Remedy's first foray into co-op shooters, FBC: Firebreak, is officially launching on June 17. Following employees tasked with cleaning up The Oldest House, the mysterious headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, the game balances team-based action with the supernatural abilities and enemies that made Control so interesting.  In our preview of the game, the biggest and most positive point of comparison for Firebreak''s chaotic action was Left 4 Dead, but the game's unique collection of "jobs" (Remedy's name for missions) includes plenty of weirder tasks, too, like dealing with ominously multiplying sticky notes. Remedy plans to support Firebreak with new jobs after launch and into 2026. All new playable content will be for free, save for cosmetics, which Remedy plans to charge for. The developer originally announced it was making a multiplayer game set in the Control universe in 2021, when the game was still being published by 505 Games. Following the success of Alan Wake II, Remedy acquired the rights to the entire Control franchise from 505 Games in 2024. FBC: Firebreak will be available on June 17 for $39.99 on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. A $49.99 "deluxe edition" will also be available with exclusive cosmetics. If you subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass or PlayStation Plus Premium or Extra, you'll be able to download and play the game for no additional cost.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/remedys-co-op-shooter-fbc-firebreak-comes-out-june-17-190054471.html?src=rss

Perplexity releases a new iOS voice assistant as an action-oriented alternative to Siri.

In its first earnings report under the leadership of CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Intel said it plans to slash operational and capital expenses in the coming year.

A new auto startup is launching with a made-in-America EV that with federal tax credits will cost just $20,000. Backed by Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, Slate Auto says that affordable price is possible because of its pared-down, basic model that can then be customized—and even transformed from a truck into an SUV.Slate Auto has been in stealth for almost three years, says CEO Chris Barman, who worked as a Chrysler executive until 2017. Based in Michigan, Slate spun out of Re:Build Manufacturing, a company cofounded by Jeff Wilke, former CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business. Slate purports to be “rekindling American industry” with a suite of U.S. industrial businesses, from batteries to composite manufacturing. (Barman is employee number two at Slate; the company now has more than 400 employees.)Recently, concept vehicles wrapped in ads for fake businesses began appearing on California streets. The company is officially launching today, with refundable vehicle reservations open now for $50. In recent days, the company has put some of its prototype vehicles on California streets, showcasing the possible configurations that will be available.“When baby drives you crazy, we drive them to sleep,” read one ad for a faux company called CryShare, wrapped around a two-door, boxy SUV. The included website, rockabyerides.com, went to a sign-up page that read “What’s a Slate? Be the first to find out.” Another vehicle with a hatchback cap was covered in ads for cat therapy sessions, and a third, a pickup truck, with ads for a fake human taxidermy service.[Photo: Slate]The unique marketing campaign was meant to be unlike any traditional vehicle unveiling. “We want to look at things very differently than what traditional automotive has done and what traditional automotive is providing to a consumer,” Barman says. That ethos also applies to the design of the Slate Truck, intended as a basic platform that can be accessorized by any customer.[Image: Slate]A blank slate The Slate Truck will begin as a two-door, two-seat electric pickup, with crank windows and no infotainment system. New cars today can come with lots of built-in features—large screens, heated seats, and so on—but to design Slate, Barman says, it was about “What are really the essentials that should go into a vehicle in order to bring it down to a price point that is affordable?”Customers will be able to be pick from more than 100 accessories to add on for an extra cost—everything from cup holders to a center console to a single roof crossbar to power windows. Since many people use their phones for music and navigation, the company eliminated the infotainment system to cut costs. Instead, there’s an accompanying app (at no charge) that drivers will be able to use when in the vehicle. If someone wants a radio in their Slate, it’s been designed so that one could be easily installed.Barman says Slate wants to change the typical process in which a buyer goes to a new- or used-car lot and picks a car, and then has to accept—and pay for—all the features it comes with. “We’ve decoupled that and said to the owner of the vehicle: ‘You choose. You choose if you want a radio. You choose if you want to have heated seats. You choose what you want the color to be,’” she says. “We are putting the power back into the hands of the consumer, so we give them this blank slate, and then they decide.” [Image: Slate]The Slate Truck will have exterior panels that are composite, rather than sheet metal. When using sheet metal, companies must have machines that stamp out the pieces; Slate’s composite panels will be made using injection molds. That means the company doesn’t have to invest in a stamping operation or a paint shop—which can run $400 million or more for automakers, Barman says. It also means the EV isn’t limited to a few colorways. Instead, drivers could put a wrap on it in any color they want. Slate envisions offering customers a wrap kit of die-cut pieces as well as instructional videos so they will be able to do it themselves (the Slate Truck was also designed without any external hardware so that wraps can be applied more easily). Or, the company will offer to prewrap the vehicle before delivery; it plans to have a network of partners in neighborhoods across the country that will be able to perform the installation for customers. (The wrapped vehicles that appeared with fake ads were a nod to this customization element.) [Image: Slate]Slate will offer two EV battery options: The standard comes with a range of 150 miles, but customers will be able to upgrade to a battery with an estimated 240 miles of range. The body of the EV will also be alterable, going from a two-door pickup to a five-seat SUV, with upgrades. Barman notes that customers could even do those changes over time, rather than when they first purchase the vehicle.“Maybe when [someone] first buys it, they’re single or just married, and after a few years they have a family, they can convert it,” she says. “And in doing that, it would cost them maybe $5,000 to make that change. But they don’t have to sell their vehicle and buy a completely new one. It’s a very cost-effective way to allow the vehicle to grow with them as their life changes.” [Image: Slate]Offering an affordable EV made in AmericaThose upgrades would add to the EV’s price. If a customer wants a longer-range battery, a wrap, and to turn the truck into an SUV, those adjustments would cost roughly $10,000. The basic version of the Slate Truck, after the federal EV tax credits are applied, comes to $20,000. “Our passion is this mission to bring an affordable vehicle to the market for the many people who felt that they didn’t have an alternative,” Barman says. Slate Auto raised at least $111 million in a Series A funding round in 2023 (under the name Re:Car), according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Bezos was among 16 investors in that round, TechCrunch previously reported, adding that Slate closed a Series B funding round last year but has yet to file the paperwork. Slate told Fast Company that the Walter Group, led by Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners, is also an investor.The EV tax credits offer a total of $7,500 back for vehicles that meet specific requirements like being manufactured in the U.S. Though President Trump has said he wants to get rid of the EV tax credits, they are currently still in place. Barman says Slate hopes they remain available to allow more individuals access to its EV. But if the federal credits do go away, she says, “We have a very affordable vehicle priced in the mid $20,000s, so it’s attractive and very competitive at that price point.” [Image: Slate]The average price of a new car purchased in the U.S. is above $49,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. The average price of a new EV is even higher, at $55,500. While markets like China have been able to build ultra-affordable EVs, some as low as $10,000, those options haven’t been available for car buyers in the U.S. (though automakers have said that they’re working on affordable options). With a $50,000 new car, consumers can expect a monthly payment of around $900, Barman says. Even used vehicles, at an average $27,000, can come with monthly payments that exceed $500. Consumers should aim to spend no more than 10% of their monthly take-home pay on car expenses, per Market Watch, but for a new $48,000 car, that means making at least $96,000 a year to afford the $800 monthly payment. In 2023, only 40% of U.S. households made more than $100,000. Barman says monthly payments for a Slate Truck will average $300 to $400.[Image: Slate]Slate Auto will build a factory somewhere in the Midwest, in order to be located near the automotive supply center, but it’s still assessing specific locations. “We really are focused on reindustrializing America,” Barman says. (Some car parts will still have to be purchased from abroad because they are not made domestically at all—like the manual window cranks.) Slate will sell direct to consumer through its website, and the truck will be delivered near customers’ homes; the company plans to set up a nationwide service network as well. Slate plans to bring its EV to market and into consumer hands by the fourth quarter of 2026.

In a world dominated by invisible playlists and algorithmic soundtracks, there’s something charming—almost rebellious—about holding music in your hand again. Not through vinyl, not through a boombox, but through the shape of something that once defined an entire generation’s relationship with music: the humble cassette tape. As nostalgia loops back into the cultural spotlight, we’re seeing clever reimaginings of analog relics—designed not just to be looked at, but used. And if there’s one object that bridges the playful joy of the past with the convenience of the present, it might just be the Side A Cassette Speaker. Click Here to Buy Now: $45 At first glance, it might trick you. The Side A could be mistaken for a pristine mixtape from the ’90s—complete with a transparent shell, “Side A” label, and just the right touch of retro attitude. Available in either a crystal-clear or bold black finish, it balances nostalgia with personality. But this isn’t a prop. This little tape has a voice—and it’s warmer than you’d expect. The design is more than a gimmick. It’s an intentional callback to the tactile rituals of the past: the thrill of flipping the tape, the sound of the click, the way a physical object could carry emotional weight. That kind of presence is rare in today’s wireless world. Which is why this speaker doesn’t just play music—it invites memory. Beneath the cassette shell lies a surprisingly robust set of modern tech. It pairs via Bluetooth 5.3 for smooth, drop-free audio streaming from your phone or laptop. For those who prefer to go fully offline, there’s a microSD slot tucked inside—just load it with MP3s, pop it in, and you’ve got instant old-school meets no-Wi-Fi freedom. Despite its palm-sized profile, the Side A punches above its weight in sound quality. Tuned to capture the warmth of analog, it delivers soft lo-fi tones that fill a room without trying too hard. And with up to 6 hours of playback and a 2-hour recharge time via USB-C, it’s always ready to soundtrack your space—whether that’s your desk, your windowsill, or a weekend away. Its crystal case? It’s not just for storage. Flip it open and it becomes a minimalist stand—turning the speaker into a showpiece, even when the music’s off. This isn’t just retro for retro’s sake. It’s a reminder of the emotional connection we once had with music—and how that can still live on today, even in a Bluetooth-enabled, touchscreen-tapping world. The Side A Cassette Speaker invites you to slow down and enjoy a little analog spirit, without sacrificing the ease we’ve grown used to. Whether you’re gifting it to someone who made their own mixtapes—or discovering that concept for the first time—it sparks joy through design, nostalgia, and sound. Because sometimes, the best way to move forward… is to press play on Side A. Click Here to Buy Now: $45The post Cassette Tape Speaker Brings Together Retro Aesthetics with Modern Functionality first appeared on Yanko Design.

From hot new Photoshop tools to potentially controversial additions to Adobe Firefly, here's the news you need to know about.

The modestly priced EV pickup goes 150 miles on a charge and is infinitely customizable. Deliveries start next year.

Macworld On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a stinging letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, highlighting what she describes as the “special carve-outs” which the company has been given by the Trump administration, and seeking clarification about the process by which these were secured. “I write regarding my concerns about the extent to which you ‘went to work behind the scenes’ to obtain special exemptions from President Trump’s new tariffs earlier this month,” Warren says to Cook in a letter seen and covered by Bloomberg. Trump’s trade policies, she adds, “raise fresh concerns about influence-peddling by huge well-connected corporations, and their ability to gain special favors from President Trump.” Despite being perceived as broadly progressive in political outlook (on social issues at least), Cook has been surprisingly supportive of Trump. The Apple boss reportedly donated $1m from his personal fortune to the committee for the president’s inauguration, which he attended, and has met with him and posed for photo opportunities on multiple occasions. Whether or not this friendly approach was intended to result in favorable treatment for Apple, it has been followed by some political wins, most notably the crucial exemption from this month’s punishing Chinese tariffs which could have seen the price of an iPhone balloon to more than $2,000. “According to the Washington Post,” Warren goes on, “when the April 12 tariffs were announced by President Trump, you almost immediately ‘went to work behind the scenes,’ using your ‘very good relationship’ with President Trump and the Administration, contacting top Administration officials, and ultimately, successfully obtaining massive tariff carve-outs that President Trump himself noted, ‘helped Tim Cook… and that whole business.'” At best, she argues, all of this “creates the appearance of impropriety,” as well as raising “serious questions about the extent to which it is possible for massive corporate special interests to use their money and influence to secure tariff exemptions that are unavailable to Main Street small businesses.” In this light, the senator concludes her letter by asking for details of any and all discussions between representatives of Apple and the Trump administration relating to the tariffs and promises of political or financial support, and an estimate of additional profits that Apple will gain from the exemption. Cook’s response to all of this is as yet unknown.

The Google antitrust trial is “a nonsensical move by the US government that is ridiculously short-sighted, because if compromising privacy for ad revenue is bad, compromising privacy to train AI models is dangerous,” an industry analyst said Thursday. Paddy Harrington, senior analyst at Forrester, who specializes in security and risk, added that efforts by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to derail the company is a “move that may have been done in the name of anti-trust and competition, but it does not appear as if anyone thought through the implications of something else.” That ‘something else’ raised its head this week during the remedies portion of the trial that began in August 2024, in which Judge Amit Mehta ruled against Google. Nick Turley, the product lead of ChatGPT at OpenAI, said his company would be interested in acquiring Google’s Chrome browser if the company is forced to sell it. Could disrupt the browser market Harrington countered, “this is not as simple as selling off a product; it’s a complete platform. And it’s moving from Google, where data collection is about selling ads, to OpenAI, where data collection is about training AI to then sell to a ridiculously wide variety of purposes. A ‘devil you know versus the devil you don’t know’ sort of deal.” Such a move, said Harrington, has the potential to completely disrupt the browser market as a whole, not just for Google. “It’s understandable why OpenAI would want it for training the AI models, but if they purchase Chrome, what happens to Chromium? While it’s the open-source project of Chrome and ChromeOS, does Google keep the project under their development arm, or does it go with the browser?” He pointed out that the majority of non-Chrome browsers use Chromium as their engine, so “if it stays under Google, by and large the browser market should probably remain the same. If it goes along with the sale to OpenAI, that could cause a serious disruption, as the privacy focused developers may want to distance themselves from a company that’s making money feeding their AI models.” It’s all about the data OpenAI’s interest in Chrome, said Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, “is all about the data. OpenAI acquiring Chrome would be like Exxon acquiring an untapped oil field with the drilling already done. Just turn on the taps, and the good stuff starts flowing. Beyond that, OpenAI also has about 3.5 billion users, which it could reach instantly with its AI services.” It is, he said, possible to imagine an OpenAI version of Chrome that would start with ChatGPT search by default instead of Google.com, and that would offer agentic integration to complete tasks such as shopping, booking appointments, or unsubscribing from unwanted emails. “Such a coup would instantly transform OpenAI’s outlook from a provider of LLMs that sit behind the scenes of major tech brands to one of most prominent direct owners of customer relationships in the world,” said Jackson. “ChatGPT is already propelling it into that territory, but Chrome is still many magnitudes more well used.” As for the impact all of this might have on enterprise users, Harrington said that “it would make sense for Chrome Enterprise (CEB) to go along with the ‘consumer’ Chrome business, and while there are two editions — one free, one paid — the paid version really just opens up the number of functions you can manage inside the browser. The functions are there already, it’s just a matter of how they’re turned on and off.” All of this, he said, “is tied to Chrome itself, and Chrome Enterprise is just a rebundled version of it into an MSI (for enterprise distribution and an enterprise approach to configuration) with ADMX templates.” Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, agreed, saying he could not imagine Chrome Enterprise being sold separately from the consumer version, “since they are fundamentally the same browser with different features and security.” A question of trust Asked about the level of trust CIOs and CISOs have in Google compared to OpenAI, he said, “there is more trust in Google, simply because the company has shown that it’s serious about security and privacy. That said, OpenAI doesn’t really have that kind of a track record, and while it does work with enterprises, it is still unclear how it might handle something like a browser, and all of the responsibilities that come with maintaining that level of security.” One of the biggest costs that would further impact OpenAI’s profitability is R&D for Chrome, and ensuring it remains secure, Sag added. Jackson said there is no doubt Chrome Enterprise would be impacted. The service, he said, is “the browser with some other enterprise management capabilities wrapped around it. It’s possible OpenAI would reach an agreement to still allow Google to own and sell its enterprise contracts there, but the product at the core of it would still be controlled by OpenAI.” Then, he said, “there’s the question of what OpenAI does with the data, and how the change in ownership would impact enterprise trust. When it comes to cybersecurity in the enterprise, the modern best practice approach is a zero-trust approach. Zero-trust principles say to treat all connections as potentially hostile, limiting access to systems and data based on only what is absolutely needed by an authenticated user.” The ’devil we know’ For browsers, he said, “ there are a couple of ways that enterprises try to make that work. Some large enterprise clients will use Chrome Enterprise, which offers browser policy management. This is where they can limit what data the browser can access and what it can do with that data.” Other enterprises, said Jackson, would let users download pre-approved consumer browsers, likely including Chrome, and have IT manage them with other centralized administration tools such as Windows Active Directory or a Unified Endpoint Management solution. He said, “unless OpenAI tries anything too aggressive with data collection, we’ll see enterprises take the same approach to web browsers in the future. Ultimately, Google is also a large data-hungry tech giant that is trying to train its own AI models, and we’d have every reason to be as concerned about its motivations to harvest user data as OpenAI. But it’s the devil that we know.”

Images of another set of iPhone 17 dummies have leaked, and this time they together emphasize just how thin the expected iPhone 17 Slim, or iPhone 17 Air, really will be.Purported iPhone 17 dummies — image credit: Sonny DicksonThere are now so many dummies of the iPhone 17 range being shown in leaks that, for one thing, it's as certain as it can be that the camera arrangement will be different to previous iPhone models. But where most dummies concentrate on either the cameras or on the rumored glass and metal design, this latest one is just about size.Take a look at the sides of the iPhone 17 dummy — the Air model is unbelievably thin. pic.twitter.com/ixadQHuxK5— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) April 24, 2025 Rumor Score: 🤯 Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums