At its Tudum 2023 event today, Netflix revealed new trailers for two highly anticipated live-action adaptations of beloved animated series. One Piece gets a full trailer ahead of its August 31st premiere on the streaming service, while we’ll have to settle for a brief teaser trailer for Avatar: The Last Airbender, which won’t arrive until 2024.

The 90-second One Piece trailer shows the cast and settings of the live-action take on the manga and long-running anime series. We see plenty of star Iñaki Godoy as the naive but kind protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, who can stretch like rubber. The other Straw Hat Pirate crew members are Mackenyu as Roronoa Zero, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp and Taz Skylar as Sanji.

Meanwhile, the 37-second Avatar: The Last Airbender teaser doesn’t give us any shots of the cast or environments from the live-action remake. Instead, we see symbols of the four nations (Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation and Air Nomads) fading in and out. Each includes a subtle audio cue corresponding to its element. Whenever we do finally see its cast, it will include Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai.

You may recall from a few years back that Avatar: The Last Airbender original series creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko departed the project, raising questions about how faithful the new adaptation will be to the source material. “I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded,” DiMartino said in 2020. “So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.” Still, he added at the time that the Netflix adaption “has the potential to be good.” We’ll have to wait until next year to find out.

In the three years since Black Mirror's previous (and somewhat disappointing) season, we've lived through a global pandemic, watched a US president trigger a mob attack on the Capitol, and AI has gone mainstream. We’re barreling towards the future faster than ever, but loneliness remains a key issue in modern life. What better time for Charlie Brooker to bring back his feel-bad series for another season?

In 2019, I argued that Brooker was running out of things to say with the show, despite his deft ability to predict our tech-infused dystopia with Black Mirror's first few seasons. Something was lost with his transition to Netflix, which led to bigger budgets and more notable stars, but less of the sharp insight that made the show so memorable. (At least we got “San Junipero,” though.) Thankfully, a few years away from the project seems to have helped. Season six of Black Mirror, which hit Netflix on June 15th, is the series at its best: Shocking, incisive and often hilarious. It also finds new life by looking back into the past frequently, as well as exploring horror more directly than before.

Minor spoilers ahead of Black Mirror season six.

"Joan is Awful" is the perfect way to kick off the new season – it's the most stereotypical Black Mirror setup. A disaffected big tech HR worker is surprised to find a show on Streamberry (an obvious Netflix stand-in) that recounts her daily life. That includes the cringeworthy layoff of a colleague (and supposed friend), and a therapist appointment where she reveals she's dissatisfied with her fiance.

It's a relatable Millennial malaise setup, the sort of thing Charlie Brooker captured so well early on in the series. Joan, played by Schitt's Creek star Annie Murphy, says she doesn't feel like a main character in her own life, so she coasts through everything on autopilot, almost always taking the easiest and less confrontational option. You'd think that it would be illegal for a network to just recount her life for all of its subscribers — turns out, she should have read the Terms of Service more closely.

I won't spoil where, exactly, that episode goes, or the familiar faces you end up seeing. But as the twists revealed themselves and it reached its inevitable bonkers conclusion, I couldn't help but smile. It was like Charlie Brooker shouting at me through the screen, "Black Mirror is back, baby!"

Netflix

What's truly surprising, though, is that this season of the series also feels refreshing in the ways it veers away from what we expect. "Loch Henry" is a fascinating exploration of our obsession with true crime dramas, and the impact they can have on the people affected by those stories. But aside from the presence of Streamberry as a service thirsty for true crime narratives, the story is more cultural than technology criticism.

Sure, we have more tools than ever to make true crime documentaries – there's a drone being used to make sweeping aerial shots, and the digital cameras are perfectly suited to shooting in dimly lit basements – but the desire to tell and consume these stories is purely human. And when it comes to macabre drama we can't help ourselves.

Black Mirror also gains some fresh perspective by exploring the past — or at least, timelines without smartphones and ubiquitous fast cellular internet. “Beyond the Sea” is an elegant yet brutal story set in 1969, focusing on two astronauts on a deep space mission who also wirelessly control mechanical bodies back on Earth. The episode is less interested in how any of that tech works — just accept the mystery, folks — and more about how it affects those astronauts, their families and society as a whole.

It's not too surprising when deranged hippie cultists appear, believing that mechanoid people are an affront to humanity. Both astronauts, played by Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and former heartthrob Josh Hartnett, are also trapped by the societal norms of the '60s. They may be world-class astronauts, but they're also men who can't share their feelings properly, who hit their kids to "keep them in line," and who have rigid expectations from the women in their lives. Beyond the Sea may not fully earn its tragic conclusion, but the journey is certainly powerful.

I was surprised to see how much Black Mirror leans into pure horror this season: “Demon 79” is a direct callback to '70s horror films, from its explosive score to its overall aesthetic. The story revolves around an immigrant shoe sales clerk who inadvertently summons a demon, and is tasked with murdering three people to prevent the apocalypse. There isn't a sliver of tech involved — perhaps that’s why the opening credits refer to it as a "Red Mirror" episode. But it's still a fun horror romp, with plenty of subtext around the South Asian experience in '70s London (thanks to co-writer Bisha K. Ali, who also served as the showrunner for Ms. Marvel).

“Mazey Day” also brings Black Mirror into fresh territory, but you're better off discovering how for yourself. I can reveal that its story of a young paparazzi photographer (Zazie Beetz) is a refreshing glimpse of the mid-2000's, filled with then cutting edge tech (the square iPod Shuffle! Dashboard GPS!), but also plenty of old school touches. You still needed big paper map books in that era, because GPS wasn't always reliable. And even though high speed internet was widely available, it wasn't unusual to find people still relying on dial-up in 2005.

It’s impossible for Black Mirror to feel as fresh as it did over a decade ago. Since then, the downsides of Big Tech have become impossible to ignore. But at least now, especially with some extra time to craft these episodes, it seems like Charlie Brooker has found something new to say with the show.

Bonnaroo takes place this weekend and, as with the last two years, you can watch the festival from the comfort of your home on Hulu. Through Sunday, the streaming service is offering two channels of live music coming to you from Manchester, Tennessee. You'll find the streams on the Hulu homepage or by searching for "Bonnaroo."

This year's headliners are Kendrick Lamar, Odesza and Foo Fighters. There are many other notable names on the bill, including Three 6 Mafia, Jenny Lewis, Tyler Childers, Sheryl Crow, My Morning Jacket, Franz Ferdinand, Paramore and Pixies. As things stand, Hulu will show all of those artists' sets except for Lamar's. You can check the platform's website for the up-to-date schedule. Unfortunately, you won't be able to stream the sets on Hulu after the fact — you'll have to tune in live to catch them.

You'll need to be a Hulu subscriber to watch the livestreams, but the service is offering a seven-day trial for new and eligible returning users. Hulu has been the streaming home of Bonnaroo since 2021, when it took over the rights from YouTube. Later this year, you'll be able to watch Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits Music Festival on the platform as well.

Spotify and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex say they’ve “mutually decided to part ways,” ending a deal for Harry and Meghan to produce podcasts for the company. The agreement, which the two sides reached in 2020, was said to be worth $25 million.

Meghan hosted a podcast called Archetypes. It sought to confront female stereotypes through conversations between Meghan and the likes of Serena Williams and Mariah Carey. The show ran for 12 episodes last year and it was the only podcast that the couple’s Archewell Audio business made for Spotify.

While Spotify and Archewell Audio said they were “proud of the series we made together” and the show won a People’s Choice Award, the former has opted not to renew Archetypes. Meghan is “continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform,” an Archewell spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.

The Spotify deal was one of the major commercial agreements Harry and Meghan struck after giving up their royal duties. The couple sought media deals in the hope of becoming financially independent but have seen mixed results. Netflix canceled an animated show created by Meghan before production was complete, but a docuseries on the couple hit the streaming service late last year. Harry & Meghan quickly became one of Netflix’s most-watched documentaries.

Meanwhile, Spotify recently shifted its podcast strategy. Earlier this month, it laid off 200 people from its podcast teams and merged Gimlet Media and Parcast into a new division, Spotify Studios. The company will continue to produce some original podcasts via Spotify Studios and The Ringer. However, it appears to be more focused on expanding deals with high-profile podcasters from around the world (like Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper) and supporting amateur creators in the space through tools such as Anchor.

Microsoft may own almost half of OpenAI, but a recent expose hints the pair aren’t the happiest of bedfellows. The Wall Street Journal claims the AI company warned Microsoft not to incorporate GPT-4 into Bing search without further training, but it did so anyway. It resulted in several high-profile examples of odd behavior, including bots arguing with users, and at least one instance of a user being urged to dissolve their marriage and elope with Bing instead.

There’s resentment, too, on Microsoft’s side, finding its own internal AI projects overlooked in favor of OpenAI. Which, despite the close financial ties, is very much free to work with Microsoft’s rivals in plenty of fields. It’s led to a situation where the pair are working together, and yet against one another. And that’s never a recipe for success.

– Dan Cooper

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There’s almost nothing in the human spirit as indomitable as the phrase, “You sure about that, pal?” It’s something Reddit CEO Steve Huffman seems unable to stop milking in his user base after sending a memo to staffers saying the API protests would “pass.” His internal missive added that, despite tens of thousands of communities going dark, there was no “significant revenue impact.” Consequently, those in charge of the communities have pledged to keep their protests running indefinitely, with one user inviting Reddit’s leadership to “f- around and find out.”

Continue Reading (Huffman)

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Toyota claims its future EVs will have a range of over 600 miles

And something about hydrogen.

Daniel Cooper / Engadget

Toyota has announced its next-generation EV battery will have a range of 621 miles, or 1,000 kilometers. It’s part of a long series of announcements from the company that kickstarted the EV revolution finally embracing the technology. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Toyota announcement without plenty of sweet words about hydrogen, but we all know the writing’s on the wall for that one, at least for small and mid-size vehicles.

Continue Reading.

Paul McCartney is using AI to create a final song for The Beatles

It’s likely to be a 1978 demo written by John.

Sir Paul McCartney has announced he’ll release one last song from The Beatles, which was recorded with the help of AI. It comes from the same trove of John Lennon demos used to make “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” in the mid ‘90s. A third song, “Now and Then,” was on the same tapes, but electrical interference rendered Lennon’s vocals unusable. McCartney was inspired to go back to the material after watching Peter Jackson’s Get Back, which used AI to extract clean dialog audio from the studio noise. The song will be released later this year, but be warned – George Harrison didn’t think much of it when they tried to re-record it in the ‘90s.

Continue Reading.

Embracer announces layoffs and game cancellations after a $2 billion deal falls through

It could have implications for some mid-tier game revivals in the works.

You’d be forgiven for not knowing the name Embracer, a publisher that has spent big to pick up a roster of big, if not blockbuster, games franchises. It’s the name behind the names behind series like Borderlands, Homeworld, TimeSplitters, Tomb Raider and The Lord of the Rings. Sadly, it also managed to tie itself in financial knots after an unnamed deal, reportedly worth $2 billion, fell apart back in May. Consequently, it’s announced it’ll need to restructure to survive, with several as-yet unannounced games on the chopping block and the potential for mass layoffs in the near future.

Continue Reading.

AI-assisted vocals aren't just for bootleg songs. Paul McCartney has revealed to BBC Radio 4 that he's using AI to turn a John Lennon demo into one last song for The Beatles. The technology helped extract Lennon's voice to get a "pure" version that could be mixed into a finished composition. The piece will be released later this year, McCartney says.

McCartney didn't name the song, but it's believed to be "Now and Then," a 1978 love song Lennon put on cassettes meant for the other former Beatle. The Guardian notes the tune was considered for release as a reunion song alongside tracks that did make the cut, such as "Free As A Bird," but there wasn't much to it — just a chorus, a crude backing track and the lightest of verses. The Beatles rejected it after George Harrison thought it was bad, and the electrical buzz from Lennon's apartment didn't help matters.

The inspiration for the revival came from dialog editor Emile de la Rey's work on the Peter Jackson documentary Get Back, where AI separated the Beatles' voices from instruments and other sounds. The tech provides "some sort of leeway" for producing songs, McCartney adds.

To date, music labels typically haven't been fond of AI due to copyright clashes. Creators have used algorithms to have famous artists "sing" songs they never actually produced, such as a recently pulled fantasy collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd. This, however, is different — McCartney is using AI to salvage a track that otherwise wouldn't have reached the public. It won't be surprising if other artists use the technique to recover work that would otherwise sit in an archive.

Ubisoft’s open-world Avatar game is almost here. At the company’s Summer Game Fest preview event, we got a substantial look at the story and gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. James Cameron introduced the game in a prerecorded segment, teasing “new environments new flora and fauna and characters”.

A cinematic trailer lays out how this tale will fit in with the Avatar movies. In short, it’ll cover the events of both games, with the protagonist being kidnapped during the events of the first film and schooled by the human invaders. After the events at the end of Avatar, you are cryogenically frozen… then unfrozen 15 years later in time to fight the RDA’s continued invasion.

The game itself is an open-world first-person action-adventure game, where you'll be able to combine Na'vi skills and weapons with human assault weapons and a casual rocket launcher or two. It wouldn't be an Avatar thing without the ability to bond with sentient animals you can ride. The trailer teases the ability to ride direhorses as well as your very own ikran. You'll be able to feed and customize your partner when not flying down waterfalls. Frontiers of Pandora will include a new western expanse not seen in the movies, where you'll meet as-yet unseen Na'vi clans, including a secretive healer clan. 

You'll be able to equip and grow your character to fit your own playstyle, crafting weaponry and items from resources and upgrading your own skills as you see fit. 

Frontiers of Pandora launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC and, oddly, Luna. (Yes, Luna!) on December 7th 2023.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Major Hollywood stars are coming out to play during Summer Game Fest. After Nicolas Cage showed up at the opening keynote to discuss his role in Dead by Daylight, Keanu Reeves appeared at the Xbox Games Showcase to present the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

Reeves reprises his role as Johnny Silverhand in the expansion, which includes another big name in the form of Idris Elba. Phantom Liberty sees Johnny and V undertaking "a dangerous spy mission," Reeves said, with Elba playing a secret agent. The expansion will take you to Dogtown, a new area of Night City, where you'll be tasked with rescuing the president of the New United States of America. "Expect a massive expansion. Twists, secrets and plenty of stuff to do," Reeves added.

The trailer features the voice of a new character who says they are aware of the ticking timebomb in V's head (no spoilers for those who haven't played the main game) and that they can save the protagonist's life. It seems that the price of salvation is extracting the commander in chief. 

Phantom Liberty is shaping up to be an intriguing continuation of Cyberpunk 2077's story. Let's hope the debut of the expansion goes much more smoothly than the debut of the original game. We'll find out when Phantom Liberty drops on September 26th. 

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Disney+ has set a premiere date of August 23rd for the highly-anticipated Star Wars: Ahsoka series. The show takes place in the same timeline of The Mandalorian, but stars a character that, sort of, goes all the way back to the prequels. Former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano first appeared in the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon and her animated adventures continued on with Star Wars: Rebels before finally appearing as live action in season two of The Mandalorian and the first season of The Book of Boba Fett.

Ahsoka is played by Rosario Dawson and it seems the show will be a pseudo-sequel to Rebels, with many characters from that show appearing in live action for the first time. Natasha Liu Bordizzo stars as Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Hera Syndulla and Eman Esfandi appears as Ezra Bridger. Also, notorious franchise villain Grand Admiral Thrawn will make his live action debut, still portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen.

The remaining cast includes David Tennant, Diana Lee Inosanto and the recently-deceased Ray Stevenson. There are also plenty of rumors that Hayden Christensen will return as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. For the uninitiated, Ahsoka Tano was Skywalker’s pupil before he started executing Jedi Padawans and blowing up entire planets.

Disney+ has dropped a new trailer for the show that will air on TV tonight during the NBA Finals Game 3. Most of the footage here was already available in the previous trailer, but there are a few new shots here and there. The entire show is being written by franchise co-steward Dave Filoni, who originally created the character for Clone Wars.

Roger Federer is not only one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but also certified polyglot (he's also on a Swiss coin, was voted most stylish man of the decade and was the best paid athlete in 2020, in case you were feeling good about yourself). Thanks to those skills, he's the first celebrity voice on Waze to give directions in no less than three languages (French, German and English), Google announced. Federer joins a host of personalities including Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Kevin Hart and others who've loaned their voices to Waze. 

On top of supplying turn-by-turn directions, Federer helps get you pumped up for your commute. "It's drive time — I can feel the adrenaline kick in already," he says in one recording. "Time to ride! Trust your ability. I'm ready to coach you along the way," he declares in another. He even has some words of encouragement if you screw up: "Make a U-Turn. Hey, even champions can mess up." 

While Google continues to add well-known voices to Waze, Amazon is doing the opposite. Earlier this week, the company announced that it was ditching Alexa's celebrity voices and would issue refunds upon request. The feature, which originally cost $1 before being boosted to $5, offered voices including Shaquille O’Neal, Melissa McCarthy and Samuel L. Jackson. 

In any case, judging by the responses to Waze's tweet, Federer fans are more than excited to be guided by that famous, lightly accented voice — perfect for a European road trip.