If you’re a fan of psychological horror, you should mark August 22nd on your calendar. That’s when an intriguing new game called Fort Solis arrives. Developer Fallen Leaf describes its debut as a psychological sci-fi thriller. The game casts players as Jack Leary, an engineer sent to investigate a remote mining base on Mars. Roger Clark, best known for his role as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, voices Leary, with Tory Baker (The Last of Us, Death Stranding) and Julia Brown (The Last Kingdom, World on Fire) rounding out the cast.

Watching the trailer for Fort Solis, you might get the sense Fallen Leaf was inspired by Dead Space, but the studio says it was most directly influenced by narrative titles like Firewatch and Until Dawn. Fallen Leaf notes there are no camera cuts or loading screens to break up the game’s story, which “can be binged in one intense session.” If nothing else, Fort Solis should be a technical showcase. Alongside Layers of Fear, it’s one of the first Unreal Engine 5 games to arrive since Epic first teased the tech back in 2020. Fort Solis will be available on PlayStation 5, PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) and Mac.

The New York City Department of Education has become the latest organization to disclose it had private data stolen as part of the far-reaching MOVEit file transfer software hack. In an email sent to parents on Sunday, the agency said the personal information of approximately 45,000 students, including in some cases social security numbers and birth dates, had recently been compromised. The Education Department said the personal information of staff was also accessed but did not share how many teachers and other personnel were affected.

“The safety and security of our students and staff, including their personal information and data, is of the utmost importance for the New York City Department of Education. Our top priority is determining exactly which confidential information was exposed, and the specific impact for each affected individual,” the department said Sunday. “When that determination is made, we will begin preparing notifications to individuals whose confidential information was compromised. Along with the notification, individuals will be offered access to an identity monitoring service.”

The Education Department is one of many organizations affected by the MOVEit hack. Clop, a ransomware gang with suspected pro-Russian ties, claimed responsibility for the cyberattack in early June. The group took advantage of a zero-day vulnerability in the enterprise file transfer software to breach the servers of “hundreds of companies,” including the largest US pension fund. The scale of the New York City Department of Education breach is small compared to some of the other victims caught up in the hack but is notable for including the personal information of minors. In an interview with Bleeping Computer, the Clop gang claimed it would erase any data it obtained from governments, the military and children’s hospitals. It’s unclear if the group includes student data in that final category.

NASA has achieved a technological milestone that could one day play an important role in missions to the Moon and beyond. This week, the space agency revealed (via Space.com) that the International Space Station’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) is recycling 98 percent of all water astronauts bring onboard the station. Functionally, you can imagine the system operating in a way similar to the Stillsuits described in Frank Herbert’s Dune. One part of the ECLSS uses “advanced dehumidifiers” to capture moisture the station’s crew breaths and sweat out as they go about their daily tasks.

Another subsystem, the imaginatively named “Urine Processor Assembly,” recovers what astronauts pee with the help of vacuum distillation. According to NASA, the distillation process produces water and a urine brine that still contains reclaimable H20. The agency recently began testing a new device that can extract what water remains in the brine, and it’s thanks to that system that NASA observed a 98 percent water recovery rate on the ISS, where previously the station was recycling about 93 to 94 percent of the water astronauts were bringing aboard.

“This is a very important step forward in the evolution of life support systems,” said NASA’s Christopher Brown, who is part of the team that manages the International Space Station’s life support systems. “Let’s say you collect 100 pounds of water on the station. You lose two pounds of that and the other 98 percent just keeps going around and around. Keeping that running is a pretty awesome achievement.”

If the thought of someone else drinking their urine is causing you to gag, fret not. “The processing is fundamentally similar to some terrestrial water distribution systems, just done in microgravity,” said Jill Williamson, NASA’s ECLSS water subsystems manager. “The crew is not drinking urine; they are drinking water that has been reclaimed, filtered, and cleaned such that it is cleaner than what we drink here on Earth.”

According to Williamson, systems like the ECLSS will be critical as NASA conducts more missions beyond Earth's orbit. “The less water and oxygen we have to ship up, the more science that can be added to the launch vehicle,” Williamson said. “Reliable, robust regenerative systems mean the crew doesn’t have to worry about it and can focus on the true intent of their mission.”

If you had hoped to play Diablo IV this weekend, it appears someone is intent on ruining those plans. Since at least the early hours of Sunday morning, Blizzard's Battle.net online service has been the target of an apparent DDoS attack, making it difficult, if not impossible, to play Diablo IV,World of Warcraft and other Blizzard titles. "We continue to actively monitor an ongoing DDoS attack which is affecting latency/connections to our games," Blizzard's customer support account tweeted at 10:24AM after it originally said it was investigating an authentication issue.    

As of 12:30PM ET, the issue appears to be unresolved. "We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack, which may result in high latency and disconnections for some players," states a notification that appears when you launch Battle.net on PC. "We are actively working to mitigate this issue." When I tried to log into Diablo IV, I was briefly able to play the game before I was disconnected. Over on Reddit, some players report they haven't been able to play Blizzard's latest for at least 10 to 12 hours. At the very least, you can bet this incident will likely renew calls for Blizzard to add an offline mode to Diablo IV. 

When Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar previewed the Vision Pro in early June, the prototype unit he tried featured an extra velcro strap not seen in any of Apple’s promotional material. At the time, a company spokesperson told him that the handset would support additional straps if necessary.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple created the strap, which goes over the wearer’s head, after some employees complained the Vision Pro felt “too heavy” after a couple of hours of use. In a move that feels reminiscent of the company’s decision to sell the Pro Display XDR’s stand as a separate $999 purchase, Apple is reportedly considering selling the strap as an optional accessory rather than including it in the box.

Perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing as Apple said Vision Pro would “start” at $3,499 when it arrives in 2024, but considering most previews mentioned the headset's weight as a potential concern, it feels strange to hear the company won't go out of its way to ensure consumers have a comfortable experience out of the box. 

Given the Vision Pro’s hefty price, you might think the company will market the device only to developers, but Apple seems intent on selling it to consumers as well. Gurman reports the company plans to create dedicated areas within its retail stores where people will have the chance to demo the device. He adds Apple has developed an iPhone app that its retail workers will use to scan a customer’s face so that they can ensure the person leaves the store with the correctly sized bands and light seal for their headset.

With the Vision Pro not slated to go on sale until early next year, the headset could arrive as late as May 2024, giving Apple almost a year to alter its plans. In the meantime, Gurman says the company has already reassigned some employees to work on a more affordable headset and a second-generation Vision Pro.

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI five years ago at E3 2018, but the new fantasy RPG is still “five-plus years away,” according to Phil Spencer. The chief of Microsoft’s Gaming division revealed the game’s potential release timeframe during day two of the hearing where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking an injunction to block the company’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“I think we’ve been a little unclear on what platforms it will launch on given how far out the game is. It’s difficult for us right now to nail down exactly what platforms that game will launch on," Spencer said in response to questioning by an FTC lawyer, as reported by IGN. "As I said with Elder Scrolls VI, it’s so far out it’s hard to understand what the platforms will even be at this point. It’s the same team that’s finishing Starfield, which comes out this September. So we’re talking about it being likely five-plus years away."

If you’ve been following any bit of news Bethesda has shared about The Elder Scrolls VI, the game’s distant release date should come as no surprise. Back in 2020, Pete Hines, the publisher’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, said Bethesda wouldn’t have anything substantial to share about the title for another few years. "It’s after Starfield, which you pretty much know nothing about," he tweeted at the time. “So if you’re coming at me for details now and not years from now, I’m failing to properly manage your expectations.” Based on Spencer’s comments, The Elder Scrolls VI may skip the current generation of consoles entirely. Last week, Bethesda Game Studios Creative Director Todd Howard said the Elder Scrolls VI “may be the last game” of his career.

On Friday, a federal court sentenced Joseph James O’Conner to five years in prison for his involvement in the 2020 Twitter hack. Last month, the 24-year-old, known as PlugwalkJoe online, plead guilty to a host of cyber crimes, including carrying out a SIM-swapping attack that targeted a TikTok account with millions of followers. The 2020 Twitter hack saw O’Conner and his co-perpetrators obtain access to the company’s backend and subsequently the accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and more than 100 other high-profile users. O’Conner netted $794,000 in the crypto scam that followed.

"After stealing and fraudulently diverting the stolen cryptocurrency, O'Connor and his co-conspirators laundered it through dozens of transfers and transactions and exchanged some of it for Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services," the Justice Department said. "Ultimately, a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency was deposited into a cryptocurrency exchange account controlled by O'Connor." In 2021, Graham Ivan Clark, the alleged teenage mastermind behind the breach, plead guilty in return for a three-year prison sentence. In addition to his five-year sentence, O’Conner also faces three years of supervised release after his prison term. He must also forfeit the $794,000 he defrauded during the hack.

If you’re a Star Trek fan and haven’t watched Prodigy yet, you may want to do so before next week. According to The Hollywood Reporter (via io9), Paramount+ has canceled the series alongside a handful of other shows, including Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and The Game. Taking a page from Disney and Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global is also removing Star Trek: Prodigy, and the other shows it canceled on Friday, from Paramount+ in exchange for a tax writeoff. Fans have until sometime next week to watch the series before its fate becomes uncertain.

“As we prepare to combine Paramount+ and Showtime later this month in the US, we are refining our content offering to deliver the best streaming experience for subscribers,” a Paramount+ spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “This is consistent with our content strategy since launch and across our business, which ensures we make smart, efficient choices, informed by audience data and insights. We are removing select programming as we look to optimize Showtime’s robust slate of premium originals.”

The cancelation comes after Paramount+ previously greenlit a second season of Star Trek: Prodigy. The show could find another home. The Hollywood Reporter notes Prodigy producer CBS Studios plans to complete postproduction on season two and shop both seasons to a new streaming platform. The announcement won’t affect other Star Trek series, with Paramount+ set to remain the home of ongoing entries like Strange New Worlds.

Apple makes some of the best earbuds you can use with an iPhone, and now you can buy a pair of AirPods Pro for less than you would typically pay for them. The second-generation model has dropped back to its all-time low price of $200, or $50 off the AirPods Pro’s usual $250 price.

Similar appearances aside, the 2022 AirPods Pro are a significant upgrade over the original 2019 model. Thanks to a more powerful H2 chip, the new AirPods Pro boast better audio quality and improved ANC capabilities. They also offer one of the best transparency modes on any set of wireless earbuds on the market right now. The AirPods Pro aren’t perfect, however. Battery life is so-so and the new touch controls could be more intuitive. But for $200, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another pair of Bluetooth headphones that offers the mix of features and convenience that the AirPods Pro do.

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Russian internet service providers have cut off access to Google News after President Vladamir Putin accused Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, of “organizing an armed rebellion.” According to internet monitor NetBlocks (via The New York Times), at least five Russian telecoms, including Rostelecom, U-LAN and Telplusl, are blocking web users inside the country from accessing the news aggregator. Google did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.

On late Friday, Wagner Group mercenaries crossed the border from Ukraine into Rostov-on-Don, located 20 miles from the Sea of Azov, and appeared to take the city, which is home to Russia’s southern military headquarters, without much resistance from the regular army. As of Saturday, BBC News is reporting Wagner forces are moving north toward Moscow. Prigozhin has vowed to topple Russia’s Defense Ministry in response to a missile attack he claims the regular army carried out against Wagner personnel stationed in Ukraine. In addition to being the founder of the Wagner Group, Prigozhin is the funder and creator of the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm behind Russia’s 2016 US election interference campaign.

Putin, framing Prigozhin’s rebellion as a “deadly threat” to Russian statehood, has promised harsh consequences for any who join the paramilitary group. “Everyone who deliberately embarked on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, chose the path of blackmail and terrorist methods — they will suffer inevitable punishment,” he said Saturday, according to The Washington Post.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, many Western tech firms either pulled out of the country or saw their services blocked by telecom regulator Roskomnadzor. Facebook and Twitter are among the platforms that have either been partly or fully blocked within the country since March of last year.