Valve may boast that the Steam Deck will run games well, but you won't have to worry about the handheld PC running games too quickly. As The Vergenotes, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais has revealed that the Steam Deck will include a "built-in" frame rate limiter option that caps performance in return for longer battery life. If you're playing a title that doesn't demand highly responsive visuals, you can trade some unnecessary frames for extra game time.

Not that games will necessarily drag the system down. After Valve told IGN it was aiming for a 30FPS target, Griffais added that the frame rate was the "floor" for playable performance. Every game the company has tested so far has "consistently met and exceeded" that threshold, the developer said. While you probably won't run cutting-edge games at 30FPS with maximum detail (this is a $399 handheld, after all), you might not have to worry that a favorite game will be too choppy to play.

The company already expects Portal 2 to last for six hours at 30FPS versus four with no frame rate restrictions. We wouldn't be surprised if the effect is reduced for newer or more intensive games that are less likely to reach high frame rates.

The Steam Deck might not offer a completely seamless experience even with the limiter. Digital Foundrywarned that you might get a less-than-ideal experience with V-Sync active. And of course, the 30FPS target generally applies only to existing games — don't count on a cutting-edge 2023 game running at playable frame rates, at least not without significantly reduced detail. This is more about ensuring that your existing game library is usable on launch.

Motorola might soon release a sequel to its flagship Edge phones — albeit without their signature feature. OnLeaks and Pricebaba have shared what they say are CAD-based renders of the standard Edge 20, and Motorola appears to have dropped the highly curved "endless" display in favor of a 6.7-inch flat screen. It would be just another phone on the outside, even if the 120Hz,1080p panel could make it feel extra-responsive.

You'd also get a triple rear camera system that reportedly includes a 108MP primary sensor, a 16MB secondary cam and an 8MP tertiary sensor (likely for telephoto and wide-angle shots). This regular Edge 20 model would be an upper mid-tier device on the inside between a Snapdragon 778G chip, up to 8GB of RAM, a peak 256GB of storage and a 4,000mAh battery.

There is a chance the rumored Edge 20 Pro would keep the curved screen, and it might offer improved performance from the Snapdragon 870. An Edge 20 Lite is supposedly in the works as well. If Motorola does use this design for the mainstream Edge 20, though, it signals a change of tack. Rather than relying on an eye-catching (if somewhat impractical) design for the entire Edge line, it would focus on delivering value for the money. It's just a question of whether or not the price will be low enough to draw you away from rivals.

Las Vegas police appear to have smashed a record while using ancestry to find cold case suspects. BBC Newsreports that Vegas law enforcement claims to have solved the 1989 murder of 14-year-old Stephanie Isaacson (pictured here) using the smallest known volume of DNA. Investigators sent just 0.12 nanograms of DNA samples, or about 15 cells, to Othram's gene sequencing lab to help find a match. For context, a typical home DNA testing kit collects at least 750 nanograms.

Othram used the sequences to comb through ancestry databases and pinpoint the suspect's cousin and identify Darren Roy Marchand as the culprit. The team confirmed the match by comparing the sample against Marchand's DNA from an arrest for a 1986 murder case. Marchand was never convicted and died in 1995.

Vegas police launched the investigation after resident Justin Woo donated money to help law enforcement solve cases using "minimal" DNA levels. The investigation at Othram started on January 19th, but it wasn't until July 12th that the company identified a suspect.

Othram chief David Mittlemen characterized the effort as a "huge milestone" in a discussion with the BBC. This could theoretically solve cold cases where the samples were previously thought too small to be usable.

The breakthrough won't necessarily thrill everyone, however. There have been concerns that law enforcement might violate privacy when conducting these tests, and the Justice Department has established guidelines precisely to prevent those kinds of abuses. While there's no indication Vegas authorities crossed boundaries in the Richardson case, a much larger range of potentially solvable cases also widens the potential for more privacy violations.

The NSO Group has denied that its spyware was used to compromise many politicians' phones, but WhatsApp is telling a different story. The chat giant's CEO, Will Cathcart, told The Guardian in an interview that governments allegedly used NSO's Pegasus software to attack senior government officials worldwide in 2019, including high-ranking national security officials who were US allies. The breaches were reportedly part of a larger campaign that compromised 1,400 WhatsApp users in two weeks, prompting a lawsuit.

The reporting on the NSO "matches" with findings from the 2019 attack on WhatsApp, Cathcart said. Human rights activists and journalists were also believed to be victims.

The executive was responding to allegations that governments used Pegasus to hack phones for 37 people, including those of women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Those targets were also on a 2016 list of over 50,000 phone numbers that included activists, journalists and politicians, although it's not clear that anyone beyond the 37 fell prey to attacks.

NSO has strongly rejected claims about the hacks and the list, insisting that there's "no factual basis" and that the list was too large to be focused solely on potential Pegasus targets. It also directly challenged Cathcart, asking if the WhatsApp exec had "other alternatives" to its tools that would help thwart "pedophiles, terrorists and criminals" using encrypted software.

Cathcart, however, didn't buy that explanation — he pointed to the 1,400 people as possible evidence that the number of targets was "very high." Whatever the truth, it's safe to say WhatsApp won't shy away from its lawsuit (or a war of words) any time soon.

Ford might be excited about its BlueCruise hands-free driving tech, but GM is less than thrilled about it. The Detroit Free Press and The Verge report that GM has sued Ford for allegedly violating the trademarks for both its rival Super Cruise feature and its autonomy-focused Cruise company.

GM was holding mediated talks with Ford to reach a "good-faith" arrangement, according to DFP sources. The two sides reportedly didn't make a deal before a July 24th deadline, however, prompting the lawsuit. A GM spokesperson said the company had "no choice" but to sue Ford after trying to resolve the dispute "amicably."

Ford's representative, meanwhile, argued that GM's lawsuit was "meritless and frivolous." People understood that "cruise" was short for cruise control, Ford said, and BlueCruise was ultimately the "next evolution" of its Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control feature. The automaker added that GM didn't seem to have issues with other brands' naming schemes, such as BMW's Active Cruise Control and Hyundai's Smart Cruise Control.

The attention to Ford isn't surprising. Both companies see hands-free driving as a major selling point for their cars, with full self-driving a long-term goal. It's also no secret that the two Detroit brands have been fierce rivals for a long time — neither Ford nor GM will want to cede ground, at least not quickly. We wouldn't be surprised if the lawsuit ends with a settlement, but not before the companies have traded some verbal jabs.

Expect to see more mixed reality apps in the future, at least for the Oculus Quest 2. WinFuturenotes that Oculus has unveiled a toolkit, Passthrough API Experimental, that will make it relatively easy to "seamlessly" merge VR with the real world view from the Quest 2's cameras.

You can project images on flat surfaces, create composite layers that float in space, and even apply visual styles (akin to social media filters) to real scenes. You could give yourself a virtual monitor to use with your real-world keyboard, for instance, or turn your home into a psychedelic dreamscape by flicking a virtual switch.

Privacy shouldn't be an issue, Oculus claimed. The API only processes raw camera footage on-device, and apps can't access, store or view imagery of the world around you. A rogue app shouldn't transmit video of your home, to put it another way.

Oculus expects to deliver the framework to Unity engine developers with its next software development kit release. It will take a while for finished apps to surface, but don't be surprised if mixed reality games and productivity tools become relatively commonplace as a result of Oculus' new tools.

The Volkswagen group's desire to crush records with electrified cars now extends to one of the world's toughest off-road challenges. Autoblogreports that Audi has started testing the RS Q E-Tron, a from-scratch hybrid off-roader it hopes will score overall victory in the 2022 Dakar Rally. If so, it would be the first electrified vehicle to win the gruelling competition.

 The RS Q E-Tron relies on an electric drivetrain with two modified Formula E motors, one at each axle. As you won't find a charging station in the middle of the desert, however, Audi uses a race-ready TFSI engine as part of an energy converter that charges the battery while driving and braking. This isn't a zero-emissions car, then, but it stays in a relatively efficient power band (between 4,500RPM and 6,000RPM) that should reduce the racer's environmental impact.

The machine should be highly adaptable, too. Unlike many EVs, the front and rear axles aren't mechanically connected — software handles torque distribution instead. That not only allows for an easily reconfigurable center differential, but saves the bulk that would normally be used for a conventional differential and propshaft.

Audi plans to enter the machine into multiple cross-country rallies in 2021 before participating in the Dakar Rally in January.

If Audi is successful, the RS Q E-Tron will make a stronger case for eco-friendly endurance racing. While not a pure EV, it will handle extremely long stages (up to 500 miles) with a significantly reduced emissions footprint. It also won't surprise you to hear that Audi wants more than just bragging rights. It expects lessons learned from the car to reach production cars. We wouldn't count on something with a similar drivetrain when the VW group is transitioning to EVs, but it's easy to imagine electric SUVs and crossovers that are better-suited to off-roading.

Now might be a good time to buy the Apple Watch Series 6 — at least, if you're fond of red. Amazon is selling the 40mm Product Red edition of the Apple smartwatch for just $265 at checkout, well below the official $399 price. That's lower than the price we saw in April, and makes it more affordable than a brand-new Apple Watch SE. Unless you find a huge sale for the SE, this is clearly the better buy.

Buy Apple Watch Series 6 at Amazon - $265

The Series 6 is ultimately a subtle evolution of the Series 5, but that's not a bad thing. The always-on display is still very helpful, and on Series 6 is brighter to help you see it during outdoor expeditions. It's slightly faster, lasts slightly longer on battery and charges quickly. We'd add that the Apple Watch remains the go-to wristwear for iPhone users between the tight integration, deep app ecosystem and wide range of bands and accessories.

Timing is the main concern at this point. It's no secret that the Series 6 is nearly a year old, and Series 7 is likely just a couple of months away. If money isn't your main concern, it might be worth waiting for the updated hardware. With that said, the Series 7 likely won't see discounts like this for a long while — the Series 6 is still a good value if you either can't afford to wait or just want a full-featured Apple Watch at the lowest possible price.

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Football Manager developer Sports Interactive has a history of inclusive gameplay, and that now extends to women. The company has revealed that it's adding women's soccer (aka football) to its management sim. This will likely be a "multi-year" project, SI warned, but this also isn't a simple character model swap. The studio wants to offer the same kind of depth it has for men's sport while accounting for the differences between players and leagues.

There will be new models and databases, of course. However, SI noted that it also has to account for different league rules, gender differences in text translations (the most expensive part of the project) and tweaks to different player attribute systems. The company also has to decide whether or not it accounts for certain practical realities of women's soccer, at least at first — does it factor in menstruation and pregnancy, for example?

The team recently hired coach and research expert Tina Keech to lead its women's soccer efforts, and there are already motion capture sessions underway.

The expansion will likely prove costly. SI expects adding women will "cost millions," and it's looking for sponsorship deals that could help fund the project. However, the company believes there's a moral imperative to add women to the game — it wants to "smash" the glass ceiling for women's soccer and help it get the same attention given to men's leagues. In other words, Football Manager will be part of a larger sports equality campaign that includes games like FIFA as well as better TV coverage of real-world matches.

Alphabet has launched another company in its X moonshot factory, and this one may be its most ambitious robotics project to date. The just-opened firm, Intrinsic, plans to make industrial robots more accessible to people and businesses that couldn't otherwise justify the effort involved to teach the machines. You could see robotic manufacturing in more countries, for example, or small businesses that can automate production that previously required manual labor.

Intrinsic will focus on software tools that make these robots easier to use, more flexible and more affordable. To that end, the company has been testing a mix of software tools that include AI techniques like automated perception, motion planning and reinforcement learning. Company chief Wendy Tan-White has relevant experience, too. She started the "world's first" software-as-a-service site builder to make web development more accessible, launched early online banking and lending services, and helped nurture startups as a VP at X.

The technology is still early, but there are already promising results. During its development time at X, the team trained a robot to make a USB connection in two hours (instead of programming it over hundreds of hours) and had robotic arms build simple furniture (shown below). Automation wouldn't be "realistic or affordable" for efforts like these using existing technology, Intrinsic said.

Intrinsic/X

The new company still has much work to do. It's now focused more on creating a practical product and "validating" its tech. It's also hunting for partners in car manufacturing, electronics and healthcare that currently use industrial robots. If Intrinsic succeeds, though, it could make robotics more equitable and fill gaps in production. The company even suggests that its work could help the environment — the closer robotic factories are to people, the lower the emissions needed to transport goods to customers.

This might prove challenging. Rethink Robotics spent years developing collaborative robots that learn through simple human guidance, only to shut down as sales fell short. X moonshot companies also aren't guaranteed to succeed — look at Loon's fate as an example. Alphabet's money could help where companies like Rethink struggled, however, and Intrinsic is focused more on solving overall robotics problems rather than specific scenarios. This effort might stand a better chance than most.