Three years after becoming the newest branch of the US Armed Forces, the Space Force has an official song. Titled “Semper Supra” (or “Always Above,” if you’re not a fan of Latin), the tune made its debut on Tuesday at the 2022 Air, Space and Cyber Conference in Maryland. Now, before I say anything else about it, I think it’s best you hear the song for yourself.

If you ask me, it’s jauntier than I expected, particularly for a song that is supposed to embody a 21st-century military branch. According to Chief of Space Operations John Raymond, the Space Force wanted a song that “spoke to our Guardians” – and, no, he’s not talking about Destiny 2 players.

The eight lines of lyrics you hear were the result of “years of research and revisions.” Former service and US Air Force Band member James Teachenor wrote "Semper Supra" with General Raymond’s help. "The song was a long work in progress because I wanted it to encompass all the capabilities that the Space Force offers and its vision," Teachenor said. Once the two settled on the song’s lyrics, they recruited Sean Nelson of the US Coast Guard Band to create an arrangement, with the USCG Band providing the instrumentation. 

If you ask us, the final product sounds a bit too similar too to other Armed Forces tunes like “The Army Goes Rolling Along.” Personally, I think the Space Force should have gone down a prog rock route and made the song sound, you know, spacey. 

Following months of anticipation and controversy among its add-in board partners, NVIDIA's 40 Series GPUs are finally here. The company unveiled the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 today at its GTC 2022 keynote. Taking full advantage of its new "Ada Lovelace" architecture, NVIDIA says the two GPUs offer significantly better ray tracing performance. The company worked with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to co-develop a new "4N" fabrication process that NVIDIA says is up to two times more power efficient.

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Blizzard plans to invite some of its most dedicated fans to play Diablo IV in the coming weeks. The studio shared details about its upcoming end game closed beta test on Monday. Using “specific gameplay data,” Blizzard will select players who have recently spent “significant” time with the post-story experiences found in Diablo II: Resurrected and Diablo III. If you feel that describes you, you can let the studio know you’re interested in participating in the beta by ensuring the “News and Special Offers from Battle.net” option is enabled on your account by October 11th. Once that’s done, look for an email from Blizzard in your inbox for an invite. 

Once the beta arrives, it will be available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PS4, with support for crossplay and cross-progression between platforms supported. If you don’t get into this round of testing, Blizzard notes public testing will begin early next year.

The upcoming beta will focus on Diablo IV’s endgame experience for a couple of reasons. Blizzard says it doesn’t want to spoil the game’s story before release. The decision is also a reflection of the way a lot of players enjoy Diablo games. “For many, the end game is their favorite aspect of Diablo — we want to ensure it feels satisfying, and with no shortage of challenging variety to experience across many, many demon-slaying gaming sessions,” the studio said, adding feedback from participants will play a critical part in polishing the experience. One thing you should not expect is to hear from those playing the closed beta. Blizzard said the event would be “confidential,” a not-so-subtle allusion to the fact footage from Diablo IVleaked over the weekend.

A Baltimore judge has overturned the conviction of Adnan Syed, reports The Associated Press. The 41-year-old had been serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee. In 2014, his case attracted international interest after it was chronicled by former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig in the first season of the hit podcast Serial.

Koenig spent more than a year investigating the specifics of Syed’s case, focusing in particular on the conduct of his lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez. In 2019, Maryland’s highest court found Gutierrez had failed to properly investigate an alibi witness but voted against granting Syed’s request for a retrial. However, prosecutors recently recommended that a judge grant him a new trial, noting the state had lost “confidence in the integrity of the conviction.” With Monday’s decision, the state has 30 days to decide whether to move forward with a new trial or drop the case entirely.

“This is not a podcast for me,” said Young Lee, the brother of Hae Min Lee, during Monday’s hearing. He said his family felt “betrayed” and “blindsided” by the state’s motion to vacate Syed’s conviction. “Whenever I think it's over, and it’s ended, it always comes back,” he added.

Following the decision, Serialannounced it would air a new episode on Tuesday morning. In the years since its widely successful first season, Serial has produced a series of spinoffs, including S-Town and The Trojan Horse Affair. More broadly, it’s safe to say the true crime genre and podcasting more generally have never been more popular – even if the series was never quite able to replicate the success of its first season. 

One good thing that came out of the pandemic is that more people picked up cycling. In the first three months of 2021, American consumer spending on bikes and cycling accessories increased by 34 percent year on year to $8.2 billion. However, the pandemic also saw more die and suffer injuries while biking. According to the National Safety Council, 1,260 cyclists were killed in 2020, a 16 percent increase from 2019.

It’s a problem that Ford thinks technology can address. On Monday, the automaker announced it’s working with Commsignia, PSS, Ohio State University, T-Mobile and Tome Software to explore how a smartphone app could warn drivers of pedestrians and cyclists they may not see. As someone sharing the road with a car, you would install the company's software on your phone. With the help of Bluetooth Low Energy, vehicles with Ford’s Sync infotainment system would see you as “beacons.” If the car then determines there’s the potential for a crash, it will warn the driver using audiovisual cues.

According to Ford, its approach has a few advantages. One is that Bluetooth LE is nearly ubiquitous. The technology has been part of the Bluetooth protocol since 2009, meaning every modern smartphone has access to it. If you own a Ford vehicle, you won’t need to bring your car to a dealership for a hardware upgrade since the Sync system features Bluetooth compatibility. The other advantage of using Bluetooth LE is that your car won’t need to see pedestrians and cyclists before it can warn you. Ford and T-Mobile are also working on a version of the app that uses 5G instead of Bluetooth LE.

In practice, the company’s approach is reminiscent of the COVID exposure notification apps some countries and states deployed at the beginning of the pandemic. As you may recall, those also used Bluetooth LE. However, despite backing from Apple and Google, they were never effective due to low usage. In Canada, for instance, the federal COVID Alert app was only downloaded 6.9 million times and logged 63,117 positive tests. Put another way, nowhere near enough Canadians downloaded the software to make it an effective contact tracing tool. Ford's app is likely to experience some of the same issues. 

As an avid cyclist, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen riding their bikes at night without an LED light to make themselves visible to traffic. On the other hand, statistics suggest motorists have been driving more aggressively in recent years, leading to the aforementioned increase in cyclist deaths as well as vehicle crashes. Any kind of intervention would be welcome, but Ford's app isn't likely to be a meaningful solution if it ever comes to market. While the Bluetooth LE solution to COVID had only one uphill climb, apps like Ford's have two: adoption by cyclists and adoption by automakers.

CD Projekt Red has managed to catch lightning in a bottle twice. With nearly 80,000 concurrent Steam players at the moment, Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. While it’s a far cry from the more than one million people that played the game on PC following its troubled launch, it’s still more interest than the game has seen in more than a year.

You don’t have to look far to find a reason for the spike. On September 13th, the game’s anime spinoff, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, premiered on Netflix to critical acclaim, earning praise for its story, worldbuilding and animation. The series has one of the highest audience scores for a Netflix production. And after watching Edgerunners, many people are giving Cyberpunk 2077 a second chance or picking it up for the first time.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because a similar situation played out after the debut of The Witcher. In 2019, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, thanks to the popularity of its Netflix counterpart, was briefly more popular than it was after its 2015 release. It will be interesting to see if Cyberpunk 2077 can maintain its current momentum. At least on PC and current-generation consoles, the RPG is a different game than it was in 2020. Cyberpunk 2077’s recent 1.5 and 1.6 updates addressed many of the lingering bugs and stability issues that plagued the game at launch. CD Projekt Red also recently released official modding tools and announced that Phantom Liberty, the game’s first major expansion, would arrive in 2023.

The entire iPhone 15 lineup will reportedly include the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island. In a tweet spotted by MacRumors, display analyst Ross Young said he expects Apple to make the screen cutout standard on all 2023 iPhones. Additionally, the company will reportedly keep its ProMotion 120Hz display technology exclusive to Pro variants due to a supply chain that “can’t support” the feature on more affordable models. In a subsequent tweet, Young said Apple is likelier to trickle down the technology to less expensive iPhones in 2024.

Making the Dynamic Island standard on every new iPhone moving forward would make a lot of sense for Apple, particularly to encourage developers to take advantage of the feature. Some apps already use the cutout for fun features. Once iOS 16.1 arrives later this year, Dynamic Island will also work with Apple’s Live Activities API. It’s also a feature that would make the standard iPhone more appealing to consumers holding onto their current device. While the iPhone 12 was a big upgrade over the iPhone 11, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 have been less exciting. There’s not much reason to buy the latest one unless you’re coming from an iPhone several years old, and that's not great for Apple's bottom line.

Almost exactly five years after Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico in the dark, the US territory is once again facing a power crisis. On Sunday, LUMA Energy, the company that operates the island’s electrical grid, announced that all of Puerto Rico had suffered a blackout due to Hurricane Fiona, reports Reuters.

With the storm nearing the island’s southwest coast, the National Hurricane Center warned of “catastrophic” flooding as Fiona began producing winds with recorded speeds of 85 miles per hour. Without even making landfall, the storm left a third of LUMA’s customers without power. On Twitter, Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said the government was working to restore power, but after the events of five years ago, there’s worry there won’t be an easy fix.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria caused the largest blackout in US history when the Category 5 storm battered Puerto Rico, leaving 3.4 million people without power. The island had only recently begun rebuilding its weakened infrastructure, with blackouts a daily occurrence in some areas. Officials have tried to stress that Hurricane Fiona won’t bring a repeat of 2017. “This is not Maria, this hurricane will not be Maria,” Abner Gomez, the head of public safety and crisis management at LUMA Energy, told CNN before Sunday’s power outage.

If From Software’s uncompromising approach to difficulty has prevented you from playing Elden Ring, you’ll soon have another way to experience one of the most popular games of the year. This week, Steamforged Games announced it is adapting Elden Ring into a board game.

According to Mat Hart, the co-founder of the company, “fans should expect a dark, richly-realized tabletop world of mystery and peril, with satisfying combat and rewarding exploration.” At this stage, there aren’t many details on the project, but Steamforged promised a combat system that won’t involve dice rolling. Additionally, you’ll be able to play the game with up to three other friends – or by yourself, if you so choose.

Like Steamforged’s take on Dark Souls and Horizon Zero Dawn, Elden Ring: The Board Game will come with a handful of miniatures. On Friday, the company shared a render of one, showcasing how Margit, one of Elden Ring’s early-game bosses, will look in miniature form. Despite his small size, this version of the Fell Omen looks just as intimidating as his video game counterpart. Steamforged will share more details on the project when it brings the game to Kickstarter at a later date. Until then, you can sign up to receive updates as the company is ready to share them. 

With fall quickly approaching, Fortnite is ready to say goodbye to its summer-themed “Vibin” season. Dubbed Paradise, season four of chapter three introduces one of the most significant gameplay tweaks to the game since Epic made the Zero Build mode a permanent part of Fortnite’s rotation in March.

A new substance called Chrome is taking over the island, and you can use it to your advantage to gain a jump on other players. You can throw Chrome vials on walls to pass through them and at your feet to turn yourself into a blob that is faster and immune to fire and fall damage. As a Chrome blob, you also gain the ability to air dash, allowing you to close distance on your enemies quickly.

Chrome has changed the island too. You’ll find a new point of interest called the Herald's Sanctum by the abandoned Sanctuary. Other locations, such as Condo Canyon, now float in the air as they try to find safety from the substance. Smaller gameplay tweaks include a buff to sniper rifles. Oh, and sliding into other players will now knock them back.

Of course, a new season also means a new battle pass, and this one comes with no shortage of cool skins. The obvious highlight is Spider-Gwen, but there’s also a nifty skater cat and what looks like a bear within a werewolf costume for players to unlock. Season four is available to play starting today.