With a third season of The Mandalorian a week away, it might be a little wild for Star Wars to already be talking about the future beyond it. But always in motion, the future is, a wise little green goblin once said—and it’s going to be especially so when the series is joined by two more contemporaneous series.

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SpaceX Is Closer Than Ever to Starship's First Orbital Flight
After completing a static fire test of Starship earlier this month, SpaceX has nowhere else to go but up. A company official says it’s now in a position to perform the first orbital flight test of its much-anticipated megarocket, pending a launch license.
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Tesla Tweaks Onboard Cameras Following Allegations of Privacy Invasion
The Dutch safety watchdog decided on Wednesday that it had concluded its investigation into Tesla and wouldn’t issue a fine against the company for its vehicle’s security cameras. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) carried out an investigation over concerns Tesla vehicles could be violating privacy laws with its…
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Fire Roars and Penguins Chill in National Geographic’s Photos of the Year
An Icelandic volcano sends molten rock into the air. An owl silently snares its prey. The glow from mountain climbers’ headlamps travels miles across the wilderness on a starlit night. Bald eagles spat for a perch amid Alaska’s salmon season.

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A Supplement Company 'Hijacked' Its Amazon Reviews to Boost Sales, According to the FTC
Vitamin and supplement maker, The Bountiful Company (owned by Nestlé), has to pay a $600,000 fine to the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly misrepresenting numerous products online. According to the FTC, Bountiful—which makes Nature’s Bounty supplements along with other brands—engaged in “review hijacking” on…
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40 Years Later, the Original Casio G-Shock Watch Is Back With Solar Power and More Accurate Timekeeping
April will mark the 40th anniversary of Casio releasing one of the most recognizable and enduring brands in digital watches: the G-Shock. And because everything old is new and cool again, to commemorate the occasion, the company will be releasing an updated version of the original DW-5000C G-Shock model with some …
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The New Hellboy Movie Wants to Be a Creepy Appalachian Horror
Scream 6 co-director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin teases how the movie’s easter eggs tie into its murderous villain’s plot. Helen Mirren teases her fury of the gods in the new Shazam. Plus, meet Jack Crusher in a new clip from Star Trek: Picard. To me, my spoilers!

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Uber Plans Workforce Turnover as Part of 'More Rigorous Approach' to Performance Reviews
Uber is reportedly pursuing an unorthodox approach to performance reviews at the ride-share company. While Uber says it has no plans for broad layoffs, so to speak, it does have plans for upcoming performance reviews to include potential cuts to the company’s workforce.

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Sony’s PSVR 2 Would Be My Favorite Headset... If It Worked With PC
Sony’s Playstation VR 2 is the most convincing mid-range VR hardware I’ve ever used. I’ve always had a shaky history with entry level standalone headsets like the Meta Quest 2, and that experience has left me unwilling to invest in four-figure solutions like the Quest Pro. But the PSVR 2 strikes a perfect middle…
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Actually, Everyone Loves Censorship. Even You.
This week, the Supreme Court is hearing two cases that could upend the way we’ve come to understand freedom of speech on the internet. Both Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh ask the court to reconsider how the law interprets Section 230, a regulation that protects companies from legal liability for…
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Microsoft Meshes AI Into Bing Mobile and Skype, Even as It Rolls Back Capabilities
The very artificial yet not so intelligent Bing AI is getting even more integrations into Microsoft products. All the while, the tech giant is busy playing hot potato with how much power it’s willing to give its sophisticated chatbot, a problem the company has been evidently dealing with more more than a year.
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Hasbro's Latest Retro Indiana Jones Figure Chose Wisely
With Dial of Destiny on the way this summer, Hasbro is ramping up its veritable giant rolling boulder trap of Indiana Jones toys to spring onto people—even if, right now, most of those toys are for the classic trilogy of original movies than either Dial or its predecessor Crystal Skull. That includes its revival of…
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Spotify's New 'AI DJ' Mimics the Worst Parts of Listening to the Radio
Spotify has unveiled a new feature to help curate your music that is fueled by artificial intelligence. The company’s new AI DJ, aptly named “DJ,” helps guide you through your listening experience by feeding you music it thinks you’ll love along with computer-generated commentary on what makes those songs great.

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The Only Thing I Can Buy From Loewe’s Crazy Expensive Howl’s Moving Castle Line Is a Candle
All of sudden, it seems like luxury clothing brands have fallen head over heels for anime. The brands’ devotion is so profound that, of course, they have to pay homage to their favorite shows via new purses, shoes, capes, and cardigans. The resulting lines are, of course, glorious—too bad they’re so expensive that the…
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In Today's Grooviest News, Horror King Bruce Campbell Is Going on Tour
Bruce Campbell may not be appearing in Evil Dead Rise(though the once and forever Ash Williams is producing the movie, which hits theaters in April), but the much-loved horror icon is still finding a way to interact with the masses this spring: “Bruce-O-Rama,” an evening of entertainment hitting up 22 cities…
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Would the Cast of Star Trek: Picard Actually Go to Space?
It’s right there in the name: Star Trek. It’s a show, world, and franchise about trekking through the stars. But do the actors on the show have any interest in making like their onscreen counterparts and boldly going where no person has gone before?
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Magic: The Gathering's Lord of the Rings Set Won't Be Hobbit-Sized
It seems like Wizards of the Coast announced it would be releasing a Lord of the Rings-themed edition of its venerable Magic: The Gathering trading card game back in the First Age, but in fact, it’s only been two years, and other than a peek at a little of the art, we’ve learned little about it. Now, we—well, we don’t…
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A DNA Testing Company Forgot About 2.1 Million People’s Data. Then It Leaked.
A prominent DNA testing firm has settled a pair of lawsuits with the attorney generals of Pennsylvania and Ohio after a 2021 episode that saw cybercriminals steal data on 2.1 million people, including the social security numbers of 45,000 customers from both states. As a result of the lawsuits, the company in…
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Take Us to the Future if It’s Going to Look Like Meow Wolf
Santa-Fe based immersive experience pioneers and art collective Meow Wolf have a surprising fairy godfather of sorts: Game of Thrones creator and New Mexico resident George R.R. Martin, a key early investor in the project. Meow Wolf now has more outposts—including Las Vegas’ Omega Mart—and plans for more.

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Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Will Reportedly Catch Up to Samsung with Memory
The iPhone 15 Pro won’t be available until nearly the end of the year, but there is already plenty to report from the supply chain overseas. The latest bit comes from Taiwanese supply chain research firm TrendForce, which claims Apple has upped its RAM order on the iPhone 15 Pro.
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