Rockstar Games will soon release another big update for GTA Online, which includes a story mission featuring one of Grand Theft Auto V's main characters. "The Contract" centers around Franklin Clinton and his friends, who aspire to be problem solvers for celebrities and "rich folk who got rich folk problems."
One of those potential clients is Dr. Dre, who appears as himself in the story. A phone containing unreleased music from the rapper and producer has gone missing. As a potential partner for Franklin's new enterprise, it's your job to get it back.
You'll be able to hear those Dre tracks and other fresh music when the update arrives on December 15th. Rockstar is promising "an eclectic new radio station from some very special guest hosts" and big changes to current radio stations. Expect additional side missions, weapons (including an EMP launcher), vehicles, locations and more. Rockstar will reveal more details about "The Contract" in the coming days.
A few other well-known figures have appeared as themselves in the Grand Theft Auto series. Phil Collins was involved in several missions in GTA: Vice City Stories, while Katt Williams and Ricky Gervais performed stand-up sets in GTA IV.
Still, it's notable that Dr. Dre is taking a bigger role in GTA Online — he popped up briefly during 2020's Cayo Perico heist. Other major ongoing games like Fortnite include versions of real people and fictional characters from other properties. Perhaps GTA Online is becoming a metaverse too.
NASA's Hubble telescope has been in a month-long nap since going into system failure in late October. However, early yesterday, the agency announced it is waking Hubble up. NASA says the telescope is now functioning as normal, with all four active instruments collecting data.
On October 23rd, NASA first noticed Hubble's instruments weren't receiving messages from the telescope's control unit. NASA ended up putting the telescope into a sort of safe mode while it tried to figure out what happened. That safe mode takes a long time to come out of because of the sensitivity of Hubble's hardware. Rapid power or temperature changes aren't good for its lifespan. The telescope is now 31 years old — Hubble may be nearing the end of its useful life in space. NASA will use the telescope till the end, though, planning to use it in tandem with the Webb telescope, which is expected to finally launch on December 22nd.
The company is testing Premium Memberships with a small group of users.
Discord has started testing a feature called Premium Memberships. The tool allows community owners to gate access to part or all of their server behind a monthly subscription fee.
Before today, individuals looking to offer membership fees or paid access had to turn to third-party services like Patreon to monetize access to their servers.
The Premium Memberships tool creates a streamlined interface for that same purpose. A new tab under the Community heading in the app’s setting’s menu allows server owners to do things like set price tiers and view related analytics. The feature similarly streamlines the process of signing up for paid channels for users. If you want to financially support a community, you now don’t need to leave Discord to do so.
More than 3,100 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers in the US in 2019.
Many Tesla vehicles allow drivers to play a selection of games on the infotainment system while the car is in motion, according to a report by The New York Times. The company rolled out an update in the summer that reportedly lets drivers play Solitaire, jet-fighter game Sky Force Reloaded and strategy title The Battle of Polytopia while on the road.
The touchscreen is said to display a warning before a game of Solitaire starts. “Solitaire is a game for everyone, but playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers” the message reads, according to the Times. That indicates Tesla knows the game is playable while the car's moving. In August, the NHTSA said it was investigating Autopilot following a number of crashes with parked first responder vehicles. Those resulted in one death and 17 injuries.
BMW and esports brand LVL are trying something almost like Rocket League. They're teaming on Das Race Goal, a Rocket League-style esports platform that has remote-controlled cars play soccer for charity. Players worldwide will steer the vehicles in a real arena while grabbing virtual powerups and activating "special effects."
The first event takes place December 12th at 1 PM ET and will stream live on LVL's Twitch channel. This inaugural competition will have six three-player teams compete in Munich's BMW Welt stadium to raise awareness and funds for the United Nations Population Fund's Skills for Life programs.
Adam McKay and Jennifer Lawrence are teaming up again on 'Bad Blood.'
Apple will fund and distribute the long-in-the-works movie about embattled Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Bad Blood will star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, while Adam McKay will write and direct. Both are producers on the project, which is a co-production between Apple Studios and Legendary.
The movie, which is based on the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up by former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, has been in development since at least 2016.
Bad Blood won’t be the only film and TV project about Theranos and Holmes. Hulu greenlit a mini-series in 2019 with Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon penciled in to play Holmes. She dropped out earlier this year and was replaced by Amanda Seyfried. An HBO documentary about the Theranos saga also premiered in 2019.
Apple will fund and distribute a long-in-the-works movie about embattled Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Bad Blood will star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, while Adam McKay will write and direct. Both are producers on the project, which is a coproduction between Apple Studios and Legendary.
The movie, which is based on the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up by former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, has been in development since at least 2016, as Deadline notes. The film will depict the rise and fall of Holmes and her company.
Hype around the blood-testing startup led to Holmes becoming the youngest self-made billionaire. Accusations and charges of fraud led to her stepping down as CEO in 2018 and the company liquidating later that year. Holmes is currently on trial for fraud.
Bad Blood is far from the only film and TV project about Theranos and Holmes. Hulu greenlit a miniseries in 2019 with Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon pencilled in to play Holmes. She dropped out earlier this year, and was replaced by Amanda Seyfried. An HBO documentary about the Theranos saga premiered in 2019.
Meanwhile, Lawrence and McKay recently worked together on the Netflix film Don't Look Up, which hits theaters this weekend and will be available to stream on December 24th. It's a satire about two astronomers (played by Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) who try to warn humanity about a catastrophic comet that's set to collide with Earth.
On December 9th, Epic Games will release The Matrix Awakens, an interactive tie-in to The Matrix Resurrections. You can preload the demo to your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S console ahead of its debut at The Game Awards. Epic built the experience using Unreal Engine 5, and you can see what the next-generation engine is capable of in a teaser the company shared today. “How do we know what is real?” asks a life-like Keanu Reeves partway through the clip.
It’s a rare movie experience that’s any good, but that might not matter with The Matrix Awakens. For most people, this will be their first chance to see UE5 in action. Epic previewed the latest iteration of its popular game engine part way through last year with a stunning PS5 demo that showed off what it could do. In May, the company released an early access version of UE5 to PC, but the system requirements meant most people couldn’t experience the Valley of the Ancient demo with the hardware they had.
Earlier this year William Shatner became the oldest person to ever fly to space, and his trip is now set to become an Amazon Prime documentary called Shatner in Space. The Star Trek actor revealed the news himself during a virtual panel for the pop culture conference CCXP Worlds, Deadline reported.
"The Shat" was one of four crew members on Blue Origin's second manned NS-18 mission that flew to an altitude of 66 miles aboard New Shepherd, crossing the so called Kármán line into space (though not orbiting the Earth). At 90 years old, he edged out 82-year-old Wally Funk, who set the previous age record for space flight just months earlier.
The documentary will give a look at what happened before, during and after the trip. The flight also included Blue Origin VP Audrey Powers, Planet Labs co-founder Dr. Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries, Medidata co-creator. This is the second of three crewed missions Blue Origin has planned for 2021, with the third (NS-19) set for December 9th. That flight will include Alan Shepard’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and GMA co-anchor Michael Strahan, along with four paying customers.
"My time in space was the most profound experience I could have ever imagined," Shatner told Deadline in a statement. "This special documenting my journey gives a dramatic view of that experience, and my hope is that it inspires the world to see we must go to space to save Earth." The documentary is set to air on Amazon Prime in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand on December 15th, and in other territories in 2022.
Apple has brought in several high-profile figures for guest appearances on the Fitness+ series "Time to Walk." Among them are Dolly Parton, Randall Park, Camilla Cabello and Stephen Fry. To close out the second season, Prince William will make an appearance in a holiday-themed episode. He’ll discuss the importance of staying mentally fit as well as how listening can empower others.
Apple Fitness+ users can check out the 38-minute episode on demand starting on December 6th. There will also be a few free airings on Apple Music 1 — at 8AM GMT and PST on December 6th and 8AM in Sydney’s time zone on December 7th.
Apple will make donations to three mental health charities chosen by Prince William. They are Crisis Text Line in the US, Shout 85258 in the UK and Lifeline in Australia. The latter provides free, around-the-clock crisis support and suicide prevention services. Shout and Crisis Text Line offer people in crisis support via text.
"Time to Walk" episodes are recorded while notable people take a stroll outside or in areas meaningful to them. They share stories, photos and music, and discuss lessons they’ve learned and their perspective on gratitude and purpose, among other things. The idea is that Apple Fitness+ will listen to episodes via an Apple Watch and connected earphones while going for a walk themselves. For those using a wheelchair, the series is renamed "Time to Push," and episodes center around a wheelchair workout instead of a walk.
Amazon Studios is "nearing a deal" to develop a series based on Electronic Arts and BioWare's Mass Effect franchise, according to Deadline. No particulars have been released, but Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline that it's "continuing to invest in fantasy genre of all kinds, we have a genre-focused team on the ground in Studios who work tirelessly with our creative partners on those slates, and you can look forward to more."
The success of the fantasy series Wheel of Time shows why Amazon is going in that direction. Salke revealed that it was "one of the Top 5 series launches of all time for Prime Video," adding that it saw "tens of millions of streams" and high completion rates, to boot.
Mass Effect rumors have cropped up of late, with EA recently stating that it's "not a matter of if, but when" a TV series based on the game will be made. Witcher star Henry Cavill also hinted at a Mass Effect series in a cryptic Instagram post with (easily deblurred) text, as The Verge noted.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition arrived earlier this year with updated gameplay and graphics, to generally good reviews. The series first arrived in 2007 with the original Mass Effect, a third-party shooter and role playing game that pits Commander Shepherd and the Systems Alliance against the Reapers, an ancient machine race invading the Milky Way. That was followed by two sequels (2010 and 2012), along with a fourth game, Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017). BioWare and EA are currently developing a fifth, all-new installment.
Spotify has removed the shuffle button from all album pages after Adele pressed the company for the change in time for the launch of her album 30. According to her own tweet, albums should be listened to "as [artists] intended" as they tell "a story." If you were ever in doubt of the influence of major music artists like Adele or Taylor Swift, here’s your answer.
Adele's debut single from 30, "Easy On Me," broke a single-day Spotify streaming record previously held by K-pop megagroup BTS. That probably helped.
Halo Infinite's opening had Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar worried, especially after its year-long delay. Sure, it was nice to be back in Master Chief's shoes, but he feared a retread of familiar Halo gameplay, even with the addition of a new grappling hook. Same environments, same cannon fodder.
But a few hours in, once Devindra acquired a Cortana-like AI called The Weapon, Halo Infinite finally opened up. After clearing out an early area, he was presented with something rarely seen in Halo: choice. Read on for his full preview of arguably Xbox’s most highly anticipated game.
You'll also get smarter MagicBands in the bargain.
Disney has revealed that "Hey, Disney" is coming to Disneyland hotel rooms sometime in 2022. As in Walt Disney World, it'll be available alongside Alexa in your room's Echo speaker and handle requests ranging from amenities through to stories and jokes.
There’s more technology in the park, too, as MagicBand+ wearables will also reach Disneyland in 2022. You can use the wristband to enter the park, make purchases and go touch-free, and they'll use a mix of lights, haptic feedback and gesture controls throughout the theme park.
Google's Pixel 6 is barely on store shelves, but don’t let that stop rumors about its budget A-Series getting another device. Well-known tipster OnLeaks and 91Mobiles have posted what they say are Pixel 6a design renders, and they might prove polarizing. The future midrange phone would follow the redesigned Pixel 6, meaning, yes, that ‘cyclops’ camera bar. However, the headphone jack from the Pixel 5a and other "a" models appears to have vanished.
There would even be a power plant to help with bitcoin mining.
President Nayib Bukele has unveiled plans to build a Bitcoin City near a volcano along the Gulf of Fonseca, between La Unión and Conchagua. Yes, it sounds like a video-game locale in Cyberpunk, but sadly it’s more about business. Even if it’s near a volcano.
The metropolis will have its own geothermal power plant to support crypto mining, and there will be no capital gains, income, payroll or property taxes, just value added tax.
The more you play on the Synth#boi, the more the 'person' in the visualizer lights up — it's as if the device is staring back at you and judging your performance. Which isn’t sinister at all.
It didn't take long for Netflix to greenlight more Arcane. Deadlinereports Netflix has renewed the League of Legends-based series for a second season now in production. Core stars Ella Purnell (Jinx), Hailee Steinfeld (Vi) and Katie Leung (Caitlyn) are already set to reprise their roles.
There's no mystery behind the decision: the show is a success. Co-creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee said they were "beyond happy" with the reaction. The numbers also back them up — the first season of Arcane racked up nearly 34.2 million viewing hours in its first week on Netflix's new top 10 chart, making it the second-most popular TV series in any language behind Narcos: Mexico (almost 50.3 million).
The popularity isn't a shock. Both Netflix and League creator Riot Games heavily promoted the show, to the point where LoL included multiple crossovers. You knew Arcane was available if you were even vaguely interested in the game that inspired it. And yes, it helps that Arcane happens to be well-received by many accounts.
The renewal doesn't necessarily hint at a new wave of game-inspired Netflix shows. It does, however, suggest that relatively high-budget game productions have a healthy future at the streaming pioneer. Don't be surprised if Netflix takes more chances on projects like this.
Ready yourselves, friends. Season 2 of Arcane is now in production.
Here's one thing we know for sure about Obi-Wan Kenobi: we'll finally see another showdown with Darth Vader. We got our first glimpse at the series during Disney+ Day, the streaming network's extended birthday celebration. While there's no actual footage from Obi-Wan available, a behind-the-scenes clip streaming through the app and concept art reveals some familiar and new territory for the franchise. Ewan McGregor confirms the show will start off with Obi-Wan trying to keep Luke Skywalker safe — as you'd expect — but that's just the launching point for a whole series of new adventures, according to director Deborah Chow.
Lucas Film/Disney
Disney previously revealed that Hayden Christensen would be returning to play Darth Vader, and judging from the concept art (and some training footage), he'll definitely be ready to throw down once again. (The live-action footage in today's promo is just some clever editing from the previous Star Wars films.) Given the relatively tepid response to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it makes sense for Disney to lean more on TV productions, like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett,, where it can explore new aspects of the franchise.
Perhaps not as hotly anticipated, there's also some footage from Baymax!, a show dedicated to the lovable healthcare robot from Big Hero 6. It's the second series for the franchise — following the sequel show that ran for three seasons — and from the looks of it, there'll be more focus on comedy than superhero antics. But really, it's not like we're lacking in super-powered action these days.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Baymax! will hit Disney+ sometime in 2022.
