Developed by EV Safe Charge, ZiGGY is a robotic mobile EV charging platform built to serve parking spaces for electric vehicles. ZiGGY can charge your electric car and even reserve a parking space for you in advance.
Marvel put on quite the show during its San Diego Comic Con panel in Hall H on Saturday with the reveal of the company’s next timeline of movies and Disney+ series, a collection they’re calling The Multiverse Saga. November’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be the final installment of Phase 4, and Ant-Man: QuantumMania will kickoff the MCU’s much anticipated Phase 5.
Most of these phase 5 projects have been in the pipeline now for a while, with some new projects rumored to be getting their own announcements. Others will be revealed at the D23 expo in September. These projects may be subject to change of course (remember Captain America: Serpent Society???), but it seems the entirety of Phase 5 is plotted out, along with three huge movies for Phase 6.
As usual with the MCU, there’s a lot of stuff coming out. Here’s the calendar so far:
Kicking off Phase 5 is the third installment in the Ant-Man series, bringing back Peyton Reed as director along with Kathryn Newton now playing Cassie Lang (Scott Lang’s daughter). QuantumMania will also serve as a sort of re-introduction of Jonathan Major’s Kang the Conqueror, albeit a different version of the character than the one we saw in Loki. Plus Bill Murray is in here too if you’re into that sort of thing.
The upcoming Disney+ series will see Nick Fury and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn’s character from Captain Marvel) team up to unravel a conspiracy in which the shapeshifting aliens known as Skrulls have invaded the highest levels of Earth’s governments. The series will have a six-episode run and will be directed by Thomas Bezucha (Big Eden) and Ali Selem (Sweet Land), and written by Kyle Bradstreet (Mr. Robot). The cast for this one is absolutely stacked with Don Cheadle, Martin Freeman, and Colbie Smulders all reprising their roles as James “War Machine” Rhodes, General Ross, and Maria Hill respectively.
After some slight controversy that saw him briefly let go from Marvel, James Gunn will return for Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3. This will also be the last film for this particular team according to Gunn. In addition to Will Poulter (Midsommar, The Maze Runner) making his MCU debut as Adam Warlock, Guardians 3 will also explore the tragic origin story of Rocket Racoon.
Production is underway for both Season 2 of Loki and the new Disney+ series Echo, a spinoff from Hawkeye following Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez. Loki was confirmed to be getting a second season a while ago but at least now we have a release window.
The sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel will see the return of Brie Larson as the titular Captain Marvel. Along with Larson, Teyonah Parris returns as Monica Rambeau as the movie explores what happens to her character in the aftermath of WandaVision. Directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman), much is unknown about the plot other than Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan will finally get to meet her idol, Carol Danvers.
Blade is back baby! WHOOOOOOO. No, Wesely Snipes will not reprise the role of the iconic half-human vampire hunter but Mahershala Ali is more than an excellent replacement. Bassam Tariq (Ghosts of Sugar Land) will direct with Delroy Lindo co-starring. Ali has been in the MCU, having previously played the villain Cornell Stokes aka Cottonmouth in Netflix’s Luke Cage series. His disembodied voice as Blade also makes an uncredited appearance in the after-credits scene of Eternals.
These three series will be coming to Disney+ in late 2023 with Daredevil to return to the MCU in 2024. Ironheart will focus on Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams aka Ironheart. Filming began in early June with Sam Bailey (You’re So Talented) and Angela Barnes set to direct.
Agatha: Coven of Chaos will serve as a “dark comedy” spinoff from WandaVision with Kathryn Hahn reprising her role as the titular witch Agatha Harkness. According to Deadline, Coven of Chaos is part of a larger deal with Hahn set to portray her character in additional shows and movies. Not much is known so far about the show as it hasn’t even hit production yet.
Finally, Charlie Cox will return to the MCU again after the unfortunate canceling of the Netflix Daredevil show as Disney tried to further distance its properties from the streaming service and drive viewers toward their own. The good news is that this new Daredevil show will consist of 18 episodes with Vincent D’Onofrio is also set to co-star to reprise his role as Kingpin.
In the fourth entry in the Captain America franchise, Sam Wilson will don the shield once again in his MCU movie debut as the new Captain America. The movie’s title comes from the first episode title from Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and apart from that, not much is known about the plot. Julias Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) is set to direct.
Thunderbolts is basically the Avengers, but if the Avengers committed morally questionable acts of violence in the name of justice (actually in hindsight, that also sounds like the Avengers). In the comics, they’re a team of “superheroes” meant to replace the Avengers after that group was declared dead — the twist being that the Bolts were actually villains in disguise. Regardless, the appearance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in Falcon and the Winter Soldier should have made it quite obvious that this team-up of villains would happen sooner or later. Thunderbolts will serve as the end for Phase 5 and previous MCU villains rumored to appear are Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker aka U.S Agent (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Abomination (Tim Roth).
Marvel finally has the rights to the Fantastic Four! Maybe they can make a fantastic movie out of this property considering all four of the previous F4 movies are garbage (that’s not true we love 1994’s Fantastic Four, SERIOUSLY). After a recent cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that I wouldn’t want to spoil, it’s reasonable to wonder if that actor will play Mister Fantastic. In any case, the MCU’s Fantastic Four will kick off what seems to be a HUGE Phase 6.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced at Comic-Con that Phase 6 will have TWO Avengers films within six months of each other and will serve similarly as a two-part Multiverse Saga finale a-la Infinity War and Endgame. Going by title alone, Secret Wars has the potential to absolutely outclass Endgame in its sheer volume of cameos and appearances. That storyline in the 2015 Marvel comics series involved the collision of the main Marvel universe colliding with an alternate universe, which destroyed both and created the “Battleworld.” Given how close the release dates are for these films, let us pray Marvel and Disney don’t underpay and overwork their talented team of VFX artists to make all this movie magic happen.
Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) is a lawyer first, superhero second in the Comic-Con trailer for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
The second trailer for Marvel’s series about the green girlboss shows a goofy sequence where Walters’ cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) mentors her on her newfound powers. The duo throws rocks, does yoga, and Banner advises her, “Spandex is your best friend.” Halfway through the trailer Walters makes the decision to go back to work as a laywer, She-Hulk and all. She ends up joining the division for eccentric super humans and representing Emil Blonsky / the Abomination (Tim Roth) who famously tried to kill her cousin… that’s not awkward at all!
Call the ‘She-Hulk’ Comic-Con poster phone number if you need fictional legal representation
She gets a visit from sorcerer supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) who we last saw in the latest Doctor Strange movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He urges her to help him with the universe being “on the edge of a precipice,” but she appears committed to American law.
But that isn’t the only Marvel cameo in the trailer. In the final seconds, fellow lawyer superhero Daredevil (Charlie Cox) makes an appearance with his signature batons. Are they starting a law practice together? Only time will tell.
The original series hits Disney+ August 17.
In 2010 the internet changed forever. No, I’m not talking about the launch of Instagram, but the creation of the British boyband One Direction. The band launched thousands of stan accounts and the careers of Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne.
Each boy auditioned for The X Factor UK separately and were grouped into a boyband by the judges. The rest is history.
For the first time ever, The X Factor UK released the behind-the-scenes footage of Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger, and Louis placing the boys into the band. The clip was released in celebration of One Direction’s 12-year anniversary, despite the band going on indefinite hiatus in 2016.
‘Harry’s House’ album leaks are a lesson in fandom politics
The clip reveals that Nicole Scherzinger is Directioner’s unsung hero. In the video, the judges are sorting through headshots of contestants deciding who will make it through to the next round. She says, “Let’s do an imaginary boyband instead of just saying no,” and places a photo of Horan down as the first member. Scherzinger then directs Walsh to place Styles with Horan. When Tomlinson gets added to the band, she exclaims, “They’re the cutest boyband ever! The little girls are going to love them!” And she was right!
The judges continue to sift through contestants when they land on Payne and debate putting him in the band before deciding he could maybe be the leader of the band. Walsh is the champion of Zayn girls. He suggested Malik as the final member of the band.
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The video comes after Payne went on Logan Paul’s podcast and said that he was the first member of One Direction and that the band was built around him. The comment sparked outrage among Directioners and it seeped into mainstream internet discourse. Unfortunately for Payne, the new footage proved him wrong, they did think he could be the leader of the band.
Liam Payne has TikTok in pain
When Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman shockingly passed away in December of 2020, fans were left with the question of how — or even if — the cinematic world he helped bring to life would be able to carry on. Marvel ultimately chose to continue the series without recasting T’Challa, leaving fans to infer, reasonably, that the events of the new movie would call upon an existing character from the film’s rich mythology to take on the titular super-heroic title. The question was: which Wakandan was up to the task? And consequently, which cast member would then be elevated from supporting player to tentpole star?
But when the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer was released on Saturday, along with confirmation that T’Challa is canonically dead in the new film — not, say, missing or incapacitated — we only got hints as to who is inside the vibranium suit when it eventually appears in the trailer. Nonetheless, here’s our attempt to parse the available information into three reasonable guesses about what this movie has in store. These are presented in order from likeliest to least likely, but they would all make for a pretty good movie.
Within the MCU, there is no more straightforward and simple answer than T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright). She’s demonstrated the capabilities necessary, in terms of both brawn and — even more importantly — brains, and she has the royal imprimatur that may or may not be a prerequisite to Pantherhood. And perhaps most important: this has already happened in the comics.
The trailer also hints at the storytelling structure that culminates in Shuri’s rise. Ramonda states “my entire family is gone,” suggesting that whatever disaster claimed T’Challa’s life may have appeared to claim Shuri’s as well. One can imagine Shuri is hiding somewhere, secretly pursuing the Wakandan biotechnology that would bring back the heart-shaped herb, and allow for the anointing of a new Black Panther. She could then reunite with Ramonda for T’Challa’s funeral, and — surprise! — don the full Black Panther regalia at the film’s climax…or that “my entire family is gone,” line could be about when T’Challa and Shuri were temporarily “killed” by Thanos. Either way, there are clear canonical and emotional pathways to Shuri becoming Black Panther.
Perhaps the only wrinkle in the MCU saga that decreases the likelihood of this plot twist is that Letitia Wright irritated a lot of fans by posting an anti-COVID vaccine video online, and potentially irritated — and perhaps alarmed — a lot of coworkers by espousing such views on the actual film set (she denies this). But a few other MCU-associated actors, it should be noted, have made statements that are even more outside the Hollywood mainstream than Wright’s, so this probably wouldn’t have been a dealbreaker for her.
Okoye (Danai Gurira) wearing the Panther suit would be a bit of a curveball, but it would be a sensible choice that would leave Wakanda in capable hands. Okoye is the leader of the Dora Milaje — the Wakandan Seal Team 6, except even more powerful. She’s been an actual member of the Avengers. And she’s an all-around exceptional warrior who can dispatch a major villain and make it look easy.
Can a non-royal Wakandan be Black Panther? Who would be in charge of the Dora Milaje? These questions point to minor obstacles that any decent screenwriter could navigate without too much trouble.
The argument for Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) as the new central superhero is a little different from the arguments for Shuri or Okoye, so it helps to think of it this way: this person is going to be T’Challa’s successor, and it’s easy to imagine that he would have chosen Nakia. This isn’t because they were romantically entangled (though it doesn’t hurt), but because Nakia was one of T’Challa’s closest political advisors and his humanitarian conscience. It was her political influence that led to the opening up of Wakanda, and the nation’s newfound concern for the safety and wellbeing of others.
Is Nakia a warrior? Yes, absolutely. She’s a member of the War Dogs — the Wakandan CIA, basically — and has impressive fighting skills, even if she’s, well, not exactly Okoye. But elite fighting skills can be learned, and deep moral convictions can be even more of a heroic trait anyway. Nakia as Black Panther would be a fascinating underdog story.
There’s a viral video, which we’re sure you’ve seen by now, showing costumed Sesame Street character, Rosita, appearing to ignore two young Black girls during a parade at Sesame Place in Philadelphia after acknowledging and high-fiving a few white children.
Posted on Instagram July 16 by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, the video shows Rosita gesturing “no” and walking away from the two girls, who had their arms outstretched for a hug. Social media users on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms sounded off after the original video was posted, with some sharing their outrage at what the video captured and others sharing other children’s experiences at Sesame Place.
Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump also has joined the girls’ family in their call for Sesame Place and parent company SeaWorld to do better, according to an ABC NY report.
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“That character may have ignored them, but we will never ignore our Black children. They have every right to be given the full consideration and respect of any other child,” Crump said at a press conference the family held outside Sesame Workshop in New York City Wednesday. “Will SeaWorld take advantage of the moment to make it a teachable moment not just with their words but with their actions?”
Another video appeared to show another character pushing a small Black child at a Sesame Place theme park, while yet another showed a boy being bypassed on a parade route.
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Kelly Rowland expressed her frustrations in an Instagram post, sharing that the “whole parade would have been in flames” if this happened to one of her children. Whoopi Goldberg also discussed the issue on a recent episode of The View, sharing how she contacted them about the incident.
“And if you think they did not catch hell for what was done, it’s crazy. The two little girls are six-year-olds, they are cousins, and Rosita was their favorite character,” she told her co-hosts.
“Well, I’ll tell you why that’s happened because I talked to the people at Sesame Street. Okay. Because I work with them a lot, and I said, ‘What the hell? And basically, they said, ‘Listen. We’re all over this because our characters — the children must feel like these characters are the characters they expect them to be. So, we’re all over this’,” Goldberg said, according to a Yahoo! News report. “So I suspect a lot of what they’re going to be doing, all the diversity training, all that stuff, is coming from Sesame Workshop saying, ‘Oh no. Whoever is dealing with these characters, they’re going to have the information they need. We’re sorry we have to talk to you like this, but clearly, you need to understand you can’t do that for kids.'”
The park issued an apology on their Instagram handle as well as on Twitter, sharing how they will conduct trainings to prevent situations like this from happening again. The initial apology was not well-received on social media.
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Sesame Place Park President and General Manager Cathy Valeriano told local news affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia she was aware of the Saturday afternoon protests. She said the performer who played Rosita has not worked since that night. It is unclear whether the employee has been fired or not.
“We could have been more thoughtful in our initial statement and we own that going forward,” Valeriano said, according to WPVI TV. “We’re open for a meeting if we need to have a meeting. Absolutely, I understand emotions are raw but it’s something that we internally need to learn and grow from(.) It’s not something we’re going to fix overnight.”
The developments around the situation have raised the question: If you need training to be respectful and compassionate, especially to children, is this the job for you?
Let’s do better, people.
Ty Cole is a reporter based in New York and Los Angeles who covers entertainment, sports, lifestyle, tech, and everything in between. Follow him on Twitter, @IamTyCole, for more.
Mashable weekend editor Chance Townsend contributed to this column.
Marvel’s panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was jam-packed with amazing reveals and heartbreaking trailers (we’ve heard the Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 trailer was a real tearjerker), but none were as powerful as the reveal for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Once again at the helm to direct is Ryan Coogler, a reassuringly steady hand. But the two-minute teaser is packed with peeks at what awaits us in the sequel without star Chadwick Boseman, who died after a private battle with cancer in 2020 at age 43. Marvel previously confirmed it would not be re-casting the role of T’Challa in the MCU.
Wakanda Forever also introduces Tenoch Huerta (Narcos: Mexico), as anti-hero Namor McKenzie, known as the Sub-Mariner. In the comics, Namor is a mutant-hybrid, the son of a human father and an Atlantean princess — which is why his skin is pale compared to the blue skin of the other Atlanteans. He will serve as the main antagonist in the film as Wakanda comes into conflict with the Aztec-inspired Atlantis.
The trailer also gave us our first glimpse of Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams also known as Ironheart, the creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Ironman. Wakanda Forever serves as the introduction of Riri Williams in the MCU before she appears on her own Disney+ Ironheart series in the future.
Wakanda Forever looks to be an emotional, grief-filled event. The movie hits theaters on Nov. 11.
TL;DR: As of July 24, you can get an Offcloud Lifetime Subscription for just $39.99 instead of $699.99 — that’s a discount of 94%.
We’ve come a long way from the days of risky content download links and shady torrent sites, but one thing that hasn’t changed is how nice it can be to have your own copy of all the content you want to watch. Offcloud can help with that. This all-in-one download manager can integrate and connect with tons of different software and cloud storage solutions to safely download content for you, and a lifetime subscription that’s normally $699 is only $39.99 for a limited time.
If you want to securely download or automatically save content, then Offcloud could be a lot of help for you. Grab content from BitTorrent, streaming sites, or connect an RSS feed, and Offcloud will automatically export new content as it arrives. Some torrenting sites are historically unsafe, even if you’re downloading content protected by a Creative Commons License. Offcloud can help you use BitTorrent clients more safely. Backup videos from YouTube, convert Soundcloud entries into MP3 files, and more.
For storage, you can use the included 500GB of cloud storage, or connect with Zapier and share content directly onto your own cloud storage, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon Cloud Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. Your subscription gives you unlimited remote uploads, so your growing library is only limited by your storage space. To that end, Offcloud lets you sync anything to your own NAS, FTP, and WebDAV for a more diverse range of file sharing.
Through all of this, you can obscure your browsing and downloading from your ISP using the 1TB of proxy bandwidth included with your lifetime subscription.
With some help, you can download virtually anything from the internet and save it in your own collection. For a limited time, you can get an Offcloud Lifetime Subscription on sale for $39.99 (Reg. $699), a markdown of 94%.
Prices subject to change.
Offcloud Lifetime Subscription
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TL;DR: As of July 24, you can get a Tykr Stock Screener: Pro Plan Lifetime Subscription for just $119 instead of $900 — that’s a discount of 86%.
The truth is, you don’t have to be an expert to start investing in the stock market, and you don’t have to already be rich. Though it might be intimidating starting out, you can get some help from Tykr Stock Screener.
This lifetime subscription could help you find low-risk stocks to invest in, and it can help you learn what it takes to reduce risk in your own investments. Right now, this beginner stock market software is on sale for $119 (Reg. $900).
Tykr can’t give you a sure thing to invest in, but nothing can. What Tykr does have is support for over 30,000 U.S. and international stocks with open-source calculations that score how safe that stock should be to invest in. The higher the score, the safer the investment, according to Tykr. For each supported stock, you’ll get a summary, score, and overview of your potential returns on your investment.
Tykr works a bit like having a friend who already knows more about the stock market, except you can always access this friend from anywhere at any time, provided you have an internet connection. Tykr can recommend which stocks to buy, when to sell, and it provides a detailed look at the reasoning behind these decisions. It won’t guarantee you massive payouts, but it could be a useful confidence-building tool as you learn about the market yourself. You can even use Tykr if you’re already acquainted with investing as a way to save time doing research on safer investments.
The stock market doesn’t need to have a steep learning curve or a massive buy-in cost. With Tykr, you can see the potential risk level of investing and judge for yourself if you want to buy in. For a limited time, get Tykr Stock Screener: Pro Plan Lifetime Subscription for $119 (Reg. $900).
Prices subject to change.
Tykr Stock Screener: Pro Plan Lifetime Subscription
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TL;DR: As of July 24, you can get an HP EliteBook 840G4 (Refurbished) + Microsoft Office Professional 2021 Lifetime License for Windows for just $499.99 instead of $919 — that’s a 45% discount.
Shopping for a new computer can be an expensive ordeal, but it might be a little cheaper if you stopped looking for ‘in-store new’ and started looking for something new-to-you. This refurbished HP EliteBook works and looks like new and was made in 2021. Plus, it comes with a Lifetime License for Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows, and all of it together is only $499 (Reg. $919).
Get the computer and the software to immediately make it useful. This HP EliteBook comes with Windows 10 Pro and has an i5-7200 Processor. Pair that with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM and you have a still-modern machine that should be able to run most apps and games with little issue, though it may slow down if you’re using a CPU-intensive app like rendering a video.
Though the Intel HD 620 GPU should be serviceable for most day-to-day computing, unfortunately, it cannot be upgraded on this machine because it’s integrated. However, other quality-of-life amenities are included. You can connect to the internet through WiFi or ethernet cable. The 14-inch display is touchscreen-enabled, and the battery is built to last for up to 12 hours on a full charge.
When you get a new computer, often it may feel like a blank slate before you start adding on your favorite software. This bundle can help you get to work immediately with a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021. This suite of apps includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. If you’re grabbing this laptop for work or school, that may even be all you need. Compose documents, organize and present data, share information, and keep your thoughts organized with these eight apps that are yours for life.
Need a new computer at a refurbished price tag? Get this HP EliteBook 840G4 (Refurbished) + Microsoft Office Professional 2021 Lifetime License for Windows on sale for $499.99 (Reg. $919).
Prices subject to change.
HP EliteBook 840G4 (Refurbished) + Microsoft Office Professional 2021 Lifetime License for Windows
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