Apple TV+ has announced a Mythic Quest spinoff show. The streaming service hasn't revealed too many details about Mere Mortals just yet. However, it did say the so-called "extension series" will delve deeper into the lives of the employees, players and fans who are impacted by Mythic Quest, the fictional game at the heart of the eponymous sitcom.
Mere Mortals will take inspiration from Mythic Quest "departure" episodes, such as the standalone "Everlight," "Backstory" (which is set in 1972) and "Quarantine," which showed how the characters were dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns. Mythic Quest writers Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris and Katie McElhenney created the eight-episode spinoff. Burch (who also stars as Aloy in Sony's Horizon games) plays Rachel in the original show. Mythic Quest creators Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day are involved as executive producers as well.
Apple TV+ didn't say when Mere Mortals will debut. Season 3 of Mythic Quest premiered on the streaming service last month.
Insomniac Games’ sequel continues the stories of Peter Parker and Miles Morales as they take on Venom, briefly teased in the first two games. We still don’t know much about the web-slinging sequel, but at least we now have a narrower release window.
Last year’s reveal trailer sets up the action:
In the official PlayStation blog, Sony reiterated its 2023 roadmap beyond the superhero sequel. Square Enix’s role-playing game Forspoken is a frantic new IP arriving on January 24th. Hogwarts Legacy, the long-delayed Harry Potter adventure, finally hits the PS5 on February 10th and PS4 on April 4th. Meanwhile, Destiny 2: Lightfall, the game’s seventh expansion, launches for PS5/4 on February 28th, while the Resident Evil 4remake is heading to PS5/4 on March 24th. Final Fantasy XVI, introducing more in-depth combat for the series, launches for PS5 in the second or third quarter. PlayStation hardware is also coming next year, starting with Sony’s premium and customizable DualSense Edge Wireless Controller, launching on January 26th for $200. Finally, PS VR2, the follow-up to Sony’s six-year-old virtual reality headset, will cost $550 when it arrives on February 22nd.
Some soccer fans may have missed Wednesday's World Cup semi-final between France and Morocco because of a FuboTV outage. The streaming service says that it was not knocked offline due to demand or reaching bandwidth limitations. Instead, it claims to have been the victim of a cyber attack.
At 9:20AM ET on Wednesday, Fubo reported that users may have been unable to log into their account or create a new one. The issue logged some users out of the FuboTV app as well. On its status page, Fubo apologized to those who were having issues while trying to watch the game, and directed them to a free, 60-minute livestream preview on Fox's website.
"While this ongoing issue has been resolved for some users, we are aware that many users are still unable to access the FuboTV app and website at this time," a message posted on Fubo's status page at midnight reads. "Our teams remain engaged and will be working into the night to fully resolve this issue."
Even though Fubo claimed that service was fully restored on Wednesday evening, the status page still said that account creation, password reset requests and streaming functions remained disrupted as of 12:45PM on Thursday. In any case, fingers crossed everything goes more smoothly for Sunday's World Cup final between Argentina and France.
Fubo said it took steps to contain the attack as soon as it discovered what was going on. It has reported the incident to law enforcement and it brought in third-party cybersecurity experts to look into what happened and how.
"Our investigation is at an early stage, but we are committed to transparency regarding this incident," Fubo co-founder and CEO David Gandler wrote in a note to users. "We will provide an update at an appropriate time when we have more information to share."
Lara Croft is making a return with the help of Amazon Games. The company will publish the next Tomb Raider title, which Crystal Dynamics is developing. Amazon said the studio is using Unreal Engine 5 to craft the biggest and most expansive Tomb Raider game to date.
It'll likely be a few years before you can get your hands on the next Tomb Raider game, which is coming to multiple platforms. It's still in early development, but Amazon says it'll retain all of the franchise's hallmarks. This will be a single-player game with "an environment that rewards exploration and creative pathfinding." Naturally, you'll solve puzzles and battle a variety of enemies. The game will continue Lara's story rather than being another reboot (so it's probably not going to be the Tomb Raider 2 remake some have been hoping for).
This will be the first mainline Tomb Raider game since 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider (mobile title Tomb Raider Reloaded arrived earlier this year). Embracer Group recently bought Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal from Square Enix in a cut-price $300 million deal. Embracer snagged the intellectual property rights to Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and dozens of other games from Square Enix as well. The gaming giant also plans to revive Deus Ex in Unreal Engine 5.
“Crystal Dynamics has an extraordinary opportunity following our acquisition by Embracer to redefine what a publishing relationship is for Tomb Raider,” Crystal Dynamics head of studio Scot Amos said in a statement. “Transformative is what we’re looking for, and with Amazon Games, we found a team that shares our creative vision, ambitions and values for a Lara Croft universe across the spectrum of possibilities. They’re uniquely positioned to rewrite what publishing and development collaborations are, and we’re eager to forge this new path together, starting with building the biggest and best Tomb Raider game yet!”
Amazon has been making more waves in game publishing recently. It had another hit on its hands when it brought Smilegate's Lost Ark to North America, South America and Europe earlier this year. Last week, Amazon revealed that it will bring Bandai Namco’s upcoming free-to-play multiplayer RPG Blue Protocol to the west. Amazon Games will be moving into new territory with Tomb Raider, as that will be its first single-player narrative title.
The Nothing Phone 1 is heading to the US, although not yet to the entire public. Founder Carl Pei tweeted this morning that the US will be part of a “testing program” for Nothing OS 1.5 Beta, the handset maker’s custom Android 13 software.
It’s Pei’s second public statement this month teasing a US phone release. Earlier this month, he said his company was “in discussions with some carriers in the US to potentially launch a future product there,” citing US wireless companies’ “unique customizations” for initially skipping it. Earlier this year, the company said the phone wouldn't be coming to North America, and it isn’t clear if that changed or if he's targeting an unannounced smartphone for the US market. With Nothing saying it’s sold 500,000 phones without stateside availability, it may be in a stronger position than it was a year ago to negotiate with Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.
Preparing for a US launch 🇺🇸
While Android 13 Open Beta is gradually being rolled out in our existing markets, we will be extending it to the US market via a testing program with access to Phone (1). Would love to get feedback from our community there. Stay tuned.
While US residents wait for more news about the program, those who already own the Phone 1 can sign up for the beta today, which includes Android 13 features like finer privacy controls and new Material You themes. Nothing says its beta software can load apps up to 50 percent faster.
The Nothing Phone 1 was launched earlier this year in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In Engadget’s review, Mat Smith praised its unique design, Glyph interface and solid specs for a mid-range price. The Phone 1 costs £399, which currently translates to $487.
Instagram is introducing more safety and security tools. These include a hub where people can go to report and resolve account access issues they're having. This could be hugely beneficial for hacked users who are struggling to regain access to their accounts.
If you can't log in, you can visit the hub on the Instagram website. Instagram will ask whether the issue concerns a hacked account, forgotten password, impersonation, loss of two-factor authentication method or disabled account. Once you select the issue, you can follow a string of steps to help you access your account again.
One method you can use to verify an account is actually yours is to ask others to confirm your identity. If you get locked out of an account, you can get two Instagram friends to verify your identity. Instagram started testing this feature earlier this year and now it's available to everyone. Your friends will have 24 hours to respond to the request. If they do, Instagram will let you reset your password.
Instagram
Meanwhile, Instagram says it's employing more measures to prevent account hacking in the first place. The service is removing accounts that its systems deem malicious, such as those that are impersonating others. A new test involves sending you a warning "if an account that we suspect may be impersonating someone requests to follow you." In the coming months, Instagram will start sending warnings to those who get a DM from an account that may be impersonating a business.
On top of all that, you'll start seeing the blue badge for verified accounts in more places. Along with profiles, you'll now see the badge on Stories and DMs. The badge will show up in the feed soon as well. Instagram says this will help users know if an account they're interacting with is the real deal.
Uber Eats has expanded autonomous food deliveries to Miami under a new partnership with robotics company Cartken. AI-powered robots will start making deliveries from select retailers in the Miami suburb of Dadeland today. The companies plan to expand autonomous deliveries to other parts of Miami-Dade County and more cities in 2023.
Uber Eats started two autonomous delivery pilots in Los Angeles in May after teaming up with Motional and Serve Robotics (which spun out of Uber). In September, Uber Eats agreed a 10-year deal with Nuro for autonomous food deliveries, beginning in Texas and California.
Cartken also works with Grubhub on college campus deliveries. Its six-wheeled robots use NVIDIA Jetson tech along with sensors and cameras to help them avoid collisions and take routes with fewer hazards. The machines, which are built by Magna, have a cargo capacity of 1.5 cubic feet, which is roughly the same as two full paper grocery bags. They can travel at up to six miles per hour, depending on conditions and the environment.
Amid the pantheon of Greek gods, few are more revered than Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, chastity, and the moon; Mistress of Animals, Daughter of Zeus and twin sister to Apollo. Famed for her pledge to never marry, feared from that time she turned the peeping Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs upon him, Artemis has stood as a feminist icon for millenia. It seems only fitting then that NASA names after her a trailblazing mission that will see both the first woman and first person of color set foot on the moon, ahead of humanity’s first off-planet colony.
In fact, NASA has been naming its missions after Zeus’ progeny since the advent of spaceflight. There was the Mercury Program (the Roman spelling of Hermes) in 1958, then Gemini in ‘68 followed by Apollo in ‘73. NASA took a quick break on the naming convention during the Shuttle era but revived it when it formally established the Artemis program in 2017. Working with the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and a slew of private corporations, NASA’s goal for Artemis is simple: to re-establish a human foothold on the moon for the first time since 1972, and stay there.
NASA is building a coalition of partnerships with industry, nations and academia that will help us get to the moon quickly and sustainably, together,” then-NASA director Jim Bridenstine said in 2020. “Our work to catalyze the US space economy with public-private partnerships has made it possible to accomplish more than ever before. The budget we need to achieve everything laid out in this plan represents bipartisan support from the Congress.”
“Under the Artemis program, humanity will explore regions of the moon never visited before, uniting people around the unknown, the never seen, and the once impossible,” he continued. “We will return to the moon robotically beginning next year, send astronauts to the surface within four years, and build a long-term presence on the Moon by the end of the decade.”
Red Huber via Getty Images
Just as Artemis the Goddess grew out of earlier pre-Hellenistic mythology, Artemis the Program was born from the ashes of the earlier Constellation program from the early 2000s which sought to land on the moon by 2020 — specifically the Ares I, Ares V, and Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle that were developed as part of that effort. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama announced that the non-Orion bits of Constellation were being axed and simultaneously called for $6 billion in additional funding as well as the development of a new heavy lift rocket program with a goal of putting humans on Mars by the mid-2030s. This became the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and formally kicked off development of the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket NASA has built to date.
The Artemis program was helped further in December of 2017 when former President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1 (SPD 1). That policy change, “provides for a US-led, integrated program with private sector partners for a human return to the moon, followed by missions to Mars and beyond” and authorized the campaign that would become Artemis two years later. In 2019, then-Vice President Mike Pence announced that the program’s goals were accelerating, the moon landing goal pushed up four years to 2024 though its original goal of Mars in the 2030s remained unchanged.
“The directive I am signing today will refocus America’s space program on human exploration and discovery,” Trump said at the time. “It marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints — we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond.”
Bang, zoom, straight to the moon
NASA
Now, we know NASA can put people on the moon — it’s the keeping them there, alive, that’s the issue. The moon, for all its tide-inducing benefits here on Earth, is generally inhospitable to life, what with its general lack of breathable atmosphere and liquid water, weak gravity, massive temperature swings and razor-sharp, statically-charged dust. The first colonists will need power, heat, atmosphere, potable water — all of which will have to either be brought from Earth or extracted locally from the surrounding regolith.
Complicating matters, the Moon, at 230,000 miles away, is about a thousand times farther than the International Space Station, and getting a crew with everything they need to survive for more than a few days is going to require multiple trips — not just from Earth orbit to the moon but also from lunar orbit down to the surface and back. But high-risk, high-reward logistical nightmares are kind of NASA’s whole deal.
As such, the Artemis program is split between the SLS missions, which will eventually bring the human crew to the moon, and the support missions, which will bring everything else. That includes robotic rovers, the Human Landing System, as well as moonbase and Gateway components along with all of the logistical support and infrastructure that they will require.
Artemis SLS missions
The SLS missions are built around NASA’s new Deep Space Exploration System, which comprises the SLS super heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Orion Spacecraft and the Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
NASA
NASA’s deep space exploration system
The Space Launch System is the single most powerful rocket humanity has built and, given its modular, evolvable design, will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future. Its initial configuration, dubbed Block 1, consists of just the core stage with four RS-25 engines and two, five-segment solid rocket boosters. Once the SLS breaks atmosphere, its Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage takes over for in-space propulsion.
Those RS-25’s are the same engines that flew on the Space Shuttle. Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California is updating and upgrading 16 of them for use in the modern era — bringing them up to standard for use with the SLS — with a new engine controller, new nozzle insulation, and 512,000 pounds of thrust. Altogether, the core stage will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust and be capable of pushing 27 metric tons (22,000 sqft) of cargo out to the moon at speeds in excess of 24,500 miles per hour. The Artemis 1 mission that launched in November, as well as the next two Artemis missions, are slash will be powered by Block 1 rockets.
NASA
Block 1B rockets will include an Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) built by Boeing and composed of “four RL10C-3 engines that produce almost four times more thrust than the one RL10B-2 engine that powers the ICPS,” per NASA. That additional engine will enable the space agency to haul 38 tons of cargo out of Earth’s gravity well. This updated block will provide NASA a bit more flexibility in its launches. A 1B rocket can be configured to lift the Orion spacecraft or cargo loads into deep space as easily as it can be for hauling large cargoes to the moon or Mars. NASA plans to lift unwieldy portions of the moonbase and Gateway into space with it.
The SLS’ final form (for now) will be Block 2. Standing more than 30 stories tall, weighing the equivalent of 10 fully-loaded 747’s, the block 2 blasting 9.2 million pounds of thrust (20 percent more than the Saturn V) to push 46 metric tons of stuff (taking up as much as 54,000 square feet) into deep space. Once that configuration comes online, NASA expects it to take on much of the heavy lifting (sorry not sorry) in delivering crews and cargo to the moon.
Orion spacecraft
Riding atop the SLS’s multi-ton controlled explosions is the Orion Spacecraft, the first crew capsule designed for deep space exploration in more than a generation. Designed and built with help from the ESA, the Orion sandwiches a four-person crew cabin in between a services module that holds all of the important life support, navigation and propulsion systems, and a Launch Abort System (LAS) that will forcibly eject the crew capsule from the larger launch vehicle if a catastrophic failure occurs during takeoff.
The 50-foot tall LAS weighs 16,000 pounds and is designed to engage within milliseconds of a launch going sideways, lifting the crew cabin away from the rest of the SLS at Mach 1.2 using the 400,000 pounds of thrust produced by the abort motor. Its attitude control motor provides another 7,000 pounds of thrust to keep the capsule upright during escape while the jettison motor will separate the LAS from the cabin once clear, the latter deploying a parachute ahead of its upcoming water landing.
The LAS actually predates Orion by four years. The LAS was first integrated into a Delta IV and flown at the White Sands test facility in New Mexico in 2010 while the (uncrewed) Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 didn’t take off for its four-hour, two orbit jaunt until 2014.
The Orion main cabin is just under 16 feet tall and just over 16 feet in diameter. Its four wing solar array produces 11kW of power and the attached service module holds enough air and water to keep the crew alive, if a bit panicked and sir-crazy, for up to three weeks.
Exploration ground systems
Handout via Getty Images
Located at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Artemis program’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) is tasked with developing and enacting the facilities and operations necessary to conduct SLS missions. That includes the Vehicle Assembly Building, the Launch Control Center, the Firing Rooms, Mobile Launchers 1 and 2, the Crawlers that haul rockets out to the launchpads, and also the launchpads — specifically Launch Pad 39B. Teams have been working to modernize many of those facilities and NASA notes that it, “has successfully upgraded its processes, facilities, and ground support equipment to safely handle rockets and spacecraft during assembly, transport, and launch.”
NASA already has five main Artemis launches scheduled. The uncrewed Artemis I, again, successfully launched in November. Artemis II, which will carry four live astronauts for the first time but only loop around the moon, launches in 2024. Artemis III will go up in 2025 and is expected to be the first to actually set down on the moon. Artemis IV is slated for 2027 and will deliver half of the lunar Gateway (as well as debut the EUS) while Artemis V is set to deliver the other half of the Gateway in 2028. From there, NASA has some thoughts on Artemis missions VI (2029) through X (2033) but has not finalized any details as of yet.
Artemis support missions
“We need several years in orbit and on the surface of the moon to build operational confidence for conducting long-term work and supporting life away from Earth before we can embark on the first multi-year human mission to Mars,” Bridenstine said in 2020. “The sooner we get to the moon, the sooner we get American astronauts to Mars.”
NASA
But before we can build confidence in our ability to survive on Mars, we need to build confidence in our ability to survive on the moon. The Artemis support missions will do just that. The Capstone Mission ("Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment"), for example, successfully launched a 55-pound cubesat in June to confirm NASA’s math for the much larger Gateway’s future orbital path. While in orbit, the Capstone will communicate and coordinate some of its maneuvers with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which has been circling the moon since 2009.
In 2023, NASA also plans to launch the VIPER robotic rover to the moon’s South Pole where it will search the lowest, darkest, coldest craters for accessible water ice. Finding a source for H2O is of paramount importance to the long-term viability of the colony. In space, water isn’t just for drinking and bathing — it can be split into its component atoms and used to fuel our oxidizing rockets, potentially turning the Moon into an orbital gas station as we push farther out from Earth. The rover, and others like it, will be delivered to the surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
It wasn’t until the mid 1990s that NASA even confirmed the presence of water ice on the moon and only two years ago did they discovered ice accessible from the moon’s surface. “We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the moon,” Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said at the time. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”
Similarly, any habitat established on the surface will need an ample supply of electricity to remain online. Solar charging is one obvious choice (that lack of atmosphere is finally coming in handy) but NASA has never been one to underprepare and has already selected three aerospace companies to develop nuclear power sources for potential deployment.
Gateway
NASA
In addition to a surface installation, NASA plans on putting a full-fledged space station, dubbed the Lunar Gateway, into orbit around the moon where it will serve much the same purpose as the ISS does today. Visiting researchers will stay aboard the pressurized Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module where they’ll have access to research facilities, remote rover controls and docking for both Orion capsules from Earth and HLS (Human Landing System) landers to the moon’s surface. A 60kW solar plant will provide power to the station, which also serves as a communications relay hub with the planet. The station’s position around the moon will also provide a unique astronomical perspective for future research.
The Gateway will very much be an international operation. As NASA points out, Canada’s CSA is providing “advanced robotics” for use upon the station, the ESA is supplying a second living module called the International Habitat (IHab) as well as the ESPRIT communications module and an array of research cubesats. Japan’s JAXA will kick in additional habitat components and assist with resupply logistics.
Human Landing System and rovers
From the Gateway, astronauts and researchers will ferry down to the moon’s surface to collect samples, run experiments and conduct observations aboard the Human Landing System, a reusable lunar lander program currently being operated out of Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA selected SpaceX’s Starship for its initial landing system in April 2021, awarding the company $2.9 billion to further the vehicle’s development. The agency then awarded SpaceX with another $1.15 billion this past November as part of the Option B contract modification. The extra money will help fund planned upgrades to the spacecraft, which is being modified from the base Starship design for use on and around the moon’s surface.
“Continuing our collaborative efforts with SpaceX through Option B furthers our resilient plans for regular crewed transportation to the lunar surface and establishing a long-term human presence under Artemis,” Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA HLS program manager, said in November. “This critical work will help us focus on the development of sustainable, service-based lunar landers anchored to NASA’s requirements for regularly recurring missions to the lunar surface.”
Researchers, however, will not be content to travel nearly a quarter million miles just to set down on the moon and look out the lander’s windows. Instead, they’ll be free to wander around the surface safely ensconced in spacewalk equipment supplied by Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace.
“With these awards, NASA and our partners will develop advanced, reliable spacesuits that allow humans to explore the cosmos unlike ever before,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in June. “By partnering with industry, we are efficiently advancing the necessary technology to keep Americans on a path of successful discovery on the International Space Station and as we set our sights on exploring the lunar surface.”
Those researchers won’t be on foot either. Just as the Apollo astronauts famously bounced around on NASA’s first-gen lunar rovers, the Artemis missions will use new Lunar Terrain Vehicles. The unpressurized buggies are currently still in development but NASA expects to have a finalized proposal ready by next year and have the LTVs ready for surface service by 2028.
The Artemis Base Camp
When not in use, the LTVs will be parked at NASA’s Artemis Base Camp at the lunar South Pole, alongside a pressurized version designed for longer-duration expeditions. The surface habitat itself will be able to support up to four residents at a time and provide communications, equipment storage, power and, most importantly, robust radiation shielding (and there’s the downside of not having an atmosphere). A site hasn’t yet been officially selected, though mission planners are looking for areas near the region’s permanently shadowed craters where water ice is expected to be most easily accessible (aside from the negative 280 degree temperatures and perpetual darkness).
“On each new trip, astronauts are going to have an increasing level of comfort with the capabilities to explore and study more of the moon than ever before,” Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for human spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, said in 2020. “With more demand for access to the moon, we are developing the technologies to achieve an unprecedented human and robotic presence 240,000 miles from home. Our experience on the moon this decade will prepare us for an even greater adventure in the universe — human exploration of Mars.”
The Matter standard can only simplify the use of smart home devices from various brands if products actually support it. Today, Google has announced that it has enabled Matter support for its Nest and Android devices — you don't even have to download or install any update. That means the Google Home speaker, Google Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub (1st and 2nd gen), Nest Hub Max and the new Nest WiFi Pro, can now serve as a hub for Matter that you can use to control your smart home.
Google has also rolled out Matter support for Fast Pair on Android, and the tech giant says it will give you the capability to pair Matter-enabled devices to your home network "as quickly as you can pair a set of headphones." Once your devices are connected, this feature will also make it easy to link Matter devices with apps and smart home ecosystems. In addition, the tech giant has updated the Nest Wi Pro, the Nest Hub Max and the Nest Hub (2nd gen) to function as Thread border routers. That way, you can use them to connect products that support Thread, the networking protocol for low-power devices such as smart locks, to your home network.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance, which Google is a part of, has been working on the Matter standard since 2019 to solve the smart home space's fragmentation issue and make it easier to use products from different companies. It originally intended to launch the standard in 2021, but it had to delay Matter's release a couple of times before it finally rolled out the standard's version 1.0 specification and product certification program this October. Shortly after Matter officially came out, Samsung announced that it's working with Google so that you can easily add devices already set up with SmartThings to Google Home, and vice versa. Amazon, one of the Alliance's other founders, also listed the 17 Echo devices that will support the standard starting this month.
While very few products are Matter-enabled at the moment, Google says you'll see more come out these holidays and in early 2023. All devices that support the standard will be marked with the Matter badge and will work with the aforementioned Google products and all other Matter devices out of the box.
Last year, Dell intrigued us with Concept Luna, its attempt at making a sustainable laptop with fewer screws, using components that are easier to upgrade and recycle. It felt like a breath of fresh air compared to ultraportables that trade repairability for thinness. This year, Dell is pushing the concept even further. Its latest Luna device can be fully disassembled in around 30 seconds using just a push-pin tool and a bit of elbow grease. There aren't any cables or screws to worry about.
How can Dell achieve this sorcery? By developing a completely modular design, wherein every component can be snapped into place without much fuss. And it's not just marketing hype: As you can see in the video above, it doesn't take much effort for a Dell representative to deftly disassemble a Luna device. After unlocking the keyboard with a pin tool, he removed two speaker units, the battery, a CPU fan and a slim motherboard. The display was a cinch to remove as well, after unlocking the laptop's center bezel.
When it's all put together, the new Concept Luna looks like one of Dell's 13-inch laptops (more a Latitude than a slim XPS, to be clear). You'd have no idea there was a genuine revolution going on under the hood. Dell's sustainability angle is a lot more clear this time around. Whereas the previous concept still required a bit of technical maneuvering, it wouldn't take much for a general user to get under the hood of a fully modular laptop like this. It's about as hard as ejecting a SIM card.
Dell
The new Luna laptop also has room for a CPU fan, allowing it to house more powerful processors. Additionally, Dell worked with a micro-factory while developing Luna, allowing the company to automate the ordeal of assembling and tearing Luna devices apart. That process also involves testing individual components — after all, it's easy to imagine some aspects of a computer getting far more use than others. If you primarily used your laptop on a desk with an external keyboard, its built-in keyboard probably has a lot of life left.
Dell
"By marrying Luna’s sustainable design with intelligent telemetry and robotic automation, we’ve created something with the potential to trigger a seismic shift in the industry and drive circularity at scale," Glen Robson, CTO for Dell Technologies’ Client Solutions Group, said in a blog post. "A single sustainable device is one thing, but the real opportunity is the potential impact on millions of tech devices sold each year, and optimizing the materials in those devices for future reuse, refurbishment or recycling. "
While it's unlikely we'll see a Luna-like consumer laptop anytime soon, its mere existence could influence the way Dell designs future systems. The company is also pushing its sustainability initiatives in a variety of other ways, for example by dramatically reducing packaging waste, or exploring recycled materials for some PC cases. When it comes to true DIY repairability, Dell already has some competition from Framework (which just unveiled a DIY Chromebook). Still, it's nice to see one of the world's biggest PC makers taking sustainability seriously.
