Meta has decided to play ball with the European Union’s online services regulations in order to bring Threads to its member countries. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta will make Threads available across Europe in December and, in compliance with EU policies, allow users to access the platform without needing to create a profile.
Threads first launched to most of the world in July as an alternative to Elon Musk’s increasingly polarizing X, formerly known as Twitter. Threads reached 100 million users in its first week but has experienced some drop-off. The Meta-owned platform currently has about 73 million active users compared to X’s 365 million.
An expansion into the EU will undoubtedly grow Thread’s global engagement, but time will tell how fast and to what extent. In October, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted that Threads could see a reach of one billion users in the next few years. Instagram, which people can use to make a Threads account quickly, has over two billion active users but didn’t hit the one billion mark until eight years after launch. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has also announced that deleting your Threads account will no longer delete your associated Instagram account — another point of contention.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/threads-may-finally-launch-in-europe-in-december-124054154.html?src=rss
Starting December 1, 2023 (that’s tomorrow), Google will begin deleting accounts that have been inactive for at least two years. The company says it’s doing so for privacy reasons: “If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google noted in May 2023. “This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised.” Google will warn users before deletion via emails sent to the inactive account and another email, provided one has been set up.
Even if you don’t need the account, it might be best to login and check you’re not going to miss anything — there might be important information somewhere in msmith.teamnaruto@gmail.com. No spam, please.
— Mat
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Elon Musk, seeing his financially precarious X could lose another $75 million in ad revenue following his boosting of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, has a fresh new message for advertisers pulling away from the platform: “Go fuck yourself.”
While Musk again denied being antisemitic, he expressed some regret for engaging with the tweet that resulted in another exodus of advertisers from X. “I should have not replied to that particular person… I essentially handed a loaded gun to those who hate me,” Musk said.
Consumer Reports’ data indicates plug-in hybrids are even worse.
Engadget
Consumer Reports has published an extensive ranking of vehicle reliability, and the results pour cold water on the dependability of EVs and plug-in hybrids. The survey says electric vehicles suffer from 79 percent more maintenance issues than gas- or diesel-powered ones, while plug-in hybrids have 146 percent more problems. The troubles portray the industry’s growing pains with the relatively new technology. Lexus came out on top among EV brands. All but one of its models scored above average or better in CR’s ratings. Toyota also did well, including the 4Runner SUV, which CR describes as “among the most reliable models in the survey.”
The chatbot was asked to repeat random words forever.
A team of researchers was able to make ChatGPT reveal some of the bits of data it has been trained on by asking it to repeat random words forever. In response, ChatGPT churned out random words, yes, but also shared people’s private information, including email addresses and phone numbers. When the researchers asked ChatGPT to “repeat the word ‘poem’ forever,” the chatbot initially complied, but then revealed an email address and a cellphone number for a real founder and CEO. OpenAI patched the vulnerability on August 30, the researchers say. But in our own tests, Engadget was able to replicate the attack, asking ChatGPT to repeat the word “reply” forever, which resulted, eventually, in revealing someone’s name and Skype ID.
For the first time in a while, you can access it on desktop.
Spotify
Spotify is revealing all of the artists, genres, songs and podcasts you listened to most in the last 12 months, even if it’s going to make you cringe. The 2023 installment of the streaming service’s Wrapped year-in-review debuted yesterday on the Spotify app, with an all-new design alongside the familiar story-style format. This year, the company will assign one of 12 “listening characters” that best fits your streaming habit. The feature is called Me in 2023, and those “characters” range from the Shapeshifter, someone who moves from one artist to another quickly, to the Alchemist, someone more likely to create their own playlists.
Amazon has its own image generator. AWS customers can now check out a preview of Titan Image Generator on the Bedrock console. They can either enter a text prompt to create an image from scratch or upload an image and edit it. Amazon says the tool can produce large volumes of studio-quality realistic images at low cost. Users can also isolate areas in which they want to add or remove details. Amazon also recently revealed its own business-centric chatbot, Q.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-google-plans-to-delete-your-old-inactive-accounts-starting-tomorrow-121517859.html?src=rss
Social media’s negative impact on children’s and young adults’ mental health has been a growing cause of concern for parents and lawmakers. Now, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X are set to testify in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee on “their failure to protect children online.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew are willing participants. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino are testifying after being subpoenaed.
Senator Dick Durbin, chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, its ranking member, released a statement expressing their frustration with Snap, Discord, and X’s initial refusal to have their CEOs participate and even accept the subpoenas. In Discord’s case, US Marshals visited their offices to serve the document.
The senators further shared a feeling of hypocrisy at these platforms wanting a say in policy but fighting against getting involved in discussions. “When we held our first hearing on protecting children online with experts and advocates earlier this year, Big Tech griped about not getting an invitation. We promised them that their time would come,” Durbin and Graham stated. “We’ve known from the beginning that our efforts to protect children online would be met with hesitation from Big Tech. They finally are being forced to acknowledge their failures when it comes to protecting kids. Now that all five companies are cooperating, we look forward to hearing from their CEOs. Parents and kids demand action.”
The Judiciary Committee has focused on this issue a great deal throughout the year, approving bills that would force online platforms to take more responsibility in protecting children (and be more transparent in their efforts) and improve reporting of online child sexual exploitation, among other steps. The hearing with the CEOs from the five tech giants was originally set for December but will now take place on January 31, 2024, at 10 AM ET.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-x-tiktok-snap-and-discord-ceos-will-testify-before-the-senate-over-online-child-safety-110559486.html?src=rss
Fresh off successful contract negotiations with Ford, GM and Stellantis, the United Auto Workers (UAW) is seeking to unionize 150,000 workers across 13 automakers including Tesla, BMW, Mercedes Benz and Hyundai, it announced. “To all the autoworkers out there working without the benefits of a union: now it’s your turn,” said UAW president Shawn Fain.
The UAW said the organizing drive covers “more than a dozen” non-union automakers. It notes that many use a mix of full-time, temporary and contract employees “to divide the workforce and depress wages.” The union cited one example of a Hyundai assembly plant employee who worked for a subcontractor for eight years starting at $9.25 an hour before finally becoming a full-time Hyundai employee.
Non-union automakers, including VW, Nissan, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and Subaru raised wages after the UAW’s negotiations with the big three. VW, for one, bumped them to $23.42 an hour, rising to a maximum of $32.40. However, they “lag far behind UAW autoworkers in wages, benefits and rights on the job,” the union said.
The UAW helped workers win a 25 percent raise over four years with the big three automakers, with the highest-paid Ford workers now earning $83,000 per year for a 40-hour work week (around $42 per hour). The union also gained reinstatement of cost-of-living allowances, shorter progression periods to top wages and a quicker conversion of temporary to in-progression (full-time) employees.
Tesla employees have attempted to unionize the company before, and some alleged that the company fired them for that — though that claim was recently dismissed by the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB has previously found that Tesla violated labor law by prohibiting employees from talking about workplace matters. Back in 2022, Elon Musk challenged the UAW to hold a vote at Tesla’s California factory.
Other automakers aren’t exempt from worker complaints, including startup Rivian. “The company likes to tell us we’re making the plane while flying it, and that explains a lot about the problems we have,” said one Rivian chassis worker. “We have all sorts of safety issues. Turnover is terrible. Every group has a story about a new employee who did not make it to first break. The lack of safety, the low pay, the forced overtime, there are so many reasons we need to be union.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/united-auto-workers-seeks-to-unionize-tesla-bmw-and-other-carmakers-100555374.html?src=rss
NASA and IBM have teamed up to build an AI foundation model for weather and climate applications. They’re combining their respective knowledge and skills in the Earth science and AI fields, respectively, for the model, which they say should offer “significant advantages over existing technology.”
Current AI models such as GraphCast and Fourcastnet are already generating weather forecasts more quickly than traditional meteorological models. However, IBM notes those are AI emulators rather than foundation models. As the name suggests, foundation models are the base technologies that power generative AI applications. AI emulators can make weather predictions based on sets of training data, but they don’t have applications beyond that. Nor can they encode the physics at the core of weather forecasting, IBM says.
NASA and IBM have several goals for their foundational model. Compared with current models, they hope for it to have expanded accessibility, faster inference times and greater diversity of data. Another key aim is to improve forecasting accuracy for other climate applications. The expected capabilities of the model include predicting meteorological phenomena, inferring high-res information based on low-res data and “identifying conditions conducive to everything from airplane turbulence to wildfires.”
This follows another foundational model that NASA and IBM deployed in May. It harnesses data from NASA satellites for geospatial intelligence, and it’s the largest geospatial model on open-source AI platform Hugging Face, according to IBM. So far, this model has been used to track and visualize tree planting and growing activities in water tower areas (forest landscapes that retain water) in Kenya. The aim is to plant more trees and tackle water scarcity issues. The model is also being used to analyze urban heat islands in the United Arab Emirates.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-and-ibm-are-building-an-ai-for-weather-and-climate-applications-050141545.html?src=rss
Following Sam Altman’s rollercoaster of a return as OpenAI’s CEO, the company announced — on the eve of ChatGPT’s first anniversary — that it will now include Microsoft as a non-voting observer on its board. The question remains as to why the firm’s largest investor wasn’t on its board in the first place, but this seems to be somewhat addressed for now, at least. Altman is joined by co-founder Greg Brockman who resumes his role as President, whereas Mira Murati, who very briefly served as interim CEO throughout the drama, will return to her role as CTO.
The announcement also confirms a new board consisting of former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor (chair), former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and original member Adam D’Angelo, who is also Quora’s co-founder and CEO. It was earlier rumored that Altman’s exit was partly influenced by D’Angelo’s seeming conflict of interest, as OpenAI was developing a potential competitor to Quora’s Poe service — the latter offers OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4, along with several other text-generating AI models.
I recognize that during this process some questions were raised about Adam’s potential conflict of interest running Quora and Poe while being on the OpenAI Board. For the record, I want to state that Adam has always been very clear with me and the Board about the potential…
D’Angelo’s presence on OpenAI’s new board came as a surprise, and Altman took to X to address the elephant in the room. “Quora is a large customer of OpenAI and we found it helpful to have customer representation on our Board.” The exec added that D’Angelo “has always been very clear… about the potential conflict and doing whatever he needed to do,” including offering to leave the board, if necessary. As to why the original board wanted Altman out, he said “it is clear that there were real misunderstandings between me and members of the board.”
OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever was a former board member who allegedly led the ouster of Altman. The exec later openly admitted that he “deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions” (with Elon Musk begging for attention in his thread), and he had since voiced his support for Altman’s return as CEO. In his open message, Altman says “I harbor zero ill will towards him,” and that his team is figuring out a way to let Sutskever continue his work at OpenAI.
In the same official announcement, OpenAI’s new Chair, Taylor, assured that the company will “enhance the governance structure,” and put together “an independent committee of the Board to oversee a review of the recent events,” for the sake of the organization’s stability.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-joins-openai-board-as-sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-023844090.html?src=rss
Elon Musk, facing the fact that an already financially-precarious X could be poised to lose another $75 million in ad revenue following his boosting of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, has a new message for advertisers pulling back from the platform: “Go fuck yourself.”
Musk repeated the sentiment multiple times during an appearance at The New York Times’ DealBook event. “Don’t advertise,” Musk said. “If somebody is going to try and blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
whoa — “go fuck yourself,” Elon Musk says to Bob Iger and others who pull advertising from X
at this point it’s almost as if he’s watching the old Iron Man movies and doing a reverse Tony Stark impression pic.twitter.com/csXxeLH2wG
“Hey Bob,” Musk added, in an apparent reference to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who appeared at the same event earlier in the day and spoke about the company’s decision to pull ads following Musk’s tweet earlier this month. Iger said that Disney’s association with X was “not necessarily a positive one for us,” according toVariety.
While Musk again denied being antisemitic, he did express some regret for engaging with the tweet that’s resulted in another exodus of advertisers from X. “I should have not replied to that particular person… I essentially handed a loaded gun to those who hate me,” Musk said about the post, perVariety.
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. X CEO Linda Yaccarino had a front-row seat to the remarks, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which reports the former ad exec sat “stone-faced” during Musk’s tirade.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-responds-companies-pulled-233913536.html?src=rss
Consumer Reports has published an extensive ranking of vehicle reliability, and the results pour cold water on the dependability of EVs and plug-in hybrids. The survey says electric vehicles suffer from 79 percent more maintenance issues than gas- or diesel-powered ones, while plug-in hybrids have 146 percent more problems. The troubles portray the industry’s growing pains with the relatively new technology as the planet sets record temperatures, and scientists warn of rapidly approaching deadlines to thwart global climate catastrophe.
The survey polled CR’s members about issues with their rides from the past year, gathering data on 330,000 vehicles. The publication’s data included models from 2000 to 2023, alongside a few (early launched) 2024 models. CR studied 20 “trouble areas,” including relatively minor issues like squeaky brakes or a broken interior trim and more problematic ones related to the transmission, engine or EV battery. The number of potential trouble areas varies by type: internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles have 17, EVs have 12, traditional hybrids have 19 and plug-in hybrids have all 20.
The publication combined the data with its own track testing, owner satisfaction survey results and safety info. It then averaged it to assign each brand a numerical score (out of 100).
The Lexus UX, a rare plug-in hybrid that scored well in the survey.
Lexus
Non-plugin hybrids scored well, with the survey indicating they suffer from 26 percent fewer issues than gas- and diesel-powered vehicles. CR highlighted the most reliable brands in that space, including the Lexus’ UX and NX Hybrid and Toyota’s Camry Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid and RAV4 Hybrid.
If only plug-in hybrids (PHEV) could enjoy those ratings. Instead, their longer list of trouble spots led to 146 percent more problems than traditional gas-powered vehicles. Lowlights include the Chrysler Pacifica, which scored an abysmal 14 out of 100, and Audi Q5. However, several PHEVs defied the category’s expectations, including “standouts” like the Toyota RAV4 Prime and Kia Sportage. Several others, including the BMW X5, Hyundai Tucson and Ford Escape, scored “average” in reliability.
Fully electric cars and SUVs, the vehicles many automakers aim to fill their dealership lots with by 2030, have mediocre average scores: 44 and 43, respectively. Electric pickups, the newest technology in the bunch, perhaps unsurprisingly scored worse with an average of 30.
Lexus came out on top among EV brands. All but one of its models scored above average or better in CR’s ratings. And the lone exception, the NX, still had an average score. Toyota also did well, including the 4Runner SUV, which CR describes as “among the most reliable models in the survey.” However, its electric Tundra pickup scored poorly. Other EVs with above-average scores include Acura’s RDX and TLX.
Photo by Roberto Baldwin / Engadget
Once practically synonymous with electric vehicles, Tesla had overall scores in the middle of the pack (alongside brands like Chevrolet, Buick, Ram, Cadillac and Dodge). CR says the Elon Musk-led company’s EV powertrains tend to fare better than those from traditional automakers. However, Ars Technicanotes the company’s reliability scores struggled more with things like bodywork, paint / trim and climate systems.
Regionally speaking, Asian automakers enjoyed the highest average scores in the survey at a healthy 63. European companies were second with an average of 46, while US brands slumped with a somewhat disappointing score of 39.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/evs-are-way-more-unreliable-than-gas-powered-cars-consumer-reports-data-indicates-212216581.html?src=rss
Absurd Ventures, the new creative studio from Rockstar Games co-founder and ex-creative director Dan Houser, has announced its first projects. As it happens, neither of them are video games, at least not yet.
The first of these two new universes is called American Caper, which will debut as a graphic novel. It will focus on two normal but damaged families who are mired “in a world of corrupt business, inept politics and bungling crime.” Comic book artist Simon Bisley (ABC Warriors, Lobo) is illustrating the graphic novel.
The other project is a 12-episode audio drama that’s already in production. A Better Paradise is described as a near-future existential suspense thriller. Absurd Ventures is working with well-regarded audio company Q-CODE Media on the project.
Absurd Ventures plans to reveal more details about both projects in the coming months. However, referring to both American Caper and A Better Paradise as “universes” suggests the company has plans to expand them into transmedia enterprises, which may just include video games.
Meanwhile, we’re just days away from getting our first proper glimpse at what has been keeping Houser’s former colleagues at Rockstar busy for the last several years. The publisher will unveil the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto game in early December. Rumors suggest the reveal will take place at The Game Awards on December 7.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rockstar-games-co-founder-dan-housers-next-projects-are-a-graphic-novel-and-an-audio-drama-210258054.html?src=rss
Amazon has hopped on the same bandwagon on which many major tech companies have hitched a ride this year by debuting its own image generator. AWS customers can now check out a preview of Titan Image Generator on the Bedrock console. They can either enter a text prompt to create an image from scratch or upload an image and edit it.
Amazon says the tool can produce large volumes of studio-quality, realistic images at low cost. It claims the AI can generate relevant images based on complex text prompts while ensuring object composition is accurate and that there are limited distortions. This, according to the company, helps with “reducing the generation of harmful content and mitigating the spread of misinformation.”
Those looking to edit an image can isolate areas in which they want to add or remove details. They can, for instance, replace the background or swap an object in a subject’s hand. The AI can also extend an image’s borders by adding artificial details, much like the Generative Expand feature in Photoshop.
Amazon says Titan applies an invisible watermark to images that it generates. The company says this will “help reduce the spread of misinformation by providing a discreet mechanism to identify AI-generated images and to promote the safe, secure and transparent development of AI technology.” It claims that the watermarks are resistant to modifications. According to a demo of the image generator, the AI can also generate a description of the image or relevant text to use in a social media post.
News of the image generator emerged at Amazon’s AWS re:Invent conference, at which the company also showed off its latest AI chips and revealed a business-centric AI chatbot called Q. The company recently started offering advertisers a tool that lets them add AI-generated backgrounds to product images.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-now-has-its-own-ai-image-generator-203025475.html?src=rss
Content platform Substack just released a spate of new video capabilities, placing it in direct competition with YouTube and Patreon, among others. The video tools include a direct upload option, which is handy, and customizable paywalls for content creators. Before this, users were forced to upload videos to YouTube and embed a link. The upload tool is now readily accessible via the dashboard. It’ll even automatically split the audio and video for podcasters who want to court both audiences.
As for the paywall options, you now get the same level of flexibility available to non-video users. Content creators can select a slice of the video to give away for free, locking the rest behind a paywall. The free preview segment should transition smoothly into a prompt to become a paying subscriber.
There’s also a new AI tool that generates transcripts from videos, for those who like to, gasp, read. The transcript is automatically created alongside the video upload and users can post it to the main feed. Additionally, viewers can click anywhere on the transcript to jump to that section of the video.
Video sharing has gotten a much-needed upgrade. Viewers can create their own custom clips sourced from any video. This creates a shareable link that includes branded visuals at the end featuring the creator’s logo and URL, so there will be no obvious thievery. Obviously, viewers can quickly share links to the entire clip if they want. Users can even directly download videos for publication on services like TikTok and Instagram. Again, that bumper will be there to give credit to the original creator.
The company wrote in a blog post that these new tools, taken together, make it so “the friction in starting a media business based on video has been reduced to almost zero.” To commemorate the launch, Substack is rolling out a number of exclusive video shows. There’s a food culture program with chef Nancy Silverton, a talk show starring actress Amber Tamblyn and a news program anchored by Chris Cuomo, among many others.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/substack-adds-new-video-tools-to-compete-with-patreon-and-youtube-202025605.html?src=rss
A team of researchers was able to make ChatGPT reveal some of the bits of data it has been trained on by using a simple prompt: asking the chatbot to repeat random words forever. In response, ChatGPT churned out people’s private information including email addresses and phone numbers, snippets from research papers and news articles, Wikipedia pages, and more.
The researchers, who work at Google DeepMind, the University of Washington, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California Berkeley, and ETH Zurich, urged AI companies to seek out internal and external testing before releasing large language models, the foundational tech that powers modern AI services like chatbots and image-generators. “It’s wild to us that our attack works and should’ve, would’ve, could’ve been found earlier,” they wrote, and published their findings in a paper on Tuesday that 404 Media first reported on.
Chatbots like ChatGPT and prompt-based image generators like DALL-E are powered by large language models, deep learning algorithms that are trained on enormous amounts of data that critics say is often scraped off the public internet without consent. But until now, it wasn’t clear what data OpenAI’s chatbot was trained on since the large language models that power it are closed-source.
When the researchers asked ChatGPT to “repeat the word ‘poem’ forever”, the chatbot initially compiled, but then revealed an email address and a cellphone number for a real founder and CEO”, the paper revealed. When asked to repeat the word “company”, the chatbot eventually spat out the email address and phone number of a random law firm in the US. “In total, 16.9 percent of the generations we tested contained memorized [personally identifiable information]” the researchers wrote.
Using similar prompts, the researchers were also able to make ChatGPT reveal chunks of poetry, Bitcoin addresses, fax numbers, names, birthdays, social media handles, explicit content from dating websites, snippets from copyrighted research papers and verbatim text from news websites like CNN. Overall, they spent $200 to generate 10,000 examples of personally identifiable information and other data cribbed straight from the web totalling “several megabytes”. But a more serious adversary, they noted, could potentially get a lot more by spending more money. “The actual attack”, they wrote, “is kind of silly.”
OpenAI patched the vulnerability on August 30, the researchers say. But in our own tests, Engadget was able to replicate some of the paper’s findings. When we asked ChatGPT to repeat the word “reply” forever, for instance, the chatbot did so, before eventually revealing someone’s name and Skype ID. OpenAI did not respond to Engadget’s request for comment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-silly-attack-made-chatgpt-reveal-real-phone-numbers-and-email-addresses-200546649.html?src=rss
Netflix continues to bet big on gaming. The streamer just announced that Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Editionwill hit its platform on December 14. The game will be free to play for Netflix subscribers, like the rest of its library. Each of the three titles included in the collection have been updated for mobile. These games include the iconic Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. They’ll be playable via the Netflix app, but also available as standalone apps on Android and iOS.
The gameplay’s a bit dated by modern standards but Grand Theft Auto III basically invented the open-world genre, and the sequels further refined the model. Many players actually point to San Andreas as being a high watermark for the series, even outpacing more recent titles. In any event, this trilogy can hold you over until the eventual release of Grand Theft Auto VI. To that end, the forthcoming Rockstar sequel should be getting a trailer any day now.
Netflix has been snagging all kinds of games for its ever-growing library, from the massively popular roguelike Hades to the equally popular, uh, roguelike Dead Cells. The platform’s library also includes Braid, Death’s Door, Katana Zero and other hit indies.
The company’s also developing its own games, thanks to snatching up developer Night School, the team behind Oxenfree and Afterparty. This acquisition has already borne fruit, as Oxenfree II: Lost Signals released earlier this year to wide acclaim. Incidentally, the sequel isn’t stuck on Netflix, as it’s also available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC via Steam. So the streamer might not be using games as just a way to lure in new subscribers. Netflix could be in it for the long haul.
Beyond Oxenfree II, other original games to hit the platform include Slayaway Camp 2: Netflix & Kill and a whole lot of titles based on pre-existing TV shows. There’s a game based on the recently-canceled fantasy epic Shadow and Bone and forthcoming titles inspired by Money Heist and The Dragon Prince, among others.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-is-adding-the-gta-trilogy-to-its-games-library-on-december-14-190357966.html?src=rss
A 20th-anniversary edition of the cult classic Beyond Good & Evil is coming in early 2024. Details about the previously unannounced remaster popped up on the Xbox Store, and an incomplete version of the game was briefly available on Ubisoft Plus. Ubisoft used the opportunity to formally acknowledge the game’s existence, promising official details later. The since-deleted synopsis promised “up to 4K, 60 fps with improved graphics, controls, and audio, along with brand-new autosave and cross-save features.”
“An early development version of Beyond Good & Evil: 20th Anniversary Edition was recently released to some Ubisoft+ subscribers by mistake,” Ubisoft posted on X. “We apologize for any confusion and want to assure our community that this version is not indicative of the final game.”
Ubisoft said the version of the game posted to Ubisoft Plus wasn’t the final one. IGNreports the deleted Xbox Store blurb promised a speed run mode, updated achievements and an anniversary gallery with behind-the-scenes glimpses into the cult classic’s development. The synopsis said it supported Smart Delivery, ensuring you get the best version of the game for your Xbox hardware.
We’re excited to announce that the official launch is set for early 2024, and we’re dedicated to making it an experience that truly honors the legacy of the original. Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Beyond Good & Evil was a critically acclaimed commercial dud when it arrived in November 2003. The game tackled subjects like moral ambiguity, government conspiracies, identity and rebellion — not exactly a recipe for financial success in a United States still in shock from 9/11 and reactively fist-pumping the US invasion of Iraq. Although its gameplay wasn’t necessarily groundbreaking in any single area, it successfully blended action-adventure, puzzles, stealth, platform and racing elements with a polish and alluring atmosphere rarely seen in that era outside of Zelda games.
As psyched as some fans will likely be about the anniversary edition, it probably isn’t the franchise news they hoped for. Beyond Good & Evil 2, initially teased in 2008 and officially announced in 2017, still hasn’t materialized. Although it’s easy to dismiss the comically long-anticipated sequel as the quintessential example of vaporware, Ubisoft insists it isn’t. Despite intermittent reassurances that it’s progressing, Bloombergreported in 2022 that Beyond Good & Evil 2 was still in pre-production.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/beyond-good–evil-is-getting-a-20th-anniversary-edition-in-early-2024-183535329.html?src=rss
After the Pokémon anime universe said goodbye to its long-time protagonist Ash Ketchum, stateside fans have been anticipating the arrival of the new faces to helm the series. Now, the wait is almost over. Pokémon Horizons: The Series, the latest installment in the franchise, is set to make its English debut on Netflix in 2024.
Pokémon Horizons has been available in Japan since April of this year, but it was previously unclear when the show’s English dub would debut. According to a new tweet from the official Pokémon account, Pokémon Horizons will be available for streaming on February 23 in the US. This comes a just few days before the annual Pokémon Day celebration on February 27.
Viewers in the UK won’t have to wait until February to catch the Pokémon Horizons fever. The English dub is set to premiere in early December and will be available for streaming on BBC iPlayer. Meanwhile, Canadian viewers will have to wait until March 2 to catch the series on either Cartoon Network or Télétoon.
The dubbed version of Pokémon Horizons will introduce English-speaking audiences to a fresh cast of characters, including Liko (Alejandra Reynoso), Sprigatito (Kira Buckland), Roy (Anjali Kunapaneni) and Fuecoco (Zeno Robinson). Together, they’ll embark on an adventure spanning multiple regions within the expansive Pokémon world.
Additionally, Pokémon fans can also look forward to an adorable stop-motion series, Pokémon Concierge, on Netflix this December.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pokemon-horizons-hits-netflix-in-february-182019171.html?src=rss
Google won’t block news links in Canada in response to new legislation after all. The company pledged earlier this year to pull links to Canadian news stories from Search, News and Discover when the country’s Online News Act (Bill C-18) takes effect in December. However, Google has reached a deal with the country’s government that will see it continuing to serve users there with Canadian news.
“Following constructive discussions, our government and Google have reached an agreement — they will contribute to the Online News Act. We worked hard to make this possible,” Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge wrote on X. “This Act is good news for journalism, for online platforms and for Canadians.”
Google has agreed to pay news publishers in Canada around $100 million CAD per year, according to the CBC. That’s significantly less than the government’s previous estimate that Google’s annual payments should be around $172 million. The $100 million figure is in line with Google’s own estimates of how much it should pay.
The company will still need to sign an agreement with the media after negotiations. Google had demurred over a mandatory negotiation model that would have seen it hold talks with media organizations. Instead, the CBC reports that Google will only need to negotiate with a representative group, which is said to limit the company’s risk of arbitration.
“We thank the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, for acknowledging our concerns and deeply engaging in a series of productive meetings about how they might be addressed,” Kent Walker, Google and Alphabet’s president of global affairs, told Engadget in a statement. “Following extensive discussions, we are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18, which included the need for a streamlined path to an exemption at a clear commitment threshold. While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers.”
Google’s arrangement with the government will be factored into the Bill C-18 legislative framework, which must be finalized by the middle of December. Although Google said in June that it would remove links to Canadian news stories from several of its key services, it never followed through on that threat.
Meta, on the other hand, has blocked Canadian news links on Facebook and Instagram since June. According to the CBC, Meta has not returned to the negotiating table with the government. Google and Meta are the only companies that meet Bill C-18’s legislative criteria.
Updated 11/29 2:08PM ET: Added statements from Pascale St-Onge and Kent Walker.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-wont-block-news-links-in-canada-after-all-180258909.html?src=rss
Sony has revealed the PlayStation Plus monthly games lineup for December, and it’s a doozy. There’s no clear headliner here, but a trio of interesting games are about to drop, including the gorgeous open-world exploration game Sable and the cleaning-based tour de force Powerwash Simulator.
First up, there’s Sable, a game that was on everyone’s radar for years before an official release, thanks to the eye-catching graphical style. The “coming-of-age adventure and exploration game” casts you as the titular hero Sable as you ride a hoverbike through vast deserts and mysterious landscapes, encountering the remains of spaceships and other ancient artifacts. The art style is incredible and the soundtrack is by Japanese Breakfast, if that’s your bag (and it should be.) The game’s only available for PS5.
Powerwash Simulator, as the name suggests, is a cleaning sim that has you clearing grime from just about anything you can think of, from Back to the Future’s Delorean to Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar. Most of the game, however, takes place in the town of Muckingham and boasts plenty of upgrade options for your power washer and the ability to play with friends via online co-op. The gameplay is relaxing, though more complex than it lets on at first. It’s available for both PS4 and PS5.
Finally, there’s Lego 2K Drive. This is an open-world driving game comprised entirely of Lego vehicles. There are races just about everywhere you look and, of course, the ability to make your own vehicles by connecting virtual blocks. There’s local couch co-op and online play, with the latter allowing access to the entire game map. Both PS4 and PS5 players can access this game.
It’s also worth noting that some games are about to leave the service, so get those downloads ready. PlayStation Plus members have until December 4 to snag Mafia II: Definitive Edition, Dragon Ball: The Breakers and Aliens Fireteam Elite.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/decembers-playstation-plus-monthly-games-include-sable-and-powerwash-simulator-174319553.html?src=rss
GM is massively slashing spending on its self-driving vehicle subsidiary Cruise after a string of debilitating setbacks, according to a conference call by company executives transcribed by TechCrunch. GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said that operations would resume in some capacity, but that any plans for Cruise moving forward would be more “deliberate.”
To that end, the cuts will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in the next year. This is expected to result in widespread layoffs at the San Francisco-based company that currently employees nearly 4,000 people. Earlier this month, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told staffers at an all-hands meeting that he’d have information regarding layoffs in the coming weeks, but he resigned shortly thereafter along with co-founder Dan Kan.
It looks like the entire company may get an overhaul, with CFO Paul Jacobson saying in today’s conference call that there would be specific restructuring information in the coming weeks after two independent safety and incident review boards finish their work. These boards were instituted after a collision between a Cruise robotaxi and a pedestrian. It was also found that the company’s driverless algorithm had trouble recognizing children, which is never good.
GM has invested billions of dollars in Cruise since acquiring the company in 2016. This spending has increased in recent years as the company had planned an aggressive launch in more than a dozen cities throughout the US before everything fell apart. To that end, GM’s latest earnings report indicates that Cruise spent $732 million in the first three quarters of 2023.
The point of today’s call wasn’t just to offer ill tidings for Cruise. Barra and Jacobson also noted that the recently-penned labor deal with United Autoworkers would cost GM $9.3 billion in the long-term, but the company remains optimistic about future growth, noting an adjusted earnings of $12.7 billion in 2023 and an accelerated $10 billion share buyback program.
GM has also named new executives to run Cruise. Mo Elshenawy was promoted from VP of engineering to co-president, with GM’s previous EVP of legal and policy taking up the other co-president role. GM’s CEO said that the company has “a lot of confidence with what the two co-presidents will do,” but notes that “GM will be leaning in to make sure that it meets our strict requirements from a safety perspective.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gm-to-cut-spending-on-cruise-driverless-vehicles-by-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-170857644.html?src=rss
Dragon’s Dogma 2 comes 12 years after the original game came into the world. While there were issues like a mediocre interface, the game provided a detailed, customizable story that found a devoted fan base.
The sequel takes place in a parallel world to the original, following Arisen who had his heart stolen by the Dragon. As Capcom explains, “Queen Regent Disa has installed a false Arisen to maintain control of the kingdom of Vermund for her son. Meanwhile, the beastren nation of Battahl considers the otherworldly Pawns to be a source of misfortune and have turned to worship of the Lambent Flame and their empress Nadinia to ward off calamity.” You can play as Arisen or as Main Pawn — whose personality is customizable. Dragon’s Dogma 2 also introduces new monsters, such as the towering Golem named Talos.
While there are still a few months until gameplay can commence, you can officially pre-order Dragon’s Dogma 2 now. The standard version retails for $70 and includes a bonus weapon for each starting vocation in pre-order. The Deluxe Edition is available for $80 and has a “New Journey Pack” with items like a custom camping kit and Rift Crystals — plus the Ring of Assurance for pre-orders.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dragons-dogma-2-finally-has-a-release-date-131037836.html?src=rss
As December nears every year, Spotify reveals all of the artists, genres, songs and podcasts you listened to most in the last 12 months. The 2023 installment of the streaming service’s Wrapped year-in-review debuts today on the Spotify app with an all-new design alongside the familiar story-style format. For the first time in a while, you can also view your streaming stats on desktop via the web. As always, the company gives you a look at what you listened to most during the year with a few new additions to freshen up the annual tradition.
Spotify has been giving you a list of your top artists, genres, songs and podcasts for a while now, but this year the company will assign one of 12 “listening characters” that best fits your streaming habit. The feature is called Me in 2023 and those “characters” range from the Shapeshifter, someone who moves from one artists to another quickly, to the Alchemist, someone who’s more prone to create their own playlists. Another new tool called Sound Town matches you to a city based on your listening and top artists. For example, if you stream a lot of Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma, the app will pair you up with Mexico City.
Spotify
In terms of the usual lists, Spotify has given them a refresh to make things a bit more interesting. Your top five artists will now also show you when your listening peaked for each one and next week Spotify’s AI DJ will to give you commentary about those top artists, genres and songs on your lists. Spotify has also integrated its Blend tool with Wrapped so you can easily see how you match up with friends with a mix all of the music you listened to most. Artist Messages also return, with over 40,000 of them giving users shout-outs if they’re one of your top listens.
Of course, Spotify is also using Wrapped to reveal the platform’s most-streamed artists, songs, albums and podcasts — both globally and in the US. 2023 was truly the Taylor Swift era as she took the stop spot on both the global and US artist charts. “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus was the most popular song globally while Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” was tops in the States. Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny was the most-streamed album around the world, but Wallen’s One Thing At A Time was the biggest in the US. And in the least surprising development ever, Joe Rogan’s podcast was once again the most popular on both the global and United States charts. It’s the fourth year in a row The Joe Rogan Experience has been the top show of the year on the global chart. That’s a stat the polarizing host is sure to mention as his current contract with the service is almost up.
Spotify Wrapped is now available inside the company’s iOS and Android apps as well as the desktop and mobile web. As is typically the case, a lot of the content is shareable, so get ready for your social channels to be flooded with Wrapped lists and graphics for the rest of the week. If you’re an Apple Music listener, that service’s Replay tool is already available reliving 2023 on that platform.
Update, November 29, 12:10PM ET: This post has been updated to clarify Apple Music’s year-end feature is called Replay, not Rewind. We regret the error.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-wrapped-returns-to-reveal-your-2023-streaming-stats-130006797.html?src=rss
