The big picture: We've seen several game developers impressed with Microsoft and Sony's upcoming consoles. Whether its raw horsepower or blazingly fast SSD speeds, smart delivery mechanisms or advanced audio tech, there's a lot of excitement around next-gen hardware from both companies and the gaming experiences they will enable. Of course, higher resolutions and frame rates remain at the forefront of these experiences, and racing games developer Codemasters recently revealed that its upcoming DiRT 5 off-road game was able to achieve 12

Did you know: Alex Kidd served as Sega’s mascot for a brief spell during the late 1980s but as Nintendo’s flagship Mario character gained momentum, the company went in a different direction as Alex Kidd wasn’t resonating with consumers as much as Sega had hoped for. In 1991, Sega introduced Sonic the Hedgehog and stuck with him as their official mascot for the long haul.

One of Sega’s lesser-known mascots is making a return to gaming.

Alex

Forward-looking: Volkswagen's all-electric ID.3 hatchback was first unveiled back in September of 2019 as an affordable, mass-market alternative to luxury EVs like the Tesla Model S or X. Now, the ID.3 finally has a release window: European deliveries begin in September, with orders for early adopters starting on June 17.

Those who have already placed a deposit for their ID.3 will be given two delivery options . The first is the September delivery time frame

Something to look forward to: Owners of Pixel handsets from the Pixel 2 onwards can now download the Android 11 beta, giving them an early preview of what’s to come in Google’s next OS. With Google I/O one of the many events canceled because of Covid-19, and the online-only June 3 unveiling postponed due to the Black Lives Matter protests, the Android 11 beta launch has been a subdued affair.

Those who maintain multiple conversations across several apps will appreciate the

What just happened? Remember when Apple became the first US company to pass the $1 trillion market valuation barrier? Now, the iPhone maker has reached another milestone: the first American firm to boast a $1.5 trillion market capitalization.

Back in 2018, Apple’s stock price got a boost after its revenue grew 17 percent year-over-year. The increase led to its value reaching an amazing $1 trillion. One month later, Amazon became the next US tech giant to

In context: Automakers have struggled as of late due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, but things are slowly starting to return to normalcy now. Indeed, after sorting out some pandemic-related issues with local officials, Tesla has restarted production on its line of EVs, and its stock price has rallied as a result.

As of writing, Tesla's stock sits at a whopping $1,015 per share , giving it a market capitalization of $174.47 billion.

Microsoft Excel is undoubtedly popular and extremely useful, so understanding how to take full advantage of it is essential. The Ultimate Excel Certification Bundle will train you to build and prepare a workbook good enough for a Fortune 500 CEO, to a household budget, and everything in between.

The 33-hour bundle is divided in 6 courses, starting with formulas and functions that transform Excel from a basic spreadsheet program into a dynamic and powerful analytics tool. Take advantage of this limited-time deal for just $3

Rumor mill: While Apple's WWDC is usually a software-focused event, the company has been known to unveil new hardware as well. Apple's 27" iMac seems to be running out of availability which may signal that the company will redesign the vaunted all-in-one this year.

Visiting Apple's website reveals that the 27" iMac shipping times are between late June and early July. The 21.5" iMac seems to be in stock, however. The 27