Ahead of Street Fighter 6's launch on June 2nd, 2023, Capcom has unveiled a new free playable demo for PS5 and PS4, the company announced. It will let you play the first part of the World Tour mode and create an avatar for use in the main game. The demo arrives next week on April 26th, with more details in the video below. 

The developer also unveiled the first four playable characters for the game's first year: Rashid (summer 2023), A.K.I. (autumn - 2023), Akuma (spring 2024), and Ed (winter 2024). 

Capcom also detailed the single-player Street Fighter 6 modes. As mentioned, one is called is World Tour. There, you can level up avatars, explore Metro City and other locations, and interact with famous characters from Street Fighter and Capcom lore. some of those include Haggar, Carlos Miyamoto and others. World Tour mode is shown in the video below. 

We learned previously that the upcoming entry to the fighting franchise will come out for the PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The game will include Luke, a key DLC character for Street Fighter V, as well as fan favorites Ryu and Chun-Li. Capcom previously described Luke as "a key player in the future of Street Fighter" who would help expand its world. The playable demo should give us a good feel for the game, so fans will likely want to check it out when it arrives on April 26th.  

Bluesky, Jack Dorsey's alternative to Twitter, is now available by invitation only on Android devices after arriving on the App Store in February, The Verge reported. The app has a number of Twitter-like functions, letting you search for and follow other users, create posts (with photos) and more. It's currently in beta, though, so has a limited number of users (reportedly around 25,000) and is missing features like direct messages. 

Bluesky first came about in 2019 as a Twitter-backed side as a new type of decentralized standard for social media platforms. It officially broke off from Twitter in 2021, and has since joined the ranks of upstart Twitter clones like Mastodon that appeared following Elon Musk’s takeover. 

The app is designed to let users decide how they want to see and consume social media. "For developers, an open marketplace of algorithms will provide the freedom to experiment with and publish algorithms that anyone can use," CEO Jay Graber wrote last month. "For users, the ability to customize their feed will give them back control of their most valuable resource: their attention."

Graber has said that moderation is one of the last pieces of the puzzle to solve before the app opens to the public "because we wanted to prioritize user safety from the start," he wrote in a recent blog post. It'll apparently use a mixture of automated filtering and server-level moderation controlled by admins. Then, "we will let users subscribe to additional sets of moderation labels that can filter out more content or accounts." 

Apple's Mac Mini M2 gives you more speed and connectivity than you'd guess in such a small package, and for surprisingly little money, too. Now, it's dropped back down to the lowest price we've ever seen, starting at just $500 ($100 off the regular price) for the 256GB version. If more internal storage is needed, you can also buy the 512GB model for $690, for a discount of $110 (14 percent).

We gave the Mac Mini a solid 86 score in our Engadget review, praising the performance and classic aluminum design. While it's small enough to hide away on your desktop, the M2 processor is easily powerful enough for productivity chores and multitasking. The chip combines computing operations, like CPU, GPU, input/output interfaces and certain memory processes into one "system on a chip," allowing for faster processing speeds.

On top of that, you get killer connectivity, with two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections, HDMI 2.0 (with 4K 240Hz and 8K 60Hz output), two USB-A ports, a headphone jack and gigabit Ethernet (upgradeable to 10 gigabit). That lets you connect multiple screens along with storage and other accessories. 

The Mac Mini M2 won't replace your gaming machine, but it can handle nearly everything else you throw at it. The cheaper configurations are fine for most people, too — we wouldn't recommend the overpriced storage or RAM upgrades, as the M2 is much more efficient with RAM than typical PCs. All told, if you're looking for a cheap but powerful Mac, this is the way to go, especially at these prices.

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Polestar has revealed its coupe-style electric SUV at the Shanghai Auto Show, and as expected, the Polestar 4 is a head turner with a lot of power. It also has a pretty bold design choice: there's no rear window, so the driver's rear view is provided by a camera. The idea is to create "a new kind of immersive rear occupant experience," the company wrote in an announce post for the new EV. 

It's the company's second SUV after the larger Polestar 3, set to go on sale this year, and bigger than the Polestar 2 sedan. With a large 102kWh battery, it has a 300-plus mile targeted range and $60,000 starting price, with both all-wheel and rear-wheel drive versions. It'll go on sale starting in China by the end of the year, and launch in North America in 2024. 

Polestar

Design-wise, the Polestar 4 has a sleek and sporty design (for an SUV) broken up by subtle body panel creases and mildly bulging fenders. The lack of a rear window is an odd decision, as it's bound to make the interior feel a bit... stuffy. However, there is a standard full-length glass roof with optional electrochromic functionality that allows for opaque or transparent usage. To bring in a bit more light, it stretches down below the rear occupants' heads as well. 

A high-definition screen up front displays the view from the rear camera. Polestar says it allows for "a far wider field of view than what can be experienced in most other cars." Hopefully the company has a backup system of some kind, because if the screen or camera go down, drivers will have a massive blind spot behind them. 

Polestar

The Polestar 4 is built on parent Geely's open-source Sustainable Experience Architecture. It won't have a third row like some variants of Tesla's Model Y, so the company is instead promising "generous interior proportions" for both front and rear seat passengers. The interior and materials drew inspiration from the fashion and sportswear industries, Polestar wrote.

For an SUV, it'll go fast. The 544 horsepower model will allow you to go from zero to 62MPH in 3.8 seconds, to start with. Polestar will also offer a 272HP, long-range single-motor version. The optional 102kWh battery has a targeted range of 560 km (348 miles) on the WLTP cycle, or around 300 miles in EPA terms. And charging should be quick, with up to 200kW fast charging that should allow about 800 miles of charge per hour.

Polestar

Like the Polestar 3, the 4's driver-assist (ADAS) system will run NVIDIA's Drive computing platform, using 12 cameras, one radar and 12 ultrasonic sensors. One of those cameras is dedicated to monitoring the driver's head and eye movements to warn them of fatigue or incapacitation. 

A 10.2-inch instrument cluster and 14.7-inch heads-up display (HUD) shows speed, drive mode, turn-by-turn directions and more. The infotainment system is powered by Android Auto installed on a 15.4-inch center screen, with Apple CarPlay available as well. A Harman Kardon audio system is on option with 12 speakers and a 1,400-Watt channel-hybrid amplifier. 

Polestar

As mentioned, "indicative launch pricing" starts at $60,000 in the US, with availability slated for 2024. No current Polestar models qualify for the $7,500 US tax credit, which requires North American production and battery sourcing — and it's not clear where the Polestar 4 will fall. After the latest rules went into effect, only six EVs still qualified for the full credit. 

The company has yet to announce details about North American production. But if the company wants to qualify for the $7,500 tax credit, it will need to assemble it in North America as well as figure out a supply chain that’s independent from China.

There's some controversy in the photography world as an AI-generated image won a major prize at a prestigious competition, PetaPixel has reported. An piece called The Electrician by Boris Eldagsen took first prize in the Creative category at the World Photography Organization’s Sony World Photography Awards — despite not being taken by a camera. Eldagsen subsequently refused the award, saying "AI is not photography. I applied... to find out if the competitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not."

Eldagsen's image is part of a series called PSEUDOMNESIA: Fake Memories, designed to evoke a photographic style of the 1940s. However, they are in reality "fake memories of a past, that never existed, that no one photographed. These images were imagined by language and re-edited more between 20 to 40 times through AI image generators, combining ‘inpainting’, ‘outpainting’, and ‘prompt whispering’ techniques."

In a blog, Eldagsen explained that he used his experience as a photographer to create the prize-winning image, acting as a director of the process with the AI generators as "co-creators." Although the work is inspired by photography, he said that the point of the submission is that it is not photography. "Participating in open calls, I want to speed up the process of the Award organizers to become aware of this difference and create separate competitions for AI-generated images," he said.

Eldagsen subsequently declined the prize. “Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI-generated image to win in a prestigious international photography competition,” he wrote. “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it? AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”

Shortly thereafter, the photo was stripped from the show and competition website and organizers have yet to comment on the matter. Edalgsen actually traveled to London to attend the ceremony and even got up on stage (uninvited) to read a statement in person. 

It's not clear if the organizers knew the work was AI-generated or not (Eldagsen said he told them it was). In any case, rather than shrinking from the situation, they should be embracing it. AI-generated art has entered the culture in a huge way over the past year, with AI winning both photo and art competitions over the past few months. Eldagsen's piece is bound to create conversations about how to handle it, particularly when it encroaches into traditional mediums. 

Sony's semiconductor division has announced that it's making a "strategic investment" in Raspberry Pi as a way to bring its AI tech to a wider market. The idea is to give Raspberry Pi users around the world a development platform for its Aitrios edge computing (on-chip) AI platform used for image sensing functions like facial recognition. 

"We are very pleased to be partnering with Raspberry Pi Ltd. to bring our Aitrios platform — which supports the development of unique and diverse solutions utilizing our edge AI devices — to the Raspberry Pi user and developer community, and provide a unique development experience," said Sony Semiconductor Solutions president and CEO Terushi Shimizu.

The Raspberry Pi 4 and other devices from the company give users PC-like power in a small form factor. Originally designed as an educational platform to teach robotics, coding and more, it has become popular as a way for coders to prototype IoT (Internet of Things) and other devices.  

The addition of Sony's Aitrios could make it even more useful. Unlike cloud AI, it runs directly on chips (edge computing) to reduce latency, and Sony has pitched the system for uses like surveillance, security and more. Examples cited on a dedicated website include inventory monitoring and retention, customer counting, license plate recognition and "detailed employee analysis." Sony says it preserves privacy by analyzing data strictly on-chip and only sending metadata to the cloud. 

Sony is already involved with Raspberry Pi as a "longstanding and valued strategic partner," the company said. It recently provided imaging chips with autofocus capability and helped Raspberry Pi get its UK manufacturing plant up to speed in the early days of the company.

Back in 2021, the New York Police Department (NYPD) cancelled a planned deployment of the Spot robot dog [aka "Digidog"] following a public backlash. Now, New York City's current law and order mayor Eric Adams has brought the robot dog back for use in "hazardous situations," The New York Times has reported. "Digidog is out of the pound," Adams said at a press conference yesterday in Times Square.

The NYPD will acquire two of the robots for $750,000 and only use them in hostage and other critical situations. "I believe that technology is here; we cannot be afraid of it,” Adams said. “A few loud people were opposed to it, and we took a step back [but] that is not how I operate. I operate on looking at what’s best for the city."

Spot/Digidog is built by Hyundai's Boston Dynamics, and is designed to be used in dangerous situations like security and inspections. It was also tested for use in combat by the French army, primarily for reconnaissance.

During its previous tour of duty with the NYPD, police used Spot to gather information about a gunmen barricaded inside a building. On another occasion it was deployed during a home invasion, also to give officers eyes inside the house. After critics brought up potential concerns over surveillance and privacy, however, then-mayor Bill de Blasio elected to cancel a $94,000 lease on Spot. "It’s creepy, alienating and sends the wrong message to New Yorkers," a city spokesperson said at the time. 

Along with Digidog, the NYPD announced testing of two other types of security and surveillance tech. The Guardian HX from StarChase shoots GPS tracking tags onto vehicles from a handheld or car-mounted launcher, allowing officers to find them without the needed for a chase. The other is the Knightscope's K5 ASR, a "fully autonomous outdoor security robot" that the NYPD wants to use for collecting intelligence.

"This is the beginning of a series of rollouts we are going to do to show how public safety has transformed itself," Adams said at the press conference. However, the move was condemned by Albert Fox Cahn from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "The NYPD is turning bad science fiction into terrible policing," he told the NYT in a statement. "New York deserves real safety, not a knockoff from 'Robocop.'"

EA will release the mobile free-to-play Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth on May 10th, marking its first LOTR game since 2009's The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. It also unveiled the first real trailer, showing gameplay, menus and more. It's one of five LOTR games currently in development from Embracer (which bought the rights last year), including the much anticipated Lord of the Rings: Gollum set to arrive shortly afterwards. 

The trailer features a "stylized realism art style," EA wrote, leaning into existing lore with wanderers, warriors, wizards and other classic LOTR characters. AT the same time, it creates "a more diverse and inclusive Middle-earth," the company said, while showing off Story, PVP and other gameplay modes.  

Heroes of Middle-earth includes characters from both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, along with collection systems, turn-based combat and more. In a previous news release, EA said that players will experience "iconic stories from the world of Tolkien and take up the fight against the great evils of Middle-earth." Given the free-to-play aspect, there are of course microtransactions.

Heroes of Middle-earth is set to arrive on iOS and Android on May 10th, with pre-registration now open. Meanwhile, Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on consoles and PC May 25th, and Embracer reportedly has three additional titles in development for the next two years. 

At the Star Wars Celebration in London, Lucasfilm has unveiled a raft of news, trailers and more on its numerous upcoming streaming series, Variety has reported. That starts with a first look at The Acolyte showed to the ExCel Center crowd (but not online yet) and a launch date window of sometime in 2024. 

First revealed at Disney's Investor Day 2020, The Acolyte takes place in the High Republic era of the Star Wars universe (100 years before the franchise’s prequel trilogy) during a period called the Golden Age of the Jedi. The cast includes Jodie Turner-Smith, The Good Place star Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson and Carrie-Anne Moss.

The first look showed footage of a Jedi temple, fighting with Moss, a gold lightsaber, and a shots of the Jedis lighting up their sabers in unison. "This is about power and who is allowed to use it," a tagline read. The show is reportedly a "mystery thriller" seen from the perspective of the Siths, with the term "acolyte" describing soldiers of Sith Lords, according to Variety.

Lucasfilm also revealed that the Ahsoka series will debut in August of 2023, and stars Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead revealed a teaser trailer to the crowd (above), with Dawson intoning "Something is coming, something dark."  

In other news, creator Tony Gilroy also showed off a trailer (also not online yet) and said that Andor's second and final season will debut in August 2024. Meanwhile, Jude Law and Jon Favreau showed off the first trailer for Skeleton Crew, a Spielberg-esque series focused on a group of rebellious kids. The footage showed Jude Law as a Jedi, kids on speeders and spaceships, and a baddie from The Mandalorian. 

Samsung has warned of plummeting profits and plans to cut back on memory chip production in response to falling demand, The Korea Herald has reported. It expects to earn just 600 billion won ($455 million) for the first quarter of 2023, a drop of 96 percent from the same period last year. It blamed falling demand for memory chips, a situation that could be a bad sign for the tech industry as a whole. 

"We’re adjusting to lower memory production to a meaningful level... in addition to optimizing line operations that are already underway,” Samsung said in a statement. It added that it would continue to invest in clean room infrastructure and expand R&D spending, as it sees improved memory chip demand in the mid- to long-term. 

Although it trails Taiwan's TSMC in other areas, Samsung is the global leader in DRAM and NAND flash memory chip production with 40.7 and 31.4 percent shares respectively. Such chips are used in consumer devices of all kinds, ranging from smartwatches to mobile phones and laptops. The oversupply of memory chips is therefore a sign that demand for such products has fallen significantly due to an ongoing global economic slowdown. 

The slowdown comes just a short time after one of the biggest tech industry booms of all time, powered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since late in 2021, however, memory prices have dropped through the floor, with DRAM and NAND prices down by 20 and 15 percent in just the last quarter alone. One bright spot for Samsung has been sales of its new Galaxy S23 smartphone, which helped bolster profits, the company said. It will reveal more details in its earnings report set to drop at the end of April.