When Microsoft effectively discontinued support for Internet Explorer earlier this week, one person decided to mark the occasion with a bit of humor. Per Reuters, software Jung Ki-young spent 430,000 won (about $330) to design and order a headstone for the web browser ahead of its official end-of-support date. The memorial, located on the roof of his brother’s cafe in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, features IE’s iconic logo followed by an English epitaph that reads, “He was a good tool to download other browsers.”

Jung told Reuters he commissioned the memorial to commemorate a program that had defined his career. Even as apps like Chrome and Firefox went on to replace Internet Explorer in both prominence and popularity, many of Jung’s customers kept asking him to ensure their websites looked good in Microsoft’s aging web browser. "It was a pain in the ass, but I would call it a love-hate relationship because Explorer itself once dominated an era,” he said.

As funny as the tombstone is, it may be premature. Microsoft still plans to support Internet Explorer in some contexts. For instance, Edge’s IE Mode will continue to work through 2029 or later. Moreover, parts of the world, including countries like Japan, continue to use the web browser for business and government administration.

With repairs complete and the rocket in place at its designated launch pad, NASA is ready to once again attempt a critical fueling test of its next-generation Space Launch System. Per Space.com, the Artemis 1 “wet dress rehearsal” will begin at 5PM ET today with a call to stations for ground personnel at Kennedy Space Center.

Over the next 48 hours, technicians will attempt loading the rocket’s first and second stages with cryogenic fuel. Provided there aren’t major setbacks, they will then try to load it with propellant starting Monday morning. If the test is successful, the Artemis 1 mission could get underway as early as July 26th.

For the oft-delayed SLS, this is its second trip to historic Launch Pad 39B. Following an initial attempt at the wet dress rehearsal on April 1st, NASA tried to complete a modified version of the fueling test on April 14th, but that was cut short after the agency discovered a hydrogen leak in the rocket’s mobile launch tower. NASA eventually decided to move the SLS back to the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs and to give a critical nitrogen supplier time to complete capacity upgrades.

Once the wet dress rehearsal is complete, NASA can finally move forward with Artemis 1. The mission will send an unmanned Orion capsule on a flight around the Moon. The next two Artemis missions would feature human astronauts, with an eye toward a lunar landing sometime in 2025 or 2026.

Discord is giving admins and moderators a new tool to keep their servers safe. On Thursday, the company introduced AutoMod, a feature that can automatically detect and block harmful messages before they’re posted. Accessible through Discord’s “Server Settings” menu, the tool allows admins and moderators to create a list of words and phrases they want Discord to look for, along with a set of repercussions for those who use them.

For instance, you can configure AutoMod to prevent a user from sending messages or joining voice channels after triggering the bot's safeguards. It’s also possible to set up the tool to automatically notify you when someone writes something offensive. Discord has put together three starting lists that cover “certain categories of not-nice words or phrases.” Moderators can add up to three additional custom filter lists to suit the needs of their users. At launch, AutoMod is only available to Community servers.

Alongside AutoMod, Discord is introducing two new resources to help admins. The first is a dedicated hub with articles penned by experienced community builders. “Whether you’re just getting started or need help onboarding the newest round of moderators to the team, the Community Resources page is here to help your team thrive at any stage of your journey,” Discord says of the hub.

Discord

The other new resource is a dedicated admin community server run by Discord staff. Here, the company says moderators can gather to chat and learn from one another. Discord also plans to run educational events and share news through the space.

Discord also announced today it’s expanding the availability of Premium Memberships, a monetization tool the company debuted at the end of 2021, to more US servers this summer. With the expansion, the company is also adding new features to the suite, including an updated analytics dashboard and the option to offer free trials to people.

Samsung is making it easier to store your credit card information and other digital data on your phone. On Wednesday, the company announced the merging of its Pay and Pass apps into a single Wallet platform. With the change, you won’t have to use two different apps to manage your digital identity. Instead, the company’s new Wallet app will let you store your debit and credit card information for mobile payments, in addition to your login credentials for websites and apps.

Samsung says you can also use the software to store digital car keys from brands like BMW, Genesis, Hyundai and Kia, as well as airline boarding passes, starting with Korea Air. And just in time for crypto winter, there’s support for monitoring your cryptocurrencies across a variety of exchanges.

Later this year, the app will allow you to store digital IDs, including student cards and driver’s licenses, from participating institutions and state governments. There’s also integration with Samsung’s SmartThings platform. Everything is stored securely on your device with protection from Samsung’s Knox platform.

Samsung Wallet is available to download starting today in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK. If you already have the Pay and Pass apps installed on your phone, you’ll be prompted to migrate to the new software the next time you open them. A fleshed out Wallet app has been a long-time coming for Samsung, particularly after the company added support for digital car keys last year.

Void Riders, OlliOlli World’s first story expansion, is now available to download on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC. The DLC adds new levels for players to explore complete with UFOs that will use their tractor beams to help you defy gravity and take your tricks to new heights. The expansion also adds new emotes, tricks and outfits, including a cow onesie, you can use to further customize your character.

Void Riders costs $10 on its own. It’s also included in the “Rad Edition” of the game and as part of the $15 Expansion Pass, which will also grant you access to the other DLC developer Roll7 plans to release later this year. If you haven’t picked up OlliOlli World yet, consider doing so. It’s one of Engadget’s favorite games of the year, thanks to its easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master gameplay and charming art style.

Mobility startup Lime has begun rolling out a new swappable battery to its fleet of electric bikes and scooters. According to the company, the component is a significant upgrade over the one it uses currently. The nearly 1 kWh battery features twice the capacity of Lime’s previous .46 kWh design. Best of all, the battery is compatible with the company’s existing Gen4 and Citra e-bikes and scooters, allowing Lime to enhance the capabilities of those vehicles without replacing them.

Lime says it plans to deploy the battery in a handful of cities this summer, including Paris and Long Beach, before rolling it out more widely. A higher capacity power source brings with it a few advantages. The most obvious of all is that Lime’s vehicles can travel further. In turn, that allows the company to save on operating costs since its charging vans no longer need to make as many trips to support its fleet.

The timing of the upgrade comes at a critical time for Lime and other micromobility providers. After a decline in ridership at the beginning of the pandemic, the company saw people increasingly turn to its service for their transportation needs. With gas prices in the US and other parts of the world approaching historic highs, more and more people are looking for affordable and safe ways to get where they need to go.

Once it completes work on Starfield sometime next year and then transitions to full-scale production on The Elder Scrolls 6, Bethesda says its next project will be Fallout 5. That tidbit of information was shared by Todd Howard, the studio’s creative director, in an interview with IGN.

“Yes, Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production and, you know, we’re going to be doing Fallout 5 after that, so our slate’s pretty full going forward for a while,” Howard told the outlet. “We have some other projects that we look at from time to time as well, but they do take a while. I wish they came out faster, I really do. We’re trying as hard as we can, but we want them to be as best as they can be for everybody.”

Bethesda announced it was working on both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 at E3 2018. Based on the studio’s current development cadence, it won’t release the latter until sometime in 2027. And if spends another five years working on Fallout 5 after that, the sequel won’t arrive until sometime in the next decade. By that point, both Microsoft and Sony could announce and release new console hardware. Catastrophic climate change could also become so bad that a game about a post-apoclypse would become redundant. Either way, Fallout fans have a long wait ahead of them before the next mainline entry in the series arrives.

GSC Game World hopes to release Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl next year. The studio shared the updated release window in a trailer it premiered Tuesday during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase Extended livestream. GSC had previously planned to release the game by the end of this year, but the likelihood of that happening diminished after the company was forced to pause development due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some fans spotted Stalker 2’s new release window when Microsoft shared an update on Xbox Game Pass during its Xbox and Bethesda showcase on Sunday. "It happened a little bit earlier than expected, we were actually planning to reveal it in the upcoming days," a GSC Game World spokesperson told PC Gamer on Monday. "But yes, the game now releases in 2023."

Alongside a fresh trailer, the studio released a new vlog detailing some of the hardships its staff has had to endure since the conflict in Ukraine began. GSC recently resumed work on Stalker 2 after relocating some of its team members to Prague. The studio also changed the game’s subtitle from “Heart of Chernobyl” to “Chornobyl” to reflect the local Ukrainian spelling of the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster.

Ubisoft will reveal what’s next for its long-running Assassin’s Creed franchise later this year. The publisher announced today it will host a special event in September to discuss the future of the series. While we didn’t get many hints from the company during its recent AC 15th Anniversary Celebration livestream, we have a good idea of what to expect. We know from reporting by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that Ubisoft is working on two new Assassin’s Creed projects.

The first is a live service experience codenamed Infinity that will encompass multiple time periods and settings and allow fans to play together. After confirming it was working on the game in July 2021, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said this past October that Infinity wouldn’t be a free-to-play game. The company is also working on a new standalone title codenamed Rift. According to Schreier, Rift began life as an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion, but was later repurposed by Ubisoft into a standalone game to bolster its near-term release schedule. The new game will reportedly steer the series back to its stealth roots and star Valhalla’s Basim Ibn Ishaq.

Of the two projects, we’re more likely to see Ubisoft share information about Rift given its more limited scope and the fact Schreier said the company plans to release it before Infinity. Of course, Ubisoft could also surprise us, and we'll have to wait until September to find out what the company has in store for fans.

Diablo IV will feature a different set of monetization systems than those found in Diablo Immortal, according to Blizzard. “To be clear, D4 is a full-price game built for PC/PS/Xbox audiences,” said Diablo franchise general manager Rod Fergusson following the game’s latest showing during Microsoft’s Summer Game Fest presentation on Sunday. “We are committed to delivering an incredible breadth of content after launch, for years to come, anchored around optional cosmetic items and full story-driven expansions.”

Blizzard has similarly promised to support the recently released Immortal for a while but is doing so through an in-game marketplace where players can purchase optional cosmetics, an “empowered” battle pass and “eternal orbs,” a premium currency that can be exchanged for the game’s controversial “legendary” crests. The consensus among the gaming community is that Immortal features some of the most aggressive and predatory monetization systems found in a Blizzard game to date. One estimate suggests it would take someone 10 years or $110,000 to acquire enough “legendary gems” to equip their character with the best possible gear. Since the release of Immortal, Diablo fans have been worried that Blizzard would employ a similar set of monetization systems in Diablo 4 when that game comes out in 2023.

However, Fergusson’s statement suggests Diablo IV will be closer to Diablo III than Immortal. The former did not feature microtransactions – though it launched with a controversial in-game auction house – and Blizzard went on to support the title with a $40 expansion in 2014 and a $15 DLC in 2017 that added Diablo 2’s necromancer class to the game. Still, reading through Fergusson’s Twitter replies, you see a lot of fans expressing concern that even the mention of cosmetics could imply more microtransactions than Blizzard is suggesting. Neither Fergusson nor Diablo community lead Adam Fletcher mentioned a paid battle pass, but that’s one way Blizzard could make some cosmetics obtainable since many games, including Immortal, incorporate them as a completion reward.