PlayStation fans will have to wait until 2022 to play Horizon Forbidden West, according to Bloomberg. The outlet reports the company has delayed its next big PS5 and PS4 exclusive to next year, pushing it back from its current 2021 holiday season release timeframe.

Ahead of today's news, Sony hinted at a potential delay last month when the company published an interview with PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst. "For Horizon, we think we are on track to release this holiday season," Hulst said at the time. "But that isn't quite certain yet, and we're working as hard as we can to confirm that to you as soon as we can." At the moment, it's not clear what's behind the delay.

If Sony does in fact delay Forbidden West, it won't be the only first-party exclusive to miss its previously announced 2021 release date. Earlier in the year, the company delayed both Gran Turismo 7 and the next God of War entry to 2022. Just last week, Bethesda also delayed Ghostwire: Tokyo, its upcoming PlayStation 5 and PC horror game from Tango Gameworks, to early 2022.    

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has dismissed protests from Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics over NASA’s decision to hand out a single $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX as part of its Human Landing System Program. On Friday, the watchdog said NASA’s “evaluation of all three proposals was reasonable and consistent with applicable procurement law, regulation, and the announcement’s terms.”

When Blue Origin first challenged the lunar lander contract in April, the company claimed the selection process was “fundamentally unfair” because it didn’t get a chance to revise its bid. To that point, NASA could afford to give SpaceX the contract because the company agreed to modify its payment schedule. Blue Origin also took issue with the fact that the space agency selected a single contractor for the project when the initial announcement had called for two manufacturers to be involved.

In reviewing NASA’s decision, the GAO says the space agency “did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award.” It notes NASA gave itself the flexibility to hand out a single contract, multiple awards or none at all when it first announced the Human Landing System Program. 

What’s more, the GAO concluded there “was no requirement for NASA to engage in discussions, amend, or cancel the announcement” due to the amount of funding it had available for the project. Notably, the GAO also points in its press release that its role is not to judge the relative merits of a contract decision. Both Blue Origin and Dynetics had argued that NASA chose the most “high risk option available” since SpaceX’s bid involved its Starship rocket, which at that point in the procurement process had yet to land in one piece.

The decision comes mere days after Blue Origin founder and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos offered to waive $2 billion in payments from NASA in return for a lunar lander contract. Following Blue Origin’s protest, NASA told SpaceX to stop work on the Human Landing System while the GAO sorted out the challenge. Today's decision allows the project and the Artemis program more broadly to move forward unless Blue Origin asks the US Court of Federal Claims to examine the case. 

For the better part of its recent history, Spotify’s Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists have been the company’s go-to way to help people discover new music. In the span of a week, it has added two additional discovery tools. The first, What’s New, is a panel that highlights new releases from your favorite artists and podcasts. The second, which the company detailed today, is a curated playlist, but one that’s aimed at those who want to know more about the music industry.

Dubbed "Noteable Releases," the weekly playlist collects new tracks from the world’s leading producers and songwriters. Expect to see contributions from people like frequent Billie Eilish collaborator Finneas O’Connell and Ester Dean, who helped write Katy Perry’s 2010 hit “Firework.” The result is an eclectic playlist that doesn’t stick to any one genre, though pop music is represented strongly for obvious reasons.

The introduction of Noteable Releases follows last year’s rollout of songwriter pages and is another example of the company trying to cater to the broader music industry. You’ll notice at the top of the playlist that Spotify encourages digging into a song’s credits to find out more about the people who worked on it. You can do that by tapping the three dots icon and then “show credits.”

In the past, we’ve seen doctors use AI software to detect brain tumors, kidney illness and various cancers. Now, researchers from IBM and Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) say they’ve developed a program that can predict how the symptoms of a Parkinson’s disease patient will progress in terms of both timing and severity. In The Lancet Digital Health journal, they claim the software could transform how doctors help patients manage their symptoms by allowing them to better predict how the disease will progress.

“Our aim is to use AI to help with patient management and clinical trial design. These goals are important because, despite Parkinson’s prevalence, patients experience a unique variety of motor and non-motor symptoms,” IBM said.

The breakthrough wouldn’t have been possible without the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, a study the Michael J. Fox Foundation sponsored. IBM describes the dataset, which includes information on more than 1,400 individuals, as the “largest and most robust volume of longitudinal Parkinson’s patient data to date” and says it allowed its AI model to map out complex symptom and progression patterns.

It’s estimated Parkinson’s disease affects more than 6 million people globally, and there’s currently no known cure for it. IBM Research and MJFF plan to continue work on the AI model. In the future, they hope to make it better at providing more granular characterizations of the various stages of the disease.

Starting today, you can use a second-generation Fire TV Cube to take part in two-way Zoom calls. For the best experience, Amazon recommends a webcam with a 60- to 90-degree field of view that can capture video at 1080p. The company also suggests mounting the device on the top of your TV set, and that you sit about six to 10 feet away. At the very least, you’ll want a 720p camera that supports USB Video Class (UVC). You’ll also need a Micro USB-to-USB adapter since the second-generation Fire TV Cube doesn’t have a full-sized USB-A port. One thing to note is Amazon recommends against using a 4K-capable camera. Outside of those requirements, you’ll need to download the latest Fire TV Cube update and the Zoom app from the Fire TV Appstore.

Once you have everything ready to go, you can tell Alexa to join a video call for you, at which point the voice assistant will ask you to provide a meeting ID and passcode. It’s also possible to link your calendar to Alexa, which will allow you to more seamlessly join any Zoom meetings you have on your schedule.

Amazon isn’t the first company to allow you to use your TV for video calls. Since last August, you’ve been able to stream Google Meet calls to Chromecast and other Cast-enabled devices. Over that same time frame, Amazon has offered two-way video calling between Fire TV Cube and camera-enabled Alexa devices. It might seem like a late offering, but with the return-to-office plans of most companies constantly shifting due to new developments in the pandemic, it’s a feature that’s likely to get plenty of use.

In one of the most significant changes to come to the platform since it was acquired by Adobe in 2012, Behance is introducing Patreon-like subscriptions. Starting today with a small group of about two dozen artists, Adobe is allowing creators to offer access to premium projects, live streams and source files in exchange for a monthly fee. The company says creators can set their own subscription price, and it’s up to them to decide what people get in return for their financial support. You’ll see prompts to support creators throughout the platform, including when you watch live streams.

For Adobe, obviously this is another way for the company to monetize one of its products beyond its Creative Cloud subscriptions and standalone software offerings. However, just as important here is the fact the company is giving creators, many of whom depend on Behance to showcase their work, a way to make money.

The last time Jessica Mak released a game was in 2012 when they worked with Sony’s Santa Monica Studio to create Sound Shapes. The game went on to become one of the PlayStation Vita’s standout gems, in part thanks to an unforgettable soundtrack that featured contributions from Shaw-Han Liem of I Am Robot and Proud fame, Indie Game: The Movie composer Jim Guthrie and Beck.

After nearly a decade since the release of Sound Shapes, Mak is working with Annapurna Interactive on a new project, the publisher announced on Thursday during its developer showcase. The game doesn't have an official name or release date yet, but Mak shared some details about the project. 

Like Everyday Shooter and Sound Shapes, music will play a central part in the experience, and part of the reason Mak took a break from making games was to become a better musician."The music, for me, is very much as important as the game part of it," Mak said. They went on to describe the game as an action-adventure experience that they hope will surprise players.

The last time we saw Stray was in the form of a cinematic trailer Sony shared in 2020 that highlighted the game’s futuristic neon-soaked setting and adorable feline protagonist. At the time, we didn’t get to see the game in action, a fact that Annapurna Interactive has now remedied. The publisher shared a slice of gameplay footage from the title during its recent showcase and said it would release Stray sometime in early 2022.

In the opening moments of Stray, our feline protagonist finds himself injured and separated from his family. Gameplay involves using his physical abilities as a cat to navigate the environment and solve puzzles. In the time-honored tradition of duos like Ratchet and Clank, partway through the adventure, you’ll meet a drone named B-12. They will allow you to converse with the city’s other robotic inhabitants and interact with certain objects in the environment. The cat has a playful side to his personality, and you can do things like scratch furniture, interact with vending machines and rub up against the legs of the robots you meet. Good stuff.

When Stray comes out next year, it will be available on PlayStation 4, PS5 and PC. Developer BlueTwelve Studio promised to show off more of the game before then.

We knew it was coming, but the War for Wakanda expansion for Marvel’s Avengers now has a street date. Square Enix will release the free DLC on August 17th, the publisher announced today. Billed as the largest content update to Marvel’s Avengers since the game came out last September, fans can look forward to playing as Black Panther, with God of War actor Christopher Judge there to lend his voice to the character. 

Additionally, the expansion will add two new villains and a host of enemies for players to challenge, as well as a brand-new environment to explore. When you add the expansion, the game includes about 25 hours of single-player story content.

Crystal Dynamics will share more details about War for Wakanda during a Twitch stream the developer has planned for August 16th. In the meantime, if you’ve been on the fence about Marvel’s Avengers, now is a good time to try the game. Until August 1st, you can download and play it for free on PlayStation 4, PS5, Stadia and PC via Steam. And if you decide you want to continue playing it past this weekend’s trial period, it’s currently 40 percent off.

While Airbnb has for a long time allowed hosts to list how fast the WiFi connection is at their rentals, it’s not something you see detailed with every home, condo and apartment on the service. As the company continues to try to attract remote workers, it’s introducing a speed test tool hosts can access within the Airbnb app.

The tool itself is fairly simple. Provided you’ve switched to a host account, you’ll find it under the “Amenities” section of a listing, and it will only estimate your download speeds. When you complete a speed test, the app will share that information with Airbnb and M-Lab, the organization that provided Airbnb the open-source software the company used to build the tool.

According to a support document from the company, M-Lab will include your test results in a publicly available database it provides for internet researchers. More importantly, those who want to stay at your home or accommodation will see if your WiFi connection is suited to their needs. It should also help ensure listings have accurate estimates.

Airbnb considers anything above a consistent 7 Mbps as a “snappy” connection. “Guests can hang with family and friends on a video call or gather together to stream a rom-com,” the company says on its website. Airbnb has started rolling out the WiFi tool to hosts in the US, with global availability to follow in the coming weeks.