NASA’s Artemis 1 test flight dummy will have company on its flight to the Moon. On Tuesday, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Shaun the Sheep will join the unmanned mission when it hopefully takes off later this year. With the announcement, Aardman’s beloved character will technically become the first ESA astronaut to participate in the Artemis program.

“This is an exciting time for Shaun and for us at ESA,” ESA Director for Human and Robotic Exploration David Parker said. “We’re woolly very happy that he’s been selected for the mission and we understand that, although it might be a small step for a human, it’s a giant leap for lambkind.”

Following a successful fueling test of its next-generation SLS rocket, NASA said Artemis 1 could launch as early as August 23rd. The mission will send the agency’s Orion spacecraft – as well as Shaun and Commander Moonikin Campos – on a trip beyond the moon. If all goes according to plan, the capsule should return to Earth after spending 39 to 42 days in space. “The spacecraft will perform a flyby of the Moon, using lunar gravity to gain speed and propel itself 70 000 km beyond the Moon, almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human, or sheep, has ever traveled,” the ESA said.

Aardman didn’t say as much, but Shaun will likely serve as the mission’s zero-g indicator. Ever since Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took a small doll with him on the first-ever human spaceflight, it’s become a tradition for space crews to bring a plush toy on missions. Even some unmanned flights have taken part in the practice. In May, for instance, Boeing’s Starliner capsule brought Jebediah Kerman from Kerbal Space Program to the International Space Station.

NASA and its partners on the James Webb Space Telescope have shared more spectacular images from the observatory. This time around, they provided a fresh look at the Cartwheel Galaxy, which Hubble and other telescopes previously observed. NASA said JWST has been able to reveal new details about both star formation and the black hole at the center of the galaxy, which is around 500 million light years from Earth.

Using infrared light detection, JWST was able to peer through the dust that obscured the Cartwheel Galaxy from view when other telescopes observed it. The above image is a composite from JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The JWST website has higher-resolution versions.

Data from NIRCam, which is the JWST's primary imager, is colored in blue, orange, and yellow, while MIRI's data is in red. NASA says the blue dots that appear in the red swirls of dust are individual stars or pockets of star formation. "NIRCam also reveals the difference between the smooth distribution or shape of the older star populations and dense dust in the core compared to the clumpy shapes associated with the younger star populations outside of it," the agency noted.

MIRI, meanwhile, was able to unearth more details about the galaxy's dust. It detected regions that are rich in hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds, along with silicate dust, which is similar to a lot of the dust present on Earth. Those regions form several spiraling spokes that led to the naming of the Cartwheel Galaxy. Hubble was previously able to image the spokes, but they're much clearer in the JWST observations. NASA also provided a MIRI-only image of the galaxy:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and Webb ERO Production Team

The Cartwheel Galaxy formed following a collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller one. It has two rings, a bright inner ring and a colorful outer one. The outer ring has been expanding from the center of the collision for around 440 million years.

The interior ring contains "a tremendous amount of hot dust," NASA said. The brightest areas host gigantic young star clusters. The outer ring, meanwhile, features star formation and supernovas. When it expands and hits surrounding gas, star formation occurs.

NASA, the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute last month revealed the first stunning full-color images from JWST. They included one that showed the "Cosmic Cliffs" of the Carina Nebula and a peek at stars in the early stages of formation. The telescope has also caught sight of Earendel, the most distant star that we know of in the universe. While it's still very early days for the JWST's science operations, it's already helping scientists develop a deeper understanding of the cosmos — as well as providing some incredible images for the rest of us to admire.

Meta may have scooped up sensitive medical information without consent. The Vergereports that two proposed class-action lawsuits accuse the company and hospitals of violating HIPAA, the California Invasion of Privacy Act and other laws by collecting patient data without consent. Meta's Pixel analytic tracking tool allegedly sent health statuses, appointment details and other data to Facebook when it was present on patient portals.

In one lawsuit, a patient said Pixel gathered data from the UC San Francisco and Dignity Health portals that was used to deliver ads related to heart and knee issues. The second lawsuit is broader and claims at least 664 providers shared medical info with Facebook through Pixel.

We've asked Meta for comment. The company requires that sites using Pixel obtain the right to share data before sending it to Facebook, but the plaintiffs claim Meta refused to enforce its policies. It placed Pixel on the facilities' websites despite knowing the kind of data it would collect, according to the lawsuits.

The lawsuits aren't guaranteed to achieve class-action status, and such lawsuits rarely provide large payouts to individuals. If successful, though, the legal action could prove costly for Meta. They're asking for damages on behalf of all Facebook users whose healthcare providers rely on Pixel, and that could include millions of people.

As more than 300,000 people anxiously watched the flight path of SPAR19, the US Air Force plane carrying Nancy Pelosi on her tour of Asia, Taiwan’s presidential website went down to an apparent cyberattack, reports Reuters. In a Facebook post spotted by Gizmodo, Taiwanese presidential spokesperson Chang Tun-Han said a distributed denial-of-service attack took down the website early Tuesday evening.

According to Tun-Han, the attack originated outside of Taiwan and saw the website bombarded with more than 200 times the amount of traffic it normally sees. They claim the website was back to normal operation “within 20 minutes.” However, when Engadget went to visit, there was only a single line to be seen stating, “OK.”

Pelosi’s plane landed in Taiwan late Tuesday evening Taipei Standard Time, reports The Associated Press. According to local news outlets, she is expected to stay the night. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi is the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. Ahead of Tuesday’s visit, China warned there would be “resolute and strong measures” if Pelosi went ahead with the trip.

“There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. “The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations.”

The US maintains a so-called policy of “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to Taiwan. In 1972, former President Richard Nixon visited mainland China. During Nixon’s visit, the US agreed “that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China.” China views visits by foreign government officials to Taiwan as recognition of its sovereignty – though members of Congress have routinely traveled to the self-governing island over the years.

“America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,” Pelosi said on Twitter. “Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, US-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances.”

LG's newest CineBeam projectors are ready for your living room, and it's clear you'll pay a premium for their image quality. The company has announced that the laser-based lineup is available starting at $6,000 for the HU915QE, which can produce a 90-inch 4K picture when positioned just 2.2 inches from the wall, or 120 inches when it sits 7.2 inches away. It also reaches a high 3,700 lumens of brightness and can muster a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, so daytime viewing is a realistic option.

The $6,500 HU915QB (shown above) isn't quite as bright at 3,000 lumens, but its black finish makes it better-suited to nighttime sessions. Both models have three HDMI ports with eARC support, two USB ports and an integrated 2.2-channel 40W speaker system. They unsurprisingly run LG's webOS interface (an advantage over rival 'dumb' projectors that lack native apps) and offer creature comforts like AirPlay 2 support, Bluetooth and screen mirroring.

The new Cinebeam projectors' HDR support is limited to HDR10 and HLG. You'll want to buy one of LG's latest OLED TVs if you crave Dolby Vision, and you certainly won't get 8K support. With that said, these units might be strong values if picture size matters more than anything else.

Logitech and Tencent have announced that they're working on a handheld cloud gaming device. They're blending the Logitech G brand's hardware knowhow with Tencent's software prowess. According to a landing page (where you can plug in your email address to receive updates), the device is tentatively called the Logitech G Gaming Handheld.

The system should come to market later this year and it will "support multiple cloud gaming services," Logitech said. Tencent and Logitech are working with the Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now teams at Microsoft and NVIDIA, respectively, so expect the handheld to support both of those platforms at the very least.

Whether the device actually goes on sale as scheduled remains to be seen, given the ongoing supply chain crisis that's making production difficult for just about every electronics company. However, many cloud gaming services are accessiblethrough web apps on phones, so the device likely wouldn't need a ton of processing might. It probably won't need to be as powerful as, say, the Steam Deck. Using lower-power components that aren't super difficult to come by could make it easier for Logitech and Tencent to actually build the handheld. In any case, we should find out more about the device in the coming months. 

It took nearly half a year, but Samsung's self-repair program is finally available. The iFixit team-up helps you fix your Galaxy S20, Galaxy S21 or Galaxy Tab S7+ by purchasing officially sanctioned components and tools, complete with guides to walk you through the repair process. The initial selection is limited to screen and batteries, charging ports and back glass, with prices ranging between $67 (for a charging port on any model) to $227 (for a Tab S7+ display).

The kits include a free return label to help you ship the broken parts to Samsung for recycling. The self-repair program is limited to the US at present, but the companies expect to support more countries, devices and part repairs over time.

Samsung's launch comes a few months after Apple's. It's at once better and worse. While Apple doesn't yet offer self-repair kits beyond smartphones, it covers a wider array of components (such as cameras and SIM trays), and is more granular (you can even order screws by themselves). However, Samsung also doesn't require that you rent or buy a separate toolkit, and doesn't require a phone call to complete the repair process. Buy a part and you'll have everything you need, in other words.

The self-repair option doesn't currently cover the Galaxy S22 or Tab S8 families, and Samsung is keen to point its less DIY-oriented users toward regular repair providers. We'd add that this isn't a strictly altruistic gesture — Samsung, Apple and others are facing pressure from federal and state officials who are either implementing or proposing right to repair rules. Vendors might not have much choice but to let you fix devices on your own terms.

Still, this could be an important move. If you're reasonably comfortable with screwdrivers and spudgers, this gives you a way to lengthen the useful lifespan of a Samsung device without worrying about turnaround times or potentially expensive out-of-warranty repair costs. That, in turn, could reduce e-waste and offer more control over when you upgrade your mobile gear.

Insta360 is known for its 360 cameras and action cams, so call us surprised when it unveiled its first-ever dedicated webcam product today. The Insta360 Link is a 4K webcam with a 3-axis gimbal, so it's basically like a DJI Pocket 2 without its body. The company touts the 1/2-inch sensor here, which is apparently much larger than what the competition offers. For example, the tried and tested Logitech Brio only has a 1/4-inch sensor, so the Link should perform better in terms of accuracy and dynamic range. Insta360 added two noise-cancelling microphones as well, which are much needed in the age of remote working.

The Link can be hung on a monitor using the built-in screen clip, or you can fit it onto any stand with a standard 1/4-inch mount. Then it's just a matter of letting the device's AI algorithm track your face, so that the camera can pan around and zoom — up to 4x digitally — to keep you centered in frame. When you're done using the Link, it automatically points its camera downwards within 10 seconds of inactivity for the sake of privacy.

Insta360

The Link Controller companion software lets you adjust various image parameters like brightness, exposure, white balance and more. You can also switch to lower resolutions in favor of higher frame rates — 1080p and 720p go all the way to 60fps, instead of just 30fps at 4K. The software also offers various shooting modes. DeskView Mode lets you quickly toggle between your face and your tabletop, which should make your usual show-and-tell a bit more convenient. There are also Whiteboard Mode for tracking your designated whiteboard area (the Link comes with four reusable whiteboard recognition markets), Portrait Mode for live streaming in portrait orientation, and Overhead Mode for pointing your Link downwards to show your subject on the tablet (you'll probably want to mount the device on a tablet stand for this). If needed, you can toggle HDR mode as well in case of strong backlight, though this is only available at 1080p or 720p resolution, and capped at 30fps.

The Insta360 Link is compatible with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Meet and more video conference platforms on both macOS and Windows. It's asking for $300 and is available today via the company's website.

So how do you categorize a beast like gaming on the PC? With decades of titles to pluck from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), there's so much to choose from. Gaming on your PC adds the benefits of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance — if you've got the coin for it. The whole idea of what a PC is and where you can play it is shifting, too, with the rise of handheld “consolized” PCs like the Steam Deck. We've tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose – there are so many great games out there for your PC, consider these some starting points.

Beat Saber

Beat Saber is a euphoric gaming sensation that makes the most of virtual reality. You'll swing your unofficial lightsabers at incoming boxes, slicing and slamming them to the beat of the soundtrack. Similar to iconic rhythm-rail-shooter, Rez, which has its own VR iteration, Beat Saber often makes you feel like you're creating the music as you hit your cues. We might have had initial reservations on the soundtrack at launch but new tracks and customizations continue to add to the challenge. There's even a level creator for PC players, making this the definitive version.

Control

Take the weird Twin Peaks narrative of Alan Wake, smash it together with Quantum Break's frenetic powers and gunplay, and you've got Control. Playing as a woman searching for her missing brother, you quickly learn there's a thin line between reality and the fantastical. It's catnip for anyone who grew up loving The X-Files and the supernatural. It's also a prime example of a studio working at their creative heights, both refining and evolving the open-world formula that's dominated games for the past decade.

Disco Elysium Final Cut

Disco Elysium is a special game. The first release from Estonian studio ZA/UM, it's a sprawling science-fiction RPG that takes more inspiration from D&D and Baldur's Gate than modern combat-focused games. In fact, there is no combat to speak of, instead, you'll be creating your character, choosing what their strengths and weaknesses are, and then passing D&D-style skill checks to make your way through the story. You'll, of course, be leveling up your abilities and boosting stats with items, but really the game's systems fall away in place of a truly engaging story, featuring some of the finest writing to ever grace a video game.

With the Final Cut, released 18 months after the original, this extremely dialogue-heavy game now has full voice acting, which brings the unique world more to life than ever before. After debuting on PC, PS5 and Stadia, Final Cut is now available for all extant home consoles – including Nintendo’s Switch.

Halo Infinite

343 Industries

Master Chief's latest adventure may not make much sense narratively, but it sure is fun to play. After the middle efforts from 343 Industries over the last decade, Halo Infinite manages to breathe new life into Microsoft's flagship franchise, while also staying true to elements fans love. The main campaign is more open than ever, while also giving you a new freedom of movement with the trusty grappling hook. And the multiplayer mode is wonderfully addictive (though 343 still needs to speed up experience progression), with a bevy of maps and game modes to keep things from getting too stale. The only thing keeping it from greatness is its baffling and disjointed story.

FTL: Faster Than Light

Who hasn't wanted to captain their own spaceship? Well, after a few hours of FTL: Faster Than Light, you might be rethinking your life goals. FTL is a roguelike, which means every game starts from the same spot. All you have to do is travel through a number of star systems, recruiting crew members and collecting scrap as you make your way towards a final showdown against a stupidly overpowered ship. Gameplay is roughly divided between a map view, where you can take as much time as you like to chart the most efficient route to your goal, and combat events which play out in real-time (although you can and will be using a pause button to slow things down).

Where the real fun comes in is in the narrative, which plays out in two ways. There's the structured side, where every so often you'll be asked to make decisions that may improve or hinder your chances of survival. And then there's the natural story you create for yourselves, as you're forced to decide, for example, whether it's worth sacrificing a crew member for the greater good.

Hades

Hades is the first early access title to ever make our best PC game list. It's an action-RPG developed by the team behind Bastion, Transistor and Pyre. You play Zagreus, son of Hades, who's having a little spat with his dad, and wants to escape from the underworld. To do so, Zagreus has to fight his way through the various levels of the underworld and up to the surface. Along the way, you’ll pick up “boons” from a wide range of ancient deities like Zeus, Ares and Aphrodite, which stack additional effects on your various attacks. Each level is divided into rooms full of demons, items and the occasional miniboss.

As Hades is a “roguelike” game, you start at the same place every time. With that said the items you collect can be used to access and upgrade new weapons and abilities that stick between sessions. Hades is on this list not for any reason other than it’s super accessible and very, very fun. You can jump in for 30 minutes and have a blast, or find yourself playing for hours. It's been in early access for well over a year at this point, and is tremendously polished, with a full release expected in the latter half of 2020.

Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx feels like a miracle. After 13 years away from the franchise, Valve delivered a genuinely thrilling prequel to Half-Life 2 while also charting new territory for VR gameplay. The gravity gloves, its key new feature, is the closest I’ve ever felt to having telekinetic powers. It gives you multiple movement options so you don’t get sick trotting around the expansive environments. Oh yeah, and it’s also absolutely terrifying, banking on the claustrophobic nature of VR. There’s no looking away when a facehugger leaps at you from the dark, or when a horrifically deformed zombie gets in your face. It might sound a bit hyperbolic, but Alyx might end up being one of the most important titles of this generation. Building a big-budget game for a niche VR market doesn’t make much sense for most companies, but for Valve, it’s Tuesday.

Nier Automata

Nier Automata takes the razor-sharp combat of a Platinum Games title and puts it in a world crafted by everyone's favorite weirdo, Yoko Taro. Don't worry, you can mostly just run, gun and slash your way through the game, but as you finish, and finish and finish this one, you'll find yourself pulled into a truly special narrative, that's never been done before and will probably never be done again. It's fair to say that the PC release, as is unfortunately often the case, wasn't exactly the best and is still remarkably lacking in options, but it's at least stable now, and trust us when we say this one is unmissable.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Asobo Studio

Microsoft Flight Simulator came out at the perfect time, when the world was on lockdown and airline travel was an impossibility for most people. Not only does Flight Sim let players pilot a vast array of aircrafts, but it presents the world on a platter in stunning, ridiculous detail. It’s an escape, it’s educational and it’s entertaining – is that what they mean by E3? – and there’s really nothing else on its level when it comes to realistic physics simulations. Pandemic or no, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an incredible achievement with a long tail both inside and outside of the video game industry.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Many were ready to write off the Resident Evil series after the disaster that was Resident Evil 6. What started as the horror game on the original PlayStation had become a bloated mess of an action game. Instead of throwing the whole franchise in the trash and forgetting about it, Capcom took a hard look at what wasn't working, which — surprise! — was basically everything, and thoroughly rebooted the formula. Borrowing from Kojima's PT and, in some ways, Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is horror through powerlessness. For the majority of the game, you're basically unable to do anything but run from or delay your foes. And that's what makes it so good.

Return of the Obra Dinn

This is an unforgettable ghost-story-slash-murder-mystery with a distinctive old-school graphical style. It's unlike any game we've played in a while, with a low-key musical score and a style of puzzle solving that's like one satisfying, grisly riddle. In Return of the Obra Dinn, you're put aboard a ship, alone. There is, however, a corpse near the captain's cabin. As you track the deceased's final footsteps, leading to yet more grisly ends, you need to figure out what happened. Who killed who? And who is still alive? Special mention to the sound effect that kicks in every time you solve the fates of three of the crew. Goosebumps.

The Witcher 3

It might be the best open-world RPG out there. Despite now being several years old, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a dense action game that acknowledges the maturity of the player with multiple — occasionally harrowing — storylines, choices that have consequences and almost too much game to wrestle with. It's not perfect; the combat system is rough, frustrating death comes in the form of falling from just a few feet and there's a lot of quest filler alongside many incredibly well thought out distractions. The scope and ambition on display will have you hooked, and once you're done, there are some excellent expansions to check out.

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games/Microsoft

Forza Horizon 5 deftly walks a fine line by being an extremely deep and complex racing game that almost anyone can just pick up and play. The game has hundreds of cars that you can tweak endlessly to fit your driving style, and dozens of courses spread all over a gorgeous fictional corner of Mexico. If you crank up the difficulty, one mistake will sink your entire race, and the competition online can be just as fierce.

But if you’re new to racing games, Forza Horizon 5 does an excellent job at getting you up and running. The introduction to the game quickly gives you a taste at the four main race types you’ll come across (street racing, cross-country, etc.), and features like the rewind button mean that you can quickly erase mistakes if you try and take a turn too fast without having to restart your run. Quite simply, Forza Horizon 5 is a beautiful and fun game that works for just about any skill level. It’s easy to pick up and play a few races and move on with your day, or you can sink hours into it trying to become the best driver you can possibly be.

You might not want to check your Uber trip emails at your work computer in the near future. BleepingComputernotes Microsoft has identified a formatting bug that freezes Outlook whenever you open some messages with complex tables, including Uber receipts. The glitch crashes Word, too. The problem began with a recent standard release (Current Channel Version 2206 Build 15330.20196 or newer), but existing beta and Current Channel Preview versions also suffer.

The company has already developed a fix that will reach beta users "shortly," and should reach everyone through a patch arriving August 9th. If you can't wait that long and would rather not check your mail on the web, you can revert to the earlier version in Windows by running Command Prompt instructions in Microsoft's support document (linked above).

This isn't the first significant Outlook bug of the year. Microsoft fixed search bugs in January and July. However, those didn't bring the email client to a screeching halt — this is a flaw you're more likely to notice, particularly if you rely on Uber for business travel.