tango is an asymmetrical co-op game from Clever Plays Studio in which players act as either a hacker or agent to solve puzzles. The game will launch for PlayStation 4 and PS5 in the spring. Chicory: A Colorful Tale In Chicor...

YouTube TV added popular missing channels like MTV and Nickelodeon in 2020 after striking a deal with ViacomCBS, but now the streaming service is finally adding in the remaining stragglers like Nick Jr. and MTV2, according to WhatToWatch. The new additions include Nick Jr., Teen Nick, Nicktoons, MTV Classic, MTV2, Dabl, and BET Her. Generally these channels are spinoffs of more well-known offerings like BET and MTV, but Nick Jr.’s younger children’s programming will definitely have some parents breathing a sigh of relief. Dabl — which I had never heard of before today — is apparently ViacomCBS’s “lifestyle-oriented network” for licensing cooking and homemaking shows like Emeril Live and Martha Stewart Living. It’s probably great for a late-night marathon or your daily background noise whil...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked Lordstown Motors for more information about allegations that the EV startup misled investors about its progress to date. Lordstown Motors said Wednesday that it is cooperating with the inquiry and that its board of directors has created a special committee to review the claims. The startup is backed by General Motors, which has a seat on the board. The allegations came last Friday from short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, which disclosed along with the report that it had taken a short position in Lordstown Motors. The firm previously released a report about hydrogen trucking startup Nikola that similarly led to probes from the SEC and the Department of Justice. (General Motors was also planning to take a stake in Nikola before that report...

Motorola is expanding its Edge Plus flagship phone with a new, desktop computer interface called Ready For. Similar to Samsung’s DeX, Ready For allows users to plug their smartphone into a larger screen (using either a USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to HDMI cable), allowing the Edge Plus (and presumably, future Motorola phones) to be used as a computer or even a set-top box alternative. The company actually envisions four different use cases for Ready For. On the most basic level, users can convert the Edge Plus into a mobile desktop computer setup, complete with a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard — similar to DeX. But Motorola also has more interesting ideas for how to use the Edge Plus. One more, for instance, turns the Edge Plus into a videoconference station, using the superior cameras on the smar...

Facebook is addressing the criticism it’s faced for its role in human rights abuses by putting its values on paper in a new “corporate human rights policy” collecting “the human rights standards [it] will strive to respect.” Under the policy, Facebook is committing to providing an annual report on its impact on human rights and a fund for human rights defenders. The company plans on reporting its “most critical human rights issues, like risks to freedom of expression” to its board of directors. The fund for defenders is concentrated on offline support for activists and journalists, but Facebook’s director of human rights Miranda Sissons says it will continue to support digital security efforts like “thwarting unauthorized access” to activists’ accounts, as well. While the policy is new, Fa...

T-Mobile has announced a new perk for its customers: a year of access to a version of Pandora with ad-free stations on weekends, along with a few other benefits, at no extra cost. This is not to be confused with Pandora’s paid premium service, but rather a version of the free service with a handful of extras. It starts on March 23rd as part of the company’s T-Mobile Tuesdays promotion, which is included on most postpaid plans. Beginning next Tuesday, customers can get access by logging into the T-Mobile Tuesdays app and redeeming the offer through their Pandora account. After — ironically — watching a short ad each week, they’ll have access to music stations without ads over the weekend. They’ll also get early access to SiriusXM podcast episodes, SiriusXM original podcasts, and special “to...

If you’ve used a ThinkPad before, you probably know 90 percent of what to expect from the ThinkPad X1 Nano. All of the staples are here. It’s got the black carbon fiber chassis, the discrete buttons on top of the touchpad, the mechanical privacy shutter, the ThinkPad logo on the palm rest, and (of course) the red pointer nub in the middle of the keyboard. But one thing is unique about the X1 Nano: it’s the lightest ThinkPad Lenovo has ever made. Starting at just 1.99 pounds, the Nano isn’t technically the lightest laptop on the market. But it’s still one of the best combinations of portability, build quality, and performance that you can buy. Lenovo has made a few other useful tweaks as well, though they’re not tweaks you’ll necessarily notice when you’re looking at the machine. There’s no...

Microsoft is planning to automatically add HDR support to more than 1,000 PC games. The software maker is now testing a new Auto HDR feature on Windows 10, which works just like it does on the latest Xbox Series S and X consoles. Enabling Auto HDR will add high dynamic range (HDR) to a large number of DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games, as long as you have a compatible HDR monitor. “While some game studios develop for HDR gaming PCs by mastering their game natively for HDR, Auto HDR for PC will take DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 SDR-only games and intelligently expand the color / brightness range up to HDR,” says Hannah Fisher, a DirectX program manager at Microsoft. “It’s a seamless platform feature that will give you an amazing new gaming experience that takes full advantage of your HDR monitor’...

On March 18th, a four-hour version of director Zack Snyder’s original vision for Justice League will hit HBO Max. Early reviews are mostly littered with praise for the movie, calling it a win for fans of Snyder’s other superhero films (Batman v Superman, Man of Steel). Others acknowledge that, hey, at least it’s better than the original film released in 2017, which was spliced together by Joss Whedon after Snyder had to step back from the project to cope with the sudden death of his daughter. Whether the movie lives up to people’s expectations or not, the very existence of it — the marketing behind it, what it represents to fandom as a whole — is a turning point for online fandom. A quick reminder of what the last four years have consisted of from various corners of the internet: after Jus...

A rover on the Moon has metal wheels that can flex around rocky obstacles, then reshape back to their original form. On Earth, surgeons install tiny mesh tubes that can dilate a heart patient’s blood vessels all on their own, without mechanical inputs or any wires to help. These shape-shifting capabilities are all thanks to a bizarre kind of metal called nitinol, a so-called shape-metal alloy that can be trained to remember its own shape. The decades-old material has become increasingly common in a wide range of everyday applications. And in the next decade, the metal will face its most challenging application yet: a sample return mission on Mars. Nitinol, made of nickel and titanium, works its magic through heat. To “train” a paper clip made of nitinol, for example, you heat it at 500 deg...

Intel has hired Apple’s former “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long to create new ads praising PCs. Long starts each commercial with “Hello I’m a… Justin,” with the typical white background you’d find on Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads from the 2000s. Naturally, the ads focus on Mac vs. PC again, with Long mocking Apple’s Touch Bar, lack of M1 multiple monitor support, and the “gray and grayer” color choices for a MacBook. One even goes all-in on Apple’s lack of touchscreens in Macs or 2-in-1 support by mocking the fact you have to buy a tablet, keyboard, stylus, and even a dongle to match what’s available on rival Intel-based laptops. Another ad also points out that “no one really games on a Mac.” [embedded content] The return of Justin Long in Mac vs. PC ads for Intel comes just months after Apple...

Unagi, maker of stylish electric scooters, is bringing its nascent subscription service to more cities. After testing out its $40-a-month service in small parts of New York City and Los Angeles, the Oakland, California-based company is expanding its service area in both cities, while also bringing it to seven new markets, including San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Phoenix, Miami, and Nashville. Helping fuel its growth, the company also just closed its first round of fundraising for $10.5 million, led by the Ecosystem Integrity Fund with participation from Menlo Ventures, Broadway Angels, and Gaingels, among others. Flush with cash, Unagi plans on adding more cities in the months ahead and is eyeing a launch in Europe as well. “We understood that there are a lot of people who have fear of co...