TikTok is testing a new feature that allows users to scroll through content on the app without interface elements like usernames, captions and audio information cluttering the screen. “Clear Mode” was first spotted last week by former The Next Web editor Matt Navarra, with TikTok providing TechCrunch confirmation it was testing the feature on Tuesday.

The company didn’t say when users could expect Clear Mode to roll out more widely. As always, it’s also worth noting TikTok may ultimately decide against implementing the feature based on information the company gathers from users.

If you’ve enrolled in the test, you can access Clear Mode by long-pressing on a video and tapping the appropriate option. As TechCrunch points out, the feature, if implemented, would make the lives of creators easier since they would no longer need to re-upload clips people want to screenshot. You’ll often see TikTok users drop a “crop” comment on a video because a caption or button has obscured part of a video they want to share. TikTok has been testing more of these types of quality-of-life improvements in recent months. For instance, some users recently gained access to a watch history feature that makes it easier to rediscover videos you forgot to like.

One of the best Star Wars games ever made is making its way to Switch. Alongside the news that Respawn Entertainment will release Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in 2023, Disney shared yesterday that Aspyr is porting 2004’s Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords to Nintendo’s handheld. What’s more, the studio said it plans to release a “Restored Content” DLC for the game. That’s exciting news for what is often considered one of the franchise’s diamonds in the rough.

Many Star Wars fans love Knights of the Old Republic II for its more complicated portrayal of the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Unfortunately, the game shipped in an unfinished state due partly to the fact developer Obsidian Entertainment, best known for its work on Fallout: New Vegas, had 14 to 16 months to complete work on the project.

Obsidian was forced to cut content, including an entire playable planet, to make the deadline set by publisher LucasArts. After the studio moved on to other projects, a group of fans began working on The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod for PC, promising to bring the final version of the game as close to Obsidian’s original vision as possible. And for the most part, they succeeded in that goal, making the PC version of The Sith Lords the definitive way to experience Knights of the Old Republic II.

While we wait for more information on the Restored Content DLC, Aspyr said it would release KotOR II to Switch on June 8th. The studio is also working on a PS5 remake of the original game. 

Welcome to Tom Cruise’s flight school for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Jake Kring-Schreifels, The Ringer

One of the biggest challenges in filming the original Top Gun was keeping all of the actors playing pilots from constantly vomiting in the cockpit. Any sequel to that '80s classic would have to be even more realistic, since production eventually moved to a soundstage. The Ringer explains how GoPro footage from real Navy pilots was the initial inspiration for the new movie, how custom-built IMAX gear helped capture the angles from real F-18s and how Tom Cruise put the cast through intense training to prepare.

The era of borderless data Is ending

David McCabe and Adam Satariano, The New York Times

Over 50 countries are trying to make sure data created by their citizens, governments and industries stays within their borders — or at least stored in accordance with their laws. The quest for so-called "digital sovereignty" could impact services we use daily or some of the features they currently offer. 

Will AI lead to new creative frontiers, or take the pleasure out of music?

Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork

Artificial intelligence can now learn, perform and create music with skills that are more than just copying a human's actions. Pitchfork explores some of the more notable projects in search of an answer to the question: Just because we can, does that mean we should?

It's been possible to automatically create song stems on your computer, but now you have that option in a sampler app on your phone. Elf Audio has updated its Koala Sampler app for Android and iOS with a feature that uses AI to automatically isolate stems from samples. You can have the J Dilla-inspired app pick out the vocals, drums or bass (plus a generic "other") so that you can fold them into a track without consuming much time on your part.

The AI isn't perfect, as you can hear in the clip below. However, that's not strictly the point. As with the rest of Koala Sampler, this is more about creating quick cuts and making music production more accessible to people who can't justify expensive sampling tools. At $5, it's an easier way to dabble in this kind of production than investing in a full suite or novelties like Kanye's Stem Player.

On the heels of BTS dance workouts arriving on Fitness+, Apple is once again teaming up with the all-conquering K-pop group. A three-episode Apple Music series will delve into the history of BTS.

The first episode of BTS Radio: Past & Present will premiere on Apple Music 1 on May 28th at 9AM ET, the Associated Press notes. The other two episodes will arrive on a weekly basis. In the show, the members of BTS will take listeners through their journey to becoming superstars. "We wanted to share the BTS songs that help tell our story," RM, one of the septet, said.

The series will debut just ahead of the group's first anthology/best-of album Proof, which arrives on June 10th, as well as BTS' ninth anniversary three days later. Next week, BTS will visit the White House to discuss Asian inclusion and representation with President Biden, following a rise in reports of anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes.

Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ tomorrow, but Lucasfilm is already offering peeks at other Star Wars shows that are on the way to the streaming service. One of those is Andor, in which Diego Luna reprises his role as Cassian Andor. The series takes place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Based on the trailer Lucasfilm released today, it looks like Andor leans into the grittier side of the Star Wars universe, given the tone and muted color palette. The show will debut on August 31st with two episodes.

Lucasfilm also released the first trailer for Andor, which takes place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It looks like the series leans into the grittier side of the Star Wars universe, given the tone and muted color palette.

Andor is described as a "tense nail-biting spy thriller," which isn't a huge shock given the connection to Rogue One and the fact it was created by Tony Gilroy, the writer of the Bourne movies — he was a co-writer on Rogue One too. Forest Whitaker and Genevieve O’Reilly, who featured in the movie alongside Luna. will return as well.

The first season of Andorwill have 12 episodes — more than the previous live-action Star Wars Disney+ shows. A second season will start filming in November.

Lucasfilm also confirmed at Star Wars Celebration that The Mandalorian will return for its third season next February. Ahsoka, which features the return of Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, will arrive in 2023 too.

There's yet another live-action Star Wars series coming to Disney+ next year, this time starring Jude Law. It's called Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and it's from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts and writer Christopher Ford.

Skeleton Crew is set around the same time as The Mandalorian. It centers around “a group of kids who are about ten years old who get lost in the Star Wars universe,” according to Watts, who stressed that “it’s not a kids show."

Disney+ is finally ready to share more details of its Willow revival. The streamer has revealed that the TV series (simply titled Willow) will premiere November 30th. The accompany teaser trailer doesn't show much, but it has an older Willow Ufgood returning to save a future empress from the clutches of evil. He'll join an eclectic band of adventurers, but this time he's clearly more experienced than in the 1988 movie.

The show sees Warwick Davis reprise his role as Willow. At least a few familiar actors are joining the cast, including Ellie Bamber (most recently in Netflix's The Serpent) and Disney alumnus Erin Kellyman (Solo and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Jon Chu was originally slated to direct, but was replaced by multiple directors when he had to step down due to pandemic restrictions. Willow movie director Ron Howard is involved as an executive producer.

The announcement comes just as Disney shared a wave of details about its next Star Wars shows, including Andor and Skeleton Crew. The company isn't shy about its Disney+ strategy, then. The service is packing its schedule with ever more originals in a bid to keep people watching, and it's not afraid to mine multiple old franchises in the process.

Sony had a lot to discuss during its annual investor briefing, including plans to boost PlayStation 5 production and get the console into the hands of more people who want one. One of the more intriguing nuggets of news came during the Q&A, when the company confirmed it's adapting three more of its gaming properties into TV shows.

It said a show based on the Horizon games is on the way to Netflix and a God of War series is coming to Prime Video, IGN reports. PlayStation Productions also has a Gran Turismo TV show in development, but it hasn't been revealed where you'll be able to watch that. 

Details on the three projects are scant for now. It remains to be seen who will be cast as Aloy, Kratos, Atreus and other characters (I have my fingers crossed for Alan Cumming as Mimir) and just how the heck Sony plans to make a TV show out of Gran Turismo.

Turning some of its biggest games into TV shows and movies has been a major focus for Sony in recent years. After over a decade of trying to make an Uncharted movie, Sony Pictures finally released one this year. A Ghost of Tsushima film is in development too. On the TV front, a Twisted Metal series is on the way to Peacock, while filming on the first season of HBO's highly anticipated The Last of Us show is expected to wrap in the next few weeks.

Netflix and Amazon have been drawing from the rich well of video game IP too as of late. Netflix has animated shows based on League of Legends, Castlevania and Cuphead, while a live-action Resident Evil series will debut in July. Amazon, on the other hand, has a Fallout show in the pipeline and, if reports are to be believed, a Mass Effect show in the works.

Call of Duty fans might want to start looking into taking some time off around Halloween. The next entry in the franchise, Modern Warfare II, will be released on October 28th. It's the sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare, which was a reboot of the blockbuster series.

Activision Blizzard released a teaser video that doesn't show any gameplay. Instead, it reveals artwork for some of the characters who'll be featured: John “Soap” MacTavish, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Captain John Price, Kyle “Gaz” Garrick and Alejandro Vargas.

A gameplay reveal (if you really need one to know what a modern Call of Duty game looks like) may not be too far away, though. The teaser includes a quick flash of text reading "J-8-22." That may be hinting toward a broader reveal on June 8th, just ahead of major gaming showcases from Summer Game Fest and Xbox and Bethesda.

It's Infinity Ward's turn to release a Call of Duty title and the studio has its hands full, since it's also responsible for Warzone. A "massive evolution" of the battle royale will take place later this year in line with the release of Modern Warfare II. Both games will have a new engine, for one thing.

Modern Warfare II is arguably the most important Call of Duty title for Activision Blizzard in many years. The series is the company's crown jewel. While the most recent release, Call of Duty: Vanguard, was the biggest selling game of 2021 by some estimations, it saw "lower premium sales" at launch than the previous year's entry, Black Ops Cold War.

In the first three months of 2022, the Activision side of the business (which Call of Duty falls under) saw a big drop in engagement year-over-year from 150 million monthly active players to 100 million in the wake of the company's misconduct scandals. With the Microsoft takeover pending and reports that there may not be a new Call of Duty game in 2023, Activision Blizzard will be hoping that Modern Warfare II performs strongly.

Starlink has launched a new product meant specifically for RV dwellers and those who can't wait to get connected to the satellite internet service. While applying for a regular Starlink dish and service will put customers in a waitlist until 2023, Starlink for RVs is immediately available and will ship out to buyers right now. The downside? Network resources are always de-prioritized for it, and the service costs $135, which is $25 more than a regular Starlink connection. 

In other words, the RV option costs just as much as a regular Starlink connection with the Portability feature introduced back in March that allows customers to use the service while they're away from home. A regular connection requires one to have a home service first, though, and that may not be possible for some people. Another difference is that the product for RVs gives customers the ability to pause and un-pause service, so they can control when their billing starts and ends. 

Since the network is de-prioritized for the RV service, though, users' connection might be slow and intermittent in congested areas and during peak hours. "Stated speeds and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed," the company wrote in its Help page, clearly making sure interested customers understand that it's prioritizing at-home users. One important thing to note for those looking into the RV option is that they can't use Starlink while in motion at this time. SpaceX chief Elon Musk also added on Twitter that the dish is too big for cars, though that didn't stop at least one user from bolting it onto their vehicle's hood.