Disney's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser promises fans the "most immersive" experience ever when it launches in 2022 — one that won't be cheap. The entertainment giant has revealed details and prices for the Star Wars adventure, including the fact that it will cost two guests in a standard cabin at least $4,809 for a 2-night voyage. Suites will obviously cost more, though visitors will pay less per person the more people there are in their group.

Disney describes the experience as "part live immersive theater, part themed environment, part culinary extravaganza, part real-life role-playing game." According to the Galactic Starcruiser's official page, guests' journey begins at the Walt Disney World Resort terminal where they'll board a launch pad and rendezvous with the Halcyon. 

Once inside, guests will encounter "story moments," wherein they'll play a real-life choose-your-own-adventure type of game, wherein they can decide how their story will unfold. They can, for instance, choose to follow the First Order or join the Resistance, choose to join a smuggling ring or to aid a stowaway. They can interact with familiar characters who'll serve as NPCs and take lightsaber lessons to take on foes. Participants can also go on missions if they want to delve deeper into their story. According to ComicBook, each trip on the Starcruiser will be one-of-a-kind, so those who can afford more to go on more than once could enjoy unique experiences.

After a spate of accidents on its Tread+ treadmill, Peloton temporarily moved the basic running mode of Tread+ behind a paywall so non-authorized users couldn't gain access. Now, all users will be able to use the "Just Run" feature without a subscription and still be able to lock it up with a pin code, the company told The Verge. 

Peloton recalled its Tread and Tread+ treadmills in the US and Canada after several reports of injuries and one death. The company subsequently released a software update that required a passcode to use the basic running mode, but the feature was only available to subscribers. To offset that cost, Peloton gave users the subscription for free for three months, with the promise that an update was coming. 

The Tread Lock feature locks the device if you haven't used the treadmill in 45 seconds and aren't in a class. You then need to input a four-digit code before it can be used again. The aim is to prevent it being accessed by inexperienced users — especially kids — following 29 reports of injuries to children, including second- and third-degree abrasions and broken bones.

While the update was inconvenient for non-subscribers who purchased the $4,000+ devices, Peloton did make it possible to do basic running without paying. As part of the recall, Tread+ owners can get a full refund if they decide to return their treadmills by November 6th, 2022, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. 

IMDb's free, ad-supported streaming service finally standalone mobile apps for iPhones, iPads and Android in the US. The Amazon-owned subsidiary released IMDb TV apps for LG Smart TVs, PlayStation 4, NVIDIA Shield and TiVo Stream 4K in March, following its recent expansion to Roku. Up until now, though, you'd have to fire up the IMDb app to access the service's offerings on mobile

The standalone apps' release could give the service a bigger reach and put it on the radar of more potential viewers. Amazon may have big plans for IMDb TV in the future, after all. According to reports that came out last year, the company is looking to make the free service available internationally. Mexico and the UK may be the first regions to get access to the platform outside the US, and if all goes well, IMDb TV could expand into Latin America and other European countries. 

IMDb TV offers free access to popular shows and movies like Chicago Fire, All in the Family, Wolf of Wall Street and How to Train Your Dragon. It also gives you access to Amazon Originals made especially for the platform, including the crime drama Leverage: Redemption.

IMDb

Sony already hinted that it's working on a new PlayStation VR headset, promising "dramatic leaps" in performance, higher resolution, a wider field of view, better tracking and a new controller. On Tuesday, Sony reportedly revealed more specifics about the headset at a developer's summit, according to the YouTube channel PSVR Without Parole (below) and UploadVR, The Verge has reported.

The device is reportedly codenamed next-gen VR (NGVR) and features controllers with capacitive touch sensors that can detect when you're holding the controller or touching the buttons, and even sense the distance to your fingers. Sony also reportedly told developer's that it's planning optional VR support for all AAA releases, so you could play them either in VR or on your TV — much like it did with Resident Evil 7 and No Man's Sky on the PS4 and PS5. 

PSVR Without Parole also noted that the next-gen PSVR will offer a 110-degree field of view that's 10 degrees wider than the PSVR. To make the most of those pixels, it will use flexible scaling resolution, along with foveated rendering that uses eye-tracking to improve resolution where you're looking. UploadVR, meanwhile, said that the the headset will feature high-resolution 2,000 x 2,040 OLED displays (4K in total). 

We've already heard that the PSVR will connect to PlayStation consoles with a single cable, with no passthrough box required. It will also use inside-out tracking and offer adaptive triggers and haptic feedback on the controllers.

All told, the PSVR 2 (or whatever it's called) should have features mostly on par with rival headsets like the Oculus Quest 2 and HTC Vive Pro 2. However, Sony itself said that the headset won't launch until at least next year, and a Bloomberg report from June indicated it might not come until late in 2022. For now, though, all of that is still grist for the rumor mill until Sony announces something official, possibly later this year. 

TikTok is no stranger to other companies copying the format of its signature short-form videos, but it may now do the same with Stories. Per a tweet shared by social media consultant and former TheNext Web writer Matt Navarra, the company has introduced posts that disappear after 24 hours. TikTok told Variety it's currently testing the feature with a small subset of users outside of the US and emphasized they may not become a permanent fixture within the app.

"We're always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience," a spokesperson for the company told Engadget. "Currently we're experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community."

Snapchat was the first app to feature Stories before the format was widely copied by everyone from Facebook to LinkedIn. Twitter also tried to make the feature work on its platform with Fleets, but that experiment ended earlier this week. Much like its rivals, TikTok may feel it needs to add Stories to stay relevant, particularly with companies like YouTube investing millions to replicate its success.

Amazon has delayed New World mere weeks before its previously announced August 31st release date. It will now arrive about a month later, on September 28th, so that Amazon Game Studios can spend an extra few weeks polishing, fixing bugs and improving stability. The company says it decided to delay New World again following player feedback it collected during the MMO's recent closed beta.

"This was not an easy decision to make. We know this isn't the first time we've changed our launch date in pursuit of quality, and that it can be disappointing to wait a bit longer." Amazon Game Studios said on Twitter. "But we want to be sure we deliver you the highest quality game possible at launch."

For those of you still keeping track, this is New World's fourth delay. When Amazon first announced the game, it said it would come out in May 2020. Its release date initially slipped to August 25th, 2020, before Amazon announced a month later it was pushing the game back to spring 2021. At the start of the year, it then delayed the game to its most recently planned August 31st release date.

To say there's a lot of pressure on Amazon Game Studios to deliver a hit for its parent company would be an understatement. Amazon announced the game's first major delay after taking the unusual step of rolling back the availability of Crucible, its first AAA title. It later ended the development of that game. Before taking over as CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy told employees he was committed to the studio. "Though we haven't consistently succeeded yet in Amazon Game Studios, I believe we will if we hang in there," he said in an email. Now it's on the New World team to prove that confidence was well-earned.

HBO Max has grown its Podcast Program by leaps and bounds over the past two years expanding from 4 shows in 2019 to 25 today, many serving as tie-ins and companion pieces to HBO's various series. But that will soon change as the company announced on Wednesday that it plans to expand its online audio offerings to include original, scripted programming and "look-back" shows as well.

“Our viewers tell us that, more than any other streaming platform, they want to discuss and dissect HBO Max programming with friends and family to extend the emotional experience after finishing an episode,” Joshua Walker, Chief Strategy Officer at HBO Max, said in a statement. He cites Max Podcast fans' collective investment in the existing programming as a driving force for the company's decision.

The new slate of scripted shows will include the highly anticipated Batman: The Audio Adventures starring Jeffrey Wright and premiering this fall, a look-back at Band of Brothers on September 9th (the show's 20th anniversary), and We Stay Looking — a sequel Issa Rae's Insecure companion show and HBO's first scripted podcast. HBO is also expanding its partnership with Audacity to include titles like Lovecraft Country Radio and The Chernobyl Podcast on the streaming platform's library.

The 2021 New York Auto Show has been canceled. Much like last year, organizers postponed the annual spring event to August to try and avoid the worst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. However, they say now their hand has been forced due to a growing number of hospital cases involving the COVID-19 delta variant and increasingly stringent measures put in place by state and local officials to curb its spread.

“As custodians of the 121-year-old New York Auto Show, we are committed to providing a safe environment for everyone including attendees, exhibitors, and the thousands of men and women who put the show together,” said Mark Schienberg, the president of the New York Auto Show. “Over the past few weeks, and especially within the last few days, circumstances have changed making it more difficult to create an event at the high standard that we and our clients expect.”

At the moment, it’s unclear what this cancelation will mean for vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe that were set to debut at the show. Organizers say they “firmly believe” the event will only return in 2022 but do so during its usual spring timeframe.

The next time you rent a Bird scooter, don’t try speeding past a school or any other area with a lot of pedestrians. The company has introduced Community Safety Zones, a feature that uses geofencing to cap the speeds of its scooters in certain areas automatically.

When traveling through a Community Safety Zone, the company’s scooters won’t go faster than 8 miles per hour. You’ll see the zones mapped out in the Bird app, and the software will display a message when you enter one to explain why your vehicle is slowing down.

The company is piloting the feature in Miami, Marseille and Madrid. Over the coming weeks, Bird says it will work with public officials to implement the geofenced zones in all of the more than 250 cities where it operates globally. Initially, the zones will center on schools, though they could also include areas around parks and shopping malls in the future.

Community Safety Zones represent part of an ongoing safety push from Bird. In July, the company introduced Safe Start, which prompts users to type in a keyword when they want to rent a scooter between 10PM and 4AM local time. Bird is using Safe Start to verify whether a potential customer is sober enough to handle one of its vehicles. 

Earlier this year, Intel announced they were planning to retake the CPU manufacturing lead and "unquestioned leadership" in the PC world. These were impressive goals, but what was missing was any sense of how they'd actually achieve them. Now, we finally know Intel's plan.

Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger and SVP of Technology Development Dr. Ann Kelleher, laid out the company's plan for the future. For starters, Intel is renaming its manufacturing nodes. What used to be 10nm "Enhanced Superfin" is now just "7." This may feel a little duplicitous — "just wave a wand a you've got better technology!" — but to be fair to intel, the nanometer measurements of process nodes don't really correspond to anything physical any more, and in terms of density Intel's current 10nm chips are competitive with TSMC and Samsung's 7nm.

Looking beyond 7nm, Intel is targeting an aggressive release schedule with major product updates happening annually. We're expecting their Alder Lake chips this fall, which will mix high and low-powered cores, followed by now-4nm Meteor Lake chips that will move to a "tile" (chiplet) design, and incorporate Intel's 3D stacked-chip technology, Foveros. 

Beyond that, Intel has technology mapped out for an EUV-based 3nm node that will use the high-energy manufacturing process to streamline chip creation, and a "20A" for angstrom node. This is one ten-billionth of a meter (meaning it's 2nm), and will be followed by a 18A node that Intel hopes to start moving into production in 2025 for products sometime in the 2nd half of the decade. Again, while node measurements don't really correspond to physical structures any more, a silicon atom is in the area of 2 angstroms wide, so these are seriously tiny transistors.

This release schedule seems aggressive, and Intel does not have the best track record of meeting targets for new nodes, but if it can even come close to these goals, expect your laptops and desktops to get a huge performance boost in the next few years. 

For even more info on Intel's plans, and details on its EMIB interconnect technology and two new versions of Foveros, be sure to check out the video above. You can see our sources here.