This week’s Amazon Web Services outage had some people waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

A Domain Name System (DNS) resolution problem affected AWS cloud hosting, resulting in an outage that impacted more than 1,000 web-based products and services and millions of people.

Perhaps one of the most avoidable breakdowns came via people’s beds. The reliance on the Internet for smart bed products from Eight Sleep resulted in people being awoken by beds locked into inclined positions and sweltering temperatures.

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Ever since Rivian spun off its “micromobility business” into a standalone startup called Also earlier this year, there’s been much speculation about what kind of vehicles the company is working on. Now, Also is showing off its first products: a lineup of e-bikes and two pedal-assisted electric quads. 

The TM-B e-bike is Also’s attempt at a do-it-all e-bike that can adapt to different use cases whether that’s daily commuting, trail riding or kid and cargo-hauling. It sports a modular frame that can also accommodate a bench seat or rear cargo rack that supports up to 35KG of weight. It only comes in one frame size, but Also says it should be able to adapt to “multiple body sizes.” 

The removable USB-C battery comes in two sizes: standard, which can power up to 60 miles of riding, and large, which maxes out at 100 miles of range. In terms of power, the TM-B’s throttletops out at 20MPH. Also is taking an interesting approach to its drive system, with a setup it’s labeled “DreamRide.” Instead of a mechanical connection between the bike’s rear wheel and the pedals, the TM-B uses “software-defined pedaling,” which will make the riding experience more customizable, according to Also. 

Also

Given the bike’s roots at Rivian, it’s not surprising that there are also a bunch of other tech-enabled features, including a 5-inch touchscreen display, called “Portal,” that supports navigation, music playback and calling features via an accompanying app. There’s also a built-in security system that automatically locks the frame and rear wheel when you walk away.

Also is selling the TM-B in three configurations. The first to ship next spring will be the $4,500 TM-B Limited Launch Edition, which has a range up to 100 miles, support for standard and sport ride modes and features transparent purple accents. The $4,500 TM-B Performance has the same features as the limited edition model, but has a slightly different color scheme, and will be available within the “first half” of 2026. Finally, there’s a base-level TM-B model with a range of up to 60 miles that only comes with standard ride modes. Also hasn’t announced an exact price, but says it will cost less than $4,000 when it ships “later in 2026.” Pre-orders for the Launch Edition are open now and the other two bikes are available to reserve with a $50 deposit. The bikes will also be on display in Rivian showrooms later this year,

Also

The company also previewed two electric, pedal-assisted quads it’s calling TM-Q. The smaller quad is apparently meant for “families and individuals seeking a safe, compact alternative to cars” that can still haul “significant loads.” The larger TM-Q, on the other hand, is meant for commercial deliveries. Also has partnered with Amazon to develop fleets of such vehicles that can be used by delivery drivers. Both quads are intended to be used in bike lanes, according to Also. 

The company didn’t share details about when these vehicles might be available or how much they’ll cost.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/the-first-e-bike-from-rivian-spinoff-also-has-a-virtual-drivetrain-173000250.html?src=rss

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When you track a strength training workout on a fitness watch, that watch will happily tell you what heart rate zones you were in during the workout. In fact, they’ll do that for any workout, whether it makes sense or not. So you might be tempted to interpret this data in terms of the benefits of zone 2 training. If my heart rate is in zone 2 when I’m lifting weights, that means I just did an hour of zone 2 training, right? Unfortunately, no.

Heart rate zones only apply to cardio

Zones are meaningless for strength training, but to understand why, we have to go back to the reason zones were invented in the first place: to give athletes an objective rating of how hard their cardio workouts are. In fact, the whole idea of monitoring your heart rate for athletic (rather than medical) purposes originated with a Finnish ski team, and then spread to other athletes.

Your heart rate can tell you how hard you are working, and you can use that information to gauge whether you should go harder or ease up. Or, as Finnish triathlete Pauli Kiuri is quoted saying in this article at Polar, “At some point during your run, you get the feeling that you can’t push any further. But if your rate is still only 160 bpm, you just have to believe that yes, you can!” (Polar was the maker of those early heart rate monitors.)

Heart rate training makes sense for endurance sports, because the harder you work, the faster your heart beats. So you can use that relationship in reverse: the bigger the number on your heart rate monitor, the harder you must be working. Your heart rate is a good gauge of the work you’re doing.

But that relationship with heart rate doesn’t hold for other types of exercise. Your heart rate during a yoga session doesn’t tell you how deep into a stretch you are getting. Your heart rate during a strength training session doesn’t tell you whether you are lifting light or heavy. That’s why your heart rate during a strength training session does not matter. 

Cardio is defined by what your whole body is doing, not just what your heart is doing.

Heart rate, properly used, is what’s called a proxy metric. We don’t track heart rate because heart rate matters; we track heart rate because it tells us about something else that matters—in this case, the intensity of cardio exercise.

For an exercise to be cardio, it needs to be a rhythmic contraction of large muscles for minutes on end. Because our muscles are contracting repeatedly, they require our mitochondria to work harder to power them. Those mitochondria need more fuel, so our cells become more responsive to insulin so they can pull in blood sugar more effectively. To do all of this, we need more nutrients and oxygen to reach our muscle cells, so we grow more capillaries to supply them, and to take away metabolic byproducts. 

The health benefits of cardio relate to those body processes above. The speed of our heartbeat is a side effect. Those whole-body processes are what give us the benefits of zone 2 cardio: low-fatigue calorie burn, increased mitochondrial and capillary density, and improved VO2max, to name just a few. These benefits come from the fact that our entire body is doing exercise. Just increasing our heart rate, without doing all of that other stuff, isn’t going to get all those good zone 2 adaptations. 

That’s why sitting in a stressful meeting at work for 30 minutes is not the same thing as going for a jog. Nor is watching a scary movie the same thing as doing a HIIT workout. And, sorry to sauna enjoyers, but a sauna is not a replacement for exercise. (Sauna sessions do seem to improve the health of your blood vessels somewhat, but they don’t do all the other stuff.) When you think about it, zone 2 cardio has a lot more in common with zone 3 (or even zone 5) cardio than it does with “zone 2” lifting.

What zone should strength training be in? 

Trick question! Zones don’t matter for strength training. The point of strength training is to build strength. To tell whether you’re working hard enough to build strength, here are some common ways to judge your effort: 

• How the weight on the bar compares to the most you’ve ever lifted: for example, you might do squats at 80% of your max. 

• How many reps you are doing at a given weight: five reps at 80% is harder than one rep at 80%.

• How fast you move as you complete the rep: the harder it is, the slower it will move; there are even gadgets to measure this. Sometimes this property is called “bar speed,” as in, how fast the barbell is moving.

• How many more reps you think you could have done: if you had three reps “in the tank,” that’s an easier set than if the last rep you did was the last rep you could possibly have done.

• How sore, fatigued, or “pumped” a muscle feels: within some styles of training, this can help you to figure out how much work a muscle group has gotten during the day’s training. 

Some things that do not correlate with how much strength you are building include how out-of-breath you feel after a set of exercises, or how fast your heart beats during or after the exercises.

The truth about heart rate when lifting is that your heart rate may be higher, your breathing harder, and your rest times longer, if your cardio fitness kinda sucks. This is a sign that you may want to improve your fitness by doing actual cardio (zone 2 or otherwise), so that you gain those adaptations and don’t have to sit around as long sucking wind between sets. But your cardio fitness is only playing a supporting role here; it’s not the point of the strength session, and it’s not a useful metric for gauging your effort. 

Or to put it another way: when you do five sets of five squats at 80% of your max, you get the same strength benefit whether you do it with three-minute rests and a smile on your face, or eight-minute rests and a sky-high heart rate.

OK, but what zones are normal for strength training? 

Realistically, you’ll see your heart rate jump up and down throughout your strength training session. During rests, your heart rate may be in zone 1 or 2; during short sets of an exercise, you may see your heart rate spike into zone 3 or higher. 

You’ll likely see a higher heart rate during sets of many reps (sets of 10 reps may result in a higher heart rate than sets of three reps). It doesn’t really matter what heart rate zone you find yourself in. 

The only thing that really matters, if you’re checking your heart rate chart afterward, is that your strength session has big spikes and dips. If it looks relatively even, you’re probably not resting enough. For comparison, here are my charts for a recent jog (at the upper end of zone 2/lower zone 3) and for a strength training workout that included snatches, deadlifts, and squats. Note the longer rests and higher spikes toward the end of the workout, when I squatted heavy for six reps at a time.

Left: running. Right: lifting weights.
Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Garmin

If zones don’t matter, why does my app tell me what zone my strength training was in?

The short answer is: because they can, not because they should.

When endurance athletes first adopted heart rate training, it was a replacement for running by timed paces or just by feel. They understood that it was a measure of how hard their whole body was working during a run or a ski session. 

It’s different in the modern era, when every watch measures heart rate. The truth is that heart rate zones are on all your result screens because heart rate is easy for your watch to measure, zones are easy for your app to calculate, and because the company that makes the app and watch wants to please you with a bunch of cool looking charts after every workout. 

Heart rate zone charts make your workout feel more important, and getting to see them is like a little reward sticker to keep you in the habit (and, from the company’s point of view, using its product). Enjoy the charts if you think they’re pretty, but keep your eyes on the metrics that matter—which, for strength workouts, includes pretty much everything except your heart rate.

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I’ve been a fan of Soundcore’s Sleep A20 earbuds since I first put them on to go to sleep over a year ago. I’ve never experienced earbuds that feel so comfortable when sleeping on your side. But that model was missing one crucial feature: ANC. The new Sleep A30 earbuds have taken care of that, and more—and despite their recent release this past August, they’re already discounted. Right now, you can get them for $193.99 (originally $229.99), the lowest price ever, according to price tracking tools.

Soundcore Sleep A30 by Anker Sleep Earbuds

Smart Active Noise Cancelling Sleep Headphones, Adaptive Snore-Masking System, 45H Playtime

$193.99
at Amazon

$229.99
Save $36.00

$193.99
at Amazon

$229.99
Save $36.00

The Sleep A30 are the most popular and arguably the best sleeping earbuds you can buy right now, as noted in Mashable’s review. They’re designed for sleep in every way: Side sleepers can doze off without feeling pressure in their ears, since the earbuds sit comfortably inside, and with the addition of ANC, you can now actively block more outside noise than before.

The battery life isn’t the best, but it will get you through the night: You get 9 hours of playback when listening to white noise, 6.5 hours listening to music via Bluetooth, and 45 hours of extra juice from the case. The companion app lets you set a timer for your music, so you don’t use up all your battery after you’ve fallen asleep. There’s also a feature that blocks snoring sounds using microphones in the case, which is a lifesaver if you sleep in the same room as a noisy partner. And if you’re worried about not hearing your alarm, you can set one in the app, which also includes a handful of features that measure your sleep quality. All in all, I really can’t recommend these earbuds enough to anyone who values quality sleep and likes to wear earbuds to bed.

Meta removed a deepfake video from Facebook that falsely depicted Catherine Connolly withdrawing from Ireland’s presidential election. The video was posted to an account called RTE News AI and viewed almost 30,000 times over 12 hours before the Irish Independent contacted the platform. The fabricated bulletin featured AI-generated versions of RTE newsreader Sharon Ni Bheolain and political correspondent Paul Cunningham announcing that Connolly had ended her campaign and the election scheduled for Friday would be cancelled.

Connolly responded in a statement that she remained a candidate and called the video a disgraceful attempt to mislead voters. Meta confirmed the account violated its community standards against impersonating people and organizations. Ireland’s media regulator Coimisiun na Mean contacted Meta about the incident and reminded the platform of its obligations under the EU Digital Services Act. An Irish Times poll published last Thursday found Connolly leading the race with 38% support.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s shaping up to be a shockingly good year for former arcade-dwelling beat-‘em-up fans. This month saw the arrival of the excellent Absolum, which infuses old-fashioned 2D combat in a cartoony high fantasy setting with roguelike elements to great effect. And now we also have a release date for Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

Out December 1 on practically every platform, Marvel Cosmic Invasion lets you choose a team of two superheroes from a playable roster of 15, and you can switch character mid-fight. The new release date trailer rounds off the roster with the Invincible Iron Man (heard of him?) and Phoenix/Jean Grey (played by Jennifer Hale, who also voiced Jean in X-Men ‘97), who join a list of previously announced characters that includes Spider-Man, Wolverine and Captain America.

With its gorgeous pixel art visuals and obvious ’90s-era Marvel comics inspiration, it’s hard to see Marvel Cosmic Invasion being anything other than a hit, and it’s fair to say that the license is in very good hands. Developer Tribute Games’ last game was the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, while publisher Dotemu has already put out the aforementioned Absolum this year, as well as Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, which also got a big tick from Engadget.

You can play with up to four players, local or online, with crossplay also supported. Marvel Cosmic Invasion will be available for PC, Switch, Switch 2, PS5/PS4 and Xbox on December 1.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nostalgic-beat-em-up-marvel-cosmic-invasion-is-out-on-december-1-172217400.html?src=rss

A few years back, Google made waves when it claimed that some of its hardware had achieved quantum supremacy, performing operations that would be effectively impossible to simulate on a classical computer. That claim didn’t hold up especially well, as mathematicians later developed methods to help classical computers catch up, leading the company to repeat the work on an improved processor.

While this back-and-forth was unfolding, the field became less focused on quantum supremacy and more on two additional measures of success. The first is quantum utility, in which a quantum computer performs computations that are useful in some practical way. The second is quantum advantage, in which a quantum system completes calculations in a fraction of the time it would take a typical computer. (IBM and a startup called Pasqual have published a useful discussion about what would be required to verifiably demonstrate a quantum advantage.)

Today, Google and a large collection of academic collaborators are publishing a paper describing a computational approach that demonstrates a quantum advantage compared to current algorithms—and may actually help us achieve something useful.

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Nintendo has announced a free update for Pikmin 4 that could remedy one of fans’ biggest complaints about the game. (Yes, free. From Nintendo. We’re shocked too, but we’ll take it.) The update, which arrives in November, adds Fierce mode to make the game more challenging for those who want it. We don’t know exactly what that will look like yet, but a higher difficulty level is a welcome addition to a game that is, for many players including myself, absolutely delightful but much too easy. It may not reach Pikmin 2 heights still, but maybe we’ll see enemies respawn? 

On the opposite end, for players who want to breeze through an even chiller experience than Pikmin 4 already offered, the update also brings Relaxed mode, where enemies won’t bother you unless you attack them first. This mode could go hand in hand with another new feature, the Field Camera, which puts a Pokémon-Snap-style spin on things. With this, you’ll be able to take photos of your Pikmin and squad in the wild, and “set the scene with various angles, hide characters, and decorate your pics with filters, frames and stamps.” It might be nice not to have enemies pestering you while you’re just trying to have a photoshoot. 

The update also brings a Pikmin Bloom staple over to the mainline game: Decor Pikmin. You’ll soon be able to find Pikmin that are decked out in little costumes, and can add these characters to your squad. The announcement hints that snapping a picture of them may be the way to do this. And, Pikmin Bloom players will be able to send these special Decor Pikmin to the app to join their squad over there too. There’s more news for Pikmin Bloom players as well. The mobile game is finally getting Ice Pikmin on November 1. These will sprout from new blue seedlings that will be found, to start, at Restaurant and Roadside locations. 

Nintendo

At the beginning of October, Nintendo got us all worked up about the possibility of new Pikmin content when it dropped an animated short that at first seemed to be Pikmin related, and was later confirmed to be. The company eventually put the hype to rest, explaining that the videos were indeed just the first short films from Nintendo Pictures Co., which will “explore new creative possibilities through video content” — not a promotion for a new game, as fans hoped. But with a new reason to dive back into Pikmin 4 now on the horizon, maybe all the excitement wasn’t for nothing. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pikmin-4-is-getting-a-free-update-with-hard-mode-decor-pikmin-and-a-camera-to-snap-field-photos-165200723.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: As it rushes to meet its pledge for “100 percent” of trips in electric vehicles by 2030, Uber is offering grants of $4,000 for drivers to swap their gas-guzzlers for zero-tailpipe emission vehicles. The company is also dropping its “Uber Green” branding in favor of the more simple “Uber Electric.”

Uber has said it will be completely carbon neutral in North America and Europe by 2030 and in all global markets by 2040. But when it first announced this pledge in 2020, it said it wouldn’t directly pay drivers to ditch their gas-burning vehicles in favor of EVs. Now, the company is reversing that decision in the hopes that direct payments can help accelerate EV adoption.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the greatest comeback stories in the history of video games just keeps writing itself new chapters. If you’ve checked in on the wildly ambitious space sim, No Man’s Sky, in the last few years then you’ll know just how much UK-based developer Hello Games has turned things around for a game that was once the subject of a false advertising investigation. And its latest update introduces fully explorable space wrecks.

The follow-up to August’s substantial Voyagers expansion, the new Breach update adds floating wrecks that you’re invited to salvage to your heart’s content. The materials you find can be used to unlock new ship-building parts, and after Voyagers — which finally allowed players to build their own fully crewed spaceships — was such a hit with the No Man’s Sky audience, Hello Games says it has also improved and expanded its workshop feature in the latest update.

Breach also introduces a new expedition, which are No Man’s Sky’s time-limited story-driven events. In this one, players will “traverse a desolate and abandoned universe to discover what happened to a mysterious abandoned wreck.” Those able to successfully voyage to the edge of space and ransack the remains of the ship will be rewarded with rare parts to use on their own creations, including “glowing Atlas-themed wings.” The expedition looks suitably spooky for a Halloween playthrough with your pals.

No Man’s Sky celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026, and the Breach update seemingly rounds off what Hello Games founder Sean Murray calls a “crazy year” for his team. It seems unlikely that we won’t get more updates in what will be a landmark year for the game when 2026 rolls around, but Murray also appeared to tease the studio’s next project, the open-world survival game Light No Fire, when announcing the arrival of the Voyagers expansion back in August. In a message, he seemed to suggest that the ship construction tech introduced in the expansion will also be utilized in Light No Fire, which is currently without a release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/no-man-skys-latest-update-let-you-explore-a-space-wreck-164042151.html?src=rss

One of my favorite tabs to check when I’m looking at new PC Games on the Steam Store is “Popular Upcoming,” but over the years, it’s gotten far less useful. While it’s supposed to show me what the next big game is ahead of time, the truth is, there are just too many games and too many types of players out there for it to keep up anymore. My tastes probably aren’t the same as yours, and limiting the highlights to a small selection of popular picks could bury smaller titles some players might be more interested in. That’s why I’m so excited about Steam’s new Personal Calendar page.

Released last night, it’s technically an experiment, but it’s already looking great. Essentially, rather than showing you a generic list of ten games like the Popular Upcoming tab (I have no idea how Valve picks those games, by the way), this instead shows you a personally curated selection of recently released and upcoming games, organized on a daily calendar, and up through the next eight weeks. The specifics depend on how you customize it, but already, it’s far more useful for me than the Popular Upcoming tab.

To check it out, either click here for the web version or open your Steam desktop client, and next to the search bar, navigate to Special Sections > Steam Labs > 016 Personal Calendar.

When you first open the calendar, you’ll see 100 games, split across titles released last month, titles released in the last seven days, and titles that aren’t out yet. At time of writing, I currently see suggested games through Dec. 12, which gives me a pretty good window of what to look forward to. If you’re eagle-eyed, you might notice that the Personal Calendar excludes weekends, which Valve says is because most games don’t release on weekends. If a game Valve wants to suggest does release on a weekend, it’ll instead show up on the following Monday.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

As for the curation, I’m satisfied. Unlike the Popular Upcoming tab, the Personal Calendar uses a combination of your wishlist and your playtime in certain games to decide what to show you, making for a list that’s catered to your tastes. Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of platformers and RPGs, and low and behold, my Personal Calendar opened right up to suggestions like Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. These are bigger titles, but there are smaller choices I might have otherwise overlooked peppered in, and it already seems like a great way to make sure I don’t miss out on a game I’d like. I even appreciate the heads-up about recently released games, which are easy to think about once and then forget.

The one criticism I have is that the default of 100 games looks a little overstuffed to me. Luckily, you can slim down your suggestions to anywhere from ten to fifty games (at the top of the page, under Game Count), which also has the benefit of narrowing down the algorithm to only show you what it thinks you’d enjoy most. Or, if you want to see as many options as possible, you can also have the calendar display 250 or 500 games. There are also controls to only show games with specific tags, and also to exclude games you’ve wishlisted or already own.

Essentially, the Personal Calendar feels like a personalized and easy-to-check version of those “Biggest Game Releases of the Month” videos, except you don’t need to constantly rewind or pull up the video again whenever you’re looking for what to play next. Valve says your Calendar’s algorithm gets re-trained daily, though, so don’t expect to always see the same games on it every time you check it. If you see a game you’re interested in but aren’t ready to pull the trigger on yet, wishlisting it is still your best bet.

The Spotify app has been freezing and crashing on some Android devices, according to multiple users and a report by 9to5Google. This is happening only when a phone or tablet is connected to Wi-Fi, so keep on listening to Spotify while out and about.

Users first took note of the problem around two weeks ago, taking to Spotify forums to address their concerns. Many folks say that the app becomes essentially unusable on Wi-Fi due to the constant crashes and freezing.

The company has acknowledged the issue and says its engineers are working on a fix. However, we don’t have a timetable for a patch or anything like that. For the time being, some Android users will just have to avoid using the Spotify app while on Wi-Fi.

To that end, error reports have mostly come in from people on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones. The problem doesn’t appear to be universal, which has led some to speculate that may be related to Chromecast-ready devices. This would explain why the issue only persists on Wi-Fi, but we’ll have to wait to hear from Spotify for a cause.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/spotify-is-freezing-and-crashing-on-some-android-devices-163020556.html?src=rss

If you use ChatGPT in WhatsApp, it’s about time to make other plans. OpenAI said its ubiquitous chatbot will stop working in Meta’s ubiquitous chat app on January 15, 2026. According to OpenAI, the change is due to a policy and terms change from WhatsApp.

OpenAI announced the change in a blog post. “While we would have much preferred to continue serving you on WhatsApp, we are focused on making the transition as easy for all of our users as possible,” the company wrote.

WhatsApp doesn’t support chat exports, and there won’t be an automatic way to transfer your chats after the cutoff date. Fortunately, there’s a simple workaround to migrate your chat history right now. Under the 1-800-ChatGPT contact profile in WhatsApp, you’ll see an option to link your ChatGPT account. Select that, and all your queries on WhatsApp will merge with your ChatGPT history.

As for why this is happening, well, we can only speculate. But the term “turf war” comes to mind. After all, Meta is now an AI company, too. And 50 million people using another company’s chatbot inside WhatsApp must not be good for business. Fortunately, ChatGPT is available on the same platforms as WhatsApp: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and the web.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-in-whatsapp-will-stop-working-in-january-161335173.html?src=rss

General Motors is ending production of its Chevy BrightDrop electric delivery vans after sluggish demand and the expiration of key EV tax credits. “This is not a decision we made lightly because of the impact on our employees,” GM CEO Mary Barra said during the company’s third quarter earnings call Tuesday. “However the commercial electric van market has been developing much slower than expected, and changes to the regulatory framework and fleet incentives has made the business even more challenging.” The Verge reports: Brightdrop first launched in 2021 as GM’s effort to capture a large portion of the commercial EV market, starting with a pair of electric vans, as well as fleet management software and electric-powered carts for goods delivery. The automaker made deals with Walmart, FedEx, and other major retailers to add the van to their delivery fleets. But after trying to make a go of it as a standalone brand, GM reabsorbed BrightDrop in 2023, and then later assigned it to Chevy in order to tap into the brand’s sales and service dealer network.

Now the van will stand as yet another casualty of the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, which ended on September 30th. In addition to the consumer credit, there was also a $7,500 discount for commercial EVs under 18,000 lbs — which Brightdrop was eligible for. The van was a range leader, but also was more expensive than its most prominent competitor. Brightdrop’s vans started at $74,000, while Ford’s E-Transit van with extended battery range sold for $51,600.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA has reopened SpaceX’s $4.4 billion moon lander contract to new bidders like Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin after delays in Starship’s development threatened the 2027 Artemis 3 mission. Reuters reports: The move paves the way for rivals such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to snatch a high-profile mission to land the first astronauts on the moon in half a century. “I’m in the process of opening that contract up. I think we’ll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others,” the U.S. space agency’s acting chief Sean Duffy, who also serves as U.S. Transportation Secretary, told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program.

Duffy’s comments follow months of mounting pressure within NASA to speed up its Artemis lunar program and push SpaceX to make greater progress on its Starship lunar lander, while China progresses toward its own goal of sending humans to the moon by 2030.
It represents a major shift in NASA’s lunar strategy, starting a new competitive juncture in the program for a crewed moon lander just two years before the scheduled landing date. Blue Origin is widely expected to compete for the mission, while Lockheed Martin has indicated it would convene an industry team to heed NASA’s call.

Starship, picked by NASA in 2021 under a contract now worth $4.4 billion, faces a 2027 moon landing deadline that agency advisers estimate could slip years behind schedule, citing competing priorities. Musk sees Starship as crucial to launching larger batches of Starlink satellites to space and eventually ferrying humans to Mars, among other missions. “They do remarkable things, but they’re behind schedule,” Duffy said of SpaceX’s lunar lander work, adding President Donald Trump wants to see the mission take place before his White House term ends in January 2029.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg called the company’s Tumblr acquisition his biggest failure — but one he hasn’t given up on yet. The comments were made at the recent WordCamp Canada 2025 conference, where Mullenweg went live for a Town Hall session to connect with the open source-focused WordPress community.

The exec noted that Tumblr was still on a different technical stack than WordPress — something he had intended to correct by migrating the back end to WordPress infrastructure. However, that massive undertaking was put on hold earlier this year, as the cost to move Tumblr’s half-billion blogs would be difficult given that the blogging platform wasn’t profitable and continues to be sustained by the profits of other Automattic products.

The company has tried to trim costs with layoffs and the reallocation of Tumblr resources to more profitable parts of the business, but those efforts have yet to pay off. Mullenweg acknowledged these concerns at his Town Hall session, saying, “I need to switch [Tumblr] over to WordPress, but it’s a big lift. It’s over 500 million blogs, actually, and, as a business, it’s costing so much more to run than it generates in revenue.” As a result, Automattic had to prioritize other projects to make Tumblr sustainable, he said. “It’s probably my biggest failure or missed opportunity right now, but we’re still working on it,” he added.

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Google announced Wednesday that its quantum computer achieved the first verifiable quantum advantage, running a new algorithm 13,000 times faster than a top supercomputer. The algorithm, called Quantum Echoes, was published in the journal Nature. The results can be replicated on another quantum computer of similar quality, something Google had not demonstrated before. The quantum computer uses a chip called Willow, which was announced in December 2024. Hartmut Neven, head of Google’s Quantum AI research lab, called the work a demonstration of the first algorithm with verifiable quantum advantage and a milestone on the software track.

Michel H. Devoret, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics and joined Google in 2023, said future quantum computers will run calculations impossible with classical algorithms. Google stopped short of claiming the work would have practical uses on its own. Instead, the company said Quantum Echoes demonstrated a technique that could be applied to other algorithms in drug discovery and materials science.

A second paper published Wednesday on arXiv showed how the method could be applied to nuclear magnetic resonance. The experiment involved a relatively small quantum system that fell short of full practical quantum advantage because it was not able to work faster than a traditional computer. Google exhaustively red-teamed the research, putting some researchers to work trying to disprove its own results.

Prineha Narang, a professor at UCLA, called the advance meaningful. The quantum computer tested two molecules, one with 15 atoms and another with 28 atoms. Results on the quantum computer matched traditional NMR and revealed information not usually available from NMR. Google’s research competes against Microsoft, IBM, universities and efforts in China. The Chinese government has committed more than $15.2 billion to quantum research. Previous claims of quantum advantage have been met with skepticism.

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Sonic Rumble has a new worldwide launch date: November 5. The game, which we’ve previously likened to Fall Guys, was supposed to come out last winter before its release was rescheduled for May 8 this year. By the end of April, however, Sega announced that its global launch had been postponed yet again because its developers needed more time to “build the kind of high-quality, long-lasting Sonic game [their] players deserve.” At the time, the company said it had blasted past its goal of 1.4 million pre-registrations and that it had received “amazing positive response” from players in pre-launch regions. Players who pre-register will receive bonuses when the game launches globally. 

Similar to Fall Guys, Sonic Rumble is a battle royale-style game that can accommodate up to 32 players at once. Players will race against each other in worlds inspired by the Sonic franchise while collecting Rings they can use to buy new skins and stickers. It has several different modes, including Run wherein players compete for the top spot and Survival wherein they compete to stay in the game. Players can choose between various Sonic characters, including Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Dr. Eggman, and form a team of four to race against other teams around the world. 

Sega developed Sonic Rumble for mobile devices and PC, and it will be available to play on iOS and Android, as well as on Google Play Games on PC and Steam.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/sonic-rumble-is-coming-out-november-5-160031039.html?src=rss