Astrolab’s LUMIS intends to put a robotic 5G network on the moon
Astrolab is a company intent on putting its products on the lunar surface. Along with its Flex lunar rover concept, the company is demonstrating a powered wireless communications network for moon exploration. That would be LUMIS, or the Lunar Utility Module for Industrial Services.
The “lunar power, communications and data node” will use the company’s Flex rover to transport and set up solar panels and communications nodes, with a smaller secondary robot assisting. The idea, eventually, is to deploy 100kW of solar power using the expandable system, though Astrolab will generate just 2kW initially as a demonstration of what the company can do.
If it all works, it would be a boon for lunar explorers – electricity generation, communication (back to base via 5G and to Earth itself), and computing networks (via Wi-Fi), all in one easy-to-set-up (in lunar terms) package. One that Astrolab reckons it alone can deliver, of course.
Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI is shifting gears
We’re in the endgame now. This is the last full week that the world will be without Grand Theft Auto VI. As such, Rockstar Games has stepped up the marketing to the nth degree, far exceeding anything we’ve seen before. On top of literally taking over the Miami Heat’s branding closer to launch, real-life GTA cars have hit the streets.
Rockstar Games has teamed up with West Coast Customs to build six drivable cars that cruised through the streets of Miami. Those would be the Grotti Cheetah, Pegassi Tempesta, Progen Emerus, Invetero Coquette, Albany Buccaneer, and Albany Manana — each fitted with Vice City plates to complete the look.
The fleet first arrived on the Florida scene in mid-October, ’round the time when the launch trailer dropped. Now it seems Rockstar Games is bringing it to folks’ attention with an official photoshoot (via HypeBeast). You’ll want to head over there to see what else the Pimp My Ride wizards have cooked up before the game’s launch.
The Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t angling for another price hike, apparently
You know the economy is fried when consumers rejoice at the news of a piece of tech not raising prices further. The Nintendo Switch 2, which only launched in June 2025, faced hikes in May this year, which seemingly led to the handheld hybrid losing out on about a third of sales. Insert surprised Pikachu face.
Raising prices on already-expensive gadgets isn’t always a win. For the Nintendo Switch 2, which has faced criticism for a lack of first-party titles, many didn’t feel the need to get the console to play Breath of the Wild at 60fps. In the months since, we’ve had Pokopia and now Ocarina of Time, which may help claw back sales.
From 1 April 2026 to 30 September, the console sold 6.49 million units. In the same period in 2025, the console managed to sell 10.36 million units. Sure, many of the fanboys already had the new hardware, but sales obviously still fell short of expectations. So much so that Nintendo had to come out and put consumers’ minds at ease.
A report from Reuters claims that Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told investors the company could score enough RAM to keep supporting the Switch 2 and that there’s no price hike lying in wait. With so many years left in the tank, we wouldn’t be so quick to take Furukawa at his word. Nintendo really likes money.
Good news for Linux gamers with a Steam Deck
Epic Games has confirmed that the Epic Games Launcher will support several Linux distributions (distros) in the not-too-distant future. The new vibe-coded launcher was announced on 14 October and is currently available in preview to try out.
According to GamingOnLinux, it initially launched with an AppImage (an open-source format for distributing portable software on Linux), but has since been updated to a ‘.deb’ package format for Debian / Ubuntu distros.
In response to a question from GamingOnLinux, Epic Games’ Communications Director Jake Jones said the company “[planned] to support as many Linux distributions as possible, including Fedora, SteamOS, Cachy, Omarchy, and more.” The specific mention of SteamOS, which is based on the Arch distro,
It will still be a while before Fortnite, and other games that require Easy Anti-Cheat support, are playable on Linux distros. But that is being worked on, with Epic saying in its announcement that it was “rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and working with distro maintainers on security requirements. Once it’s working with a critical mass of distro maintainers, [the company will] bring Fortnite to Linux via the Epic Games Launcher.”
