It’s that time once again. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off today. As ever, the proceedings will commence with a keynote that will contain the majority of the biggest news. Apple has invited a small number of guests to attend the keynote at Apple Park, though most folks will need to tune in virtually. The event starts at 1PM ET and you can watch it below.

You'll get your first proper look at features coming to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16 and the next macOS. The updates should arrive later this year, though you can try the new OS versions early if you're willing to install the various developer betas.

We have an inkling of what to expect from WWDC thanks to a melange of reports and leaks. Health, Messages, notifications and the lock screen are all said to be in line for updates on iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. Improved multitasking is believed to be on the way to iPad, while it's expected that iOS will gain support for always-on displays ahead of that feature coming to some of the next-gen iPhones.

There are also rumblings that Apple will announce a refreshed MacBook Air running on an M2 processor. In any case, we won't need to wait long to find out what Apple has in store.

Axon has paused work on a project to build drones equipped with its Tasers. A majority of its artificial intelligence ethics board quit after the plan was announced last week.

Nine of the 12 members said in a resignation letter that, just a few weeks ago, the board voted 8-4 to recommend that Axon shouldn't move forward with a pilot study for a Taser-equipped drone concept. "In that limited conception, the Taser-equipped drone was to be used only in situations in which it might avoid a police officer using a firearm, thereby potentially saving a life," the nine board members wrote. They noted Axon might decline to follow that recommendation and were working on a report regarding measures the company should have in place were it to move forward.

The nine individuals said they were blindsided by an announcement from the company last Thursday — nine days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — about starting development of such a drone. It had an aim of "incapacitating an active shooter in less than 60 seconds." Axon said it "asked the board to re-engage and consider issuing further guidance and feedback on this capability."

Axon CEO Rick Smith suggested the drones could be deployed as a measure to prevent mass shootings. As Reuters notes, he envisioned drones being stationed in school hallways and having the ability to enter rooms through vents. The drone system, which Axon suggested might be ready as soon as 2024, would have cost schools around $1,000 per year.

The system would have tapped into security camera feeds to detect active shooter events using both human monitoring and artificial intelligence. While a human operator would have made the final decision on whether to fire a Taser, Axon planned to develop "targeting algorithms" to help them with "properly and safely aiming the device."

"This type of surveillance undoubtedly will harm communities of color and others who are overpoliced, and likely well beyond that," the resigning board members wrote. "The Taser-equipped drone also has no realistic chance of solving the mass shooting problem Axon now is prescribing it for, only distracting society from real solutions to a tragic problem. We all feel the desperate need to do something to address our epidemic of mass shootings. But Axon’s proposal to elevate a tech-and-policing response when there are far less harmful alternatives, is not the solution."

Those board members said that before Axon made its announcement, they urged it to "pull back" on the plans. "But the company charged ahead in a way that struck many of us as trading on the tragedy of the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings," they wrote. "Significantly for us, it bypassed Axon’s commitment to consult with the company’s own AI Ethics Board."

Smith said that the goal of the announcement was to start a conversation about the use of drones equipped with Tasers as a possible solution. "I acknowledge that our passion for finding new solutions to stop mass shootings led us to move quickly," Smith said in a statement. "However, in light of feedback, we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward."

The AI ethics board has had previous success in convincing Axon to change course. In 2019, the company said it wouldn't use facial recognition in its police body cameras after the board expressed concern about the plan.

This weekend's Xbox and Bethesda showcase won't include all the news that's fit to stream. Like it did last June, Microsoft will run a second event, which will include more trailers, discussions with developers and in-depth looks at some of the games featured in the main Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.

Xbox Games Showcase Extended will take place on June 14th at 1PM ET. It will run for around 90 minutes and will be available in English, Latin America Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German and French, and with live audio descriptions and American Sign Language. Support for more languages will be added later. You'll be able to watch on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter and Facebook.

Last year's Xbox Games Showcase Extended offered additional details on the likes of Forza Horizon 5, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,Microsoft Flight Simulator and some third-party games. We also learned about the return of Xbox Design Lab to help players customize their controllers.

The primary showcase is set for June 12 at 1PM ET. It'll be on the same channels, as well as TikTok, Steam and Bilibili. Microsoft says the event will be available in 33 languages overall, though some may not be available until next week if the translations aren't finished in time. English audio descriptions and ASL will help more fans enjoy the show.

Xbox notes it will stream the showcase in 1080p at 60 fps. A 4K version will be available on YouTube afterward. Meanwhile, Engadget will have coverage of all the biggest news from both events.

After delaying the planned launch from May 20th due to an issue with backup systems, Blue Origin is finally ready to send New Shepard on its next journey to the edge of space. The NS-21 mission is New Shepard's 21st flight and its fifth with passengers on board. It takes place today at 9AM ET and you can watch it live below. The stream will start an hour before launch.

The passengers include electrical engineer and former NASA test lead Katya Echazarreta, who will become the first Mexican-born woman and youngest American woman to fly to space. She's making the trip as part of Space for Humanity’s sponsored Citizen Astronaut Program. 

Civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha, meanwhile, will become the second Brazilian to reach space. The other passengers are business jet pilot Hamish Harding, co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity Victor Vescovo, Dream Variation Ventures co-founder Jaison Robinson and investor Evan Dick, who was part of the NS-19 mission in December.

Blue Origin's first crewed flight took place last July, with founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and, at the time, the youngest and oldest people to travel above the Kármán line on board. William Shatner became the oldest person to reach space on the second crewed mission. Subsequent flights took place in December and March.

Mozilla has created a translation plugin for Firefox that works offline. Firefox Translations will need to download some files the first time you convert text in a specific language. However, it will be able to use your system's resources to handle the translation, rather than sending the information to a data center for cloud processing.

The plugin emerged as a result of Mozilla's work with the European Union-funded Project Bergamot. Others involved include the University of Edinburgh, Charles University, University of Sheffield and University of Tartu. The goal was to develop neural machine tools to help Mozilla create an offline translation option. "The engines, language models and in-page translation algorithms would need to reside and be executed entirely in the user’s computer, so none of the data would be sent to the cloud, making it entirely private," Mozilla said.

One of the big limitations of the plugin as things stand is that it can only handle translations between English and 12 other languages, according to TechCrunch. For now, Firefox Translations supports Spanish, Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian Bokmal and Nynorsk, Persian, Portuguese and Russian.

Mozilla and its partners on the project have created a training pipeline through which volunteers can assist out by helping train new models so more languages can be added. They're looking for feedback on existing models too, so Firefox Translations is very much a work in progress.

For the time being, though, the plugin can't hold a candle to the 133 languages that Google Translate supports. Apple and Google both have mobile apps that can handle offline translations as well.

On the surface, it's a little odd that a browser, which is by definition used to access the web, would need an offline translation option. But translating text on your device and avoiding the need to transfer it to and from a data center could be a boon for privacy and security.

The Callisto Protocol, a survival horror game from Dead Space creator Glen Schofield has a release date. It's coming to PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC on December 2nd. The date was revealed in a trailer that offers a first look at the gory, atmospheric terrors the game has in store.

The trailer evokes a similar feeling of dread as the Dead Space series. Schofield says his team put a lot of work into the lighting and other elements to make The Callisto Protocol seem suitably creepy.

Players will take on the guise of Jacob Lee (played by Josh Duhamel), an inmate at a prison on Jupiter's so-called "dead moon" of Callisto. Jacob is thrust into a fight for survival when guards and fellow inmates start mutating into monsters called Biophage. You'll wield a gravity weapon called the GRP (which was intended for use by the prison's guards. Schofield says you'll be able to freeze a charging enemy or launch the creatures into environmental hazards.

The game is in development at Schofield's Striking Distance Studio, a subsidiary of PUBG owner Krafton. Originally, The Callisto Protocol was supposed to tie into the PUBG universe, but Schofield said last month his game is now a separate entity.

You'll get another look at The Callisto Protocol next Thursday, as the Summer Game Fest showcase will feature a gameplay demo. Meanwhile, EA is working on a remake of the original Dead Space, which is set to arrive on January 27th.

New York lawmakers have passed a bill that would temporarily ban new bitcoin mining operations. Early on Friday, state senators voted 36-27 to pass the legislation. It's now bound for the desk of Governor Kathy Hochul, who will sign it into law or veto the bill. The law would come into effect immediately after it's signed.

An attempt to enact similar legislation last year hit a wall when the New York State Senate passed it but Assembly members did not. The latest bill passed the Assembly in April.

The legislation seeks to establish a two-year moratorium on licenses for cryptocurrency mining operations that use power-hungry proof-of-work authentication methods for validating blockchain transactions. Right now, bitcoin and ethereum (the two largest cryptocurrencies) fall under that category, though the latter is shifting to a different setup.

The moratorium only covers mining operations that run on carbon-based power sources. Any that harness entirely renewable energy sources or an alternative to proof of work that requires less power won't be affected. Existing operations and those already going through a permit renewal process won't be impacted either.

While the moratorium is in place, New York will carry out a study into the environmental impact of proof-of-work authentication methods, per the bill. As CNBC notes, New York has ambitious climate goals that require the state's greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by 85 percent by 2050 under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

New York became a hotbed for crypto mining operations in part due to its plentiful hydroelectricity, low electricity prices and cooler climate than other areas of the US (which means less energy is needed to cool mining hardware). 

Some mining companies have threatened to leave New York due to regulatory uncertainty and set up shop in more crypto-friendly states. Even so, crypto proponents have suggested that, given New York's status as a legislative leader, other states could follow suit with similar regulations. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is working on a policy regarding bitcoin mining. The White House is looking into the impact of such technology on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sega is set to relive some of its past glories once again with another retro console. The company has announced the Mega Drive Mini 2. While the system has only been confirmed for Japan for now, it seems likely Sega will bring it to other markets as well. If and when it comes to the US, it'll probably be called the Genesis Mini 2.

The Mega Drive Mini 2 will include Sega CD games in its lineup of 50 titles. The full list hasn't been revealed, but it includes Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Virtua Racing and Shining Force CD. It also features Fantasy Zone, which was never released on Mega Drive/Genesis — it was an arcade title that arrived on Master System. It's worth noting the library may be different in other countries.

Sega says all of the games have been faithfully reproduced. You'll be able to save your progress at any point too.

The company will release the Mega Drive Mini 2 in Japan on October 27th. It will cost ¥9,980 (around $75). Sega is also making a cosmetic attachment that looks like an adorably smaller version of the Sega CD accessory. Using an included spacer, you can mount the original Mega Drive Mini, which is slightly larger than its successor, as well. The Sega CD attachment will cost ¥4,500 (roughly $37).

We were big fans of the original Genesis Mini, which Sega released in 2019. It had a solid selection of games that were adeptly emulated and USB ports that allowed users to plug in alternate controllers. Fingers crossed Sega includes the six-button version of its controller when it inevitably offers the Mega Drive Mini 2 outside of Japan.

Sega

Did you think there couldn't possibly be space for another gaming event in the next couple of weeks? Guess again. Devolver Digital has added its summer showcase to the calendar. You'll be able to catch the Devolver Direct on Twitch on June 9th at 6PM ET. If the slightly NSFW trailer is anything to judge by, expect a typically off-the-wall stream from Devolver.

This time around, the gist is that the publisher's event takes place during a 30-minute countdown before one of the big summer showcases, when the audience is at its most hyped. As it happens, the Devolver Direct will take place in the hours after one of the larger events happening this month, the Summer Game Fest showcase.

Devolver Direct will be hosted by a "mecha" version of Japanese developer Goichi Suda (aka Suda51), who is best known for the No More Heroes series. Expect at least four announcements of new games. Here's hoping for a look at Return to Monkey Island too.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has only been in theaters for a few weeks, but you won't need to wait much longer to catch the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie at home. It will start streaming on Disney+ on June 22nd at no extra cost to subscribers.

In another example of the theatrical exclusivity window narrowing, the movie will be available on Disney+ just 47 days after its arrival in theaters. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Free Guy also landed on Disney+ just 45 days or so into their theatrical runs.

It used to be the case that movies would be in cinemas only for 90 days before they were available as home entertainment options, but the pandemic upended that. Some major studios, including Disney, started putting movies up on streaming services or made them available for digital rental on the same day they debuted in theaters. Netflix and some smaller studios and distributors adopted the day-and-date approach long before the onset of COVID-19 prevention measures.

Meanwhile, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn't the only MCU property coming to Disney+ this month. The Ms. Marvel series will premiere on June 8th.