Gran Turismo 7, finally coming to the PS4 and PS5 on March 4th 2022 after significant delays, will be the focus of Sony's first State of Play in 2022. The event is set to stream at 5PM ET this Wednesday (February 2) and will feature "just over 30 minutes of new [GT7] PS5 footage and gameplay details," Sony announced. 

In a tweet (above) Sony teased a mix of GT7 gameplay and cinematics showcasing a variety of vehicles, tracks and more. Much as it did with Deathloop last July ahead of its September launch, Sony appears to be dedicating this State of Play mainly to Gran Turismo 7. 

Developer Polyphony Digital has only revealed tidbits about the PlayStation exclusive game, saying it would bring back many familiar modes. The game was first unveiled in June of 2020, seven years after series creator Kazunori Yamauchi said "we don't want to take too long on Gran Turismo 7."

The cellular iPad Mini is a top choice for road warriors, offering 5G capability along with WiFi 6 so you can stay connected wherever you are. Given the desirability of that feature, however, it's rather expensive at $649 and we've rarely seen it go on sale. Luckily, if you've been eyeing one, it's now available at Amazon for $600, or $49 off the regular price — the steepest discount we've seen so far. 

The 2021 model has similar specs to the iPhone 13, with the same speedy A15 Bionic chip that delivers a big jump in performance over the fifth-gen model. It comes with a larger 8.3-inch display with higher 2,266 x 1,488 resolution and eliminates the physical home button, moving the Touch ID sensor to the power button. The volume buttons, meanwhile, are at the top to make room for Apple Pencil 2 that can be attached to the side magnetically.

Other features include USB-C charging and upgraded cameras with support from Apple's Center Stage feature, keeping you in the center of the frame during video calls. The main downsides are the lack of a headphone jack, limited 64GB of storage on the base model, and a higher price, particularly with the cellular model. Also keep in mind that the 5G doesn't support mmWave, so don't expect a big jump in wireless speeds compared to LTE. 

If you're fine with the 5G limitations and 64GB storage, Amazon has at least taken the edge off the price. The $600 price for the 64GB cellular model is available on all four listed colors, but it's best to act soon before the sale ends.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Shortly after Spotify announced that it would add a 'content advisory' to COVID-19 podcast episodes, Joe Rogan has issued his own response to the controversy. In a video uploaded to Instagram, he apologized to Spotify for the backlash that saw Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and other artists remove their music from the platform. He also defended his his decision to book controversial guests, while promising to "balance things out" with differing opinions. 

"Some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I’m literally having them in real time, but I do my best and they’re just conversations, and I think that’s also the appeal of the show," he said in the video. "It’s one of the things that makes it interesting. So I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time, and I’m very sorry that this is happening to them and that they’re taking so much from it."

Two of his most controversial guests, Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone, made multiple unproven claims related to COVID-19. Malone, for example, falsely claimed that "mass formation psychosis" is what led people to believe that vaccines are effective against COVID-19. That episode in particular led a group of over 1,000 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators to send an open letter to Spotify demanding that it create a misinformation policy. 

In his video, Rogan said that those guests are "highly credentialed, very intelligent, very accomplished people, and they have an opinion that is different from the mainstream narrative. I wanted to hear what their opinion is." He also disputed the episodes being labeled "misinformation," saying that many of their opinions are shared by mainstream listeners.

Rogan has also drawn criticism for spreading COVID-19 misinformation himself. He has said that hospitals are financially motivated to record COVID as the cause of death, and has promoted the anti-parasitic treatment ivermectin as a means of treating COVID symptoms — something that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called "dangerous." 

"’I'm not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them," he said. "Do I get things wrong? Absolutely. I get things wrong, but I try to correct them whenever I get something wrong. I’m interested in finding out what the truth is, and I’m interested in having interesting conversations with people that have differing opinions. I’m not interested in only talking to people that have one perspective."

Rogan said he agrees with Spotify's plan to apply advisory labels to episodes related to COVID-19, and promised to have experts with differing opinions following controversial guests. "I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view," he said. 

Following the release of Unicode 14, Apple is finally starting to include the new emojis on iOS with the release of the 15.4 developer beta, Apple Insider has reported. As we detailed last summer, some of the new emojis available are "heart hands," "troll," "biting lip" and "melting face." The latter could be a popular option for our troubled times, smiling as your face literally melts while a pandemic and other strife rages on.

The final version of Unicode 14 also includes multiple skin tone variations of the handshake emoji, the one character you ironically couldn't modify for different skin shades. It took the Unicode Consortium a good two years, but they've finally got a new handshake character that's available with up to 25 different skin tone combinations. 

Unicode 14.0 has already arrived on Android 12, which has now gone out to most major smartphone brands. They're only available on Apple's iOS devices with the latest 15.4 developer beta, but will appear widely once the release comes out of beta later this year. 

After investing $4.5 billion in India's largest carrier Jio, Google is now putting up to $1 billion in Airtel, the second largest mobile operator, Airtel announced. The partnership is focusing on "affordable access to smartphones" and is part of Google's promised $10 billion investment in the country. "Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of our Google for India Digitization Fund's efforts to increase access to smartphones," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement. 

The deal includes a $700 million investment to acquire a 1.28 percent ownership in Airtel, with another $300 million earmarked for potential commercial agreements. Specifically, Airtel and Google will work to expand on Airtel's Android device lineup via "innovative affordability programs." The companies didn't specify what those programs would entail, however.

Airtel also said that it would look at "larger strategic goals" with Google around 5G network standards, cloud ecosystems and more. "With our future ready network, digital platforms, last mile distribution and payments ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of India’s digital ecosystem," said Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal. 

Google previously collaborated with Jio on the low-cost $87 JioPhone Next smartphone that went on sale on November 4th price following a delay due to the global chip shortage. Jio has also received investment from Facebook and other companies. 

With a huge number of potential internet users, Alphabet, Facebook parent Meta and others have looked to India to boost growth. Both tech giants have worked to bring internet connectivity to India, Alphabet with Project Loon and Meta via Free Basics, which was later banned in India. 

A robot has successfully performed "keyhole" intestinal surgery on pigs without any aid from humans, according to a study from John Hopkins University (published in Science Robotics). What's more, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) handled the tricky procedure "significantly better" than human doctors. The breakthrough marks a significant step towards automated surgery that could one day help "democratize" patient care, the researchers said. 

Laparoscopic or keyhole surgery requires surgeons to manipulate and stitch intestines and other organs through tiny incisions, a technique that requires high levels of skill and has little margin for error. The team chose to do "intestinal anastomosis" (joining two ends of an intestine), a particularly challenging keyhole procedure.  

Soft tissue surgery in general is hard for robots due to the unpredictability. To deal with that, the STAR robot was equipped with specialized suturing tools and state-of-the-art imaging systems that could deliver extremely accurate visualizations. 

John Hopkins

Specifically, it had a "structural light–based three-dimensional endoscope and machine learning–based tracking algorithm" to guide the robots. "We believe an advanced three-dimensional machine vision system is essential in making intelligent surgical robots smarter and safer," said John Hopkins professor Jin Kang. On top of that, STAR is the first robotic system that can "plan, adapt and execute a surgical plan in soft tissue with minimal human intervention," said first author Hamed Saeidi. Using all that technology, the STAR robot successfully performed the procedure in four animals

Laparoscopic surgery is minimally invasive compared to regular surgery, which helps ensure better patient outcomes. However, because it takes so long to master, there's a relatively small pool of doctors able to do it.

"Robotic anastomosis is one way to ensure that surgical tasks that require high precision and repeatability can be performed with more accuracy and precision in every patient independent of surgeon skill," said senior author Axel Krieger from John Hopkins. "We hypothesize that this will result in a democratized surgical approach to patient care with more predictable and consistent patient outcomes."

Google has launched an Offers tab for the Play Store featuring deals on apps, games, movies, books and other purchases, Android Police has reported. It appears at the bottom of the Play screen, along with Games, Apps, Movies & TV and Books, separate from the existing "Offers and notifications" section. 

"[Offers is] a new tab in the Google Play Store app to help you discover deals in games and apps across travel, shopping, media & entertainment, fitness, and more," Google said in a blog post. When you tap on the tab, it displays multiple carousels with offers on movie rentals, apps, games and more. It includes sales on in-game items, in-app purchases and offers app trials, Android Police noted. 

Google used to have a separate Android app called "Offers," that let you find deals in your current location, but that was way back in 2011 with Android 2.1 "Eclair" when Google Play was called Android Market. Its current "Offers & notifications" section on Play is sparse and not that easy to find, while the new tab is front and center and covers a wide range of products. The Offers tab is already rolling out to the US, India and Indonesia and will arrive in other markets later this year. 

Warner Bros. and New Line are creating a sequel to the Mortal Kombat film with Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater onboard, Deadline has reported. It will follow up the original R-rated film that did decent box office numbers ($83 million world wide) considering the pandemic, and was HBO Max's most successful film to date when it launched last April. 

On top of creating Moon Knight (with Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke), Slater is working on Stephen King's The Tommyknockers adaptation for Universal and an upcoming Netflix movie directed by Travis Knight. He also developed The Umbrella Academy for Netflix. 

The original film was as gory as you'd expect considering the violence of the game, but screenwriter Greg Russo also tried to inject some humor. It's not known if Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid will be involved again, but last year he said a sequel could happen "if the fans want another one." 

The original did seem designed to set up another sequel, though, with one one critic describing it as "the homework you have to do before the fun." It received a middling 54 percent Rotten Tomato critic rating, but was appreciated more by audiences that gave it an 86 percent score. 

The Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance has announced plans to spend $25.8 billion (€23 billion) with the aim of having 35 EVs by 2030. As part of that, the group will develop five new platforms shared across brands with 80 percent common usage as part of a "smart differentiation" strategy. Nissan teased one of the first cars based on one those platforms, an all-electric compact that will be sold in Europe to replace the automaker's popular Micra. 

The Alliance is focusing on pure EVs and "intelligent & connected mobility." It aims to increase commonality between vehicles with a "smart differentiation" system that allows pooling for platforms, production plants, powertrains and vehicle segments. "For example, the common platform for the C and D segment will carry five models from three brands of the Alliance (Nissan Qashqai and X-Trail, Mitsubishi Outlander, Renault Austral and an upcoming seven-seater SUV)," Renault Group said in the press release.

To that end, it unveiled five separate platforms, including the affordable CMF-AEV that's the base for Renault's budget Dacia Spring model, the mini vehicle KEI-EV platform for ultra-compact EVs and the LCV for commercial vehicles like the Renault Kangoo and Nissan Town Star. Another is CMF-EV, currently used by the Alliance for crossovers like the Nissan Ariya and Renault Megane E-Tech. 

Finally, the CMF-BEV platform will be used for compact EVs but reduce costs by 33 percent and consumption by 10 percent compared to the current Renault Zoe. It'll be the base for 250,000 vehicles per year under the Renault, Nissan and Alpine brands, including the Renault R5 and Nissan's upcoming EV to replace the Micra.

Nissan teased that vehicle in a separate press release, showing it off in a shadowy photo and brief video (above). While it has no name, price or launch date, it'll be built at the Renault ElectriCity center in Northern France. "This all-new model will be designed by Nissan and engineered and manufactured by Renault using our new common platform, maximizing the use of our Alliance assets while maintaining its Nissan-ness," said Nissan CEO Ashwani Gupta. "This is a great example of the Alliance"s 'smart differentiation" approach."

Renault Group said it would use a common battery strategy as well, aiming for 220 GWh of production capacity by 2030. It plans to reduce battery costs by 50 percent in 2026 and 65 percent by 2028. It's aiming to develop all-solid-state batteries (ASSB) by 2028, with Nissan in charge of that project "based on its deep expertise and unique experience as a pioneer in battery technology." 

The Alliance also said it aimed to have 25 million vehicles connected to its cloud system by 2026 that would allow for Tesla-like OTA (over the air) updates. "The Alliance will also be the first global, mass-market OEM to introduce the Google ecosystem in its cars," Renault Group said. 

The news follows Renault's announcement that it would electrify two thirds of its cars by 2025, with about 90 percent EVs in its lineup by 2030. Renault and Nissan ruled out a closer partnership last year, with Renault saying the companies "don't need a merger to be efficient." With the new platforms and cooperation announcement, it appears that the common platforms with "smart differentiation" will be key to that. 

The r/antiwork subreddit forum has temporarily gone private following a rough interview between Fox News personality Jesse Watters and one of the subreddit's moderators, Mashable reported. Other mods said they're dealing with "cleanup from ongoing brigading," or attacks by other subreddits, "and will be back soon." 

Members of the forum felt that the interview didn't reflect well on them, as it focused more on the moderator personally rather than the movement itself. "This person had the chance to prove to the world the problems with the current work culture yet just said 'laziness is a virtue,'" one commenter stated. 

The subreddit's catch-phrase is "Unemployment for all, not just the rich." It has more than 1.7 million users and was the fastest-growing non-default reddit across the site as of this writing. Growth doubled in the last three months alone, as workers tired of COVID-19 pandemic conditions and low wages. 

While it originally started as an anti-capitalism forum, the subreddit is now used to discuss workers' rights, talk about bad bosses, air grievances and more. Previously, the site has been implicated in a hack on business receipt printers to insert pro-labor messages.

"Most of the posts on r/antiwork are from retail and fast food workers, nurses, teachers, and other essential workers who are being screwed over during the pandemic," said another user on Twitter, according to The Independent. "But then... [this moderator] goes on TV and sets the entire thing back by a decade.”