Virgin Galactic's first private passenger spaceflight will launch next month

It's Friday, July 14, 2023.

Virgin Galactic, having flown its first commercial spaceflight in late June, is ready to take civilians to the edge of space, briefly. The company plans to launch its first private passenger flight, Galactic 02, as soon as August 10th. Virgin isn't yet revealing the names of everyone involved, but there will be three passengers aboard, alongside crew.

The company says it's establishing a "regular cadence" of flights – and it needs that. Virgin Galactic has operated at a loss for years and lost $500 million in 2022 alone. The business won't recoup all those losses anytime soon, even at $450,000 per ticket. But the focus is pretty clear: make the case for space tourism… at least for the one-percenters.

– Mat Smith

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Twitter finally begins paying some of its creators

Blue subscribers will need a significant following to get a cut.

Twitter’s ad-revenue sharing program for creators has officially launched — and it’s reportedly already begun paying eligible Blue subscribers. Elon Musk announced the initiative in February, but with scant details about how it would work, nobody knew quite what to expect. However, some high-profile users report they’ve received notifications about incoming deposits. The bar is high to receive a transfer from the Musk-owned social media company. The support post says the revenue-sharing system applies to Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations subscribers with at least five million post impressions in each of the past three months. One user claims they’re set to receive over $24,000. Going to need more to get into space, my friend.

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Sony's $90 PS5 accessibility controller arrives December 6th

The highly customizable Access controller comes with several buttons and stick caps.

Sony

Sony’s Access controller will be available worldwide on December 6th. It costs $90 and pre-orders open July 21st. The new accessibility-focused controller comes with four 3.5mm aux ports, enabling players to connect external buttons, switches and other accessories. The box includes 19 button caps and three stick caps to help you find a configuration that works best for you. You can even pair up to two Access controllers and one DualSense together to create a "single virtual controller." That means two or even three people could control the same character, granting friends and family members the option to lend a helping hand.

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Farewell ‘FIFA’: ‘EA Sports FC 24’ will hit consoles and PC September 29th

It’ll bring women's players to Ultimate Team for the first time.

EA's long-standing partnership with FIFA ended after FIFA 23, marking a new era for EA's flagship soccer series. EA Sports FC 24 will hit PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC on September 29th. EA says more than 19,000 authentic players, 30-plus leagues and over 100 stadiums will be represented in the new game. The company has also secured exclusive deals with the English Premier League and UEFA to use their branding and retain access to competitions like the Champions League.

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AP and OpenAI enter two-year partnership to help train algorithmic models

It’s a major news-sharing agreement.

The Associated Press (AP) and ChatGPT parent company OpenAI have reached a news-sharing agreement, but it doesn’t involve AI chatbots quickly churning out content but enabling better training of OpenAI’s algorithmic models. It looks like AP will receive access to OpenAI’s proprietary technology as part of the exchange. AP doesn’t use generative AI to write articles, but it already uses similar technologies to automate corporate earnings reports and cover local sporting events.

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