Month: April 2022

Enlarge / In case you couldn’t tell, this Diablo Immortal footage from Blizzard was captured on a PC. (credit: Blizzard)

It has been nearly three and a half years since Blizzard first announced Diablo Immortal as the first smartphone-only entry in the popular PC and console action RPG series. So it came as a surprise this morning when Blizzard announced that the game’s June 2 mobile launch would be accompanied by a free-to-play open beta on Windows PCs.

“Community feedback has been imperative to the development of Immortal and has influenced the game in many ways, as you’ll come to see,” Blizzard wrote in an announcement post. “One recurring piece of feedback we especially took to heart was the desire to play Immortal on PC.”

The PC open beta will offer “full cross-play and cross-progression support” with the “uncompromised AAA mobile experience” from the get-go, Blizzard promised. But while the “built from the ground up for mobile” version sounds like it has been fully polished and tuned, the PC experience launching in June will be initially set up to “collect player feedback, make changes, and fine-tune this version of Immortal until we feel it delivers a finalized experience for all courageous adventurers.”

Enlarge / Moving from front- to mid-engined was quite a change for Corvette fans—now we’ll see how they respond to a hybrid version. (credit: Chevrolet)

On Monday, General Motors President Mark Reuss used LinkedIn to confirm one of the worst-kept secrets in Detroit: There will be a hybrid Chevrolet Corvette on sale next year. Reuss also said a fully battery electric Corvette is in the pipeline, although he did not give a firm date for that version.

A hybrid Corvette has been a possibility for a while now—Chevrolet trademarked the name “Corvette E-Ray” back in 2015, while the current mid-engined Corvette was still in the early stages of its development.

Just moving the engine from in front of the driver to behind the seats was a big change for the Corvette corrals of the world, and adding an electrified option at launch might have been a bit too much. A hybrid version is logical, though; going beyond the Z06’s 670 hp (500 kW) while remaining manageable for drivers who aren’t professional racing drivers means adding all-wheel drive.

Enlarge / On April 15, Crew Dragon Endeavour is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing international docking adapter. (credit: NASA)

The Crew Dragon spacecraft named Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station on Sunday evening, setting the stage to bring four private astronauts back to Earth.

After slowly backing away from the orbiting laboratory, Endeavour is now positioned to conduct a de-orbit burn on Monday, nudging it into Earth’s atmosphere. After a brief, fiery trip through the atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, at 1:06 pm ET (17:06 UTC).

Upon landing back on Earth, Ax-1 mission Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy will have spent 17 days in space following their launch on April 8. The crew was originally scheduled to spend eight days docked to the space station, but the mission was eventually extended a week by poor weather in Dragon’s landing zones around Florida.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto)

Twitter’s board of directors is reportedly on the verge of accepting Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company, according to news reports.

“Twitter is poised to agree [to] a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash” and “may announce the $54.20-per-share deal later on Monday once its board has met to recommend the transaction to Twitter shareholders,” Reuters wrote in a story with the headline, “Twitter set to accept Musk’s original $43 billion offer.” Reuters cited “people familiar with the matter.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that “Twitter is in advanced discussions to sell itself to Elon Musk and could finalize a deal Monday,” after “the two sides worked through the night to hash out a deal.” Bloomberg similarly wrote that Twitter and Musk are “in the final stretch of negotiations… and could reach an agreement as soon as Monday if negotiations go smoothly.” Bloomberg also wrote that “the situation is fluid, and talks could drag on longer or fall apart.”

Enlarge (credit: Scharon Harding)

Whatever your reason for needing an extra screen, a portable monitor can help increase your productivity—and often for less money than other display types.

When selecting a portable monitor, your primary concern should be image quality, but there’s more to consider than just finding the prettiest screen. Depending on what you’ll be using the panel for, port selection is important. And since you’ll be carrying the display around and setting it up at different locations, you should pay close attention to build quality.

We tested three portable monitors with strong potential for different use cases. Here’s what we found.