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JAXA’s second attempt at launching the H3 rocket has ended up becoming a major setback for Japan’s space ambitions. While the rocket was able to leave the launch pad, the country’s space authorities were forced to activate its flight termination system a few minutes later after its second stage engine failed to ignite. In an announcement, JAXA said the self-destruct command was transmitted to the rocket at 10:52 AM Japan time (8:52PM ET) “because there was no possibility of achieving the mission.” The agency is still investigating the incident to figure out what went wrong.

The H3 was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries after the program was first approved in 2013, and it cost the country over 200 billion yen ($1.5 billion). JAXA was hoping to launch the rocket in 2020 — and it did complete a functional test for the H3 that year — but had to delay its inaugural flight due to engineering problems. Its first actual launch attempt on February 17th this year was aborted before the vehicle was able to lift off due to an electrical interference issue in the first stage. 

According to Nikkei Asia, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sees the H3 as “crucial to the nation’s business and national security ambitions.” It was created to put a lot more Japanese surveillance satellites in orbit and to become the key component of a business that will offer launch services to clients. JAXA and Mitsubishi were apparently able to halve its original launch costs to $50 million, which they believed is lower than the launch costs of SpaceX’s Falcon 9. In the future, it’s also expected to ferry cargo to support the NASA Artemis program’s Lunar Gateway project.  

The destroyed H3 rocket was carrying ALOS-3, a satellite with disaster management tools that can be quickly deployed to observe affected areas. Reuters says it was also equipped with an experimental infrared sensor that was created with the ability to detect North Korean ballistic missile launches

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japan-h3-rocket-self-destructs-failed-launch-072818999.html?src=rss 

Honda is known for both vehicles and robots, and over the last few years it has tried combining those two things with the Autonomous Work Vehicle (AWV). It just unveiled a new 3rd-generation version designed to transport up to two palettes worth of goods around worksites with no human assistance. This time, though, Honda is keen to find companies willing to try it out. 

The AWV has evolved from what was basically an ATV with the top chopped off, to a glorified autonomous electric wagon to the current model. Compared to the 2nd-generation version, the latest AWV has a larger bed size (two pallets) and higher capacity (2,000 pounds); a higher self-driving speed of up to 10 MPH; a larger battery that offers up to 10 hours and 28 miles of endurance; better avoidance functions; and a lower bed for easier loading. 

It can operate autonomously or via remote control through challenging terrain like construction sites, thanks to a suite of sensors on the mast. Those include GPS, radar, LiDAR and camera technologies, along with cloud connectivity, all controlled by a tablet-based interface. “Previous field tests have also successfully verified that multiple Honda AWVs can transport and deliver construction materials and supplies at precise points along a pre-set route,” the company said.

The AWV will allow construction and other companies to address issues like labor shortages and worksite transport, Honda believes. After extensively testing the last model, it said the AWV version 3.0 is now ready for real-life field trials, and is looking for partners at a construction trade show taking place in Las Vegas starting March 14th, 2023. 

“We want to meet with potential business partners and companies at CONEXPO that are interested in field testing the vehicle at their worksite. We believe the Honda AWV can be a valuable solution to supporting construction teams while also enhancing worksite efficiencies and safety,” said Honda Motor systems engineering manager Jason VanBuren. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hondas-latest-autonomous-robot-is-designed-to-pack-things-around-construction-sites-055416481.html?src=rss 

You now have another major alternative to the built-in Mail app on your Mac. Microsoft has made Outlook for Mac free to use. You previously needed either a Microsoft 365 subscription or an Office purchase to use the email client. It’s available now through the Mac App Store.

Microsoft unsurprisingly pitches this as a good complement to Outlook for iOS. You can hand off an email draft to your iPhone if you haven’t finished writing it on your Mac, for instance. An upcoming Profiles feature will tie into macOS’ Focus modes to help you limit notifications when you’re concentrating on work. As with all Outlook versions, you can use email accounts from various third-party services, including Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company).

The company isn’t shy about some of the reasoning behind the move. The team is “rebuilding” Outlook for Mac with performance, reliability and accessibility in mind. The free download might spur adoption by users who’d otherwise never give it a try. And of course, this might spur adoption of Microsoft 365 and Office for customers who want tight integration between their email software and productivity apps.

The addition might be welcome. There aren’t many big email clients for the Mac, with Mozilla’s Thunderbird being the most notable. Some are either paid-only or unlock features with subscriptions. Even if Outlook doesn’t always match their features, you now have an easy way to try it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-makes-outlook-free-to-use-for-mac-201328421.html?src=rss 

The PlayStation VR2 delivers one of the best virtual reality experiences you can find—if you can stomach the $599 cost (on top of an already expensive console). That was the crux of our review a few weeks ago. But our impressions of the headset were also limited by the games we were able to preview. Since then, Sony has officially launched PS VR2 support for Gran Turismo 7, and Capcom has done the same for Resident Evil Village. Both are exclusive showpieces for the PlayStation VR2 (RE Village also has an unofficial PC VR mod), and exemplify everything Sony got right with this new hardware.

Now, I’m not much of a racing sim player, I’d much rather be zooming around Forza Horizon’s open worlds, or revisiting the glory days of Ridge Racer Type 4 and Burnout Paradise. But with PS VR2 support, Gran Turismo 7 feels like a completely different game. In VR, you’re right in the driver’s seat — you can almost feel Polyphony Digital’s obsessive attention to detail. The game also feels more exhilarating, as it delivers a far greater sense of speed (a consequence of having your entire field of vision consumed by the world of GT7).

I’ve always appreciated the Gran Turismo games from afar, but there was a stiffness to the actual racing experience that kept me away. GT7 doesn’t fully fix that flaw, but it’s less pronounced in virtual reality. The combination of the Dual Sense controller and the PS VR2’s built-in haptics delivered a genuinely realistic driving experience, I could feel bumps in the road in my hands and occasional feedback from hitting walls or bumping into opponents. (I never said I was a great virtual driver.) I’m sure Gran Turismo obsessives would take away even more from the virtual reality experience, especially if they’re using a decent steering wheel controller.

The more time I spent in GT7 VR, the more I appreciated the little details in the game, similar to my time with Flight Simulator VR. Instead of changing camera angles or hitting a button to scope out the competition, you simply look at your side and rear view mirrors. When you’re changing gears, your in-game avatar correctly shifts between the steering wheel and shifter. I occasionally had to avert my eyes from the sun while rounding a corner, a testament to the bright 4K OLED display in the PSVR2.

At one point, I was blasting down a straightaway as the sun peeked through clouds behind me, its brightness perfectly reflected in my rear view mirrors. It cast realistic shadows throughout the world, and it was so bright I couldn’t properly use that mirror – just like real life! While the game doesn’t look perfect in VR — there are some noticeably low-res elements in some tracks, like guardrails, signage and audiences — it’s good enough to make you feel like you’re actually behind a turbo-charged monster.

There’s no visible ray tracing while you’re playing in virtual reality, but you still get an eye-full of that realistic lighting during replays, which are projected on the PS VR2’s simulated 2D screen. You can also get an up-close look at the cars in your garage, which use ray tracing to deliver achingly perfect reflections and shadows. It’s the closest you’ll get without stepping into a luxury car dealer.

When it comes to Resident Evil Village, I expected Capcom to deliver a worthwhile VR experience after seeing what it did with RE7, one of the best titles on the original PS VR. Well, the company didn’t disappoint. Thanks to the increased horsepower of the PlayStation 5, and the higher fidelity of the PS VR2, Resident Evil Village is transformed into a living nightmare in virtual reality. There should be a warning for people already skittish of survival horror games: Play at your own peril.

Just like with Gran Turismo 7, virtual reality lets you appreciate the work that went into Resident Evil Village in entirely new ways. Walking through the game’s creepy Eastern European village is even more chilling when it fills your field of view. You can always look away from a 2D screen, in VR you’re forced to confront the horrors in front of you. (Sometimes closing your eyes isn’t enough, not when you can hear the werewolf-like creatures skittering around the cottage you’re hiding in.)

Since it’s a first-person game, Resident Evil Village acquits itself well to VR. Exploration is smooth and not nausea-inducing, thankfully. And fighting off the game’s various baddies is all the more thrilling when you’re realistically aiming guns and other weapons. And yes, Lady Dimitrescu, the tall vampire woman who launched a thousand memes on the internet, is indeed very tall and imposing in VR.

I didn’t have time to play through all of Resident Evil Village in virtual reality, but my first few hours with the game left a striking impression. Perhaps the future of virtual reality depends more on games like this, which can be enjoyed both as traditional 2D titles and with immersive headsets. We looked to Half Life Alyx to prove flagship VR games were possible. But what if we just need to think about bringing VR into more flagship games?

The more time I spent with the PS VR2, the more frustrated I became with the state of the virtual reality industry. Everything I said in my review remains true: VR feels stagnant, and another expensive headset isn’t going to fix that. Maybe it’s okay if VR gaming never truly becomes mainstream, just like how not everyone plays racing games with steering wheels, or people can enjoy fighting games without expensive arcade sticks. Perhaps VR can just be another accessory — albeit one that takes a significant amount of development resources to support.

Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village both prove that the PlayStation VR2 is a gateway to truly immersive virtual reality gaming. But a part of me still dreams for PC compatibility. While it’s understandable why Sony may want to lock down its hardware, it’s sort of like forcing a lion to live in a small zoo. The PS VR2 can’t truly roar until it taps into the wild world of PC VR, which offers more experimental games and far faster graphical hardware than the PS5. If Sony ever wants to return to its innovator roots, it needs to take more chances.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gran-turismo-7-resident-evil-village-ps-vr2-review-181810802.html?src=rss 

The National Women’s Soccer League is heading to FIFA 23. Electronic Arts announced on Monday that all 12 NWSL teams would be available to play within the game starting March 15th, thanks to a licensing partnership the company recently signed with the league and NWSL Players Association. The 12 teams of the NWSL, and all the female athletes who play on their rosters, will also be part of the franchise moving forward, including when it rebrands to EA Sports FC later this year.

FIFA 23 launched with all 24 teams from the Women’s Super League and Division 1 in the UK and France. The game also marked the first time EA featured a female player on the cover, with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr appearing on the Ulitmate Edition. All told, the series has come a long way since FIFA 16, when EA first added pro female players.

Come March 15th, all 12 NWSL teams will be available to play within FIFA 23’s Kick-Off game modes. They will also be available in the game’s Tournament Mode, as well as Online Seasons and Friendlies. If both teams are from the NWSL, EA says players will see an “authentic” match broadcast experience. Separately, the company is adding the option to play through the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) in Kick-Off and Tournament game modes. It’s also adding four new European clubs, including Juventus and Real Madrid, to round out the UWCL experience.

“The athletes that call the NWSL home are some of the best in the world and we’re excited for the opportunity to further showcase their talent through this unique gaming experience,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman. “We can’t wait for fans to begin playing and we look forward to continuing this celebration of the players and the league when we kick off our 11th season on March 25.”

FIFA 23 is available on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fifa-23-will-add-all-12-national-womens-soccer-league-teams-on-march-15th-183352449.html?src=rss 

Apple is surely hoping that you’re not tired of post-apocalyptic TV shows, because it has another one up its sleeve. Silo, which is based on Hugh Howey’s series of books, will debut on Apple TV+ on May 5th and the company has released the first teaser for it.

Silotells the story of the last 10,000 people on Earth. They live in a bunker that’s a mile underground, but how or why the silo came to be and exactly why they’re there remains a mystery. Trying to find out spells doom. Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) is an engineer who tries to get to the bottom of a loved one’s murder and ends up discovering some surprising secrets.

The teaser doesn’t give too much away, but it does offer a look at the multi-level silo and how its denizens survive there, such as by growing food. Along with Ferguson, the show has a strong cast featuring the likes of Common, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche (“Dickinson”), David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones and Tim Robbins.

Apple TV+ has released several post-apocalyptic shows and movies, including See and Finch. Foundation is largely about the collapse of a galactic empire, while the upcoming Extrapolations takes a look at how climate change could ravage the planet by the middle of the 21st century. If you’re not too burned out by TV shows set after the collapse of society, Silo might be another one worth checking out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/silo-teaser-reveals-apples-latest-post-apocalyptic-drama-164706371.html?src=rss 

Now that Microsoft has outlined how AI will reshape Bing search, it’s ready to detail how the technology will influence your workplace. The company is holding a “Future of Work with AI” event on March 16th at 11AM Eastern. While Microsoft isn’t saying much about what the news will entail, CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft 365 lead Jared Spataro are hosting the presentation. As it stands, rumors may give an idea of what to expect.

A February leak from The Vergesuggested Microsoft may introduce AI-equipped versions of Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook and Word. While the exact functionality isn’t known, The Informationclaims Outlook could use AI to improve search results and suggest email replies. Word, meanwhile, may make writing suggestions.

The company is launching some enterprise-oriented AI features today. Dynamics 365 and Viva Sales now have an AI “Copilot” that helps reply to customer chats and emails, summarize Teams meetings and explore marketing data. These rely on an existing Azure OpenAI service where the rumored Microsoft 365 features may draw on the Prometheus AI model used in Bing.

The expansion won’t come as a surprise. Microsoft has been integrating AI into services like Teams for a while, and has been investing in OpenAI for years. It recently committed to a years-long funding deal for that’s reportedly worth $10 billion, and will see Microsoft host OpenAI cloud services. The company is in a race to establish itself as an AI leader, and the event will likely support that strategy.

There’s plenty of competitive pressure. Other companies are building OpenAI’s ChatGPT directly into their products. Google, meanwhile, has unveiled Bard as its ChatGPT equivalent amid reported concerns AI could pose a threat to its core search business. An expanded use of AI could theoretically help Microsoft fend off rivals and take an early lead in use of the fledgling technology.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-holding-a-future-of-work-ai-event-on-march-16th-165818278.html?src=rss 

Links and images are completely busted on Twitter at the minute across the company’s website and mobile apps. Clicking on one brings up an error message that reads “Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api for more information.” As it happens, that link is broken at the time of writing. On top of that, the same error message is popping up for some users when they try to access TweetDeck. 

Twitter’s last major outage was less than a week ago, just days after the company laid off dozens more employees. Twitter no longer has a communications department that can be contacted for comment. Oddly, enough, its API status page has a message reading “all systems operational.”

“Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences,” Twitter somehow manage to share on its Support account. “We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.” It’s currently not possible to embed the tweet because of the busted API. 

Twitter is in the midst of restricting its APIs, the tools that developers use to hook into the platform. The company said in early February that it would start charging for access to APIs. 

Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has responded to the outage. “This platform is so brittle (sigh),” he wrote. “Will be fixed shortly.”

Many users and insiders feared that, after Musk took over Twitter in October and swiftly fired thousands of employees and contractors, the platform would fall apart. Musk infamously demanded that to commit to an “extremely hardcore” vision where they’d work for “long hours at high intensity” or leave the company. It’s estimated that around 1,200 workers opted not to make the pledge, instead choosing to walk away from Twitter with the promise of three months’ severance pay.

Between Musk assuming control of Twitter and late January, it’s believed that some 80 percent of full-time workers left the company. Shortly after the mass departures started, one former employee told The Washington Post that they knew of six critical systems that “no longer have any engineers.” They added that Twitter would “continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.” While many expected the World Cup would be the straw the broke the camel’s back, it seems like a regular Monday morning was enough to tip Twitter over the edge.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/every-link-on-twitter-is-broken-right-now-165929931.html?src=rss 

Eight years and 12 million sales later, Cities: Skylines is getting a sequel. Cities: Skylines II is due to come out in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, from original developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive. The new simulator will offer expanded toolsets and mechanics, and importantly for the series’ existing community, it’ll support advanced modding capabilities. Cities: Skylines II will allow players to grow small villages into bustling metropolises, and then implement detailed construction, transportation, industry and economic systems.

The original Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and filled the void left by EA after its disappointing Sim City reboot. Colossal Order has consistently updated its city-builder since launch: In addition to purchasable assets, the sim has received a dozen mainline gameplay expansions that’ve fundamentally rebuilt its systems for industry, education, parks and airports. The Cities: Skylines of today looks completely different from the game that arrived in 2015.

Mods and community assets are a huge part of Cities: Skylines’ success story. There are hundreds of thousands of free, user-created assets available for the game on Steam, and its most popular mods count over 2 million subscribers, improving essential mechanics like road-building and traffic management. A thriving YouTube community has grown around the game, with virtual (and real!) city planners offering tips and showcasing builds across hundreds of episodes. The game attracted more than 5.5 million new players in 2022 alone. 

Colossal Order says Cities: Skylines II has “fully-realized transport and economy systems, a wealth of construction and customization options, and advanced modding capabilities.” The original Cities: Skylines will celebrate its eighth birthday on March 10th and Colossal Order promises more information about the sequel over the coming months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cities-skylines-ii-heads-to-pc-ps5-and-xbox-series-xs-in-2023-173045914.html?src=rss 

Amazon has kicked off another round of discounts for its Fire tablet lineup, with both standard and Kids models on sale. The highlight of the bunch is a deal that brings the latest Fire HD 8 down to $60. That’s $5 more than the all-time low we saw over the holiday season, but still about $25 off the eight-inch tablet’s typical street price since it arrived last September and $40 off Amazon’s MSRP. 

Fire tablets as a whole have had the same drawbacks for many years now: They don’t come with access to the Google Play Store or official Google apps by default, their hardware is neither as fast nor as nice-feeling as a good iPad, and the non-Kids models come with lock screen ads unless you pay extra. They make up for that, however, by being extremely affordable, and offering just enough performance to get by if all you need is a larger screen for reading, streaming video and casually browsing the web.

The Fire HD 8 is likely the cheapest acceptable tablet for most people. It’s made of plastic, and its 1,280 x 800 resolution display isn’t as sharp as a full 1080p screen. Still, it’s durable, its battery should last more than 10 hours on a charge, it charges over USB-C and you can expand its 32GB of storage up to 1TB with a microSD card. While it won’t feel fast, it’s serviceable if you stick to the basics, and its display gets bright enough. As with all Fire tablets, you’ll get more out of it if you already subscribe to Amazon Prime and use services like Prime Video, Audible or the Kindle app. It’s not a great value at full price, but its shortcomings should be easier to accept at this deal price.

Elsewhere in the sale, the Kids and Kids Pro versions of the Fire HD 8 are each down to $100. That’s $20 more than their all-time lows but still roughly $30 off their average street price. These get you the same hardware as the standard model, but with a large protective case (the Pro’s is a bit slimmer), a more kid-friendly UI activated by default, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon’s Kids+ content service. Several Fire HD 10 tablets are also discounted, with the base model down to $120. That’s not a great deal — we’ve seen the device fall under $100 many times before — but the slate itself is faster and offers a bigger 10.1-inch display with a sharper 1,920 x 1,200 resolution.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-tablet-sale-brings-the-fire-hd-8-down-to-60-154654168.html?src=rss