SpaceX has long been gearing up for the Starship's first orbital test flight, but that significant milestone may be delayed yet again. A Super Heavy booster designed for its massive launch vehicle has exploded at the company's Boca Chica, Texas facility. According to NASA Spaceflight, which uploaded a video of the incident, the booster caught fire while the company was testing its Raptor engines. As Gizmodo notes, Super Heavy's current prototype, the Booster 7, is equipped with 33 version 2 Raptor engines.

In response to NASA Spaceflight's tweet about the explosion, Musk said it's "actually not good" and that his team is assessing the damage. He also revealed that this issue was specific to the engine spin start test SpaceX had conducted — "Raptor has a complex start sequence," he said as an aside — and that going forward, the company "won't do a spin start test with all 33 engines at once."

Several Starship rocket prototypes had exploded in the past due to various reasons before the company finally managed its first successful launch and landing sequence in May 2021. Some of the boosters exploded during ground testing, while others caught fire after Starship had already landed following test flights. It's not just exploding Starships that had contributed to the heavy-lift space vehicle's orbital test flight delay — the company's plans also got held up by regulatory approvals. The FAA, for instance, kept extending its environmental review of SpaceX's Boca Chica launch site. Without that approval, the company can't launch the Starship from the facility. The agency finally approved a final environmental assessment of the Starship launch proposal from Boca Chica in June. 

Last month, Musk said that Starship will be "ready to fly" in July, but this incident will likely affect the company's timeline. In a tweet, Musk said the "[b]ase of the vehicle seems ok by flashlight" when they checked it out, but it remains to be seen how bad the damage was and how much it will affect the company's plans for the vehicle's first orbital flight.

Amazon's free Prime Gaming downloads for Prime Day this year include some pretty well-known titles, though this round's heavy hitter is BioWare's Mass Effect Legendary Edition. The compilation bundles all the single-player base games of the original Mass Effect trilogy, remastered with improved graphics optimized for 4K Ultra HD and with adjusted gameplay. It also comes with over 40 downloadable content, such as promo weapons and armor. 

BioWare tweaked the elements that made us not want to replay the original games, including their clunky gunplay and the Mako all-terrain vehicle that's hard to navigate in certain terrains. As we noted in our review, the remastered games feature refined handling and aiming, as well as a less erratic cover mechanic. Levels and across-the-galaxy jumps also load more quickly than in the original games. 

In addition to Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the 30-plus free titles for Prime Day also include Grid Legends, the Grid franchise entry released in 2021. The racing game will give you access to more than 100 vehicles from the start and has over 250 events you can participate in. If you're a racing game fan, you can also get Need for Speed Heat, which was released in 2019 and was the first EA title to offer cross-play between gaming systems. Finally, if you're a shooting game fan, take note that the list also includes three Star Wars games, namely Jedi Knight — Jedi Academy,Jedi Knight II — Jedi Outcast and Republic Commando. You can download all the aforementioned games for free if you're a Prime subscriber.

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Ford has issued a recall for certain 2020 to 2022 model Corsair, Escape and Maverick hybrid vehicles over concerns that they could catch fire. According to UPI, the recall affects 100,689 vehicles in the US, all with 2.5-liter hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric engines. The automaker told the news agency that in the event of an engine failure, the affected vehicles could release a significant amount of engine oil and fuel vapor. Both substances could then accumulate near the vehicles' ignition sources and cause a fire under the hood or melt the components inside. 

Ford said engine failures involving the recalled vehicles are caused by isolated manufacturing issues. The company added it hasn't received any reports of injuries or accidents associated with the problems that compelled it to issue a recall. The automaker has already notified dealers about its decision, and owners are slated to be notified by August 8th. Dealers will fix recalled vehicles when owners turn them in by modifying their under-engine shields and active grille shutters. 

Last month, Ford also recalled 49,000 Mach-E EVs, citing concerns about the possibility of their high-voltage battery connectors overheating. In that particular case, the issue could prevent the vehicle from starting or cause them to lose propulsion power while on the road. Unlike the hybrid vehicles that have to be physically modified, the recalled Mach-Es only need an over-the-air software update that Ford rolled out a few days ago to fix the issue. 

The Tomorrow Children, the game once described as a "Marxism simulator," is coming back this September with brand new features and gameplay elements. Originally released as a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2016, the online social action game spent a year in early access before Sony ultimately shut it down. In 2021, however, Q-Games, the developer who worked on the project alongside Sony's now defunct Japan Studio, obtained the intellectual property rights to the game with the intention of relaunching it. Now, after tweaking and reworking parts of the game, the developer is officially introducing it as The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition.

In the game, an experiment to unite all human consciousness went awry and destroyed society. The survivors left behind are attempting to rebuild humanity in the decades that follow, and it's your mission to venture out into the empty spaces (called "the void") left behind by the experiment. Out in the void, you have to fight monsters and mine for minerals to build a new world.

The new version comes with the ability to play solo offline and a Comrade AI system for collaborative play. There's also a new major feature called Monoliths, which are structures found out in the void. When triggered, they alter the state of emerging islands, giving you access to hidden areas, secret treasures and other new ways to explore the same locations. Monoliths can be activated in both single and multiplayer modes, so you can explore altered islands with your friends.

The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition will come out on September 6th in Europe and North America and on September 7th in Japan for the PS4 and the PS5, with enhancements. Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert said in a statement:

"It gives me great pleasure to confirm that The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition will launch this September, exactly 6 years to the day from the game's original release. We’ve poured so much into the revival and it’s a joy to know that in two months time we’ll be able to explore the Void together as a community once again.

It was important for us to develop an optimum experience for both new and returning players, and the addition of Monoliths really takes island exploration up a notch for everyone. They allowed us to deliver fresh takes on existing islands and will create opportunities for the community to find fun, new ways to explore together. I personally can’t wait to jump online to experience them with you in September!"

You can watch a trailer for the Phoenix Edition below:

Rockstar Games confirmed that GTA VI, if that's what's the next entry in the series is going to be called, has been in the works earlier this year when it announced the release date of GTA V and GTA Online for the PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S. Now, in a post detailing a major update coming to the GTA Online experience, the developer said that it's been "steadily moving more development resources" towards the next Grand Theft Auto title over the past few years. The company has done so, because it understands the "need to exceed players' expectations," but it has had to make changes to how it supports Red Dead Online as a result. 

The biggest change for Red Dead players is that the developer will no longer roll out major themed updates like in previous years. As GameRant explains, that means no more new Specialist Roles, missions and game modes, as well. The company will still build upon existing modes and add new Telegram Missions, which are solo activities players can do to get rewards, this year. But going forward, Rockstar will focus on showcasing previously added Roles and missions during Red Dead Online's monthly events.

Red Dead Online players had complained about the lack of substantial updates in the past and about Rockstar's tendency to prioritize the Grand Theft Auto franchise over its other games. GTA is a massive moneymaker for the developer, though, so it doesn't really come as a surprise that Rockstar has chosen to put all its efforts towards making sure that fans will love GTA VI.

Starlink has launched a ruggedized version of its dish for boats, ships and yachts, merely a few days after the FCC gave it permission to provide internet service to vehicles. The satellite internet provider says Starlink Maritime can deliver up to 350 Mbps download speeds while at sea, which isn't bad at all for boats that didn't have an internet connection to begin with. However, it doesn't come cheap: The hardware alone will set customers back $10,000, which they have to pay for up front. 

The service itself costs $5,000 a month, though like Starlink for RVs, customers can pause it when it's not in use. They can choose which billing cycle to begin their pause, but they'll still have to pay for the full month whenever they switch the service on. In comparison, the residential Starlink setup's hardware costs only $599, while the service costs $110 a month. 

SpaceX chief Elon Musk explained on Twitter that Starlink Maritime's antennae differ from their residential counterpart. They're "dual, high performance terminals," he said, and have the power to maintain connection in choppy seas and heavy storms. The terminals were also designed to be able to withstand "relentless salt spray [and] extreme winds [and] storms." Musk said SpaceX has been paying $150,000 a month for "a much worse connection" on its ships. 

The Starlink Maritime page also mentions that the service allows you to connect from the most remote waters across the world, but it's worth noting that its coverage area is still limited. At the moment, it will only work in the coastal waters of the USA (not including Alaska), Europe (except most of Norway, Sweden and Finland), Australia, Brazil, Chile, most of the southern part of Australia and New Zealand. Starlink is expected to roll out connectivity to more locations in the fourth quarter of 2022 and next year.

SpaceX has long had plans to connect moving vehicles to the Starlink network and even previewed a ruggedized dish for boats and planes way back in 2021. It's only just a few days ago, though, when the Federal Communications Commission authorized a new class of terminals for the satellite internet service "to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the move."

State-sponsored North Korean hackers have been targeting healthcare providers since at least May 2021, according to the US government. The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of the Treasury have issued a joint advisory warning healthcare organizations about the attackers' MO. Apparently, they've been using a ransomware called Maui to encrypt healthcare organizations' computers and then demanding payment from the victims to get their networks unlocked. The agencies' warning contains information about Maui, including its indicators of compromise and the techniques the bad actors use, which they got from a sample obtained by the FBI. 

The agencies said the attackers locked up healthcare providers' electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services and intranet services, among others. In some cases, the attacks kept the providers out of their systems and disrupted the services they provide for prolonged periods. 

According to the agencies' advisory, the malware is manually executed by a remote actor once it's in the victim's network. They "highly discourage" paying ransom, since that doesn't ensure that the bad actors will give victims the keys to unlock their files. However, the agencies admit that the attackers will most likely continue targeting organizations in the healthcare sector. "The North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors likely assume healthcare organizations are willing to pay ransoms because these organizations provide services that are critical to human life and health," they said.

The agencies are now urging healthcare providers to employ mitigation techniques and to prepare for possible ransomware attacks by installing software updates, maintaining offline backups of data and concocting a basic cyber incident response plan. For those wondering what happens to the funds North Korea gets from operations like this: Earlier this year, a United Nations report revealed that the country has been using cryptocurrency stolen by state-sponsored hackers to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 

Healthcare providers have been a prime target for ransomware-using bad actors for quite a while now, especially since the pandemic started. In 2020, FBI and CISA issued a joint advisory warning hospitals and healthcare providers that they're in danger of being targeted by a ransomware attack. Russian-speaking criminal gang UNC1878 and other attackers targeted healthcare organizations in the height of the pandemic, giving some victims no choice but to comply with their demands as they struggled to save people's lives.

A company in Finland has created an an unusual storage solution for renewable energy: One that uses sand instead of lithium ion or other battery technologies. Polar Night Energy and Vatajankoski, an energy utility in Western Finland, have built a storage system that can store electricity as heat in the sand. While there are other organizations researching the use of sand for energy storage, including the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Finns say theirs is the first fully working commercial installation of a battery made from sand.

Similar to traditional storage systems for renewables, Polar's technology stores energy from wind turbines and solar panels that isn't used at once. To be precise, it stores energy as heat, which is then used for the district heating network that Vatajankoski services. Sand is inexpensive and is very effective at storing heat at about 500 to 600 degrees Celsius. Polar says its technology can keep sand "hotter than the stoves in typical saunas" for months until it's time to use that heat during Finland's long winters. 

As the BBC explains, the resistive heating process used to warm the sand generates hot air circulated inside the structure. When it's time to use the stored energy, the battery discharges that heated air to warm water in the district's heating system, which is then pumped into homes, offices and even pools. At the moment, Polar's sand battery only serves a single city, and it's still unclear whether the technology can be scaled up. The BBC also says that its efficiency "falls dramatically" when it comes to returning electricity to the grid instead. It's early days for the technology, though, and other companies and organizations might be able to find solutions for those issues. 

Good news for those who've been waiting for Apple's colorful laptops to come out: The new M2-powered MacBook Air will be available for pre-order starting on July 8th at 5AM PDT/8AM EDT. It was first introduced in June at WWDC alongside the redesigned 13-inch MacBook Pro that's similarly powered by the tech giant's new M2 chip, but Apple had released the latter first. Those who prefer the redesigned MacBook Air may not have to wait that long to get their laptops after pre-order begins, because it will start shipping to buyers worldwide on July 15th. 

The new MacBook Air design gets rid of the model's signature wedge silhouette and swaps it for a squarer look close to its Pro-tier siblings. Even so, it's lighter than its predecessors and is 20 percent smaller in volume. It will also be available in four colors, namely Silver, Space Gray, Midnight (deep blue) and Starlight.

Developing...

Amazon has already started selling a bunch of its smart home devices at a discount, almost a week before Prime Day even begins. One of the most notable deals that's already available is Amazon's smart thermostat, which you can get for $42 — as long as you're a Prime member. That's 30 percent off its regular retail price of $60 and a new all-time low for the device. Amazon's smart thermostat debuted in September 2021, giving you an affordable option to control your home temperature. 

It's not quite as feature-rich as its more expensive counterparts, like the Google Nest thermostat. But it's Energy Star-certified and can save you an average of $50 on your electric bills every year. Plus, it's Alexa-compatible and allows you to use the voice assistant to set custom routines for heating and cooling. The thermostat itself doesn't have a speaker or a microphone, though, so you'll need to use the Alexa app or another Alexa-enabled device like an Echo speaker to do so. 

That brings us to another deal you can get right now: Amazon's smart thermostat bundled with an Echo Dot speaker. The bundle with a fourth-gen Echo Dot speaker will set you back $62, or $48 off its usual price, which is the lowest we've seen for it on the website. Meanwhile, the smart thermostat bundle with a second-gen Echo Show 5 smart display is also on sale for $77, or $68 lower than its retail price. That's also a new all-time low for the duo.

In case you're mainly looking to buy Amazon's Alexa-powered speakers, you can get a fourth-gen Echo Dot with an Amazon smart plug for $25. You'll save $50 if you get the bundle, which typically sells for $75 and has never been discounted this deeply before. Amazon's smart plug adds Alexa voice control to any outlet, allowing you to control any non-smart device plugged to it, such as lights, fans and other appliances. 

Finally, you can get the fourth-gen Echo Dot for Kids bundled with an Echo Glow multicolor smart lamp with Prime for $36. That's 60 percent or $54 off its retail price and also includes a year-long Amazon Kids+ subscription. 

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