It’s no secret that the Backbone One is one of the best mobile gaming controllers you can buy. So it should come as no surprise then that the company is partnering with Sony to release a PlayStation version of its accessory for iPhones. The new Backbone One - PlayStation Edition features the same two-tone white and black design as a standard DualSense controller.

The layout of the controller hasn’t changed. As before, there are dedicated buttons for launching the Backbone app and capturing gameplay footage. It also retains the asymmetrical stick layout of the standard model. On the bottom of the device, you’ll find a Lightning port passthrough and a headphone jack for connecting a pair of wired headphones to your iPhone.

Backbone

Most of the more notable changes Backbone has made for PlayStation fans come courtesy of tweaks to the Backbone companion app, which will be available to all Backbone One owners. A new standalone mode allows you to use the software without first connecting the controller to your iPhone. Effectively, that makes it easier to look for new games to try and chat with friends in between play sessions. Backbone is also adding new PlayStation-specific integrations, including a dedicated row highlighting new releases and updates from Sony.

The Backbone One PlayStation Edition is available today from the Backbone website for $99. Like the standard model, it comes with a one-year free trial to Backbone+, which in turn comes with free trials to Discord Nitro, Stadia Pro and, most notably, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. An Android version of the controller will arrive in the fall.

On Wednesday, former Amazon employee Tori Davis and 25 other workers filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging the company forced them to work in a dangerous environment, reports the Chicago Tribune. Davis raised concerns about Amazon's handling of a racist death threat, and claims the retailer fired her after she threatened legal action if it did not address the incident.

In May, workers at the company’s MDW2 warehouse in Joliet, Illinois — a city 35 miles outside of Chicago — found two racist messages using the N-word scribbled on the wall of one of the facility’s bathrooms, according to the complaint filed with the EEOC. Davis, who is Black, left work without pay after her co-workers discovered the graffiti. After police investigated the incident, Amazon allegedly sent a text message to staff stating law enforcement “did not identify threats to the site’s safety."

According to the complaint, Amazon also allowed white employees at MDW2 to wear clothing that displayed the Confederate flag. One individual allegedly had a shirt where workers could see the flag “prominently” on both the garment’s back and sleeves.

“Amazon works hard to protect our employees from any form of discrimination and to provide an environment where employees feel safe,” an Amazon spokesperson told Engadget. “Hate or racism have no place in our society and are certainly not tolerated by Amazon.”

At a press conference, Davis said she would like to see Amazon implement additional safety policies at MDW2 and improve Black worker representation at the facility. She is also appealing her termination. Amazon has faced allegations of allowing racism in the workplace before. Last year, a manager with the company’s AWS division said she was subjected to harassment from a supervisor who used racial tropes. The company also has a history of terminating employees who have sought to improve conditions at its workplaces. 

Google is finally allowing Nest users to watch footage from their doorbells and cameras on Chromecast. Starting this week, the company is rolling out an update to Chromecast with Google TV that allows the streaming stick to display footage from all Nest Cam and Doorbell devices, including the models Google updated last year.

Once you have access to the feature, you can use your Chromecast Voice Remote or any other Assistant-enabled device to see what’s occurring outside your home. Just say something along the lines of “Hey Google, show me the front door camera on my TV.”

Google has been unusually slow in adding support for Chromecast compared to competing products. As 9to5Google points out, the company has allowed you to stream security footage to your Nest-branded smart displays for a while now. In May, Google even introduced an Alexa skill that brought that same functionality to Echo Show, Fire TV and Fire tablet devices. It’s also worth mentioning that Amazon and Ring have offered a similar integration before Google.

Google is again delaying its plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome. For those keeping track, the company first unveiled its Privacy Sandbox initiative in 2019 and said implementation would begin in 2022. However, following scrutiny from the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the US Department of Justice, Google delayed the phaseout to mid-2023 last year. On Wednesday, the company announced a further delay and said it won’t end support for third-party cookies before the second half of 2024.

“The most consistent feedback we’ve received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome,” said Anthony Chavez, Google's vice president of Privacy Sandbox. “This feedback aligns with our commitment to the CMA to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox provides effective, privacy-preserving technologies and the industry has sufficient time to adopt these new solutions.”

Google

Under its current timeline, Google will expand the availability of its Privacy Sandbox trial to “millions of users globally” by early next month. The company then plans to gradually roll out the test to more individuals throughout 2022 and 2023. It hopes to officially launch the Privacy Sandbox APIs by the third quarter of 2023. “This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting,” said Chavez.

Google’s replacement for third-party cookies was initially known as Federated Learning of Cohorts or FLoC. At the start of the year, the company announced a new approach called Topics. As the name suggests, the API will track your interests. Initially, Google plans to categorize the websites you visit based on one of 300 topics. When you visit a website that supports the API, Chrome will share three random topics you’re interested in. The site’s publisher can then further share that information with their advertising partners to decide what ads to show you. In theory, that should create a more private browsing experience.

Manchester City wants to know what makes its fans feel alive. On Wednesday, the Premier League football club shared that it has been working with Cisco, the team’s technology partner since 2019, to create a "Connected Scarf" that features an “EmotiBit” sensor for tracking the heart rate, body temperature and emotional state of its wearer during a match. According to the two organizations, the accessory will bring “fans closer to the game than ever before,” but exactly how it will do is unclear.

Cisco says it recently completed a pilot program to test the device. The company and Manchester City invited six “lifelong” fans to watch the team play. Meanwhile, the scarf recorded data across 120 “moments of interest,” providing the two organizations with “concrete information” to analyze how each fan in the room felt. “Using the data, we’ll be able to understand fans more than ever before,” said Chintan Patel, chief technology officer of Cisco UK and Ireland. “It provides an opportunity to be more inclusive and learn more about the role sport plays in all our lives.”

Cisco did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for more information on the device. The company plans to bring the Connected Scarf to Manchester City fans next season, but it did not note if the accessory will be something anyone can buy. It’s not surprising to find out that Cisco and Manchester have been working on a way to collect more data from fans. Over the last two decades, data analytics have changed how multiple sports are played. It was only a matter of time before teams tried to do the same with the fan experience, but some may feel the organizations are taking things a step too far.

With Lollapalooza returning to Chicago’s Grant Park this weekend, Hulu subscribers can watch the festival from the comfort of their homes. All you need is a standard or No Adds package – no Live TV plan required.

The livestream will begin at 3PM ET on Thursday, July 28th. Metallica, fresh from their recent Stranger Things bump, headline Thursday, with a set that starts at 11:15PM ET. Other highlights that day include Swedish singer-songwriter Tove Lo and the Wombats at 6:45PM ET and 6:15PM ET respectively. 

Starting Friday, Hulu will begin streaming performances across two channels. On Channel 1, you can catch Tinashe at 4:45PM ET and Machine Gun Kelly at 9:30PM ET, while Channel 2 will feature a performance from Canadian electronic duo Bob Moses at 10PM ET. Note also that from Friday onwards the music starts at 2PM ET. 

On Saturday, EDM fans are spoiled for choice, with Kygo and Kaskade separately headlining Channels 1 and 2 at 11:00PM ET. Dashboard Confessional is also playing a set at 5:45PM ET on Channel 1. On Sunday, Lollapalooza is doing things slightly differently. Saturday's headliners – Porno for Pyros, J. Hope and Greenday – won’t be the last musicians to play that day. They’ll go on stage earlier in the evening – at 7:45PM ET, 10PM ET and 9:15PM ET, respectively. Presumably, that's so that anyone watching at home can get to bed at a reasonable time before the start of the work week.

The city of Seville is trying something new to raise awareness of climate change and save lives. With oppressive heat waves becoming a fact of life in Europe and other parts of the world, the Spanish metropolis has begun naming them. The first one, Zoe, arrived this week, bringing with it expected daytime highs above 109 degrees Fahrenheit (or 43 degrees Celsius).

As Time points out, there’s no single scientific definition of a heat wave. Most countries use the term to describe periods of temperatures that are higher than the historical and seasonal norms for a particular area. Seville’s new system categorizes those events into three tiers, with names reserved for the most severe ones and an escalating municipal response tied to each level. The city will designate future heat waves in reverse alphabetical order, with Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao and Vega to follow. 

It’s a system akin to ones organizations like the US National Hurricane Center have used for decades to raise awareness of impending tropical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes. The idea is that people are more likely to take a threat seriously and act accordingly when it's given a name. 

"This new method is intended to build awareness of this deadly impact of climate change and ultimately save lives," Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, the think tank that helped develop Seville’s system, told Euronews. Naming heat waves could also help some people realize that we're not dealing with occasional “freak” weather events anymore: they’re the byproduct of a warming planet.

Volkswagen has begun producing its all-electric ID.4 crossover SUV in the United States. The automaker announced on Tuesday that it plans to scale production of the ID.4 at its Chattanooga, Tennessee factory to 7,000 vehicles per month by the end of 2022 before further increasing output throughout 2023.

According to Volkswagen, customers can expect deliveries to begin by October, starting with both rear- and all-wheel-drive variants of the 82kWh model. Later this year, the facility will begin manufacturing the more affordable 62kWh variant as well. To date, the automaker says it has delivered more than 190,000 ID.4 units globally since it launched the crossover last year.

Volkswagen credits this week’s milestone to an $800 million investment the company made to electrify its Chattanooga factory. With today’s announcement, the facility is now one of six sites worldwide where Volkswagen is producing electric vehicles. In March, the automaker said it would spend $7.1 billion over the next five years to increase its North American EV production capacity. By 2030, Volkswagen plans for electric vehicles to account for about 55 percent of its sales in the US.

While we’ve seen scientists find novel ways to use insects after they’re dead, it’s hard to imagine any group of researchers topping the work of a team from Rice University that turned lifeless wolf spiders into “necrobotic” grippers. Yes, you read that right – and, no, you’re not the only one with a sudden phantom itch.

How did we get here? Well, I’m glad you asked. Let’s start with an anatomy lesson. Unlike human beings, spiders don’t have antagonistic muscle pairs to move their limbs. Instead, they rely on blood pressure and flexor muscles that allow their legs to curl inward. A chamber in their head contracts to send blood outward, and that hydraulic pressure allows a spider to extend their legs. It’s for that reason that arachnids curl up when they die. Their heart stops beating, and they lose the ability to pressurize their bodies.

Incidentally, the sight of a dead spider inspired the team from Rice University to start exploring the possibility of using one as a gripper, and they’ve been working on the project since 2019. “This area of soft robotics is a lot of fun because we get to use previously untapped types of actuation and materials,” said Assistant Professor of Engineering Daniel Preston. “The spider falls into this line of inquiry. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”

Once Professor Preston’s team understood how spiders move their legs, turning them into robots that could lift more than their own body weight was straightforward. The procedure involved tapping a needle into the arachnid’s prosoma chamber and securing it with a dab of superglue. A handheld syringe or lab equipment attached to the other end allowed the researchers to deliver a small amount of air to the cavity, which in turn would cause the dead spider to extend their legs instantly. The resulting mechanism was suitable for about 1,000 open and close cycles.

According to Preston, potential use cases include microelectronics assembly and insect capture. As TechCrunch points out, it’s hard to imagine anyone selling necrobotic wolf spiders at scale. But if nothing else comes out of the project, you at least know how spiders move their limbs. The next time you see a dead one, you can tell a friend or family member this fun fact. I know I will.

World of Warcraft Classic will return to the Wrath of the Lich King era on September 26th, Blizzard announced on Monday. WotLK is widely considered one of the best expansions in World of Warcraft’s nearly 20-year history. Even if subsequent releases went on to expand the game’s mechanics in more interesting and creative ways, few hit thematically in the way that WotLK did. For those who loved Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, it felt special to set foot on the shores of Northrend for the first time and explore the continent from a new perspective, and then eventually fight Arthas as part of the Icecrown Citadel raid.

Ahead of the expansion’s arrival, Blizzard is introducing a new leveling mechanic called Joyous Journeys. Starting today, Burning Crusade Classic players can visit an innkeeper at one of their faction’s capital cities to toggle a 50 percent experience boost. You can use the boost to finish leveling an existing character or start working on a new one. The boost will be available until the launch of WotLK Classic. For those who want to create a Death Knight once the expansion arrives, you won’t need an existing level 55 character on a server to do so as was the case with the original release.

Blizzard will include Wrath of the Lich King Classic with all World of Warcraft subscriptions, meaning you won’t have to purchase the expansion separately if you want to bring your old guild back together.