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A live-action Pacific Rim TV series is in-development at Amazon, according to Variety. News of the project was first shared in 2024, when Variety reported that Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer was attached to develop and write the show.

The new series will apparently be a prequel to Guillermo Del Toro’s original Pacific Rim, a movie about Kaiju-fighting giant mechs and the humans that pilot them. Legendary, which produced Pacific Rim, is also backing the series alongside Amazon MGM. The studio appears to be using the same strategy with Pacific Rim that worked with its Godzilla-and-King-Kong-starring “MonsterVerse” franchise. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streamed on Apple TV+ in 2023, and acted as both a prequel and sequel to the “MonsterVerse” films.

Heisserer has plenty of experience adapting existing material. His Arrival script converted an experimental second-person short story into a (relatively) thoughtful blockbuster, and his work on Netflix’s Shadow and Bone found a clever way to interweave the first book in Leigh Bardugo’s series with characters from a later duology. Pacific Rim seems a lot more straightforward in comparison.

There’s yet to be an official announcement from Amazon, or any dates for when we can expect the series to be available, but there has been quite a bit of new Pacific Rim material since the first film came out in 2013. The live-action sequel Pacific Rim Uprising was released in 2018 and Netflix put out its anime sequel, Pacific Rim: The Black, in 2021.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-pacific-rim-prequel-series-has-reportedly-found-a-home-at-amazon-213245776.html?src=rss

Sonos is offering discounts on its refurbished gear just in time for Earth Day. Select purchases of the audio company’s certified refurbished products are currently 25 percent off. That means you can pick up a pre-owned Arc soundbar for $599, or $120 less than the usual sticker price. The deal is running through April 22 or as long as supplies of the refurb items last, so if you’re considering one of these revitalized audio products, it’s probably best to act quickly. Here’s the list of what’s currently available.

Right now, in addition to the Arc, the Sub subwoofer is $160 off and available for $479, or you can save $90 on the smaller Sub Mini for $259. Ace headphones are $269, which is a savings of $90. There are also versions of the Beam soundbar currently listed on the refurbished page. The newer Beam (Gen 2) speaker costs $299 and the older Beam (Gen 1) costs $191, which is $100 and $128 off their usual prices.

Buying refurbished items is a great option for saving on major tech purchases while also keeping pre-owned products from going into landfills. We’ve got a complete guide on how to approach this sector, but in most cases, it’s a chance for companies to find buyers for products that are like new that were returned. With this promotion, Sonos is upping the environmental impact by donating a portion of refurbished item sales to conservation nonprofits.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/select-sonos-refurbished-gear-is-25-percent-off-through-april-22-194800703.html?src=rss

A federal judge has ruled that Google is a monopolist in online advertising. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said the company broke the law to maintain its ad tech dominance.

“In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” the judge said.

The case stemmed from a January 2023 lawsuit from the US Justice Department and eight states. They accused Google of illegally monopolizing the ad market and using that power to charge more and take a higher portion of sales.

“Competition in the ad tech space is broken, for reasons that were neither accidental nor inevitable,” the government said in its complaint. “One industry behemoth, Google, has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising.”

The government says Google holds an 87 percent market share in ad-selling tech.

The judge also dismissed a portion of the government’s case. “We won half of this case, and we will appeal the other half,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, wrote in a statement. “The Court found that our advertiser tools and our acquisitions, such as DoubleClick, don’t harm competition. We disagree with the Court’s decision regarding our publisher tools. Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”

The government claimed Google’s monopoly powers enabled it to force publishers to use its ad software, leaving online media organizations and other websites without much recourse. This reduced the revenue for news sites, especially those without paywalled subscriptions. The media industry is, by and large, in dire financial straits, with closures and layoffs multiplying in recent years. This also has a trickle-down effect, leading to snowballing clickbait headlines and other reader-hostile gimmicks as news orgs try to figure out how to recoup lost revenue and stay afloat.

Judge Brinkema’s decision follows another in August, when a federal judge ruled that Google monopolizes online search. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in 2024 that the company “is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” Judge Mehta is considering a DOJ request to break up the company based on that ruling.

Now, Judge Brinkema will face a similar decision about the nearly $1.9 trillion company’s dominance in advertising. The DOJ’s lawsuit already asked the court to make Google sell portions of its ad tech business. Much of the company’s future will rest on what those two judges decide in the coming months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-a-monopoly-in-online-ad-tech-federal-judge-rules-151531919.html?src=rss

REDMAGIC has officially unveiled its latest smartphone, the REDMAGIC 10 Air, in China. Designed to deliver high-end performance in an ultra-thin form factor, the device features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and a large 6,000 mAh battery.

The REDMAGIC 10 Air stands out as the thinnest phone ever produced by the brand, measuring just 7.85 mm in thickness. Despite its slim profile, the device offers a balanced 1:1 weight distribution and features 2.5D right-angled edges for improved grip.

It sports a 6.8-inch OLED display from BOE with Full HD+ resolution (2480 x 1116), 120 Hz refresh rate, 960 Hz touch sampling, 10-bit color depth, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, peak brightness of 1,300 nits, and 2,160 Hz PWM dimming.

Under the hood, the device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, coupled with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB of UFS 4.0 storage. It also includes the proprietary Red Core 3 chip, which enhances haptic feedback, lighting effects, sound, and other user experience elements.

To manage heat, the REDMAGIC 10 Air incorporates the ICE Magic Cooling System with Liquid Metal 2.0, using a 3D vapor chamber and multiple layers of high-efficiency thermal materials.

Camera specifications include a 50 MP main sensor and a 50 MP ultra-wide sensor on the rear, while the front houses a 16 MP under-display camera. The 6,000 mAh battery supports 80W fast charging, reaching full capacity in just 35 minutes.

Running Android 15 with REDMAGICOS 10, the device also supports 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, NFC, and includes stereo speakers and an in-display fingerprint sensor.

Specs

Price and Availability

In China, the REDMAGIC 10 Air is available in Shadow Black, Frost Blade White, and Flame Orange. Pricing is as follows:

• 12 GB + 256 GB: ¥3,499 (approx. $476)
• 16 GB + 512 GB: ¥4,199 (approx. $571)

Since the REDMAGIC 10 Pro got a Global version late 2024, probably there’s a chance we will see something similar for the REDMAGIC 10 Air.

REDMAGIC 10 Air: Slim Design, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, And 6,000 mAh Battery

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

One of the more serious players in the air taxi game, Archer, has just unveiled routes for a potential service in New York City. Its Midnight aircraft would shuttle passengers from Manhattan to JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airpots in five to 15 minutes, potentially shaving an hour or more from typical driving times. However, Archer didn’t provide any dates for the start of the service and all of this could be derailed by regulatory bodies, particularly the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Any news about air taxis should come with the caveat that no such services are operating yet, even though startups have been trying for a decade or more. With that said, Archer has partnered with a number of established aviation and other companies including Fiat Chrysler and United Airlines, along with fixed base operators (FBOs) like Signature Aviation and Atlantic Aviation. Archer also previously announced proposed air taxi networks in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. 

Archer’s plan is to have you book air taxi rides as an “add-on” to traditional flights. You’d launch from existing Manhattan facilities, namely the East 34th Street Heliport, Downtown Skyport and West 30th Street Heliport. From there, you’d be able to fly to “vertiports” at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airpots, along with locations at other regional airports. Flights would be aboard the company’s human-piloted, four-passenger Midnight aircraft with 12 rotors, six batteries and a range of 20-50 miles. 

Archer

Archer does have United Airlines, New York’s Port Authority and the New York City Economic Development Corportation (NYCEDC) all on board. However, it hasn’t provided important details like the number of potential flights per day, operating hours and more. That information would be vital to the FAA, which must decide if the service is safe for passengers, other aircraft and people on the ground.

That’s an undertaking that could require a lot of time and cost, and Archer’s VTOL aircraft still hasn’t received its FAA type certification required for any operations. The company did receive the FAA’s final airworthiness criteria, though, making it one of only two air taxi companies with that certification along with rival Joby Aviation. The only air taxi company to obtain type certification from an aviation regulator is EHang from China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC). 

The air taxi game is risky for startups, too. Late last year one of Archer’s VTOL rivals, Lilium ceased operations, laying off 1,000 people, despite successful flight tests. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/archer-outlines-its-plan-to-use-air-taxis-between-new-yorks-major-airports-123024903.html?src=rss