Hasta La Gadget!

Sony has a new set of gaming peripherals that take an interesting approach in functionality with gaming PCs and PlayStation 5 compatibility.

After a massive $625 million hack, the cryptocurrency pay-to-earn game Axie Infinity is once again open for business. The hack took advantage of flaws in the Ronin network, an Ethereum sidechain the game’s owner, Sky Mavis, propped up to facilitate faster transactions. Surprisingly, the news today is that Axie Infinity will… continue to use Ronin, which has been revived after a few audits. In a blog post, the company described a new “circuit-breaker” system designed to flag “large, suspicious withdrawals,” withdrawal limits and human reviewers. It also promised players that a new land staking feature — which claims to allow the game’s owners of digital land to earn passive income — will be released later this week.

In March, a group of hackers pilfered nearly 173,600 Ethereum and nearly 26 million USDC (worth roughly $26 million) from the game’s network. US officials have since linked the North Korean-backed hacking group Lazarus to the heist. Last week Sky Mavis said it would begin reimbursing the victims of the hack — but didn’t account for Ethereum’s drop in value over the past three months, which means that users would only recover about a third of their losses. In all, Sky Mavis is returning $216.5 million in funds to its users.

Moving forward, Axie Infinity players are warned not to send funds directly to Ronin Bridge’s smart contract address. “The Ronin Bridge should only be accessed and used for deposits/withdrawals through the Ronin Bridge UI. Any funds sent directly to the Ronin Bridge’s contract addresses will be permanently lost,” wrote the company in its post.

Esports.net recently pointed out a flaw in Axie Infinity’s design — a drop in the number of players causes the value of its in-game currency to plummet. Bloomberg noted earlier this month that the game’s user base has declined by 40 percent since the hack. As of this writing, the value of AXS is at $15.30 (a drop from its high of $160.36 in July 2021) and the value of SLP is at 0.0039 (down from an all-time high of 0.364).

You know the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the popular NFT collection that has enticed the likes of Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon? Well, the company behind the collection, Yuga Labs, is suing an artist they believe is trying to devalue the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The first rule of Bored Ape Yacht Club: Do not…

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BMW has announced plans to expand its infotainment software with an Android Automotive OS integration, paving the way for new features and experiences.

Taking a page from on-track rival Mercedes, Red Bull plans to produce its own hypercar. On Tuesday, the company took to Twitter to announce the RB17, which is slated to be a two-seater with a hybrid V8 engine and 1,100 horsepower. Production will start in 2025, with Red Bull planning to only make 50 cars at a price of £5 million ($6.1 million) per vehicle.

If just so happen to be a millionaire, buying the F1-inspired RB17 will net you access to Red Bull’s team simulators and on-track training. The company will also service and maintain the car for you at the Milton Keynes factory in England where it plans to produce the RB17.

“The RB17 marks the first time that a car wearing the Red Bull brand has been available to collectors,” Red Bull Racing CEO Christian Horner said. “The RB17 distills everything we know about creating championship-winning Formula 1 cars into a package that delivers extreme levels of performance in a two-seat track car.”

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey is designing the vehicle. His resume includes the Aston Martin Valkyrie and all four of Red Bull’s F1 championship-winning cars. Red Bull said the RB17 would be built around a carbon-composite tub and a body designed to take advantage of ground effect like modern F1 cars.