Volkswagen is looking to beef up its battery business and localize cell production for its electric vehicles. It has taken another step toward that goal by announcing subsidiary PowerCo's first North American battery cell factory, which it will build in Canada.

The automaker's first cell manufacturing gigafactory outside of Europe will build sustainable unified cells and it will be located in St. Thomas, Ontario. VW said in a statement that Canada was an ideal location due to the supply of raw materials from local sources and "wide access to clean electricity." More details about the gigafactory will be revealed later, but VW plans for production to start in 2027. Last year, VW said it planned to build six PowerCo factories in Europe, starting in Salzgitter, Germany and Valencia, Spain.

The news comes just a week after VW confirmed plans for a factory in South Carolina, where it will build electric pickups and SUVs under its new Scout brand. VW expects to manufacture more than 200,000 EVs at the plant every year as part of its strategy to have a stronger foothold in North America. Production is slated to start by the end of 2026.

The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us wrapped up on Sunday night, and the show's creators are already looking ahead to the challenge of adapting the second game. HBO swiftly greenlit a second season after the show became an immediate success, but that won't be enough to contain the events of The Last of Us Part II, as Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann confirmed.

"No. No way," Mazin said when GQ asked if the second season would explore the entire story of Part II (the interview contains spoilers for the season one finale). "It’s more than one season," Druckmann added, though Mazin declined to say whether they'd need two or three seasons to cover the events of Naughty Dog's sequel. In any case, The Last of Us is only officially renewed for season two, not a third or fourth one as yet.

As if the task of adapting the long, ambitious Part II didn’t already seem daunting enough, Mazin and Druckmann have an enormous new audience to appease. The show has been a huge hit so far. HBO said last week that almost 30 million viewers have watched the first five episodes across all platforms. We'll have to wait and see if those folks stick around after [spoiler] in the chalet basement, but the show's creators aren't too concerned.

"I don't care. How they react is how they react, that is completely outside of our control," Druckmann told GQ in response to a question about the TV audience's reaction to the events of Part II. "So how do we make the best TV show version of that story? That's the problem that we wrestle with every day." Mazin added that he'd rather viewers have a strong emotional response than an indifferent one.

Meanwhile (and here's where we'll get into some mild spoilers), the pivotal opening scene of the finale was originally conceived as part of an animated short, which didn't come to pass. According to The Verge, Druckmann said he then spoke with an external studio about making a separate game focusing on Ellie's mother, Anna, but that fell through as well. The show gave him a chance to revisit that part of the story, which features Ashley Johnson (who stars as Ellie in the games) as Anna.

Elon Musk is reportedly attempting to build a company town where Tesla, Boring and SpaceX workers might live. The mooted town, which is around 35 miles away from Austin, Texas, would likely be called Snailbrook, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The publication unearthed documents that lay out plans to build 110 homes next to Boring and SpaceX facilities in Bastrop County. The report states that Boring employees were invited last year to apply for housing, with rents expected to start at around $800 per month for a two- or three-bedroom home. The median rent in nearby Bastrop is around $2,200 a month, so the workers would be paying below-market rates.

Still, employees who lived in the town would be further beholden to Musk. In addition to receiving a salary from his businesses, they'd be paying him rent. They'd have 30 days to leave the home were they to get fired from Boring or otherwise depart from the company, the report notes. Executives have discussed inviting workers from Musk's other companies to apply for Snailbrook housing too — Tesla's Texas Gigafactory is around a 30-minute drive from the town of Bastrop.

Plans for the town include converting a home into a Montessori school for up to 15 students, as well as possible incorporation. The latter would allow Musk to set certain rules for the municipality, which would also apparently need to hold a mayoral election.

Entities in Musk's orbit have snapped up at least 3,500 acres of land in the Austin area over the last few years, records are said to show. Last year, Musk, his architectural designer, former girlfriend Grimes and Ye (aka Kanye West) reportedly discussed ideas for the town several times last year, though nothing was finalized from those talks.

Meanwhile, nearby residents have raised concerns about the environmental impact of the projects. As the Journal notes, Boring has applied to discharge up to 140,000 gallons of industrial wastewater a day into the Colorado River. Worries have also been expressed about how testing of Boring's tunneling machines may affect groundwater and wells.

March Madness will return in just a few days, as the First Four play-in games start on March 14th. There will be even more ways to take in the tournament this year. For the first time, there will be a multiview streaming option on the web. You’ll be able to watch up to four games simultaneously.

Fans still have the option to stream two games at the same time on Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Google TV and Xbox One. Fans apparently only wanted two simultaneous streams on connected devices. There’s a picture-in-picture option on mobile, tablet and desktop as well. 

The web multiview option should help make sure that you don’t miss any of the action in the early rounds — especially if you happen to be working at the time. If your manager happens to approach while you're watching March Madness games at the office, you'll be able to smack the Boss Button to hide your tracks. This time around, hitting the button will bring up an AI chatbot interface called BossGPT. Maybe the NCAA isn't entirely behind the times after all.

Games will stream in 1080p resolution with 5.1 surround sound. The NCAA, CBS Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (which manage the NCAA March Madness Live apps) say they've optimized the video player for improved performance across a swathe of devices, including older ones.

If you happen to be on the road while your team’s playing, you’ll have another way to stay up to date. The NCAA March Madness Live app will offer live game audio through CarPlay and Android Auto. This is powered by Westwood One national feeds. A Spanish audio option will be available for the Final Four and championship games.

Moreover, the app will harness the Live Activities feature on iOS 16. You can receive interactive notifications and have a faster way to start enjoying live games from your iPhone lock screen. You'll have to tap an icon on the app's scores page to activate Live Activities.

You'll be able to watch any game that airs on CBS on the web and mobile for free through Paramount+ without having to log in. However, you will need to sign in to stream games being broadcast on TBS, TNT and truTV digital platforms.

Along with having access to every game from the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, there will be some coverage from the concurrent women's tournament on the NCAA March Madness Live app and the NCAA website. That includes "game updates, legends of the game and greatest Final Four moments," according to a press release. You'll need to hop over to ESPN to watch games from the women's tournament, though.

Meanwhile, the Fast Break feature, which provides live whip-around coverage during the first two rounds of March Madness, will be available on more devices, including set-top boxes, consoles and smart TVs. It was previously only on mobile and the web. Fast Break offers highlights, real-time analysis and breakdowns of key stats.

Sensitive information for members of Congress and their staff and family members has been exposed in a data breach, according to House leaders. The FBI was able to purchase leaked information from health insurance marketplace DC Health Link on the dark web, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter.

The data included the names of enrollees' spouses, dependent children, social security numbers and home addresses, according to the letter. "This breach significantly increase the risk that members, staff and their families will experience identity theft, financial crimes and physical threats — already an ongoing concern," it reads.

McCarthy and Jeffires said the FBI hadn't yet determined the size and scope of the breach, though they indicated that the impact on "House customers could be extraordinary." They noted that thousands of House members and employees from throughout the country have signed up for health insurance through DC Health Link since 2014.

“Fortunately, the individuals selling the information appear unaware of the high-level sensitivity of the confidential information in their possession, and its relation to Members of Congress,” the House leaders wrote. “This will certainly change as media reports more widely publicize the breach.”

“Currently, I do not know the size and scope of the breach, but have been informed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that account information and [personally identifiable information] of hundreds of Members and House staff were stolen,” Catherine L. Szpindor, the House of Representatives' chief administrative officer, wrote in a letter to colleagues. Reports suggest that the data also includes details on senators and their staff, but that information was seemingly limited to their names and those of family members.

DC Health Link operator DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority said it has opened an investigation. "We are in the process of notifying impacted customers and will provide identity and credit monitoring services," it told NBC News in a statement. The FBI has confirmed it's aware of the incident, while Capitol Police are assisting the agency with its investigation.

A member of a dark web forum reportedly claimed this week that they had data on 170,000 DC Health Link customers and were willing to sell the information. They later said the information had been sold.

“We’re gonna continue to work on this issue in a bipartisan way, get to the bottom of what happened, figure out the implications of what has occurred,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Thursday. “And also we’re gonna need some real reassurance as to guardrails that are put in place to prevent this type of data breach from ever happening again.”

RoboCop: Rogue City will arrive a little later than expected. During today's Nacon Connect stream, it was revealed that the latest game from Terminator: Resistance developer Teyon will now arrive in September. It was previously scheduled for sometime in June. 

The showcase included a gameplay trailer. It shows RoboCop seeking information before raiding a drug dealing operation in the basement of an arcade. There's plenty gore in this gun fight, including an exploding head, which fits in nicely with the over-the-top violence of the RoboCop movies.

Teyon didn't reveal too much about the story, but RoboCop: Rogue City will tell an original tale in which the cyborg police officer (once again played by Peter Weller) attempts to clean up the crime-ridden streets of Detroit. It's coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

The showcase also included another look at The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which Nacon delayed indefinitely just five weeks before it was supposed to arrive last September. There's still no firm release date for the game, which was initially slated for 2021, but it should (hopefully) land later this year.

Pour one out for a Clubhouse clone. Reddit will shut down its live audio chats on March 21st. It debuted Reddit Talk less than two years ago in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company isn't necessarily killing off the feature due to a lack of interest.

Reddit still sees audio features as part of its future, but it's putting them on the backburner for now to focus on other priorities. The fact that the provider of the tech that powers Talk is closing shop complicated matters too.

"There’s significant work we need to do — like making Reddit simpler and building better subreddit infrastructure — before incorporating audio," it wrote in a post. "Our original plan was to maintain Talk while we worked on this. Unfortunately, the 3rd party audio vendor we use for Talk is shutting down its service. In other words, the resources required to keep Talk live during this transition increased substantially."

Any discussions that took place after September 1st last year will be available to download starting on March 21st. You'll have until June 1st to snag a copy of the recordings.

Reddit doesn't have a timeline for reviving Talk or debuting other audio features. As TechCrunch notes, though, interest in hosting live audio conversations with a public audience seems to have dipped across the board in recent times. Clubhouse exploded in popularity after the onset of the pandemic, sending other prominent tech companies racing to build their own versions.

However, Clubhouse's user numbers have reportedly dropped and prominent hires have moved on. Spotify has ended production of some live audio shows. In October, Amazon reportedly laid off dozens of people who were working on its live radio service, AMP.

That's not to say this broadcasting format is entirely dead and buried. Discord has expanded Stage Channels to include video. It seems Twitter is trying to jumpstart Spaces as well. The company confirmed this week it's testing updates for Spaces, which may include features such as themed audio stations.

Meanwhile, Reddit will kill off another feature on March 21st, when it brings the Happening Now experiment to an end. This feature enabled users to see ongoing Live Chats and Reddit Talks in subreddits they follow. It also shone a spotlight on popular conversations that were taking place across the platform.

One of the most compelling aspects of DJI's Mini 3 drone, a stripped-down version of the Pro model, is the price, which was already fairly reasonable. It usually costs $559, but if you've had your eye on the drone, now might be the time to snap it up. The price has dropped to $469, which is $90 off.

The Mini 3 has the same Type 1/1.3 (9.6 x 7.2 mm) f/1.7 sensor as the Mini 3 Pro. While you'll still be able to take 12MP still photos, video is restricted to 30 frames per second at 4K instead of 60 frames per second at the same resolution on the higher-end model. As for 2.7K and full HD recordings, those are limited to 60fps. Still, there's a neat trick as the camera can flip 90 degrees to capture vertical video for the likes of TikTok and Snapchat.

DJI says you'll get up to 38 minutes of flight time in ideal conditions with the foldable Mini 3. It also weighs less than 249 grams, which means you won't need to secure a dedicated permit to fly it in certain territories (it's always worth checking local drone regulations before buying one, though). Despite the small size, DJI claims the Mini 3 is resistant to winds of 38 KPH (23.6 miles per hour).

An automated video feature called QuickShots sees the drone fly automatically on certain paths, such as moving around a subject. There are some features that could come in handy for novice flyers, such as automatic takeoff and functions that bring the drone back to its departure point in certain circumstances, such as when the battery is running low or the signal cuts out. On the downside, unlike on the Mini 3 Pro, there are no forward and rear obstacle detection sensors, which could particularly become an issue when the return to home function is engaged when the drone's out of your line of sight.

For those who'd prefer to take charge of the Mini 3 with a controller that has a built-in 5.5-inch screen (rather than the regular RC-N1 one that you'd likely have to use in combination with your smartphone), it's worth noting that the RC model is on sale as well. That version is also $90 off at $609.

Meanwhile, bundles with two additional Intelligent Flight Batteries, a two-way charging hub and a shoulder bag have been discounted. The Fly More Combo for the Mini 3 with the RC-N1 controller has dropped from $718 to $758. The bundle with the RC controller is down from $858 to $798.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Sony has laid out more concerns about Microsoft's planned takeover of Activision Blizzard in its latest response to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Sony has opposed the deal from the start. Now, it's suggesting that Microsoft could (perhaps unintentionally) kneecap the performance and quality of Call of Duty on PlayStation, which might result in fans switching to Xbox. 

"Microsoft might release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates," the letter (PDF) reads. "Even if such degradations could be swiftly detected, any remedy would likely come too late, by which time the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play Call of Duty. Indeed, as Modern Warfare II attests, Call of Duty is most often purchased in just the first few weeks of release. If it became known that the game’s performance on PlayStation was worse than on Xbox, Call of Duty gamers could decide to switch to Xbox, for fear of playing their favourite game at a second-class or less competitive venue."

Sony claims there wouldn't be a viable way for it or the CMA to assess how "Microsoft chooses to allocate its resources and the quality/quantity of engineers it devotes to the PlayStation version of Call of Duty to ensure that SIE would be treated fairly and equally." Degrading the quality of Call of Duty on PlayStation, intentionally or not, perhaps wouldn't be the wisest course of action, as The Verge points out. A buggy Call of Duty release on PlayStation would probably lead to a bigger backlash against Microsoft and Activision than Sony.

In any case, Microsoft noted in its latest response to the CMA (PDF) that it has offered to "provide Sony with parity on release date, content, features, upgrades, quality and playability with the Xbox platform." That is, if Sony accepts Microsoft's proposed 10-year agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Microsoft would be willing to agree to a third-party assessor to oversee the platform parity.

Sony's letter reiterates its concern that Microsoft would make Call of Duty a Game Pass exclusive and away from PlayStation. Again, that's something Microsoft has refuted. “As we have said all along: it makes zero business sense to take Call of Duty off of PlayStation,” Microsoft Competition Law Group corporate vice president Rima Alaily recently told Axios.

It will be a while yet before we know for sure whether Microsoft will be allowed to buy Activision Blizzard. The CMA is set to make a final ruling on the deal by April 26th. It has millions of Microsoft and Activision documents, and thousands of emails from the public to take into account, according to Sony. The CMA raised concerns about the deal in February, suggesting it could "harm UK gamers" and lead to a "substantial lessening of competition in gaming consoles."

Other major regulators have yet to rubberstamp the takeover, including in the US, where the Federal Trade Commission has attempted to block it. However, reports suggest the European Union is set to give the merger the green light following news that Microsoft will bring Call of Duty and other games to Nintendo and GeForce Now platforms.

In case you're wondering, Microsoft's letter details how Activision would get Call of Duty games to run on Nintendo Switch, which is much less powerful than PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It would do so "by optimizing the display resolution, in-game texture resolution, reducing the rendering speed (i.e., frames per second) and simplifying advanced rendering techniques (e.g., raytracing, shadow, lighting and antialiasing techniques)." In other words, it'd make the game look and run worse than on other systems.

In the meantime, it seems Call of Duty fans have another bizarre crossover coming their way soon. A teaser posted on the series' Twitter account shows Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a date of March 21st. 

The Microsoft-Activision Blizzard saga is still trundling on. As the companies try to push through Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion takeover, some fascinating details are spilling out of documents that various parties are submitting to regulators. The latest is an intriguing update about the future of Call of Duty on mobile.

In a written response to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which recently suggested that the planned merger could lead to a "substantial lessening of competition in gaming consoles," Microsoft says that "Call of Duty: Mobile is expected to be phased out over time (outside of China) with the launch of Warzone Mobile." The letter (PDF) notes that Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studios developed and owns the current game.

Warzone Mobile is slated for release later this year. As GamesRadar points out, Call of Duty: Mobile has its own distinct seasons and battle pass. Warzone Mobile will hook into the cross-progression system of the PC and console versions of the battle royale game. There won't be cross-play between Warzone Mobile and the other versions.

It makes sense for Activision to want to unify the Call of Duty ecosystem, but it's unclear exactly what phasing out CoD: Mobile will mean for players and all the stuff they unlock in that game. Engadget has contacted Activision Blizzard for comment.