As it turns out, time travel can be filthy work. It seems the DeLorean Doc Brown and Marty McFly use to visit various historical periods is particularly mucky and you’ll soon have the chance to clean it up. That’s because a Back to the Future expansion is on the way to PowerWash Simulator, a self-explanatory game that turned out to be one of 2022’s biggest surprise hits. 

It’s PowerWash Simulator’s latest notable crossover, following Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider and SpongeBob SquarePants DLC. A Warhammer 40K expansion is on the way too.

The classic time machine isn’t the only thing you’ll get to clean with a virtual high-pressure blast of water in the upcoming DLC. It also features Doc Brown’s van, the Hill Valley Clocktower, the Holomax Theatre and the Time Train. There will be 10 more achievements or trophies to snag too. The Back to the Future expansion will arrive later this year. It will cost $8.

Volition, the studio behind the Saints Row series, has closed with immediate effect. The developer said in a statement that the shutdown was a result of restructuring at parent company Embracer Group.

"This past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry," the studio said. “As part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately." Volition's workers will be offered assistance to "help smooth the transition." The studio signed off by thanking its fans.

Volition dates back to 1993 and a company called Parallax Software Corporation. That team split a few years later, leading to the formation of Volition. THQ bought the studio in 2000. Future Embracer subsidiary Koch Media (later Plaion) snapped it up for its Deep Silver division after THQ filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Along with the Saints Row series for which it's best known, Volition was also behind the Descent games and the Red Faction franchise. Its final game was a 2022 Saints Row reboot. The game wasn't especially well received, though PS Plus subscribers can claim it at no extra cost in September.

Embracer said in June that layoffs and studio closures were on the way as part of the restructuring plan. The company, which spent several years snapping up a wealth of gaming studios and the rights to many notable franchises, noted that a long-in-the-works $2 billion investment opportunity vanished at the 11th hour. Axios recently reported that the Saudi government-funded Savvy Games Group was the partner that Embracer had a verbal agreement with before the deal fell apart.

Bumble is trying to make its apps safe spaces for meeting new people, and that extends to real-life meetups. The latest community guidelines (which also apply to Badoo and Bumble For Friends) take aim at ghosting or people failing to turn up for pre-arranged meetups.

The guidelines "discourage no-show behavior through disallowing the act of not turning up to an in-person meet up despite clear plans agreed by both parties," Bumble said. It claims its the first dating platform to "take a stance" on users over the issue, noting that according to experts, being stood up or ghosted can "sometimes have a profound impact on a person’s mental health, leading to feelings of depression, anxiety and deflated self-esteem." 

Ghosting and no-showing IRL meets are now classed as bullying and abusive conduct under the updated policies, but it's not clear how Bumble plans to enforce rules around the topic outside of users reporting such behavior. Engadget has asked Bumble for clarification.

Victim blaming (such as shaming someone for being a survivor of sexual assault) is outlawed across the three apps as well. Bumble says this is an industry-first measure that's part of its efforts to foster "a community that is safe and promotes mutual respect." The updated Violence and Bullying Policy includes clarified language related to the platform's ban on doxxing. 

Many services take action against illicit off-platform activity — Bumble's no-show policy is one of those — so it may be the case that Bumble will take action against those who victim-blame or doxx users outside of its apps. If someone posts Bumble screenshots on X/Twitter to attack a victim and Bumble finds out, it might take action against the offender's account on its platforms.

One other problem Bumble is targeting with the latest community guidelines is the use of bots. From now on, Bumble, Badoo and Bumble For Friends "prohibit any attempts to artificially influence connections, matching, conversations or engagement through the use of automation or scripting." So, anyone caught using ChatGPT to try and seem interesting after making a match might not stay on Bumble for very long.

The same goes for those who use any of the company's apps to promote an OnlyFans page or profiles on similar services. There's now "a blanket ban on the promotion of adult content in profiles, including attempts to sell, advertise, or buy adult sexual content." The goal is to try and crack down on this kind of spam, which appears all too often in dating apps.

Bumble said it will continue to update the guidelines to deal with "emerging risks and potential harms that may occur from new behaviors." The company notes that it uses automated safeguards to tackle guideline violations before users report them, including instances of "harassment, identity-based hate and other inappropriate content." So far this year, Bumble has blocked more than 8.2 million accounts across its apps, most of which were detected and removed by its automated systems.

YouTube Music's latest redesign of the Now Playing page is making its way to iOS and Android devices everywhere. There's a new feature that brings an extra social element to the app. You'll now be able to read and post comments on the Now Playing page. That option was limited to playlists until now.

According to screenshots that 9to5 Google shared, some of the comments on the page may date back several years. As such, it seems like Google is populating the section with comments from related YouTube videos, for better or worse (probably worse).

The updated design is rolling out gradually, so you may not see it right away, but there are some other changes in store. The cover art is bigger and song titles and artist names now hug the left side of the screen. One other key thing to note is that there's now a carousel with buttons for comments, giving a track a thumbs up or down, saving songs to a playlist, sharing, downloading and the radio. Most of the previously available actions required an extra tap to access until now. The buttons look very similar to the ones you'll see below the YouTube video player. In addition, more of the controls should be easier to access as they're at the bottom of the screen.

Just over a month after it declared bankruptcy, e-bike maker VanMoof has found a new home. Lavoie, the electric scooter division of McLaren Applied, has agreed to buy VanMoof and make investments in it to grow the business. According to a press release, Lavoie and its parent plan to "inject stability into the VanMoof operations" before bringing together their "capabilities to create a next-generation e-mobility business and establish a world-leading premium e-mobility offering."

Terms of the acquisition haven't been disclosed, but Lavoie and McLaren Applied appear to have a reasonable understanding of the challenge that lies ahead to get VanMoof back on track. McLaren Applied Chairman Nick Fry told Reuters that VanMoof is "a company with a brilliant product" that offers his team an opportunity in a new market, "but this is not going to be a walk in the park. This also is a company that got itself into a difficult financial situation." Fry noted that McLaren Applied would need to invest "tens of millions" of pounds "in the short term" to stabilize VanMoof.

Lavoie CEO Eliott Wertheimer pointed out that VanMoof has more than 190,000 e-bike customers, some of whom have been struggling to obtain parts for repairs after production was suspended. Lavoie's goal is to "continue to keep those riders on the road whilst we stabilize and efficiently grow the VanMoof business and continue to develop its world-class products.” However, there will be layoffs as part of the acquisition. VanMoof will also shift away from an in-house retail store model to instead sell and service bikes via third-party partners. Peloton has made a similar shift in its business model over the last year or so.

A much-demanded feature is finally coming to Threads very soon, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed. A keyword search function is on the way. Until now, the search box has only been useful for looking up user accounts.

In fact, the company is already testing the function in Australia and New Zealand. It plans to roll out keyword search more broadly to English-speaking territories in short order. “We are actively listening to the community’s feedback and working on more features to improve the search experience,” Meta told TechCrunch.

A full-text search feature is seen as critical for Threads to challenge (or perhaps even supplant) X/Twitter as the go-to platform for public conversations, particularly around events that are happening in real-time. Threads is missing some other functions that could help it get to that point, such as a TweetDeck (sorry, XPro) equivalent, but being able to search for posts is vital. It's a key feature that could help Threads bring back some of the users who have drifted away after an initial spike in popularity.

To its credit, Meta has been quickly adding other important features to Threads over the last several weeks, including a full web version and a chronological feed of posts. So, other functions that users have been asking for may not be far behind.

Another ChatGPT rival is out in the wild. Baidu has made ERNIE Bot, its generative AI product and large language model, generally available to the public through various app stores and its website. Alongside ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration), the company plans to release a string of AI apps it says will allow folks "to fully experience the four core abilities of generative AI: understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory."

Opening up ERNIE Bot (which is focused on the Chinese market) to the public will enable Baidu to obtain much more human feedback, according to CEO Robin Li. The company notes that this will help it iterate on ERNIE Bot more quickly and improve the user experience.

Baidu announced the chatbot back in March, demonstrating capabilities such as summarizing a sci-fi novel and offering suggestions on how to continue the story in an expanded universe. It can generate images and videos based on text inputs too. Earlier this month, Baidu said ERNIE Bot's training throughput had increased three-fold since March and that it's now capable of data analysis and visualization, generating results more quickly and handling image inputs.

As of August 15th, Chinese companies need to obtain approval from authorities before they can release generative AI experiences to the public, and Baidu was one of the first to get the green light, according to Bloomberg. The report suggests officials see AI as a "business and political imperative given the transformative nature of the technology." Beijing is said to want guardrails in place to keep a tight lid on content while still enabling Chinese companies to compete with overseas rivals.

Google has been busy making a bunch of announcements for its cloud-based productivity apps this week, largely centered on Duet AI integration. There are some other helpful updates on the way to several apps, including Google Chat.

A feature is now available in beta on several Workspace plans (with full availability on the roadmap for early next year) that allows for messaging interoperability between Chat and other services including Slack and Microsoft Teams. Google, which teamed up with a company called Mio to make this function work, suggests that this could be handy for organizations that use a variety of communications apps.

"We know that communication and collaboration happens over multiple channels and tools," Google wrote in an announcement post. "This can cause missed messages, silos of communication, and a frustrating experience monitoring multiple chat tools." It notes that organizations need Mio licenses to use the feature. According to GIF Google shared, it seems that if you edit a message in one of the connected apps, the change will be replicated in the others.

Meanwhile, 9to5 Google reports that Chat will gain support for voice messages. These will enable users to “save typing and allow recipients to hear the tone and context of the message,” according to Google. The feature should be available in early 2024, but it's unclear whether it will be available in group chats and one-on-one DMs. It's also uncertain whether there will be transcription support from the jump.

The fall season of major tech events is ramping up and now we know when Google will host its big Pixel showcase. The next Made by Google event is set for October 4th at 1PM, and there's little doubt as to what the company plans to show off. "You're invited to an in-person Made by Google event where we'll introduce the latest additions to our Pixel portfolio of devices," reads an invitation that Engadget received.

The company announced the date soon after leaking an image of what seemed to be the Pixel 8 Pro on its storefront — coincidentally on the same day that Apple confirmed its iPhone event will take place on September 15th. Google may have a new Pixel Watch to blab about, along with some other hardware. 

As with Microsoft's (likely Surface-related) event, this one will take place in New York City. Of course, we'll have full coverage of all the major Made by Google announcements right here on Engadget.

Google

A couple months after Microsoft revealed plans to increase Game Pass subscription prices, Sony is getting in on the act. The company is bumping up the annual prices of all three PlayStation Plus plans on September 6th.

An annual Essential subscription will soon cost $80 per year, up from $60. The Extra plan is going up by $35 to $135 per year, while an annual Premium plan will soon cost $40 more at $160. The price changes won't take effect for current PS Plus users on an annual plan until their next renewal date that's on or after November 6th. If you make any changes to your plan between September 6th and then (such as changing tiers), the new pricing will apply.

Sony has not announced changes to the monthly ($10 for Essential, $15 for Extra and $18 for Premium) or quarterly ($25 for Essential, $40 for Extra and $50 for Premium) for the time being. It notes that the annual plan is still less expensive than a monthly or quarterly subscription in the long run.

You still have a few days to stack an extra year (or two or three) onto your existing PS Plus plan at the current prices. It's too early to tell whether it will be worth waiting until Black Friday in case there are better deals, so if you have the cash to spare, now might be the time to add extra time to your plan.

Sony notes that it's bumping up PS Plus plans globally to "enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service." That's maybe a difficult case to make given the three monthly games that will be available for all three tiers in September: the reboot of Saints Row, Black Desert – Traveler Edition and (a game I'm admittedly interested in) Generation Zero, all of which have received middling or poor reviews.

Although they're somewhat different offerings, it's worth noting that PS Plus is generally less expensive than the equivalent Game Pass tiers. An annual PS Plus Essential plan is $52 less than a year of Xbox Game Pass, while a 12-month PS Plus Premium membership is $44 less expensive than Game Pass Ultimate over the same timeframe.

That said, Microsoft offers access to all of its first-party games via Game Pass upon their release, an enticing offering that Sony can't match. The new Game Pass Core tier (which is replacing Xbox Live Gold) is $60 per year and includes full online multiplayer access and an initial library of 25 games.