There’s something of a theme running through Teenage Engineering’s recent products. That theme is you need more money. The Field range represents the Swedish company’s most exclusive music making gear. So when its website teased a new product with a colorful countdown, the wallets of Teenies everywhere braced for impact. Once that timer hit all zeros, the big reveal turned out to be the EP-133 sampler. Or, to give it its full name, the EP-133 K.O. II 64MB Sampler Composer. The real surprise though, was that it both looked cool and, at $299, was reasonably priced.

Fadergate

The countdown was really just the start. Barely 24 hours after the K.O. II was revealed units started landing in buyers’ hands. Within days, YouTube was awash with first look videos and tutorials. Before our review unit even showed up, several users were complaining that theirs had defective faders. Enough folks were having this problem that it quickly became known as “fadergate.” One brave creator even took their unit apart and, possibly, discovered the cause — the internal pins were bent and not making a connection. I asked Teenage Engineering about the issue and will update this story once I hear back.

Some buyer’s theorized that the issue might be caused by the fact that the K.O. II ships without the caps on its rotaries and fader. They come loose in the box to enable the packaging to be flatter, but the cap for the fader is unusually tight fitting. This led to speculation that the enthusiasm required to push this cap down might be putting too much pressure on components inside, opening up the cruel possibility of users breaking their own devices before they even got to play with them. I used extra caution, along with some needle-nosed tweezers to support the fader as I applied its cap and so far… so good?

The K.O. II name tells us that Teenage Engineering considers this something of a sequel to the original PO-33 K.O. Clearly the K.O. II isn’t a Pocket Operator, but its retro desk calculator aesthetic does take subtle design cues from that series. At 12-inches diagonally, it’s in iPad territory size-wise. The K.O. II also runs on AAA batteries (or USB power) which is another nod to the PO series. It’s hard to say how long it’ll run on those batteries and it’ll vary from brand to brand, but I’ve been using some cheap rechargeables for over a week and they seem to be going strong.

Personally, I was never particularly enamored with the Pocket Operators and much prefer the form factor of the K.O. II. It’s still very portable, but feels a bit more “serious.” It’s also just very nice to look at, which is something Teenage Engineering is quite good at. The model number, EP-133, indicates that we might see others in the line, so fingers crossed for giant calculator versions of other instruments, too.

In use

Fader fully checked and batteries in place, the K.O. II springs to life with a flourish of icons across its display. Those icons are actually fixed and not made up of pixels. Teenage Engineering calls it a “Super segment hybrid display” which basically fuses the digital watch part with a bunch of colorful, cute custom icons to let you know when certain modes or features are activated. It reminds me of the old Game & Watch handhelds where you can see where all the icons are and they are simply switched on or off as needed. Some of the icons are pretty abstract but there is a guide on the website to let you know that, for example, the red umbrella means undo.

Something I like to do with music gear is to see how easy it is to use without reading the manual. This works for all gadgets of course, but with music gear there are common tasks like sequencing, timing adjustment, automation and so on. How you achieve these on a drum machine might be very different to a keys-based synth. Teenage Engineering in particular likes to do things its own way but I was pleasantly surprised with the K.O. II. Within minutes I had managed to figure out basic navigation and how things are organized (sample groups, accessing shift functions, what the fader does and when and so on).

During this blind test I also got to know the K.O. II’s buttons and faders. It was obvious from the launch materials that we weren’t getting rubber MPC-esque pads here but I would describe the ones on the K.O. as keys rather than buttons. Fortunately they are satisfying to click and they’re pressure sensitive so you can give your drum hits different velocities or play notes at different strengths, just be sure to focus on the lower part of the key as that seems to be where the sensor is.

You probably should read the manual though. If for no other reason than it’s likely the prettiest one you’ll use in a while. There’s also a very cute tool for managing your samples which works via desktop browser. For the brave, you can also use this on your phone if you have Android (Chrome, Brave and Opera should all work). On iOS the same browsers can’t access Web MIDI and therefore will not work. (There’s the iOS Web MIDI Browser which crashes when I tried it with an iPhone but it does connect so your mileage may vary.) The K.O. II won’t show up on your PC as either a drive or an audio interface, so the main uses for the USB port are power and sending/receiving MIDI.

The workflow for grabbing sounds is pretty straightforward. If you want to sample from either a PC or phone or other sound-making device then as long as you can connect it to a 3.5mm cable you’re golden. For everything else, you’ll be using the built-in mic, which is surprisingly good. I recorded a few short vocal phrases and other found sounds and they come out well, assuming you’re in a quiet environment.

Don’t worry though, if you don’t have a bunch of samples yet, the K.O. II comes with a bunch pre-installed, and they’re pretty great. There’s a good mix of drums, bass pads and lead sounds — certainly enough to get you going straight away. You’ll definitely want to add your own though to make your projects unique. The presets use about half of the 64MB of memory, but you can back them up, delete them and free the slots up for your own. Max sample length is 20 seconds (same as on the OP-1 Field).

If 64MB doesn’t sound like a lot, know that it translates to about 11 minutes of samples at the 46kHz/16bit in which the K.O. II records. You can halve that time if you sample in stereo. Even if you go all out, over five minutes of samples should be plenty enough for most songs (we hope). If there’s going to be a bottleneck, it’ll more likely be due to the 12-voice limit. This means the K.O. II can make 12 sounds at once, so if you have six stereo samples playing at one time, you’ll hit that limit. My compositions aren’t interesting enough to hit that threshold, but if you’re a maximalist, then it’s worth keeping in mind.

A common technique to help avoid hitting the voice limit on other devices is resampling — basically merging separate sounds down into one new sample. This is also the technique for baking in any effects and modulation, which, given that the K.O. II can only manage one master effect at any one time makes the lack of resampling all the more obvious. Understandably, it’s possibly the biggest complaint among users I’ve seen so far (after fadergate of course).

There are ways around this, but it would involve recording out into another device and then sampling that back into the K.O. II and no one should have a sampler for their sampler, not in this economy. Teenage Engineering does have a decent track record of adding functionality via firmware updates — the company just added a new effect to the OP-1 Field as I wrote this — so fingers crossed.

While we’re on the topic of features the K.O. II doesn’t have, there doesn’t appear to be any kind of song mode. There are four sample “groups” that you can think of as tracks (drums, bass, lead and so on). Each of these groups can hold up to 99 patterns and patterns can be up to 99 bars in length. The active patterns across the four groups can be saved as a “scene” and scenes can be triggered consecutively. But, importantly, there’s no way for that to happen automatically right now. This means if you wanted to tease a whole recorded song out of the K.O. II you’ll have to either get clever with MIDI or trigger scenes and patterns manually in real time.

This performative nature might be a burden for songs, but I found it to be a feature in other areas. On top of the master effects you also have 12 “punch in” effects that can be applied — or punched in — by holding down the FX key and then any of the 12 black pads. Each is marked with its effect name (Level, Pitch and so on). These punch-in effects express themselves differently based on the amount of pressure you apply, making it a very expressive experience. The effects on these keys also correspond to modulation tools when used with the fader. So FX+7 adds the “Level” punch-in effect (rhythmic gating) while Fader+7 will assign gain/level to the fader until you choose another modulator such as Attack or Low Pass Filter.

I swear, half of the things you learn about how to use the K.O. II happen by accident. Yes, it’s in the manual, but I discovered you can solo groups by pressing the FX button and the corresponding group. You can also press multiple buttons to “solo” multiple groups or sounds at the same time. With a group or group solo’d you can then apply punch-in effects to create a lot of variations in real time. With so many touches like this, I am starting to assume that Teenage Engineering envisioned the K.O. II as a playful performative device rather than a linear song-making machine.

I’ve talked before about the sort of “magic” factor that Teenage Engineering sometimes hides into its products. Just small, cute and often a bit hidden features that aren’t necessary but are tons of fun. A common one is the inclusion of FM radio on the OP1/Field and OB 4 etc. Or the video making tool in the app for the OP-Z. There was a brief moment of excitement when I spotted “loop mode from OB-4” on the K.O. II’s product page. The hope being the two devices would interact somehow, but it appears that’s just a way of describing the looping feature that’s been borrowed from the OB-4.

As I write these closing thoughts, the second official firmware update (v1.1.1) has just been released. There’s nothing spicy in here like motion control or sampling the radio, but it’s confirmation of what I mentioned earlier about Teenage Engineering adding features after a product hits the shelves — such as the OP-1 Field’s vocoder synth that landed over six months after release or the fairly substantial 1.2.38 update for the OP-Z which came almost three years into its life.

The K.O. II represents an opportunity for Teenage Engineering to do the unthinkable and create a series of more capable instruments that don’t cost Field-series levels of money. As a sampler, it’s great for beginners or those who love a more performative style. It’s not nearly as detailed and in-depth as something like Roland’s SP 404 or Native Instruments’ Maschine, but it was never going to be a rival to, well, anything really. Fadergate aside, this is a promising product from a company that has tested the loyalty of its fans more than usual in recent years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teenage-engineerings-ko-ii-sampler-review-150038528.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Teenage Engineering’s K.O. II sampler proves the company can do cost-friendly cool

This was a year of upheaval in video games. The industry has shapeshifted over the past 12 months, and it’s not all due to Microsoft’s lengthy acquisition of Activision, Blizzard and King. While Xbox executives were defending the legality of a $69 billion deal that would create the third-largest video game studio in the world, smaller companies were firing staff and shutting down entire teams, even amid fervent collective-bargaining efforts. It’s been a wild ride.

In 2023, the main factors molding the video game landscape were consolidation, layoffs and unionization, with each of these phenomena feeding into each other. This past year, the video game industry shrank, even as it grew financially.

Consolidation

When its purchase of Activision-Blizzard-King was legally approved on October 12, 2023, Microsoft became the world’s third-largest video game studio by revenue. As the owner of the Xbox ecosystem, Microsoft was already a massive player in video games, but purchasing a tentpole AAA studio solidified its position in the top three. Activision and Blizzard are the owners of Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, but the real meat of this deal comes from King, the mobile division. King operates Candy Crush Saga, a game with 238 million monthly active users, which is more than twice as many as Activision Blizzard’s combined player bases. Candy Crush Saga has generated more than $20 billion in lifetime revenue, and King routinely outperforms Activision and Blizzard in terms of quarterly returns. Mobile gaming remains a huge business, especially in the Chinese market, which represents the largest and most lucrative audience in video games.

Though the $69 billion Activision deal was the biggest in Microsoft’s history — beating its purchase of LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016 — it wasn’t the company’s first video game acquisition. Microsoft owns nearly 40 developers and it bought a chunk of those in the past five years. The Xbox umbrella covers 343 industries, Arkane Studios, Bethesda, Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, id Software, Infinity Ward, Mojang Studios, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Tango Gameworks and Turn 10, among dozens more.

With these studios at its back, Microsoft is leaning hard into cloud gaming while attempting to build a device-agnostic ecosystem powered by the Xbox brand. These moves are designed to unlock the mobile market even more, putting Xbox games on all devices, everywhere, all the time.

Still, Sony is bigger than Microsoft by revenue. Though Microsoft is often the face of the game-studio acquisition spree, Sony is the owner of 21 development teams, including Bungie, Guerrilla Games, Haven Studios, Housemarque, Insomniac Games, Media Molecule, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch Productions. Sony has been subtly expanding its roster — more subtly than Microsoft, at least — over the past three years, and it’s also made heavy investments in studios like Epic Games and FromSoftware.

With this lineup, Sony is betting heavily on ongoing games, and it has 12 live-service titles in production right now, on top of Bungie’s Destiny franchise. These include Haven’s Fairgame$ and a multiplayer Horizon title from Guerilla.

“By expanding to PC and mobile, and… also to live services, we have the opportunity to move from a situation of being present in a very narrow segment of the overall gaming software market, to being present pretty much everywhere,” Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan said in 2022.

For the companies at the top, total domination is the goal.

Even still, Tencent is bigger than both Sony and Microsoft. Tencent is not a console manufacturer, so it isn’t a household name among most players, but it’s one of the largest companies in the world, and it wields a ridiculous amount of financial power in video games. Tencent owns a portion of Bloober Team, Bohemia Interactive, Don’t Nod, Epic, Paradox Interactive, PlatinumGames, Remedy Entertainment, Roblox and Ubisoft, among others. It has a majority stake in Supercell, Grinding Gear Games, Klei Entertainment, Tequila Works, Techland, Yager Development and others. It fully owns Riot Games, Funcom, Sharkmob, Turtle Rock Studios, and, of course, others. It also runs multiple internal development companies, including the Level Infinite and Tencent Games publishing labels.

Sure, Sony has a stake in Epic, but Tencent’s is bigger. This investment alone means any time you buy a game built on Epic’s Unreal Engine, Tencent (and Sony) is getting a cut. Tencent is the biggest investor in games, with thousands of tendrils across the industry — if you played something this year, Tencent was probably involved.

On a smaller scale, companies like Netflix and Devolver Digital have also dipped their toes in the acquisition pond recently. Devolver started buying studios in 2020, and it now owns Croteam, Dodge Roll, Doinksoft, Firefly Studios, Nerial and System Era Softworks. Annapurna Interactive bought South African studio 24 Bit Games in November. Netflix launched its Games division in 2021, and it’s already purchased four studios, including Oxenfree developer Night School and Alphabear company Spry Fox.

Night School co-founder Sean Krankel told Engadget in June that the move to Netflix was a boon for the studio, providing financial security, a dedicated working space and plenty of marketing support for its projects.

“A small subset of teams are good to go for the next 10 years, but others have these peaks and valleys, and we were somewhere in between,” Krankel said. “We weren’t in danger of anything going sideways. But we were at a spot where we’re like, it would be cool to tether to somebody who has a similar vision, and somebody that we could work with that would like, de-risk us.”

This is the short-term benefit of being bought by a larger company, but there are downsides to relinquishing independence. Having a corporate overseer can result in rigid production timelines, hindering a studio’s ability to pivot, and despite all of the promises otherwise, developers may be forced to adhere to a specific tone, vibe or game-development structure. Owned studios are held accountable by people outside of the actual development of a game, and the bigger the company, the further away its bosses are from the creative process.

The most extreme negative outcomes for an acquired indie studio are, of course, layoffs and closures. We saw a lot of these in 2023.

Layoffs

The post-acquisition power dynamic is playing out in public and in real-time. It’s estimated that more than 9,000 people in video games were laid off this year and the firings affected teams of all sizes. This is a crisis amount of cuts. In 2022, just 1,000 video game jobs were lost, according to layoffstracker.com.

The Embracer Group provides the clearest example of rampant, surprise layoffs in 2023. Embracer has spent the past few years acquiring prominent midsize studios, including Gearbox Software (Borderlands), Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider), Eidos-Montreal (Deus Ex) and Square Enix Montreal (Deus Ex Go). In the past decade, Embracer grew its portfolio to cover more than 100 game studios, including Volition (Saints Row), Coffee Stain (Goat Simulator), Free Radical Design (TimeSplitters) and Zen Studios (Pinball FX). The holding company also secured the rights to The Lord of the Rings in 2022, promising to turn it into “one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.”

In June 2023, Embracer announced a six-year, $2 billion funding deal had fallen through, and it was going to restructure — meaning, layoffs and studio closures. Since this announcement, Embracer has shut down Volition, Free Radical Design and Campfire Cabal, it divested Goose Byte and it’s fired developers at Saber Interactive. More than 900 people lost their jobs during these moves. Meanwhile, Embracer’s share price rose by 11 points in November.

This wasn’t the only layoff round of the year. Unity lowered its headcount three times in 2023, affecting about 900 jobs. In its quarterly financial results in November, Unity reported a yearly revenue increase of 69 percent and it told investors, “We continued to manage costs well.”

Sony cut 100 jobs at Bungie, a company it bought for $3.6 billion in 2022. According to developers that are still there, Sony executives are attempting to use this upheaval to wrest more control of the studio from Bungie founders and leaders.

Epic Games fired roughly 830 people this year, or 16 percent of its staff. This included significant job cuts at Mediatonic, the studio behind Fall Guys that Epic purchased in 2021.

“For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn,” CEO Tim Sweeney wrote about the layoffs. He continued, “I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.”

Electronic Arts was one of the first video game companies to institute significant layoffs this year, with a reduction of 6 percent of its workforce, or about 800 employees, in March. EA later cut jobs at Dirt and F1 studio Codemasters, which it purchased in 2021 for $1.2 billion. EA culled an estimated 1,130 jobs in 2023.

CD Projekt RED and Sega each laid off about 100 people in the past 12 months, while Ubisoft fired an estimated 255 employees. Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs across its businesses early in the year, and that included about 100 people at Halo studio 343 industries.

These are just some of the biggest names in layoffs in 2023. Looking back on the carnage, it feels like a warning — as consolidation efforts increase, more game studios will be controlled by just a handful of companies, and they’ll be vulnerable to moves like mass layoffs and closures. We’re laying the foundation for the future of video games right now and consolidation only makes the industry smaller and more generic, as accountants, investors and shareholders push for low-risk concepts, rather than innovation and change.

What will rampant consolidation mean for all of these acquired studios in five years’ time? What will it mean when these teams aren’t shiny, new investments any longer, and the people at the top are ready to get lean again? Remember that many of the shuttered studios listed above were purchased within the past three years.

Being acquired is a cost-benefit analysis for smaller studios, where the benefits are immediate and the costs are potential. It’s easy to say that won’t happen to us. But it can happen, and it does, and as consolidation increases, bulk layoffs are only going to occur more often.

Unions

Unionization is one approach that can help protect the livelihoods of people in the video game industry, and there was progress on this front in 2023. Developers at multiple studios now have union support, from small indies to AAA powerhouses.

Microsoft is currently the home of the industry’s largest union, with representation for more than 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Media. ZeniMax is the parent company of Bethesda, id Software and Arkane, and Microsoft purchased the whole caboodle for $7.5 billion in 2021. Microsoft formally recognized the ZeniMax union this January and the parties started negotiating in April. In December, Microsoft announced it would hire 77 contract workers as full-time employees under the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA union. The deal guaranteed a pay raise, paid holidays and sick leave, and a copy of Starfield, the game they helped ship.

“We are now stronger at the bargaining table and are working to secure a fair contract for all workers — direct employees and contractors,” ZeniMax union member Chris Lusco said. “We are all a part of ZeniMax Studio’s success and we all deserve our fair share. We hope to set a new precedent for workers across Microsoft and the entire gaming industry so that all workers, regardless of their employment status, are able to improve their working conditions through collective bargaining.”

Meanwhile, executives at Microsoft’s newest acquisition, Activision Blizzard, spent the past few years stalling internal unionization efforts. However, QA employees at Raven Software, a subsidiary of Activision, successfully voted to unionize in May 2022. Microsoft has vowed to respect organization attempts now that Activision-Blizzard-King is under its control.

Other companies with unions established in the past two years include Avalanche Studios, Anemone Hug, CD Projekt RED, Experis Game Solutions, Keywords Studios, Sega of America, Tender Claws and Workinman Interactive.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/video-games-in-2023-acquisitions-layoffs-unions-143037174.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Video games in 2023: Acquisitions, layoffs, unions

Xfinity says a data breach likely led to attackers obtaining customers’ usernames and hashed passwords. Other personal information may have been exposed, such as names, contact information, the last four digits of social security numbers, dates of birth and secret questions and answers. The company added that its analysis of the attack is ongoing and it has informed law enforcement about the incident.

In a filing with Maine’s attorney general’s office, Xfinity owner Comcast disclosed that the intrusion has impacted 35.8 million people. As TechCrunch points out, Comcast had 32.3 million broadband customers as of the end of September, indicating that the vast majority of Xfinity customers have been affected by the breach.

On October 10, Citrix disclosed a vulnerability in software that Xfinity and many other businesses use. It provided guidance on how to mitigate the vulnerability on October 23 and Xfinity said it swiftly patched the problem. However, while carrying out a routine cybersecurity check two days later, Xfinity spotted suspicious activity in its systems. It later determined that bad actors accessed its internal network between October 16 and 19.

Xfinity says it’s informing customers of the incident via its website, email and by other means. It’s urging them to change their passwords, to make sure they don’t use the same passwords on different accounts and to enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication. Xfinity also suggested that folks who use the same login credentials on other accounts change their passwords on those.

This isn’t the first security incident Xfinity has had to deal with. Back in 2018, it emerged there was a bug in a Comcast website used to activate Xfinity routers. The issue led to some customers’ home addresses being exposed, along with the name and password for their Wi-Fi networks.

Update 12/19 8:00AM ET: Updated to note the number of people who were impacted by the breach.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xfinity-suffered-a-data-breach-but-doesnt-know-quite-how-bad-it-was-100711214.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Xfinity breach may have affected as many as 35.8 million customers

Some holiday misery for Apple: It will soon pause sales of its latest Apple Watches in the US due to an International Trade Commission (ITC) ban. The company will suspend sales online this week and at Apple retail locations after December 24. Ho ho ho.

It’s all down to a patent dispute over the wearables’ blood oxygen sensor. Cast your minds back: Medical tech company Masimo sued Apple in 2021 for alleged violations of light-based blood-oxygen monitoring patents. In October, the ITC upheld a judge’s ruling from earlier this year that the Apple Watch did violate Masimo’s patents. The ITC’s order blocks all Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 imports to the US after December 25.

The case went to the White House for a 60-day Presidential Review Period. Although President Biden has one more week to decide whether to veto the ITC ruling, Apple has pre-emptively complied with the commission’s decision.

President Biden reportedly owns an Apple Watch – but also a load of other watches too.

— Mat Smith

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Our top gadgets of 2023

The ones we bought.

We test and review tons of gadgets every year, and (for some reason) we also buy a lot of things for ourselves. This year, those purchases included coffee-making upgrades, fancy keyboards and even pricey digital pianos. But there are plenty of other things we’ve bought and loved this year that have yet to make it on the site. Here, our staff looks back at the things that were worth the money.

Continue reading.

A new picture of Uranus looks like a sci-fi portal

The Webb telescope’s NIRCam filters are to thank for this.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a treat to celebrate the upcoming second anniversary of its launch: an image of the icy planet Uranus. The picture, resembling a glowing blue marble rippling in a black ocean, was funneled through the telescope’s infrared filters to capture wavelengths we wouldn’t see with the naked eye.

Yeah, it looks like the CBS logo.

Continue reading.

US lawmakers call for DOJ probe into Apple’s blocking of Beeper’s iMessage app

They asked an assistant attorney general to determine whether Apple violated antitrust laws.

More socks for Apple’s legal department this Christmas. A bipartisan group of US senators and representatives have urged the Department of Justice to investigate whether Apple violated antitrust laws by attempting to block Beeper Mini’s access to iMessage. Senators have asked an assistant attorney general to look into Apple’s “potentially anticompetitive conduct.”

Hopefully, senators will have learned lessons from the other times they’ve tried to grill technology companies without the technical expertise for their questions to make sense.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-pauses-apple-watch-series-9-and-ultra-2-sales-121539726.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – The Morning After: Apple pauses Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales

Meta’s Oversight Board has published its decision for its first-ever expedited review, which only took 12 days instead of weeks, focusing on content surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. The Board overturned the company’s original decision to remove two pieces of content from both sides of the conflict. Since it supported Meta’s subsequent move to restore the posts on Facebook and Instagram, no further action is expected from the company. However, the Board’s review cast a spotlight on how Meta’s reliance on automated tools could prevent people from sharing important information. In this particular case, the Board noted that “it increased the likelihood of removing valuable posts informing the world about human suffering on both sides of the conflict in the Middle East.”

For its first expedited review, the Oversight Board chose to investigate two particular appeals that represent what the users in the affected region have been submitting since the October 7th attacks. One of them is a video posted on Facebook of a woman begging her captors not to kill her when she was taken hostage during the initial terrorist attacks on Israel. The other video posted on Instagram shows the aftermath of a strike on the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza during Israel’s ground offensive. It showed dead and injured Palestinians, children included.

The Board’s review found that the two videos were mistakenly removed after Meta adjusted its automated tools to be more aggressive in policing content following the October 7 attacks. For instance, the Al-Shifa Hospital video takedown and the rejection of a user appeal to get it reinstated were both made without human intervention. Both videos were later restored with warning screens stating that such content is allowed for the purpose of news reporting and raising awareness. The Board commented that Meta “should have moved more quickly to adapt its policy given the fast-moving circumstances, and the high costs to freedom and access to information for removing this kind of content…” It also raised concerns that the company’s rapidly changing approach to moderation could give it an appearance of arbitrariness and could put its policies in question.

That said, the Board found that Meta demoted the content it reinstated with warnning screens. It excluded them from being recommended to other Facebook and Instagram users even after the company determined that they were intended to raise awareness. To note, a number of users had reported being shadowbanned in October after posting content about the conditions in Gaza.

The Board also called attention to how Meta only allowed hostage-taking content from the October 7th attacks to be posted by users from its cross-check lists between October 20 and November 16. These lists are typically made up of high-profile users exempted from the company’s automated moderation system. The Board said Meta’s decision highlights its concerns about the program, specifically its “unequal treatment of users [and] lack of transparent criteria for inclusion.” It said that the company needs “to ensure greater representation of users whose content is likely to be important from a human-rights perspective on Meta’s cross-check lists.”

“We welcome the Oversight Board’s decision today on this case. Both expression and safety are important to us and the people who use our services. The board overturned Meta’s original decision to take this content down but approved of the subsequent decision to restore the content with a warning screen. Meta previously reinstated this content so no further action will be taken on it,” the company told Engadget in a statement. “As explained in our Help Center, some categories of content are not eligible for recommendations and the board disagrees with Meta barring the content in this case from recommendation surfaces. There will be no further updates to this case, as the board did not make any recommendations as part of their decision.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/oversight-board-says-metas-automated-tools-took-down-israel-hamas-war-content-that-didnt-break-its-rules-110034154.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Meta’s automated tools removed Israel-Hamas war content that didn’t break its rules

On top of fighting (and losing to) Epic Games over Play Store antitrust concerns, Google has been fighting a similar lawsuit filed by 36 states and the District of Columbia in 2021. A settlement for that suit was announced in September, but a judge still had to confirm the terms. Now, Google has announced that it will pay a $700 million fine and make what amounts to fairly minor changes to the Play Store. 

Of that sum, Google will distribute $630 million to consumers who may have overpaid for apps or in-app purchases on Google Play (after taxes, lawyers’ fees, etc.). That covers around 102 million people, according to The Washington Post. It will also pay $70 million into a “fund that will be used by the states,” according to Google’s blog. 

The other major change is that Google must allow developers to steer consumers toward sideloading to avoid Google’s Play Store fees on subscriptions and the like. It’ll do that via updated “language that informs users about these potential risks of downloading apps directly from the web for the first time.” However, these actions will be time limited to seven years for the sideloading and five years for the updated language, according to settlement’s wording spotted by The Verge. 

Google will also include language stating that “OEMs can continue to provide users with options out of the box to use Play or another app store.” Starting with Android 14, third-party stores will be allowed to handle future app updates, including automatic installs. It’s also expanding user choice billing that will allow Android apps and games to offer their own payment system in the US. “Developers are also able to show different pricing options within the app when a user makes a digital purchase,” Google states. 

The company will only be required to make these changes for five or six years maximum (seven years for alternate means to download apps). In other words, it could feasibly cut off access to sideloading or third-party app stores after that point, or make it harder for the average consumer to find the option. 

Another big thing missing is exterior payment links. “Google is not required to allow developers to include links that take a User outside an app distributed through Google Play to make a purchase,” the settlement agreement reads. 

The settlement sum represents a miniscule portion of Google’s turnover and the other terms are relatively minor changes over what it already does. It also doesn’t include Epic Games, which won its own lawsuit against Google earlier this month (Google has vowed to appeal). A court still needs to formally approve the states’ settlement.  

Google also argued at its Epic trial that consumers were able to get games by sideloading and other means, but that failed to sway the jury. When the settlement with the states was announced in September, Epic CEO Tim Sweeny said that if it “left the Google tax in place” his company would fight on. “Consumers only benefit if antitrust enforcement not only opens up markets, but also restores price competition,” he said at the time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-multi-state-lawsuit-settlement-will-cost-it-700-million-103512109.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Google’s multi-state lawsuit settlement will cost it 0 million

On December 12, Rhysida, a ransomware group, announced it had taken 1.67 terabytes of data — over 1.3 million files — from Sony’s Insomniac Games and requested $2 million. Now, the one-week deadline for Insomniac Games to pay Rhysida has passed, and the group has made good on its threat to release the stolen information, Cyber Daily reports.

The data includes internal HR documents, screenshots of employees’ Slack conversations, and more, but the main focus is the yet-to-be-released Wolverine video game. The released files contain details about level design, characters and actual screenshots from the game. There’s also a signed publishing agreement between Sony and Marvel that lays out three upcoming X-Men games, the first being Wolverine, with the other two still unnamed. However, it details that Sony — which plans to spend $120 million per game — must release Wolverine by September 1, 2025, with the others due by the end of 2029 and 2033, respectively. 

Rhysida claims that it took the group only 20 to 25 minutes to get the domain administrator and that money was their sole motivation. “We knew that developers making games like this would be an easy target,” a Rhysida spokesperson told Cyber Daily. “Sony has launched an investigation, but it would be better in the backyard.”

Notably, Rhysida’s initial ransom notice allowed anyone to bid on the data, not just Insomniac Games, and it appears some of it was bought. The ransomware group stated that any unsold data was released — but only 98 percent of stolen information is publicly available. Rhysida stipulated that any data purchased must not be resold, but who knows if the new owners will follow that rule.

Rhysida only targeted Insomniac Games within Sony, but in May, a separate attack gained access to 6,800 current and former employees’ personal data. The attack, which ransomware group CLOP took credit for, became public knowledge in October.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/insomniac-games-hackers-leak-13-million-files-after-demanding-2-million-ransom-102134429.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Insomniac Games hackers leak 1.3 million files after demanding million ransom

TomTom just announced a “fully integrated, AI-powered conversational automotive assistant” which should start popping up in dashboard infotainment platforms in the near-ish future. The company has issued some bold claims for the AI, saying it’ll offer “more sophisticated voice interaction” and allow users to converse naturally to navigate, find stops along a route, control onboard systems, open windows and just about anything else you find yourself doing while driving.

The company, best known for GPS platforms, partnered up with Microsoft to develop this AI assistant. The technology leverages OpenAI’s large language models, in addition to Microsoft products like Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Cognitive Services. Cosmos DB is a multi-model database and Cognitive Services is a set of APIs for use in AI applications, so this should be a capable assistant that draws from the latest advancements. 

TomTom promises that the voice assistant will integrate into a variety of interfaces offered by major automobile manufacturers, stating that the auto company will retain ownership of its branding. So this could start showing up in cars from a wide variety of makers. The company hasn’t announced any definitive partnerships with known vehicle manufacturers, but the technology will be integrated into TomTom’s proprietary Digital Cockpit, an open and modular in-vehicle infotainment platform.

This isn’t the first time a company has tried to stuff an LLM inside of a car. Back in June, Mercedes announced a three-month beta program that incorporated ChatGPT models into select vehicles. This tool also leveraged Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. TomTom is showing off the AI at CES in January, so we’ll know more about how it actually works at that point. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tomtom-and-microsoft-team-up-to-bring-generative-ai-to-automobiles-063002000.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – TomTom and Microsoft team up to bring generative AI to automobiles

It may seem like blasphemy for an Engadget writer to diss touch controls, but as the demise of the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar has proven, those aren’t always a good idea — especially on cars. As spotted by Autocar at Volkswagen City Studio in Copenhagen, the ID. 2all concept electric car now features a slightly updated interior, with the most notable change being the return of physical buttons below the central touchscreen. According to the brand’s interior designer Darius Watola, this will be “a new approach for all models” based on “recent feedback from customers” — especially those in Europe who wanted “more physical buttons.”

In Autocar’s Tiguan launch interview back in June, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer already acknowledged customers’ criticism on the over-reliance on touch controls — namely on the Golf Mk8 and ID.3, not to mention the same trend across the motor industry. The exec went as far as saying the earlier touch-heavy approach — endorsed by his predecessor, Herbert Diess — “definitely did a lot of damage” in terms of customer loyalty.

The ID. 2all is based on Volkswagen’s updated MEB Entry platform, and packs a 223HP motor that can go up to 62MPH in under seven seconds. As far as range goes, this car can apparently travel up to 280 miles on a single charge, but that’s with the larger and more advanced 56kWh battery instead of the base 38kWh version. Expect this concept electric vehicle to cost under €25,000 (around $27,300), when it arrives as a production model in Europe in 2025. The company also recently teased the ID. 2all SUV, which is described as “the brother of the ID. 2all,” but it won’t be out until 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/volkswagen-drivers-want-more-physical-buttons-instead-of-touch-controls-044931087.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Volkswagen is returning to physical buttons instead of touch controls

Google is giving anyone who has a WiFi-only Stadia controller lying around an additional year to convert it to Bluetooth. The deadline to do this was previously until the end of this year, but Google is now extending it to December 31, 2024.

Google axed Stadia, its cloud gaming service, at the beginning of this year. Most customers who bought digital games through the Google Store got refunds, but some physical hardware such as Stadia’s controller that connected directly to WiFi, is still out there. Enabling Bluetooth on Stadia controllers will let people use them with any other devices such as PCs, Macs, phones or tablets. This, as Kotaku points out, could prevent e-waste.

Switching your controller to Bluetooth is permanent. It takes about three minutes and requires a USB cable, according to Google. To pair a Stadia controller to Bluetooth, you need to press and hold the Y and Stadia button for at least two seconds. You’ll know that the controller has entered “pairing mode” when the status light flashes orange. If you’re having issues establishing a connection, Google advises making sure that the controller is charged for at least 30 minutes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-have-a-whole-additional-year-to-convert-your-google-stadia-controller-to-bluetooth-232856929.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – You have a whole additional year to convert your Google Stadia controller to Bluetooth

Trevor Milton, the disgraced founder of Nikola, was just sentenced to four years in prison on three counts of fraud. 

In October 2022, a jury found Milton guilty of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. Milton faced up to 60 years in prison. Prosecutors asked the judge for an 11-year prison sentence and a $5 million fine, according to The New York Times, while the defense argued for probation. 

After announcing the sentence at a federal court hearing in New York City, U.S. District Judge Edgar Ramos spoke directly to Milton. “As difficult as it may be for you or your family to hear, I believe the jury got it right,” Ramos said, as transcribed Reuters.

Milton addressed the court before sentencing was handed down, saying “I did not intend to harm anyone and I did not commit those crimes levied against me.” He also spoke at length about his rural upbringing and recited biblical verse. 

Prosecutors claimed that Milton pumped up the value of the company’s stock by lying to investors about “nearly all aspects” of Nikola’s business. Among other things, Milton claimed his company had a fully functional electric truck. The company released a video that made it appear as though a Nikola One prototype was able to move by itself. However, an indictment alleged that the truck was actually rolling down a hill and that Milton was involved in the video’s creation.

In addition, Milton was accused of lying about Nikola having billions of dollars worth of pre-order reservations and that it was producing hydrogen fuel at four times less than market rates. Prosecutors also said Milton falsely claimed Nikola had developed “game-changing” battery tech.

Nikola is still in business and it plans to resume deliveries of its battery electric truck in early 2024 following a recall over battery issues that cost around $61.8 million to resolve. In the nine months to September 30, Nikola produced 96 trucks and shipped 79.

The company’s stock price has dropped by 99 percent since 2020 and investors are said to have lost more than $660 million. Milton sold around $100 million of his Nikola stock in 2020 and spent most of that on luxury goods such as a plane and real estate, according to the Times. It’s likely that Milton will appeal this conviction, as he’s already asked Ramos for a new trial following the jury’s guilty verdict.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nikola-founder-trevor-milton-sentenced-to-four-years-in-prison-192432136.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Nikola founder Trevor Milton sentenced to four years in prison

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a treat to celebrate the upcoming second anniversary of its launch. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which operate the craft alongside the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shared a recent image of the icy planet Uranus. The picture, resembling a glowing blue marble rippling into a black ocean, was funneled through the telescope’s infrared filters to capture wavelengths future space travelers wouldn’t see with the naked eye.

Compared with the generic-looking images of Uranus taken by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, the Webb telescope paints a more vivid picture. Capturing light in the infrared spectrum, the craft’s sensors reveal a “strange and dynamic ice world filled with exciting, atmospheric features,” as the team operating the telescope described it.

The JWST’s image showcases the planet’s rings surrounding the planet, including “the elusive Zeta ring,” Uranus’ faint and scattered innermost one. You can also catch its north polar cloud cap, the white blob near the center.

The image also captures 14 of Uranus’ 27 moons, labeled in the photo above. Among the (mostly Shakespearean-named) orbiting bodies pictured are Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca and Portia.

The JWST’s photo uses four NIRCam filters, revealing detail in the near-infrared spectrum. These include F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F300M (yellow) and F460M (orange). An image NASA shared earlier this year showed Uranus in only two filters (blue and orange), resulting in a more primitive-looking view of the icy giant.

Speaking of ice, Uranus has loads of it. The planet rotates on its side at about 98 degrees, plunging the opposite side of the planet into extreme cold and darkness for a quarter of a Uranian year. Oh, and since Uranian years last around 84 Earth years, that means, by our calendar, the planet’s dark side enjoys a blustery 21-year winter.

Astronomers believe the Webb telescope’s images will help them better understand Uranus, especially its Zeta ring, for future missions. They also view the pictures as a proxy for learning about the nearly 2,000 documented exoplanets in other solar systems that share traits with our ringed and icy neighbor.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/webb-telescopes-new-uranus-image-looks-like-a-portal-to-another-dimension-181035887.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Webb telescope’s new Uranus image looks like a portal to another dimension

Acura has opened reservations for its first fully electric vehicle (EV). Starting today, you can order the Acura ZDX at around $60,000 for a baseline model with a single-motor (rear-wheel-drive) powertrain. The first deliveries of the “performance SUV” are expected in early 2024.

The automaker said earlier this year it would shift to online-only sales of Acura EVs starting in 2024, and ZDX preorders appear to reflect that. The company said the EV is available through “a new, omni-channel digital sales process,” which buyers can use themselves at home, or receive assistance in using at Acura dealers (although the EVs won’t be available at the dealership itself.)

The ZDX comes in two models. The standard ($60,000 and up) A-Spec variant ships with a 325-mile range, 340 horsepower, a rear-wheel-drive single motor and 20-inch wheels. Meanwhile, the all-wheel-drive ZDX Type S has a shorter 288-mile range but a more potent 500 horsepower, 22-inch wheels and a starting price of around $70,000. Parent company Honda describes the pricier Type S as “the most powerful and best performing Acura SUV ever.”

The EV has Android Auto, built-in Google apps and Apple CarPlay integration. It includes an 11-inch driver-side touchscreen, an 11.3-inch center display and a Bang & Olufsen audio system, which is standard. Its safety features include a rear pedestrian alert and blind zone steering assist. It even has hands-free cruise driver assistance.

The ZDX supports DC Fast Charging (and can add 81 miles through a 10-minute top-off). In addition, Honda has teamed with six other automakers on a project to build a network of 30,000 stations across North America. That initiative is expected to begin in the US by the summer of 2024.

You can order your ZDX in either model in Acura’s online reservations portal. Honda notes pre-orders will include a bonus Acura Energy Key Card, which can unlock “exclusive benefits,” including “discounts to Acura entertainment partners and special events.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-reserve-acuras-zdx-ev-starting-today-180050726.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – You can reserve Acura’s ZDX EV starting today

VF Corporation reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday that it had been hit by a cyberattack. The company owns a slew of apparel brands, including Vans, North Face, Timberland, Dickies and more — and it warns the disruption could affect your holiday shopping. 

VF first noticed “unauthorized occurrences” on its IT systems on December 13, it said in a statement to Engadget. While it began to mitigate the damage, VF found that the hackers had encrypted some of its IT systems and stole personal data. It’s trying to come up with work arounds so that people can still buy from VF brands, but the $7 billion company said the attack messed with its ability to fulfill orders. 

“At this time, VF-operated retail stores globally are open, and currently consumers can purchase available merchandise, but VF is experiencing certain operational disruptions,” a company spokesperson told Engadget on Monday. “At this time, consumers are also able to place orders on most of the brand e-commerce sites globally. However, the Company’s ability to fulfill orders is currently impacted.” VF did not confirm who was behind the attack or provide additional details on what delays customers could experience.

The hack comes shortly after VF said it was experiencing financial headwinds at its quarterly earning meeting. It’s still unclear whether customer data may have been impacted. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/major-apparel-supplier-behind-north-face-and-vans-hit-by-cyberattack-disrupting-its-holiday-fulfillments-174055214.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Major apparel supplier behind North Face and Vans hit by cyberattack, disrupting its holiday fulfillments

You can now mindlessly scroll your TikTok’s ‘for you page’ on larger screens and foldable devices. The new update will be available for users worldwide and on devices like the iPad or the various foldable Android phones out there. TikTok, which is traditionally mobile-forward, said it will deliver a clear video feed of content on bigger screens with “enhanced clarity.”

The top and bottom of screens that stream TikTok videos will have a navigation bar that makes it easier to access tabs and featured videos. With this update, clips can also be watched in landscape orientation. This creates new opportunities for video creators to generate content in a horizontal format after years of a vertical-only.

TikTok also said it is going to continue experimenting with features like Topic Feeds, which would allow users to explore videos in specific categories like gaming, food or fashion. The platform has been exploring new ways to deliver content to users and it has been quietly testing the idea of an AI-powered chatbot that can recommend videos to users. While it’s still the leading app for short-form videos, creating unique ways to deliver content to its users can help set the social media company itself apart from competitors in the space, like Instagram’s Reels and YouTube Shorts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-upgrades-its-app-experience-for-tablets-and-foldables-172456485.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – TikTok upgrades its app experience for tablets and foldables

Flipboard is the latest mainstream app to officially join the fediverse, the collection of decentralized services that run on the ActivityPub protocol. The news reading app, which has been experimenting with Mastodon for nearly a year, now plans to become fully interoperable with Mastodon and the rest of the fediverse.

The news reading app is starting with the accounts of about two dozen publishers, including Polygon, Medium, Semafor, Kotaku and Mental Floss, whose Flipboard content will be discoverable across the fediverse. By next month, the company expects all public Flipboard accounts will be federated, meaning anyone on an ActivityPub-powered app will be able to view their posts and interact with them.

And beginning in April, according to Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, all fediverse content will also be readily available within the Flipboard app itself. This means users will be able to use Flipboard browse content shared to Mastodon, Pixelfed (a photo sharing app kind of like Instagram), PeerTube (a decentralized video platform) and the rest of the apps that make up the fediverse.

Flipboard’s official entrance into the fediverse comes at a moment where there is increasing enthusiasm for ActivityPub within the social media industry. Last week, Meta announced that it was taking its first steps toward making Threads compatible with Mastodon and the rest of the fediverse. “I think you’ll probably have more than 150 million people in the fediverse by the end of the next year,” McCue tells Engadget, “You have millions of Flipboard users, millions of Threads users all joining this network … it’s not going to take very long before this becomes the largest social network.”

McCue’s enthusiasm for Mastodon and the fediverse is especially notable given his once close ties to Twitter. The Flipboard CEO was a member of Twitter’s board between 2010 and 2012, and reportedly considered selling Flipboard to the company in 2015. But Elon Musk’s takeover of the company, and the disintegration of its API, prompted him to begin experimenting with Mastodon and Bluesky integrations earlier this year.

He now believes that momentum for the fediverse is so strong, Twitter may ultimately end up supporting ActivityPub too. “More and more companies will have to look at ActivityPub,” he predicts. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter ultimately decides they’re going to have to do this.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/flipboard-is-moving-to-the-fediverse-170426320.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Flipboard is moving to the fediverse

Apple’s recently-released tvOS 17 update allows for native VPN apps and big-name providers are wasting no time. ExpressVPN dropped an app a couple of weeks ago and now the same is true of one of its primary competitors. NordVPN now has an official Apple TV app available for download.

This is the real deal and works with your current NordVPN subscription, if you have one. The setup is simple. Just download the app and sign in. If you’re new to the service, download the app and create an account. Once connected, you’ll have access to the company’s global array of secure servers.

The app encrypts all network traffic and uses the company’s NordLynx protocol to speed up the connection, which should offer an optimized streaming experience with minimal buffering. Of course, this will likely depend on the locations of your actual network connection and virtual network connection.

Back when Apple first announced that native VPNs would be coming to tvOS 17, NordVPN expressed doubts, telling The Verge that the company was “concerned that there may be some limitations.” It looks like it got over those doubts.

So, why would you even want or need a dedicated VPN on your Apple streaming box? There are a couple of reasons, all of which involve traveling with the diminutive device. You can customize settings, like preferred server location, which helps get around geographic restrictions regarding streaming content. Nobody’s gonna stop you from binging Foundation while on vacation. Even without geo-restrictions, bringing your Apple TV into a hotel room will allow you to stream whatever you want instead of relying on, gag, cable.

Before tvOS 17, you couldn’t configure a VPN on these devices. You’d have to install a VPN client on the router, which is notoriously complicated. Kudos to Apple on this one. NordVPN isn’t the only available VPN on the Apple TV App Store. There’s the aforementioned ExpressVPN, PureVPN and several more. You can install VPN apps on Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K devices, running tvOS 17 or later.

Speaking of tvOS 17, the company just dropped an update. The latest and greatest tvOS 17.2 brings a redesigned interface and the ability to answer FaceTime calls directly from the TV.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nordvpn-comes-to-the-apple-tv-162030095.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – NordVPN comes to the Apple TV

As a precocious teen looking to improve my college application, I sat in on a business studies class. I figured taking two extra A-Levels at night school alongside those I took during the day would make me irresistible to admissions tutors. The class I watched examined if it was worth a large factory keeping its own trucks and drivers in-house rather than outsourcing them. The data showed selling the trucks and firing the workers was more expensive in the long run, and yoked the company to the whims of any third-party logistics company in the local area. Not to mention, if you don’t own a mission-critical component of your business, you’re a lot less powerful when negotiating with your suppliers. But the teacher, and the class, all agreed it was smart to sell it all because it made a bigger profit in the quarter and was cheaper for the next two years. These people had never considered if something bad would happen, and how to prepare for it. It was at this point I realized my values were out of step with the commercial orthodoxy and opted not to take the course.

I mention this because I’ve always thought the people in the tech industry with all the money are probably halfway savvy about how All Of This Is Meant To Work. I’d told myself that what, to me, appeared illogical and self-defeating was because they were playing a game of six-dimensional chess on a board I was too dim to see. Unless, of course, the economics of our industry are so unmoored from reality that everyone’s just pretending, or deluding themselves. And more than a decade of cheap money and lax regulation means everyone’s behaved a little bit sillier than they should have. Now the lights are coming up and everyone’s looking to see what’s actually going on, there’s nowhere for these apparently smart people to hide.

It’s stopped making sense for investors

The Silicon Valley mindset is easy to grasp: If you’re lucky enough to have spare cash, put a small bit of it behind some kids with a big idea. All it takes is for one of those bets – emphasis on the word bet – to win and you’ll get a slice of some pretty big profits. In an era where zero interest-rate policies mean it’s almost free to rack up extraordinary debt, it’s a better route than heading to Las Vegas with your 401k. Not to mention the special cachet and attention you can garner by presenting yourself to the world as a “guru.” But you might have noticed that a lot of high-profile bets haven’t been coming off of late, wasting a lot of cash in the process.

Take WeWork, which this year filed for Chapter 11 after working its way through $16.9 billion since 2014. What logic can we apply to its main backer, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son*, to justify him burning the GDP of Jamaica on such a venture? Especially when Regus, which performs the same decidedly un-techy role of renting temporary office space, owns its properties and makes a small but regular profit every non-COVID year, was available to buy outright for a fraction of the cost? How did this amount of money pass from one company to another without any sort of internal or external oversight? And why did he think that WeWork’s nicer interior design and a beer tap on every floor was such a big draw? The only theory that holds water is that Son was so blindsided by promises of vast future profits (from office rental) that he lost any sense of self-restraint.

That mix of cheap credit and the promise of unbelievable future returns can be applied across the tech industry, too. It might help explain why the cost of streaming has leapt so high while the catalogs available have shrunk. The studios weren’t hurting for profit in the days before Netflix, but the fact it was valued like a tech company enabled it to rack up huge debts. That led plenty of studios to leap onto the bandwagon in the hope of getting some of that mythical profit. In the early days, the hope was that the sheer number of people paying for content would balance out the low cost. But now growth has stalled and there’s still $14.30 billion of debt, plus an audience with an ever-increasing desire for new content.

It’s stopped making sense for consumers

The debt swinging around Netflix’s neck, and the necks of those who followed it into the streaming world save for Amazon, Apple and Warner Bros***, is directly related to this gold rush. And it’ll need to be paid off to the investors and banks who handed over billions of dollars in expectation of vast rewards further down the line. Which is why the cost of a standard Netflix subscription has pretty much doubled since 2011 – with Premium plans now costing $23 a month. Given the scattershot nature of streaming libraries and the fact Netflix can’t be your sole source of entertainment, most consumers have more than one subscription going at the same time. That’s been fine, more or less, while times are good, so what happens when the world’s economies all start to slow down and you’re looking to make room in your monthly budget?

It’s worth remembering new technologies are expensive, both in cost and how much time and effort you spend to get to grips with them. But while technology has had some world-changing hits in the past – personal computing, the internet, smartphones and, uh, social media – it’s been a while since we’ve had anything that big. But the industry can’t help but keep hyping the next big thing even if it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that it’s not going to be a winner. We’re at the peak of the hype cycle for machine learning, which its boosters tell us will automate us all into obsolescence in a decade or so**. The problem is, whenever you actually sit and try to use a generative AI, the results are underwhelming, so great is the gap between the promise and the reality. Take Google’s new AI which managed to give fake answers to spreadsheet-level questions like who won an Academy Award last year. You can already see the itchy feet of those hoping the Humane Pin will be the Next Big Thing despite its risible introduction video.

Consumers lose out here not just because of these expensive boondoggles but because they suck up all the oxygen from everything else. Many of these technologies were designed not to solve real-world problems, of which we have plenty, but to dazzle investors, placate Wall Street and dupe credulous buyers. It doesn’t help that generative AI, like crypto before it, uses a significant amount more energy than it should, exacerbating climate change. Sadly, when all the attention and money shifts to the next thing, we’ll all be poorer for it, both for the folks who were duped into reading machine-written articles about the importance of volleyball, and the folks who got laid off because some genius thought GPT-3 would do a better job without oversight.

It’s stopped making sense for workers

Embracer Group is a Swedish game publisher that loaded up on debt to buy every small studio and IP it could get its hands on. In 2018, CEO Lars Wingefors told GamesIndustry his company would eschew a “fewer, bigger, better” strategy in favor of a “diversified” lineup. In 2021, it said it had access to more than $2 billion in cash and credit to continue its spending spree, bankrolling a slew of newer, smaller titles. That included reviving TimeSplitters developer Free Radical to start work on a new game in the long-dormant cult series.Two years after that, the company admitted that a deal worth $2 billion in revenue over six years had fallen apart and that it would have to cut costs. Free Radical has now been closed, putting the last two years’ worth of work on the shelf and close to 1,000 people across Embracer have lost their jobs.

Across the industry, countless jobs have been lost as even profitable companies look to trim their headcount. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek even said the quiet part out loud when admitting the company “took advantage of the opportunity presented by lower-cost capital” to staff up. Now that the economic situation has shifted, and money isn’t as cheap as it used to be, the company is letting 1,500 people go less than a month before the holidays. Big names who have also trod the same path this year include (deep breath) Amazon (multiple times), ByteDance, LinkedIn (twice), Epic Games, Lyft, Metabook, Dell, Google and Microsoft.

Reality’s going to hit us in the face like a shovel

When I was a kid, a relative worked for a company that made and sold slot machines for adult gambling. I must have been 10 when he came over and set up a game where he gave me a pound in 2p pieces, which I could wager on the outcome of a deck of cards. He’d rigged the game so that, despite all of the pledges to double my cash as my funds shrunk, I’d wipe out. It was a valuable lesson in why it’s not a smart idea to gamble your money, given by someone who saw it up close and personal every day.

The other lesson he taught me was the vow of gratitude he would utter often, which was doubly amusing given his atheism. Whenever there was a bad story in the news, or a tale of corporate woe closer to home, he’d say “there but for the grace of God go I.” Because he knew that so much of what happens in our lives is governed by chance, so it’s pointless to claim it was wisdom. We should always remember that none of us are untouchable, and that the worst phrase in the English language is “what could possibly go wrong?” It’s just a shame that so many of the supposed great minds in the technology industry didn’t get the chance to learn this lesson when they were young enough to appreciate it.

* Wikipedia – hardly a symbol of partisanship – has gone studs-in on Son. At the time of writing, his biography says “his reputation as an investor rests almost solely on his $20 million initial investment in Alibaba Group in 2000.” Given the rest of his track record – and the fact he is presently in debt to his own company to the tune of several billion, ouch.

** I do wonder how many of its backers who spend their days worrying about Roko’s Basilisk have thought about how they’ll be treated by the 85 million or so people suddenly forced into serfdom.

*** Warner Bros. malaise is more directly related to the debt tied to the various buyouts and sales that has seen it shifted from one corporate parent to another. Not that the streaming wars has helped here, but it’s fair to say that its problems are a different realm to those of its peers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/2023-was-the-year-the-economics-of-tech-caught-up-with-reality-153052312.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – 2023 was the year the economics of tech caught up with reality

Be honest: How many times this year have you skipped or scrolled past a much-needed update? Maybe you just wanted to log into Twitter, er, X without setting up multifactor authentication. Putting off these minor inconveniences adds up, and it could lead to an insecure tech setup just waiting to be exploited by an attacker.

So, now you’re probably spending a few days sleeping in your childhood bed, and wondering when Uncle Dave will stop talking to you about buying gold stocks. There’s never been a better time to take care of the less-than-riveting admin work of locking down your digital life. Here’s a quick holiday checklist you and your loved ones (including Dave) can spend an hour doing during your holiday downtime to set up for a more secure year.

Update all your apps and devices

For the most current patches and options, you’ll need to start this security check up by updating all your devices and apps. The companies behind the tech have already done a lot of the work to keep you safe, but it’s your job to make sure that you’re taking full advantage of those updates. I’d recommend starting with operating system updates then apps second because there’s usually some new features reliant on the latest OS within other software. While you’re there, set up automatic updates so that you don’t have to worry about doing this manually in the future.

Sign up for or update your password manager

Strong passwords are your first line of defense to keep your accounts safe, but they’re almost impossible to memorize and keep track of. Download a password manager to store this information for you, so that your passwords can be unguessable gibberish that you’ll actually use. Long term, it’s important to change these passwords every 90 days or so, and never to repeat across accounts. A password manager will help remind you of that, and even generate new password ideas for you. Unique and regularly-changing passwords help prevent attacks like credential stuffing, as we’ve seen make headlines in the recent 23andMe data breach.

Make sure you’re using MFA or, ideally, passkeys

Strong passwords are important, but it’s well-known that they aren’t enough to keep unauthorized actors out of your account. Most people are familiar with using a text message code to grant access to an account. If you’re taking time out of your day to set this up, however, I would recommend using a third-party authenticator app or a hardware key for more secure options. Or, for companies that have switched to allowing passkeys at login, that’s usually your best bet.

This will be one of the more tedious parts of the checklist, so if you can’t sit down and knock out your major logins now, at least push yourself to make these changes each time you log into a website over the next couple of weeks. Being stuck with family for the holiday might not be your preferred opportunity to make this change, but there’s sure to be an upcoming major snowstorm or bout seasonal depression just screaming to be harnessed for your technological well-being.

Consider a VPN, or at least a more secure browser

A strong VPN will keep your web browsing private. Whether it’s free or paid for, defaulting to using a VPN adds an extra layer of security to the work you’re doing online. Most have options to use it across different devices, or to run automatically on startup so that you can set it up once and forget about it. I would also recommend switching over to a secure browser like Tor that runs on a privacy-first platform for more sensitive online matters. Of course there’s a catch: VPNs and Tor can both slow down your browsing, or break certain website features. Updates to the services have helped over time, but even if you use it for just a portion of web browsing, some protection is better than none.

Get up to date on the latest hacks and attack vectors

Keeping up with security news will help you determine what accounts need special attention versus where you can go on autopilot. Once you know whether a breach may have occurred or a password has been leaked, you can quickly make changes to accommodate. Websites already exist to see if you’ve been in a data breach, and most companies have an obligation to tell you if they’ve been impacted. When you also stay up to date on the latest scams and attacks, you know what red flags to look out for in your own inbox to stay proactive.

Tell brokers to stop selling your data

It’s surprisingly easy to stop companies from trading your privacy for cash. On top of getting in the habit of not sharing your cookies or granting location data, you can opt out of working with the top three major data brokers. Axiom, Oracle and Epsilon all have slightly different variations of the same form to fill out so that information like your home address and relatives’ names aren’t being sold for profit. This is a good start to getting your online privacy back, however, it can be more of a headache than just one opt out form.

You have to do this frequently to make sure your information hasn’t been readded to any of the broker sites, and if your information has already been sold to marketing companies, it’s too late to undo it. There are subscription service sites that can help track and continuously delete whatever information pops up for you, but starting with just Axiom, Oracle and Epsilon will still be a free, worthwhile step toward more privacy.

Back up everything

Get an external hard drive or connect to the cloud and keep all of your data backed up. Do this regularly, so that even if your device quits or gets ransomed by an attacker, you aren’t completely screwed. I’d recommend opting for something that can be set up automatically, so that you don’t have to keep constant track of it. That could look like spending the 99 cents per month on extra iCloud storage (or Google Drive or another in-house cloud tool) so that your phone gets backed up each night while you’re asleep. Windows and Mac also both do auto updates to an external drive on desktop, so you can set it and forget it.

Alternatively, you could install backup software onto a device so that it’s taken care of by a third party, but that may be less intuitive to set up. Just don’t forget to clean up your data storage every once in a while, too, so that you’re not holding onto useless screenshots or pictures of your ex from years ago that are taking up valuable space.

Make a plan to check in on your security settings more frequently

It’s overwhelming to play catch up. Going through a list like this can seem intimidating if you haven’t worried about it before. If you set up automatic updates and backups, it’ll take some of those repeat tasks off your plate. But since you’ll already, hopefully, be setting new passwords once a quarter, you can do a quick check up on your other security measures too. See if you’ve been a victim of a breach or identity theft, keep telling data brokers to get their hands off your information and find out if new VPNs or other software has been released that could make your security setup more seamless. Making it a part of the routine is much easier than annual sprees, and can help you catch a cybersecurity problem before it becomes unmanageable.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-everything-you-should-do-to-up-your-security-before-next-year-143009276.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Here’s everything you should do to up your security before next year

If you’re planning to buy an Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2, you may want to act quickly. Apple says it will soon halt sales of both devices in the US due to a International Trade Commission (ITC) ban, which is related to a patent dispute over the wearables’ blood oxygen sensor. Sales will be suspended online this week and at Apple retail locations after December 24.

“A Presidential Review Period is in progress regarding an order from the US International Trade Commission on a technical intellectual property dispute pertaining to Apple Watch devices containing the Blood Oxygen feature,” Apple told Engadget in a statement. “While the review period will not end until December 25, Apple is preemptively taking steps to comply should the ruling stand. This includes pausing sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from Apple.com starting December 21, and from Apple retail locations after December 24.”

The Apple Watch SE will remain available for purchase as it doesn’t have a blood oxygen sensor. Previously purchased Apple Watch units that include the blood oxygen feature are unaffected (the Apple Watch Series 6 was the company’s first device to offer blood-oxygen monitoring). The Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 will still be available to buy outside of the US.

Medical tech company Masimo sued Apple in 2021 over alleged violations of patents related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. In October, the ITC upheld a judge’s ruling from earlier this year that the Apple Watch did violate Masimo’s patents. 

The ITC’s order blocks all Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 imports to the US after December 25. Other retailers, such as Amazon and Best Buy, can continue to sell the devices for the time being, as 9to5 Mac first reported.

Following the ITC’s decision, the case went to the White House for a 60-day Presidential Review Period. Although President Biden has one more week to decide whether to veto the ITC ruling, Apple has opted to preemptively comply with the commission’s decision. 

Apple plans to lodge an appeal with the Federal Circuit. It can also reach a settlement with Masimo or issue software updates that nullify patent infringements (likely by deactivating blood oxygen features). Apple will provide more information on the situation after the Presidential Review Period expires on December 25.

The US Trade Representative will also review the ITC’s order. It has the option to disapprove of the ITC’s action due to policy reasons.

“Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features,” the company said. “Apple strongly disagrees with the order and is pursuing a range of legal and technical options to ensure that Apple Watch is available to customers. Should the order stand, Apple will continue to take all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the US as soon as possible.”

Masimo has released its own smartwatch that Apple claims is an Apple Watch knockoff. Apple filed two patent infringement suits of its own against Masimo in October 2022, asserting that it copied patented Apple Watch features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-pause-watch-series-9-and-ultra-2-sales-in-the-us-due-to-a-patent-dispute-142051903.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales paused in the US due to a patent dispute