The company formerly known as Facebook has had some trouble making its namesake metaverse become a thing. And rumors are that division of the company is facing massive budget cuts. But things aren’t going so smoothly elsewhere, either. Now word is that the company’s next-gen Phoenix mixed reality glasses are being delayed until 2027, according to Business Insider.
We just found out that the original Star Wars theatrical cuts are returning to theaters in February of 2027. Not to be out-nerded, the extended cuts of the Lord of the Rings films will be hitting the big screen to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring. You’ll only have two weekends to relive the magic (or pain, depending on your opinion of the extended cuts), so you might want to get your tickets now.
Continuing the trend of car influencers falling in love with Chinese EVs, MKBHD got behind the wheel of a Xiaomi SU7 and walked away wondering if US automakers were “cooked.” Well, not yet. The SU7 might cost roughly $42,000 and handle like $75,000 car, but it’s also not available in the US... At least not outside of video games.
In September, Google and C-SPAN struck a deal to bring the networks to subscribers, and this week C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3 went live on YouTube TV in all its unfiltered glory of wall-to-wall government minutia. But, it’s not all boring congressional sessions, they know how to have fun at C-SPAN, too.
On the slop-filled internet, Jeremy Carrasco uses his platforms to spread AI literacy.
The “production release” of Windows MIDI Services just hit the Dev and Beta Windows Insider channels, and Microsoft says it will land on retail installs in “the next few months.” This means higher-resolution expression, two-way communication between devices, and less need for third-party drivers. MIDI 2.0 was announced in 2019, but adoption has been slow, with macOS and Android adding support in 2021 and 2022, respectively. There are still only a handful of compatible devices available, too.
One last time for the year, the site is waving its cut of sales, and every dollar will go directly to the artists. It’s an excellent opportunity to pick up that record you slept on all year, like University’s McCartney, It’ll Be OK, or Los Thuthanaka’s self-titled album.
