Planet

PUBG Mobile has been downloaded more than 1 billion times

PUGB Mobile has passed yet another milestone with 1 billion total downloads worldwide, Tencent announced. Although that number excludes Mainland China, it still marks a significant presence for the already huge game. PUGB Mobile has long been considered one of the most popular games on the planet, following its 2018 release. In 2019, it passed… Read more

NASA reveals flight zone for historic helicopter flight on Mars

NASA has locked in a location on Mars for the first demo flight of its mini helicopter named Ingenuity, engineers announced on Tuesday. The four-pound rotorcraft is gearing up to attempt the first powered flight on another planet, demonstrating a new capability that could unlock access to hard-to-reach areas of other celestial bodies in the… Read more

Pikmin is the next AR game from the makers of Pokémon Go

Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go, has announced a new partnership with Nintendo. The first new game from the collaboration will be a mobile augmented reality game based on Nintendo’s popular Pikmin franchise, and it will launch later this year. Details are thin right now, but Niantic says that “the app will include… Read more

NASA’s new Mars rover is about to spawn a tiny helicopter

NASA’s Perseverance rover is getting ready to deploy a mini-helicopter named Ingenuity on Mars. The four-pound, four-blade rotorcraft will attempt the first flight of its kind on another planet, and in the process, it will test a new mode of mobility that could transform the way we Earthlings remotely explore other worlds. The craft is… Read more

Tesla’s co-founder is teaming up with Specialized to solve the problem of e-bike batteries

The growing popularity of electric bikes has raised a lot of exciting possibilities about the future of transportation, but it also presents a number of unique challenges. Chief among them is what to do with all those e-bike batteries when they eventually run out of juice. Rather than send them to a landfill, one major… Read more

WallStreetBets donates more than $350,000 to gorilla charity to prove ‘apes together strong’

“Apes together strong” is one of the mottoes of Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets community. Now, members of the financial subreddit are making good on one of their favorite memes by donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities supporting gorillas in the wild. The most prominent recipient of the redditors’ generosity is the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund,… Read more

Mars might be hiding most of its old water underground, scientists say

Vast amounts of ancient Martian water may have been buried beneath its surface instead of escaping into space, scientists report in the journal Science. The findings, published Tuesday, may help untangle a clash of theories seeking to explain the disappearance of Mars’ water, a resource that was abundant on the planet’s surface billions of years… Read more

Retail giants look to greener cargo ships to meet climate goals

Pressure from some of their biggest customers is pushing companies like global shipping giant Maersk to pollute less when they transport goods. It’s a sign that individual companies’ commitments to tackling climate change can influence others along the entire supply chain. One of the latest trends in retail has been for companies to pledge to… Read more

Octopath Traveler is coming to Xbox Game Pass, and Undertale has just arrived

Xbox is announcing the next round of games coming to Game Pass, and it’s a pretty stacked deck with games like Undertale and Octopath Traveler, both of which are coming to Xbox for the first time. Coming to all the Game Pass platforms (cloud, console, and PC) are: Undertale (available today) Empire of Sin (Available… Read more

HBO Max will debut its cheaper, ad-supported tier in June

WarnerMedia is set to launch an ad-supported tier for its HBO Max streaming service this June, and executives are hoping that having a cheaper option will help boost subscriber growth. AT&T didn’t provide additional information in a press release sent out, including price or exact launch date, but noted that HBO Max will also launch… Read more

These new 3D-printed homes in Austin are going for $450K

When it showed off its 3D-printed homes at the South by Southwest festival back in 2018, Austin-based construction technology company ICON told The Verge its Vulcan printer could create an 800-square-foot structure for about $10,000. It seemed like only a matter of time before higher-end 3D-printed homes became a reality. Now, a new development in… Read more

Relax with the calming sound of NASA’s Perseverance firing lasers on Mars

NASA has released an audio recording of its Perseverance rover firing lasers on the martian surface. The strikes, which sound like a series of small clicks, are designed to help scientists analyze the rocks around the rover. In this case the target was a rock called “Máaz,” which scientists were able to discover was basaltic,… Read more

Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund has a new leader

Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund has a new leader and a newly announced deadline. Andrew Steer will take the helm as president and CEO of the Earth Fund in mid-April after stepping down from his role leading one of the environmental organizations Bezos currently funds. According to Steer, Bezos intends to spend the entire $10 billion… Read more

NASA’s Perseverance rover scoots around on Mars for the first time

Perseverance, the car-sized rover NASA landed on Mars last month, has taken its first spin on the rocky surface of Jezero Crater, NASA announced today. The rover’s six wheels drove about 21 feet to carry out a key mobility test on Thursday, as engineers back on Earth prepare to execute the mission’s core science objectives…. Read more

I tried the Nuggs, and they tasted like memes

Behold the Nuggs.Image: Simulate Every version of the chicken simulation “Welcome to the simulation” read a card inside the package sent to me by Simulate, the company responsible for the Nuggs brand of plant-based chicken nuggets. Inside the package, nestled among some dry ice, were what looked like several specimen bags. Each bag contained two… Read more