The studio behind Nioh plans to take PlayStation fans on an adventure through Bakumatsu-era Japan. On Tuesday, Team Ninja — not to be confused with Ninja Theory — announced it is working on a new action-adventure game titled Rise of the Ronin. 

Set in 1863, about a decade after Commodore Matthew Perry ended Japan's isolation from the West, the game grounds the player in an era of dramatic technological and political change. You'll play as a wandering Ronin navigating a fractured country. This being a Team Ninja project, expect stylish third-person melee combat. It also looks like the game will take inspiration from Western open-world games like Assassin's Creed — which, you have to admit, is fitting given the subject matter. Rise of the Ronin will be a PlayStation console exclusive when it arrives sometime in 2024.

Flickr is adding a new virtual photography category to help users find and categorize images they capture in their favorite video games. Previously, the platform only offered three content categories: photos, illustration and art, and screenshots. The company notes the third and final one didn’t quite meet the needs of one of its fastest-growing communities, which is why it’s making the change.

“By putting your work into one of these categories, you can use filters to limit your search results by interest,” Flickr explains in a blog post spotted by PetaPixel. “For instance, virtual photographers will be able to filter by ‘virtual photography’ while conducting site-wide searches if they only want to see that kind of work, while avoiding real-world photography or other art and illustration.”

The addition is an acknowledgment of just how popular virtual photography has become. We’re at the point where most games either ship with a photo mode at launch or the feature is added after release. Many developers have also started to frequently share the best captures from their communities. For instance, Hideo Kojima retweets Death Stranding photo mode images almost every week, as do studios like CD Projekt Red and Guerrilla Games.

Following an Insider beta test that began in July, Discord voice chats are now available on all Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles. The integration allows Discord users on Xbox, PC and mobile to join the same voice channels. You’ll first need to link your Discord and Xbox accounts together to get started. If you already did that so that your Discord contacts could see your Gamertag, you’ll need to do so again because of the new voice permissions required to make the integration work. And then comes the complicated part.

Discord on Xbox works by transferring you and your voice chat from the platform to your console. As such, you can’t join a call directly from an Xbox. Instead, you’ll need to start your conversations on desktop or mobile and then use the Discord and Xbox apps to transfer the call. Once you’ve linked your accounts, you’ll see a new “Join on Xbox” button in Discord that allows you to begin that process. Tap the button and the Xbox app will open on your phone to ask you on what console you would like to continue your chat.

It’s not the most intuitive implementation, but it could improve over time. “We look forward to continuing our partnership to create even deeper, more meaningful experiences for your friends and communities,” Discord said of the integration. Microsoft echoed the sentiment, noting it was excited “to bring more Discord experiences to Xbox in the future.”

The world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer is going electric. On Monday, Honda announced it would introduce “10 or more” electric motorcycles by 2025. The majority of those won’t be available in North America, with the automaker set to focus most of its attention on Asian and European markets. Don’t expect many performance models either. Honda shared a slide showing the silhouettes of 11 potential electric models, and all but four look like mopeds.

The good news is that the remaining full-sized models are the ones that are likely to make their way stateside. Honda is developing a new “FUN” platform and plans to introduce three “large-size” EV models in Japan, the US and Europe between 2024 and 2025. It’s also working on a kids-sized bike based on the same powertrain and solid-state battery technology to power all of the models it plans to introduce before the second half of the decade.

Honda

At the same time, the company said it would continue to produce internal combustion engine models, but pledged to make them more environmentally friendly by introducing more “flex-fuel” motorcycles that can use E20 and E100 ethanol-based fuels in 2023 and 2025. However, those models won’t be available in the US.

Honda plans to make its motorcycle business carbon neutral by 2040 and for electric models to account for about 15 percent of its motorcycle sales by 2030. All of that amounts to an electrification strategy that doesn’t seem particularly urgent but is in line with other automakers like Ford and GM.

Meta is introducing a new way for Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users to connect with one another. In the coming weeks, the company plans to expand the availability of Community Chats, a feature that will allow Facebook and Messenger groups to organize discussions around their favorite topics. On top of the usual text conversations, Community Chats will support audio and video channels and allow admins to broadcast messages to their groups.

Since Meta envisions you using Community Chats to communicate with people outside of your immediate social circle, admins will have access to a handful of moderation tools to ensure conversations stay civil. An “Admin Assist” feature will allow them to create a list of words and phrases they want the platform to automatically flag and take action against. Admins also have the power to block, mute and suspend individuals who don’t play by their community’s rules. They can also host admin-only chats where they can talk privately with their moderation team. 

If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because Meta is effectively replicating how Discord works. On Discord, you can join Community Servers that are organized around a single game or interest, and it’s even possible for admins to create multiple sub-channels for people to discuss specific aspects of their interest, much like Meta will allow Community Chats users to do. Even the moderation tools are reminiscent of features Discord has released in recent months to combat trolls.

Blue Origin’s recent NS-23 flight didn’t go according to plan. On Monday morning, the private space firm was forced to abort the uncrewed mission after one of its New Shepard rockets suffered an unspecified “booster failure.” The problem came up about a minute after the flight took off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site at 10:26AM ET. You can see the entire incident unfold in the video the company shared on Twitter.

“It appears we have experienced an anomaly with today’s flight,” a commentator said during the NS-23 livestream. “This was unplanned and we don't have any details yet. But our crew capsule was able to escape successfully, we’ll follow its progress through landing. As you can see, the drogues have deployed, and the mains are going to be pulled out next.”

The capsule was carrying NASA-funded research equipment. “It’s useless to speculate about what happened at this point. Not even the company knows the cause,” tweeted Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, adding in a separate post that had the spacecraft been manned, the crew “would have felt a serious jolt, but would have been safe.”

Blue Shepard won’t be able to fly again until Blue Origin investigates the incident and the Federal Aviation Administration signs off on the company’s findings. 

Twitter has begun rolling out its redesigned Spaces tab. Starting today, Twitter Blue members on iOS can check out the new interface element through the subscription’s early access Labs feature. The tab brings together live and recorded Spaces, and even offers a selection of popular podcasts you can listen to directly through the app.

Evidence that Twitter was working on adding podcasts came out in March when developer Jane Manchun Wong found references to the tab in Twitter’s code. A few months later, the company began testing the interface tweak with a small group of English-speaking users on Android and iOS. In its current iteration, the tab features separate categories for current and upcoming Spaces and a Stations section that groups podcasts and Spaces under similar themes.

If the interface Twitter has gone with doesn’t look ideal for finding a specific podcast or episode, that’s by design. The tab won’t replace dedicated apps like Pocket Casts. However, it may help you discover something new to listen to, and if in the process you check out a Space or two, then the tab has done its job.

Apple released iOS 16 earlier today, and one of the more notable features the update introduces is a redesigned lock screen experience. For the first time, Apple is letting you customize the typeface and accent color of on-screen elements like the date and time. Moreover, you can finally add widgets. As of today, there are a handful of ones from Apple to choose from, but in the coming days and weeks, you can expect most app developers, including Google, to add their own ones.

Google

On Monday, Google detailed what Search, Chrome, Drive, Maps, Gmail and News users can expect once those apps support iOS lock screen widgets. For the most part, there aren’t many surprises here. The majority of the apps will come with several different widgets, allowing you to access some features with one tap. For instance, Chrome widgets include shortcuts to the browser’s incognito mode and voice search functionality. There’s even a separate widget for Chrome’s dinosaur game in case you find yourself without an internet connection and need something to pass the time.

The best part is that you won’t need to go out of your way to download anything. “Once our widgets are available, just press and hold down your Lock Screen to start customizing,” says Google. You can expect them to arrive in the “coming weeks,” according to the company.

Starbucks is jumping on the Web3 bandwagon. On Monday, the company detailed Odyssey, an upcoming extension to its popular rewards program that will allow customers to collect NFTs. You can probably guess where this is going. Every NFT will have a points value based on its rarity, and as you earn more tokens, you’ll unlock new experiential rewards. Those could include a virtual expresso martini-making, an invite to events at Starbucks Reserve Roasteries and a trip to Costa Rica to visit one of the company’s coffee suppliers.

There will be a few ways to collect the tokens, which Starbucks has taken to calling “digital collectible stamps.” By completing “journeys” – essentially games and quizzes – you’ll earn “journey stamps.” Naturally, Starbucks will also let you skip all that and buy “limited-edition stamps” directly through the Starbucks Odyssey website. You won’t even need any cryptocurrency in that case, with the company accepting credit cards. If you’re worried about the potential environmental impact of Starbucks adding a Web3 component to its rewards program, the company says Odyssey will use a proof-of-stake blockchain built by Polygon.

“Our vision is to create a place where our digital community can come together over coffee, engage in immersive experiences, and celebrate the heritage and future of Starbucks,” said Brady Brewer, Starbucks executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Starbucks employees and Rewards members can join a waitlist to try Odyssey later this year.

Alongside iOS 16, Apple has released watchOS 9. To install the update on your smartwatch, you'll first need to download iOS 16 on your iPhone. You can do that by opening the Settings app and then tapping "General," followed by "Software" and lastly "Update." If you own an Apple Watch Series 3, you won't get access to the software as Apple is dropping support for its 2017 wearable. It's also worth noting that not every watchOS 9 feature will be available on every Apple Watch and in every region.  

As with past updates, fitness is a major focus of watchOS 9. You'll now see your heart rate zones when working out and reviewing your sleep patterns. There's also support for multisport workouts and a way to monitor your personal best performances. Additionally, you can set up to the software to remind you to take your medications. Other new features include a redesigned interface for Siri, Quick actions and a handful of new watch faces.