The first two Sonic movies were solid hits for Paramount. So much so, the studio has confidence the previously announced third movie can be successful even during the competitive holiday season. As such, it gave Sonic the Hedgehog 3 a release date of December 20th, 2024.

Few details have been revealed about the third entry in the series as yet. It's unclear whether Jim Carrey will return as Dr. Robotnik after the actor said he was considering retiring from acting. Meanwhile, a spin-off series focused on Knuckles (Idris Elba) is coming to Paramount+ next year.

Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2 were released in February 2020 and April 2022, respectively, with the latter becoming the highest-grossing video-game film in the US. It's also the ninth highest-grossing movie of the year so far after raking in just over $400 million worldwide. Sonic 3 will be competing against the likes of Avatar 3 and a movie version of the Broadway show Wicked.

Elsewhere, a Sonic-themed Fall Guys event starts on Thursday and runs until Monday. In the new Bean Hill Zone level, you'll be tasked with collecting rings to earn rewards such as Sonic sneakers. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Super Sonic and Dr. Robotnik outfits will be available in the store during the event, as will a Sonic foot tap emote. A Sonic skin was previously available in the game soon after it launched in August 2020. A Knuckles outfit appeared in the store last year too.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian is testing dual-motor versions of its R1T pickup and R1S SUV in the wild. The automaker is currently putting those models through their paces in the New Zealand winter, according to a tweet from CEO RJ Scaringe that InsideEVs spotted.

The company announced in March it would offer R1T and R1S variants that use its dual-motor Enduro powertrain. It said these models would be less expensive than their four-motor counterparts, starting at $67,500 for the R1T and $72,500 for the R1S. Not accounting for the destination fee, the four-motor R1T starts at $79,500 and the R1S at $84,500.

Rivian developed Enduro's motors in-house and the system is already in use — the electric van the company is making for Amazon has an Enduro drive unit. The company hopes the Enduro powertrain will help it to reduce costs and keep down the price of the R1S, R1T and upcoming R2 models. That's an important consideration for Rivian, given that the Inflation Reduction Act the Senate just passed seeks to bring in new federal EV tax credit rules. Electric SUVs, trucks and vans priced $80,000 and over won't be eligible for the $7,500 subsidy.

At the time Rivian announced the dual-motor R1T and R1S, it raised prices of the four-motor EVs by $12,000. After a backlash, it limited the price increases to new orders, though the automaker was swiftly slapped with a shareholder lawsuit over the issue.

Meanwhile, Rivian is attempting to increase production of the R1T and R1S. It expects to build around 25,000 vehicles this year, despite having a backlog of 71,000 as of early July. Late last month, it laid off six percent of its workforce in order to dedicate more resources to production.

Lucid is embracing the dark side with a new trim option for its Air electric vehicle. The idea behind "Stealth Look" is to give the car a "darker and overtly sporting personality," according to the automaker. If you select this option, Lucid will swap out 35 exterior components that have a platinum finish for versions with a darker appearance, with black gloss and satin graphite accents on some parts.

Among the elements that will have this look are the mirror caps, the frame for the glass roof, the trim around the headlights and taillights and the front nose blade. The wheel designs and finishes will get a Stealth Look makeover as well, with a different look for each size.

Lucid

Stealth Look is available for the Air Grand Touring Performance, Air Grand Touring and Air Touring variants. It can be applied to any of the exterior colors: Stellar White, Infinite Black, Cosmos Silver, Quantum Grey and Zenith Red. Lucid plans to introduce the $6,000 option early next year, though you can configure an Air with Stealth Look starting this Wednesday.

Whether you'll actually be able to get your hands on an Air at all anytime soon is another matter. Earlier this month, Lucid once again revised down its production target for 2022, this time from 20,000 to between 6,000 and 7,000 units. Between the start of the year and the beginning of August, it built just 1,405 vehicles, attributing the blame to parts and materials shortages. In May, the company recalled every Air it manufactured until that point in 2022 over wiring concerns.

Splatoon 3 will arrive on September 9th and Nintendo is setting the table with a dedicated Direct showcase. The stream will get underway at 9AM ET on August 10th and will contain around 30 minutes of updates. It's likely to be a deep dive into one of Nintendo's tentpole Switch releases for this year. You'll be able to watch the presentation on Nintendo's YouTube channel.

Nintendo often holds dedicated Direct events for its core games in the lead up to their release. It's a smart way for the company to get more eyes on those titles and give folks who are undecided whether to buy them some more insight. Meanwhile, Nintendo will release a Splatoon 3-themed Switch OLED later this month, with a Pro Controller and carrying case featuring designs from the game arriving on September 9th.

Baidu has obtained permits to run a fully driverless robotaxi service in China. It says it's the first company in the country to obtain such permissions. Back in April, Baidu received approval to run an autonomous taxi service in Beijing, as long as there was a human operator in the driver or front passenger seat. Now, it will be able to offer a service where the car's only occupants are passengers.

There are some limits to the permits. Driverless Apollo Go vehicles will ferry paying passengers around designated zones in Wuhan and Chongqing during daytime hours only. The service areas cover 13 square kilometers in Wuhan's Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ) and 30 square kilometers in Chongqing’s Yongchuan District. The WHDZ has been overhauled over the last year to support AV testing and operations.

Baidu says its robotaxis have multiple safety measures to back up the core autonomous driving functions. Those include monitoring redundancy, remote driving capability and a safety operation system.

This is a notable step forward for Baidu as it looks to offer robotaxi services at a large scale. The company has also been testing its vehicles in the US for several years and it could ultimately prove a competitor to the likes of Waymo and Cruise.

DreamWorks has been open sourcing some of its technology in recent years, and now its animation division is preparing to make more tools freely available. DreamWorks Animation said it will release its MoonRay ray-tracing renderer as open-source software later this year. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, DreamWorks will offer up its Arras cloud rendering framework in the code base too.

“We are thrilled to share with the industry over 10 years of innovation and development on MoonRay’s vectorized, threaded, parallel and distributed code base,” Andrew Pearce, DreamWorks vice president of global technology said in a statement. “The appetite for rendering at scale grows each year, and MoonRay is set to meet that need. We expect to see the code base grow stronger with community involvement as DreamWorks continues to demonstrate our commitment to open source."

DreamWorks used MoonRay in movies including How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Croods: A New Age and The Bad Guys, as well as the upcoming Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. It's always welcome to see proprietary software being opened up for anyone to use. Whether dedicated hobbyists can create animation on par with the quality of visuals DreamWorks knocks out remains to be seen, but at least they'll have another helpful tool to add to their belt. If you're interested, you can ask to be considered for early access to MoonRay or sign up for updates.

The UK government may soon start using facial recognition smartwatches to monitor migrants who have been convicted of crimes. The offenders would need to scan their faces up to five times per day, according to The Guardian. The measures may come into effect as soon as this fall.

Those subject to the conditions would need to take photos of themselves throughout the day and have their locations tracked around the clock, according to documents obtained by The Guardian. The photos will be compared with ones the Home Office has on file. If the government's systems can’t verify the person’s identity, a manual check would be required. The photos — along with migrants names, nationalities and dates of birth — will be stored for up to six years, under the Home Office and Ministry of Justice plans.

The rules will only apply to foreign nationals who have been convicted of crimes. The UK government reportedly won't monitor others, such as asylum seekers, in this fashion.

In May, the government gave a £6 million ($7.2 million) contract to a company called Buddi Limited to secure “non-fitted devices” to track “specific cohorts” under the Home Office's Satellite Tracking Service. "A non-fitted device solution will provide a more proportionate way of monitoring specific cohorts over extended periods of time than fitted tags," the contract reads. "These devices will utilize periodic biometric verification as an alternative to being fitted to an individual." The number of smartwatches Buddi will supply and the cost of each has been redacted.

The Home Office hasn't explicitly said it will use smartwatches with facial recognition functions to track convicted migrants. A spokesperson told The Guardian that the Home Office will soon implement a “portable biometrically accessed device” that will work alongside ankle tags.

There's a mod in the works for Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 that turns another James Bond film into a full game. Fans are building a playable version of The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore's third, and some would argue best, Bond movie.

As spotted by EuroGamer, YouTuber Graslu00 posted a playthrough video showing 11 levels of The Spy Who Loved Me 64. The mod depicts the key events and locations of the film, taking Bond from the Alps to the pyramids of Egypt and a supertanker in the Atlantic Ocean. It includes Moore's likeness, as well as characters such as Anya Amasova (aka Agent XXX) and villain Karl Stromberg. It's possible to run the mod on an emulator in 4K at 60 frames per second, though you can also play it on an N64 console.

It's a work in progress, as Graslu00 notes. The build of The Spy Who Loved Me 64 that's available on N64 Vault is a demo of the first three levels with a peek at a planned four-player multiplayer mode. It looks like there's quite a way for the fans working on the game to go, though. The stage select screen shows 20 levels including, curiously, Bond's childhood home of Skyfall — that seems to be one of the multiplayer maps.

Meanwhile, there's an official James Bond title in the works. It emerged in late 2020 that Hitman studio IO Interactive is developing a game that delves into the superspy's origins. It's expected to be the first official Bond game since 2012's 007 Legends.

After months of rumors, Microsoft is starting to test an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate family plan in the wild. Xbox Insiders in Colombia and Ireland can try out the new offering, which allows them to add up to four other people to their plan, as long as they're in the same country. Those folks will get access to all the benefits of Game Pass Ultimate, including a library of hundreds of titles for console, PC and cloud gaming.

If you're in either country, you can buy the Xbox Game Pass – Insider Preview plan from the Microsoft Store, though enrolment is limited. If you're already a Game Pass member, the time remaining on your subscription will be converted based on its monetary value. A month of Game Pass Ultimate is worth 18 days of the family plan. Parsing things out, that suggests the family plan would cost around $25 per month if Microsoft brings it to the US, or $5 per person.

You'll need to wait for your membership to expire before moving to a different plan. People you want to invite onto a family plan will also need to cancel an existing Game Pass subscription or wait for it to run out. Alternatively, they can just create a new Microsoft account. It's worth noting that folks with an Xbox All Access plan aren't eligible.

A family plan seems to make a lot of sense for Microsoft, which has positioned Game Pass at the heart of the Xbox business. This should help the company boost the service's overall number of users, though it may come at the cost of losing some subscriptions in households with multiple Game Pass memberships or among groups of friends who split the price of a single plan.

Elsewhere, Nintendo has long offered a Switch Online family plan for both the standard and Expansion Pack tiers. Although Sony recently revamped PlayStation Plus, it does not yet offer any multi-person plans.

Over the last couple of years, time has felt more nebulous than ever. You'd be forgiven for thinking that days are passing by at an increasingly faster clip. According to scientists, that perspective is not wrong. On June 29th, midnight arrived 1.59 milliseconds sooner than expected. It was the shortest day in over half a century, at least since scientists started tracking the pace of the Earth's rotation with atomic clocks in the 1960s. 

That wasn't a one-off occurrence either. In 2020, the planet saw what were, at the time, the 28 shortest days in recorded history. And just last week, on July 26th, the day lasted 1.5 milliseconds less than usual. "Since 2016 the Earth started to accelerate," Leonid Zotov, a researcher at Lomonosov Moscow State University, told CBS News. "This year it rotates quicker than in 2021 and 2020."

Days have become much longer since the Earth's formation. As The Guardian notes, around 1.4 billion years ago, a rotation of the Earth took less than 19 hours. Days have gotten longer by, on average, around one 74,000th of a second each year. But the planet's rotation can fluctuate on a day-to-day basis.

Scientists believe there are a number of factors that may impact the Earth's rotation, including earthquakes, stronger winds in El Niño years, icecaps melting and refreezing, the moon and the climate. Some have suggested the so-called "Chandler wobble" may have an effect on the rotation too. That phenomenon is a "small, irregular deviation in the Earth's points of rotation relative to the solid Earth," as USA Today puts it.

To account for fluctuations in the lengths of days, since 1972, there have been occasional leap seconds — a single-second addition to Coordinated Universal Time. Should the current trend of shorter days continue, there's a possibility that a negative leap second may be needed to keep clocks aligned with the planet's rotation. As such, UTC would skip a second.

Leap seconds already cause havoc on ultra-precise systems. Just last week, Meta called for an end to leap seconds, which have caused outages at Reddit and Cloudflare over the last decade. A negative leap second could lead to even more chaos.

"With the Earth’s rotation pattern changing, it’s very likely that we will get a negative leap second at some point in the future," Meta engineers Oleg Obleukhov and Ahmad Byagowi wrote in a blog post. "The impact of a negative leap second has never been tested on a large scale; it could have a devastating effect on the software relying on timers or schedulers."