If Tesla's last big Full Self Driving beta was about enabling more semi-autonomous features off the highway, its newest release is focused more on helping you trust those features. Electreknotes Tesla has started rolling out a Full Self Driving 10 beta that, from early reports, appears to make smarter and more confident decisions off the highway. It won't necessarily "blow your mind," as Elon Musk claimed, but it appears to deliver smoother turns, roundabouts and merges. One driver found that it finally navigated San Francisco's twisty Lombard Street without requiring intervention.

Users have also noticed improved visuals. You won't always see as many stats as before, but they appear to be more accurate and stable without as much twitchiness. You'll have a better idea of what the car is seeing, and possibly trust its decisions more as a result.

Highway driving hasn't changed, but that's intentional. Musk said the production-level, non-beta highway navigation is still "more polished" than the Full Self Driving equivalent at the moment. You might not see a truly harmonized approach until the 10.1 release.

It's not clear when regular Tesla owners might see FSD 10. It could be easier to try pre-release versions before long, however. Musk hoped a public option to request the beta would be available along with the 10.1 release that might arrive in as little as two weeks. The improvements won't necessarily justify the steep prices for the FSD package, but you may well be happier with the purchase — if just because you can rely on not-quite-driverless features more often.

Polyphony Digital has narrowed down the release date for Gran Turismo 7 following its delay in February. The developer now expects its next big racing game to reach PS4 and PS5 on March 4th, 2022. Appropriately, the company has released a gameplay trailer that shows what you can expect from the PS5 version's visuals — this will definitely be a showcase for the console.

While the title still has that almost-too-polished sheen you've seen in many racing games, it's considerably closer to real life than you might expect. That's particularly true in low light and rain, where there's an eerily high level of realism.

Whether or not that translates to gameplay is another story. Polyphony said after the PlayStation Showcase that it was bringing back many familiar modes, and you can expect a range of past GT experiences that include off-roading and rallying. But will the physics, AI and other elements take a step forward? You might not get those answers until much closer to release.

Gearbox is finally ready to set a firm release date for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands — and offer a peek at gameplay in the process. The studio has revealed that its Borderlands fantasy spin-off will launch on PS5 (and presumably other platforms) on March 25th, 2022. The gameplay appears to have some very familiar elements, although not all of them are from Gearbox's sci-fi shooter.

Yes, to some extent it looks like Borderlands with crossbows — Tiny Tina even throws in guns just because. But there are also some tributes to role-playing game tropes, including silly top-down navigation, parties... and, of course, lots of loot. It looks promising, even if it's not a radical reinvention of the Gearbox formula.

Houseparty's video chat may have been a popular choice in the early days of the pandemic, but that hasn't won it much favor with its owner Epic Games. Houseparty is shutting down its app sometime in October. Fortnite's Houseparty integration will vanish around the same time, the developers said. The app has already disappeared from stores.

The team explained the move as a matter of focus. Houseparty is crafting "meaningful and authentic" new socialization features that would be useful at a metaverse level across Epic Games titles, according to the creators. The company didn't provide any clues as to what would come next.

It's a slightly odd decision. Epic bought Houseparty in 2019, and the app bloomed in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to socialize online. There were over 17 million downloads in March 2020 alone, Sensor Tower said. The Fortnite tie-in also gave the younger crowd a way to hang out in a favorite game. While the pandemic is (hopefully) winding down, Epic is effectively cutting off Houseparty near its peak.

That shift toward the metaverse may be difficult to ignore, however. Epic has increasingly turned Fortnite into a social space between pop star concerts, virtual museums and non-competitive modes like Party Royale. The more work Epic can devote to that space, the greater its chances of attracting (and keeping) users who aren't always ready fight intense last-one-standing battles.

As promised, Sony is ready to offer a peek at the PS5's future. The company is livestreaming PlayStation Showcase 2021 at 4PM Eastern, and you can watch the whole event below. It won't be a short presentation — Sony said the Showcase will clock in at about 40 minutes, with an after-show providing updates from featured studios.

The stream will officially focus on upcoming PS5 games (including for the holidays) from both PlayStation Studios as well as third-party developers. However, we also wouldn't be surprised if Sony devotes some time to system updates for the console. The company has teased a number of significant OS improvements as part of the beta program, including the option to add SSD storage. This is Sony's big chance to set its agenda for the next year, and it might not limit that agenda to the console's game lineup.

The world's largest direct-air carbon capture plant is up and running, although you might want to keep your expectations in check. Bloombergreports Climeworks has started operations for Orca, a plant in Iceland that grabs CO2 from the air, storing it underground and using a Carbfix solution to mix the chemical with water and (in two years) trap it in stone. The facility will capture 4,000 tons of CO2 per year, and it's 'permanently' removed from the environment, not recycled.

A carbon offset isn't a trivial purchase. It currently costs $600 per ton for bulk requests, and as high as $1,200 for eco-friendly individuals. Climeworks hopes to shrink the cost to $300 or less per ton by 2030 as it ramps up its overall capacity.

While Orca represents an important milestone for actively reducing humanity's carbon footprint, it's not much to brag about at this stage — if anything, it reveals just how far the technology has to go. That 4,000 tons of capture is equal to just 250 US residents, half the total capture output in the world, and nowhere near matching Climeworks' initial plan to capture 300 million tons (1 percent of the world's emissions) by 2025. The company now expects to reach 500,000 tons per year by 2030.

There are still reasons to be optimistic. Demand is very high, according to Climeworks, to the point where the company plans to expand Orca tenfold in the next three years. Lower carbon reduction prices could also accelerate adoption by tempting companies that would otherwise pay penalties when they can't meet emissions targets. This won't be a true substitute for reducing CO2 output, but it could help mitigate the impact in the short term.

Amazon is acting on its promise to improve its treatment of employees, but not necessarily in the way you'd expect. The online shopping giant has pledged to pay full college tuition for its operations (effectively, warehouse) workers in the US beginning in January. The company didn't reveal the full criteria required, but some staff are eligible if they've been with Amazon for just three months.

The firm will also cover high school diplomas, GEDs and English as a Second Language certifications. And no, workers won't have to wait until they've finished a semester to get compensation. Amazon said it would pay tuition and other fees in advance, and would offer annual funds as long as people remain employees.

Staff will also have access to a trio of new "tuition-free" skill programs that will help train for positions in Amazon Web Services, IT support (such as Amazon Robotics) and user experience design. Not surprisingly, Amazon is using pay as an incentive — those on the IT track can make another $10,000 per year, the company claimed.

The incentives for Amazon are clear. This will help it not only recruit more workers for its office roles, but attract and retain workers who were either wary of working for Amazon or want assurances of upward career mobility once their schooling is done. Amazon might lose some of those tuition recipients to other companies, but that could be a small price to pay if it leads to more internal candidates and a more stable workforce.

This won't satisfy many of Amazon's critics. Politicians and labor rights activists have blasted Amazon over tough workplace quotas, constant employee monitoring and higher injury rates at automated facilities, among other issues. There are also allegations Amazon has interfered with unionization votes that could improve conditions and pay. Free education while you work is only useful so long as you're happy with the work itself, and this plan won't change much.

There's also the question of Amazon's outsized influence. The company said it was the "largest job creator" in the US, with 400,000 people having joined since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paid tuition could give Amazon influence much like that of the military, where people sometimes sign up to defray education costs. As welcome as many might find the gesture, it could give Amazon more clout in society than regulators might like.

Shure is ready to take another pass at true wireless earbuds, and this one might be worth a look if the first version didn't live up to your expectations. The company has introduced an Aonic 215 Gen 2 that boasts the same sound profile and (still unusual) choice between wired and wireless listening, but also tackles some glaring omissions. For one, they're IPX4 sweat- and water-resistant — you can wear these during workouts without fear.

Gen 2 also addresses some creature comforts. There's now a hardware EQ you can define through Shure's mobile app. Calls finally come through both ears, and the four beamforming mics promise to improve your voice quality during calls. Volume controls are finally on the earbuds themselves, complete with personalization, and you no longer have to manually power on your earbuds when you remove them from the rugged charging case.

Shure

Battery life is still healthy at eight hours for the buds themselves, and another 24 from the case. Shure still promises support for a range of audio codecs, including aptX, AAC and SBC.

The updated Aonic 215 is available in black and blue color schemes for $229. If you want to convert other Shure earbuds to wireless, you can buy a Gen 2 Secure Fit Adapter for $189.

You no longer have to settle for watching tiny, random clips of the next Matrix movie. Warner Bros. has finally shared the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, the long-anticipated fourth movie in the sci-fi action series. As you'd expect, the preview marks the return of Keanu Reeves as Neo, who initially appears unaware of who he really is — he's even taking blue pills and visiting a therapist (Neil Patrick Harris). As you'd expect, though, he begins to question reality and finds the truth underneath, including a reunion with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss).

You'll also see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a Morpheus-like figure, and Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones) enticing Neo to rediscover the Matrix. The title will also see Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson reprise their respective roles as Niobe and the Merovingian, while Jonathan Groff (Hamilton), Christina Ricci and Daniel Bernhardt are also poised to make appearances.

The movie premieres theatrically on December 22nd. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max for a month if you subscribe to the ad-free tier — the last movie to have that option before Warner Bros. switches back to a theater-first strategy in 2022.

Netflix promised a big movie every week in 2021, and it's clearly determined to end the year with its most ostentatious movie yet. The streaming service has posted a teaser trailer for Don't Look Up, a satire where "star-studded cast" is an understatement. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as a grad student and professor who try desperately to warn the public of a life-ending comet in an era where 24-hour news and social media lead to gnat-like attention spans. Those two are just the start of the headliners, though — seemingly everyone involved is a big name.

Meryl Streep is the President and counts Jonah Hill as her son, while Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry host a relentlessly optimistic morning show. The flick also features Ron Perlman, Mark Rylance, Dune's Timothée Chalamet and even two pop stars (Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi), among others. The Big Short's Adam McKay directed and wrote the title.

Don't Look Up reaches Netflix on December 24th, but it's arriving in "select" theaters on December 10th. The company is clearly hoping for more Oscars glory given that timing. Not that Netflix will need critical praise. The film-a-week strategy has revolved around enticing viewers with star power, even in "dead" months like January — any statuettes from late-2021 releases are just a bonus.