Activision has confirmed that a new Warzone is on the way that's being "built from the ground up" and will be revealed later this year. The news comes via the publisher's first quarter financials and it certainly sounds like the rumored Warzone 2 rather than a Warzone expansion or rework.

Activision says it's being created alongside Modern Warfare 2 , which is reported to be be set in the drug war against Columbian cartels. Given that Warzone currently features the arsenals of multiple Call of Duty games across different eras, it's easy to expect more crossover with the latest Modern Warfare.

The new Warzone will continue its free-to-play model, which is sure to keep it competitive with other heavyweights like Apex Legends and Fortnite . What's unclear still is what future is ahead for the original Warzone if a sequel supplants it.

As VGC reported last year, it's possible that Warzone 2 will get its own full size map when it launches, in a similar vein to Verdansk. Some of the other rumored leaks surrounding Modern Warfare 2 have suggested a new game mode like Battlefield 2042 's Hazard Zone. It's entirely possible this blend of PVP/ PVE could be instead for Warzone 2, which would seem to be a little bit of a change from the Warzone's style of run and gun.

With either approach to its future, Warzone is going to get a monster-sized shakeup later this year.

Is pollution the Bane of your life? Dyson launches air-cleaning headphones and face mask combo

Dyson has revealed the strangest headphones we've ever seen, combining a pair of over-ear noise-cancellers with a pollution-beating mask that filters the air you breathe. Think Batman supervillain Bane and you're on the right track.

The Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones are designed to capture city pollution, such as gas, allergens, and particulate matter, while blocking out unwanted noise with active noise-cancellation (ANC) and what the company describes as "pure, high-fidelity audio".

Building on the company's 30-year history of developing airflow, filtration, and motor technology, the headphones contain compressors in each earcup that draw air through dual-layer filters, and then project two streams of purified air to the wearer's nose and mouth.

The visor-like mask element of the headphones isn't totally closed off like a surgical mask and doesn't come into contact with the wearer's face, avoiding irritation and discomfort. To prevent crosswinds from introducing polluted air into the visor, sculpted returns work to keep the purified air close to the wearer's nose and mouth.

The level of purification can even automatically adapt to what you're doing, with four different modes: low, medium, high, and auto. In auto mode, accelerometers in the headphones detect your movements and toggle between high, medium, and low purification speeds – so, if you're running and breathing heavily, the Dyson Zone will up the level of purification.

Dyson has taken the same scientific approach to the development of the over-ear headphones ' audio performance, using a team of audio engineers and acousticians to engineer "excellent audio led by metrics, backed up with extensive listening trials". According to the company, the result is a wide frequency response, precise left-right balance, and low distortion, with neodymium drivers delivering "a faithful reproduction as the musicians or creators intended".

To preserve audio quality and allow listeners to enjoy their music uninterrupted, the air-purifying headphones use a mixture of passive and active noise cancellation, with large angled ear cushions that mold around the user's ears. And, if you just want to listen to music, you can remove the visor entirely and use the Zone purely as a pair of wireless headphones .

There are three ANC modes, including Isolation, Conversation, and Transparency. Isolation blocks out the most ambient sound, while Transparency mode amplifies "key sounds like emergency service sirens of informational announcements", in a similar way to the Sony WH-1000X4 . Conversation mode is activated any time you dip the visor, and it automatically turns off the air purification and amplifies the sound of voices.

As well as being Dyson's first audio device, the Zone noise-cancelling headphones are the brand's first wearable – and as such, the company has made a huge effort to ensure they're comfortable.

The headphones take inspiration from the shape and design of a horse's saddle, in that they are engineered to distribute weight over the sides of the head, rather than the top – much like the way a saddle curves over the horse's spine and distributes the load over the areas left and right of the backbone.

A long time coming

While the air-purifying headphones could be seen as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Dyson Zone headphones have been in development for six years, and are focused on tackling urban pollution, which chief engineer Jake Dyson describes as a "global problem".

Even if you did want to use the air-purifying headphones to prevent Covid-19 infection, the filter used by the Dyson Zone won't be sufficient. The company says it's capable of filtering out 99% of particle pollution as small as 0.1 microns, such as dust, pollen, and bacteria. Viruses, including coronaviruses, are much smaller than that .

That doesn't mean that the headphones won't be useful. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 9 in 10 people globally breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline pollutant limits, and as Dyson says, it affects us "in our homes, at school, at work and as we travel, whether on foot, on a bike or by public or private transport". WHO says that this exposure leads to "increased risk for diseases including heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and pneumonia".

So, the Dyson Zone could be a fantastic solution to a global health issue that can have devastating consequences.  The company has certainly taken a lot of care in the development of its first wearable device; the Zone air-purifying headphones are the result of over 500 prototypes and have been tested extensively to ensure they're robust and can handle any climate or humidity level. Dyson even tested a snorkel-like design before settling on a far less intrusive visor.

We daresay people will be more inclined to wear an air filter if it's attached to a pair of headphones. After all, lots of us like to wear headphones on the move, especially noise-cancelling models that block out the sound of our surroundings and let us hear our music in peace.

Wearing a pair of noise-cancelling headphones alongside a separate wearable air filter would be pretty cumbersome. By combining a pair of cans with an air-purifying visor, Dyson may have found a way to combat both noise and air pollution in one go.

There's no word yet on how much the headphones will cost, but Dyson says they'll be available online and in-store at Dyson Demo Stores in late 2022. Don't expect them to come cheap; if the Zone are anything like Dyson's previous products, they won't be particularly budget-friendly.

Lord of the Rings TV show teases its sizable cast in new posters

The first Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power character posters have dropped online – but, perhaps unsurprisingly, they don't give much away.

Released on Prime Video 's official Twitter accounts on Thursday (February 3), the 23 posters are a glorious example of how to tease a fanbase that's ravenous for more information on an upcoming TV show.

Indeed, The Rings of Power 's numerous one sheets show off a number of the series' presumably key characters. However, the posters don't show each individual's faces, ensuring that we can't work out which actor is playing which character. Instead, we can only see the various clothes or armor that each individual wears, weapons they wield, and items they carry.

Take a look at all 23 posters in the gallery below:

While the identities of each character remains hidden, we can try and work out who some of the individuals shown off in these posters.

The first image, for example, is clearly a Dwarf warrior or even a king (possibly King Durin III?). You can tell by the runes on the axe that the character's hands are resting on, as well as their long beard. Meanwhile, the second to last poster almost certainly shows off Sauron. The tenth poster appears to show a Rohan knight – the horsehead handle of their blade is a clear giveaway – and poster 20 could be Isildur, who is rumored to be in the show, too.

We know that there will be 39 main and supporting actors in The Rings of Power's first season, so there are still 16 character posters that are yet to be revealed. Despite knowing which stars will appear in the Prime Video show , too, we don't actually know who most of them will portray, either.

Saint Maud's Morfydd Clark is set to play a younger version of Galadriel, while Lenny Henry has confirmed he's playing a a Harfoot, one of the Hobbit races. Those aside, though, there's been no confirmation about which characters each actor has been cast as.

Hopefully, it won't be long before we find out. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to launch exclusively on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

Analysis: could an official trailer be on the way soon?

It's possible. After all, this is the second time in as many months that Amazon Studios has teased us with some new information about The Rings of Power.

In January, a one-minute long video was posted online that finally revealed the official title of Amazon's TV adaptation – i The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Now, two weeks later, we've been given a very first glimpse at the characters who'll be central to season 1's plot.

So it seems that Amazon Studios is starting to ramp up its marketing campaign for The Rings of Power. The prequel series is set to be its big budget fantasy offering for 2022, so it's about time that we started to see and learn more about what it'll entail.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring – the first book in Tolkien's legendary trilogy – wasn't released until July 29, 1954, though. So it's possible that Amazon may even be saving the show's first trailer for that specific date. It would be a fitting way to reveal the series' first footage, in our view.

Still, we wouldn't complain if Amazon Studios released a first teaser earlier than that date. Given that we've only had a release date and first-look image , a title reveal, and 23 character posters to mull over, it's high time that we saw some official footage from the show. Make it so, please, Amazon.