A few months back, Blade Runner director Ridley Scott said a live-action series set in that universe is in the works. The project looks to be a step closer to reality, as Amazon Studios has reportedly put it in development. Amazon's TV and film production arm is said to be fast tracking scripts and looking at possible production dates.
The show is called Blade Runner 2099, according to both Deadlineand Variety. While no details about the plot have been revealed as yet, the title suggests the show will be set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Scott's original film.
Scott is said to be an executive producer and may direct some episodes if the series gets the green light. Silka Luisa, who wrote the upcoming Apple TV+ time-travel thriller series Shining Girls, is reportedly onboard as a writer and executive producer.
It's still early days for Blade Runner 2099, but the smart money is on Amazon bringing the series to Prime Video. The streaming service has a decent track record when it comes to sci-fi, with shows like The Expanse under its belt. Like Blade Runner, Amazon anthology series Electric Dreams is based on the works of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick.
Another show set in the Blade Runner universe, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, debuted on Adult Swim and Crunchyroll last year, though that's an anime series rather than a live-action project.
Disney's Netflix collaboration effectively ended years ago, but now the shows themselves are going away... for the moment, at least. As What's on Netflixnoticed, Netflix is warning viewers that Marvel's originals for the service will disappear on March 1st. If you haven't caught up on shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and The Punisher, you'd better act quickly.
Engadget has confirmed the shows are leaving Netflix now that the Marvel licensing has expired. The alerts (shown below) only seem to appear if you first watch a show on a given profile, and only on some devices. You don't currently see them when browsing the titles or using the mobile app.
Billy Steele/Engadget
It's not certain if or when the shows will return on a Disney-owned service. The withdrawal isn't exactly a shock, mind you. Disney signalled in 2017 that it would shun Netflix in favor of what would become Disney+, and the last shows were cancelled in 2019. Disney wants Marvel as a draw for its in-house services, and leaving originals on Netflix certainly wouldn't help achieve that goal.
Just where they're headed, if at all, is another story. The Netflix originals were notable as "adult" shows that didn't hold back on language or violence. That's somewhat out of line with the overall PG focus of Disney+ and suggests they might go to Hulu (the home of off-kilter shows like MODOK) instead. Whatever happens, this isn't the end for the superheroes. Characters from the shows made appearances in Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it wouldn't be surprising to see more of the ex-Netflix crew in future productions.
Toyota is plowing more money into EV production in the US. Just a few months after the automaker announced a $240 million investment in its West Virginia plant, it's pumping another $73 million into the facility.
The company says this will boost hybrid transaxle production capacity to 600,000 units per year. Workers at the plant will also start making around 120,000 rear motor stators annually to bolster production of electric motors. The plant can currently roll 1 million transmissions and engines off the production line per year. Following the latest investment, Toyota will have put over $2 billion into the plant.
Meanwhile, a separate $17 million investment will enable Toyota's Tennessee plant to make approximately 300,000 more hybrid transaxle cases and housings per year (the current capacity is around 1 million). The factory's workers also manufacture around 1.8 million engine blocks a year. The company says these parts are essential for all the Toyota and Lexus EVs it assembles in North America. This brings the automaker's total investment in the plant so far to $389 million.
Toyota is on a mission to offer electrified options across its entire lineup, as well as for Lexus vehicles, by 2025 and to release 30 EV models by 2030. Investing more heavily in EV production will help it reach those goals. Increasing EV battery production is important too, and the company recently announced plans to build a $1.29 billion battery plant in North Carolina.
The James Webb Space Telescope has finally captured its first image of a star — or rather, images. NASA has shared a mosaic of pictures (shown above) of a star taken using the primary mirror's 18 segments. It looks like a seemingly random collection of blurry dots, but that's precisely what the mission team was expecting. The imagery will help scientists finish the lengthy mirror alignment process using the telescope's Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam. The first phase is nearly complete as of this writing.
The visuals came from a 25-hour effort that pointed the James Webb Space Telescope to 156 different positions and produced 1,560 images with the NIRCam's sensors. The team created the mosaic using the signature of each mirror segment in a single frame. Visual artifacts come from using the infrared camera at temperatures well above the frigid conditions the telescope will need for scientific observation. And what you see here isn't the entirety of the mosaic — the full-resolution snapshot is over two gigapixels.
NASA
NASA also provided a rare real-world glimpse at the JWST in action. The agency provided a "selfie" of the primary mirror (middle) created by a pupil imaging lens from the NIRCam. This too is blurry, but it offers a valuable look at the fully deployed mirror and helps explain the importance of alignment. Notice how just one segment is brightly lit by a star? It's the only one aligned with that celestial body — it will take a while before all segments are operating in concert.
Researchers expect the first scientifically useful images from JWST in the summer. It's reasonable to presume those pictures will be considerably more exciting, especially as they start providing glimpses of the early universe. Still, what you see here demonstrates the telescope's health and suggests there won't be much trouble in the months ahead.
Many of Amazon's gadgets went on sale at the start of this week and continue to be discounted today. Key among them are both new Kindle Paperwhites — the standard version and the Signature Edition — along with the second-generation Echo Show 8 and the Fire TV Cube. On top of that, Apple's AirPods Pro are on sale for $175 and the 2021 Apple TV 4K remains discounted to $160. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is on sale for $145, which is an all-time low. We called this the best e-reader available right now and it earned a score of 97 for its bigger, more responsive screen, USB-C charging, wireless charging support and automatic brightness and warm-light settings. The standard Kindle Paperwhite is also on sale for $110, or 21 percent off its normal price.
The AirPods Pro are down to $175 right now, or 30 percent off their normal price. We gave them a score of 87 for their solid sound quality, strong ANC and more comfortable fit.
The latest Apple TV 4K is on sale for $160, or $20 off its normal price. While the 2021 version isn't drastically different from the previous model, its new Siri remote is a big selling point. We gave it a score of 90 for its speedy performance, HomeKit integration and the easy of use that comes with the improved Siri remote.
Google's Nest Thermostat is down to $99 right now, and the device with a trim kit will set you back $114. This version has a mirrored display and a touch-sensitive edge, and it can be controlled with the Google Home app. It also has features like Savings Finder, which suggests ways you can tweak your home system to conserve energy.
The latest 3-for-2 sale on Amazon includes a number of Nintendo Switch and PlayStation games, so now's a good time to pick up a few while you can get one for free. Some of the best games of the bunch include Shin Megami Tensei V, Minecraft, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
Prime members can get $20 off the Nintendo Switch at Woot right now. While the discount isn't on the OLED model, it's a good sale on a console that rarely sees sales like this. Just make sure to check out Woot's return policy before buying.
The latest Echo Show 8 is on sale for $90, which is 31 percent off and an all-time-low price. We gave the mid-sized smart display a score of 87 for its lovely screen, solid sound quality and minimalist design.
Most of Amazon's Fire tablets are up to 50 percent off right now, making it a good time to pick one up for yourself or your kids. The Fire HD 8 is half off and down to $45, or you can spring for the larger, more powerful Fire HD 10 and spend $110. All of the Fire Kids Pro bundles have been discounted too, so you can get one for as low as $50.
Blink home security cameras are up to 30 percent off, meaning you can get a one-camera Blink Outdoor kit for $70. In addition to being weatherproof, these cams are wireless and support 1080p video, night vision two-way audio and motion alerts. The wired Blink Mini is also on sale and down to only $25.
Amazon's Fire TV Cube is down to a new record low of $70, which is 42 percent off its normal price. Despite being a few years old, it remains the most powerful streaming device in Amazon's lineup. We gave it a score of 84 for its speedy performance, ease of handling voice commands and support for HDR+ and Dolby Vision content.
Amazon's smart thermostat has returned to $48, an all-time-low price that we last saw during the holiday shopping season. It's a budget-friendly alternative to devices like the Nest Thermostat and it supports voice commands with Alexa (provided you have an Alexa-enabled device in your home, or use the Alexa app) and lets you set schedules and control your home's temperature from anywhere.
Google's Chromecast with Google TV is $10 off right now, bringing it down to $40. We gave the streaming device a score of 86 for its support for 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content, handy remote control and good execution of Google Assistant commands.
The Beats Studio Buds are $30 off and down to $120 — not a record low, but a decent sale for this time of year. We gave them a score of 84 for their balanced sound, comfortable fit and quick-pairing with both iOS and Android devices.
Apple's magnetic battery pack for iPhones is down to $88, which is 11 percent off its normal price. We have seen it cheaper in the past, but this is the best price we've seen since December. The accessory attaches magnetically to the back of the latest iPhones and provides up to 15W of wireless charging.
This large smart picture frame from Lenovo is half off and down to $200. In addition to showcasing your favorite photos, the frame uses AI to make collages of your images and the built-in ambient light sensor adjusts the screen's brightness according to the light in the room.
The on-demand fitness service Alo Moves has an offer few new members that knocks 50 percent off the price of a one-year membership, bringing it down to $99. The platform has dozens of yoga, pilates, barre and strength training classes, along with guided meditations and series that help you master specific skills over the course of longer periods of time.
Google is facing more antitrust pressure in the EU over its advertising tech. Reutersreports the European Publishers Council (EPC) has filed an EU complaint against Google alleging the company has an illegal "stranglehold" on ad tech and the press. The Internet giant's ad suite is claimed to be "rife with conflicts of interests" as it not only represents the buyer, seller and auction house, but supposedly exploits that control to profit at the expense of its customers.
Council Chairman Christian Van Thillo saw the complaint as prompting the EU to take action where it was otherwise reluctant. The move should make Google "actually change" its behavior after years of "minor commitments" that don't provide any substantial impact, Van Thillo said. The EPC pointed to antitrust cases in multiple countries to support its case, including a multi-state US lawsuit.
The EU began its newest probe into Google's ad business in June 2021. It shares the EPC's general concerns about potential abuse. It didn't set a deadline for the investigation, however, and has already fined Google three times over its ad practices. Antitrust hunts like these can take years to wind down, and the complaint theoretically accelerates the process.
In a statement, Google argued companies enjoyed its ad tech but didn't address the unfair competition issues. Publishers keep the "majority of revenue," which climbs to "billions" of US dollars, a representative said.
There's no certainty the EPC complaint will prompt the EU to demand significant changes to Google's ad policies. It might ramp up the pressure on Google to act, however, even if it's just to minimize any potential penalties.
Tailoring is fancy, sufficiently fancy that you may go your entire life and never once experience the art. It’s expensive, having garments custom-made to suit your body shape, even if there are a legion of benefits in doing so. Mass-produced clothes, meanwhile, are never going to do the job if you’ve got a body that diverges from what’s expected or treated as “normal.”
There are two real problems: Measurement, and manufacturing, issues that the fashion industry is wrestling with right now. A Taiwanese company, TG3D, has at least discovered a way to solve the first part of the equation with little more than an iPhone. It has developed a method of using FaceID to scan the geography of your body to give you a suite of measurements in minutes.
I first encountered TG3D back in 2018, when the company was showing off its wares at Computex in Taipei. The system then required you to step into a booth the size of a changing room, which housed pillars full of infrared cameras. When activated, the system would scan your body and help you determine the ideal sizes for trying on clothes.
Since then, the company has been working to shrink this technology down to something that requires a lot less investment. Any FaceID-equipped iPhone can now offer a similar, albeit less accurate, scanning solution, enabling users to test sizes for off-the-peg clothes. Co-founder Rick Yu explained that the project was designed for ready-to-wear fashion, to “solve [the issue of] huge returns.”
Returns are, after all, a key problem for e-commerce fashion brands, since buyers can’t be sure that their preferred size will actually fit them. “A lot of consumers buy three different sizes and return the other two,” which is bad for both the planet and most retailers’ bottom lines. If you know ahead of time what you need to order, the wastage and expense should decrease.
I tested the system and found that, much like it did in 2018, it reminded me how much timber I need to drop from my waistline. All you need to do, however, is stand your phone up on a flat surface – and it does need to be perfectly flat, so grab a book or some sticky tack. Then, just stand in view of the camera, ideally just in your underwear and, when ready, start turning around on the spot with your arms away from your sides. All in all, the scanning process takes less than a minute, and the analysis only takes a further two or three.
Once you’ve previewed your avatar to check it is more or less in the right shape, you can then send it off to the cloud to be properly analyzed. You may notice that, in use, your face, hands and feet are replaced with something blank and generic. This, says Yu, was an intentional move to protect user privacy given that you’ll be partially-clothed during the scanning process.
The data produced by FaceID isn’t, by itself, accurate enough to produce a fully-measured avatar, however. Once captured, it’s sent to TG3D’s server to be analyzed, “we have an AI engine that identifies the landmarks,” explained Yu. “We identify the landmarks, we position the landmarks and then based on [that], we extract up to 250 measurements automatically,” he said.
Daniel Cooper / TG3D
Much of this data, and the conclusions generated from it, have been curated through years of interviews with tailors and pattern makers. “These measurements that make sense to them,” said Yu, when I asked for an explanation for some of the more arcane terminology. Yu explained that the margin of error using the iPhone system is, at most, 1.3 inches.
Yu also explained that the data can be exported in a variety of formats, so as well as being used for tailoring, there are other solutions in play. For instance, an avatar file could be exported in a .OBJ file which can be used for 3D modeling and sculpting. And, naturally, it’s also possible to capture this data and create an avatar for any potential metaverse that could require it.
TG3D’s solution isn’t the only thing on the market, and plenty of other companies are operating in this space looking for a magic bullet. Shopify, for instance, was recently granted a patent for a body-measuring concept to help folks choose garments. Amazon’s Echo Look had a fairly rudimentary system to judge a fit based on how well it flattered your body. MTailor offers a scanning service by analyzing a video clip its users upload for similar results.
All of this is going to be vital in order to help reduce fashion’s already problematic waste problem. The industry reportedly consumes 10 percent of the world’s total greenhouse emissions and 20 percent of its water. That’s both down to sourcing and manufacturing through the waste involved in the buying and returns process when it reaches our homes.
But the consequences of this overproduction and overconsumption are piling up. One fairly pernicious example is blighting the Atacama desert in Chile. Garments made in South Asia will first be sold in Europe and the US, before the unsold sock is sent to South America for resale. Anything that remains unsold is dumped in huge piles, left to rot in the daylight with the price tags still on. This isn’t the only example of this, however, and there are toxic waste piles piling high in Ghana right now.
Measurements are only half the problem, and manufacturing still remains a huge issue with the industry today. Attempts by companies to automate this process have not been successful – Adidas’ Speedfactory concept, for instance, was abandoned back in 2019.
Yu, whose technology has most prominently been used by H&M in its flagship Stockholm store to create custom jeans with partner Unspun, also waxed lyrical about the future of fashion. He showed me the concept of an online retailer that was entirely virtual. A user can plug their body scan into the outfits on screen and get instant previews of how they would look in them. But this could happen before the garment is even made, ensuring that only what’s good gets produced.
For now, I can be confident that my iPhone, at least, knows my inside leg measurement. The next step is for every fashion brand to work out how to stop my thighs rubbing the seat of my jeans to dust.
While we saw Amazon's new smart thermostat go on sale earlier this week, now you can get the more advanced Google Nest Thermostat for less, too. The smart home gadget is down to $99 at Amazon right now, which is 24 percent off its normal price and close to its all-time low. All colors have been discounted and you can get the device with a trim kit for only $114, or 21 percent less than usual.
Normally $130, the Energy Star-certified Nest Thermostat came out in 2020 as an affordable alternative to Google's Nest Learning Thermostat. The standard model doesn't have the luxury materials or the hi-res display that the Learning model does, but the biggest selling points remain the same. A device like the Nest Thermostat can help you save on energy costs by optimizing the temperature in your home. Google's device has a feature called Savings Finder that learns about your home system and offers suggestions to conserve energy. You can also set your own schedule so you can, for example, keep your home warmer when you're there and cooler when you're out.
You can control the Nest Thermostat through the Google Home app, making it easy to make adjustments on the fly and even when you're away from home. The device also works with the Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa, so you can control it with your voice, too. Depending on your style, you may prefer the look of the Nest Thermostat to that of its Learning cousin, too. It's slimmer with a mirrored display and it has a touch-sensitive edge that you can use to adjust temperatures manually. Amazon's sale is one to consider if you've been itching to make your home a bit smarter without spending too much money.
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Google+ shuffled off this mortal coil to the great app graveyard back in 2019 — right? Well, not quite. As a reminder, its corpse was reanimated as Google Currents, designed strictly for paying G Suite customers. Now, Google Workspaces announced that it has killed that app off too, marking the final end of Google's social network or whatever G+ was, Ars Technica reported.
Google said that the introduction of the Spaces group chat app last year negated the need for Currents, so it plans to wind it down starting in 2023. Before it does that, however, it will add new capabilities to Spaces to accommodate some of Currents' social features. "These include support for larger communities and leadership communication, investments in advanced search, tools for content moderation, and more," Google said.
As was the case with Google+, the usage and purpose of Currents was likely unclear to many users. That issue extends to Spaces, as well, unfortunately. As Google described it last year, Spaces is an evolution of Rooms but is a part of Google Chat that's designed for group messaging, much like Slack. Got it?
What's also kind of funny is that Google recycled both the Spaces and Currents names: Currents was a news-style app that existed until 2013, and Google Spaces was a messaging app we saw for a short time in 2016. So one might say that Google+ was effectively killed twice, and Currents was also buried two times. Now, let's hope we never hear those names again.
Tech news season is in full swing as Samsung launched its Galaxy S22 flagship phones this week, along with new Tab S8 tablets. This week on the podcast, Cherlynn is joined by senior writer Sam Rutherford and special guest Chris Velazco from The Washington Post to discuss Samsung’s new gear. The trio also recap some of the best games announced at Nintendo Direct, followed by a look at the week’s biggest news including Peloton’s layoffs, Steam Deck previews and the Olympics.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford Guest: Chris Velazco Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Owen Davidoff, Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
