Sony has apparently formed a new first-party studio for PlayStation called Dark Outlaw Games, and it has already started hiring personnel for it. Jason Blundell, who worked on several Call of Duty titles under Treyarch and who’s perhaps best known for co-creating CoD’s Zombies mode, has revealed that he’s heading up the studio in an interview with Jeff Gerstmann for his podcast. As for why Sony Interactive hasn’t announced the new studio yet, Blundell said that they’ve been “working away in the shadows for a while” and that they’ll “step out into the light” when they have something to talk about.

Presumably, that means Sony will make an official announcement once Dark Outlaw is ready to reveal its first game. Blundell didn’t say if he and his team have already started developing their first title or if it even already has a project lined up. All he said was that the studio is currently “staffing up” and that he’s “getting the team to gel, getting the ideas clicking right” and then testing them. 

Blundell worked as a programmer and a producer for Activision before joining Treyarch to work on Call of Duty. For Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, he directed and produced the Career and Zombies experiences. Blundell left Treyarch in 2020 and founded Deviation Games, which he also left in 2022 before the studio shut down two years later. According to Dark Outlaw Games’ LinkedIn account, the PlayStation studio was founded in 2024, is based in Los Angeles and has a team size between 11 and 50 persons. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-a-new-first-party-playstation-studio-led-by-cod-zombies-creator-jason-blundell-120007351.html?src=rss

U.S. music streaming services surpassed 100 million subscribers in 2024 [PDF] while industry revenue hit a record $14.9 billion, up 4% from the previous year, according to the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Physical media sales outpaced digital growth, with vinyl records increasing 7% to $1.4 billion, outselling CDs ($541 million) for the third consecutive year. Digital downloads plummeted 14.9%, now representing just 2% of industry revenue.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It looked like the final scene of a movie, the denouement of a long adventure in which the good guys finally prevail. Azure skies and brilliant blue seas provided a perfect backdrop on Tuesday evening as a spacecraft carrying four people neared the planet’s surface.

“Just breathtaking views of a calm, glass-like ocean off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida,” commented Sandra Jones, a NASA spokesperson, during the webcast co-hosted by the space agency and SpaceX, whose Dragon vehicle returned the four astronauts from orbit.

A drone near the landing site captured incredible images of Crew Dragon Freedom as it slowly descended beneath four parachutes. Most of NASA’s astronauts today, outside of the small community of spaceflight devotees, are relatively anonymous. But not two of the passengers inside Freedom, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. After nine months of travails, 286 days to be precise, they were finally coming home.

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The Chinese automaker says it will start selling vehicles with the new battery system starting next month.

Star Rachel Zegler shared that she performed opposite puppets while filming the live-action Disney release.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 has returned to Earth safely after a stay of more than nine months aboard the International Space Station. The crew remained in space longer than expected due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which was originally scheduled to bring them home sooner.

While the mission has been politically fraught, the astronauts said in a rare space-to-earth interview last month that they were neither stranded nor abandoned. “That’s been the rhetoric. That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it,” [NASA astronaut Butch] Wilmore said. “But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded.” Wilmore added a request: “If you’ll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative. Let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed.’ That’s what we prefer…” CNN has more details on the arrival: Williams and Wilmore, alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, safely splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57 p.m. ET. The crew’s highly anticipated return came after the crew climbed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and departed the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. ET. Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov spent Tuesday morning and afternoon in orbit in the roughly 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide), gumdrop-shaped SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Gradually descending, the capsule carried the astronauts from the space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth, toward the thick inner layer of our planet’s atmosphere.

Around 5 p.m. ET, the Crew Dragon capsule began firing its engines to begin the final phase of the journey: reentry. This leg of the journey is considered the most dangerous of any flight home from space. The jarring physics of hitting the atmosphere while traveling more than 22 times the speed of sound routinely heats the exterior of returning spacecraft to more than 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,926 degrees Celsius) and can trigger a communication blackout. After plunging toward home, the Crew Dragon spacecraft deployed two sets of parachutes in quick succession to further slow its descent. The capsule decelerated from orbital speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,359 kilometers per hour) to less than 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per hour) as the vehicle hit the ocean.

After the vehicle hit the ocean, a SpaceX rescue ship waiting nearby worked to haul the spacecraft out of the water. Williams and Wilmore and their crewmates will soon exit Dragon and take their first breaths of earthly air in nine months. Medical teams will evaluate the crew’s health, as is routine after astronauts return from space, before deciding next steps. Ultimately, the NASA crew members will return to their home base at Johnson Space Center in Houston. You can watch a recording of the re-entry and splashdown here.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More than 300 posts have reportedly been removed.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the US government continued today with the firing of the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission. This agency has historically had five members: three from the same party as the president and two from the opposing party. The New York Times reported that the president terminated the roles for FTC Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. 

Both Slaughter and Bedoya said today that firing them is illegal. Commissioners’ terms can only be ended early for good cause, such as “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” Also, no more than three commissioners can come from the same political party, meaning the pair also cannot be replaced by additional Republicans. It seems likely that Trump will face a legal challenge over the attempt to eliminate these positions.

“The law protects the independence of the Commission because the law serves the American people, not corporate power,” Slaughter said in a statement. “The reason that the FTC can be so effective for the American people is because of its independence and because its commissioners serve across political parties and ideologies. Removing opposition voices may not change what the Trump majority can do, but it does change whether they will have accountability when they do it.”

Bedoya also posted about the action on X, seconding Slaughter’s statement that removing their posts is illegal. “Tomorrow I will testify before the Colorado Joint House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and will have more to say then,” he wrote.

Trump signed an executive order in February attempting to exert more control over several agencies that were formed to intentionally remain outside the White House’s purview. The order targeted agencies such as the FTC, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The FTC recently deleted all the posts on its business blog from President Biden’s administration, leaving a four-year gap with no published compliance advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/president-trump-has-fired-the-ftcs-two-democrat-commissioners-225952614.html?src=rss

Hulu’s raunchy alien comedy will have one last season arriving this fall.

The Federal Trade Commission has removed over 300 business guidance blogs published during former President Biden’s term, including consumer protection information on AI and privacy lawsuits against Amazon and Microsoft, WIRED reported Tuesday, citing current and former FTC employees.

Deleted posts included guidance about Amazon’s alleged use of Ring camera data to train algorithms, Microsoft’s $20 million settlement over Xbox children’s data collection, and compliance standards for AI chatbots. New FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has pledged to pursue tech companies but with focus on alleged conservative censorship rather than data collection practices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new review of the evidence finds that only a handful of common remedies provide a modest benefit for acute or chronic back pain.

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Hopefully, you’re done paying off your credit card bill from October Prime Day, but regardless, Amazon is ready for another round—a Spring sale is around the corner. Here is everything you need to know about Amazon’s Big Spring Sale if you’re looking for some deals.

What is Amazon’s Big Spring Sale?

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is the spring version of Prime Day, although it lasts longer and features less impressive deals. It’s a seven-day sale with deals focusing on seasonal items from winter- and spring-like apparel, travel, sports, furniture, gardening, lawn, grilling, storage, and bedding supplies. And, of course, tech. This is only the second time Amazon has run this spring sale, with the first one running in 2024 from Wednesday, March 20 through Monday, March 25.

When is Amazon’s Big Spring Sale?

Amazon announced that their Big Spring Sale will run for a ful week from March 25 through March 31, 2025.

Do you need to be a Prime Member to shop for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale?

You do not need to be a Prime Member to shop Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, however, Prime Members will get more and better deals, according to Amazon. Prime membership starts at $14.99 per month. You can calculate whether a yearly Prime membership is worth it for you, but remember you can always cancel your Prime membership once the sale is over. Keep in mind that Amazon offers free 30-day trials, so you can shop the whole week of the event and cancel before making a subscription payment. You can read about how to sign up for a Prime account here.

What can you expect for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale?

Because the Big Spring Sale happens in the spring, you’re going to see end-of-season deals from Amazon outlet stores on winter items, but also on upcoming spring products. The deals seem to tap at 40% off. Here is an idea of what you can expect:

• Up to 40% off select outdoor furniture and gardening supplies

• Up to 35% off select lawn and grilling equipment

• Up to 35% off select home storage and bedding

• Up to 40% off select apparel and beauty

• Up to 40% off select sports and travel essentials

There will be “daily themes” for each day of the sale, and whatever the theme is for that day is where you can expect to find the best deals. We’ll also be publishing the best deals we find, so make sure to keep tabs on our deals page throughout the week.

Early Amazon’s Big Spring Sale deals are already live

As is usually the case, Amazon kicks off their sales with some early deals that lead up to the main event. Keep in mind these aren’t technically Big Spring Sale deals, though. You’ll know they are by the “Prime Spring Deal” badge on the product page once the sale officially starts.

Some tips for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

If this will be your first time shopping an Amazon sale, there are some basic things you need to know; you can share your Prime membership with family members even if they don’t live with you; you can set price alerts for products you want and your Alexa devices can notify you when they go on sale; and there are tools you can use to see if the deal you’re looking at is good or not. But if you only take one bit of advice for shopping on Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, let it be this one: Don’t buy anything you weren’t going to buy anyway. A good way to make sure you do this is by making a list of the products you do want ahead of time, and focus on those.

Ads are an unavoidable part of modern life. They support both free and discounted services, for better or for worse, and unless you pay for premium services like YouTube Premium or expensive Netflix tiers, it’s likely you’ll run into these commercials one way or another.

But just because ads are deeply entwined in our digital devices, that doesn’t mean they get a free pass in all situations. As reported by Ars Technica, it appears Roku is pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable here, experimenting with placing ads when you first boot up your streaming device.

Moana 2 ads are rolling on Rokus at launch

One Reddit user noticed the change when they turned on their Roku and was forced to watch a commercial for a movie before they could simply access the Roku home screen. This wasn’t an ad placed before another movie or show: Roku simply wouldn’t let the user access the device they paid for without sitting through an ad first.

The user posted about their experience on the r/Roku subreddit, where frustrated Roku owners confirmed the same was happening on their devices, as well. Multiple users received a Moana ad after turning on their Roku devices, and some threatened to ditch their Rokus over the situation. One went so far as to say, “my Roku devices will be in the trash” if the company keeps this up. The sentiment was the same in another thread, where users threatened to chuck their Rokus or switch brands for their streaming purposes. Someone even wrote: “I was indifferent to Moana. But now I will go out of my way to hate on that movie.” (Disney might want to reconsidering its marketing strategy.)

According to Ars Technica, the ads are supposed to have a close button, though some users don’t seem to see it when it pops up on their end. The outlet reached out to Roku, who confirmed the ads are intentional, but aren’t yet official: Roku OS won’t have permanent ads at start for the moment. It seems this is simply an experiment. If so, they’re certainly receiving some valuable feedback from customers.

I understand why Roku users are angry. It’s one thing to show static ads on the home screen—even that feels wrong on a device you paid for. But to stop you from being able to actually use your streaming device until you watch a commercial? The future isn’t looking so bright.

Your Roku is designed for ads

While this experiment is pretty anti-consumer, it isn’t all that surprising coming from Roku. The company, like many others, collects your data as you use its devices, and uses that data to, you guessed it, serve you ads.

Roku is very focused on ads as a business model, exploring ways to not only place as many ads on the home screen as possible, but potentially show you ads when you’ve paused content on a non-Roku device that is connected to your Roku TV. Yikes.

You expect ads in exchange for free content, but we’ve longed moved past this business model. Now, ads and data scraping subsidize devices and services. Your Roku Express only costs $30 (or less, depending on the deal), not because that’s what the hardware is inherently worth, but because Roku is banking on you earning the company more money with your data and ad exposure. You pay less for the product, because you are the product. Now, sit tight, and watch an ad for Moana 2 before choosing to watch something else filled with ads.

Can you stop ads from appearing when starting up your Roku?

There’s no official solution to this situation yet, and not all users will even see these ads when booting up their Roku devices. If you do, there might be something you can do about it, but it’s complicated.

Roku has had static on-screen ads long before this current situation. While far less obtrusive than start ads, some users want to block all ads on their Roku devices. Since Roku, unlike a computer, doesn’t have a native ad-blocker to install, many turn to Pi-hole, a service that can block ads on many sites across devices.

The issue is, setting up Pi-hole can be a bit technical. The company has a thorough walkthrough on its site to get set up, so if you’re interested, go ahead and give it a scan. When properly configured, Pi-hole says it can block most ads across your devices, so you might notice a lack of ads across everything you use to access the internet—not just your Roku.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Volkswagen’s ultra-cheap EV called the ID EVERY1 — a small four-door hatchback revealed Wednesday — will be the first to roll out with software and architecture from Rivian, according to a source familiar with the new model. The EV is expected to go into production in 2027 with a starting price of 20,000 euros ($21,500). A second EV called the ID.2all, which will be priced in the 25,000 euro price category, will be available in 2026. Both vehicles are part of the automaker’s new category of electric urban front-wheel-drive cars that are being developed under the “Brand Group Core” that makes up the volume brands in the VW Group. And both vehicles are for the European market.

The EVERY1 will be the first to ship with Rivian’s vehicle architecture and software as part of a $5.8 billion joint venture struck last year between the German automaker and U.S. EV maker. The ID.2all is based on the E3 1.1 architecture and software developed by VW’s software unit Cariad. VW didn’t name Rivian in its reveal Wednesday, although there were numerous nods to next-generation software. Kai Grunitz, member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for technical development, noted it would be the first model in the entire VW Group to use a “fundamentally new, particularly powerful software architecture.” “This means the future entry-level Volkswagen can be equipped with new functions throughout its entire life cycle,” he said. “Even after purchase of a new car, the small Volkswagen can still be individually adapted to customer needs.” Volkswagen says the ID EVERY1 concept is a compact electric vehicle with a 70 kW motor, a top speed of 130 km/h, a minimum range of 250 km (150 miles), seating for four, and a 305-liter luggage capacity.

Volkswagen has a press release with additional information.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Federal Trade Commission has removed all posts from President Joe Biden’s term in office from its business blog. This online publication has historically provided advice about how companies could best comply with consumer-protection regulations, covering topics such as artificial intelligence and how big tech companies have collected and used customer data. Currently, it has no content published between December 21, 2020 and March 7, 2025.

Wired highlighted some of the notable content from the more than 300 blog posts that have been deleted. Several current and former FTC officials spoke to the publication about the change anonymously out of fear of retaliation.

“In terms of the message to industry on what our compliance expectations were, which is in some ways the most important part of enforcement action, they are trying to just erase those from history,” one source said.

The FTC is being led by President Donald Trump’s nominee, Andrew Ferguson. At the time of his appointment, Ferguson said he would use the department to “end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech.” He and other Republicans have claimed that many platforms are censoring right-wing content, adding a heavy layer of irony to the FTC’s latest actions.

“They are talking a big game on censorship,” another source told Wired. “But at the end of the day, the thing that really hits these companies’ bottom line is what data they can collect, how they can use that data, whether they can train their AI models on that data, and if this administration is planning to take the foot off the gas there while stepping up its work on censorship.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-ftc-has-removed-all-business-blog-posts-from-the-biden-administration-214734633.html?src=rss

The Darin Morgan-scripted episode from the show’s second season turns 30 this month.