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Day of the Devs is always one of the biggest highlights of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards. The showcase places the spotlight firmly on emerging indie games and underground titles, and each event always has at least a few projects that are worth adding to your wishlist. Now, Day of the Devs is shaking things up by becoming an independent non-profit organization.It started in 2012 as a collaboration between iam8bit and Double Fine, which Microsoft bought in 2019. The restructuring means that Day of the Devs will no longer have a formal affiliation with Microsoft and has more leeway to do its own thing while becoming truly platform agnostic.The team notes that "we have essentially always run things as a non-profit, but making it official - through a fiscal sponsorship partnership with Legacy Global - it opens us up to better funding opportunities, makes our fundraising efforts more transparent and public and helps our sponsors and audience understand how critical their support truly is." The organization will use funds raised to cover things like venue fees, equipment, staffing, video production and general operating costs.A fundraising campaign is now up and running. Supporters will receive perks such as keys for a bunch of killer games from a variety of developers and publishers, VIP tickets for events and physical goods. As Game Developer notes, donations to Day of the Devs now count as tax write offs.Day of the Devs doesn't charge developers to highlight their games and it wants to keep things free for event attendees. Next up is an in-person showcase in San Francisco on March 17. Developers can now submit their games for consideration.Day of the Devs has other events planned throughout March, including one at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on March 18 and another at the Game Developers Conference. And of course, the organization will host digital showcases around the time of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards later this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/indie-game-champion-day-of-the-devs-is-now-an-independent-non-profit-163439253.html?src=rss

We may have an adequate understanding of the human body in that, well, we invented aspirin and sequenced the genome, but researchers still find out new things about the humble homo sapien all of the time. Case in point? Scientists just discovered a previously unknown entity hanging out in the human gut and mouth. The researchers are calling these virus-like structures obelisks", due to their presumed microscopic shape.These entities replicate like viruses, but are much smaller and simpler. Due to the minuscule size, they fall into the viroid" class, which are typically single-stranded RNAs without a protein shell. However, most viroids are infectious agents that cause disease and it doesn't look like that's the case with these lil obelisks, as reported by Live Science.So why are they inside of us and what do they do? That's the big question. The discoverers at Stanford University, the University of Toronto and the Technical University of Valencia have some theories. They may influence gene activity within the human microbiome, though they also hang out in the mouth. To that end, they have been found using the common mouth-based bacterium Streptococcus sanguinis as a host. It's been suggested that these viroids infect various bacteria in both the mouth and gut, though we don't know why.Some of the obelisks seem to contain instructions for enzymes required for replication, so they look to be more complex than your average viroid, as indicated by Science.In any event, there has been a chicken and the egg" debate raging for years over whether viruses evolved from viroids or if viroids actually evolved from viruses, so further study could finally end that argument.While we don't exactly know what these obelisk sequences do, scientists have discovered just how prevalent they are in our bodies. These sequences are found in roughly seven percent of human gut bacteria and a whopping 50 percent of mouth bacteria. The gut-based structures also feature a distinctive RNA sequence when compared to the mouth-based obelisks. This diversity has led researchers to proclaim that they comprise a class of diverse RNAs that have colonized, and gone unnoticed in, human, and global microbiomes."I think this is one more clear indication that we are still exploring the frontiers of this viral universe," computational biologist Simon Roux of the DOE Joint Genome Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory told Science.It's insane," added Mark Peifer, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The more we look, the more crazy things we see."Speaking of frontier medicine, scientists also recently created custom bacteria to detect cancer cells and biometric implants that detect organ rejection after replacement surgery. The human body may be just about as vast and mysterious as the ocean, or even space, but we're slowly (ever so slowly) unraveling its puzzles.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/scientists-discover-weird-virus-like-obelisks-in-the-human-gut-and-mouth-162644669.html?src=rss

It's been six years since Maddy Makes Games released Celeste, a tough but heartfelt 2D platformer that turned out to be one of the most memorable indie games of the last decade. It was one of our favorite games of 2018 too. To mark the anniversary, the studio has created a 3D spinoff that you can play for free right now.Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain has many of the hallmarks of the original game. You'll once again take control of Madeline as she attempts to traverse difficult terrain, only this time there's an added dimension. Madeline can jump, dash and climb her way up perilous floating platforms while avoiding spikes and pitfalls. There are some Easter eggs for fans to discover too. As ever, Madeline's movement is slick and, based on some brief hands-on time, Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain is an enjoyable, fresh dose of this universe.

We finally know for certain who will face off in Super Bowl 2024: The Kansas City Chiefs will play against the San Francisco 49ers in the biggest annual sporting event in the US. The game will take place in Las Vegas at the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, with kick off at 3:30pm Pacific or 6:30pm Eastern on Sunday, February 11. The game will air on CBS, which means it'll also be streaming live on Paramount+ since both are owned by Paramount Global. You can also watch it on cable, with a live TV streaming service and with the NFL's app on mobile. That's all to say that you have plenty of options to watch, stream and otherwise enjoy the big game this year. Here are all the ways to watch Super Bowl LVIII in 2024.How to watch Super Bowl 58This year, the rights to air the biggest annual sporting event in the US goes to CBS... and Nickelodeon. Yep, the kids channel is hosting a live, family-friendly version of the event, complete with helpful thematic graphics and the cast of SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer hosting, providing commentary and explaining the rules to the youngest NFL fans. If you don't need sideline reports from Sandy Cheeks, regular versions of the game will appear on CBS, CBS Sports Network, Paramount+ and on the NFL+ mobile app.How to watch the Super Bowl with cable or satellite TVCable and satellite subscribers can tune into their local CBS station. If your plan includes CBS Sports Network (or Nickelodeon), you can go that route, too. Here's a list of local CBS stations and affiliates so you can find your channel.How to stream Super Bowl 2024Last year, the Super Bowl was a little more complicated to stream since the broadcaster (Fox) didn't have an over-the-top streaming app. It's easier this year: the standalone Paramount+ app lets subscribers watch the game live. Plans start at $6 per month and there's currently a free seven-day trial, but there's no telling if that deal will still be live right before the big event. Of course, most live TV streaming services will also have the game, either on your local CBS station or via CBSSN. Here are the providers that will show Super Bowl LVIII:

Volvo's EX30 EV was a hit from the get-go thanks in part to the use of technology, along with the relatively low $35,000 price tag. However, its reliance on that tech is apparently catching up to it (much as it has for other recent vehicles), as the automaker has delayed deliveries in Europe due to software bugs, Automotive News has reported."We confirm that Volvo is working tirelessly to resolve the problem," the company told Automotive News Europe. "Important progress has been made but the software version 1.2 does not yet meet all the requirements necessary to be released." The problem apparently couldn't fixed over the air, so updates needed to be done at dealerships.Volvo didn't explain exactly what the error was, but customer correspondence stated that the 1.2 software "contains, among other things, some Google certifications and key updates." I encountered several glitches (Google Maps stopped working, for instance) when testing a pre-production model in Barcelona.Steve Dent for EngadgetThe vehicle has experienced multiple delays that have lasted around two weeks. Volvo has apparently resolved the issues and the EVs are ready to be driven off dealers' lots as soon as they're fixed, according to Automotive News. "We want the best possible experience for our EX30 customers," Volvo said in a statement.The EX30 generated a lot of interest thanks to a charming design, low starting price, solid performance, decent range and use of eco-friendly materials. All models sold to start with will be built in China, so the vehicle isn't eligible for federal US tax credits.As the company subsequently announced, though, some models will be be built later on in Volvo's Ghent, Belgium plant. The EX30 is key to Volvo's plans to boost sales by 69 percent and sell 1.2 million cars as early as next year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/volvo-pauses-deliveries-of-its-ex30-due-to-software-issues-132019346.html?src=rss

Apple recently announced the changes it's making to the App Store in order to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) that goes into full effect on March 7. The company's critics quickly denounced its plans and requirements for alternative app stores, with Spotify calling the changes a "total farce." Microsoft's Xbox is one of the latest companies to call out Apple's compliance plans. In response to a post on X by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek talking about the changes at Apple, Xbox president Sarah Bond said the company's new policy is "a step in the wrong direction" and that she hopes it listens to feedback to create a "more inclusive future for all."

Samsung's 2024 flagship has landed. The S24 Ultra has a new titanium frame, improved telephoto cameras and is jam-packed with new AI smarts and features. It's also more expensive than ever.It's the AI features not hardware that mark this year's S23 series, though. AI tools range across text and translation, photography and search. A lot of these AI abilities are already available from other services, like ChatGPT and Bard, but this is crammed into the S24 series at the base level, so from the Notes app you can summarize, auto-format, spellcheck or translate your missives, on the go. (Transcription is also, apparently, very impressive, but that might be the journalist in me getting excited.)EngadgetFactor in a much faster chip, a brighter display and even longer battery life and the S24 Ultra makes a case for upgrading. It's just a pricey one.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedOur favorite microSD card is on sale for only $11 right nowHow to buy a monitorNeuralink's brain chip has been implanted in a human, Elon Musk saysFormer Call of Duty chief Johanna Faries is Blizzard's new presidentYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Amazon abandons billion-dollar deal to buy Roomba maker, iRobotIt was due to the EU's anti-competitive concerns.Amazon and iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum line, just announced they are dropping their proposed merger. They announced the potential acquisition back in August 2022, and in November, the European Commission raised formal concerns over the potential impact on competition. The companies didn't mention the formal investigation in the announcement. Now the deal isn't going through, iRobot says it's laying off about 350 employees, which represents 31 percent of the company's workforce. Colin Angle, founder, CEO and chair of the iRobot board of directors is also stepping down as chair and CEO.Continue reading.Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League bug beats the game for youIt was pulled offline an hour after launch.RocksteadyRocksteady's new third-person action shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was pulled offline just one hour after launch after players encountered a bizarre bug that immediately beats the game. It locked players out of all story missions, including tutorials, in a race to reach the end credits. It also makes it impossible to receive trophies and achievements, but the biggest issue may be the inability to play any of the $70 game. The developer says it's working on a fix.Continue reading.Japan's SLIM lunar probe returns to lifeThe solar panels recharged after the sun's orientation shifted.Japan's lunar lander has regained power, nine days after it landed on the Moon's surface nearly upside down and switched off. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) said a change in the sun's position allowed the solar panels to receive light and charge the probe's battery, so JAXA could reestablish communication. In any case, the mission was deemed a success, as the primary goal was a precision landing. It did just that, hitting a spot just 55 meters (180 feet) of its target. Just... the wrong way up.Continue reading.Japan will no longer require floppy disks for submitting some official documentsYes, it's 2024. Why do you ask?ReutersBack on Earth, and in 2022, Japan's Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono urged various branches of the government to stop requiring businesses to submit information on outdated forms of physical media. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is one of the first to make the switch. Kono's staff identified some 1,900 protocols across several government departments that still require floppy disks, CD-ROMs and even (!) MiniDiscs.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-verdict-on-samsungs-galaxy-s24-ultra-121505918.html?src=rss

Yelp just released a substantial app update with more than 20 new features, and several of these tools are packed with, wait for it, AI. The biggest news for regular users is the addition of summaries of business automatically written by AI, which Yelp says will help people find the perfect restaurant or service to meet their needs.There's also new visuals for the home feed and revamped search experience, which the company says will also help users find that perfect dinner spot. This home feed incorporates AI to provide more relevant content to users and will also display images from nearby restaurants that match previous user queries, in addition to videos posted by local businesses.The AI tomfoolery extends to business users. The app now offers business owners AI-powered smart budgets" to optimize ad spending. There's also new data insights available for business owners that deliver valuable market and competitive" information.Yelp Yelp's expanding the Recognitions feature to encourage user engagement. Now, users can earn official kudos by regularly reviewing certain types of foods. You can nab one of these coveted digital trophies by reviewing three restaurants that offer the same type of cuisine in one year. You'll find these credentials in the Achievements section on the app.The update's only available on iOS for now, but Yelp says an Android version will be released in the coming months. This isn't the first time the service has dipped its toes into the wading pool of AI. Back in April, the company announced it was integrating AI and natural language models to improve search.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yelps-new-ai-features-include-auto-generated-business-summaries-among-other-updates-120010725.html?src=rss

Apple's latest Watch Series 9 is back down to its lowest price ever, just in time to help you keep going with those January fitness goals. You can grab the 41mm Pink model with the light pink sport loop for just $309, for a savings of 23 percent ($90) off the list price. If you're looking for another color, the Midnight and Silver models are on sale for $329, still saving you a substantial 18 percent ($70) off the regular price.The Apple Watch Series 9 is a solid addition to the lineup, scoring an excellent 92 in our review thanks to new features like Raise To Speak and Double Tap. Raise to Speak allows you to lift your wrist to activate Siri, with requests now processed right on the watch instead of going through another device. In other words, you can still use Siri when offline or away from your phone.Double Tap is a more interactive feature, letting you tap your index finger and thumb together (the ones on the same side as the watch) twice to complete specific actions. You can use it to answer or end calls or reply with dictation, among other commands - meaning you'll need to touch your watch face less often.The Apple Watch Series 9 is also powerful for health and fitness - for one, it monitors your heart rate and will send a notification if it notices any irregularities. It also tracks your sleep stages and overall well-being through features like temperature sensing. Plus, it's water-resistant, so you needn't worry about sweat.There is one downside, as you might be aware. Apple was forced to disable a key new feature, the blood oxygen monitor, due to a patent dispute with a medical company. That issue has now been resolved, though, and you probably won't miss the feature much - especially at those prices.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-watch-series-9-falls-back-to-a-low-of-309-115531352.html?src=rss

Gogoro is best known for its battery swapping tech, but its new scooter may be one of the quickest and highest-tech models available. The flagship Pulse can accelerate from 0 to 32MPH in just 3.05 seconds thanks to the company's "Hypercore" tech that delivers 378nm of torque to the back wheel. At the same time, it's fitted with a 10.25 HD touch display that offers turn-by-turn navigation and more.The first thing that stands out with the Pulse is the new angular and modern design that differs from past models that were more on the retro side. It also has the benefit of reducing non-essential drag and using airflow to cool the electric motor, according to Gogoro.The new 9kW Hyper Drive powertrain features a new hybrid water and air dual-cooling system, allowing the H1 motor to hit up to 11,000 RPM. And while it boosts performance, it's also supposed to reduce energy consumption, the company wrote.GogoroIt uses an active-matrix lighting system with 13 separate LED units. Each of those actively switch on to adapt to the rider's speed, turns and even weather conditions, presumably to improve visibility in traffic. As you drive it faster, the active-matrix headlights also extend further down the road and the active-corner lighting "provides wider bands of light aimed in the direction of each turn," Gogoro says.The 10.25-inch panoramic touch display is something you don't see on too many scooters. Along with the turn-by-turn navigation with real-time traffic information, it comes with a new iQ Touch HD system that display battery swap locations, speeds, power levels and more, while letting you select from different ride modes. Gogoro claims it's the first two-wheeled vehicle to be powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon QWM2290 digital chassis.Riders will be able to unlock and start the Pulse using their iPhone by adding the scooter key to their Apple Wallet. You'll also be able to use Apple's Find My feature to locate the scooter if it's stolen or lost.Gogoro is based in Taiwan, and now operates in nine markets including India, The Philippines, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Israel. The company has yet to announce a price for the Pulse, but it'll start shipping in Taiwan in late Q2 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gogoros-new-flagship-pulse-is-a-sporty-high-tech-scooter-102014298.html?src=rss

You will soon find a kid-friendly section inside OpenAI's newly opened store for custom GPTs. The company has joined forces with Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that rates media and technology based on their suitability for children, to minimize the risks of AI use by teenagers. Together, they intend to create AI guidelines and educational materials for young people, their parents and their educators. The two organizations will also curate a collection of family-friendly GPTs in OpenAI's GPT store based on Common Sense's ratings, making it easy to see which ones are suitable for younger users."Together, Common Sense and OpenAI will work to make sure that AI has a positive impact on all teens and families," James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, said in a statement. "Our guides and curation will be designed to educate families and educators about safe, responsible use of ChatGPT, so that we can collectively avoid any unintended consequences of this emerging technology."According to Axios, the partnership was announced at Common Sense's kids and family summit in San Francisco, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shot down the idea that AI is bad for kids and should be kept out of schools. "Humans are tool users and we better teach people to use the tools that are going to be out in the world," he reportedly said. "To not teach people to use those would be a mistake." The CEO also said that future high school seniors would be able to operate at a higher level of abstraction and could achieve more that their predecessors with the help of artificial intelligence.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-and-commonsense-media-team-up-to-curate-family-friendly-gpts-074228457.html?src=rss

The first human patient has received a Neuralink brain implant, according to Elon Musk. The procedure was apparently successful, with Musk saying the individual is recovering well" one day after the surgery.Neuralink, which aims to create brain-computer interfaces (BCI), began recruiting human patients for its first clinical trial last fall after getting the green light from the FDA. At the time, Neuralink said that people who have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)" may qualify for the study. The initial goal of our BCI is to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone," the company wrote in a statement.

California will float a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and preserve their private data. The Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and California Children's Data Privacy Act (AB 1949) were introduced Monday by the state's Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The proposed legislation follows a CA child safety bill that was set to go into effect this year but is now on hold.SB 976 could give parents the power to remove addictive algorithmic feeds from their children's social channels. If passed, it would allow parents of children under 18 to choose between the default algorithmic feed -typically designed to create profitable addictions -and a less habit-forming chronological one. It would also let parents block all social media notifications and prevent their kids from accessing social platforms during nighttime and school hours.Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem," California Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) wrote in a press release. We've waited long enough for social media companies to act. SB 976 is needed now to establish sensible guardrails so parents can protect their kids from these preventable harms."L to R: California AG Rob Bonta, State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Buffy WicksThe Office of Nancy SkinnerMeanwhile, AB 1949 would attempt to strengthen data privacy for CA children under 18. The bill's language gives the state's consumers the right to know what personal information social companies collect and sell and allows them to prevent the sale of their children's data to third parties. Any exceptions would require informed consent," which must be from a parent for children under 13.In addition, AB 1949 would close loopholes in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that fail to protect the data of 17-year-olds effectively. The CCPA reserves its most robust protections for those under 16.This bill is a crucial step in our work to close the gaps in our privacy laws that have allowed tech giants to exploit and monetize our kids' sensitive data with impunity," wrote Wicks (D-Oakland).The bills may be timed to coincide with a US Senate hearing (with five Big Tech CEOs in tow) on Wednesday covering children's online safety. In addition, California is part of a 41-state coalition that sued Meta in October for harming children's mental health. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that internal Meta (Facebook at the time) documents described tweens" as a valuable but untapped audience."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/proposed-california-bill-would-let-parents-block-algorithmic-social-feeds-for-children-220132956.html?src=rss

Japan is an innovative country that leads the way on many technological fronts. But the wheels of bureaucracy often turn incredibly slowly there. So much so, that the government still requires businesses to provide information on floppy disks and CD-ROMs when they submit certain official documents.That's starting to change. Back in 2022, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono urged various branches of the government to stop requiring businesses to submit information on outdated forms of physical media. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is one of the first to make the switch. "Under the current law, there are many provisions stipulating the use of specific recording media such as floppy disks regarding application and notification methods," METI said last week, according to The Register.After this calendar year, METI will no longer require businesses to submit data on floppy disks under 34 ordinances. The same goes for CD-ROMs when it comes to an unspecified number of procedures. There's still quite some way to go before businesses can stop using either format entirely, however.Kono's staff identified some 1,900 protocols across several government departments that still require the likes of floppy disks, CD-ROMs and even MiniDiscs. The physical media requirements even applied to key industries such as utility suppliers, mining operations and aircraft and weapons manufacturers.There are a couple of main reasons why there's a push to stop using floppy disks, as SoraNews24 points out. One major factor is that floppy disks can be hard to come by. Sony, the last major manufacturer, stopped selling them in 2011. Another is that some data types just won't fit on a floppy disk. A single photo can easily be larger than the format's 1.4MB storage capacity.There are some other industries that still rely on floppy disks. Some older planes need them for avionics, as do and some aging medical devices. It also took the US government until 2019 to stop using floppy disks to coordinate nuclear weapon launches.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japan-will-no-longer-require-floppy-disks-for-submitting-some-official-documents-212048844.html?src=rss

Embracer Group, the Swedish holding company undergoing restructuring, has reportedly canceled a Deus Ex game. Bloomberg says developers had been working on the unannounced title for two years. Neither Embracer nor developer Eidos addressed the reported cancellation specifically, but they confirmed they were laying off 97 employees at Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal.Eidos will reportedly focus instead on an original franchise." Bloomberg's sources say the Deus Ex game was scheduled to start production later this year. The franchise's most recent mainline installment was 2016's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.After aggressively growing through acquisitions during the pandemic, Embracer Group entered a turbulent period last year. The company announced a restructuring plan in June 2023 after an unnamed partner pulled out of a planned deal that would have brought in $2 billion over six years. Axios later reported the mysterious investor was Savvy Games Group, which the Saudi government funds.In August, Embracer announced the closure of Volition, the studio behind the Saints Row series. The parent company laid off about 900 employees in September and another 50 workers at Chorus developer Fishlabs. Earlier this month, Embracer shuttered Lost Boys Interactive, makers of Tiny Tina's Wonderland - pinning the blame on headwinds facing the industry right now."

Microsoft didn't have to look too far to find the new president of Blizzard. Former Call of Duty general manager Johanna Faries is replacing Mike Ybarra, who stood down from the role amid last week's sweeping layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division. Blizzard was said to be particularly hard hit as Microsoft fired around 1,900 people.Faries, a former National Football League executive, joined Activision as the head of Call of Duty esports in 2018. She started overseeing all things Call of Duty in 2021 and officially starts her new role on February 5.Blizzard has largely operated independently since it merged with Activision in 2008. As such, Blizzard workers may be forgiven for being concerned at someone from the Activision side taking control. Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick often meddled in Blizzard's affairs, reportedly resulting in Overwatch 2 delays, among other things.In an attempt to soothe any worries, Faries wrote in an email to staff that "Activision, Blizzard, and King are decidedly different companies with distinct games, cultures and communities. It is important to note that Call of Duty's way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard's realm: each with different gameplay experiences, communities that surround them, and requisite models of success. I've discussed this with the Blizzard leadership team and I'm walking into this role with sensitivity to those dynamics, and deep respect for Blizzard, as we begin to explore taking our universes to even higher heights."Faries added that she is "committed to doing everything I can to help Blizzard thrive, with care and consideration for you and for our games, each unique and special in their own right." Meanwhile, on X, Faries wrote that Blizzard's Diablo 4 was part of her current rotation of games, alongside Call of Duty and Baldur's Gate 3.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/former-call-of-duty-chief-johanna-faries-is-blizzards-new-president-193852238.html?src=rss

Sony's PlayStation division has cooked up its first State of Play event for 2024, which will stream this Wednesday at 5PM ET. The company promises a runtime of 40 minutes and coverage of more than 15 upcoming titles.To that end, Sony says two of the games profiled will be Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin. Stellar Blade, formerly called Project Eve, has been on our radar for a while, and it's been around 18 months since we got an update. The PS5-exclusive was supposed to hit store shelves in 2023, so we're due for a release date and another trailer that shows off more footage of the forthcoming action RPG. For those keeping score, the first teaser trailer for Stellar Blade appeared way back in 2019.As for Rise of the Ronin, it's a historical action RPG from Team Ninja, the developer behind Nioh. The game's set in 1863, during Japan's Bakumatsu era, and you play as a wandering Ronin. Expect plenty of third-person melee combat and gorgeous visuals. You'll be able to get your hands on it on March 22, so expect some sort of final trailer.Those are the only two confirmed games that'll get the spotlight during this week's stream, leaving more than 13 unknowns. There have been rumors swirling around the internet throughout the weekend regarding what else will be on the docket. These leaks suggest the stream will also feature Death Stranding 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a remaster of Sonic Generations, a remake of Silent Hill 2 and a new Metro game, among others. Like all leaks, take this information with a grain of salt. However, the original leaker did nail the date of the event, so there's that.You can watch via the official PlayStation site. It'll also be available on the company's YouTube, TikTok and Twitch channels. Sony promises information on both PS5 exclusives and upcoming PS VR 2 games.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-first-playstation-state-of-play-of-2024-will-stream-this-wednesday-at-5pm-et-192534173.html?src=rss

For nearly a decade the Galaxy Note was the undisputed king of Android phones. But when the OG phablet line was retired in 2020, that title passed on to the Ultra. While the hardware inside the most expensive Galaxy S model is as dominant as ever, over the past few years, the software in Google phones has begun to outshine anything available from Samsung. But armed with a new suite of AI-powered features, the Galaxy S24 Ultra (S24U) got exactly what it needed to maintain its spot atop the Android battlefield.Design and display: Now with titaniumThere are three main areas of improvement to the S24 Ultra: design, cameras and all of Samsung's new AI tools. The biggest change to its build is the switch to a new titanium frame, which follows what Apple did for the iPhone 15 Pro last fall. So no points for originality. But more importantly, because the previous Ultra featured an aluminum chassis, there's not a major change in weight either, with the S24U coming in at 232 grams (just two grams lighter than the S23 Ultra).Some other subtle changes are a new matte finish and an upgrade to Corning's Gorilla Armor in front and back (instead of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 like on the regular S24/S24+). Another benefit of Corning's latest hardened glass is that it has improved anti-reflective properties, so while it doesn't totally eliminate glare, it does make it appear less harsh without impacting the display's color saturation. And despite the previous model having slim bezels, Samsung reduced the borders around the display again by 42 percent, which is most noticeable along the top and bottom.The display itself proves, once again, that Samsung makes the best mobile screens on the market. You still get a 6.8-inch OLED panel with a variable 120Hz rate, except now it's even brighter with a peak of 2,600 nits (up from 1,750 nits). And if that's not enough, the phone's improved Vision Booster adds an additional 300 nits of perceived brightness, so movies, games, and everything else always looks good no matter where you are.Performance: Setting a new bar for speedPhoto by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetInside, the S24 Ultra features a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC from Qualcomm and it's a powerhouse. In Geekebench 6, we saw multi-core scores that were 30 to 35 percent higher than last year's chip. This makes everything from games to switching between apps feel super snappy. The addition of a 92 percent larger vapor chamber also meant the S24 UItra never got above lukewarm even under sustained loads. Samsung also increased the phone's RAM to 12GB for every config, unlike the S23U which started at 8GB base. Storage remains the same with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB options.Cameras: A more usable 5x optical zoomThree of the S24 Ultra's four cameras are largely unchanged from its predecessor, including its 200-MP main sensor, 10-MP ultra-wide and 12-MP telephoto shooter with a 3x optical zoom. The main upgrade is swapping out the old 10x lens for a 5x optical zoom with a higher-res 50-MP sensor, which Samsung says reflects 5x being the most widely used focal length aside from the main cam. While this move might seem like a loss in terms of reach, the sensor's increased resolution allows the phone to crop in providing what Samsung calls a 10x optical quality zoom" that's surprisingly sharp.In photos of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty from across the water, the S24U produced rich, detailed pics that were just as good as what we got from a Pixel 8 Pro. And while images taken at 10X were a touch softer than similar shots taken by an S23 Ultra, they weren't far off.In general the S24U captured gorgeous pics in all sorts of conditions. You'll still notice Samsung's super-saturated colors and penchant for slightly warmer hues, but in most cases that just adds an extra sense of vibrancy. Samsung also has a habit of going a bit overboard on sharpening, though it's not a major distraction. Even in low light the S24U's Night Mode largely kept up with Google's Night Sight, which is no small feat.Software: Samsung's big push into AIPhoto by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetAside from its new hardware, the biggest addition to the S24 Ultra is Samsung's Galaxy AI features, which are an entire suite of tools that fall into three main categories: text and translation, photography and editing, and search.There's an interpreter mode for in-person conversations along with a live translation feature that you can use during calls. Both are good enough to use in a pinch while traveling, but some things like word choice and pacing may be a bit off. The experience can also feel a bit clunky, especially when you're on the phone and have to wait so the AI can catch up.Next, you have Chat Assist which can check spelling, grammar andadjust the tone of messages. Admittedly, the social and emojify options are a bit gimmicky, but I genuinely appreciate the polite and professional choices, as they can help prevent a text or email from sounding combative.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetIn the Notes app, the S24U can also summarize, auto-format, spellcheck or translate a file, which is nice, but not exactly groundbreaking. A lot of these features are already available from other services like ChatGPT or Bard. That said, these improvements may be the biggest upgrades to the S24 Ultra's S-Pen, which is otherwise largely unchanged.Out of Samsung's text-based tools, my favorite is the transcription feature in the Voice Recorder app. It makes grabbing quotes from interviews super simple, though I noticed that Samsung's UX doesn't feel quite as polished or streamlined as what you get from Google. For example, the Pixel Recorder lets you see the transcript in real-time, while on the Ultra, you have to record a convo and then hit the AI icon to generate a chat log when you're done.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetThe AI can also suggest edits for images like automatically remastering images (which is similar to the Auto Tone feature in Photoshop) or removing distracting elements like shadows and reflections. You can see these options by hitting the Info icon in the gallery app, which makes them super easy to access and might be the fastest way to improve your photos. The S24 Ultra can also create slow-mo clips from existing footage, just by tapping and holding on a video while it's playing. This triggers the phone's AI to generate new frames based on the fps of the recording (i.e. from 30 fps to 120 fps) on the fly and the results are surprisingly smooth.If you prefer a more hands-on approach, there are Generative AI edits that allow you to reframe shots, move subjects around or delete them entirely, while the phone fills in the blanks. It's a simple but effective process that sidesteps the need for Photoshop in a lot of cases. That said, if you look close you may notice areas where Samsung's AI misses more details than the Pixel 8's Magic Editor, which is a trend I noticed across a lot of Samsung's AI features.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetAll of the new tools generally function as expected, but things don't feel quite as streamlined or polished as a lot of Google's alternatives. In the Notes app, there's a word limit for auto-formatting, summarizing and more, which limits you to about three or four paragraphs at a time. That means if you have a medium-sized doc, you're gonna have to tackle it in chunks, which gets tedious pretty quickly. And sometimes if you try to highlight areas of a photo to remove reflections, the phone will smooth over the entire area and paint over the details.In other situations, the AI will suggest edits that don't make sense, like trying to turn a short motion photo into a timelapse. It's possible this was my fault for importing a photo taken by another device, but I feel like the phone ought to know better. The AI is meant to work on any photo, regardless of where it came from. Even moving subjects around in a pic can get wonky depending on the shot and what you're trying to do. And every now and then, the phone will suggest you remaster a photo, only for it to tell you that there's nothing to fix. As a photographer, that's a great feeling. But at the same time, why am I being told there are things to fix if that's not actually the case? But, this is Samsung's first big push into AI-assisted features, so it shouldn't be a shock to see a handful of hiccups.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetRounding out the S24's kit is Circle to Search, which is the one new AI feature that relies on help from the cloud instead of taking place on-device. It's essentially a combination of traditional text-based queries and visual search tools like Google Lens but without the need for a standalone app. The neat thing is that it can analyze images from the web or objects in photos you've taken yourself, which makes it pretty versatile. But Google recently announced that Circle to Search is coming to Pixel phones too, so it's not like this is an exclusive feather in Samsung's cap.Battery Life: Nearing two days of juiceBetween the power efficiency gains from its new processor and a large 5,000 mAh battery, the S24 Ultra delivered truly impressive longevity. On our local video rundown test, it lasted 24 hours and 19 minutes, which is up more than four hours compared to last year. And in the real world, its battery life was even more impressive. The S24U often had more than 50 percent left after 24 hours. So depending on your usage, it's possible for this phone to last two days without recharging.Wrap-upAt this point, you'd be forgiven for being fed up with companies trying to push AI into everything. But if you just think about these as software upgrades meant to make your phone more useful, Samsung's push into machine learning makes a lot more sense. The S23U was already a great phone and on the S24 Ultra, we're getting the same (though somewhat plain) design, but with a tougher titanium frame, a much faster chip, a brighter display and even longer battery life. Samsung also tweaked its main telephoto lens to provide a more useful focal length but without a major decrease in reach or quality.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetBut the big thing is that, with its Galaxy AI suite, Samsung finally has an answer to the sophisticated features that were previously only available from the Pixel family. Sure, the S24's tools aren't quite as polished as Google's offerings, but they get you 80 to 90 percent of the way there. And as a complement to what is more or less a top-to-bottom list of best-in-class smartphone hardware, it feels like Samsung is using AI to shore up one of the few remaining weaknesses of its flagship handset. Particularly now that the company is following in Google's footsteps and increasing software support from six to seven years of OS and security updates.However, the Ultra's biggest sticking point - its price - remains an issue. With the S24U starting at $1,300, it costs $100 more than the outgoing model. I'm also disappointed that Samsung didn't adopt Qi 2. It's frustrating to see all the major OEMs, including Apple, agree on a wireless charging standard only to have the biggest phone maker in the world drag its feet. Qi 2 got approved last year and we may not see it on a high-end Samsung handset until 2025.While harnessing AI might not be a super exciting development now that everyone and their grandmother is trying to shoehorn it into everything, it does make the S24 Ultra a more powerful and well-rounded handset. And when you tack that onto a phone that already had a lead in hardware, you end with a pretty commanding device.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/galaxy-s24-ultra-review-samsungs-ai-reinforcements-have-arrived-specs-price-191508062.html?src=rss

The Apple Vision Pro will be missing some major native apps at the outset, including Netflix, Spotify and YouTube. One notable app to which users of the mixed-reality headset will have access when it debuts later this week is Zoom, which will support the Vision Pro's Persona feature.Vision Pro users will be able to create digital versions of themselves. If you have said Persona, others on a Zoom or FaceTime call will be able to see your facial expressions and hand movements via your avatar. So while you may not be using a traditional webcam, other folks might notice your persona cringing at one of your boss' bad jokes.According to Zoom, the app's spatial experience can be "scaled to the perfect size," so it shouldn't seem like you're miles away from someone's Persona. Although Vision Pro users will be represented as a Persona (if they choose to be), those joining the call from other devices will be represented as a floating tile.Zoom will be one of the first major third-party apps to use this tech. Apple said Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex are getting in on the party too. The company claims that it only takes a few minutes to set up a Persona with a Vision Pro.There are more features coming to Zoom's app this spring. You'll be able to share 3D object files and view these in a virtual space through Vision Pro. Team Chat is also coming to the app, as is a tool called real-world pinning. Zoom says you'll be able to use this to pin five meeting participants anywhere in the virtual space and have the option of removing their background. The company suggests this will help Vision Pro users "feel more connected to the people in the meeting."While Zoom might not be the most exciting app for those who are picking up a Vision Pro primarily for entertainment purposes, it's interesting to see what third-party companies are starting to do with the tech. A Zoom call might not be too much different from a FaceTime chat out of the gate, but the addition of features like 3D object sharing could make it a more intriguing prospect for mixed-reality use.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/zooms-apple-vision-pro-app-will-let-people-see-your-facial-expressions-via-an-avatar-184536273.html?src=rss

Meta is teaming up with the Center for Open Science (COS) to start a pilot program that studies topics related to well-being." It looks like the program will dive into our social media data, but on a voluntary basis, as COS says it will use a privacy-preserving" dataset provided by Meta for the study. The agency says the study should help people understand how different factors may or may not impact well-being and inform productive conversations about how to help people thrive."The specifics of the study remain opaque, but COS says it'll use new types of research processes" like pre-registration and early peer review. That last one is important, as it sends proposed research questions to peer review before being issued to study participants. This should help stave off bias and ensure the questions are actually useful. The agency also says that all results will be published and not just those that confirm one's hypothesis or support a prevailing theory."As for a totally non-scientific study on the effects of social media, using it for even ten minutes transforms any dopamine in my brain to the swamps of sadness from The Neverending Story. You could be the same. It's no secret that social media is basically a factory that creates mental unease, and this is particularly true for kids and teens.So, why announce this partnership today of all days? It could be a coincidence, but the timing sure is funny. Meta is set to testify this week in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee about its failures to protect kids online, along with other social media bigwigs like TikTok, Snap and X. It is worth noting, however, that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew are willing participants in this testimony. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino had to be formally subpoenaed.However, Meta has a particularly bad track record when it comes to this stuff. After all, the company's being sued by 41 states for allegedly harming the mental health of its youngest users. The suit claims Meta knew its addictive" features were bad for kids and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms.Unsealed documents from the suit claim that Meta actually coveted and pursued" children under 13 and lied about how it handled underage accounts once discovered, often failing to disable these accounts while continuing to harvest data. This would be a brazen violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.Another lawsuit alleges that Facebook and Instagram's algorithms facilitated child sexual harassment, with the complaint stating that Meta's own internal documents said over 100,000 kids were harassed daily. Facebook's "People You May Know" algorithm was singled out as a primary conduit to connect children to predators. The complaint alleges that Meta did nothing to stop this issue when approached by concerned employees.With all of this in mind, it doesn't really take a study to recognize that the well-being" of users isn't exactly the most important thing on the minds of social media CEOs. Still, if the program helps these companies move in the right direction, that's certainly cool. COS says the study will take two years and that it's still in the early planning stages. We'll know more in the coming months. In the meantime, you can watch CEO Zuckerberg and all the rest testify before congress on Wednesday at 10 AM ET.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-will-offer-some-of-its-data-to-third-party-researchers-through-center-for-open-science-partnership-181418016.html?src=rss

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is getting a controller worthy of its inspiration - for better or worse. The upcoming game, a spiritual successor to the infamous 1993 Zelda titles for the Philips CD-i, will launch with a limited edition controller that resembles one of the largely forgotten system's original remotes.Developer Seedy Eye Software (a homophone for CD-i software") says using the controller on Classic Controls" mode will let you play Arzette, as it might have played back in 1993." That's when the title's inspirations -Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon - arrived for Philips' (brief) stab at a game-changing home entertainment system. (A third title in the series, Zelda's Adventure, launched in 1994 with a top-down view, and Philips discontinued the system four years later.)One may wonder why a developer would want to pay homage to a pair of historical duds better known for their memed cutscenes and masochistic gameplay than, oh, fun. Earlier this month, creator Seth Dopply" Fulkerson told Game Developer he saw untapped potential" in the notorious titles.The limitations the games suffered thanks to the hardware, budget and time constraints became painfully obvious," he said. I found it very inspiring to see how much [director Dale DeSharone] and his team accomplished with so little. There is a handcrafted charm to the games. They are hand-animated, hand-drawn, with brilliant music, designed in a surprisingly non-linear way that encourages you to explore them." He continued, Though they have many, many flaws, I truly believe there is innate potential in the games. Making a new game in the same style, with improvements to the core gameplay, was an irresistible idea."The game brings back several artists from the Zelda CD-i games. These include artist Rob Dunlavey and voice actors Jeffrey Rath (Link) and Bonniejean Wilbur (Zelda).Seedy Eye Software / Limited Run GamesThe retro-inspired" controller will only work with Switch and PC. (The game will also support PS5 / PS4 and Xbox.) The remote looks nearly identical to Philips' paddle controller, except for a couple of extra buttons. A fair warning that, given how the original remote played, the new version won't likely make Arzette (or any other games) more playable or enjoyable -just more nostalgic.Seedy Eye has partnered with Limited Run Games to distribute the controllers (and physical game copies). The two companies say they "worked hand-in-hand to craft the perfect physical goodies that pay tribute to Arzette and this oft-overlooked era in gaming."The controller will be available to pre-order starting February 2 at 10AM ET. (Pre-orders close on March 17.) The remote costs $35, will ship in a gray color and currently has an estimated November ship date. A pink variant will be exclusive to Arzette's Collector's Edition bundle. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore arrives on February 14. You can watch its trailer below.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arzette-a-love-letter-to-the-cd-i-zelda-games-will-also-revive-an-awful-controller-180450138.html?src=rss

Rocksteady's new third-person action shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been pulled offline just one hour after launch when players encountered a bizarre bug that immediately beats the game. We've all heard of game-breaking bugs, but this may be the first game-beating bug. Obviously, players want more than three minutes of playtime out of their $70 purchase.The issue immediately locks players out of all story missions, including tutorials, in a race to reach the end credits. This also makes it impossible to receive trophies and achievements, though most purchasers will probably get hung up on the whole the game is basically unplayable" aspect. Still, if you're looking for the easy mode to beat all easy modes, this is it. We could have used this bug for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Cuphead.There's one major caveat here that's saving this from becoming a huge story comparable with the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2099, and many other recent AAA launches. The game doesn't officially release in most of the world until February 2. Some territories get it tomorrow, January 30, and that's where the bug comes in. Due to the magic of global time zones, it's already January 30 in New Zealand, which is where players encountered the issue. However, it's not too hard to change your Xbox system clock to New Zealand time to snag the game early. Don't do that. Give Rocksteady some time to fix the problem.To that end, the developer says they are working on a fix, which involves performing maintenance on the servers. Rocksteady urges patience, writing that it could take several hours" before being handled. Throughout this time, the game will remain offline. In any event, the ship should right itself before February 2.Looking for a silver lining? Being as how the bug skips the vast majority of the game, the risk of story spoilers is really low for the next few days. So go ahead. Hit up your favorite social media sites and message boards.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-pulled-offline-after-a-bizarre-game-beating-bug-161955046.html?src=rss

There's never a bad reason to have extra storage on hand. One of the easiest ways to expand your device's storage or to back up important data is with an SD or microSD card. Most of the time, these are plug-and-play doohickeys, though it shouldn't take long for your device to reformat an SD card if need be. Some models are on sale at Amazon, including our pick for the best microSD card for most people. The 128GB Samsung Pro Plus microSD card has dropped to a record low of $11. It usually costs $20.This microSD card is compatible with a slew of Android phones, as well as tablets, cameras, drones and the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. You certainly won't need a faster microSD card than this for the two gaming devices given their maximum data transfer rates. However, you might be looking for an option with more storage.And whaddya know? Our second-top pick for a microSD card is also on sale. The 256GB Samsung Pro Ultimate will run you $28, which is $7 off and just $3 more than the record low. With read and write speeds of up to 200 MB/s and 130 MB/s, respectively, this may be a smarter choice if you're looking to capture 4K video on a microSD card.The microSD cards aren't the only Samsung storage options on sale over at Amazon at the minute. The company's 1TB T9 portable solid state drive has dropped to a record low of $110. It usually costs $145.The T9 is twice as fast as Samsung's T7, which is still our pick for the best portable SSD. The T7 is on sale too, as it happens. The 1TB model will run you $90, which is $50 off the usual price.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/our-favorite-microsd-card-is-on-sale-for-only-11-right-now-154447073.html?src=rss

Arc, a browser initially built just for the Mac, has been expanding lately. The Browser Company announced a beta of its Windows version last month, and today they're bringing the Arc experience to the iPhone with Arc Search. As the name implies, the new app is focused on searching - when you open the app, you're met with a keyboard and search field, not your usual collection of tabs. And rather than just serving up simple search results from Google or your engine of choice, Arc scans the internet for various sources and creates a "page for me" that pulls together a bunch of info on your desired query.For example, I just searched for "What happened in the Detroit Lions game?" and was met with details about a controversial two-point conversion that was overturned and how it ultimately affected the game's outcome, which was a three-point Lions loss. It follows with some top search results, team reactions, more details about the referees involved in the confusing call, fan sentiments and more links to dive into.It's not dissimilar to the sort of summaries you get in Google's generative AI search results, but so far I find results to be very hit or miss. For example, in the above-mentioned Lions query, the actual final score of the game was nowhere on the page that Arc generated. That's pretty basic info that you'd expect to see up top. Other queries I tried brought back a decent overview but not a whole lot of deep detail, and sometimes there weren't other links to click on to continue researching. That felt odd, because the results I received were far from comprehensive.If you aren't interested in these sorts of summary pages, however, you can still just type in a query and hit the "go" button on the keyboard to search Google; you only get the Arc-created summary pages if you tap the "browse for me" button. You can also just put a URL right into the search field and go straight to a site if you're so inclined. Like the desktop Arc browser, the Arc Search app archives your tabs after 24 hours so you don't rack up a never-ending log of sites you're not going to go back to (you can also choose to have tabs stick around as long as 30 days, if you need more time with what you've pulled up). And there's a nice "reader" mode like you'll find in Safari that strips away the mess found on many modern websites to make it easier to read an article. It also blocks trackers, ads and banners by default, which is pretty handy.From what I can tell, there's no way to sync Arc Search with the desktop browser - there's no way to see opened tabs from another machine, and I don't even think there's a way to sign into Arc Search with the account you make for your desktop browser. The only thing you can do with your open tabs is star one so it doesn't get closed, but there's otherwise no bookmarking or "read later" features.As the name suggests, it's a way to search and find info you need on your phone without offering the expected tools you'd get in a full-featured web browser. This makes it a bit of a tough sell to me - I love Arc on my Mac, and this so far feels like a significantly less useful experience than the full version of Arc, not to mention Safari or Chrome on iOS. While there's something to be said for the simplicity, I don't think the AI-generated summaries are worth making this my default mobile web browser.That said, the Browser Company likes to get things into the wild so its users can test them and prod them and figure out what isn't working, so I'm sure iteration and improvements will come quickly. The company already says its working on sync with desktop, and they also plan to merge the app with features found in the "Arc Mobile Companion" app that launched last spring. That app, which has now been removed from the App Store, only shows you what tabs you have open on other devices and bounces them to Safari (or other apps) for viewing. So it's safe to say that the new Arc app will be more capable soon. And even though it's not something I want to use as my default browser yet, Arc's quirky view on how a browser works is enough for me to keep an eye on it and see how it grows.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arc-browser-comes-to-the-iphone-as-a-stripped-down-ai-powered-search-tool-150227704.html?src=rss

Amazon and iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum line, just announced that they would be dropping their proposed merger. The potential acquisition was announced back in August of 2022 and was immediately the target of antitrust watchdogs, particularly in the EU. The European Commission (the EU's executive branch) officially announced it was looking into the $1.4 billion dollar deal last July and it raised formal concerns over the potential impact on competition in November.iRobot also just announced a large round of layoffs now that the deal isn't going through. The company says it is laying off about 350 employees, which represents 31 percent of iRobot's workforce. Colin Angle, founder, chairman of the iRobot board of directors and CEO is also stepping down as chairman and CEO, effective today.While the companies didn't mention the pressure from the EU specifically, Bloomberg notes that a veto looked likely. And while that might not have immediately killed the deal, Amazon and iRobot appear to have decided to shut things down completely rather than work through any proposed changes to make the deal more palatable to regulators. The deal was also said to be under scrutiny from the FTC here in the US, but it never quite reached the level of attention it was receiving from the EU.Unsurprisingly, Amazon's statement on the matter blasts regulators for the "innovation" that would come with Amazon scooping up yet another company. "This outcome will deny consumers faster innovation and more competitive prices, which we're confident would have made their lives easier and more enjoyable," said Amazon SVP and General Counsel David Zapolsky in a statement. "Mergers and acquisitions like this help companies like iRobot better compete in the global marketplace, particularly against companies, and from countries, that aren't subject to the same regulatory requirements in fast-moving technology segments like robotics."iRobot's statement was more muted. "The termination of the agreement with Amazon is disappointing, but iRobot now turns toward the future with a focus and commitment to continue building thoughtful robots and intelligent home innovations that make life better, and that our customers around the world love," said former CEO Colin Angle.Earlier in January, the European Commission was said to have warned Amazon that the deal was on thin ice. However, according to Reuters, the company declined to offer any potential remedies to soothe the bloc's concerns over the acquisition. As outlined in the original agreement, Amazon is paying iRobot a $94 million termination fee now that the deal is dead.This isn't exactly the first time Amazon and the EU have butted heads. They previously squared off over the company's handling of third-party seller information. In 2022, the two sides reached an agreement over Amazon's treatment of third-party sellers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-abandons-14-billion-irobot-acquisition-after-eu-veto-threat-140155112.html?src=rss

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air M2 is already the company's most affordable laptop with this size screen. Now, you can grab the 256GB model at Amazon for just $999 (in Starlight), back down to the lowest price we've seen to date. And if you need more storage, the 512GB model is available for $1,199 ($300 off in Midnight), also an all-time low price.The 15-inch MacBook Air is more than just a larger version of the 13-inch model, as Engadget's Nathan Ingraham discovered during his review. While it's still as thin and light as you'd expect, he found that the combination of the large screen and powerful processing made it good enough that he could see using it as his only computer.That's in large part due to Apple's M2 chipset that gives the 15-inch Air a great price to performance ratio. It also offers a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, plus battery life that actually exceeded the company's 18 hour spec for video playback during out testing. The bigger screen has a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution, but it shares the same pixels per inch (224) as that of the 13-inch version. Though it lacks the punch of the mini LED displays found on the MacBook Pros, the Liquid Retina panel still offers 500 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate.While Apple's M2 chipset is a year old at this point, the 15-inch Air model is the most recent model in the lineup. If your focus is content creation, a MacBook Pro might be a better choice. But if you do a mix of things from productivity to video editing, the 15-inch Air is an great choice - especially for road warriors who want to carry the least amount of weight possible. If you want to grab either the 256GB or 512GB models, it's best to act soon, though, as stock tends to run out fast.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-15-inch-macbook-air-m2-falls-back-to-a-low-of-999-132652205.html?src=rss

Japan's lunar lander has regained power a full nine days after it landed on the moon's surface nearly upside down and was subsequently switched off, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) announced. A change in the sun's position allowed the solar panels to receive light and charge the probe's battery, allowing JAXA to re-establish communication.Things were looking dire shortly after the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) touched down. The agency immediately noticed a problem with power generation, but was able to launch a pair of probes onto the moon's surface. The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) snapped an incredible photo of SLIM, showing it to be upside down with its panels pointing away from the sun. The cause was found to be a malfunction of the main engine.

As generative AI (and access to AI tools) continues to grow, expect to see more things like the tumult over George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead." Released on (then pulled from) YouTube, it's framed as an hour of new material" by the comedian, who died in 2008. Of course, it's not that. It isn't based on old notes or lost routines, either, like recent releases from the Beatles, and George Carlin's estate has filed a lawsuit against the makers.Initial reports from NPR said the AI was trained on thousands of hours of Carlin routines to create the material. Dudesy, the channel that created and posted the video, was later approached by The New York Times, and their spokesperson said the video was completely written by Chad Kultgen" - one of the channel's hosts.Both hosts, comedian Will Sasso and writer Kultgen, are named in the suit. They claim the AI-created Carlin is like an impressionist. (Although, it's really not a great one...)The complaint seeks unspecified damages and the immediate removal of any video or audio copies" of the special.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedWhat's up with the toxicity around Cities: Skylines II?Seeking Mavis Beacon is a Sundance doc about the search for a lost tech iconSony's WH-1000XM5 ANC headphones fall to $328X plans to hire 100 content moderatorsYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Fossil gives up on smartwatchesBut will keep releasing updates for a few years.FossilFossil is officially out of the smartwatch business. Its Wear OS smartwatch lineup hasn't seen a new model since 2021, and the company has now confirmed it's getting out of wearables. If you own a Fossil-branded watch (which covers several fashion brands like Skagen, Michael Kors, Diesel and even Emporio Armani), you should get updates for the next few years.But let's be clear: It probably wasn't the Pixel Watch that landed the finishing blow.Continue reading.Tesla recalls 200,000 vehicles because of a faulty backup cameraA software issue keeps it from activating when vehicles are in reverse.Tesla is recalling 200,000 vehicles in the US, following reports the backup cameras wouldn't engage when cars were put in reverse - which is the whole point of the things. Tesla has processed 81 warranty claims potentially related to the issue, according to Autoblog. The recall includes certain Model Y, Model S and Model X vehicles from 2023. Tesla says it delivered 1.8 million vehicles last year, so this recall accounts for more than 10 percent of the company's yearly output. If this sounds familiar, well, it comes six weeks after Tesla recalled over two million vehicles after serious safety issues with its Autopilot feature.Continue reading.X blocked Taylor Swift searches to prioritize safety'After pornographic deepfakes of the singer went viral last week.Reuters / ReutersX confirmed it's preventing users from searching Taylor Swift's name after pornographic deepfakes of the artist began circulating on the platform. Visitors to the site started noticing on Saturday that some searches containing Swift's name would only return an error message.The platform's handling of the issue has been slow. After the images went viral last Wednesday, Swifties took matters into their own hands (of course!) mass-reporting the accounts that shared the images and flooding the hashtags relating to the singer with positive content. Do you not remember the snake emoji saga?Continue reading.

Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are some of the most popular on the market, thanks to the improved sound quality, comfortable fit and highly effective active noise cancellation (ANC). If you've been looking at buying a pair, now is a good time to act. They're currently on sale at Amazon in black, midnight blue and silver for $328, a solid 18 percent off the list price.The WH-1000XM5 scored an excellent 95 in our Engadget review, thanks to improvements in nearly every way over our previous favorite headphones, the WH-1000XM4. Perhaps the biggest is in fit and comfort thanks to the more optimal weight distribution, synthetic leather ear cups and slightly reduced weight.Sound quality also went up, due to the new 30mm carbon fiber drivers that deliver punchier bass. We also saw more clarity that helps you hear fine detail, along with improved depth that makes music more immersive. And Sony's DSEE Extreme sound processing recovers detail lost to compression, without any noticeable impact on sound quality.The ANC is equally impressive. With double the number of noise cancellation microphones found in the M4, along with a new dedicated V1 chip, the M5 does a better job at minimizing background noise. And in terms of the microphone, we found that the M5 offers superior call quality over its predecessor. Moreover, you get 30 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, enough for the longest of flights.The main drawbacks of the WH-1000XM5 headphones compared to the previous model is that they no longer fold up, and don't have the granular ANC adjustment found on other models like Bose's QuietComfort Ultra. The other issue is the $400 price tag, but at $328, they're a solid deal - and that price applies to all the main colorways.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-wh-1000xm5-anc-headphones-fall-back-to-328-091611120.html?src=rss

I'm not gonna pretend I've figured you, the Engadget reader, out. Trying to predict what is gonna get your little nerd hearts all a flutter is kind of a crapshoot. But, I'm pretty confident that a Tamagotchi in a guitar pedal is right up your alley. Ground Control Audio showed up to NAMM 2024 with the UwU virtual pet buffer pedal.Now buffer pedals are about the least exciting piece of gear you can buy for your pedal board. Probably even less so than a tuner. But, if you've got a particularly large board or long cables, a buffer can dramatically improve your tone. Basically all it does is take the signal coming in and give it a little boost so you don't lose precious high end to tone suck. Like I said, not exciting.What UwU does is no different, except that it has a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet and a handful of mini-games built in. As you play, your new pedalboard buddy dances and gains experience points. As the little cat like creature gains experience it evolves over 30 levels with unique animations. As for what happens once you cross that 30 level threshold, well, the company hasn't decided just yet. But there is still time to decide that since the pedal isn't set to start shipping until March.If simply having a new little virtual friend on your board isn't enough whimsy for you, the UwU also has three mini-games built in. There's Long Cat (a snake clone), Fishy Blox (vaguely Tetris-like) and Neko Invader. The tiny monochrome OLED and small buttons aren't exactly ideal for playing games (and neither is hunching over a pedalboard I might add), but it feels true to its inspiration in old cellphone games.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetIf you're sitting there wondering, "why?" Well, first off, why not? Secondly, to keep you playing, obviously. Finding the time and drive to play or practice guitar can be tough. Especially if you're teen with a hectic life of extra curriculars or, like me, a busy dad of two with a demanding day job. The UwU gives you a reason to play beyond just knowing you should. Carving out a few minutes every day to play will keep your adorable little UwU happy and healthy. Frankly, if I had one of these when I was younger and stubbornly clinging to my belief that I didn't need to know music theory or technique, maybe I'd be a more proficient guitarist.Of course none this would matter if the UwU was a crappy buffer. But it's got 18v headroom and doesn't color your tone at all. It's even super tiny, so finding room for it on even the most crowded of pedalboards shouldn't be too difficult.The UwU virtual pet buffer is available now for preorder directly from Ground Control Audio for $139.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-uwu-virtual-pet-buffer-is-a-tamagotchi-in-a-guitar-pedal-193633790.html?src=rss

X's head of business operations Joe Benarroch said the company plans to open a new office in Austin, Texas for a team that will be dedicated to content moderation, Bloomberg reports. The Trust and Safety center of excellence," for which the company is planning to hire 100 full-time employees, will primarily focus on stopping the spread of child sexual exploitation (CSE) materials.X CEO Linda Yaccarino is set to testify before Congress on Wednesday in a hearing about CSE, and the platform at the end of last week published a blog post about its efforts to curb such materials, saying it's determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors."According to Bloomberg, Benarroch said, X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it's important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content." The team will also address other content issues, like hate speech and violent posts," according to Bloomberg. Elon Musk spent much of his first year at X taking steps to turn the platform into a bastion of free speech," and gutted the content moderation teams that had been put in place by Twitter before his takeover.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-plans-to-hire-100-content-moderators-to-fill-new-trust-and-safety-center-in-austin-173111536.html?src=rss

X has confirmed it's preventing users from searching Taylor Swift's name after pornographic deepfakes of the artist began circulating on the platform this week. Visitors to the site started noticing on Saturday that some searches containing Swift's name would only return an error message. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Saturday night, Joe Benarroch, X's head of business operations, said, This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue." This step comes days after the problem first became known.X's handling of the issue from the start has drawn criticism that it's been slow to curb the spread of nonconsensual, sexually explicit images. After the images went viral on Wednesday, Swift's fans took matters into their own hands to limit their visibility and get them removed, mass-reporting the accounts that shared the images and flooding the hashtags relating to the singer with positive content, NBC News reported earlier this week. Many of the offending accounts were later suspended, but not before they'd been seen in some cases millions of times. The Verge reported on Thursday that one post was viewed more than 45 million times.In a statement posted on its platform later that day, X said, Posting Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images is strictly prohibited on X and we have a zero-tolerance policy towards such content. Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them. We're closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further violations are immediately addressed, and the content is removed. We're committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all users."But it was still possible to find the images in days after. 404Media traced the likely origin of the images to a Telegram group known for creating nonconsensual AI-generated images of women using free tools including Microsoft Designer. In an interview with NBC News' Lester Holt on Friday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the issue highlights what is the company's responsibility, and all of the guardrails that we need to place around the technology so that there's more safe content that's being produced." He continued to say that there's a lot to be done there, and a lot being done there," but also noted that the company needs to move fast."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-confirms-it-blocked-taylor-swift-searches-to-prioritize-safety-153136902.html?src=rss

Annapurna is delaying the release of its upcoming narrative adventure game, Open Roads, by a few weeks so the team can do a little more refining. It's now scheduled for release on March 28 instead of the originally planned date of February 22. The decision was made to ensure the most polished experience for players," a spokesperson for Annapurna told Engadget.Open Roads, which we had a chance to preview earlier this month, is a nostalgia-heavy experience that follows 16-year-old Tess Devine (voiced by Kaitlyn Dever) and her mother, Opal (Keri Russel), on a road trip to explore their family's past. It features hand-drawn animations and, of course, carries the promise of deep, dark family secrets to unearth. It'll be available for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/narrative-game-open-roads-has-been-delayed-by-a-month-221217266.html?src=rss

The original Erae Touch was one of the more interesting MPE controllers to come out in the last few years. But it's been on the market for less than three years. So it was something of a surprise when Embodme showed up to NAMM 2024 with Erae II, the next iteration of its customizable controller with significant upgrades and one unexpected new feature.Now, it's important to note that the version of the Erae II I was able to test out was very early prototype. There were a few bugs, the construction definitely had some rough edges. But the company has plenty of time to iron those out. The Kickstarter campaign opens on February 15 with an expect ship date sometime in June.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetBut the vision is already clear. The main surface is largely the same, a singular smooth expanse with RGB lights underneath it. Those are used to illustrate various layouts that can be customized. It can be a standard keyboard, a grid, faders, a step sequencer, et cetera. The design is definitely more refined, even at this early stage. It also acknowledges that while the customizability of the controller was a big draw, it perhaps relied too much on the desktop app and the playing surface for handling settings.The updated version has a number of buttons across the top for quickly swapping layouts, controlling the new MIDI looper and accessing other settings. There's also a small, but high resolution screen tucked in the top righthand corner next to a jog wheel. The viewing angles on the screen were solid and it's plenty sharp, but its size could pose some challenges. I'm not going to judge it by this very early version of the firmware, but I had to squint pretty hard to make out the tiny text laying out all the MIDI assignments.The controller itself was very responsive, though. The new sensors (16,000 of them to be specific) were able to track my glides and subtle shifts in pressure with incredible accuracy. The company claims the playing surface has sub-millimeter accuracy. Obviously there's no way I could truly put that to the test on the show floor but, suffice it to say, it was accurate.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetI can already tell that the Erae requires quite a bit of nuance, though, to get truly expressive results from the aftertouch. The surface doesn't have a lot of give, so tiny changes in pressure can result in big changes to the sound.One of the surprising things is that the Erae II will have swappable skins, kind of like the Sensel Morph (RIP) or the Joue Play, but also, not. The unit I played had a silicone cover like the original that the company says is meant for those who want to play the Erae II with drum stick. It will will ship with a white fabric one though, which was specifically meant to improve the feel and responsiveness for those playing with their fingers.Changing the skins is a little involved, however. Because Embodme sees the Erae not simply as a tool for the studio, but as a live performance device it wanted to make sure the covers would be secure and standup to abuse. So you actually have to unscrew the frame to pop on a new skin. And since the display on the Erae is already customizable, it's not bothering to have skins with particular layouts, just different materials.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetEmbodme also added a ton of new connectivity options. The original simply had a USB-C port and a TRS MIDI out. But the Erae II will have two MIDI out ports, a MIDI in jack, two USB ports, with the ability to be either a host or a device, and 24 configurable analog outs that can send gate, trigger and CV to external gear.Obviously it's way to early to know for sure how well the Erae II will standup to real world use. But it's got a promising feature set and an intriguing design. If you want to be among the first to get your hands on one you'll be able to back it on Kickstarter starting February 15 with early bird prices of $549 or $649, depending on how early you hop on. When it reaches retail later in the year, however, it will be going for $799.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/embodme-erae-ii-hands-on-a-customizable-mpe-midi-controller-for-your-soft-synths-and-analog-gear-213059410.html?src=rss

We were so close to finally drifting on the cobblestone streets of Yharnam, but it looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for Bloodborne Kart. And, it'll be called something else when it does arrive. Lilith Walther, the developer behind the project, said the team has to scrub the branding" off of the game and delay its release after Sony intervened. It was supposed to be released on January 31 for PC. The outcome isn't exactly surprising, but it means the game will take shape a bit differently than planned - in a thread posted on X, Walther said, This is a fan game no more!"Bloodborne Kart, a retro-style racing game that started out as a meme, has generated a ton of support from fans who have been yearning for new Bloodborne content. In response to the latest development, many have joked that the whole saga has forced Sony, which owns the IP, to actually acknowledge the title for the first time in years. Walther previously released a free Bloodborne demake" in the style of a PS1 game.So Sony contacted us," Walther wrote in an update on Friday. Long story short, we need to scrub the branding off of what was previously known as Bloodborne Kart. We will do this, but that requires a short delay. Don't worry, the game is still coming out! It'll just look slightly different."The developers planned to feature 12 racers styled after familiar Bloodborne characters, including The Hunter and The Doll from the Hunter's Dream, with single-player and multiplayer modes. There were to be 16 maps and boss fights, so you could race against the likes of Father Gascoigne. It really sucks that they won't be able to follow through with the original idea, because it looked awesome, but I have no doubt they'll spin it into something equally great.We were honestly expecting something like this to happen and the idea of having full creative control is kind of exciting!" Walther wrote. There's no new release date just yet, but in the meantime, you can rewatch the Bloodborne Kart trailer on a loop and dream of what we almost had.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fan-made-bloodborne-kart-catches-heat-from-sony-forcing-developers-to-shift-gears-183652390.html?src=rss

NAMM is packed to the gills with synths, guitars, saxophones, et cetera. But, I promise you right now, the Dimension Tripper from Casio is the only wireless expression controller on the floor that you operate with your guitar strap.The concept is simple. It's an expression pedal. Just, not in pedal form. Now we've seen expression controllers in all sorts of shapes and sizes: Faders, rollers, even lasers. The Dimension Tripper does the same thing, except instead of rocking a pedal back and forth with your foot or sliding a fader back and forth with your hand, you pull down on your guitar itself.There are two parts to the system. The transmitter goes between the end of your strap and the strap button on your guitar. One end of it is retractable and, as you stretch it out it sends information over Bluetooth to the receiver. Under ideal conditions there is about 20ms of lag, but even on the floor at NAMM with all of the interference it was barely noticeable.The receiver is a relatively standard looking box that sits on your pedalboard and connects to your target pedal. A row of lights in the middle gives you visual feedback as you stretch out the sensor on the transmitter.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetThe two parts are a bit bulkier than I would have expected, though. The receiver has two foot switches and is basically the size of a standard guitar pedal. The transmitter is nearly 5 inches long and is 1 inch thick. You will notice it when you play, and will need to shorten your strap significantly.Other than that, it works like any other expression controller. You can use it for energetic wah wah effects, or gentle volume swells or to crank up the weirdness on a ring modulator. It can even be used in place of a foot switch to turn on and off effect. So you could yank down hard at the start of the chorus to kick in an overdrive.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetThe concept is definitely gimmicky. But I have to admit it's fun and actually felt kind of natural. Most players move their guitar a bit when anyway, and this just felt like an extension of that. I had to be a little more emphatic and move with more conviction than I might normally, but I adapted pretty quickly. Is it practical? Probably not. But kudos to Casio for trying something different.What's not clear is whether or not this will become an actual retail product. Right now Casio is running a crowdfunding campaign where you back the Dimension Tripper for 32,736 yen, or about $221. If the wireless expression controller has a life beyond that however is still up in the air.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/casios-dimension-tripper-lets-you-control-your-guitar-pedals-with-your-guitar-strap-200039380.html?src=rss

Fossil is officially getting out of the smartwatch business. Following months of speculation about the future of its Wear OS smartwatch lineup, which hasn't seen a new model since 2021's Gen 6, the company confirmed to The Verge on Friday that it's abandoning the category altogether. There won't be a successor to the Gen 6, but existing Fossil smartwatches will still get updates for the next few years."In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson said Fossil Group has made the strategic decision to exit the smartwatch business," citing the industry's evolving landscape. Fossil Group is redirecting resources to support our core strength and the core segments of our business that continue to provide strong growth opportunities for us: designing and distributing exciting traditional watches, jewelry, and leather goods under our own as well as licensed brand names."Fossil has been pretty quiet about its smartwatch plans lately, after an initial few years of steady releases, and the decision is going to come as a disappointment to anyone who's been holding out hope for a Gen 7. While they were known to struggle in the battery life department, Fossil smartwatches are some of the nicest looking out there.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fossil-is-done-making-smartwatches-but-will-keep-releasing-updates-for-a-few-years-161958128.html?src=rss

Sorry to interrupt your Saturday, but The Pokemon Company is aware it's being mocked and Apple isn't giving up on its dreams of making a car - it just might not be as impressive as first imagined. This week's YouTube-coated version of TMA covers both of those, we get sad about a moonlander that didn't really land properly and I try to name our new gaming video show. I tried. I didn't say I succeeded.This week:The Apple car apparently still existsElon Musk confirms a new low-cost Tesla model is coming Apple details how third-party app stores and payments will work in EuropeRead this:Wired headphones are coming back. Not in an LA-centric retro twist, but in a nerdy high-fidelity-they-actually-sound-better... way. James Trew explains how, with built-in DACs new wired headphone models make any phone Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless ready. And thus much better. If you can tell the difference.Like email more than video? Subscribe right here for daily reports, direct to your inbox.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-a-cheaper-tesla-apples-ev-project-140008585.html?src=rss

In October 2023, 23andMe admitted that it suffered a data breach that compromised its users' information. The company has been hit with several lawsuits since then, and according to The New York Times, one of them is accusing 23andMe of failing to notify customers that they were specifically targeted for having Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. They also weren't told that their test results with genetic information had been compiled in curated lists that were then shared on the dark web, the plaintiffs said. 23andMe recently released a copy of the letters it sent to affected customers, and they didn't contain any reference to the users' heritage.The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco after the company revealed that the hack had gone unnoticed for months. Apparently, the hackers started accessing customers' accounts using login details already leaked on the web in late April 2023 and continued with their activities until September. It wasn't until October that the company finally found out about the hacks. On October 1, hackers leaked the names, home addresses and birth dates of 1 million users with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on black hat hacking forum BreachForums.After someone responded to the post asking access to "Chinese accounts," the lawsuit said the poster linked to a file containing information on 100,000 Chinese users. The poster also said they had access to 350,000 Chinese profiles and could release more information if there was enough interest. In addition, the same poster allegedly returned to the forum in mid-October to sell data on "wealthy families serving Zionism" after the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza."The current geopolitical and social climate amplifies the risks" to users whose data was exposed, according to the lawsuit, since the leaked information included their names and addresses. The plaintiffs want their case to be heard by a jury and are seeking compensatory, punitive and other damages.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lawsuit-says-23andme-hackers-targeted-users-with-chinese-and-ashkenazi-jewish-heritage-132423486.html?src=rss

ElevenLabs, an AI startup that offers voice cloning services with its tools, has banned the user that created an audio deepfake of Joe Biden used in an attempt to disrupt the elections, according to Bloomberg. The audio impersonating the president was used in a robocall that went out to some voters in New Hampshire last week, telling them not to vote in their state's primary. It initially wasn't clear what technology was used to copy Biden's voice, but a thorough analysis by security company Pindrop showed that the perpetrators used ElevanLabs' tools.The security firm removed the background noise and cleaned the robocall's audio before comparing it to samples from more than 120 voice synthesis technologies used to generate deepfakes. Pindrop CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan told Wired that it "came back well north of 99 percent that it was ElevenLabs." Bloomberg says the company was notified of Pindrop's findings and is still investigating, but it has already identified and suspended the account that made the fake audio. ElevenLabs told the news organization that it can't comment on the issue itself, but that it's "dedicated to preventing the misuse of audio AI tools and [that it takes] any incidents of misuse extremely seriously."The deepfaked Biden robocall shows how technologies that can mimic somebody else's likeness and voice could be used to manipulate votes this upcoming presidential election in the US. "This is kind of just the tip of the iceberg in what could be done with respect to voter suppression or attacks on election workers," Kathleen Carley, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told The Hill. "It was almost a harbinger of what all kinds of things we should be expecting over the next few months."It only took the internet a few days after ElevenLabs launched the beta version of its platform to start using it to create audio clips that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. The startup allows customers to use its technology to clone voices for "artistic and political speech contributing to public debates." Its safety page does warn users that they "cannot clone a voice for abusive purposes such as fraud, discrimination, hate speech or for any form of online abuse without infringing the law." But clearly, it needs to put more safeguards in place to prevent bad actors from using its tools to influence voters and manipulate elections around the world.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elevenlabs-reportedly-banned-the-account-that-deepfaked-bidens-voice-with-its-ai-tools-083355975.html?src=rss

Instagram is testing yet another feature meant to give users an alternative to finstas. It's called flipside" and it allows people to create a secondary photo grid that only designated friends can see.If that sounds somewhat familiar it's probably because Instagram already makes it pretty easy for users to create posts intended for a more limited audience. The app added the ability for users to share grid posts with close friends" back in November (Stories for close friends has been a thing since 2018). More recently, it tested audience lists for Stories, so users could create multiple lists for small-group sharing. The app, of course, also makes it fairly easy to create an actual finsta.Flipside, somewhat confusingly, offers yet another way of doing essentially the same thing. Users create a separate list of friends, distinct from close friends," to add to their flipside." They can then choose to post to their main grid or to their flipside," which is also accessible from their profile but only visible to the aforementioned list of friends. People will know if they have access to someone's flipside if they see a key icon in someone's grid, according to screenshots shared on Threads. (You can see a video of it in action over on Threads.)

Cities: Skylines II developer Colossal Order has a uniquely close relationship with its community. The original Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and gobbled up the audience that was left behind by EA's SimCity, which came out in 2013 and was a busted mess. Cities: Skylines scratched that urban-planning itch, plus it cost just $30. The game came first to PC, Mac and Linux with modest hardware requirements, and it hit consoles within two years. Critically, Cities: Skylines also supported mods through the Steam Workshop, allowing players to add their own tools to the game and share those features with others.With Cities: Skylines, the audience grew in size and the modding took even a bigger role, allowing for a huge amount of creativity and inspiration for us devs," Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen told Engadget. Anything from quality-of-life improvements to ideas for DLC content, we have gathered a huge amount of information to help us create the game that Cities: Skylines is today."Colossal Order and its publisher, Paradox Interactive, continued to support Cities: Skylines with consistent game updates and DLC drops, and its mod community continued to grow. The game picked up a ton of new players during the pandemic in 2020, and around that time, a number of now-prominent content creators leaned into Cities: Skylines for streams and videos.In the months before the launch of Cities: Skylines II in October 2023, Colossal Order partnered with a handful of content creators and gave them access to bits of the game early, so they could create YouTube videos showing off specific features each week. These partners included Biffa, two dollars twenty, YUMBL, Infrastructurist and City Planner Plays. City Planner Plays has a clever edge in this space - Philip, the man behind the builds, worked as an urban planner for more than a decade, and his videos often include insights about how real-life cities are designed. He started his channel in mid-2020, and today he's a dedicatedCities: Skylines streamer and video editor with nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube. Like many other community members, he has a history with Colossal Order that spans years.Prior to the Cities: Skylines II release, I think that most everyone in the community viewed them incredibly positively, looking at them as one of us' and the type of developer that you want making a game that you love," Philip said. They were viewed as responsive and generous. ...I can't recall a bad thing being said about them."That's exactly what made Hallikainen's blog post on January 15th so surprising.We have seen a growing tendency of toxicity in our community, something we have not experienced to this extent before," Hallikainen wrote, clarifying that the negativity was being directed at developers and players alike. She continued, We have always treasured having the devs present on the different social platforms and having direct communication with the community, but our biggest responsibility will always be protecting the team."Tensions have been high in the Cities: Skylines community since the launch of the sequel in October. Though the game was originally pitched as a simultaneous PC and console release, it's only available on PC and there's no concrete timeline for when the other versions will come out. On top of that, Colossal Order raised the game's minimum and recommended specs just a month before release, and the new requirements placed it out of reach for a large chunk of players.Colossal OrderEven with a capable rig, the game is riddled with visual and mechanical bugs. Philip said Cities: Skylines II strained his RTX 4090 graphics card, making it run at 100 percent on the main menu, and he couldn't play in 4K at launch because the game was so GPU-bound.Simply put, it feels like the game needed more time in development.Since the launch of Cities: Skylines II, things have without a doubt gotten more prickly," Philip said. While many people have been appreciative of Colossal Order's transparency with the weekly updates as well as the frequent bug fixes, many appear to view Colossal Order as being all-too-willing to release a game that wasn't ready to be released."Hallikainen acknowledged that the game is missing some promised and highly publicized features, like mod support.Naturally we're disappointed we weren't able to achieve everything we aimed for, but it's fantastic to have the game finally out and continue working on it with more openness," she said.The issue, as far as Colossal Order sees it, lies in the community's response to Cities: Skylines II. Players have been venting on social media and in the Steam and Paradox forums, and the feedback has risen to toxic levels, according to Hallikainen. She cites a surge in personal attacks on developers and other players.Colossal OrderCities: Skylines II attracted a lot of attention and very high expectations were set," she said. When the game did not fulfill all the promises, it was natural to cause frustration in the audience. However, the shortcomings should spark a conversation on ideas for improvement, constructive feedback and respectful discussions in the community."For City Planner Plays and other community members, the issue is the game itself. Where Colossal Order sees toxicity, Philip sees justified frustration.I will admit that I was taken aback by this description of what's happening in the Cities: Skylines community regarding Cities: Skylines II," he said. I have noticed increased negativity. However, I wouldn't say that I have noticed increased toxicity. And bluntly, I think the negativity is completely understandable and predictable."Philip identified four factors driving the negative sentiment: The game is only on PC, it's buggy and unplayable on many common hardware configurations, there's no official support for mods, and Colossal Order hasn't held itself accountable for the game's blunders.Colossal Order has been transparent, talking with the community, but has not taken accountability for the release of the game," Philip said. I hear this over and over again. Many players appear to want them to admit that the release state of the game was poor, say that they are sorry, and make some gesture to make amends. To date, they have delayed the DLC release - which actually was a huge negative for people that purchased the Ultimate Edition of the game - but not made amends. [They haven't] provided the information that people are looking for."Colossal OrderThe biggest misstep on Philip's list is the lack of mods. Colossal Order is planning to add an official pipeline for mods directly through Paradox, rather than Steam Workshop, which was the home for mods in Cities: Skylines. Shifting to an in-house modding platform will ensure parity across all platforms, bringing mods to consoles and players outside of Steam. However, the Cities: Skylines mod community was built on Steam Workshop, a popular and easy-to-use platform, and with the delay of the console release, the current player base is simply being inconvenienced.The maps that come with the game aren't great - incredibly high difficulty level, unforgiving weather - and many basic features need refinement," Philip said. Mods offered that opportunity and they aren't available just yet. Worst of all, early messaging made it seem like modding was around the corner, weeks after launch, [but it's been delayed] to some undetermined time in Q2 of 2024."Collaboration with the community is what made the original game so successful, and the sequel could certainly benefit from crowdsourced improvements. For now, some players are using a third-party tool to make mods work in Cities: Skylines II.The tech is new, the simulation has been entirely rewritten and the game has all the potential to become the city-builder of this decade," Hallikainen said. What we failed in was to get the modding support available for the release, and we're doing our best to catch up. We have been delighted to see the modding community has not waited for us, but are already creating amazing mods for the game."Paradox InteractiveThis is only the beginning for Cities: Skylines II. Colossal Order has plans to support and expand the game over the next 10 years. The original Cities: Skylines didn't have all of the bells, whistles and mods when it first came out in 2015, and the sequel is starting in a similar position. Colossal Order sees Cities: Skylines II as a fresh foundation, but its core community expected a more complete experience.The feedback we've gotten from the content creators and modders has immensely helped us in heading in the right direction, and we love working in cooperation with different parties," Hallikainen said. There's a lot of work to be done and we plan to keep going for the next decade."Cities: Skylines II has improved significantly in the months since launch, thanks to a slew of updates from Colossal Order. It's on the right track. Colossal Order continues to publish updates on the game's progress each week, but it'll take time - and maybe an apology, a plan and free in-game perks - to rewrite the narrative around Cities: Skylines II.I think the most toxic' people right now are the game's biggest fans," Philip said. And bluntly, they are just disappointed that the game doesn't run well for them or that they can't play it at all. They're disappointed and lashing out, which isn't right. But to me, that means that there is a path to repair the issues if the game is fully fixed and accountability is taken."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whats-up-with-the-toxicity-around-cities-skylines-ii-213034938.html?src=rss

The Samsung Galaxy S24 isn't taking Google's Gemini AI with it to China. CNBC reported Friday that the Chinese version of the flagship phone uses Baidu's Ernie chatbot to power the phone's AI-powered features. Ernie arrived last August after reportedly receiving Chinese government approval.Now featuring Ernie's understanding and generation capabilities, the upgraded Samsung Note Assistant can translate content and also summarize lengthy content into clear, intelligently organized formats at the click of a button, streamlining the organization of extensive text," Baidu and Samsung told CNBC in a joint statement.Samsung's description of the Galaxy S24 series on its Chinese website advertises many of the same Google-powered features it debuted last week in its San Jose, CA, launch event. These include a version of Circle to Search, real-time call translation, a transcription helper and a photo assistant. The Chinese Galaxy S24 product pages don't have any references to Google, which has limited operations in the country.SamsungA recent report suggests Apple recently ended Samsung's 14-year run as the global smartphone shipment leader. In addition, IDC published data this week suggesting the iPhone maker claimed the top spot in the Chinese market (with a 17.3-percent market share) for the first time in 2023. Samsung didn't make the top five.Engadget has tried the Galaxy S24 series, including the standard, Plus and Ultra variants. Samsung's 2024 flagship phone lineup launches in the US on January 31.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-ai-features-on-the-galaxy-s24-in-china-reportedly-ditch-google-for-baidu-174503505.html?src=rss

To the surprise of just about everyone - seemingly including the studio behind it - virtual reality game Ultrawings 2 has hit PlayStation VR2 earlier than expected. Developer Bit Planet Games wrote on X that "shadow dropping Ultrawings 2 on PS VR2 today was not on our 2024 bingo card but, well, here we are." (A shadow drop refers to a surprise release of a product as soon as it's announced, like Hi-Fi Rush.)It's unclear exactly how Ultrawings 2, which debuted on Steam and Meta Quest in 2022, arrived on PS VR2 ahead of schedule. Bit Planet had wanted to bring the aerial adventure title to that platform by the end of 2023 but was unable to. It instead promised to release Ultrawings 2 on PS VR2 early this year. On January 9, Bit Planet noted it had started the submission process.

The MicroKorg 2 has some big britches to fill. The original MicroKorg is one of, if not the best selling synthesizer of all time. It's also probably the longest continuously manufactured synth, having hit the market in 2002. Of course, technology has advanced quite a lot in the last 22 years and it was time to give what is arguably the first classic synth of the 21st century an update.The new version that Korg announced just ahead of NAMM 2024 stays largely true to the original design. It's small, but solidly built. The mini keys might bother those with sausage fingers, but my slightly smaller than average hands didn't have much issue. I did occasionally miss my mark slightly, but that has as much to do with my terrible keyboard skills as it does the compact keybed. The keybed itself is fine. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure. But it's also not worth getting up in arms about. I've played plenty worse.The knobs and buttons, even on this prototype felt solid. And the big rotary knob, which is kind of what gives a MicroKorg its visual identity, has very satisfying detents as you change the genre of your patch selection. While there are big signs in the Korg booth proclaiming that the MicroKorg 2 is still a prototype, the hardware already feels quite refined.Even the interface seems like its at least nearly complete. The screen itself is bright and colorful with decent viewing angles. It did get a little washed out at extreme angles under the glare of the Anaheim Convention Center's lights, but it's unlikely to cause an issue in regular use.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetThe UI is already looking pretty nice, with some stylish animations as you change parameters. And changing parameters is a lot easier than it was on the original MicroKorg, which had two edit selection knobs and a table you needed to look up what the five knobs across the top were controlling. On the MicroKorg 2 things are much quicker. For example, pressing the button below the second knob cycles through the settings for oscillator one, two, three and the noise source. And the screen tells you what parameters are assigned to those knobs, depending on the page you've selected.It's hardly knob per function but it could be much worse.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetThe one area where it was obvious that the MicroKorg 2 was still in prototype stage was in the presets. There were only eight preprogrammed into the unit I tried. And the NAMM show floor wasn't exactly the ideal environment to do deep sound design.I did kick the tires on it a bit though, and was pretty quickly able to throw together a couple of decent sounding patches. And the handful of presets that Korg did have ready to go were bright and loaded with character. They were decidedly digital but didn't feel clinical. Unfortunately the convention hall was even less conducive to testing out the vocoder and harmonizer features. It was just impossible to get a clean enough signal with all the cacophony going on around me.Terrence O'Brien / EngadgetIn general the eight-voice (or four-voice in bi-timbral mode), three-oscillator synth engine seems like a big upgrade from the original. It's got not just your standard virtual analog waves, but a selection of single cycle waveforms and even samples that can be combined to create relatively complex sounding patches.The one thing that the original has over its successor though is price. Where you can still go pick up a MicroKorg from most music retailers for $430, the MicroKorg 2 will set you back $699 when it goes on sale later this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-microkorg-2-hands-on-a-stylish-update-to-an-iconic-digital-synthesizer-173034308.html?src=rss

We've reached the end of another week, so it's time for a roundup of the best deals we could find on tech we like. Happily, a couple of the items we saw at CES (and named among the best) are already seeing decent discounts. So those who want to smoke meat indoors or invest in home back up batteries are in luck. As for smaller gadgets, we saw a deal on our favorite Bluetooth tracker, found a sale on Anker batteries and chargers and noted that Apple's AirPods Pro (which will work with the upcoming Vision Pro) are still hovering at their all-time low price. This also may be the last week to take advantage of pre-order promotions on the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy S24 smartphones. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-2023-echo-show-8-is-back-to-90-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-171619129.html?src=rss

George Carlin's estate has filed a lawsuit against the makers of an hour-long comedy special featuring an AI replica of the comedian, as reported by NBC News. The late comedian's estate, including his daughter Kelly Carlin, filed the suit in a Los Angeles federal court last night. It claims the online media company that posted the video, Dudesy, violated the performer's right to publicity and infringed on a copyright.The video's called George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead" and features an hour of new material" by the comedian, who died in 2008. As AI replications go, it's certainly not going to break any records. It's audio only and, honestly, doesn't even sound that much like Carlin. It sounds like a below average impression of the comedian. Also, it's very, very bad. Carlin had an extremely unique voice and this video is mostly basic punchlines you can see coming from a mile away. There's very little outlandish wordplay. There's no righteous fury. There are, however, a lot of jokes comparing Donald Trump to poop."I understand and share the desire for more George Carlin. I, too, want more time with my father. But it is ridiculous to proclaim he has been resurrected' with AI," Kelly Carlin wrote in a statement. She went on to write that the Carlin in that video is a poorly-executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals."The estate's attorney, Josh Schiller, went on to warn that AI risked becoming "a tool that allows bad-faith actors to replace creative expression, to exploit the already existing work of creators, and to get rich at the expense of others."Dudesey, the channel that created and posted the video, is actually run by the popular comedian Will Sasso and author Chad Kultgen. They didn't write the material here. The AI was trained on thousands of hours of Carlin routines to create the facsimile, according to a report by NPR. Sasso and Kultgen are, however, named in the suit. The pair behind Dudesy liken the AI-created Carlin to an impressionist who impersonates a public figure.Sasso suggested in a podcast last week that the AI version was no replacement for the real thing, going on to say that it was interesting how heated people get about it." The lawsuit calls the video a piece of computer-generated click-bait which detracts from the value of Carlin's comedic works and harms his reputation."The complaint seeks unspecified damages and the immediate removal of any video or audio copies" of the hour-long special. So, if you're curious to hear a pretty bad Carlin impression make obvious jokes about Taylor Swift, you had better get on that while you have the chance.Of course, this is just the latest salvo in the ongoing war between AI algorithms and humans that create works of value. This issue was at the very heart of last year's Hollywood writers' strike and the recent spate of AI-created celebrities used to scam consumers. This is just the beginning. It's an election year, after all, and bad actors have already used an AI replication of President Biden's voice to urge New Hampshire residents not to vote in last week's primary.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/george-carlins-estate-sues-over-ai-generated-comedy-special-170333368.html?src=rss

Swedish electric car company Polestar is slashing its workforce by 15 percent globally. About 450 employees are expected to be let go due to challenging market conditions." The news comes despite its six percent increase in global car deliveries compared to 2022, according to its recent fourth quarter global fiscal report.The company did, however, warn that it would reduce its headcount back in May 2023 which was around the same time it announced its production goals were disappointingly off by 10,000 to 20,000 cars from its initial goal. Polestar defended its decisions and explained it was intensifying its focus" on cutting costs to make the business more efficient.Despite delays in shipments last year, the 2024 Polestar 2 lineup is coming in strong with a suite of new upgrades, including longer mileage and faster charging. However, the company is faced with the issue that buyers might be turned off by its nearly $50,000 price tag when they can get newer models produced by rivals like Tesla for more than $10,000 less.Job cuts across the EV sector have become commonplace, with rivals like Lucid Motors' announcement to cut 18 percent of its workforce last year and Rivian slashing six percent. These trends might be due to the fact that supply chain issues are a huge problem in the EV industry, coupled with buyer hesitancy to invest in electric cars.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ev-maker-polestar-cuts-15-percent-of-its-workforce-globally-154941678.html?src=rss

Last year, the European Union implemented new laws to make big tech open up its platforms to competitors. The deadline for compliance is March, and all eyes were on how Apple, which is famous for not playing nicely with others, would react. Now the company has set out how it will comply with the law, and the result is the sort of malicious compliance everyone was expecting. Similarly, the reaction from the coalition of well-heeled critics who were all hoping to get a slice of Apple's pie for free has been similarly predictable.The Digital Markets ActIn 2023, the EU laid down a new regime to prevent big tech throwing all of its weight around in the bloc. The Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act govern what it calls gatekeepers," the big platforms who get between users and businesses. That includes Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon and (TikTok owner) ByteDance, who all have big user bases, deep pockets and a lot of power. One key provision of the law was to get platform holders like Apple and Google to open their systems and allow competing services, such as alternative app stores, a topic we covered in depth back in 2020.On January 25, Apple published a statement explaining how the DMA would impact iOS, Safari and the App Store. The document is laced with references to how the law makes iOS less secure and that Apple needs to take steps to mitigate those risks. And while Apple does not say how much each part of its business makes specifically, the App Store is a key part of its services division which earned a combined $22 billion in its most recent quarter. Consequently, Apple will happily let you set up a competing iOS app store, but in order to do so, you will have to vault Mount Everest, dig a tunnel to the center of the Earth and front a million dollars in cash.Okay, not quite that.You can compete, but you won't want toThe creators of a would-be rival app store can't simply turn up and sell their wares without any oversight. It was obvious from the get-go that even if Apple did open up its platforms, no third party app store would be allowed to do an end-run around the company's basic rules. If you were hoping to run Honest Doug's App Store (Not A Scam) and take the world for a ride, then you're out of luck.Would-be rivals will still need to meet Apple's Notarization requirements and have tight rules and moderation tools governing quality, piracy, fraud and payment disputes. (Notarization will mean these apps will be checked by Apple to look for known malware", with the ability to shut the app down if any is detected.) They will need key rules around data collection and to offer users the same level of control they enjoy in the App Store proper. Not to mention complying with the Digital Services Act, GDPR and a number of other acronym-heavy EU regulations around digital services and online privacy. Essentially, if you want to run your own App Store, you'll need to do it to the same level that Apple does.Apple has also said app stores need to ensure they can meet their obligation to pay app developers. In this case, it means sharing a letter from a top financial institution with proof they have access to a minimum of 1,000,000 (around $1.1 million) in credit. And to avoid third party app stores taking advantage of Apple's platform without Apple benefiting, developers will need to pay a Core Technology Fee once an app has been downloaded more than a million times. This is a per-install fee of 0.50 (around 54 cents) which renews every 12 months the app is installed for. You can decide for yourself if this reminds you of Unity's aborted Runtime Fee payment scheme.At the present time, Apple charges developers either $99 or $299, depending on if they are for an individual or a company. Apple then takes a flat commission on any transaction, either to buy the app itself or with an in-app purchase. For small developers making less than $1 million per year, Apple takes a 15 percent cut, while bigger names pay 30 percent. There are exceptions, including reader" apps which are downloaded for free and tie to subscriptions elsewhere. So far it's not clear under what circumstances the sideloading fees might be preferable (if ever) to the vanilla "Apple tax" through its proprietary storefront.The expected responseNaturally, Apple's statement and all of the explanatory detail in its developer notes was controversial. Its critics, many of whom feel that Apple has too much power over its platform, were incensed.Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who has previously sued the company about this matter, was quick to denounce the changes. He said the new rules were a devious new instance of malicious compliance." Adding that it is forcing app developers to pick between App Store exclusivity or an anticompetitive scheme rife with new junk fees on downloads and new Apple taxes on payments they don't process."The Coalition for App Fairness, a lobby group backed by Epic, Spotify and Match Group, was quick to support one of its biggest backers. Executive director and former Republican spokesperson Rick Vanmeter said Apple had no intention" to comply with the DMA. And added the move was a shameless insult to the European Commission and the millions of European consumers they represent," and urged officials to reject the move.Despite Sweeney's personal objection and that of his lobbyists, Epic Games has already said Fortnite - which was pulled from the Apple Store when Epic deliberately violated Apple's Terms of Service - will return to iOS. The company said it would launch its own Epic Games Store for iOS in 2024, through which it would distribute its own titles. It added in the announcement tweet it would continue to argue to the courts and regulators that Apple is breaking the law."But it's not just Apple's well-heeled rivals who feel the company is thumbing its nose at the EU with these changes. Andy Yen, the founder of privacy service Proton, told Engadget that Apple's compliance with the DMA is done in bad faith," and that the iPhone maker is fighting tooth and nail to maintain its profits and monopoly." Yen added that the strings attached to Apple's new policies mean that in practice it will be impossible for developers to benefit from them." And that the moves erode the fundamental rights of users by giving Apple the ability to review apps downloaded outside the App Store." He added that the European Commission can't let this blatant bending of the rules fly."But despite the chorus of calls demanding the European Commission to Do Something, the body hasn't budged just yet. We take note of Apple's announcements ahead of the compliance deadline," a commission spokesperson told Engadget We do not comment on these announcements." The spokesperson added they strongly encourage designated gatekeepers to test their proposals with third parties." And that these comments were without prejudice to the Commission's own assessment of these proposals."At the time of writing, there has not yet been a comment from any high-profile EU figures about the matter. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Margrethe Vestager, who handles technology and competition matters, have been active on social media but not about this topic. Similarly, we are waiting to hear back from Spotify and Deezer, who have both previously urged the European Union to act. Not to mention that, before Apple's announcement, Spotify published its own announcement saying it will offer app downloads directly from its site.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-rivals-arent-happy-about-its-eu-app-store-changes-160032585.html?src=rss