More than two years after its initial announcement, Homeworld 3 has a release date. Gearbox and developer Blackbird Interactive announced on Thursday during The Game Awards the next entry in the classic real-time strategy series will debut before the end of 2022. They also shared a first look at gameplay. 

The trailer opens with a shot of the Khar-Toba, the ship that set the Kushan, the protagonists of the Homeworld series, on their journey to return to their home of Hiigara. The clip is narrated by Karan S'jet, who fans will remember as one of the main characters of the first two games. S'jet recounts some of the pivotal moments of Homeworld and Homeworld 2 before the footage turns to the space battles players can expect to experience once the game comes out. 

Blackbird Interactive, a studio made up of former Relic Entertainment employees — including Rob Cunningham, the original art director on the first two games — is developing Homeworld 3. The studio previously worked on the excellent Deserts of Kharak, which is a prequel to the first game. 

Homeworld 3 is available to wishlist on Steam and the Epic Games Store. 

You probably already know about the conveniences an Instant Pot can provide, but choosing the right size can be a tricky task. If you've been on the hunt for a good deal on a large multi-cooker, Walmart has the 8-quart Instant Pot Duo Nova for only $59 right now. That's nearly half off the price it's going for on Amazon right now as well as the lowest we've seen in a long time.

This particular Instant Pot is a Walmart exclusive, but it's almost identical to the standard Duo Nova aside from its front panel looking a bit different. It's an upgraded version of the Instant Pot Duo, adding a lid that automatically seals shut when you close it. It's a 7-in-1 device, combining a pressure cooker, yogurt maker, rice cooker, cake maker, slow cooker, egg cooker and sauté machine into one. You're also getting a number of different one-touch cooking programs for things like soup, meat and stew, porridge and more, taking even more of the guesswork out of preparing a meal for your family. And with the 8-quart model, you'll be able to prepare a lot of food — it's arguably the best size for large families and those who entertain often.

The number of Instant Pot models has grown over the years to the point that there's almost a confusing number of these devices available. Some are more straightforward than others, like the Duo Crisp, which includes an air-fry mode and comes with the appropriate lid for it. But the Duo Nova remains a solid option for newbies as it combines the convenience of a pressure cooker with a bunch of other functions in a relatively counter-friendly appliance. You may need to make a bit more space for the 8-quart model in your kitchen, but it's a small price to pay for all of the cooking time you'll get back while using it.

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It's a sad moment for gamers. Kotakureports Masayuki Uemura, the lead creator of the Famicom and Super Famicom (aka NES and SNES), died on December 6th at the age of 78. He started working at Sharp, where he sold solar cell and light sensor technology, but he's best remembered for a long and highly influential run at Nintendo that effectively revived the video game industry following the 1983 crash.

Uemura first became involved with Nintendo after the company's Gunpei Yokoi asked about using Sharp solar cells to produce light gun games. The future console designer joined Nintendo in 1971, and the company released gun games that included a home-friendly game called Duck Hunt (yes, the predecessor of the NES title). Company president Hiroshi Yamauchi put Uemura in charge of the R&D2 division responsible for hardware, including consoles, and in November 1981 famously called Uemura asking him to build a machine that lets you play arcade games on your TV. The result was 1983's Famicom, the system that would become the NES outside of Japan.

You know at least some of what happened next. The Famicom and NES were wild successes, selling nearly 62 million units combined and rejuvenating interest in home consoles. Uemura then led work on the Super Famicom, whose global launch as the SNES further cemented Nintendo's reputation. He also produced some NES games, including Ice Climber and three sports titles. He retired from Nintendo in 2004, but continued to serve as an advisor and would go on to teach and research video games as a professor at Ritsumeikan University.

It's hard to overstate Uemura's influence. The video game business as it exists today arguably owes much to the skill of Uemura and his team when they designed their first TV consoles. He also helped grow Japan's overall tech industry by making Nintendo a global force in electronics. While he certainly wasn't the only star at Nintendo, he was one of the most directly influential.

In partnership with Spotify, Tinder has introduced Music Mode as part of its new Explore section, letting you hear the "Anthem" songs of members when you swipe to their profiles — a sort of mixtape for dates, if you will. The idea is to help you find others that share your musical taste, according to Tinder.

The new feature requires that you link your account to Spotify and choose an Anthem song "that defines [you] inside and out," according to Tinder. If you've done all that, you'll be able to head over to the Explore section and find the Music Mode card. Once you enable that, it'll automatically play any member's chosen anthem when you swipe their profile.

Tinder and Spotify added the Anthem feature back in 2016, so Music Mode is a new way discovering users favorite songs. Tinder notes that "around 40 percent of all Gen Z members globally have already added Anthems to their profiles and when they do, they see a 10 percent increase in matches." Tinder said the Explore tab introduced this summer is the "biggest update to Tinder since the invention of the original Swipe feature," thanks to the interactive features.

At the very least, Music Mode could help reduce the awkwardness of realizing you and your date have nothing in common when it comes to music. "Songs are deeply personal, and Music Mode is a place to spark something new through music," Tinder VP Kyle Miller said in the press release. The new feature should launch "soon," according to Tinder.

Many car brands are touting recycled parts in their vehicles, but Ford thinks it can claim some extra bragging rights. The badge claims the Bronco Sport is the first vehicle to use parts made entirely of recycled ocean plastic. Ford used plastic from the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean to make wireless harness clips in the SUV. They're as durable as previous petroleum-based clips, but require less energy to make and even cost 10 percent less.

The company has been using some degree of recycled plastic for over two decades, although it has been getting creative as of late. It recently started making F-250 fuel-line clips from 3D printer waste, and used water bottles for the underbody shields on the 2020 Escape.

This move could be an important step toward more sustainable car production. At the same time, it shows just how far Ford has to go. They're small parts in an SUV that's sold exclusively with a combustion engine inside — this would carry more weight if they were larger components in a hybrid or pure electric vehicle. Ford has vowed to further electrify its lineup and explore future uses of ocean plastic. Until that happens, though, this is more a hint of that future than a major milestone.

Sonos is the latest tech company to commit to reducing its environmental impact in the long term. The smart speaker firm has unveiled an inaugural climate plan that will make its "value chain" carbon neutral by 2030, and achieve net zero emissions by 2040. The company will use some carbon offsets (such as a marine ecosystem project in Cambodia), but it also promises to improve both its products and operations.

Many of the product efforts focus on smarter material choices and recycling. All of Sonos' new products will use recycled plastic by the end of the company's fiscal 2023, while all hardware will use "responsibly sourced" paper packaging by fiscal 2025. Fiscal 2023 will also mark the release of Sonos' first devices designed explicitly with recycling and reuse in mind, such as easier-to-remove fasteners in place of glue. All products will have a sleep mode by that year, and the firm will cut idle power draw to 2W starting with portable speakers in fiscal 2022.

The move might not satisfy everyone. Neutrality in 2030 isn't an aggressive target when it includes offsets — Sonos will still produce excess CO2 emissions. The company may also face a significant challenge overcoming its mixed environmental record. While Sonos is known to support its speakers for a long time, its bifurcated support strategy (where older devices can't operate alongside newer ones) and now-dead recycle mode (which bricked haven't instilled confidence in the past.

Still, this plan could go a long way toward improving Sonos' reputation. It's not only acknowledging its overall environmental impact, it's designing with longevity and repairability in mind. If things go smoothly, you might keep using Sonos gear well after its original luster has worn off.

You won't have to wait too much longer to play (or replay) the last two Uncharted games on your PlayStation 5. Naughty Dog and Sony have confirmed that Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will be available for PS5 on January 28th for $50, or $10 if you've bought the PS4 versions of either included game. The companies have also revealed just what audiovisual upgrades you can expect. These aren't complete overhauls (they're both mid-cycle PS4 releases, after all), but they might be worthwhile if you missed out on Uncharted 4 or Lost Legacy, or just want to make the most of a new TV.

As with some PS5 titles, you can prioritize the graphics for either resolution or speed. A "Fidelity Mode" jumps to native 4K while preserving a target frame rate of 30FPS. You can alternately use a "Performance Mode" if 60FPS matters more than crisp graphics, and there's even a "Performance+" option that caps the resolution at 1080p in return for an extra-smooth 120FPS.

Both games promise "near instant" load times thanks to the PS5's SSD, and Naughty Dog is taking advantage of improved DualSense haptic feedback as well as spatial audio for built-in TV speakers and headphones. It should be a more immersive experience, then, even if you can't justify an elaborate audio setup.

You'll have to be patient if you're jonesing for the PC version. You can add the Uncharted bundle to your wish lists on the Epic Games Store and Steam, but the developers haven't narrowed down the release date beyond a generic "2022." The system requirements aren't yet available, either. While that's not surprising given the extra challenges of porting a PS4 game to PCs, it could leave you waiting a bit longer than you might like.

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 let drivers play Solitaire, jet fighter game Sky Force Reloaded and strategy title The Battle of Polytopia: Moonrise 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.

Although players have to acknowledge that they're a passenger, the driver can tap that button and play the game. Even if a passenger is playing something, it's possible that a driver will divert their attention to the screen to see what's happening anyway.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 3,142 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers in the US in 2019. A 2017 study suggested that many infotainment features absorbed drivers' attention too long for them to be safe. Researchers at the University of Utah found that, when drivers used voice-based and touchscreen systems, they "took their hands, eyes and mind off the road for more than 24 seconds to complete tasks."

Drivers are supposed to keep their hands on the steering wheel when Tesla's Autopilot is engaged, but a recent study suggested drivers become less attentive when the mode is active. 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.

Other automakers lock many touchscreen and infotainment features when the car is in motion. Stellantis (fka Fiat Chrysler), for instance, lets drivers and passengers watch a DVD on the dashboard screen in some vehicles, though only when the car's parked. NHTSA guidelines urge automakers to ensure that cars with infotainment devices prevent drivers from carrying out "inherently distracting secondary tasks while driving.”

Tesla has addeda numberof games to its infotainment system over the last few years. Until a few months ago, they were only playable while the car was parked. The Times says Tesla and CEO Elon Musk didn't respond to requests for comment — the company no longer has a PR department. Engadget has contacted the NHTSA for comment.

Sony only just launched its ZV-E10 mirrorless vlogging camera in July, but as of December 3rd, it has suspended orders and ceased production due to the ongoing chip shortage, Sony Japan announced. The company added that a resumption of production and sales will depend upon "the status of parts supply," and that interested buyers should keep an eye on the camera's product page. 

The ZV-E10 was released as a more capable follow-up to the popular, compact ZV-1 vlogging camera, thanks to the option to change lenses. It's essentially a reworked A6100 model with a flip-out display, no electronic viewfinder (EVF), a high-quality built-in three-capsule microphone and a button that makes it easy to switch from video to still photography. 

Sony has also paused production of the A7 II, A6400 and A6100 cameras. The latter two are fairly recent models, but the A7 II originally launched in 2014 — so it's hard to see a particular pattern. 

Cameras aren't the only Sony products affected by semiconductor shortages. Sony also reportedly reduced PS5 production, something that might put its delivery target of 14.8 million consoles by March 2022 in jeopardy. Sony and TSMC recently announced that they'd team up on a chip factory in Japan for specialized chips used in cars, cameras and other gadgets. However, the plant won't come online until 2024 at the earliest, so it'll do nothing to help Sony or anyone else, anytime soon. 

Two years ago, BMW delivered its 500,000th electrified vehicle (including EVs and hybrids), promising to deliver one million units in two years. Now, the company has announced that it's met that goal by delivering its one millionth electrified vehicle, an iX xDrive40 SUV (shown above), to a customer in Europe. It's also promising to double that tally to two million by next year, while delivering two million fully electric EVs by 2025. 

BMW was a pioneer in the pure electric category with the i3 and i8 EVs, but has been slow to ramp up its offerings since then. As such, the majority of its electrified sales have been hybrid, rather than pure EVs. (The term "electrified" generally encompasses both PHEVs, mild hybrids and EVs.) Between January and September of 2021, BMW reportedly sold 59,688 EVs and 171,887 plug-in hybrid vehicles worldwide, according to CleanTechnica. In 2020, it sold 192,646 plug-in vehicles, including PHEVs and EVs, InsideEVs reported. 

This year, the company launched the i4 sedan and iX SUV pure electric models into the US market, but they only went on sale last month. It also offers four PHEVs, including versions of the 7, X5, 3 and 5 models. Over the next year, BMW will add the fully electric BMW 7 series and X1, plus the high-volume BMW 5 series by 2023. It plans to have "about ten million fully-electric vehicles on the road" by 2031 or so.