Latest News - Page 995

Japanese automaker Toyota will have its 2023 Crown model available in early 2023, with the sedan promoted with bold styling, premium control and an elevated ride height for drivers.

Toyota will release three hybrid grades: XLE, Limited, and Platinum, with all of them shipping standard with all-wheel drive. Buyers will be able to choose from the Toyota Hybrid System (THS) or Hybrid MAX - the Hybrid Max features 340 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque.

The XLE and Limited grades have an electronically controlled Continuously Variable Transmission (eCVT) while the Platinum grade features a direct shift six-speed automatic transmission.

Luxury automaker Mercedes-AMG's new C 63 S E Performance model is available in an exclusive F1 Edition. Interested buyers will need to make a purchase sooner rather than later, as it's only available for one year.

Mercedes-AMG didn't make any mechanical changes for the F1 Edition - a 2.0-liter, the 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol-hybrid powertrain provides 671 horsepower and a maximum torque of 1,020 Nm.

The car has a manufacturer alpine grey uni paint finish with foiling on the car flanks that feature the AMG logo with a grey to black color gradient. The F1 Edition has definitely been designed to give the sedan and wagon a visual pop to go along with the superior driving experience.

Italian luxury automaker Lamborghini took its Urus Performante Super SUV on a tour around Europe, visiting different cities to present it to the press and potential customers. The vehicle made stops in London, Mainz, Milan, and Paris, with guests able to speak with Lamborghini representatives and product experts.

The Urus Performante has 666 CV and 490 kW power, with a top speed of 190 mph - and accelerates 0-62 mph in 3.3 seconds. The car accelerates 0-124 mph in just 11.5 seconds. The 4.0-liter 8-cylinder turbocharged engine is extremely demanding and drivers will only get 16 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.

A connected navigation service offers drivers real-time travel, route, and destination updates, with a number of features, including online smart routing, first/last mile navigation, traffic light information, and other capabilities. In addition, the Urus Performante offers mobile functionality to receive vehicle status reports while owners can remotely lock and unlock the doors, activate horn and lights, and analyze trip statistics.

Square Enix is eager to reduce risk wherever possible and is open to selling parts of its game development studios in order to share the costs and overall volatility in games

The games industry is a tough market. Making games is very expensive and there's no guaranteed payoff. No one knows which games will sink or swim.Even games set in mega-billion properties like Marvel can bomb on the market; just ask Square Enix, who lost an estimated $200 million on its to Marvel games, Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy (this loss was so big that it led to the outright sale of the studios that made the games, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal).

Square Enix doesn't want any more unnecessary risk and the company is considering a more "diversified capital structure" of its game studios. Essentially Square Enix wants to take the Tencent approach; instead of taking full ownership of a game or studio, it could sell parts of its studios off to a third-party company such as the aforementioned Tencent, Sony, or even Epic Games. In return, it's assumed that costs like game development funding and marketing would be more split between the two companies.

Only a day after taking the helm at Twitter, Elon Musk has seemingly reinstated Kanye West's Twitter account after the rapper posted antisemitic comments.

For those who have been out of the loop, Kanye West, now officially known as Ye, was recently temporarily banned from Twitter after he posted antisemitic comments online where he said he was "going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE". These comments from the rapper caused a major backlash that resulted in many prominent brands that were working with Ye cutting ties with him.

The latest of those big brands and a major hit to Ye's Yeezy is Adidas which severed its relationship with West in a relationship break-up estimated to be worth anywhere between $150 - $200 million per year for Yeezy.

Years after its failed online-based action shooter Anthem, BioWare's general manager re-confirms the new Mass Effect game will be a singleplayer RPG first and foremost.

It's been a while since we had our last update on Mass Effect 5 (or whatever the project will be called), and BioWare's general manager gives a brief update on the upcoming sci-fi epic. According to Gary McKay, the game is still a singleplayer-driven experience, hinting we may not have to worry about any monetized online multiplayer component getting shoehorned into the experience.

"Of course, Dreadwolf isn't the only thing happening here at BioWare! We have a team hard at work envisioning what the future holds for a new single-player Mass Effect game. And we look forward to celebrating our community on N7 Day next month," BioWare general manager Gary McKay said in a recent blog post.

Elon Musk recently took over Twitter, and the Tesla CEO is already rolling out changes to the platform, the first being forming what he calls a "Twitter council".

Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account only a few hours ago to announce the formation of a Twitter content moderation council, which will include a group of individuals that have a wide range of viewpoints dedicated to reviewing content, moderating it, and reinstating accounts. Musk explains that no accounts will be reinstated until this council convenes.

Musk's plan to form a Twitter council to review content posted to the platform is part of his wider plan to open up Twitter's content policy, giving users more leeway with the content they can post to the platform. Musk has outlined this plan numerous times leading up to the acquisition, throughout the many months of the deal forming, and even once the purchase was finalized in a direct address to advertisers.

Square Enix's top 3 big franchises have sold almost 300 million copies combined across multiple decades.

Square Enix has some of the oldest post-80s crash video game franchises, and its most popular series have accumulated tens of millions of sales across decades. According to new data presented in Square Enix's 2022 annual report, its big 3 franchises have sold over a mighty 294 million copies combined.

The publisher's big three includes Final Fantasy, which has shipped and sold 173 million units across a multitude of games spanning 35 years; Dragon Quest, a 36-year old beloved RPG series that has sold 85 million copies on all platforms; and Kingdom Hearts, a relatively newer franchise released in 2002 on the PlayStation 2 that has since moved over 36 million copies on a number of releases across multiple console generations.

CD Projekt's games have sold over 85 million units to date, making the Polish games developer a force to be reckoned with in terms of long-term unit sales.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a monumental success for CD Projekt RED that has sold 20 million units to date, which is as many copies as the original two Witcher games. The studio has now confirmed that all of its four games combined have shipped and sold a mighty 85 million, which puts it ahead of the last-recorded figures for the Monster Hunter franchise (84 million).

"We have delivered four profound and memorable games that continue to appeal to more and more gamers. We are proud to announce that Cyberpunk 2077 has sold over 20 million copies. With this, we have collectively sold over 85 million games of our four flagship games so far," CD Projekt president Adam Kicinski said in a recent strategy meeting.

Nintendo has Mario, Microsoft has Halo, and Sony has...Call of Duty.

Sony has made an interesting claim that all worldwide regulators will want to pay attention to. Call of Duty is the "best-selling franchise on PlayStation," Sony has loudly proclaimed on the back of every retail boxed copy of Modern Warfare 2.

The data is based on full game sales as of April 2022, Sony notes, which coincides with a period where Call of Duty sold 25 million copies in one year.

United Airlines and Jaguar North America have created a gate-to-gate airport transfer service that utilizes an all-electric fleet to ferry passengers at the airport. United expects around 60 trips per day to shuttle more than 1,000 United passengers per day as part of the joint program at select major airports.

The program is available to select MileagePlus Premier members, starting at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport - travelers can ride in the 2023 Jaguar I-PACE HSE between their connecting aircraft. Expansion to airports in Denver, Houston, Newark/New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles is expected before the end of the year.

The Jaguar I-PACE HSE is a five-seat SUV with up to almost 250 miles of electric range - and includes Amazon Alexa connectivity and infotainment enhancements available if time allows.

German automaker BMW recently announced some changes expected for the 2023 BMW R 1250 R Roadster, a model based on the successful BMW naked boxer roadster model. This latest model is packed with features to make it a comfortable ride that uses technology to provide a sporty, but efficient ride experience for riders and a passenger.

BMW decided to make 2022 optional features standard in the 2023 model, listening to feedback from owners - and making changes based on rider feedback.

The R1250 R is powered by a 136 horsepower engine with 105 lb-ft torque to support three standard riding modes. The 2-cylinder air/liquid-cooled boxer engine features ABS Pro standard, along with dynamic brake control (DBC), which also ships standard with the base model.

Dragon Age Dreadwolf, the next Dragon Age game, has entered alpha stages of development and can now be played from start to finish.

It's been many years since the last Dragon Age game--Inquisition was released in 2014, and gaming is due for another major myth-and-magic RPG experience. Luckily for us, BioWare has made significant progress with Dragon Age 4 and the pieces of the game have been put together to create a playable, cohesive game with a narrative story, combat, and character interactions.

"Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience," BioWare general manager Gary McKay said in a recent update post.

NASA has released a new set of images captured by its Lucy spacecraft while it was conducting its first of three Earth gravity assists.

The space agency has taken to its blog to share the images captured by Lucy while it was between the Earth and the Moon, approximately 160,000 miles from the lunar surface, or about 6.5 hours after it conducted its first of three gravity assists, which is the process of using Earth's gravitational pull to gain momentum to slingshot the spacecraft further. The above image showcases a 800 mile wide patch near the center of the last quarter moon, with each pixel representing approximately 0.8 miles.

According to NASA the image was captured with the Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (L'LORRI), and is made up of a combination of ten separate 2 millisecond exposures that have then been sharpened to bring out the most detail possible.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a public comment on Wednesday following massive criticism over Meta's tanking stock price and push into the Metaverse.

The Facebook founder and now Meta CEO spoke in call with analysts about Meta missing its financial targets as outlined in its third-quarter earnings report, which caused its stock price to fall by a staggering 20% - its lowest since 2016. Zuckerberg said, "We've been through a couple of these cycles before already, and I'm pretty confident this is going in a good direction."

The Facebook founder added that the company is suffering from "a volatile macroeconomy, increasing competition, ads signal loss, and growing costs from our long-term investments". Despite the apparent struggling, Zuckerberg believes that the company is still continuing to navigate challenging dynamics and that he believes "our product trends look better from what I see than some of the commentary I've seen suggests."

NASA is calling upon the public to send in photos of one of the least understood electrical phenomena that occurs in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Above is an image of what the space agency calls Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), or more commonly referred to as sprites. These mysterious crimson figures occur between 31 and 56 miles in altitude at the higher regions of Earth's upper atmosphere, particularly above thunderstorms and produce large-scale electric discharges, similar to lightning.

Sometimes these bright flashes of light appear as red or orange, and are mistakenly called upper-atmospheric lightning. However, they aren't researchers have found they aren't as hot as true tropospheric lightning, lending to their mysteriousness. NASA has called upon citizens to send in any images of the phenomena so researchers can try and uncover the mystery behind their origin. The project is called "Spritacular".

NASA's InSight lander is designed to learn more about Mars' geological activities by measuring the vitals of the planet and listening to any internal movement. On December 24, 2021, NASA's InSight lander heard something.

NASA has taken to its blog to explain that its InSight lander detected a magnitude 4 Marsquake on December 24, which was later discovered to be caused by a meteor strike that the space agency is saying is one of the biggest on Mars since NASA began monitoring the cosmos. Notably, researchers have penned two new papers published in the journal Science that detail the meteorite hit closer to the equator and excavated large boulder-sized chunks of ice that were buried beneath the martian surface.

The space agency discovered that the December 24 Marsquake was caused by a meteorite impact after checking over before-and-after images snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has and still is taking pictures of the Red Planet. What researchers found when looking at the images was a large crater with a diameter of 490 feet, leading researchers to believe the meteorite was between 16 to 39 feet wide.

SpaceX has taken to its social media channels to announce the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, which carried a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday, with the rocket transporting 53 new Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit. After reaching the designated altitude and releasing the Starlink satellites, the Falcon 9's first stage made a reentry and successfully landed on the SpaceX drone ship called "Of Course I Still Love You", which is located on the Pacific Ocean. There were only eight minutes between the initial launch of the Falcon 9 to its first stage, successfully touching back down on the drone ship.

SpaceX writes on its website that this was the eighth launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 first-stage booster, which also happened to be used to launch the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, and now, six Starlink missions. So far, SpaceX has launched more than 3,500 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, enabling for more coverage of its satellite internet service, which it recently announced was now available for moving objects such as RVs. However, there is a big catch with that new service.

Elon Musk has finalized the deal to purchase the world's second-largest social media company, Twitter, and now the SpaceX CEO has revealed his motivation behind the acquisition.

Musk took to his personal Twitter account on the same day as he was made the official owner of Twitter, writing in a direct message to advertisers that he knows there has been much speculation surrounding his motivations for buying Twitter, and that majority of this online speculation has been incorrect. Musk explained that he purchased Twitter for $44 billion because he believes it's important "for the future of civilization" to have a common "town square" that allows for multiple points of view to be expressed and debated among individuals.

The now-Twitter-owner continued and said that there is currently "great danger that social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers" that result in more hate and divide throughout society. Musk went on to say that this divide has been fueled by the incentivization of "clicks" from the traditional media, which he believes has fueled both ends of the spectrum (right/left). Through this division and the traditional media push to generate as much money as possible by fueling the polarizing fire, the "opportunity for dialogue is lost", says Musk.

It has become official, and the rollercoaster of a ride has finally come to an end. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now the owner of the world's second-largest social media platform, Twitter.

Musk first announced his interest in buying Twitter back in April earlier this year, proposing that he took to the company private for $54.20 a share, or a $44 billion acquisition. It wasn't smooth sailing between now and April as the SpaceX CEO attempted to back out of the deal, which led to accusations being fired from both Musk's side as well as Twitters, resulting in lawsuits and further complications.

Leading up to the trial, Musk backpedaled on his stance to get out of the Twitter deal, saying that he intends to follow through with the purchase at the originally proposed price, $54.20 a share, $44 billion. The Delaware Court of Chancery, which was dealing with the Musk-Twitter case, gave both parties until October 28 at 5:00 pm to close the deal, or the case would go to trial, which seemingly both parties wanted to avoid.