If you want to catch a (somewhat) rare planetary alignment in the night sky, find a clear area without much light pollution and set your gaze to the west right after sunset this evening. There, you’ll see five of our neighbors — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus — lined up in an orderly fashion.

The alignment will be visible at the same time this entire week, but this evening should provide the best view from the US. The planets will range from the horizon line to around halfway up the sky. However, you won’t want to wait long because the row of planets will only be visible for about half an hour after sunset.

You won’t necessarily need binoculars to spot the planets, but they may make your job easier — ditto for augmented reality stargazing apps like Night Sky (iOS) or Sky Map (Android). NASA astronomer Bill Cooke told the Associated Press this week that Jupiter, Venus and Mars will be the brightest and easiest to spot. He added that the alignment happens “when the planets’ orbits line them up on one side of the sun from Earth’s perspective.”

Although this cosmic convergence is a somewhat rare occurrence, it just happened only last summer. In addition, if you miss this week’s show, you’ll get another chance in June (albeit with a slightly different breakdown). Be sure to scout a dark spot without tall trees or buildings nearby for the best view.

China’s Chang’e 5 rover has found tiny glass beads containing water in an impact crater on the Moon. Samples collected from a 2020 mission found beads with water content as high as 2,000 parts per million (PPM). Given the prevalence of these glass spheres on the lunar surface, there may be enough to provide 71 trillion gallons of water.

Some beads formed when asteroids collided with the Moon millions of years ago, while others came from ancient volcanoes. Scientists believe the water originated from a chemical reaction when hydrogen ions emitted from the sun — transported to the lunar surface from solar winds — combined with oxygen atoms inside the beads. The water-filled beads are tiny, ranging from “tens of micrometers to a few millimeters.” Still, there are enough on the Moon’s surface to (theoretically) supply an estimated 270 trillion kilograms of water — enough to fill 100 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

However, scientists haven’t yet figured out how to collect them, and they would need to heat them to around 212 degrees Fahrenheit to extract water. Still, they could be a resource for future lunar settlements, where astronauts could use water for drinking, bathing, cooking, cleaning and even producing rocket fuel.

Scientists believe other moons in our Solar System may have similar beads. “Our direct measurements of this surface reservoir of lunar water show that impact glass beads can store substantial quantities of solar wind-derived water on the moon and suggest that impact glass may be water reservoirs on other airless bodies,” the study’s authors wrote. “The presence of water, stored in impact glass beads, is consistent with the remote detection of water at lower-latitude regions of the Moon, Vesta and Mercury. Our findings indicate that the impact glasses on the surface of Solar System airless bodies are capable of storing solar wind-derived water and releasing it to space.”

The glass beads aren’t our first glimpse at water on the Moon. In 2009, NASA crashed a probe into the Cabeus crater that led to water detection; in 2018, NASA found direct evidence of ice deposits in the Moon’s permanently shadowed craters on its north and south poles. NASA and China / Russia plan to put lunar bases at the Moon’s South Pole within the next decade; the competing initiatives both hope to have inhabitable bases ready by the early-to-mid-2030s.

Levi’s is partnering with an AI company on computer-generated fashion models to “supplement human models.” The company frames the move as part of a “digital transformation journey” of diversity, equity, inclusion and sustainability. Although that sounds noble on the surface, Levi’s is essentially hiring a robot to generate the appearance of diversity while ridding itself of the burden of paying human beings who represent the qualities it wants to be associated with its brand.

Levi Strauss is partnering with Amsterdam-based digital model studio Lalaland.ai for the initiative. Founded in 2019, the company’s mission is “to see more representation in the fashion industry” and “create an inclusive, sustainable, and diverse design chain.” It aims to let customers see what various fashion items would look like on a person who looks like them via “hyper-realistic” models “of every body type, age, size and skin tone.”

Levi’s announcement echoes that branding, saying the partnership is about “increasing the number and diversity of our models for our products in a sustainable way.” The company continues, “We see fashion and technology as both an art and a science, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Lalaland.ai, a company with such high-quality technology that can help us continue on our journey for a more diverse and inclusive customer experience.”

Lalaland.ai

Levi’s claims, “AI will likely never fully replace human models for us” (note the qualifying “likely”). But I can’t help but see this as the first step in a dystopian slow walk toward automating the industry. As AI-generated “photography,” art and writing grow ever more convincing, we would be naive to take corporations at face value when they insist moves like this are about PR-friendly principles like celebrating diversity and looking out for the environment. At the very least, it’s awfully convenient that those high-minded motives also let them mass-produce something that previously required hiring people.

Levi Strauss reportedly began a 12-to-19-month process of cutting around 800 jobs — almost 20 percent of its corporate workforce — last year. It was part of a restructuring plan to save about $75 million to $100 million annually.

The next game from the makers of Genshin Impact has a release date. Honkai: Star Rail — a turn-based, space-fantasy, tactical RPG — arrives on April 26th. In addition to previously announced PC and mobile availability, developer HoYoverse announced today that a PlayStation (PS5 / PS4) version is coming “later.”

Although much is unknown about Honkai: Star Rail, we do know it trades in Genshin Impact’s Breath of the Wild type of open-world action for turn-based combat. Based on its trailers, it looks like a visual spectacle with an anime-esque art style and a cast of memorable characters. 

The story, set in the same universe as Honkai Impact 3rd, follows a protagonist with an implanted Stellaron (mysterious life forms that respond to the world’s desire to advance) on a quest to discover the truth about the “Cancer of All Worlds.” It begins at a tutorial level on Herta Space Station before moving on to snow-covered Jarilo-VI and other diverse worlds.

The free-to-play game will use gacha (item and character-based loot boxes) for monetization. It’s rated T for Teen and will be available for PC (standalone installation or the Epic Games Store), iOS and Android. That PS5 / PS4 version will arrive at an unknown later date.

Archer Aviation and United Airlines announced a partnership today to launch a commercial air taxi route in Chicago. The companies plan to open the flight path between downtown and O’Hare International Airport in 2025.

Besides being United’s headquarters and largest hub, Chicago's airport commute makes it an ideal testbed for flying taxis. For example, the drive to or from O’Hare, in the western suburb of Rosemont, can take anywhere from 35 minutes to over an hour, depending on traffic; even in one of the city’s elevated trains, it can take around 45 minutes. But Archer estimates a flight in one of its air taxis will only take 10 minutes to travel from O’Hare to its destination at a downtown helipad. The program will initially be limited to the mainline O’Hare / downtown route, but the companies eventually plan to add smaller paths to surrounding communities.

Archer describes the upcoming route as “cost competitive” for passengers without going into specifics. But even if it’s initially limited to deep-pocketed business travelers, the program should be good for the environment. Archer’s air taxis use electric motors and batteries and don’t produce emissions. “This exciting new technology will further decarbonize our means of transportation, taking us another step forward in our fight against climate change,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “I’m pleased that Chicago residents will be among the first in the nation to experience this innovative, convenient form of travel.”

The partnership is the latest in United’s aggressive investments in flying taxis. Last year, the airline ordered at least 200 electric flying taxis from Eve Air Mobility; that followed a $10 million deposit it placed with Archer the month prior.

In addition to Chicago’s (ground-based) taxis and ride shares, the city has a robust public transportation system built around elevated trains and buses, the latter of which the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has committed to converting to electric by 2040. (The CTA already deploys 23 electric buses.) If all goes according to plan, the flight path will help decrease emissions and traffic congestion, something most Chi-town residents can get behind.

Nvidia wants game developers to remember that ray tracing isn’t the end of the line. A new Cyberpunk 2077 technology preview (“Overdrive Mode”) supports path tracing, the next goalpost to make games look even prettier and keep you buying expensive new GPUs. The two-year-old game joins Minecraft, Portal and Quake II — titles with relatively primitive graphics — in supporting the technology. In addition, Nvidia announced the availability of a developer kit to pave the way for the next generation of bleeding-edge graphics.

While ray tracing follows a single beam of light across a virtual scene, path tracing follows the light as it bounces around an environment, more realistically mimicking how it works in the physical world. It determines how nearby surfaces reflect or absorb the light, producing physically accurate soft shadows that more easily convince our brains that we’re viewing a natural, real-life scene. And humans perceiving graphics as more realistic is (naturally) an advancement the gaming industry will pursue without hesitation. Hollywood has used path tracing for decades, but it was a slow and expensive process that couldn’t work on consumer gear or in anything close to real-time.

However, we need to keep our expectations in check for the moment: You’ll need the most powerful Nvidia RTX 40-series GPUs to enjoy Cyberpunk 2077’s path tracing (and those who do may run into performance issues). Still, Nvidia is eager to nudge the industry toward what will be increasingly possible for consumer graphics in the coming years.

Nvidia says two of its technologies were vital in producing this milestone: DLSS 3 (AI-based image upscaling without performance loss) and Shader Execution Reordering (more efficient ray tracing without losing quality). “DLSS allows games to render 1/8th of the pixels, then uses AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores to reconstruct the rest, dramatically multiplying frame rates, while delivering crisp, high-quality images that rival native resolution,” Nvidia explained in its announcement.

Although we’ll probably have to wait a while before this technology becomes widely accessible, Nvidia launched a new SDK this week to let developers prepare. Owners of the latest and greatest Nvidia GPUs can test the Cyberpunk 2077 “Overdrive Mode” tech preview starting on April 11th.

Sega announced a new expansion today for Sonic Origins, its remastered collection of old-school Sonic the Hedgehog games. Sonic Origins Plus adds 12 classic Game Gear titles and new playable characters.

Sonic Origins Plus adds the entire library of Sonic Game Gear installments, which includes: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Chaos, Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic Blast, Sonic Drift, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic 2 in 1, Tails Adventure, Tails' Skypatrol, Sonic Spinball. Additionally, the expansion lets you play as Amy Rose (Sonic’s hammer-wielding admirer first introduced in Sonic CD) in the first three Sonic games, and you can play as Amy or Tails in Sonic CD.

You’ll receive all the content from the Sonic Origins base game, including remastered versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD (as well as all previously released DLC). In addition, the collection still includes Classic Mode, where you can enjoy the games in their original and unaltered format, and Anniversary Mode, which stretches the aspect ratio to 16:9 and lowers frustration by giving you infinite lives. Finally, a 20-page book of classic art and a reversible coversheet are bundled if you buy a physical copy.

If you own Sonic Origins, the expansion will cost an extra $10. However, if you’re new to the collection, you get Sonic Origins Plus — including all the base game’s content — for $40, the same price you’ll pay now for Sonic Origins alone. The expansion will be available for PlayStation (PS5 / PS4), Xbox (Series X / S and One) and Nintendo Switch on June 23rd, which marks the 32nd anniversary of the first Sonic game’s launch on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.

Positive Grid has a new ultra-portable version of its high-tech Spark guitar amplifier. Designed for musicians seeking a versatile and powerful practice amp, the 3.5-inch-tall Spark Go works with a companion app loaded with virtual amps, pedals and other effects — and it can even flesh out your sound with AI-powered drums and other backing instruments.

Like its predecessors, the Spark Go pairs with an iOS / Android app to go far beyond amplifying your strumming and picking; it enhances it digitally. It includes 50,000 tones (ranging from boutique to modern), 33 amps and 43 effects and pedals, giving you plenty of novel ways to shape your sound. The app can even “jam along with you” by listening to and learning from your playing, generating an appropriate backing track. And if you want to learn new tunes, the app can sync with Spotify or Apple Music to display AI-generated chords for the song you’re hearing.

Engadget’s 2021 review of the Spark Pearl (a larger model in the same line) found the app to have some rough edges — including a less-than-convincing AI drummer. However, the company has had plenty of time to smooth it out, so we’ll reserve judgment on the current iteration until we test it again. After all, you may have heard generative AI has made some impressive leaps since then.

The amp has a rugged construction and “extra hardshell grille” to (at least in theory) live up to its on-the-go branding; Positive Grid says it even fits on a pedal board. The company suggests laying it flat for omnidirectional sound or standing it on its edge for “in-your-face sound.” In addition, it uses computational audio that delivers “surprisingly big, full sound” from its tiny package. (And you can plug in headphones to practice in private.) The amp’s battery allegedly lasts up to eight hours and recharges with USB-C. Finally, it supports four presets for when you find a mix you want to keep handy.

Positive Grid is accepting early signups to be notified when Spark Go pre-orders go live. Whenever they open (the company hasn’t yet announced a date), the company will offer the amp for an aggressively priced $109 — although it will eventually increase to a suggested $149.

Apple’s Major League Baseball broadcast lineup no longer includes free games for non-subscribers. The company announced today that its “Friday Night Baseball” doubleheaders, which resume on April 7th, now require an Apple TV+ subscription.

During the 2022 baseball season, anyone could stream the Friday night games on Apple TV+ without a subscription. However, the company did note at the time that the offer would only be available for a limited time. It was Apple’s first foray into live sports after negotiating a seven-year with MLB worth $595 million.

Although the games are now locked behind a subscription, Apple’s deal doesn’t include blackouts for local teams, a rarity in non-network-TV sports broadcasting. Additionally, it’s worth noting that while Apple bills its Friday-night lineups as “doubleheaders,” the two games often air simultaneously. The first game on April 7th is an exception, fearing the Texas Rangers vs. Chicago Cubs at 2 PM ET and the San Diego Padres vs. Atlanta Braves at 7 PM ET. You can browse Apple’s schedule (up to June 30th).

Apple’s 2023 in-game broadcast lineup includes Wayne Randazzo (play-by-play), Dontrelle Willis (analyst), Heidi Watney (sideline reporter), Alex Faust (play-by-play), Ryan Spilborghs (analyst) and Tricia Whitaker (sideline reporter). In addition, pre- and postgame coverage brings back host Lauren Gardner, along with Siera Santos, Xavier Scruggs, Matt Joyce, Russell Dorsey and former MLB umpires Brian Gorman and Dale Scott.

Although baseball was Apple’s first dive into live sports, the company also now hosts Major League Soccer Season Pass, which costs an extra $13 per month or $79 for the season ($15 / mo. or $99 / season for non-Apple TV+ subscribers). Additionally, Apple recently partnered with T-Mobile to give its wireless subscribers full-season access for free. Given that Apple TV+ is only three years old, the iPhone maker has moved quickly to flesh out its streaming platform far beyond Ted Lasso.

Windows support is coming to Nreal Air AR glasses. The company announced Nebula for Windows, which lets you view your PC on the virtual equivalent of an ultra-wide monitor.

Nreal says gaming is the top use for its glasses, which connect to an external device to show content on a private virtual screen. The company cites a recent survey showing that 68 percent of Nreal Air owners use the glasses for gaming, making Windows support a top priority.

The company says Windows users will enjoy a virtual curved gaming monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Nreal suggests the setup is particularly ideal for fans of cockpit games where a wide field of view is advantageous. In addition, Nebula for Windows will support three degrees of freedom (3-DoF), meaning it follows your head movements and rotations but not leaning or moving through space.

Nreal

Nreal hasn’t yet announced an exact release date, but it will show off the Windows support at GDC 2023 in San Francisco this week. It will also showcase “next-gen casual AR games for mobile” there as the company looks to spark more Android gaming development for the popular wearable.