Respawn’s ‘Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’ arrives in 2023

Respawn Entertainment has confirmed that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order that it first announced earlier this year, is happening. At the Star Wars Celebration event in Anaheim, the studio has revealed that Jedi: Survivor is a direct sequel to Star Wars: Fallen Order, which is an action-adventure game released back in 2019. Survivor is set five years after the events of its predecessor and will still feature the protagonist Cal Kestis (and his droid companion BD-1) as one of the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy that’s ruled by the Empire.

The studio said Jedi: Survivor will expand on the first game’s combat system — and perhaps improve on it, too. Some players weren’t quite fond of Jedi: Fallen Order’s combat and considered it a weak aspect of the game. Jedi: Survivor is scheduled to come out in 2023, with Electronic Arts aiming to get it out by the end of its fiscal year in March. Respawn is currently developing it for the latest generation of consoles, particularly the Xbox Series X|S and the PlayStation 5, though it will also be released for PCs. The studio doesn’t seem to have plans to release it for older consoles like the Xbox One and the PS4.

You can watch an official teaser for the upcoming game in the video below:

Apple Store workers in Georgia call off union vote over intimidation claims

Less than a week before its scheduled date, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have decided to withdraw a formal vote on unionization for Apple Store employees at Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall location. As first reported by Bloomberg, the union — which has recentlyinvestedheavily in organizing tech workers — opted to hold back as a result of what it called “Apple’s repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act.” 

The withdrawal follows weeks of escalating tensions between Apple and its retail staff. Shortly after Cumberland had gone public with its intentions it was reported Apple had retained Littler Mendelson, the same law firm Starbucks — which is undergoing a wave of store unionizations — has engaged. The firm’s website states: “we excel in union avoidance.” Shortly after, Apple corporate began circulating anti-union talking points to managers and Atlanta workers claim they were being force into so-called “captive audience meetings,” a hallmark of union-busting campaigns. Earlier this week, audio leaked of an Apple VP, Deirdre O’Brien, expressing why she believed a union was a poor fit for the company. That message was reportedly sent to all 65,000 of Apple’s retail staffers.

In a statement today, CWA stated that Apple’s actions “have made a free and fair election impossible.” The group also expressed concern that COVID cases among the store’s staff might further jeopardize their ability to vote in person. 

One of the most significant reasons behind Cumberland staffers’ decision to organize has been simple economics. In talking with Engadget, one of the store’s workers, Elli Daniels, described stagnant wages that had failed to keep pace with either national inflation or local increases to cost of living. Notably, Apple has been one of the few companies to thrive under pandemic conditions, posting several consecutive record-breaking quarters. 

Perhaps in an effort to stave off unrest among retail staff (Cumberland is onlyone of the stores currently exploring unionization) Apple has stated it will increase pay to a starting wage of $22 per hour. “We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full-time and part-time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits,” Apple told press today in a statement. (The pay increase, incidentally, was reported several hours after the aforementioned union-avoidance audio leaked to press.)

While an immediate setback, the withdrawal does not preclude CWA from attempting another union election — though it will have to wait at least six months to refile.

Analogue Pocket’s first major update arrives in July

The Analogue Pocket is finally getting some of the important feature updates promised at launch. As The Vergenotes, Analogue has promised a Pocket OS 1.1 beta in July that will add the expected Library, Memories and FPGA development features. You can expect advancements to arrive “regularly” after that, according to the company.

Library will amount to an encyclopedia for classic games. Insert a cartridge and you’ll ideally learn everything about your specific copy of a game, including play guides and publisher details. Memories, meanwhile, lets you create save states and screenshots. Although Analogue hasn’t fully explained the development expansion, this will likely let programmers use the Pocket’s second FPGA. They’ll have access to the OS, hardware and features like Memories.

There’s no mention of why 1.1 is taking so long. However, the delay was substantial. Analogue said in December that Library and Memories would be ready in January, but they’re now appearing several months later in a rough form. Not that the wait will matter if you aren’t already an owner. New pre-orders won’t get their Pockets until 2023, so this is is more a kindness to early adopters than anything else.

Ford has started delivering the F-150 Lightning

Ford has begun deliveries of the F-150 Lightning. The first customer to get their hands on the electric pickup is Nicholas Schmidt, who lives in the automaker’s home state of Michigan, around a two-hour drive from the F-150 Lightning plant in Dearborn. Ford started full production of the EV there last month.

The EV is replacing a gas-powered F-150, Schmidt told Bloomberg. Schmidt, who also owns a Tesla Model 3, said he had considered buying a Rivian R1T and also placed a reservation for a Tesla Cybertruck. He said whichever electric pickup he was able to order first would be the one he bought. After taking delivery of the F-150, Schmidt cancelled his Cybertruck reservation.

Ford said at the beginning of this month it would start delivering the F-150 Lightning “in the coming days.” While it’s not the first automaker to deliver an electric pickup in the US (Rivian started doing so last year), it beat Tesla to the punch.

It had a leg up on Tesla in this market anyway, as the F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the US for the last four decades. Case in point: it received nearly 45,000 pre-orders for the Lightning in just 48 hours. Given that the Cybertruck won’t go on sale until next year, both Ford and Rivian have a shot at building up a significant share of the electric truck market long before Tesla gets the Cybertruck into the wild. 

Koala Sampler now uses AI to automatically create song stems

It’s been possible to automatically create song stems on your computer, but now you have that option in a sampler app on your phone. Elf Audio has updated its Koala Sampler app for Android and iOS with a feature that uses AI to automatically isolate stems from samples. You can have the J Dilla-inspired app pick out the vocals, drums or bass (plus a generic “other”) so that you can fold them into a track without consuming much time on your part.

The AI isn’t perfect, as you can hear in the clip below. However, that’s not strictly the point. As with the rest of Koala Sampler, this is more about creating quick cuts and making music production more accessible to people who can’t justify expensive sampling tools. At $5, it’s an easier way to dabble in this kind of production than investing in a full suite or novelties like Kanye’s Stem Player.

A BTS show will premiere on Apple Music this weekend

On the heels of BTS dance workouts arriving on Fitness+, Apple is once again teaming up with the all-conquering K-pop group. A three-episode Apple Music series will delve into the history of BTS.

The first episode of BTS Radio: Past & Present will premiere on Apple Music 1 on May 28th at 9AM ET, the Associated Press notes. The other two episodes will arrive on a weekly basis. In the show, the members of BTS will take listeners through their journey to becoming superstars. “We wanted to share the BTS songs that help tell our story,” RM, one of the septet, said.

The series will debut just ahead of the group’s first anthology/best-of album Proof, which arrives on June 10th, as well as BTS’ ninth anniversary three days later. Next week, BTS will visit the White House to discuss Asian inclusion and representation with President Biden, following a rise in reports of anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes.

PGA has released a new AR gaming app for kids

Young golfers can now turn their physical surroundings into a digital putting green, courtesy of the same tech behind Niantic’s Pokémon Go. The PGA Jr. League today unveiled Safari Par-Tee, a new AR mobile gaming platform available on both iOS and Android. Trigger — the developer behind the app — built it with Niantic’s Lightship kit for AR apps. Players can use their smartphone to scan their physical environment into an interactive golf course.

While Safari Par-Tee is aimed toward youth golfers (it even features very cutesy animal avatars), its AR capabilities will likely make it a draw for parents and older family members to join in as well. The game has a number of multiplayer options, allowing players to match with other local players in real-time, or connect with specific players over WiFi The game also allows players to hold communal scoring contests with multiple rounds and different clubs. For players who are new to golf, the game introduces them to the fundamentals of the game as well as the various styles of play. The game features three different terrains, all with different obstacles and objectives. 

Given that the world of golf video games has plenty of options geared to adults (such as PGA TOUR 2K21, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and the recently delayed EA Sports PGA Tour), a free entry for kids seems like a refreshing change of pace. Safari Par-Tee is now available to download on either Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.

It’s now easier to take handwritten notes on your Chromebook

School may be winding down, but that isn’t stopping Google from making Chromebooks more useful as note-taking tools. The company is rolling out a Chrome OS M102 release that makes the previously limited Cursive app available on any Chromebook with pen support. The software helps you create, organize and share handwritten notes, in some cases with shorcuts that spare you from using keyboards or finger touch.

You can write or draw, as you’d expect, but you can also use your pen to move content just by circling it, or erase it by scribbling on top. You can even create extra space by drawing a horizontal line. Cursive also lets you paste images, collate material in notebooks and share notes by either copying it or saving them as PDFs.

M102 is also an important update if you’re using a Chromebook with Thunderbolt or USB 4 ports. Chrome OS on systems with 11th- or 12th-generation Core processors is now smart enough to recognize if the USB-C cable you’re using can’t support a display or otherwise falls short of what your laptop can handle. You might not have to wonder why a peripheral isn’t working properly.

If you need magnification, the upgrade lets you resize the magnified portion. You can better see zoomed-in content, or keep the area small when you just want a closer look at tiny pictures or text.

Cursive will be preinstalled on all compatible Chromebooks as part of the update, but you can install it manually using the earlier link. It’s reasonable to say the update makes stylus-equipped Chromebooks that much more useful — you can jot down class and meeting notes knowing they’ll be tidy and easy to access.

The best Memorial Day tech sales we could find

Memorial Day is nearly here and, as usual, you can find a number of solid gadget deals across the web ahead of the holiday. A few Apple devices are on sale, including the latest AirPods for $150, and you can pick up a bunch of outdoor gear from the lik…