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The new 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless Controller includes Bluetooth, USB-C, and 2.4GHz connectivity. | Image: 8BitDo

8BitDo announced its latest budget-minded wireless controller today, the Ultimate 2C. For $29.99, it includes features like an extra pair of shoulder buttons to satisfy most PC and Android gamers, Hall effect sticks and triggers to keep problems like the Switch’s notorious “Joy-Con drift” at bay, and three different ways to connect it to a gaming machine with USB-C, a 2.4GHz dongle boasting 1,000Hz polling rates, and Bluetooth.
Amazon lists a July 15th release date, and while we haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with it yet, it could be a better bargain than the Ultimate C controllers the company released last year with the same $29.99 price.
There is a catch. Unfortunately, the Ultimate 2C’s Bluetooth compatibility only lists support for Android, leaving out the Nintendo Switch and other consoles, as well as Apple devices. And to use it wirelessly with a PC, you’ll need to rely on the included dongle.

Image: 8BitDo
The new Ultimate 2C adds an extra pair of shoulder buttons that can be reconfigured to function as other buttons.

Like last year’s Ultimate C controllers, the new Ultimate 2C isn’t compatible with 8BitDo’s customization software that can adjust the sensitivity of its triggers and sticks and completely remap the buttons. However, this controller does include an extra pair of “L4” and “R4” buttons tucked in beneath the controller’s shoulder buttons that can be remapped to replicate the functions of other buttons without the need for configuration from software or apps running on another device.

Image: 8BitDo
The Ultimate 2C controller will be available in four different colorways.

The 8BitDo Ultimate 2C will also expand the brand’s push into more colorful controller options. In addition to green, purple, and peach colorways that each feature matching buttons and sticks, the Ultimate 2C will be available in a mint option with a light green housing and vibrant orange buttons and sticks — a pairing that’s already growing on me.

The new 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless Controller includes Bluetooth, USB-C, and 2.4GHz connectivity. | Image: 8BitDo

8BitDo announced its latest budget-minded wireless controller today, the Ultimate 2C. For $29.99, it includes features like an extra pair of shoulder buttons to satisfy most PC and Android gamers, Hall effect sticks and triggers to keep problems like the Switch’s notorious “Joy-Con drift” at bay, and three different ways to connect it to a gaming machine with USB-C, a 2.4GHz dongle boasting 1,000Hz polling rates, and Bluetooth.

Amazon lists a July 15th release date, and while we haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with it yet, it could be a better bargain than the Ultimate C controllers the company released last year with the same $29.99 price.

There is a catch. Unfortunately, the Ultimate 2C’s Bluetooth compatibility only lists support for Android, leaving out the Nintendo Switch and other consoles, as well as Apple devices. And to use it wirelessly with a PC, you’ll need to rely on the included dongle.

Image: 8BitDo
The new Ultimate 2C adds an extra pair of shoulder buttons that can be reconfigured to function as other buttons.

Like last year’s Ultimate C controllers, the new Ultimate 2C isn’t compatible with 8BitDo’s customization software that can adjust the sensitivity of its triggers and sticks and completely remap the buttons. However, this controller does include an extra pair of “L4” and “R4” buttons tucked in beneath the controller’s shoulder buttons that can be remapped to replicate the functions of other buttons without the need for configuration from software or apps running on another device.

Image: 8BitDo
The Ultimate 2C controller will be available in four different colorways.

The 8BitDo Ultimate 2C will also expand the brand’s push into more colorful controller options. In addition to green, purple, and peach colorways that each feature matching buttons and sticks, the Ultimate 2C will be available in a mint option with a light green housing and vibrant orange buttons and sticks — a pairing that’s already growing on me.

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Volkswagen is investing $5 billion in Rivian as part of a new joint venture that will give the German auto giant access to the buzzy California EV company’s software and EV platform.
The new venture was announced in a post from Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who noted the investment will help the company bring its next generation R2 electric vehicle to market starting in 2026. The R2 is expected to be a more affordable $45,000 model than its current luxury-priced EVs, the R1T and R1S.

This is exciting! Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume and I are thrilled to announce the formation of a joint venture between our two companies. This partnership brings Rivian’s software and zonal electronics platform to a broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach and… pic.twitter.com/11XVNUo89J— RJ Scaringe (@RJScaringe) June 25, 2024

Scaringe said the partnership will bring Rivian’s new zonal architecture, available now through its refreshed second-generation R1 vehicles, as well as its software, to a “broader market.” Rivian recently became one of the few companies beyond Tesla to use a zonal architecture for its vehicles that rely on fewer electric control units than usual.
The money will no doubt come in handy, too. Like other EV-only companies, Rivian has been struggling through a period of cooling demand around electric vehicles. The company’s sales are up, but its losses are also increasing. It has $7.9 billion of cash and cash equivalents on hand, but it has acknowledged that cuts could be necessary if it’s ever going to achieve stability. Rivian has already gone through several rounds of layoffs in its short history.
Meanwhile, VW has been going through its own struggles around EVs. The company’s plug-in models are selling well, but its market share in North America is shrinking. And its software has been plagued by bugs and customer complaints.
VW isn’t the first legacy automaker to partner with Rivian. The company was planning to co-develop an electric SUV with Ford, but those plans were cancelled amid the covid pandemic. The plan was to use Rivian’s battery pack and electric motor setup in a Ford or Lincoln branded SUV. Ford invested $500 million in Rivian as part of the plan, along with $700 million from Amazon.
Developing…

Volkswagen is investing $5 billion in Rivian as part of a new joint venture that will give the German auto giant access to the buzzy California EV company’s software and EV platform.

The new venture was announced in a post from Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who noted the investment will help the company bring its next generation R2 electric vehicle to market starting in 2026. The R2 is expected to be a more affordable $45,000 model than its current luxury-priced EVs, the R1T and R1S.

Scaringe said the partnership will bring Rivian’s new zonal architecture, available now through its refreshed second-generation R1 vehicles, as well as its software, to a “broader market.” Rivian recently became one of the few companies beyond Tesla to use a zonal architecture for its vehicles that rely on fewer electric control units than usual.

The money will no doubt come in handy, too. Like other EV-only companies, Rivian has been struggling through a period of cooling demand around electric vehicles. The company’s sales are up, but its losses are also increasing. It has $7.9 billion of cash and cash equivalents on hand, but it has acknowledged that cuts could be necessary if it’s ever going to achieve stability. Rivian has already gone through several rounds of layoffs in its short history.

Meanwhile, VW has been going through its own struggles around EVs. The company’s plug-in models are selling well, but its market share in North America is shrinking. And its software has been plagued by bugs and customer complaints.

VW isn’t the first legacy automaker to partner with Rivian. The company was planning to co-develop an electric SUV with Ford, but those plans were cancelled amid the covid pandemic. The plan was to use Rivian’s battery pack and electric motor setup in a Ford or Lincoln branded SUV. Ford invested $500 million in Rivian as part of the plan, along with $700 million from Amazon.

Developing…

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The Lifx ceiling light features full-color, tunable white light and an array of effects to light up your home. | Image: Lifx

Smart light fixtures are quickly becoming a thing, making it a little easier to add colorful, fun, and useful lighting effects to more areas of your home than you traditionally can with smart light bulbs. While these types of fixtures have been quite pricey, smart lighting company Lifx just announced its new Super Color Ceiling Light starting at just $89.97.

The full-color smart LED light fixture offers 2,500 lumens of dimmable light. It works with dynamic lighting effects through Lifx’s app, including a daytime sky with clouds floating by, a night sky with meteors, an invigorating sunrise, and a relaxing sunset.
It also has tunable white light ranging from 1,500K to 9,000K, allowing it to work as everything from a soft nightlight to a brilliant task light. The Wi-Fi-enabled fixture fits flush to the ceiling and features both uplighting and downlighting, which can be controlled separately, and can be set on schedules and dimmed using the Lifx app.

Image: Lifx
The new ceiling light features an uplight and downlight for different effects.

As a wired light, it needs to be hardwired and have a constant power supply — meaning, if you wire it to a standard switch, that switch will need to stay on. Lifx says it will attach to a standard junction box for easy installation. At 15 inches in diameter, the ceiling light is quite small — especially compared to Aqara’s smart ceiling light or Nanoleaf’s Skylight ceiling panels — so it’s probably best suited to a bedroom or hallway rather than a main living space.

The Aqara and Nanoleaf options, which start at $150 and $250 respectively, are significantly more expensive than Lifx’s new light. Lifx’s ceiling light is also a third of the price of the new Philips Hue Datura ceiling light, which costs $300 for 15 inches. While both Aqara and Hue use a hub with their lighting products, the Lifx does not since it works over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. However, in my experience, lights that work over Wi-Fi can be less reliable than those that rely on a hub.

Image: Lifx
Different lighting effects applied to the ceiling light can change the whole look of a room.

Lifx has said it’s transitioning its entire line to support the new Matter smart home standard, and the new ceiling light is Matter-enabled, so it works with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings (you’ll need a Matter controller from the platform you want to use). Smart home integration also allows for voice control of the light.
Lifx is one of the original smart lighting companies. It was purchased by US-based Feit Electric in 2022 and has since released a number of new products including an outdoor lighting line. The brand has long been known for its rich colors and high brightness as well as its ability to work over Wi-Fi and not require a dedicated hub. But traditionally, it has been one of the more expensive brands. This shift into more affordable offerings is a welcome one and might be giving the folks at Philips Hue some sleepless nights.

Lifx’s polychrome technology creates a natural-looking ombre effect where the colors blend into each other.

The company has also developed a polychrome technology that merges colors more naturally to give off an ombre look from a single light. I’ve tested this on its string lights, and it works very well. The new ceiling light has the same tech, and Mark Hollands, chief technology officer of Lifx, explains that “it uses a grid of lighting zones to push the boundaries with smooth zone blending, simple gradients, and dynamic moving effects.”
The Lifx Super Color Ceiling light is available now from The Home Depot starting at $89.97. It comes in white or black trim, with the white trim offering a slightly higher 2,850 lumens, compared to the black trim’s 2,500 lumens.

The Lifx ceiling light features full-color, tunable white light and an array of effects to light up your home. | Image: Lifx

Smart light fixtures are quickly becoming a thing, making it a little easier to add colorful, fun, and useful lighting effects to more areas of your home than you traditionally can with smart light bulbs. While these types of fixtures have been quite pricey, smart lighting company Lifx just announced its new Super Color Ceiling Light starting at just $89.97.

The full-color smart LED light fixture offers 2,500 lumens of dimmable light. It works with dynamic lighting effects through Lifx’s app, including a daytime sky with clouds floating by, a night sky with meteors, an invigorating sunrise, and a relaxing sunset.

It also has tunable white light ranging from 1,500K to 9,000K, allowing it to work as everything from a soft nightlight to a brilliant task light. The Wi-Fi-enabled fixture fits flush to the ceiling and features both uplighting and downlighting, which can be controlled separately, and can be set on schedules and dimmed using the Lifx app.

Image: Lifx
The new ceiling light features an uplight and downlight for different effects.

As a wired light, it needs to be hardwired and have a constant power supply — meaning, if you wire it to a standard switch, that switch will need to stay on. Lifx says it will attach to a standard junction box for easy installation. At 15 inches in diameter, the ceiling light is quite small — especially compared to Aqara’s smart ceiling light or Nanoleaf’s Skylight ceiling panels — so it’s probably best suited to a bedroom or hallway rather than a main living space.

The Aqara and Nanoleaf options, which start at $150 and $250 respectively, are significantly more expensive than Lifx’s new light. Lifx’s ceiling light is also a third of the price of the new Philips Hue Datura ceiling light, which costs $300 for 15 inches. While both Aqara and Hue use a hub with their lighting products, the Lifx does not since it works over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. However, in my experience, lights that work over Wi-Fi can be less reliable than those that rely on a hub.

Image: Lifx
Different lighting effects applied to the ceiling light can change the whole look of a room.

Lifx has said it’s transitioning its entire line to support the new Matter smart home standard, and the new ceiling light is Matter-enabled, so it works with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings (you’ll need a Matter controller from the platform you want to use). Smart home integration also allows for voice control of the light.

Lifx is one of the original smart lighting companies. It was purchased by US-based Feit Electric in 2022 and has since released a number of new products including an outdoor lighting line. The brand has long been known for its rich colors and high brightness as well as its ability to work over Wi-Fi and not require a dedicated hub. But traditionally, it has been one of the more expensive brands. This shift into more affordable offerings is a welcome one and might be giving the folks at Philips Hue some sleepless nights.

The company has also developed a polychrome technology that merges colors more naturally to give off an ombre look from a single light. I’ve tested this on its string lights, and it works very well. The new ceiling light has the same tech, and Mark Hollands, chief technology officer of Lifx, explains that “it uses a grid of lighting zones to push the boundaries with smooth zone blending, simple gradients, and dynamic moving effects.”

The Lifx Super Color Ceiling light is available now from The Home Depot starting at $89.97. It comes in white or black trim, with the white trim offering a slightly higher 2,850 lumens, compared to the black trim’s 2,500 lumens.

Read More 

Photo by Michael Tullberg / Getty Images

Years after Twitch’s ban, the streamer confirms it was due to messages he sent to a minor on the platform. Dr Disrespect — aka Herschel “Guy” Beahm — was one of Twitch’s top streamers until he was suddenly banned in June 2020. Now, we know what happened. As confirmed in a lengthy statement from Beahm himself, he sent private messages on Twitch to a minor that he says “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate”:
Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual.
The statement followed former Twitch employees explaining in social media posts and speaking to The Verge about why Twitch suddenly broke things off with Beahm, which was based on the messages he sent using its now-removed Whispers feature.
Midnight Society, the game studio Beahm co-founded after the ban, has terminated its relationship with the streamer, and accessories company Turtle Beach has also ended its partnership with Beahm.
Here’s the latest news on Dr Disrespect and the reasons for his Twitch ban.

Photo by Michael Tullberg / Getty Images

Years after Twitch’s ban, the streamer confirms it was due to messages he sent to a minor on the platform.

Dr Disrespect — aka Herschel “Guy” Beahm — was one of Twitch’s top streamers until he was suddenly banned in June 2020. Now, we know what happened. As confirmed in a lengthy statement from Beahm himself, he sent private messages on Twitch to a minor that he says “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate”:

Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual.

The statement followed former Twitch employees explaining in social media posts and speaking to The Verge about why Twitch suddenly broke things off with Beahm, which was based on the messages he sent using its now-removed Whispers feature.

Midnight Society, the game studio Beahm co-founded after the ban, has terminated its relationship with the streamer, and accessories company Turtle Beach has also ended its partnership with Beahm.

Here’s the latest news on Dr Disrespect and the reasons for his Twitch ban.

Read More 

An Android phone minus the phone plus two giant cameras. | Image: Adi Robertson / The Verge

Xreal is one of the few companies trying to sell mass-market augmented reality headsets without an existing big tech empire. But its latest product isn’t a pair of glasses; it’s a phone-sized Android tablet designed to keep you using them. At last week’s Augmented World Expo (AWE) the company announced the Beam Pro, a combination battery, app repository, and 3D video recorder. It’s a pragmatic solution to a very obvious problem — even if, at first glance, I wish it were weirder.
Xreal’s glasses — the Air 2 and Air 2 Ultra — have generally required some kind of third-party device like a phone, laptop, or Steam Deck. (There was a bare-bones control box called the Beam, but it wasn’t a big focus for the company.) The Beam Pro is meant to ease this requirement. It’s a dedicated Android machine that won’t cannibalize your phone’s battery life, using a custom AR launcher and featuring some unusual hardware elements, particularly a pair of cameras for recording stereoscopic 3D video. It’s Xreal’s attempt to bolster the small field of consumer AR and go beyond simply making glasses while it waits to see how the market shapes up.
When you pick up the Beam Pro, like I did at AWE, the first impression is that it feels exactly like a 6.5-inch Android phone. (We’re calling it a tablet because there’s no phone app, though it supports 5G data.) The design is a bit chunky, but it’s got a handsome black and white color scheme with red accents and feels decently solid for a $199 device. There are only a couple of signs it’s doing something unusual: it’s got two USB-C ports on the bottom — one for the headset and one for a charging cable — and two big cameras on the back. The software also initially seems like a lightly skinned version of Android, though there’s a custom recording app for the cameras.

You won’t usually be looking down at this — just tapping while you point at icons in the air.

But the Beam Pro’s purpose becomes clear when you plug in an Xreal headset. Connecting the device will call up a monochrome screen that looks like a big trackpad, its upper edge lined with supplementary buttons, like one for starting screen capture on the glasses. The main interface moves to the glasses, where you’ll see rows of Android icons floating in space. From there, you can control your experience by pointing the Beam Pro at icons like a remote and tapping the screen, or — for Xreal glasses that come with built-in cameras, including the Air 2 Ultra — making gestures with your hands.
Phones aren’t a great remote control form factor, but some controller is better than none
The Beam Pro’s system is better than no in-AR controls at all, a situation that was common while using Xreal glasses with an ordinary phone. Xreal has fixed some annoying problems it once had with streaming apps like Netflix, which used to be simply mirrored in a way that wouldn’t even let you turn off the phone’s screen. Your videos can now be pinned comfortably in virtual space while you control them with the remote. And there’s some nice use of hardware buttons on the Beam Pro. What you might assume is a phone’s mute switch actually makes the virtual screen toggle between smoothly following you and being pinned in place.

Xreal’s glasses are still a little big for sunglasses but pretty compact for AR.

That emphatically doesn’t mean the Beam Pro is a great controller. I only used it for a short demo, but it made me long for the days of Google’s slightly quirky, lovingly crafted Daydream VR remote. I’m pretty sure a very wide textureless glass panel is not the ideal approach for a one-handed point-and-tap device, even if it’s a form people are used to.
A few individual elements also feel half-baked. When you need to type something, the Beam Pro simply pops a default Android keyboard (or something very close to it) over the bottom half of its screen, and you can’t use the main tap panel to confirm any text you entered. You can swap between hand gestures and tapping the tablet, but it requires digging into a menu and switching control systems halfway through the interaction, when a hardware toggle or one-tap button would be more convenient. You can’t use the glasses as a viewfinder for taking stereoscopic videos, either, something I almost instinctively tried to do.
On top of that, the idea of stereoscopic cameras is cool — and, as my colleague David Pierce notes, is a nice way to distinguish the Beam Pro from other Android devices. But until way more people have VR or AR headsets, it will be hard to share videos widely in all their 3D glory. Xreal videos can be displayed on non-Xreal devices like the Vision Pro, but even that’s still a tiny market.
Xreal CEO Chi Xu says the current design is just a jumping-off point for the product. “This is probably going to be the generation that looks the most similar to a phone,” Chi says. “Getting a brand-new user interface and experience is going to be extremely challenging — not for us, but for the user to adapt to the new gadget. So we’re literally trying to mimic what people have been used to for the past 20 years.”
Even if I wish using the Beam Pro felt better, it does seem to cover what you’d need from an Xreal controller. The main use cases for the glasses are streaming video, which only requires a bare-bones remote, and gaming, which demands a full-fledged Bluetooth gamepad or a whole different device like the Steam Deck.
Xreal doesn’t want a totally standalone ecosystem
And ultimately, Chi doesn’t see Xreal building a completely standalone system. “We want to partner with bigger platforms,” he says, potentially including players like Meta and Google. The company is working on an AR software layer dubbed NebulaOS, which it hopes will cement its position as more than just a glasses maker. Right now, though, most computing companies either aren’t making serious public moves into AR or — like Apple — want to maintain their own walled-garden augmented realities. In this environment, devices like the Beam Pro are necessary for smaller players to survive.
But Xreal’s long-term position still seems risky. Countless consumer AR startups have been launched since the early 2010s, and most have either folded (like the non-Mark Zuckerberg Meta), been acquired by a big company for a nebulous future product (like the now Google-owned North), or pivoted to a purely business-focused model (like Magic Leap). To the extent consumer AR exists, it’s dominated by big tech companies that tend to either acquire or crush potential competition.
Chi, though, thinks there’s a chance for the company to find its niche. “I think it’s too early to tell how the profit model will look in the AR space,” he says. “We don’t think we’re just hardware — if you can be a bigger part of helping people be more efficient, be more powerful, I think you’re going to have a fair share of that profit.”

An Android phone minus the phone plus two giant cameras. | Image: Adi Robertson / The Verge

Xreal is one of the few companies trying to sell mass-market augmented reality headsets without an existing big tech empire. But its latest product isn’t a pair of glasses; it’s a phone-sized Android tablet designed to keep you using them. At last week’s Augmented World Expo (AWE) the company announced the Beam Pro, a combination battery, app repository, and 3D video recorder. It’s a pragmatic solution to a very obvious problem — even if, at first glance, I wish it were weirder.

Xreal’s glasses — the Air 2 and Air 2 Ultra — have generally required some kind of third-party device like a phone, laptop, or Steam Deck. (There was a bare-bones control box called the Beam, but it wasn’t a big focus for the company.) The Beam Pro is meant to ease this requirement. It’s a dedicated Android machine that won’t cannibalize your phone’s battery life, using a custom AR launcher and featuring some unusual hardware elements, particularly a pair of cameras for recording stereoscopic 3D video. It’s Xreal’s attempt to bolster the small field of consumer AR and go beyond simply making glasses while it waits to see how the market shapes up.

When you pick up the Beam Pro, like I did at AWE, the first impression is that it feels exactly like a 6.5-inch Android phone. (We’re calling it a tablet because there’s no phone app, though it supports 5G data.) The design is a bit chunky, but it’s got a handsome black and white color scheme with red accents and feels decently solid for a $199 device. There are only a couple of signs it’s doing something unusual: it’s got two USB-C ports on the bottom — one for the headset and one for a charging cable — and two big cameras on the back. The software also initially seems like a lightly skinned version of Android, though there’s a custom recording app for the cameras.

You won’t usually be looking down at this — just tapping while you point at icons in the air.

But the Beam Pro’s purpose becomes clear when you plug in an Xreal headset. Connecting the device will call up a monochrome screen that looks like a big trackpad, its upper edge lined with supplementary buttons, like one for starting screen capture on the glasses. The main interface moves to the glasses, where you’ll see rows of Android icons floating in space. From there, you can control your experience by pointing the Beam Pro at icons like a remote and tapping the screen, or — for Xreal glasses that come with built-in cameras, including the Air 2 Ultra — making gestures with your hands.

The Beam Pro’s system is better than no in-AR controls at all, a situation that was common while using Xreal glasses with an ordinary phone. Xreal has fixed some annoying problems it once had with streaming apps like Netflix, which used to be simply mirrored in a way that wouldn’t even let you turn off the phone’s screen. Your videos can now be pinned comfortably in virtual space while you control them with the remote. And there’s some nice use of hardware buttons on the Beam Pro. What you might assume is a phone’s mute switch actually makes the virtual screen toggle between smoothly following you and being pinned in place.

Xreal’s glasses are still a little big for sunglasses but pretty compact for AR.

That emphatically doesn’t mean the Beam Pro is a great controller. I only used it for a short demo, but it made me long for the days of Google’s slightly quirky, lovingly crafted Daydream VR remote. I’m pretty sure a very wide textureless glass panel is not the ideal approach for a one-handed point-and-tap device, even if it’s a form people are used to.

A few individual elements also feel half-baked. When you need to type something, the Beam Pro simply pops a default Android keyboard (or something very close to it) over the bottom half of its screen, and you can’t use the main tap panel to confirm any text you entered. You can swap between hand gestures and tapping the tablet, but it requires digging into a menu and switching control systems halfway through the interaction, when a hardware toggle or one-tap button would be more convenient. You can’t use the glasses as a viewfinder for taking stereoscopic videos, either, something I almost instinctively tried to do.

On top of that, the idea of stereoscopic cameras is cool — and, as my colleague David Pierce notes, is a nice way to distinguish the Beam Pro from other Android devices. But until way more people have VR or AR headsets, it will be hard to share videos widely in all their 3D glory. Xreal videos can be displayed on non-Xreal devices like the Vision Pro, but even that’s still a tiny market.

Xreal CEO Chi Xu says the current design is just a jumping-off point for the product. “This is probably going to be the generation that looks the most similar to a phone,” Chi says. “Getting a brand-new user interface and experience is going to be extremely challenging — not for us, but for the user to adapt to the new gadget. So we’re literally trying to mimic what people have been used to for the past 20 years.”

Even if I wish using the Beam Pro felt better, it does seem to cover what you’d need from an Xreal controller. The main use cases for the glasses are streaming video, which only requires a bare-bones remote, and gaming, which demands a full-fledged Bluetooth gamepad or a whole different device like the Steam Deck.

And ultimately, Chi doesn’t see Xreal building a completely standalone system. “We want to partner with bigger platforms,” he says, potentially including players like Meta and Google. The company is working on an AR software layer dubbed NebulaOS, which it hopes will cement its position as more than just a glasses maker. Right now, though, most computing companies either aren’t making serious public moves into AR or — like Apple — want to maintain their own walled-garden augmented realities. In this environment, devices like the Beam Pro are necessary for smaller players to survive.

But Xreal’s long-term position still seems risky. Countless consumer AR startups have been launched since the early 2010s, and most have either folded (like the non-Mark Zuckerberg Meta), been acquired by a big company for a nebulous future product (like the now Google-owned North), or pivoted to a purely business-focused model (like Magic Leap). To the extent consumer AR exists, it’s dominated by big tech companies that tend to either acquire or crush potential competition.

Chi, though, thinks there’s a chance for the company to find its niche. “I think it’s too early to tell how the profit model will look in the AR space,” he says. “We don’t think we’re just hardware — if you can be a bigger part of helping people be more efficient, be more powerful, I think you’re going to have a fair share of that profit.”

Read More 

Photo by Matt Thomas / San Diego Padres / Getty Images

Guy Beahm, better known by his streamer persona Dr Disrespect, said he was banned from Twitch four years ago due to private messages he sent to a minor that “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.”
Beahm shared details of the ban in a lengthy post to X, marking the first time he’s addressed the reason for his removal.
“Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from Twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years,” Beahm posted on X. “Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.”

After his ban, Beahm said that he underwent arbitration with Twitch and settled the dispute over his exclusivity contract, with both parties stating, “no wrongdoing was found.”
Beahm also says, “I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with.”
This story is developing…
Here’s Beahm’s full statement as posted on X as of 2:23PM ET:

THE TWITCH BAN
Hello, I’d like to make a quick statement..
Lets cut the fucking bullshit, as you know there’s no filter with me. I’ve always been up front and real with you guys on anything that I can be up front about, and I’m always willing to accept responsibility… which is why I’m here now.
First and foremost I do want to apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio.
A lot of people have been left in the dark about what happened yesterday with midnight society and I, and we made the painful decision collectively, to have me step down. Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families and i’d never want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted.
Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.
Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me.
Now, from a moral standpoint I’ll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid.
Now, with all this said, don’t get it fucking mistaken, I’ve seen all the remarks and labels being throw around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone. I’m no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. That’s a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about. Don’t be labeling me as the worst of the worst with your exaggerations. Get the fuck outta here with that shit.
But I think I’ve said what I needed to say regarding the ban itself. That’s it. That’s why twitch made the decision in 2020.
To my team, community, industry friends that have supported me, I apologize, I wish I could’ve said all this sooner. You guys have always showed me and my family love and support throughout all these years we love you guys like you can’t imagine. I have the fucking best community and circle. If any of this has made you uncomfortable, I get it. You don’t have to support me anymore but just know you have always been greatly appreciated.
But trust me when I say this…to all my haters that live and breath social media with zero real life experience, I don’t give a fuck about you.
Finally, if you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine. But I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I’m taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.
They want me to disappear… yeah fucking right.

Photo by Matt Thomas / San Diego Padres / Getty Images

Guy Beahm, better known by his streamer persona Dr Disrespect, said he was banned from Twitch four years ago due to private messages he sent to a minor that “sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate.”

Beahm shared details of the ban in a lengthy post to X, marking the first time he’s addressed the reason for his removal.

“Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from Twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years,” Beahm posted on X. “Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.”

After his ban, Beahm said that he underwent arbitration with Twitch and settled the dispute over his exclusivity contract, with both parties stating, “no wrongdoing was found.”

Beahm also says, “I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with.”

This story is developing…

Here’s Beahm’s full statement as posted on X as of 2:23PM ET:

THE TWITCH BAN

Hello, I’d like to make a quick statement..

Lets cut the fucking bullshit, as you know there’s no filter with me. I’ve always been up front and real with you guys on anything that I can be up front about, and I’m always willing to accept responsibility… which is why I’m here now.

First and foremost I do want to apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio.

A lot of people have been left in the dark about what happened yesterday with midnight society and I, and we made the painful decision collectively, to have me step down. Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families and i’d never want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted.

Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.

Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me.

Now, from a moral standpoint I’ll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid.

Now, with all this said, don’t get it fucking mistaken, I’ve seen all the remarks and labels being throw around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone. I’m no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. That’s a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about. Don’t be labeling me as the worst of the worst with your exaggerations. Get the fuck outta here with that shit.

But I think I’ve said what I needed to say regarding the ban itself. That’s it. That’s why twitch made the decision in 2020.

To my team, community, industry friends that have supported me, I apologize, I wish I could’ve said all this sooner. You guys have always showed me and my family love and support throughout all these years we love you guys like you can’t imagine. I have the fucking best community and circle. If any of this has made you uncomfortable, I get it. You don’t have to support me anymore but just know you have always been greatly appreciated.

But trust me when I say this…to all my haters that live and breath social media with zero real life experience, I don’t give a fuck about you.

Finally, if you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine. But I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I’m taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.

They want me to disappear… yeah fucking right.

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Image: Jon Porter / The Verge

With RGB lighting and customizability, most mechanical keyboards are way more fun to type on than your regular old keyboard. Those perks typically come at a cost, though — but not as much today because Epomaker’s TH80 Pro is on sale at Amazon for $62.99 ($27 off). That’s a new all-time low price on the TH80 Pro and is available on keyboards with Gateron switches in select colors — including black, red, and yellow — as well as with Budgerigar switches.

If you’re on a budget, the Epomaker TH80 Pro is our top affordable mechanical keyboard pick. The 75 percent mechanical keyboard doesn’t feel as high-end as some of the pricier picks in our mechanical keyboard buying guide, and its software isn’t as slick. Nevertheless, it still offers a fantastic typing experience and a good set of features for its price, like hot-swappable switches and keys you can remap via software for greater customizability. The keyboard even features a handy volume knob and slick per-key RGB lighting along with multiple connectivity options, including Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless via a dongle.

Image: Jon Porter / The Verge

With RGB lighting and customizability, most mechanical keyboards are way more fun to type on than your regular old keyboard. Those perks typically come at a cost, though — but not as much today because Epomaker’s TH80 Pro is on sale at Amazon for $62.99 ($27 off). That’s a new all-time low price on the TH80 Pro and is available on keyboards with Gateron switches in select colors — including black, red, and yellow — as well as with Budgerigar switches.

If you’re on a budget, the Epomaker TH80 Pro is our top affordable mechanical keyboard pick. The 75 percent mechanical keyboard doesn’t feel as high-end as some of the pricier picks in our mechanical keyboard buying guide, and its software isn’t as slick. Nevertheless, it still offers a fantastic typing experience and a good set of features for its price, like hot-swappable switches and keys you can remap via software for greater customizability. The keyboard even features a handy volume knob and slick per-key RGB lighting along with multiple connectivity options, including Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless via a dongle.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

The latest feature headed to the Google graveyard is continuous scrolling on search results, according to a report from Search Engine Land. The user experience, which mirrored the endless scrolling behavior of social media feeds, was originally introduced for search results on mobile devices in October of 2021 and then brought over to desktop search results in late 2022.
A Google spokesperson reportedly told Search Engine Land that continuous scroll is being removed today from desktop search results, while the feature will be removed from mobile results “in the coming months.”
In its place on desktop will be Google’s classic pagination bar, allowing users to jump to a specific page of search results or simply click “Next” to see the next page. On mobile, a “More results” button will be shown at the bottom of a search to load the next page.
Google told Search Engine Land that “this change is to allow the search company to serve the search results faster on more searches, instead of automatically loading results that users haven’t explicitly requested.”

Illustration: The Verge

The latest feature headed to the Google graveyard is continuous scrolling on search results, according to a report from Search Engine Land. The user experience, which mirrored the endless scrolling behavior of social media feeds, was originally introduced for search results on mobile devices in October of 2021 and then brought over to desktop search results in late 2022.

A Google spokesperson reportedly told Search Engine Land that continuous scroll is being removed today from desktop search results, while the feature will be removed from mobile results “in the coming months.”

In its place on desktop will be Google’s classic pagination bar, allowing users to jump to a specific page of search results or simply click “Next” to see the next page. On mobile, a “More results” button will be shown at the bottom of a search to load the next page.

Google told Search Engine Land that “this change is to allow the search company to serve the search results faster on more searches, instead of automatically loading results that users haven’t explicitly requested.”

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A huge panel becomes an AR projector powered by data from eye tracking sensors in this prototype. | Image: Adi Robertson / The Verge

Car infotainment systems are getting ever bigger, but a startup’s new prototype takes things further than even something like Ford’s pillar-to-pillar touchscreen — by turning your windshield into a full-color 3D heads-up display.
Distance Technologies, established by the co-founders of enterprise headset maker Varjo, showed off its design last week at Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California. The company’s goal is to push heads-up displays beyond flat and simple overlays. Its early efforts are impressive but also illuminate how tough (and risky) putting it into a real car could be.
The Distance Technologies prototype uses an LCD panel pointed up at a windshield with a reflective coating, projecting a transparent image onto it. It’s conceptually similar to some existing car HUDs, which can be found in a slew of aftermarket accessories and integrated options from companies like Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. But where those tend to involve flat, ghostly projections on a narrow portion of the windshield, this system is far more expansive and convincingly spatial.
Distance Technologies’ prototype works a bit like a projected version of a glasses-free 3D monitor. Its large LCD panel is covered with a parallax barrier that can display a slightly different image for each eye, while tracking cameras help determine where the driver’s looking and redraw the image accordingly. Co-founder and CMO Jussi Mäkinen says the parallax barrier hardware is just a stopgap while they’re iterating on the software tech — “our core is in software-defined optics,” Mäkinen says. CEO Urho Konttori was slightly cagey about the precise mechanics in an interview with my colleague Sean Hollister, but overall, the effect is a semi-transparent 3D display that covers the driver’s half of a normal-sized windshield.
I tested the prototype under controlled non-car conditions (a hotel room with some tilted glass simulating a windshield) and got a hint of its possibilities. The projection creates a big, fairly crisp screen that allows for anything from common HUD elements like speedometers to detailed 3D visualizations. Vehicle makers can integrate voice and gesture controls, and the prototype is hooked up to an Ultraleap hand tracker, so you can do things like hit a notification to accept a phone call without looking away from the road. The full-color projection can display videos, which means features that are currently relegated to cars’ infotainment screens — like the feed from a rear-facing camera — could sit on one side of the windshield instead.
The flashiest hypothetical features involve things like AR night vision, but there’s a long way to go
The flashiest hypothetical features would leverage lidar or other vehicle sensors to add sophisticated augmented reality elements. In cars, Distance Technologies hopes the display could place virtual signs realistically in your surroundings or paint over patches of darkness with night vision scans. In planes, pilots could see a detailed 3D topographic map projected on the cockpit without the need to look through a headset or eyepiece.
But the prototype, developed over the past several months, has many of the rough edges you’d expect from new display tech. It apparently costs far more than the hundreds-of-dollars price point Distance is targeting for manufacturers. It’s also way too dim. The demo I saw was around 100 nits of brightness — enough to see in a hotel room, but practically invisible in a bright outdoor environment, where you’d need something more like 10,000 nits. And it requires a large LCD panel to project a commensurately large display.

The current prototype uses a parallax barrier to create glasses-free 3D, but the company says its big selling point is its eye tracking-based software.

The eye tracking system adds its own set of challenges. The screen’s image is constantly being redrawn to compensate for where the driver is looking, but right now, there’s incredibly high latency, so some demos waver when you move. The sensors seem to lose track of your eyes easily — turning your gaze away does it, but apparently, so does having long hair or wearing a hat. And if this happens, everything goes haywire. That responsive 3D projection turns into a set of distorted lines crisscrossing the windshield. It’s a downright scary driving scenario that means good fail-safes will be vital.
But my biggest problem by far was that using the display simply hurt. I started out looking at some of the more complex demos: a 3D rendering of a topographic map and a car navigating a city. (In real life, the former could be used by airplane pilots, the latter shrunk to a corner minimap for cars.) Within minutes, I felt like I was going slightly cross-eyed. During simpler experiences, like a flat projected speedometer, my eyes still felt noticeably tired. After I left the room, my head ached gently for hours.
I have a slightly unusual vision situation — one of my eyes is a little nearsighted, and I don’t wear glasses — and while this rarely causes problems in real-life driving or normal AR headsets, it could account for parts of my experience. That said, I spoke to one other person who remarked that the demo made their eyes tired, too. If even a sizable minority of drivers experience the same thing, it seriously undercuts Distance Technologies’ pitch.
My eyes were doing more work here than usual, not less
The startup’s dream is that a driver can see useful information blended into the landscape, so they’re not constantly shifting focus between their environment and their dashboard. And the prototype can sometimes manage impressive results. In a demo that let me move a video around the scene, I found a position that had me barely flicking my eyes between it and my real-life surroundings. (Maintaining that position while driving at 60 miles an hour, granted, might pose more challenges.) But overall, my eyes were doing more work than usual, not less.
Konttori says Distance Technologies is still working out its target market. The team is apparently in touch with some consumer car manufacturers, looking to establish the kind of relationships they developed at Varjo, whose partners include Volvo and Kia. The company could also end up focusing on specialist markets like military vehicles or airplanes, where you’re already likely to find HUDs.
If Distance Technologies fixes the prototype’s big issues and gets commercial partners on board, we’ll have to hope car companies use the tech responsibly. Drivers are already irritated and sometimes distracted by a surfeit of screen-related features. AR adds a host of new possible failure points. For the near future, it’s hard to see truly important information permanently moving to your windshield through this prototype — at least without a backup system. Even so, it definitely beats driving in a Vision Pro.

A huge panel becomes an AR projector powered by data from eye tracking sensors in this prototype. | Image: Adi Robertson / The Verge

Car infotainment systems are getting ever bigger, but a startup’s new prototype takes things further than even something like Ford’s pillar-to-pillar touchscreen — by turning your windshield into a full-color 3D heads-up display.

Distance Technologies, established by the co-founders of enterprise headset maker Varjo, showed off its design last week at Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California. The company’s goal is to push heads-up displays beyond flat and simple overlays. Its early efforts are impressive but also illuminate how tough (and risky) putting it into a real car could be.

The Distance Technologies prototype uses an LCD panel pointed up at a windshield with a reflective coating, projecting a transparent image onto it. It’s conceptually similar to some existing car HUDs, which can be found in a slew of aftermarket accessories and integrated options from companies like Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. But where those tend to involve flat, ghostly projections on a narrow portion of the windshield, this system is far more expansive and convincingly spatial.

Distance Technologies’ prototype works a bit like a projected version of a glasses-free 3D monitor. Its large LCD panel is covered with a parallax barrier that can display a slightly different image for each eye, while tracking cameras help determine where the driver’s looking and redraw the image accordingly. Co-founder and CMO Jussi Mäkinen says the parallax barrier hardware is just a stopgap while they’re iterating on the software tech — “our core is in software-defined optics,” Mäkinen says. CEO Urho Konttori was slightly cagey about the precise mechanics in an interview with my colleague Sean Hollister, but overall, the effect is a semi-transparent 3D display that covers the driver’s half of a normal-sized windshield.

I tested the prototype under controlled non-car conditions (a hotel room with some tilted glass simulating a windshield) and got a hint of its possibilities. The projection creates a big, fairly crisp screen that allows for anything from common HUD elements like speedometers to detailed 3D visualizations. Vehicle makers can integrate voice and gesture controls, and the prototype is hooked up to an Ultraleap hand tracker, so you can do things like hit a notification to accept a phone call without looking away from the road. The full-color projection can display videos, which means features that are currently relegated to cars’ infotainment screens — like the feed from a rear-facing camera — could sit on one side of the windshield instead.

The flashiest hypothetical features would leverage lidar or other vehicle sensors to add sophisticated augmented reality elements. In cars, Distance Technologies hopes the display could place virtual signs realistically in your surroundings or paint over patches of darkness with night vision scans. In planes, pilots could see a detailed 3D topographic map projected on the cockpit without the need to look through a headset or eyepiece.

But the prototype, developed over the past several months, has many of the rough edges you’d expect from new display tech. It apparently costs far more than the hundreds-of-dollars price point Distance is targeting for manufacturers. It’s also way too dim. The demo I saw was around 100 nits of brightness — enough to see in a hotel room, but practically invisible in a bright outdoor environment, where you’d need something more like 10,000 nits. And it requires a large LCD panel to project a commensurately large display.

The current prototype uses a parallax barrier to create glasses-free 3D, but the company says its big selling point is its eye tracking-based software.

The eye tracking system adds its own set of challenges. The screen’s image is constantly being redrawn to compensate for where the driver is looking, but right now, there’s incredibly high latency, so some demos waver when you move. The sensors seem to lose track of your eyes easily — turning your gaze away does it, but apparently, so does having long hair or wearing a hat. And if this happens, everything goes haywire. That responsive 3D projection turns into a set of distorted lines crisscrossing the windshield. It’s a downright scary driving scenario that means good fail-safes will be vital.

But my biggest problem by far was that using the display simply hurt. I started out looking at some of the more complex demos: a 3D rendering of a topographic map and a car navigating a city. (In real life, the former could be used by airplane pilots, the latter shrunk to a corner minimap for cars.) Within minutes, I felt like I was going slightly cross-eyed. During simpler experiences, like a flat projected speedometer, my eyes still felt noticeably tired. After I left the room, my head ached gently for hours.

I have a slightly unusual vision situation — one of my eyes is a little nearsighted, and I don’t wear glasses — and while this rarely causes problems in real-life driving or normal AR headsets, it could account for parts of my experience. That said, I spoke to one other person who remarked that the demo made their eyes tired, too. If even a sizable minority of drivers experience the same thing, it seriously undercuts Distance Technologies’ pitch.

The startup’s dream is that a driver can see useful information blended into the landscape, so they’re not constantly shifting focus between their environment and their dashboard. And the prototype can sometimes manage impressive results. In a demo that let me move a video around the scene, I found a position that had me barely flicking my eyes between it and my real-life surroundings. (Maintaining that position while driving at 60 miles an hour, granted, might pose more challenges.) But overall, my eyes were doing more work than usual, not less.

Konttori says Distance Technologies is still working out its target market. The team is apparently in touch with some consumer car manufacturers, looking to establish the kind of relationships they developed at Varjo, whose partners include Volvo and Kia. The company could also end up focusing on specialist markets like military vehicles or airplanes, where you’re already likely to find HUDs.

If Distance Technologies fixes the prototype’s big issues and gets commercial partners on board, we’ll have to hope car companies use the tech responsibly. Drivers are already irritated and sometimes distracted by a surfeit of screen-related features. AR adds a host of new possible failure points. For the near future, it’s hard to see truly important information permanently moving to your windshield through this prototype — at least without a backup system. Even so, it definitely beats driving in a Vision Pro.

Read More 

The return capsule of the Chang’e 6 probe lands at the designated landing area on June 25th, 2024, in Inner Mongolia. | Photo by VCG / VCG via Getty Images

The first soil samples ever taken from the far side of the Moon arrived on Earth today. China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft landed with the precious cargo in Inner Mongolia today at 2:07PM Beijing time, according to state media.
The feat is expected to help scientists better understand the unfamiliar terrain of the Moon’s far side and perhaps shed some light on the early history of the Moon and Earth. It’s also a significant milestone in the escalating global space race to establish a presence on the Moon.
A significant milestone in the escalating global space race
President Xi Jinping congratulated the China National Space Administration, calling it a “landmark achievement in our country’s efforts at becoming a space and technological power,” according to The Associated Press.
Chang’e 6 landed on the far side of the Moon on June 2nd, a difficult endeavor because the Moon itself blocks radio signals there. To get around this, Chang’e 6 relied on two lunar satellites China previously launched to facilitate communication between Earth and rovers on the bumpy surface of the Moon’s far side.
After landing at the South Pole–Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon, the probe used its robotic arm and drilling tools to take soil and rock samples. It also carried payloads from the European Space Agency, France, and Italy for “scientific exploration.”
The South Pole–Aitken Basin is a massive impact crater that likely formed some 4.26 billion years ago. Compared to the smoother near side of the Moon, the far side is pockmarked with craters from ancient collisions. How these craters formed and what materials they hold are important questions for piecing together the Moon’s history.
“This also has implications for understanding the origins of life on Earth,” the nonprofit The Planetary Society wrote in a post about Chang’e 6 earlier this year, citing a theory that asteroids might have carried water and organic materials to Earth during an event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. There’s been more scrutiny lately into how fierce that bombardment actually was. Long-awaited samples from the far side of the Moon could help start to answer some of these questions.
China plans to send its Chang’e 7 spacecraft to the Moon’s south pole in 2026 to search for water and other resources that could potentially support long-term missions on the Moon. NASA wants to send the first humans to the lunar south pole region in 2026 as part of its Artemis III mission.

The return capsule of the Chang’e 6 probe lands at the designated landing area on June 25th, 2024, in Inner Mongolia. | Photo by VCG / VCG via Getty Images

The first soil samples ever taken from the far side of the Moon arrived on Earth today. China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft landed with the precious cargo in Inner Mongolia today at 2:07PM Beijing time, according to state media.

The feat is expected to help scientists better understand the unfamiliar terrain of the Moon’s far side and perhaps shed some light on the early history of the Moon and Earth. It’s also a significant milestone in the escalating global space race to establish a presence on the Moon.

President Xi Jinping congratulated the China National Space Administration, calling it a “landmark achievement in our country’s efforts at becoming a space and technological power,” according to The Associated Press.

Chang’e 6 landed on the far side of the Moon on June 2nd, a difficult endeavor because the Moon itself blocks radio signals there. To get around this, Chang’e 6 relied on two lunar satellites China previously launched to facilitate communication between Earth and rovers on the bumpy surface of the Moon’s far side.

After landing at the South Pole–Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon, the probe used its robotic arm and drilling tools to take soil and rock samples. It also carried payloads from the European Space Agency, France, and Italy for “scientific exploration.”

The South Pole–Aitken Basin is a massive impact crater that likely formed some 4.26 billion years ago. Compared to the smoother near side of the Moon, the far side is pockmarked with craters from ancient collisions. How these craters formed and what materials they hold are important questions for piecing together the Moon’s history.

“This also has implications for understanding the origins of life on Earth,” the nonprofit The Planetary Society wrote in a post about Chang’e 6 earlier this year, citing a theory that asteroids might have carried water and organic materials to Earth during an event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. There’s been more scrutiny lately into how fierce that bombardment actually was. Long-awaited samples from the far side of the Moon could help start to answer some of these questions.

China plans to send its Chang’e 7 spacecraft to the Moon’s south pole in 2026 to search for water and other resources that could potentially support long-term missions on the Moon. NASA wants to send the first humans to the lunar south pole region in 2026 as part of its Artemis III mission.

Read More