Ford just dropped a trail-finding app specifically for Bronco SUV owners. The appropriately-named Bronco Trail App is available for both iOS and Android mobile devices and includes a boatload of goodies for true off-roading enthusiasts. In other words, this app is not for people who use their rugged SUVs primarily to pick up coffee down the street.

The app leads drivers to more than 1,200 professionally curated trails throughout the US, Canada and Mexico (with more countries coming), totaling 18,000 miles. These maps let you filter by location, length, difficulty and more, with the ability to save your favorite trails. Once you save a trail, you can add waypoints, notes and even photos to show off preferred landmarks.

Of course, the deeper you trek into the wilds, the more cellular service diminishes. The app lets you download maps ahead of time in satellite or 2D topographic formats so you can view them even when in the middle of nowhere.

Beyond curated maps, there are some high-tech features here. The app integrates with the SUV’s tire pressure gauge sensor and automatically adjusts the pressure to suit trail recommendations. This feature works without a cellular or cloud connection. There is also a small social media component here, as you can trade marked-up maps with other Bronco owners to share unique destinations and the like.

Ford

On the topic of social media, the app includes the ability to capture video, which is then shared via your preferred social network. This isn’t any ordinary video, however, as this content is automatically overlaid with all kinds of useful and nifty information, like speed, RPM, distance traveled, elevation and a lot more.

The app is free, but a new Ford Bronco starts at around $42,000. It’s available for download right now and Ford says it’ll stay on top of updates, adding more trails and features in the coming months. You'll also need an up-to-date FordPass subscription, but if you own a new Bronco, you probably have that too. 

Now that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is finally (almost) done racking up coins, it’s time for another video game adaptation to head into theaters. Sony’s Gran Turismo film, highlighting the esteemed racing sim, has set a release date for August 11th and dropped a first-look trailer to prove it.

According to the trailer, this is not your standard video game adaptation. It doesn’t seek to adapt the “story” of Gran Turismo, but is rather set in a world obsessed with the racing sim. There's a tournament to find the best virtual racer out there (shades of The Wizard) and the winners get to race in real life (shades of The Last Starfighter).

Even weirder? This is all based on a true story. The film follows current professional racer Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), who actually was a teenage Gran Turismo obsessive. He really did win competitions and even managed to parlay that into an actual career. David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Djimon Hounsou and Geri Halliwell round out the cast.

This might be an odd choice for a video game movie plot, but it’s not as if the Gran Turismo series has a deep well of lore to pull from. The film is directed by Neill Blomkamp, who made District 9 and Elysium, so this is at least worth keeping an eye on. In any event, August is just around the corner, so we don’t have long to wait.

If you like your fake racing with a bit more clown-based hyper-violence, Peacock just dropped a trailer for a Twisted Metal adaptation.

Amazon just announced the impending launch of Fire TV Channels, allowing customers access to a wide variety of “premium, free content” on Fire streaming sticks, streaming boxes, and, of course, Fire-branded televisions. The company promises there will be no forced sign-ups or fees associated with this content.

Just like the similar offering from Roku, there looks to be plenty of free content to wade through here. There are channels for local and national news, sports, travel, cooking, music videos, old TV shows and just about everything else. Amazon announced content partnership deals with professional NHL hockey, PGA golf, gossip site TMZ, ABC News and media giant Condé Nast, among others. All told, the company says it has lined up over 400 publishing partners ready for the summer launch.

This is an ad-supported service, so if you have an aversion to that dang Liberty Mutual song, look elsewhere for content. Amazon already offers some FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels, but this is a major boost for the platform. Additionally, there will be an easily accessible “Free” tab right on the home screen of all Fire devices for instant perusal. This tab breaks down into more category-specific menus.

“With Fire TV Channels, we’re delivering a simple, category-based experience that makes it easy to discover what you want to watch while constantly expanding content offerings.” said Charlotte Maines, director of Fire TV advertising, monetization, and engagement.

The company says that channels will feature live content, linear content and VOD content. It also says that new stuff will be added throughout each day, so binge, baby, binge. Amazon is not the only player in the FAST space. Along with the OG Roku, Google recently announced its own 800-channel offering. 

Paypal-owned money transfer service Venmo dipped its toes into cryptocurrencies in 2021 after opening up an in-app trading platform. That was just for individuals to buy or sell crypto. Now, the company is going further into the once-heralded digital currency space by allowing users to send crypto directly to other Venmo customers.

This looks to be Venmo’s attempt to simplify the often-confusing task of sending crypto to other people. To that end, the company says this feat is easily accomplished in a “few simple steps.” Just head to the Crypto tab, tap the transfer arrow and follow the prompts. Venmo’s new platform also lets you send currency to Paypal handles and any external crypto wallet. You can also tap Receive to display a QR code that’s embedded with your unique crypto address.

This does seem much easier than rival platforms, but this is crypto, so there is a major caveat. These transfers are not protected in any way, shape or form. They cannot be canceled or reversed, so triple-check the Venmo handle or wallet address before slapping that send button. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

More details on the actual transfer process are found here and Venmo says the update will begin rolling out to users in the next week, but this is a tiered update, so it could be until the end of May before everyone has access to the feature. This tool will not be available in Hawaii and New York and it only pertains to cryptocurrencies available for purchase on Venmo, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Despite the public’s love affair with crypto starting to cool down, Venmo says that its trading platform has seen steady growth. It boasts that nearly 75 percent of crypto customers have held onto their funds since 2021 and that 50 percent have expanded their balance since the beginning of 2023.

After decades of middling results, video game adaptations are finally the hottest thing in entertainment, especially after those Super Mario Bros. Movie box office numbers. Streamer Peacock is joining the video game adaptation wars with a live action comedy based on the PS1-era vehicular warfare simulator Twisted Metal and it just dropped the first trailer.

For the uninitiated (anyone under 30), Twisted Metal was a hugely popular franchise that is sort of a riff on the Battle Mode from the Mario Kart series, with a heavy emphasis on comical violence and absolute destruction. Think Rocket League with guns. The show seems to be scrapping the arena-based nature of the games with a journey across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The series stars the newly-appointed Captain America, Anthony Mackie and Brooklyn 99 standout Stephanie Beatriz. You can’t tell much from the apocalypse-soaked trailer, but the show’s description describes Mackie as a “motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life” and Beatriz as a “badass axe-wielding car thief.” It also wouldn’t be Twisted Metal without the iconic killer clown Sweet Tooth, described here as a “deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.”

The franchise arguably reached its pinnacle in 1996 with Twisted Metal 2, and there hasn’t been a new release in over a decade, so who exactly is this show for? Who knows! But it has evil clowns and explosive car chases, so who cares? The first season premieres July 27th and consists of ten episodes.

This is just another step in Sony’s plans to bring its big gaming franchises into other media, which has so far included the plodding Uncharted movie and the mega-popular The Last of Us series on HBO. Prepare for an onslaught of PlayStation adaptations in the near future, including Horizon Zero Dawn, Gran Turismo and God of War.

Boutique music gadget manufacturer Teenage Engineering is back with a new product and it’s a whole lot more interesting than a $1,600 desk. The CM-15 is a legitimate portable condenser microphone built for studio use and remote setups. The company describes it as the world’s “first all-in-1 mic offering” as it features multiple connection and power options.

You can power this thing via traditional phantom power by plugging it into any suitable mixer or audio interface. There is also a built-in battery that gets ten hours of use per charge. Don’t have access to any of that? Just plug it into any USB-C port to get some juice. That’s pretty convenient. As for connections, there is a 3.5mm line output, a mini XLR and the aforementioned USB-C port. The microphone includes a built-in preamp, so you can go straight into a computer, phone or another Teenage Engineering device like the similarly impressive (and expensive) OP-1 Field.

Just like the recently-released TX-6 mixer, the CM-15 is tiny but still manages to find room for some audio wizardry. It contains a true 1-inch large-diaphragm capsule, which is a rarity in portable recording gear. The microphone also features ESS Sabre analog-to-digital conversion, which TE says helps the mic “preserve high-fidelity sound and capture exceptional detail in any recording situation.”

There’s a gain switch on the back to match the audio source, and the 3.5mm line out can plug right into a video camera for synced audio/visual content. The machined metal build looks durable and adds to the overall aesthetic appeal of the microphone. It ships with various adapters for universal compatibility with mic stands and features a built-in tilting mechanism for precise placement. There's a mini-tripod available for the mic, but it costs an extra $100.

Now onto the price. This is a Teenage Engineering product through-and-through, so get ready to fork over $1,200 to bring this little beast home. For a complete TE setup that includes the CM-15, a TX-6 mixer and an OP-1 Field synthesizer, that cost skyrockets to $4,400. The microphone starts shipping in June.

The well-reviewed, yet pricey, PlayStation VR2 headset is making its way to retailers after a two-month stint of exclusivity at Sony’s Direct consumer storefront. The company shared the news on Twitter, but has not set an official date or even announced what lucky retailers would get their mitts on the PS5-adjacent headset. Sony tells customers to check with local retailers for availability information.

UK retailer ShopTo has suggested that the VR headset will be in stock starting May 12th, though it remains to be seen if that date holds for every online and brick-and-mortar retail location out there. It is worth noting that May 12th is when a little mom-and-pop video game called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases on Switch, so get ready for crowds if you head into a store looking for just a VR headset.

Beyond making it easier to score a PSVR 2 headset, wider availability will almost certainly lead to sales and discounts. At $550, the PS5 accessory is more expensive than the actual PS5. Sony has not disclosed any sales numbers for the headset but it did halve sales expectation numbers ahead of the February launch due to fewer-than-anticipated preorders. Having the headset locked behind an exclusive web portal likely did it no favors.

The PSVR 2 has been praised for its fantastic visuals, updated controllers and haptic feedback abilities, though the games library is on the anemic side (right now). Here is to hoping increased availability will bring the headset into more homes, hastening mainstream adoption and giving the Meta Quest platform a true run for its money. This could only be a good thing for VR in general.

Acclaimed developer Young Horses just dropped four free games on Steam as part of a collection it's calling the Free Range initiative. The team behind the beloved PS5 launch title Bugsnax is known for making off-kilter takes on traditional game formulas, and these four titles look like they carry on that proud tradition.

These are not bigwig releases, as they were mostly developed as side projects and at various game jam events. The strangest one of the four, and therefore the most intriguing, is called Antbassador, which was originally developed for the Ludum Dare game jam. Have you ever wanted to control a giant finger in a tophat as you try to accommodate the needs of a bustling ant colony? Now’s your chance.

If you haven’t had your fill of picnic ruiners, there’s IndependANT. The 3D open-world platformer casts you as an ant trying to locate a missing queen. This is a new and original title that did not begin life as a game jam, but rather as a tech demo to show off the newly-implemented Unreal 5 engine.

We move from insects to reptiles with the hilariously-titled Snakedate. As the name suggests, you are a snake at a club looking for dates. This mostly involves swiping right on a snake-based dating website and then, uh, wrapping your slithering body around any creature that catches your fancy.

Finally, there’s Octodad: Student Edition. This is the original version of the standout hitOctodad: Dadliest Catch, first created when many key developers at Young Horses were still in college. It's a bit rough around the edges, as it's more than 12 years old, but this is Octodad through and through. This is the OG design that fueled a Kickstarter frenzy and started it all for the company.

All four titles are available for download right now, but only via the Steam Store. Octodad: Dadliest Catchfinally launched for the Switch some years back, but it looks like these four games are all PC exclusives for now.

LG has officially launched the SuperSlim, the new Gram laptop the company is calling the “thinnest LG Gram ever.” This is not just advertising hyperbole, as the SuperSlim is .43-inches thick and weighs two pounds. That definitely places the laptop in the realm of the ultra-portable. As a comparison, the 2022 Macbook Air is 0.44-inches thick and weighs 2.7 pounds.

The laptop was first teased at this year’s CES, back when it was called the Ultraslim. Not a lot has changed since the original announcement, aside from the name. The SuperSlim boasts decent specs, with an Intel Evo 13th Gen processor and Intel Iris Xe GPU. There is also a 15.6-inch anti-glare OLED display and LG touts a 100 percent DCI-P33 color gamut and VESA DisplayHDR True Black integration. It is worth noting that Apple is rumored to be launching its own 15-inch ultra-portable laptop in the near future. 

LG says the SuperSlim has passed seven tests to ensure military-grade durability, which is a good thing as we have noted some issues with previous Gram laptops surrounding flexibility and build quality. Other standout features include a more compact power adapter than previous Gram laptops, a full HD camera with integrated microphones and a trio of USB-C ports, two of which support Thunderbolt 4 connections.

This emaciated wonder is available now in two SKUs. You can purchase one with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for $1,700 or a model with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for $2,000. As a bonus, LG is throwing in a free Gram +view portable monitor with every purchase until May 14th.

Review aggregation site Metacritic promises to improve its moderation system after the recent release of DLC for Horizon Forbidden West prompted a rash of negative review bombing. This story contains spoilers for Burning Shores, so stop reading now if you don't want to know some story events from the game.

The DLC in question, Burning Shores, features an option for a same-gender kiss as part of a storyline involving protagonist Aloy and a warrior queen named Sekya. This is a completely optional event, but it seemed to have prompted an onslaught of keyboard warriors with a Google alert set for the word “woke.” 

The dedicated Burning Shores page was slammed with negative user reviews, which is an all-too common practice nowadays. Metacritic’s parent company Fandom has called out many of these reviews for being “abusive and disrespectful.” Keep in mind, this instance involves a small voluntary event that only appears as an option for certain players if they pursue prior flirtatious dialogue choices.

Fandom says that Metacritic “is a place of belonging for all fans” and that it takes “online trust and safety very seriously.” To that end, company reps say they are “currently evolving our processes and tools” surrounding reviews and content moderation. It has not announced any specific changes. In the meantime, Metacritic points to what the current system is doing right.

“Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed,” Metacritic wrote in a statement to Eurogamer.

Of course, this is not the first incidence of review bombing to plague the platform and not the first time Metacritic has implemented changes to stem the tide. The Last of Us Part II received a glut of hateful reviews for all-too-similar reasons, which forced the aggregator to mandate a 36-hour waiting period after a game’s release to open up reviews to the general public. Steam did something similar, as user reviews are accompanied by the amount of time the person actually spent playing the game. The changes Metacritic made in 2020 clearly didn't make a difference in this case, so we'll see if the company has more concrete plans to protect its platform.