RSS Feeds

Director Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book) hasn't been shy about embracing new technology for filmmaking. While producing The Mandalorian for Disney+, he was one of the first filmmakers to use ILM's massive LED screens, AKA "The Volume," to produce more realistic lighting and backgrounds on studio sets. For the feature film The Mandalorian and Grogu, which hits theaters May 22, Favreau recently revealed that he had Disney build an Apple Vision Pro app to preview its full IMAX scope during filming.

"So I'm making an IMAX movie, and I'm looking at a TV screen, and no matter how big your TV screen is it's not an IMAX screen," Favreau said in a recent episode of The Town podcast. "We built software so that I can pop on my Apple Vision Pro and be sitting in an IMAX movie theater and see the full aspect ratio when we're lining a shot up. And I can watch that take and see what people will see."

Favreau isn't the first director to use the Apple Vision Pro — Wicked filmmaker Jon Chu also used it to handle post-production work — but he's the first to specifically mention using the headset for IMAX production. That's still a relatively limited use case for the Apple Vision Pro, but it's one that could be useful to future filmmakers. With its large field of view and sharp micro-OLED screens, the Apple Vision Pro is one of the only ways to replicate the experience of watching a large IMAX screen at home. (The Meta Quest 3 comes in as a close second.)

In general, Favreau says he's more excited about using existing consumer technology in the filmmaking process than AI. He mentions using the Unreal Engine to previsualize special effects on The Mandalorian and his previous films, and he believes the quality from game engines could be good enough to make it into final productions down the line.

"This is what the animation industry has understood from the beginning," he said. "Get it right before you ever paint a cel."

We heard all about GoPro's new action camera series last week, but the company is now unveiling the pricing across its Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro and Mission 1 Pro ILS cameras. The entry-level Mission 1 ($600) features GoPro's new 50-megapixel 1-inch sensor, which the company says will offer a major leap in image quality and low-light performance over the Hero 13 line. While largely looking the same as the Hero series (and still waterproof), the Mission 1 can record 8K video at 30fps and 4K at 120fps. It lacks the higher frame rates of the other Mission 1 cameras, but supports 10-bit GP-Log2 color and 32-bit float audio.

The Mission 1 Pro ($700) is the flagship fixed-lens model this year, aimed at the professional (or semi-pro) videographer. It has upgraded frame-rate capture to 8K at 60 fps and 4K at 240 fps, along with an extreme "burst" slow-motion mode that hits 960 fps at 1080p. It also captures 4:3 "Open Gate" recordings at 8K/30fps and 4K/120fps, covering the entire sensor area, enabling more versatile editing and cropping across different screen sizes, including vertical video.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Then there's the beastly Mission 1 Pro ILS (Interchangeable Lens System). It swaps the standard GoPro lens for a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount lens. It otherwise shares the same 1-inch sensor and high-speed 8K/60fps video specs as the Pro model. It also matches the Pro model's $700 price, with an additional $100 discount for GoPro subscribers. However, it won't be launching until Q3 2026.

All of the Mission 1 Series accessories will be available on a rolling basis beginning May 28, with GoPro's own wireless mic system (take note, Rode and DJI) priced at $160. If you preorder a Mission 1 or Mission 1 Pro directly from GoPro now, you'll get the point-and-shoot grip bundled for free. The company still doesn't have an official release date for the cameras.

Blue Origin has successfully reused its first-stage New Glenn booster for the first time after it landed in a cloud of smoke and fire on a recovery ship. It marks the second flight and reuse of Never Tell me the Odds, after the booster was recovered from New Glenn's previous launch in November last year. However, the rocket company's first commercial mission was marred by a failure to place the communications satellite payload into orbit. 

The launch went smoothly to start with, with the first-stage GS1 booster separating from New Glenn after three minutes and landing smoothly 10 minutes after launch following two braking burns, as shown in a post on X from Blue Origin's owner, Jeff Bezos. 

However, several hours later the Blue Origin team and satellite manufacturer, AST SpaceMobile, announced that the payload had failed to reach orbit. "We have confirmed payload separation," Blue Origin announced on X. "AST SpaceMobile has confirmed the satellite has powered on. The payload was placed into an off-nominal orbit. We are currently assessing and will update when we have more detailed information." 

Later on in a press release, AST SpaceMobile revealed that "the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, [but] the altitude [was] too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company’s insurance policy."

The upper stage was supposed to position the satellite into a 285 mile orbit after completing two burns. It would have then unfolded a 2,400 square-foot antenna and linked with six other satellites in a test for AST's high-speed direct-to-cell network. However, early telemetry data showed that the satellite only reached 95 miles, well below a sustainable orbit. It's not yet clear how the failure occurred. 

Despite that, Blue Origin can take some solace in its successful first-stage reuse, particularly since it happened on just the third New Glenn mission (NG-3). It took SpaceX, by comparison, 32 flights before its first successful reflight of a previously flown orbital-class booster. 

Blue Origin will definitely want to solve the upper stage issue soon. Its next flight is the first New Glenn launch of Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) broadband satellites. It plans to put 48 of those into orbit to significantly expand the Starlink rival's constellation, which currently sits at 241 satellites. 

Despite the months-long feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon, the National Security Agency is using the AI company's new Mythos Preview, according to Axios, which spoke to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic announced Mythos Preview at the beginning of April, describing it as a general-purpose language model that is "strikingly capable at computer security tasks." But back in February, Trump ordered all government agencies to stop using Anthropic's services after the company refused to budge on certain safeguards for military uses during contract talks. 

The news comes days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other officials, reportedly to discuss Mythos. The White House later said the meeting on Friday was "productive and constructive," though President Trump said he had "no idea" about it when asked by reporters, Reuters reports. According to Axios' sources, the NSA is one of the roughly 40 organizations Anthropic gave access to Mythos Preview, and one said it's "being used more widely within the department" too. 

The company is still embroiled in a legal battle with the US government. Anthropic filed lawsuits against the Department of Defense in two courts in March after the Trump administration labeled it a "supply chain risk," and the Pentagon filed a response shortly after. While Anthropic was granted a preliminary injunction by one court to temporarily block this designation, federal judges in the other denied its motion to lift the label. 

To make up for an incredibly laughable inaugural event, Beijing is running back its humanoid robot half-marathon. Fortunately, the event that pits humanoid robots made by Chinese companies against each other across 13 miles went a lot smoother this year.

This year's half-marathon hosted more than 100 competitors, with first place going to Honor, better known for its smartphones, and its red-clad robot named Lightning. Living up to the name, the gold medalist finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. That's several minutes faster than the human record that was recently set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo last month.

Honor swept the other podium spots, with the important caveat that they all navigated the course autonomously, according to the state-sponsored television news agency CCTV. That's a massive improvement over last year, where the fastest time among 21 robots was achieved by Tiangong Ultra with a record of two hours and 40 minutes. Last year's event saw many of the bipedal robots receiving assistance from human operators who ran alongside them, as well as some comical mishaps, like falling at the starting line.

However, the BBC reported that around 40 percent of the robots competed autonomously this year, while the rest were remote-controlled. Despite the rapid improvements, this year's event still had its fair share of crashes, even from Honor's robots.

In case you haven't gotten around to reading Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska's 2025 book, The Technological Republic, (because why would you do that to yourself?), the company best known for supplying AI-driven defense and surveillance software to the likes of the US Army, ICE and NYPD shared a 1,000-word X post this weekend covering its main points. The entire thing is both bizarre and deeply concerning. "The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal,” one of the 22 points states. "It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software."

The book is billed as "a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality," and other excerpts in the social media post include assertions such as: "Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public"; "National service should be a universal duty"; "The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone"; and "Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive."

The statement criticizes the West’s resistance to "defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity," as well as the treatment of billionaires and the "ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures." It's a lot to take in, and it should make crystal clear what Palantir stands for to anyone who somehow didn't already know. Here's the post, in full:

Because we get asked a lot.

The Technological Republic, in brief.

1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.

2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible.

3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public.

4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.

6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.

7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way.

8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive.

9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret.

10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed.

11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice.

12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin.

13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet.

14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war.

15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.

16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn.

17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives.

18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within.

19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.

20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim.

21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska

Anyone looking to upgrade to the next Mac Studio or MacBook Pro might have to wait a little longer, thanks to the ongoing global memory shortage. As reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "at least two of the company's upcoming machines ... could debut a little later than the company initially planned," referencing the refreshes to Apple's desktop and its laptop that's expected to get a touchscreen.

Bloomberg reported that the upcoming Mac Studio, which follows up the current lineup in the M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations, was first expected to release in the middle of the year. However, Apple is already dealing with shortages of its existing Mac Studio stock, likely due to the device being a popular choice for anyone running local AI models. With no stop to the shortage in sight, Gurman predicted that the refreshed Mac Studio's release could be postponed to around October instead.

It's not just Apple's desktop offerings being affected. Gurman also reported that the release of the next MacBook Pro could be delayed. While Gurman said the release timeline of the touchscreen MacBook Pro could be between the end of 2026 to early 2027, he's now predicting that it would arrive toward the later end of that timeline. Of course, Apple isn't the only consumer tech company heavily affected by the RAM shortage. However, Apple can at least take advantage of its successful MacBook Neo release amidst the memory shortage crisis affecting all laptop makers.

Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi footprint across Texas by introducing availability in both Dallas and Houston. As announced in a post on X, the EV maker is rolling out its Robotaxis to small sections of the Texas cities, as detailed by two maps of its new service areas. 

The first Robotaxi rides started in Austin, Texas where Tesla is headquartered, but the service's launch was paired with a "Tesla Safety Monitor," or a supervising human in the passenger seat. Earlier this year, Tesla began to transition away from including safety monitors, leaving its Robotaxis to operate unsupervised and fully autonomous. In the latest announcement on X, Tesla also showed off a 360-degree panning shot with no safety monitor, but the company hasn't stated if its Dallas and Houston service will have in-car human supervision. It's worth nothing that Tesla previously admitted that some of its Robotaxis are sometimes driven remotely by human operators.

With the Robotaxi expansion into Dallas and Houston, Tesla is encroaching on Waymo's autonomous ride-hailing service that entered the same markets in February of this year. Looking ahead, Tesla is also targeting the Bay Area market in California for its Robotaxi expansion. While the company has received approvals to operate a ride-hailing service in California, it still doesn't have authorization for autonomous taxis in the state yet.

Not everyone had the money for the original Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System when it released in the '90s, but there's still a chance to experience it as an adult with disposable income. SNK and Plaion Replai, who is also behind the all-black remake of the Commodore 64, announced a faithful remake of the high-end retro console, called the Neo Geo AES+.

To bring the original console into the modern day, the collaborating companies added HDMI compatibility for resolutions up to 1080p and DIP switches on the bottom of the console to allow for language selection, overclocking and switching display modes. Rounding out the upgrades, SNK and Plaion Replai included a permanent way to retain high scores on a memory card and a low-power usage mode. For the purists out there, the Neo Geo AES+ still works on those chunky CRT displays since it has the original AV output.

Preorders are currently open for two versions of the Neo Geo AES+, including an all-white 35th anniversary edition bundle that includes an Arcade Stick, a limited-edition Metal Slug game cartridge and a memory card, for $349.99. The standard edition in classic black will only come with an arcade stick, but will be available for $249.99. Coinciding with the console release, Replai Plaion will release 10 modernized game cartridges, including Metal Slug, The King of Fighters 2002 and other classics, for $89.99 each. If you think those prices are high, don't forget the original Neo Geo AES' release price was $649.99. The Neo Geo AES+ is set to start shipping on November 12.

A judge has granted the makers of the "ICE Sightings - Chicagoland" Facebook group and the Eyes Up app a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from coercing platforms to take these projects down. Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that the plaintiffs, Kassandra Rosado and Kreisau Group, are likely to succeed in their case, which alleges that the government suppressed protected speech under the First Amendment by strong-arming Facebook and Apple into removing ICE monitoring efforts. 

Both Eyes Up and ICE Sightings - Chicagoland use publicly available information to keep tabs on ICE activity. But after pressure from Trump officials, they were removed from Apple's App Store and Facebook, respectively. Similar apps including ICEBlock and Red Dot were also taken down from the App Store and Google Play. The lawsuit cites social media posts by former US Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that demanded and took credit for the removal of these apps. In a document filed on Friday, Alonso called these posts "thinly veiled threats."

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is defending the plaintiffs, wrote in a post on X that it is "extremely encouraged by this ruling." It continued, "Even though it’s not the end of the case, it bodes well for the future of our legal fight to ensure that the First Amendment protects the right to discuss, record, and criticize what law enforcement does in public."