Month: July 2023

Enlarge / Garrett Reisman, center, has plenty of experience living without gravity. (credit: NASA)

A little more than 15 years ago, astronaut Garrett Reisman was among a crew of seven who launched into orbit aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. The shuttle remained attached to the Space Station for nearly two weeks, but when the orbiter departed, it left Reisman behind for an extended stay.

During his time at the station, Reisman would often pass through the Harmony module, which serves as a corridor connecting laboratory modules built by NASA and the European and Japanese space agencies. Sometimes, he would look up and see a small placard that said, "To CAM." The arrow, however, pointed out into space.

"When I was up there on the space station, there was still the sign that says, 'To CAM,'" Reisman said in an interview. "But there's just a closed hatch. It was tragic. It was just kind of taunting me when I saw that because I think that could have been one of the most important scientific discoveries that we made."

Enlarge / Ford is finishing upgrades to its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center that will allow it to build 150,000 F-150 Lightning electric trucks a year, by the end of this year. (credit: Ford)

Ford's F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck just got significantly cheaper. On Monday, the automaker announced hefty price cuts across the F-150 Lightning lineup, cutting between $6,079 and $9,979 from the truck's MSRP. The cuts reverse some recent price increases, although the commercial-focused F-150 Lightning Pro is still about $10,000 more expensive than when Ford first launched the Lightning in 2021.

Ford says that increased capacity at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan is responsible for the price cuts, along with cheaper raw materials for the electric trucks' lithium-ion batteries.

"Shortly after launching the F-150 Lightning, rapidly rising material costs, supply constraints and other factors drove up the cost of the EV truck for Ford and our customers," said Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer of Ford Model e (Ford's EV division). "We've continued to work in the background to improve accessibility and affordability to help to lower prices for our customers and shorten the wait times for their new F-150 Lightning."

Enlarge / Artist's conception of Microsoft marching toward a final Activision deal after mooting competition concerns from Sony and the FTC. (credit: Activision)

Sony and Microsoft signed a binding agreement over the weekend ensuring that Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation for at least 10 years after Microsoft's proposed purchase of Activision is complete. The agreement, which Sony had resisted signing for months, effectively ends a bitter battle between the two console giants over the alleged anti-competitive effects of Microsoft's $69 billion Activision purchase, which was first proposed back in January 2022.

The new agreement also effectively moots one of the most significant arguments made by the FTC in its federal case to block the merger, which failed to earn an FTC-sought injunction last week. And it's likely not a coincidence that the agreement with Sony was announced just one day after a federal appeals court denied the FTC's request for an appeal over that injunction decision.

The deal, as announced over the weekend by Xbox Chief Phil Spencer and Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, doesn't seem to include a promise of PlayStation access to any of Activision Blizzard's other popular franchises (including Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Overwatch, Diablo, and more). But the fate of Call of Duty has long been the major focus of both Sony and regulators. Court documents revealed that Call of Duty alone is worth at least $800 million in annual revenue to Sony and that up to 20 million PlayStation owners spend a significant portion of their console playtime on the series (including 1 million PlayStation owners who literally play no other games on the system).