Tesla has quietly launched new Model S and Model X vehicles that are slightly more affordable than their base and Plaid counterparts. The automaker has listed these new offerings as "Standard Range" variants, which are scheduled for delivery in the US sometime in September to October this year. A Model S Standard Range will set buyers back $78,490, while the standard Model X is listed for $88,490. Both prices don't include any savings buyers might get after EV tax credits applicable for their location. 

Both prices are also $10,000 less than the base Model S and Model X vehicles. The new EVs, however, have shorter ranges than the other versions in their line: In the case of Model S, the new option has a range of 320 miles, while the base variant can last for over 80 miles longer with its 405-mile range. It also takes 3.7 seconds for new EV to accelerate from zero to 60 mph, whereas it takes 3.1 seconds for the base version to achieve the same speed. Meanwhile, the new Model X has a range of 269 miles, which is definitely shorter than the base variant's 348 miles. It takes the new Model X 4.4 seconds to reach 60mph, longer than the 3.8 seconds it takes the base version. 

Tesla

As Electrek noted when it noticed the presence of Standard Range vehicles on Tesla's website, it's not clear if the automaker is making battery packs especially for these releases or if it's merely software-locking packs for its EVs with longer ranges. If it's the latter, then Tesla might give customers the opportunity to unlock longer ranges in the future if they're willing to pay for it. The new Standard Range EVs are available for the aforementioned prices in Pearl White with an all-black interior, along with standard wheels and steering wheel. Buyers will have to pay extra for other colors, customizations, and, of course, for Tesla's Enhanced Autopilot ($6,000) and Full Self-Driving Capability ($15,000) features. 

Tesla is giving current customers the option to transfer Full Self-Driving to a newly purchased vehicle for free at the moment. That said, they can only take advantage of this one-time amnesty if they take delivery of a new EV between July 20th and September 30th, 2023. Seeing as the new Standard Range vehicles could be delivered after September, buyers should be aware that they might have to pay for FSD again even if they already have it in their current Tesla EV.

The Internet Archive is facing another lawsuit over one of its conservation projects. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and a handful of other music labels have filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit organization, accusing it of copyright infringement for digitizing, "willfully upload[ing], distribut[ing] and digitally transmitt[ing]" pre-1972 sound recordings. In particular, the labels are suing Internet Archive for the Great 78 Project, which seeks to preserve music recorded on 78rpm discs. 

The labels call Internet Archive's efforts "blatant infringement," involving music by artists that include Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. They also listed a few examples of "iconic recordings" available through the Great 78 Project, such as White Christmas, Sing, Sing, Sing, and The Christmas Song. 

The companies said the the songs preserved on the project website are already available through streaming and other music services, so they "face no danger of being lost, forgotten, or destroyed." But the organization explained on the project portal that there's "still research value in the artifacts and usage evidence in the often rare 78rpm discs and recordings." 

The plaintiffs disagree, writing in their complaint that Internet Archive's activities "far exceed" the limited purposes of preservation and research. "Internet Archive unabashedly seeks to provide free and unlimited access to music for everyone, regardless of copyright," they added. The labels are asking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each protected sound recording, and that could add up to $372 million for the listed recordings, according to Bloomberg.

Internet Archive is also embroiled in a legal battle with a group of US publishers led by Hachette Book Group over the National Emergency Library. The organization lent out digitally scanned copies of books through the program during the height of the pandemic, which the publishers described as "willful mass copyright infringement." A federal judge ruled against Internet Archive for that particular case, though the organization is planning to appeal that decision.

An international team of scientists has developed a new technology that can help detect (or even treat) cancer in hard-to-reach places, such as the colon. The team has published a paper in Science for the technique dubbed CATCH, or cellular assay for targeted, CRISPR-discriminated horizontal gene transfer. For their lab experiments, the scientists used a species of bacterium called Acinetobacter baylyi. This bacterium has the ability to naturally take up free-floating DNA from its surroundings and then integrate it into its own genome, allowing it to produce new protein for growth.  

What the scientists did was engineer A. baylyi bacteria so that they'd contain long sequences of DNA mirroring the DNA found in human cancer cells. These sequences serve as some sort of one-half of a zipper that locks on to captured cancer DNA. For their tests, the scientists focus on the mutated KRAS gene that's commonly found in colorectal tumors. If an A. baylyi bacterium finds a mutated DNA and integrates it into its genome, a linked antibiotic resistance gene also gets activated. That's what the team used to confirm the presence of cancer cells: After all, only bacteria with active antibiotic resistance could grow on culture plates filled with antibiotics. 

While the scientists were successfully able to detect tumor DNA in mice injected with colorectal cancer cells in the lab, the technology is still not ready to be used for actual diagnosis. The team said it's still working on the next steps, including improving the technique's efficiency and evaluating how it performs compared to other diagnostic tests. "The most exciting aspect of cellular healthcare, however, is not in the mere detection of disease. A laboratory can do that," Dan Worthley, one of the study's authors, wrote in The Conversation. In the future, the technology could also be used for targeted biological therapy that can deploy treatment to specific parts of the body based on the presence of certain DNA sequences. 

Google has introduced a new tool for Slides that can help you make your presentations more interactive and keep your audience's attention. The new feature, a pen tool, lets you write on a slide in real time, so you can encircle key figures, draw arrows, underline important information and just generally scribble anything you want on the presentation while in the middle of a meeting or a report. While Slides has long had the ability to turn your mouse arrow into a laser pointer, you had to download a third-party tool to be able to actually write annotations in the middle of a presentation. 

Slides' new pen tool is built into the program, and there's no need to download anything extra. To access it, you have to open your file in slideshow mode and then mouse over the bottom left side to see the three-dot menu. From that menu, you'll find an option that reads "Turn on the pen." You can choose the pen color you want to use — black, red, blue or green — from the panel that shows up, and you can also easily switch it off from the same location. If you want to erase what you've written, you just need to switch from the pen to the eraser tool in the bottom left corner. 

Google says the feature will be available to all Workspace customers and users with a personal account, but it may take 15 days before it's done rolling out the pen tool to everyone. 

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, a mobile game that expands the FFVII story and universe, will be available on iOS and Android on September 7th. Square Enix first announced the mobile game along with the battle royale action title Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier back in 2021. It was supposed to come out in 2022, but delays pushed back its release, and the company didn't start closed beta testing for the game until July this year. 

Ever Crisis was developed by Applibot, though Final Fantasy veterans Kazushige Nojima, Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura were involved as scenario writer, executive producer and creative director, respectively. It features an art style reminiscent of the the original FFVII's chibi characters, but with a twist — as The Verge notes, Cloud has actual hands in this version. 

The game retells the events from the original game, so players can relive some of its most iconic moments, though it also includes the The First Soldier's backstory and stories about the characters from when they were younger. As for its gameplay, it's based on the original's Active Time Battle system that's been optimized for mobile. 

Ever Crisis will be free-to-play, but according to Android Police's review of the closed beta version, players will have to spend money playing "gacha" to get weapons and other items. Fans who want to play the game regardless and as soon as it becomes available can now pre-register for either or both mobile platforms. 

Google's Waymo and GM's Cruise have secured approval from California's regulators to be able to charge fares for fully driverless rides any time of the day in San Francisco. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has voted 3 to 1 in favor of allowing the companies to expand their driverless services after evaluating whether they had met the licensing requirements and hearing public testimonies arguing for and against the expansion.

Waymo said it's going to "gradually welcom[e] more riders into the service" and "begin charging fares for rider-only trips in the city" in the coming weeks." Apparently, it already has 100,000 signups in its waitlist and expects demand to be "incredibly high," so it wants to take an unhurried approach "to ensure riders receive a reliable service." The company promises to make its fully autonomous trips "available to everyone over time." Meanwhile, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said his company will continue collaborating with regulators to achieve their shared commitment to deliver "safer, cleaner and more accessible transportation options."

At the moment, Waymo is operating 200 cars in San Francisco, while Cruise has 300 vehicles in its autonomous fleet. Before securing CPUC's approval, Cruise could only offer fared passenger rides in limited areas of San Francisco from 10 PM to 6AM without a safety driver onboard and paid rides any time with a safety driver. Waymo, on the the other hand, could only charge passengers any time of the day with a safety driver present.

According to The San Francisco Standard, commission President Alice Reynolds and commissioners Darcie Houck and John Reynolds voted in favor of the expansion. However, commissioner Genevieve Shiroma voted against it, arguing that the CPUC didn't have sufficient information needed to be able to accurately evaluate the impact of autonomous vehicles on first responders. Their decision was the final hurdle the companies had to face to offer 24/7 fared rides across the city. It came after listening to public concerns about the safety of autonomous vehicles and to testimonies about how the technology could help the elderly and people with disabilities be more independent.

Virgin Galactic might hit another milestone today in its quest to provide trips to suborbital space. If the weather cooperates and everything goes as planned for the company, its first private passenger flight will be taking off from its Spaceport America facility at 11AM EDT. Virgin Galactic's inaugural commercial flight took place in late June, but that one carried Italian government workers, including two Air Force personnel, to space. This time, its three passengers are civilians, and one of them is even the company's first paying customer. 

That distinction goes to Jon Goodwin, a British Olympian who competed in the 1972 games in Munich as a canoeist. According to the BBC, Goodwin paid $250,000 for his ticket way back in 2005 and had been worried that he couldn't go through with the flight after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2014. The other two passengers are a mother-daughter tandem from the Caribbean, Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers. Schahaff won two seats in a fundraising draw for nonprofit organization Space for Humanity and had chosen her daughter, a physics student at Aberdeen University in the UK, to accompany her. 

The company's VSS Unity spacecraft leaves the ground attached to a carrier aircraft dubbed VMS Eve. At an altitude of 50,000 feet, the mothership drops Unity, which then fires up its rocket motor to continue its journey to the edge of space. The spacecraft turns off its motor and glides across space before its descent, giving passengers three minutes to enjoy weightlessness in the cabin while looking at views of our planet through Unity's 17 windows. That is, at least, what the passengers are supposed to experience. As for the rest of us, we can watch them take off via Virgin Galactic's coverage of the launch livestreamed through its website.

Samsung is giving Galaxy S23 owners the chance to be among the first users to see and try One UI 6. The tech giant has launched a beta program for its take on Android 14, which welcomes Galaxy S23 owners from the United States, Germany and its home country of South Korea. Participants are expected to provide feedback during the program, and Samsung says it intends to incorporate changes based on their comments to create "a richer, more intuitive experience for all."

The company promises a more modern look and feel for the new UI. It rearranged the Quick Panel's layout and put more shortcuts on one screen to give people quicker access to the features they use the most. If they want to go to the full Quick Panel, users could simply swipe down once from the upper right corner of their screen instead of having to swipe down twice. And if they simply want to adjust their screen's brightness, they no longer have to open the full Quick Panel — the setting is now available in the compact version of the panel that shows up upon swiping down once from the top of their phone. 

In addition to those changes, One UI 6 gives users a way to set different lock screens for different Modes, "such as a calming photo of a forest in Sleep Mode," the company suggests. Users will find a new camera widget, as well, allowing them to preselect storage locations for each mode used, so that they could have a cleaner and more well-organized gallery. 

Samsung has historically given its Galaxy S customers first access to its upcoming skins based on the latest Android platform. The beta program for One UI 6 opens today, and like in the past, Galaxy S23 owners in the three aforementioned countries can take part by submitting their registrations through the Samsung Members app. 

Humble has teamed up with Capcom for Resident Evil fans who may want to get extra copies of the games or people looking to finally give the survival horror series a try. The Resident Evil Humble Bundle comes with 11 titles for the PC, including one version for every major entry in the franchise. It also includes the latest game in the series, Resident Evil Village, which still costs at least $40 to purchase from Steam, along with a 25 percent off coupon for its Winters' Expansion DLC. The extra content gives players access to Third-Person Mode, expands the Mercenaries Mode and shows what happened to the baby who played a pivotal role in the story 16 years later. 

In addition to RE Village, the bundle contains the following games: Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil HD Remaster, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Resident Evil 3 Remake, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil Revelations 2. Buyers will have to pay at least $35 to get the whole bunch, but they can also get everything minus RE Village and the coupon for its expansion for only $20. For $10, they can get the seven oldest games in the list. All the titles from the bundle are redeemable from Steam and playable on Windows PCs. 

Notably absent from the game list is Capcom's remake of Resident Evil 4. That one is, perhaps, a bit too new to be included in the bundle, as it was only released in March for $60. 

Sony has published its earnings report for the first quarter of the year (PDF) ending on June 30th and an adjusted forecast for the fiscal year, and they paint a picture of mixed results for the company. Its overall operating profit for the period was down 31 percent year-over-year, from 364.9 billion yen ($2.54 billion) to 253 billion ($1.76 billion). The company's revenue was up 33 percent, however, thanks to significant increase in sales by its game and network services, music, imaging and financial services businesses.

Sony believes its game and music segments will continue to do well and has raised (PDF) its sales and revenue forecast for the fiscal year ending on March 31st, 2024 by 6.1 percent due to higher-than-expected sales for those businesses. It also expects its net income to be 2.4 percent higher than its previous forecast, from 840 billion yen ($5.86 billion) to 860 billion ($6 billion).

For its game division, in particular, Sony has tweaked its forecast, because it's anticipating an increase in sales for non-first-party PlayStation titles, including add-on content. Several much-awaited games are coming out for PlayStation gamers this year, such as Spider-Man 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Expansion, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and EA Sports FC. 

This expected increase in sales for non-first-party titles will be aided by a decrease in costs and expenses. That said, they will also offset by a "deterioration in profitability of PlayStation 5 hardware." Sony has dropped the PS5's pricing in several regions around the world recently. While that translates to lower overall earnings from the console, it could also get people on the fence to finally purchase the PS5, which in turn could lead to more game purchases. 

To note, Sony has shipped 3.3 million PS5 units in the first quarter of the year. That's almost half of the previous quarter's sales of 6.3 million units, though that figure was for the holiday season, when businesses typically do better than usual. This is Sony's best-performing first quarter for PS5 sales so far, bringing the total number of units sold to 41.7 million. 

Despite adjusting its outlook with better numbers for the year overall, Sony has lowered its expectations for the sales of mobile sensors due to the continuing downward trend in smartphone sales. Sony Pictures' earnings was also down year-on-year despite the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The company doesn't foresee a recovery for the business, as well, and believes it will perform worse than what was predicted last April due to the impact of strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild.