Another day, another scrub for the world’s first 3D-printed rocket. On Saturday, Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket failed to get off the ground after two launch attempts. It was a day of false starts. Following Wednesday's scrub, Relativity Space initially set its sights on a 1:45PM ET launch, a window the company later push back to 2:45PM ET due to "upper-level wind violations." 

After the countdown restarted, all was going well until a boat entered the spacecraft’s range. Once the countdown resumed again, the company called a launch abort at t-minus zero after the spacecraft’s nine first-stage Aeon engines roared to life and then cut off almost immediately after. After blaming a "launch commit criteria violation for the 2:45PM abort, Relativity Space said it would attempt to fly the rocket again at 4PM ET, just as its launch window was about to close for the day.   

Developing...

When E3 returns this June to the Los Angeles Convention Center for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Microsoft won’t be on the show floor. “We can’t wait to host our Xbox Games Showcase on June 11th and will share more details later,” an Xbox spokesperson told IGN on Friday (via The Verge). “We also look forward to co-streaming our event as part of E3 Digital and will not be on the E3 show floor.”

Questions about Microsoft’s E3 2023 presence began circulating at the start of February when IGN reported that the company, alongside Sony and Nintendo, would not have a presence on the show floor. There was some hope Microsoft would still be at the event after the company announced it would stream a dedicated Starfield showcase on June 11th, the same day E3’s “Digital Week” kicks off. Microsoft’s decision to skip the in-person portion of E3 comes after Nintendo said last month it would not be at the event at all. Sony has yet to state whether it will be at E3 2023.

The absence of even one console manufacturer from the E3 show floor is a significant blow to the Entertainment Software Association. The show has lost much of its shine since 2019, when the ESA inadvertently leaked the contact information of more than 2,000 journalists, analysts and content creators. The pandemic and the emergence of competing events like Summer Game Fest haven’t allowed E3 to regain its footing.

With spring around the corner, now is a good time as any to start thinking about improving your fitness. A smartwatch like the Apple Watch Series 8 can make it easier to stick to your goals. Good thing the 41mm model is back on sale. After an 18 percent discount, the Midnight and Product Red colorways are down to $329 on Amazon.

That’s $70 less than the Series 8’s usual $399 starting price, and the best discount Engadget has seen on the smartwatch since it was on sale at the start of February. Unfortunately, Amazon only has 41mm model stock, and the Silver and Starlight colorways aren’t included in the sale.

Despite being a modest upgrade from its predecessor, the Series 8 is one of the best smartwatches you can buy at the moment. It’s fast and features a large always-on display. It also comes with robust app support and integration with Apple’s broader ecosystem. New to the Series 8 is a crash detection feature that can alert first responders in an emergency. It also features a temperature sensor that can assist with ovulation tracking.

That said, the Series 8 isn’t for everyone. You can’t use the wearable without an iPhone, making it a non-starter for Android users. It’s also worth noting the second-generation SE offers many of the same core features of the Series 8 for less money.

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I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson finally has a premiere date almost a year after Netflix announced that it's coming back for a third season. The streaming giant has announced on Twitter that the six-episode comedy sketch series will be available for streaming on May 30th. The show was created by Saturday Night Live alum Robinson, who also stars in it, and SNL producer Zach Kanin. They're not the only comics connected to the show, though: It's co-produced by The Lonely Island, the comedy trio composed of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. 

Each episode of I Think You Should Leave is only around 16 to 18 minutes long, so you can quite literally finish a season in one sitting. There are multiple sketches per episode, mostly revolving around somebody doing something absurd in an every day professional or social situation, as well as some pretty bizarre and over-the-top bits. Really, some parts are so weird, you don't know whether to cringe or laugh. 

The show's first season premiered on Netflix back in 2019, while the second season arrived in 2021. Alex Bach, one of the show's producers, previously told Variety that Robinson and Kanin write every single script and that they "wait for the sketches to come to them" so there have been "extended periods of time between seasons."

The workers at eBay-owned TCGPlayer, a marketplace for trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering, have voted in favor of joining a union. eBay purchased the company in 2022 for a deal valued up to $295 million, but the website continues to operate independently. Now that all 272 non-supervisory workers at the company's authentication center in Syracuse, New York are represented by the Communications Workers of America, they've become the first group to form a union at eBay in the US. 

The organized workers, who are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and quality of all shipments in and out of the company, filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board back in January. They wanted to unionize in a bid to have a voice within the company, and they were also seeking pay raises to account for inflation, a fair and comprehensive sick leave and absence policy, as well as inclusive career advancement opportunities, fair and transparent hiring practices, and clearly defined job roles and expectations.

In the CWA's announcement of the union victory, it said TCGPlayer workers first tried to unionize in 2020. However, the company hired a union buster to "spread disinformation," and the workers ultimately withdrew their petition for a vote due to the pandemic. While they were successful this time around, their employer reportedly tried to get them to back down again. CWA filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company in January for illegally surveilling union activity. It filed more charges just last week, accusing the company of threatening workers for supporting unionization efforts and forcing them to attend anti-union meetings, as well. The unionized workers are still waiting for the NLRB's decision on those complaints.

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has put more than a quarter of Roku’s cash at risk. The streaming company had nearly $500 million, representing 26 percent of its cash, in Silicon Valley Bank, the company disclosed in an SEC filing Friday.

The future of those funds is now uncertain as federal regulators have taken over the financial institution amid the second-largest bank collapse in United States history. “The Company’s deposits with SVB are largely uninsured,” Roku wrote in its filing. “At this time, the Company does not know to what extent the Company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB.”

In a statement on Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said that it will pay “uninsured depositors an advance dividend within the next week” and that “uninsured depositors will receive a receivership certificate for the remaining amount of their uninsured funds.” But there’s still a lot of uncertainty about how long that process will take to play out, and how much of their uninsured funds companies will ultimately be able to recover.

However, Roku’s situation is, at least for now, a lot less dire than many of the smaller startups that relied on Silicon Valley Bank, some of which are now unable to pay their bills or their employees. 

In its SEC filing, the company noted that it has more than a billion dollars in cash at multiple other banks. “As stated in our 8-K, we expect that Roku’s ability to operate and meet its contractual obligations will not be impacted and we continue to have access to $1.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents which are distributed across multiple, large financial institutions,” a Roku spokesperson said in a statement to Engadget.

While Silicon Valley Bank was previously a little-known institution, it was known for its close relationships with startup founders, who made up much of its clientele. But, as Bloomberg’s Matt Levine explains, the bank’s reliance on fixed-rate assets, also made it uniquely exposed to the conditions that ultimately led to a run on the bank Thursday after prominent venture capitalists urged founders to move their money out of the institution.

Roku is not the only major public tech company now facing losses as a result of the bank’s collapse. Roblox had $3 billion, about 5 percent of its cash, at Silicon Valley Bank, the company told the SEC. “Regardless of the ultimate outcome and the timing, this situation will have no impact on the day to day operations of the Company,” it wrote in a filing. Video service Vimeo also disclosed that it had “less than $250,000” with the bank.

TikTok's efforts to address US data privacy fears may have holes. A self-proclaimed whistleblower talking to The Washington Post says the social network's plan to protect American users' data, Project Texas, has major flaws. The former Trust and Safety team member claims the $1.5 billion initiative will still let TikTok connect to parent company ByteDance's Toutiao, a well-known Chinese news app. That link could theoretically allow China to access US data. A truly secure approach would require a "complete re-engineering" of the service's infrastructure, the ex-employee says.

The staffer also claims to have met with the offices of Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Mark Warner to discuss the alleged weaknesses. Representatives for both senators acknowledged that meetings had taken place.

We've asked TikTok for comment. Unnamed people at the social media giant tell The Post that the claims are "unfounded," and the Toutiao code only amounts to a "naming convention and technical relic" that doesn't tie the app to China. They also believe that the relocation of US data to Oracle servers undercuts the assertion that Toutiao could affect the US business. The whistleblower was only employed for half a year, and he supposedly left months before Project Texas was finalized. He may not know the full picture, in other words.

TikTok has repeatedly denied cooperating with the Chinese government, and there's no publicly known evidence to that effect. Douyin, the equivalent app available inside China, has completely separate content.

The timing of the purported revelation isn't good for TikTok. House and Senate bills (Warner co-sponsored the latter bill) could lead to nationwide TikTok bans if they become law, and CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify before the House on March 23rd to address security and child safety concerns. Politicians are worried the Chinese government may use TikTok to collect data on Americans and spread propaganda, and the report doesn't help ease those fears.

After three years, Lego’s Super Mario lineup is still going strong, finally adding Princess Peach to its roster of starter sets last summer and continuing to release new expansions ever since. The Fliprus Snow Adventure Expansion Set, available now, is a blast from the more-recent past, showcasing an enemy from 2012’s New Super Mario Bros. U. With the International Toy Fair being on ice for the past few years, chances to check these sets in person out have been few and far between, but we got to take a peep at them at a recent industry event in New York.

The Princess Peach Starter Set was announced one year ago on March 10th (aka Mario Day or “Mar10 Day”), and it’s been available since August. The $60 set is the same price as the Mario and Luigi starter sets, though you’re likely to see those on sale more often since they’re older. Aside from the Bluetooth-connected Peach figurine, the pack also comes with Lemmy Koopa and a yellow Toad. Also unique to the set is a flower-adorned swing — when the Peach figure is placed in the seat and pushed, she collects “coins” every time she passes over the sensor.

Like the Mario and Luigi figures, Peach has LED eyes and a small screen in her chest. The eyes are very expressive, if not a little uncanny valley, but no worse than we’re getting in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie. The bottom of her dress comes off so you can plug her into other sets like the Cat Peach Suit (unfortunately not included in this display, but available for $80 at plenty of retailers).

Kris Naudus

The Fliprus set is the newest of the bunch and it’s a bit more affordable at $65, since it doesn’t include any new costumes for Peach, Mario or Luigi. It’s compatible with all three starter characters, though the icy-blue palette is probably best suited visually with the Princess. There’s a little catapult behind the Fliprus that launches an “ice” boulder, and even a Cooligan (also from New Super Mario Bros. U).

Peach is already on sale at Amazon for a nice price of $45, though members of Lego’s VIP program can earn double points on Super Mario purchases at the Lego site now through March 12th.

Elon Musk is reportedly attempting to build a company town where Tesla, Boring and SpaceX workers might live. The mooted town, which is around 35 miles away from Austin, Texas, would likely be called Snailbrook, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The publication unearthed documents that lay out plans to build 110 homes next to Boring and SpaceX facilities in Bastrop County. The report states that Boring employees were invited last year to apply for housing, with rents expected to start at around $800 per month for a two- or three-bedroom home. The median rent in nearby Bastrop is around $2,200 a month, so the workers would be paying below-market rates.

Still, employees who lived in the town would be further beholden to Musk. In addition to receiving a salary from his businesses, they'd be paying him rent. They'd have 30 days to leave the home were they to get fired from Boring or otherwise depart from the company, the report notes. Executives have discussed inviting workers from Musk's other companies to apply for Snailbrook housing too — Tesla's Texas Gigafactory is around a 30-minute drive from the town of Bastrop.

Plans for the town include converting a home into a Montessori school for up to 15 students, as well as possible incorporation. The latter would allow Musk to set certain rules for the municipality, which would also apparently need to hold a mayoral election.

Entities in Musk's orbit have snapped up at least 3,500 acres of land in the Austin area over the last few years, records are said to show. Last year, Musk, his architectural designer, former girlfriend Grimes and Ye (aka Kanye West) reportedly discussed ideas for the town several times last year, though nothing was finalized from those talks.

Meanwhile, nearby residents have raised concerns about the environmental impact of the projects. As the Journal notes, Boring has applied to discharge up to 140,000 gallons of industrial wastewater a day into the Colorado River. Worries have also been expressed about how testing of Boring's tunneling machines may affect groundwater and wells.

Amazon’s evolution from omnipresent shopping platform to omnipresent surveillance platform continues apace, having drastically expanded its line of Ring security camera systems in recent years. Nowadays, the company offers video doorbells, exterior cameras, interior cameras, flying cameras, lighting systems, alarm systems and vehicle security packages — the lattermost of which is why we are here today. I put a Ring camera in my car.

That’s not to say that the Ring Car Camera is a poorly designed or manufactured product — far from it! The $250 Car Camera features dual-facing (pointing both at the road and into the cabin), IR-capable 1080p imaging sensors, optional LTE connectivity, Alexa-driven voice commands, and remote vehicle monitoring through the Ring mobile app.

In fact, I was surprised by how quickly and easily I was able to get the system set up. The camera assembly itself is a single piece that wedges into the bottom edge of the windshield-dashboard horizon and sticks to the glass with a high-strength adhesive. It’s not strong enough to keep a car thief from yanking it out but it’ll keep the camera in place as you travel over and through America’s crumbling highway infrastructure system. One sticking point I could see arising is the camera needs access to a home wi-fi connection during the setup/app pairing sequence. I was able to pull around my driveway until I was at the exterior of the wall from my house’s router but if you live in an apartment complex, things might get dicey.

“If you are unable to connect to your home Wi-Fi during setup, you can set up the device using LTE through Ring Protect Go,” a Ring rep told Engadget. “Just skip the ‘set up with Wi-Fi’ step in the set up flow and follow the on-screen instructions. Each new customer will have a free 30-day trial of Ring Protect Go, which provides LTE connectivity.”

I was not at all a fan of the camera’s wired power connection to the vehicle’s OBDII port, which also monitors the battery’s voltage so that the camera can turn itself off before fully exhausting the power supply. For one, that physical requirement limits the vehicles this system can work with to only those with OBD ports located to the left of the steering column. For another, I now have a 6-foot long cable snaking its way across my previously immaculate dashboard, draping down my driver side door panel to connect with the OBDII port just over my brake pedal. Even with the included 3M-adhesive cable stays (which, I might add, were immediately foiled by the tiny crags and crinkles of my dashboard’s surface), I can hear the cord shifting and sliding around during turns, I’m constantly aware of it when swinging my legs out of the car lest I accidentally catch it on a toe and tear the connector from the port. Which I did the very first time I drove after installation — and then the next as well.

Andrew Tarantola / Engadget

The other issue is that not every car has an OBDII port located in the passenger cabin and for those vehicles the Ring Car Cam will not work. Neither will any of the vehicles on this rather expansive list of incompatible models for one reason or another — some cut power to the port when the key is removed and Teslas, for their part, don’t even use the OBDII interface. What’s more, if your dongle is already in use, whether for an insurance tracker or an interlock device, you’re SOL with using the Car Cam. Same if you buy it in a jurisdiction that limits the use of dashcams — except then you also go to jail.

Andrew Tarantola / Engadget

At 1080p, the Car Cam’s video quality is just fine for what the average driver would presumably be using it for and the interior-facing IR sensor will ensure that you get a good look at whoever’s rifling through your center console at three in the morning. But, since it’s mounted on the dash itself and not suspended from the rearview mirror like the commercial-grade ones you find in Ubers and Lyfts, you won’t get much of a view of the interior below chest level. Accessing those videos takes a hot second as well, as the clips aren’t transferred directly to your phone (if using Protect Go). They have to first be uploaded and processed in the cloud before you can watch them.

The camera offers a variety of recording options. You can set it for continuous use, as you would a traditional dash cam — and if you don’t want it recording you, the unit thankfully incorporates a physical lens cover for the interior-facing camera. You can also use it specifically for traffic stops with the verbal “Alexa, Record” command, in which the system will record uninterrupted for 20 minutes even after the ignition has been turned off. Finally, there’s Parking Protection mode that activates the camera if it detects motion or an impact when the vehicle is parked.

Andrew Tarantola / Engadget

All of the recorded data — up to seven hours worth — is saved locally on the device and made available once the camera is back in range of a Wi-Fi connection. Again, that’s not great if a thief or cop rips out the unit before the information can be uploaded. Also, there’s no loop recording so if something important happens when you’ve got 6 hours and 56 minutes of video already saved, you better hope the matter resolves itself in under 4 minutes, otherwise the recording will simply be cut off.

To get around that, you’ll need cloud access and to spend $6 a month (or $60 a year) for the Ring Protect Go subscription service for it. In addition, Protect Go unlocks access to the camera’s onboard LTE connection enabling two-way view and talk, notifications and GPS tracking from anywhere with cell service. Without that subscription access, those features are only available over Wi-Fi.

Andrew Tarantola / Engadget

Ring’s business decisions have made very clear that it is on the side of the police — even if the homeowners themselves aren’t — freely volunteering data to, and often partnering with, law enforcement agencies around the country. When asked whether safeguards have been put in place to prevent law enforcement from surreptitiously spying through the Car Cam, Ring’s spokesperson noted, “Ring builds products and services for our customers, not law enforcement. When parked, Car Cam only records when the smart sensors detect an incident (such as a collision or broken window) or if the device owner or Shared User initiates Live View.” What happens to that data once it's off the device and in Ring’s cloud servers was not made clear.

Even if I could put aside Ring’s cozy relationship with police, $250 for what the Car Cam offers is a big ask, especially with that $6-a-month cherry on top to get anything to work outside of your driveway. Granted, if you’re already part of the Ring ecosystem, you like what it offers and want to extend that platform to your vehicle, absolutely give the Car Cam a shot. But if you’re in the market for a standalone vehicle security system, there are plenty of options available to choose from that offer many of the same features as the Ring at a fraction of the price and without the baggage — or that blasted power cable.