Sony has vowed to ramp up PS5 production to “levels that [it has] never achieved before” in order to keep up with surging demand. In a briefing with investors, Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan describes the successes and struggles the company has faced since launching its latest console.
Developed by researchers at Northwestern University, this tiny robotic crab is so small it can stand on the edge of a penny. Not the side of a penny, the EDGE. Now that’s small. So small there could be a whole army of them in your bed right now, and you wouldn’t even know it. Sweet dreams!
The robocrab is covered in a fine glass coating, which, thanks to the crab’s incredibly small size (it’s only half a millimeter wide), is able to be quickly heated using a laser, which then rapidly cools. When this is done in rapid succession, scanning the laser either left to right or right to left, the crab will walk in that direction at a rate of about half a body length per second. No word if it’s capable of pinching yet.
It’s only a matter of time until we’re all filled with tiny robotic crabs scuttling around inside us, monitoring our vitals and performing other medical tasks to make us live longer. And I’ll laugh and briefly ponder just how primitive technology was in the early 2020s while I blow out the candles on my 190th birthday cake.
[via TechCrunch]
Sony had a lot to discuss during its annual investor briefing, including plans to boost PlayStation 5 production and get the console into the hands of more people who want one. One of the more intriguing nuggets of news came during the Q&A, when the company confirmed it’s adapting three more of its gaming properties into TV shows.
Sony IR – 3 positives in the presentation 1) Horizon (Netflix), God of War (Amazon) and Gran Turismo in TV development 2) 2 live service games coming in FY3/23 are not Destiny and 3) PC gaming revenues will surge 3.8x in FY3/23 (which I think relates to live service games) #sony
— David Gibson (@gibbogame) May 26, 2022
It said a show based on the Horizon games is on the way to Netflix and a God of War series is coming to Prime Video, IGN reports. PlayStation Productions also has a Gran Turismo TV show in development, but it hasn’t been revealed where you’ll be able to watch that.
Details on the three projects are scant for now. It remains to be seen who will be cast as Aloy, Kratos, Atreus and other characters (I have my fingers crossed for Alan Cumming as Mimir) and just how the heck Sony plans to make a TV show out of Gran Turismo.
Turning some of its biggest games into TV shows and movies has been a major focus for Sony in recent years. After over a decade of trying to make an Uncharted movie, Sony Pictures finally released one this year. A Ghost of Tsushima film is in development too. On the TV front, a Twisted Metal series is on the way to Peacock, while filming on the first season of HBO’s highly anticipated The Last of Us show is expected to wrap in the next few weeks.
Netflix and Amazon have been drawing from the rich well of video game IP too as of late. Netflix has animated shows based on League of Legends, Castlevania and Cuphead, while a live-action Resident Evil series will debut in July. Amazon, on the other hand, has a Fallout show in the pipeline and, if reports are to be believed, a Mass Effect show in the works.
The video game to television series pipeline has been working overtime in the last few years, thanks to hits like Arcane and Castlevania, along with oddities like Halo. We know there are plenty more shows and films on the horizon, and between the Big Three console publishers, Sony’s trying harder than most to make…
Twitter is agreeing to pay the Federal Trade Commission a measly $150 million in penalties for illegally handing off user data to sell targeted ads, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
“Where’d you learn to shoot like that?” the rapper asked his 4-year-old.
The long-awaited return of the Integra is priced to win in the luxury hot hatch segment, with a slick manual and sharp styling. Can it live up to expectations?
Broadcom isn’t done attempting major acquisitions. The chip giant is buying cloud- and virtualization-focused software developer VMware for the equivalent of $61 billion in cash and stock. The move would fold Broadcom’s software division into VMware and create a theoretical powerhouse that helps companies run apps in all sorts of environments, including “any” cloud service.
The proposed union would have Broadcom take on $8 billion of VMware’s debt. The deal should close sometime in Broadcom’s fiscal 2023 (no later than early calendar 2023) if regulators approve the deal. Notably, though, VMware isn’t yet locked into the merger — a “go-shop” clause will let it consider and even solicit deals from other companies through July 5th.
If the purchase goes forward, it will represent one of the larger tech acquisitions so far. Appropriately, Dell (whose founder sits on VMware’s board) set a record for several years when it bought VMware’s then-owner EMC for $67 billion in 2015. Microsoft eclipsed that, though, with its still-pending $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard.
A play like this isn’t completely unexpected. On top of its debt, VMware has seen declining profits and modest revenue gains. This could help the firm overcome those hurdles and help its competitiveness. Broadcom may not want to count on the purchase going through, however. Former President Trump blocked Broadcom’s purchase of Qualcomm in 2018 over national security concerns. While the administration and acquisition target are clearly different this time around, it wouldn’t be surprising if Broadcom faces similar levels of regulatory scrutiny.
Oura, the startup that’s pushing the limits of how small a wearable can be, just announced a collaboration that could boost its profile considerably. It’s teaming with fashion house Gucci on the Gucci x Oura Ring, crafted in black synthetic corundum and adorned with the famous interlocking “G” and a braided torchon pattern, both in 18 carat yellow gold. It comes with Oura’s latest Generation 3 tech, letting users monitor live heart rate, sleep, activity and more.
The ring weighs just four grams (0.14 ounces), but can read heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature to tell users if they’re stressed or sick. It can supposedly measure heart rate more accurately than wrist-based smart watches by using arteries in the fingers. Users also receive sleep analysis based on those same vitals, with everything summarized into Sleep, Activity and Readiness scores displayed on the Oura App. It can then offer “science-backed content on how to optimize each day,” according to the company.
In our last Oura Ring hands-on, we noted that the company has switched to a subscription model that costs $6 per month on top of the price of the ring ($300 for the current Oura Ring). Getting it down to such a small size was quite the feat of engineering, but it’s still a tad chunky compared to a regular ring.
You’ll obviously pay a premium for the Gucci x Oura Ring, now available at select stores around the world for $1,100 (€950). The good news is that Oura’s “Lifetime Membership” subscription is included in the price, so you’ll never have to pay for that. For more, check out the Gucci x Oura landing page here.
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