You won't have to wait too much longer to see how anime heavyweights tackle the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm and Disney have announced that the Star Wars: Visions anthology will be available on Disney+ on September 22nd, and have offered a close look at the short films themselves. You'll get nine shorts from seven studios, each with a very distinct take on the space fantasy — including more than a few nods to Japanese culture.

Kamikaze Douga's The Duel, for instance, is a mostly black-and-white short involving samurai-like Jedi and Sith warriors. Studio Colorido's Tatooine Rhapsody is a Chibi-like rock opera (yes, you read that correctly), while Science Saru's T0-B1 draws more than a little from Astro Boy as it tells the tale of a droid that hopes to become a Jedi.

Visions likely wont' define the Disney+ calendar the way The Mandalorian or numerous Marvel shows have so far. With that said, it does show how Disney is experimenting with streaming — it's willing to try formats that likely wouldn't work in theaters or conventional TV.

China's app privacy crackdown just struck one of its largest targets yet. Bloombergreports that China's Cyberspace Administration has ordered the removal of Didi Chuxing's ride hailing app from mobile stores, including Apple's App Store and Huawei's AppGallery. The software allegedly committed serious regulatory breaches through its collection and use of personal data, officials said.

The government didn't explain the decision, which came just two days after a formal review began. Didi's app is still functional if you've already downloaded it and have an account— you just can't download a new copy.

Didi said it planned to fix the app to honor Chinese regulations, and had paused new user registrations as of July 3rd. It's not certain when sign-ups and the app will return.

The move might help protect privacy, but it also reflects China's mounting attempts to rein in domestic tech giants. It recently fined Alibaba $2.8 billion for alleged monopolistic practices, for instance. Didi was already under scrutiny for possible antitrust violations and security issues — the order represents both an escalation of that scrutiny and a signal that China is ready to get tough if companies don't fall in line.

FaZe Clan is once again reeling from drama, and this time the damage might be longer-lasting. Decryptnotes that FaZe has punished four players for alleged involvement in a pump-and-dump scheme involving the Save the Kids cryptocurrency project. The eSports team suspended Jarvis (pictured), Nikan and Teeqo, and has permanently removed Kay from the organization.

Save the Kids (aka KIDS) was pitched as a charity that would donate 1 percent of each transaction fee (which itself is 3 percent of the total transaction) to a child-oriented foundation. The creators got influencers at FaZe to promote KIDS ahead of its launch in early June, only to watch as the price crashed by almost 90 percent.

The affected clan members have denied any deliberate involvement. Kay said he had "no ill intent" in promoting KIDS, and that he made a mistake in participating without vetting the effort with the team.

This isn't even the first time FaZe team members have faced accusations of joining in scams. Kay and clan co-founder were paid to promote another coin, BankSocial, in May — only to sell shortly before exiting the partnership. Banks didn't reveal the financial connection in Twitter posts he has since deleted.

The crackdown highlights the growing number of eSports players making money outside of competitive gaming, both individually and as a team. Gucci made a Fnatic-badged dive watch, for instance. While it's not surprising given how players are quickly gaining the kind of celebrity status commonly associated with conventional sports stars, that opens them to similar temptations.

Elon Musk's Boring Company is still trying to sell cities on transit loops, and it might just have a significant buyer. As The Vergereports, the Boring Company has submitted a bid for a transit tunnel loop that would link the downtown with the beach. The Las Olas Loop would be an "innovative and unprecented" way to manage traffic congestion and transit demands, Mayor Dean Trantalis claimed.

The City Commission will vote on the proposal on July 6th. It also plans to establish a process where other companies can offer rival projects. Specific details won't be available until after the competition is over, the city said.

A successful bid would establish the Boring Company's first East Coast tunnel. The only existing tunnel, in Las Vegas, launched in June.

It would be a crucial win. Musk's outfit hasn't had much success pitching cities on passenger loops, and has even shifted some of its attention to larger freight tunnels. A Fort Lauderdale contract would give the passenger system more credibility and might encourage other cities to consider tunnels of their own — at least, so long as the tunnels prove to be useful.

It didn't take long for Porsche's rumored Taycan recall to become official. The German car maker has recalled about 43,000 Taycan and Taycan Cross Turismo EVs worldwide over a sudden power loss issue. You'll have to take your electric sports sedan to a workshop to receive an hour-long software update (over-the-air isn't an option this time), although Porsche said you could continue driving until the update is ready.

The bug has already been addressed for models rolling off the line, Porsche said.

The recall was prompted by an NHTSA investigation of nine incidents where power shut off while the cars were in motion, with six of the cars refusing to restart. Autoblognoted that Porsche found the problem in 130 cars after conducting its own investigation. There haven't been reports of collisions or injuries.

The recall is a blow (if minor) to Porsche, which has generally enjoyed strong sales for the Taycan. The EV is now popular enough in the US that it's outselling the 911, 718 and Panamera. While this isn't likely to tank sales, it comes as Porsche is still trying to persuade buyers that it's worth ditching the company's legendary gas engines for electric motors — it might face some hesitancy after this, even if EVs are likely to be more reliable.

Broadcom is facing a major antitrust crackdown. Gizmodoreports that the Federal Trade Commission has charged Broadcom with "illegally monopolizing" the markets for broadband and TV chips, including WiFi parts. The FTC claimed that Broadcom struck exclusive deals with vendors and service providers that prevented them from buying chips from rival suppliers.

The FTC also accused Broadcom of obtaining "exclusivity and loyalty commitments" for chip supplies, making it difficult for companies to compete on their own merits. The vote was near unanimous, although newly installed Commissioner Lina Khan bowed out.

The Commission's proposed action would forbid Broadcom from negotiating certain exclusivity and loyalty deals, bar the company from conditioning chip access based on commitments, and ban retaliation against customers who buy from Broadcom's competitors.

We've asked Broadcom for comment, although it previously signalled that it might cooperate on a settlement. It still disagreed with the FTC's portrayal and claimed that it didn't break the law.

The chipset giant hasn't exactly won favor from regulators in recent years. It spent 2017 and 2018 aggressively trying to buy Qualcomm, only to give up after the White House blocked the deal. We wouldn't expect regulators to make too many concessions as a result, even if a settlement seems likely. Broadcom hasn't been shy about wanting to dominate the chip business — the FTC will want assurances the company won't push boundaries in the future.

Tesla won't sit by the wayside as electric trucks like the Hummer EV and Rivian R1T lure customers with special features. Elon Musk has revealed that Tesla is adding rear-wheel steering to the Cybertruck to help the EV maneuver with "high agility." It's a rough answer to the Hummer's "Crab Mode" and R1T's tank turns, in other words. You might not have much trouble with a tight U-turn or tricky off-road scenario.

Musk also reiterated that the Cybertruck's design will be "almost exactly" what you saw at the introduction in November 2019, although he teased that there were many "other great things" in the pipeline. The pickup is still due to enter production in late 2021.

Rear-wheel steering may be virtually necessary. The Cybertruck is large even by truck standards — it might be a tough sell if it's difficult to steer out of a parking lot. Moreover, rivals like GMC, Rivian and Ford are all launching electric trucks that might match or sometimes beat Tesla's feature set. The category has changed since the Cybertruck introduction, and Tesla risks losing some business if it doesn't update its technology.

Hackers just perpetrated one of the largest known supply chain cyberattacks so far. The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal report that IT management software giant Kaseya has fallen victim to a ransomware attack that compromised its VSA remote maintenance tool. The company initially claimed that "fewer than 40" of its customers were directly affected, but security response firm Huntress said three managed service providers it worked with had also succumbed to the attack and compromising over 200 companies.

The number could be higher. Huntress noted there were eight affected cloud service providers, potentially affecting many more 

Kaseya said it had identified the likely source of the security flaw and was developing a patch that would be "tested thoroughly." In the meantime, though, the company urged all customers to shut down their VSA servers and keep them offline until they could install the update. Software-as-a-service customers were "never at-risk," Kaseya added, although the company took down that functionality as a precaution.

It's not certain who's behind the attack, although Huntress tied the campaign to the Russia-linked REvil group that attacked beef supplier JBS.

The incident is the latest in a string of high-profile ransomware attacks, including JBS and Colonial Pipeline. It also follows the large-scale SolarWinds breaches attributed to another group, Nobelium. Online security is quickly becoming a major issue in the supply chain, and it's not clear these problems will disappear any time soon.

Kaseya's breach also reflects the dangers of relying heavily on one company's software platform. While the number of directly affected clients is small, the supply chain network appears to have created a ripple effect that damaged numerous companies down the line. The situation might not improve until there's either tighter security among Kaseya-like providers or more competition that reduces the potential damage.

Tesla has once again topped its delivery record, and this time it reached a symbolic milestone. As CNBCnotes, the EV maker delivered an all-time high of 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter of 2021 — the first time it has ever shipped more than 200,000 cars to customers in a given quarter. It delivered 184,800 machines in the first quarter of the year.

The Model 3 and Model Y represented nearly all of the deliveries. Tesla delivered just 1,890 Model S and Model X units, although that wasn't helped by the wait for the Model S Plaid. The first deliveries for the upscale electric sedan officially started on June 10th.

The achievement came despite "many challenges," founder Elon Musk said. He didn't elaborate on what those were, but he'd previously mentioned "major" supply chain price issues as a factor. Raw materials were a particular sore point, Musk added. The automotive industry as a whole has also reeled from chip shortages, making it difficult for some companies to manufacture enough cars to meet demand.

The number isn't as large as what some analysts were hoping for. Estimates ranged as high as 231,000. Even so, it's notable that Tesla is besting its own results despite cooling momentum and a less-than-forgiving market. The bigger challenges lie ahead — it has to face stiffer competition as EVs become mainstream, particularly from potential blockbuster hits like Ford's F-150 Lightning.

GM isn't just leaning on technical prowess to sell you on its EV battery technology — it's hoping eco-friendliness (and frugality) will play a role, too. The automaker has struck a deal with Controlled Thermal Resources to obtain more environmentally responsible lithium. The team-up will source lithium from California made using a process that generates lower CO2 emissions than the usual pit mines or evaporation pods.

CTR's project, Hell's Kitchen, will use a closed-loop system that extracts lithium directly from geothermal brine. GM's arrangement gives it "first rights" to lithium from the first stage of Hell's Kitchen, plus an option for a multi-year partnership.

The approach should not only reduce the overall environmental footprint of GM's EVs, but secure "low-cost" lithium that could lower prices.

The initial Hell's Kitchen stage isn't expected to produce lithium until 2024. However, GM sees this collaboration as important to its goal of dropping combustion engine cars by 2035. If the automaker can both improve the value of its EVs and make a stronger case for their green credentials, it might boost sales and have an easier time transitioning away from gas and diesel.