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It took several months, but Minecraft's The Wild Update is nearly here. Mojang and Microsoft are releasing The Wild across all platforms on June 7th, and it remains as expansive as promised. The refresh adds two biomes, a mangrove swamp as well as a "deep dark" that hides vicious mobs (such as the Shrieker and Warden) as well as special resources. You can also sail a boat with a chest, so you won't need to leave supplies behind if you're crossing a lake.

The upgrade also adds a mud block (made with dirt and water, naturally), a crowd-voted item collector mob (the allay) and a frog that grows from tadpoles. It even produces "froglights" if it attacks magma.

The debut comes a while after Mojang had to rethink its expansion strategy. The deep dark biome was originally meant to appear in 2021, but was folded into The Wild as the developer grappled with the size of its two-part Caves and Cliffs Update. While it isn't surprising that the Minecraft team wants to keep its game relevant more than a decade after launch, the schedule suggests it might have been a little too eager to please.

Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ tomorrow, but Lucasfilm is already offering peeks at other Star Wars shows that are on the way to the streaming service. One of those is Andor, in which Diego Luna reprises his role as Cassian Andor. The series takes place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Based on the trailer Lucasfilm released today, it looks like Andor leans into the grittier side of the Star Wars universe, given the tone and muted color palette. The show will debut on August 31st with two episodes.

Lucasfilm also released the first trailer for Andor, which takes place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It looks like the series leans into the grittier side of the Star Wars universe, given the tone and muted color palette.

Andor is described as a "tense nail-biting spy thriller," which isn't a huge shock given the connection to Rogue One and the fact it was created by Tony Gilroy, the writer of the Bourne movies — he was a co-writer on Rogue One too. Forest Whitaker and Genevieve O’Reilly, who featured in the movie alongside Luna. will return as well.

The first season of Andorwill have 12 episodes — more than the previous live-action Star Wars Disney+ shows. A second season will start filming in November.

Lucasfilm also confirmed at Star Wars Celebration that The Mandalorian will return for its third season next February. Ahsoka, which features the return of Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, will arrive in 2023 too.

There's yet another live-action Star Wars series coming to Disney+ next year, this time starring Jude Law. It's called Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and it's from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts and writer Christopher Ford.

Skeleton Crew is set around the same time as The Mandalorian. It centers around “a group of kids who are about ten years old who get lost in the Star Wars universe,” according to Watts, who stressed that “it’s not a kids show."

Disney+ is finally ready to share more details of its Willow revival. The streamer has revealed that the TV series (simply titled Willow) will premiere November 30th. The accompany teaser trailer doesn't show much, but it has an older Willow Ufgood returning to save a future empress from the clutches of evil. He'll join an eclectic band of adventurers, but this time he's clearly more experienced than in the 1988 movie.

The show sees Warwick Davis reprise his role as Willow. At least a few familiar actors are joining the cast, including Ellie Bamber (most recently in Netflix's The Serpent) and Disney alumnus Erin Kellyman (Solo and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Jon Chu was originally slated to direct, but was replaced by multiple directors when he had to step down due to pandemic restrictions. Willow movie director Ron Howard is involved as an executive producer.

The announcement comes just as Disney shared a wave of details about its next Star Wars shows, including Andor and Skeleton Crew. The company isn't shy about its Disney+ strategy, then. The service is packing its schedule with ever more originals in a bid to keep people watching, and it's not afraid to mine multiple old franchises in the process.

Elon Musk is facing yet another lawsuit over his planned Twitter acquisition. Reutersreports investors have sued the Tesla CEO for allegedly manipulating stock prices ahead of his $44 billion takeover bid. As in an earlier suit, Musk supposedly saved $156 million by failing to disclose that he'd bought more than a 5 percent stake in Twitter by March 14th, violating SEC rules. The investors said Musk only disclosed his investments in early April, when he revealed that he owned a 9.2 percent slice of the social network.

Musk's post-announcement statements also amounted to manipulation, the investors said. They were particularly concerned about his claim that the deal was "on hold" until Twitter could prove that bots weren't a major problem and represented less than 5 percent of accounts.

The plaintiffs in the case are hoping for class action status, and ask for unspecified damages if they're successful. Twitter has declined comment, and Musk hadn't responded to Reuters' requests for comment.

Musk's hoped-for purchase has already sparked a flurry of legal action. In addition to the previously mentioned lawsuit from April, a Florida pension fund sued Musk for purportedly violating a Delaware law that would bar the merger until 2025. The SEC, meanwhile, is investigating Musk's disclosure timing. There's no certainty any of these actions will succeed, but they still pose serious challenges to Musk's ambitions.

Along with bolstering production of the PlayStation 5, Sony is will bring another next-gen product to market: an upgraded virtual reality headset. PlayStation VR2 (PSVR 2) may not have a release date yet, but Sony clearly has big plans for it. At an investor briefing, the company revealed that there will be at least 20 "major" PSVR 2 games available at the jump.

There will be a blend of first- and third-party titles. The company didn’t reveal more specifics in its slide deck, but it did include key art for Horizon: Call of the Mountain. That’s a VR spinoff of the Horizon games, but it's not a confirmed PSVR 2 launch title as yet.

It’s not clear whether any of the games in question will be remasters, upgraded versions of existing titles (such as No Man’s Sky and Tetris Effect) or ports from other VR platforms. In any case, here’s hoping that Sony can bring over Half-Life: Alyx from SteamVR.

One third-party game that will definitely be available when PSVR 2 arrives is Among Us VR, according to Schell Games. Other titles that are coming to the platform include Firmament from Myst developer Cyan Worlds, multiple games from Fracked studio nDreams and one by Coatsink, the team behind Jurassic World Aftermath.

Sony revealed the design of the PSVR 2 back in February. The headset will come with new VR2 Sense controllers and have a display resolution of 2000 x 2040 pixels for each eye, a 110-degree field of view, a maximum framerate of 120Hz and 4K HDR support. Pricing hasn't been announced.

Residents of Maryland can now add their driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch. Users there will be able to verify their identity digitally, though there are limited use cases for the Maryland Mobile ID program for now.

At present, IDs in Wallet are only really useful at certain Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at some US airports. When asked for ID by a TSA agent, you'll be able to review the requested information then tap your phone or smartwatch against a reader.

Apple says it designed the feature with a focus on security and privacy, in part because you won't need to present the physical version of your ID. You'll need to use Face ID or Touch ID to authorize a verification and your device will only share the necessary information from your stored identification.

As things stand, law enforcement won't accept driver's licenses or other ID presented in Wallet, as MacRumors notes. The state's Motor Vehicle Administration also said residents can't rely solely on Maryland Mobile ID — they'll still need to carry their physical license or ID card. Eventually, the agency noted, any business, government entity or law enforcement agency in Maryland will be able to verify someone's identity with IDs stored in Wallet.

Maryland is only the second state thus far to enable the feature. Arizona became the first in March. Other states and territories have pledged to support the technology, including Georgia, Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Connecticut and Utah.

The earliest devices that support digital IDs in Wallet are iPhone 8 and Apple Watch Series 4, which need to be running at least iOS 15.4 or watchOS 8.4. If you're eligible, you can add an ID by tapping the plus sign in the Wallet app and following the prompts.

If you're looking to up your homemade pizza game, investing in an Ooni oven is a good way to do so. We've recommended them in numerous outdoor guides and now you can pick one up for 20 percent off. Ooni's Memorial Day sale has discounted all of its pizza ovens, bringing the most affordable of the bunch, the Ooni Fyra 12, down to $280. The newest version, the Karu 16, is nearly $160 off and down to $640.

Chances are you've seen social media posts recently of people removing delicious-looking, bubbling pizzas from one of these Ooni ovens. We've found them to be easy to use and pretty consistent in making restaurant-quality pizzas at home. The Ooni Fyra uses wood pellets to heat up to 950 degrees, so you can cook stone-baked pizzas in as little as one minute. The "12" in its name indicates its size, so this one's best for making smaller, personal pizzas. We also appreciate that the Fyra is fairly portable — it weighs 22 pounds and has foldable legs along with a detachable chimney, so you can store the various parts of the machine inside the oven while you transport it. 

The Karu 16 is best for those that want the latest tech from Ooni, or those that prefer to make larger pies. One of the key features of the Karu 16 is its multiple fuel support, so you can choose to cook with wood or charcoal, or even go the gas route if you buy the appropriate gas burner attachment. Unlike the Fyra, the Karu 16 has a clear glass door so you can keep an eye on your pizza as it cooks. There's also a mounted digital thermometer to help you better keep track of the machine's temperature. These ovens are still expensive outdoor machines even during this Memorial Day sale, but pizza lovers will want to grab one now while you can get them for much less then usual.

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

Let's get this out of the way right off the bat: a $200 pepper mill is an inherently ridiculous product. I mean really, we're talking about a device designed to turn dried berries (yes, peppercorns are technically a stone fruit) into a powder you can sprinkle on food. You can buy a totally decent pepper mill for under $20 from brands like OXO. Or if that's too much, you can simply buy your pepper pre-ground (please don't though) or opt for one of those pre-filled disposable grinders.

My point here is that there are a ton of pepper mills that don't cost two Benjamins and are more than capable of getting the job done. But even so, I love my Pepper Cannon and since getting it, it's quickly become one of my absolute favorite kitchen gadgets.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

OK, now that I've roasted my overpriced pepper grinder, at least let me put up a defense. While I've always hated the word, I'm sort of a foodie, and during the pandemic cooking felt like one of the few activities that I could still enjoy while being confined indoors. And given the spike in people learning to make bread from scratch and all the social media food trends over the last two and a half years, I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way.

So a while back when I was searching for ways to upgrade my kitchen gadgets, I stumbled on Männkitchen's Kickstarter campaign for the Pepper Cannon. Like a lot of people, at the time I was using cheap pre-filled pepper grinders from the grocery store. But after cooking more during the pandemic, I had become frustrated with how annoying they are to use. Their low-quality components often made cranking the grinder feel like trying to open a stuck pickle jar. And even when I was able to get a twist or two in, I was often left with a coarse pile of pepper sand so small even Anakin couldn't find it irritating.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The bigger issue was that after testing out countless models in stores, I never really found an upgrade that had the design or output I was looking for. A lot of pepper mills look like they were made out of a handrail from a pre-war brownstone. If that's your style, fine, but it doesn't work in my kitchen. More importantly, I wanted something simple, durable and easy to use that allows me to adjust grind sizes while cranking out big mounds of pepper.

Then came my mistake, because after finding the Pepper Cannon, I forgot to back it in time to get the $50 off early bird discount. $150 is still a lot for a pepper mill, but it's damn sure less than $200. Thankfully, my wife is both thoughtful and encourages my stupid obsessions, so last year, she bought me one for Christmas after it went on sale for the holidays. And I can't thank her enough, because in a lot of ways, it's a perfect gift. It's so expensive you can't really justify buying it for yourself, but you still want it anyway, so you need someone to give you a loving push.

So once again, while its price is kind of outrageous, the Pepper Cannon really delivers everything I wanted and needed. The thing is milled from a big piece of aluminum, it's got an adjustable grinder with burrs made from stainless steel, a one-touch top that makes it super simple to refill and a built-in catch cup. Oh, and it absolutely pumps out pepper. When I first heard about it, I thought calling it a cannon was silly, but after owning one for six months, it makes total sense. Also, I should mention it’s so heavy you might even be able to use it to stop a home invasion.

At this point, some of you may be wondering, who the hell needs THAT much pepper? It's true, this grinder seems like overkill. But nailing seasoning is one of the best ways to improve your cooking, and I'm willing to bet there are a lot of people who would be surprised how much of a difference an extra sprinkle of salt or pepper can have on a dish. Thankfully, salt is easy, as it doesn't gain much from being freshly ground. But pepper definitely does, and as America's Test Kitchen attests, newly crushed berries contain a lot of tasty volatile compounds that disappear from pre-ground stuff while it sits in a tin. So regardless of whether I'm making a spice rub or pumping out a pile of the good stuff for biscuits and gravy, it's really nice to have a fast and reliable way to churn large quantities of fresh black pepper.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That said, I should point out that even a pepper mill this pricey ain't perfect. The o-ring on the catch cup is a tiny bit too tight for my liking, though I suspect that will get better as it breaks in over time. It's also only available in black, which might not suit everyone's kitchen decor. And because it's so damn expensive, I don't really want to buy a second one for white pepper or other spices. But those are really the most minor nitpicks, because in every other meaningful way, it's basically my perfect pepper mill.

Honestly, my bigger concern about buying a pepper mill this expensive comes from a scene from Fight Club. In some respects, paying a 5x premium for a kitchen gadget feels like a by-product of a lifestyle obsession. No one wants the things they own to end up owning them. But then I remember, the search for a nice pepper grinder didn't come from a desire to put a trophy on my counter. It's a way to enhance a hobby I'm passionate about. Cooking is something I enjoy and hopefully my family enjoys the results. Sure, the Pepper Cannon is an extremely luxurious kitchen gadget, but it's still just a tool.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Clown on me all you like for thirsting after a premium pepper mill (though there are a lot of chefs way better than me who like it too). But at the end of the day, everyone has something they get overly enthusiastic about. Besides, the real joy comes from having a kitchen full of tools that makes cooking both easier and more fun at the same time. And ideally, that's what all good gadgets should do, even if the Pepper Cannon is only a small part of a longer ingredient list.

Novation already makes five different versions of its venerable Launchkey series of MIDI controllers, ranging from the travel-friendly Launchkey Mini all the way up to the studio centerpiece Launchkey 61. But for some, 61 keys isn’t enough. And a serious piano player might balk at the unweighted keys. But now Novation offers the Launchkey 88 with a semi-weighted keybed.

The latest addition to the family essentially bridges the gap between the budget-minded Launchkey and the higher-end SL series, which starts at $600. The Launchkey 88 keeps the cost to just $400 by leaving out more advanced features like CV outputs, color screens and built-in sequencer. But, if you’re primarily producing in-the-box you probably won’t miss the extras that much.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

This is to be expected, and it’s not a con, but the Launchkey 88 is huge. It’s not the controller for you if space is at a premium. I honestly had trouble finding room for it in my small attic studio. That being said, the keybed is excellent. I’m not a piano player, and have no particular allegiance to weighted keys, but these were clearly a step above your average MIDI controller. They lack the springy bounce of the cheaper members of the Launchkey line and I found it much easier to get nuanced velocity response.

Otherwise, the hardware is basically the same as the rest of the Launchkey line. It’s all plastic, but feels solid enough. The 16 velocity sensitive pads are passable but nothing to write home about. The faders have an excellent amount of resistance, but are a tad wobbly. And the knobs are incredibly solid but a tad small. The pitch and mod wheels are lovely though, full stop. The resistance is perfect, and they’re rock solid. Going back to the touch strips on other controllers feels like punishment.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

Of course, the big selling point of any Launchkey device is its tight integration with Ableton Live. It’s not quite good enough to go completely mouse and keyboard free, but you can get a lot accomplished directly on the controller. You can launch clips from the pads, control macros with the knobs and mix your tracks with the faders. You have control over send effects, the panning, and there’s a dedicated button for looping a portion of your track to jam over, as well as a capture MIDI button in case you play something truly inspired but forgot to hit record. You can do quite a bit with looking at the computer, though it can be a bit tough to navigate larger projects.

There are some odd quirks right now, though, that will presumably get ironed out in firmware and script updates pretty quickly. Specifically, Live gets confused by playing in the upper octaves. There’s a couple of dead zones, from G4 through E5, for example, and some keys in the highest octave trigger various recording modes instead of notes.

The arpeggiator is still incredible, though. The random, Mutate and Deviate features make it easy to create unique patterns and introduce a little unpredictability to a composition. This is the feature that has me coming back to the Launchkey line again and again in my personal studio. And the five-pin MIDI DIN connection allows you to bring that top-notch arpeggiator to hardware synths. However, I still think the controller is best suited to a primarily software-based setup.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The Launchkey 88 isn’t a true luxury MIDI controller. It’s really an affordable workhorse. But it does go a bit beyond some of its more affordable competitors, and even its siblings. The expansive size probably isn’t necessary for most producers, but the semi-weighted keybed does make a huge difference in playability. And I’d love to see Novation bring it to the smaller members of the family like the Launchkey 49, which is probably a bit more my speed (and easier to shove on my cramped desk).

The Launchkey 88 is available now for $400.

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.

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.