Ground

via Lucasfilm Today saw the release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi season finale and with it, our nerd dreams fulfilled. From the promised “rematch of the century” to a few fandom-shattering cameo appearances, the last episode had everything we were expecting to see and then some. But Ben Kenobi saying “hello there” wasn’t the only nod to the legendary prequel memes that have been around for more than a decade. In their final fight, there’s a moment when Darth Vader realizes that he can’t risk giving Obi-Wan a high…

From orbit, this landscape on Mars looks like a lacy honeycomb or a spider web. But the unusual polygon-shaped features aren't created by Martian bees or spiders; they are actually formed from an ongoing process of seasonal change from created from water ice and carbon dioxide.  The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen a lot of polygon shapes in the years since 2006 when it went into orbit of Mars.(NASA/JPL/UArizona)Above: Polygonal dunes on Mars, as seen…

Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Company this week held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new NTD6bn (US$202m) electric vehicle (EV) battery centre in the island’s southern city of Kaohsiung, which is expected to play a key role in the company’s expansion in the automotive industry. Hon Hai, also known as Apple’s leading contract manufacturer Foxconn, has ambitions of becoming a significant player in the global electric…

Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) looks at a newly redesigned MacBook Air laptop during the WWDC22 at Apple Park on June 06, 2022 in Cupertino, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC22 developer conference.Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesApple's new laptops announced on Monday, featuring the iPhone maker's next-generation in-house chips, might pose fresh challenges to Microsoft's lucrative Windows business.Since Apple started selling Macs powered by its homegrown M1 processors in late 2020, the company's computer…

Apple announced on Friday that it’s once again updated its rules about how Dutch dating apps can use third-party payment systems, after the company had “productive conversations with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).” The updated rules give developers more flexibility about which payment systems they use, change the language users see when they go to pay, and remove other restrictions that the previous rules put in place. While the rules aren’t wide-reaching (again, they only apply to Dutch…

Arc System Works takes us on a subterranean journey Some games getting shown off this June are still a ways off, but a few do arrive with a surprisingly soon release date. Today, Arc System Works unveiled one of those with Ground Divers, an intriguing puzzle action game that’s hitting Switch on June 30. This new game was shown during today’s IGN Expo, highlighting a bunch of different upcoming projects. Ground Divers is a bit more in the classic arcade vein, but with some cool modern updates. The game sees you…

Industry types and fans flock to Modena to talk business and admire the spectacular cars and bikes around town. If Tuscany has Chianti, the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna has "Motor Valley", an area that boasts one of the highest concentrations of luxury sports cars and motorbikes in the world. The…

Nio began deliveries of its new ET7, an upscale electric sedan, on Monday, March 28, 2022.NioChinese electric vehicle maker Nio delivered more than 7,000 vehicles in May, up 4.7% from a year ago but well below its current production capacity, as Covid-related disruptions continued to limit the company's manufacturing and its ability to deliver vehicles to customers.Nio said in a statement that its manufacturing had been "gradually recovering" in May from pandemic-related disruptions, but that its ability to deliver…

HONG KONG—A nearly yearlong shakeout in China’s housing market is throwing up some clear winners: state-owned developers.As former industry leaders from China Evergrande Group to Sunac China default on their international bonds and suffer debilitating sales declines, some of their state-owned counterparts have been taking advantage of the sector’s dislocation to expand by acquiring more land and other assets. Developers backed by the central or local governments have dominated land auctions…

When Diablo Immortal was announced at BlizzCon 2018 as a free-to-play, mobile-only entry in Blizzard's storied ARPG franchise, it was met with a tepid response from fans. One player in attendance went so far to ask if the game was an out of season April Fool's joke on Blizzard's part.Flash forward to now, after Blizzard recently announced Diablo Immortal would also be coming to PC (in what is being labeled a beta) with full cross-play and cross-progression with mobile, and the fan reaction has changed.…