Recommended Reading: How ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ puts you inside an F-18

Welcome to Tom Cruise’s flight school for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Jake Kring-Schreifels, The Ringer

One of the biggest challenges in filming the original Top Gun was keeping all of the actors playing pilots from constantly vomiting in the cockpit. Any sequel to that ’80s classic would have to be even more realistic, since production eventually moved to a soundstage. The Ringer explains how GoPro footage from real Navy pilots was the initial inspiration for the new movie, how custom-built IMAX gear helped capture the angles from real F-18s and how Tom Cruise put the cast through intense training to prepare.

The era of borderless data Is ending

David McCabe and Adam Satariano, The New York Times

Over 50 countries are trying to make sure data created by their citizens, governments and industries stays within their borders — or at least stored in accordance with their laws. The quest for so-called “digital sovereignty” could impact services we use daily or some of the features they currently offer. 

Will AI lead to new creative frontiers, or take the pleasure out of music?

Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork

Artificial intelligence can now learn, perform and create music with skills that are more than just copying a human’s actions. Pitchfork explores some of the more notable projects in search of an answer to the question: Just because we can, does that mean we should?

iRobot’s Roomba j7+ and s9+ robot vacuums are $200 off for Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend has brought back some of the best prices we’ve seen on Roomba robot vacuums. You can pick up the Roomba j7+ and the Roomba s9+ for $599 and $799, respectively, when using the code ENDGT200 at Wellbots. Both of those models come with clean bases, but if you think you can safely skip that extra piece of hardware, you can pick up the Roomba j7 for $399 instead using the same code.

Buy Roomba j7+ at Wellbots – $599Buy Roomba s9+ at Wellbots – $799Buy Roomba j7 at Wellbots – $399

The Roomba j7 series has some of iRobot’s newest machines in it. The line debuted at the end of 2021 and the robot vacuums come with new AI-driven computer vision technology that helps them better detect objects and clean around them. The company has focused on this in the context of pet poop, claiming the j7 machines are its first “pet-poop detecting” robots. Ultimately, that means that your fancy new robot vacuum should be able to avoid any accidents your pets have on the living room floor while cleaning your home.

Along with those smarts, the Roomba j7 has 10x the suction power of a standard Roomba, plus dual multi-surface brushes, smart home mapping and more. If you spring for the j7+, you’ll also get a clean base into which the robot automatically empties its dustbin after every job. That means you’ll only have to empty the clean base once every month or so, depending on how often your robot cleans.

Similarly to the Roomba j7 series, the Roomba s9+ made it into our best robot vacuums guide as a splurge pick. Normally costing $1,000, the s9+ is a premium dirt sucker that does more than most people need. But it’s an excellent vacuum with 40x the suction power of a regular Roomba, plus a 3D sensor for object detection and a corner-friendly design. If vacuuming is one of our least favorite chores and you want a robot that will almost ensure you’ll never have to do it manually again, the s9+ could be a good investment.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

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:

微軟的遊戲串流裝置將採取「新方案」

一直到本月初為止，我們聽到的傳聞都說微軟將推出自家的「Xbox 遊戲串流棒」，以類似 Chromecast 的方式，打造一個電視棒來串流 Xbox 雲端遊戲服務。然而現在據 Windows Central 的報導，微軟在確認了該裝置（代號 Keystone）的存在的同時，也表示可能不會將它推出市場了。…

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.