Peloton is reportedly pumping the brakes on Bike and Tread production as demand for the home fitness equipment is said to be slowing.

It’s said to be putting production of its standard Bike and Tread (treadmill) products on hold for two months and six weeks, respectively. The company stopped building Bike+ units last month and it doesn’t plan to pick up production of that more expensive model until June, CNBC reports. As for Tread+, Peloton reportedly doesn’t expect to build any more of those in its 2022 fiscal year.

According to CNBC, Peloton said in an internal presentation that there’s been a significant drop in demand due to consumer “price sensitivity” and increased competition from rivals. On top of that, gyms are open again in many regions following COVID-19 lockdown measures. After being cooped up at home for the better part of two years, it wouldn’t be surprising if fitness fans wanted to work out elsewhere. Meanwhile, research firm M Science said it hasn’t seen evidence of a rise in demand for at-home fitness amid the surge of the Omicron variant.

As things stand, Peloton is said to have overestimated demand and thousands of its products are in warehouses and on cargo ships. It reportedly needs to sell many of those before making more bikes and treadmills.

Meanwhile, per the presentation, Peloton Guide was delayed from October to next month, and the product might slip again to April. Peloton Guide is a strength-training system that uses camera and machine learning to track users’ movements and help them match their form against an instructor.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Peloton is looking to reduce costs. Measures could include layoffs and store closures.

Engadget has contacted Peloton for comment. The company will report its latest quarterly financial results on February 8th, which should make the status of Peloton and its products slightly clearer.

Source: Engadget – Peloton is reportedly pausing Bike and Tread production amid lower demand

Facebook disabled a network of fake accounts that posed as English and Scottish locals, but were actually an Iran-based influence operation. The company detailed the takedowns in its latest report on coordinated inauthentic behavior on its platform.

The network was relatively small — eight accounts on Facebook and 126 on Instagram — though it had amassed about 77,000 followers, according to the company. Facebook’s security researchers didn’t indicate exactly who in Iran was behind the effort, or what their motives were, but said some of the people involved had a “background in teaching English as a foreign language.”

“This network posted photos and memes in English about current events in the UK, including supportive commentary about Scottish independence and criticism of the UK government,” Facebook writes in its report. In a call with reporters, Facebook’s Director of Threat Disruption, David Agranovich, said that it’s not the first time the company has caught Iran-linked fake accounts targeting Scotland, but that the latest network stood out for its “artisanal” approach to the fake personas.

“What was unique about this case was the effort that the operators took to make their fakes look like real people,” Agranovich said. He noted the accounts spent considerable time posting about their “side interests,” like football, in an attempt to boost their credibility. Some of the accounts also lifted profile photos from real celebrities or media personalities, and regularly updated the images in order to appear more real. Other accounts used fake photos generated by AI programs.

Overall, Facebook says that the fake accounts weren’t particularly successful as the most popular account had only reached about 4,000 followers, about half of whom were actually located in the UK. “In a way, this is more like an old fashioned pre-internet influence operation, creating detailed fake personas and trying not to be noticed,” Agranovich said.

Source: Engadget – Facebook takes down fake Iranian accounts that posed as Scottish locals

A major tech reform bill that would prevent the industry’s biggest players — Apple, Amazon, Google, and their ilk — from discriminating against smaller businesses that rely on the big platforms’ services is one step closer to passage on Thursday after passing from committee on a bipartisan 16-6 vote. Senators Mike Lee, John Cornyn, Ben Sasse, Tom Cotton, Thom Tillis, and Marsha Blackburn all voted against it.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which was sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar, would prohibit Amazon from promoting its own Amazon Basics gear over similar products in search results. Similarly, Apple and Google would be barred from pushing their in-house apps over those from third-party developers in their respective app stores. The bill passed out of both the antitrust subcommittee and the primary judiciary committee with the support of that vote and will now be put forth on the Senate floor.   

Unsurprisingly, the platforms impacted by these proposed regulations are none too pleased with the recent proceedings. Apple’s Tim Cook has reportedly been personally lobbying against the bill while Amazon has released the following statement:

There’s a reason why small businesses who sell on Amazon are asking Congress to take a look at the “collateral damage” that will fall on them and their customers, should the American Innovation and Choice Online Act become law. This bill is being rushed through the legislative process without any acknowledgment by its authors of its unintended consequences. As drafted, the bill’s vague prohibitions and unreasonable financial penalties—up to 15% of U.S. revenue, not income—would jeopardize our ability to allow small businesses to sell on Amazon. The bill would also make it difficult for us to guarantee one or two-day shipping for those small businesses’ products—key benefits of Amazon Prime for sellers and customers alike. The bill’s authors are targeting common retail practices and, troublingly, appear to single out Amazon while giving preferential treatment to other large retailers that engage in the same practices. We urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Senator Klobuchar and Senator Grassley’s bill and refuse to rush through an ambiguously worded bill with significant unintended consequences.

A similar bill has already passed the judiciary committee’s counterpart in the House though the President has not yet weighed in regarding his support of these proposals.

Source: Engadget – Senator Klobuchar’s major tech reform bill advances out of committee

After a hiatus of more than a decade, the world’s favorite fictitious British inventor (or possibly second after Q from James Bond) and his lovable canine sidekick are making a comeback. Today as part of its ongoing partnership with Aardman Animations Netflix announced the arrival of a new Wallace & Gromit movie and the long-awaited sequel to Chicken Run.

Due out sometime in 2023, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget picks up after Ginger and Rocky’s daring escape with the hatching of the couple’s new chick Molly at their new island sanctuary home. And while Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson won’t be reprising their roles as the leading chickens, Dawn of the Nugget’s cast will still feature some big-name stars including Thandie Newton (Ginger), Zachary Levi (Rocky) and Bella Ramsey (Molly), the latter of whom is also set to play Ellie in HBO’s upcoming live-action TV adaptation of The Last of Us.

As for the still-untitled Wallace & Gromit movie, original series creator Nick Park will be returning as director featuring a story written by Park and Mark Burton (Madagascar, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Shaun of the Sheep Movie). Slated to arrive almost two decades after The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace and Gromit’s second feature-length film revolves around Wallace’s latest invention: a “smart gnome” that has developed a mind of its own. Queue the hijinx.

Notably, unlike Dawn of the Nugget which will be a worldwide exclusive on Netflix when it starts streaming sometime next year, the new Wallace & Gromit movie will debut first on the BBC in the UK before becoming available on Netflix in all other regions sometime in 2024.

With Aardman and Netlix’s stop-motion musical Robin Robin having been recently shortlisted for the Oscar’s in the animated short film category, it’s nice to see even more claymation movies get the green light–especially after the bomb that was 2018’s Early Man. That said, with the original Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit having already claimed the number one and two spots as the highest-grossing stop-motion animated films of all time, Aardman Studios might have a hard time competing for attention in a time when traditional computer-animated films have dominated the box office.

Source: Engadget – New ‘Wallace & Gromit’ and ‘Chicken Run’ movies are coming to Netflix

Casio hasn’t been a serious player in the world of synthesizers for some time. Gone are the days of the beloved CZ series, while the current lineup lacks the lo-fi charm of classic keyboards like the SK-1 and VL-1. But for the last few weeks the company has been teasing what seemed like a return to real-deal synths, possibly with a vocoder.

Well, bad news: The CT-S1000V is not a return to Casio’s analog glory days. Nor is it a vocoder. And the $450 list price is a little hard to swallow.

So what exactly is the CT-S1000V? It looks like a midrange Casiotone that uses the company’s flagship AiX engine, with vocal synthesis tossed in as a bonus. In short, it’s a singing keyboard. Frankly, the novelty of being able to whip up some lyrics in the companion app, send them to the CT-S1000V, and then play the words as a melody was more than enough to pique my interest. I’m a sucker for vocoders, over-the-top autotune and talkboxes, so a singing synth is right up my alley.

Before we dig too far into the vocal synthesis side of things, let’s quickly cover the AiX engine and the hardware. AiX made its debut in 2018 and its strength supposedly lies in recreating acoustic sounds. And look, credit where credit is due: The piano sounds on this are pretty decent. Can I say the same about the other acoustic instruments represented here, like violins, guitars or trumpets? No. But there are enough quality sounds, including some recreations of classic Casio synth tones, to keep you entertained for a while.

Don’t come to the S1000V expecting a truly customizable synth, though. While there are some tweaks that you can make, this is not the keyboard for someone looking to learn synthesis or get into sound design. That should be immediately obvious, however, when you look at its front panel. The controls are minimal. Physically it has much more in common with the $250 CT-S400 than it does with the $480 CT-X5000 (the closest Casio has to a traditional synth).

I haven’t played a modern Casio in some time, but I do have to say, the speaker system is impressive. Because the CT-S1000V is clearly aimed at budding pianists and home entertainment, being self-contained is a huge plus. While the built-in speakers on other keyboards often seem like an afterthought, Casio clearly put effort into them here. When you switch over to the drum and rhythm presets, it’s really quite shocking how much bass you get from the kicks.

On the whole, the CT-S1000V feels well built. It’s plasticky and the full-sized keys are a tad springy, but it feels solid and the click wheel that serves as your primary tool for navigating the interface is satisfying. Casio did make some strange decisions, though. For instance, the mod knob above the pitch wheel. Mod wheels and mod strips? Sure. But a mod knob? In this configuration, where the placement would suggest it’s a performance tool, seems very odd.

The keyboard also comes with a Bluetooth adapter in the box, but it can only be used for streaming audio and MIDI data. It can’t connect to the companion Lyric Creator app. There are no dedicated MIDI ports on the back and, while it can supposedly be used for MIDI over USB I was unable to get it to work. There are, however, two pedal inputs on the back (one of which can be used for expression), plus ¼-inch stereo audio outs and ⅛-inch jacks for audio in and headphones. There’s also a pair of USB ports: one USB-A specifically for the Bluetooth adapter and a micro-USB (sigh) connector for transferring lyrics from the app on your phone.

The app is very well designed and thorough, and lyric transfers over USB using a camera kit adapter with my aging iPhone X were almost instantaneous. Casio says transfer over Bluetooth isn’t supported because it would simply be too slow, but just having it as an option would be nice.

In the app you can either type out or dictate phrases and it will do its best to automatically parse the text. Your mileage may vary, though. Computers aren’t always the best at reproducing human pronunciation and the CT-S1000V is no different. For example, “Engadget” was automatically broken down as “en-gadget”. But when the keyboard sang it back, it became “engage.” I had to go in and manually tweak the lyric to be “En-gad-jet” for it to sound right.

You can really dive deep and customize the phonemes if you want, and punch in specific timings using standard music notation. But there’s no avoiding the fact that getting lyrics to sound right requires a lot of trial and error, which would be less of an issue if you could preview the rendered vocals on your phone before transferring them to the keyboard. Right now it’s just a lot of back and forth.

On the keyboard itself, you have two primary ways of playing back lyrics: Either in Phrase mode or in Note mode as individual syllables. The former will play back the words using the timing you programmed in. As long as you’re holding keys down, it will sing the lyrics to you. The one issue here is that playback will start over from the beginning if you ever let go of the keys. With syllable playback you have more control over timing and it’s a bit easier to knock out a melody (at least for someone like me who can’t really play piano). But it’s still important that your syllables be broken down just right or the timing will be off when you try to play back a vocal lick.

There are 22 different voices for you to pick between that range from synthetic choirs, to demonic growls, to talkbox emulations. Some of them get pretty same-sounding, but the variety is welcome. There are a few ways to tweak the voices, including changing the “age” and “gender”, though they dramatically alter the core tone of each.

One last feature worth mentioning is the S1000V’s sampling capabilities. There are two different sampling modes: melody and drum. The latter lets you assign samples to individual keys to create custom drum kits. It’s also probably the easiest of the sampling methods to use. Melody, on the other hand, lets you play back a single sample chromatically across the keyboard by slowing it down or speeding it up. This latter trick is a fun and simple way to create custom instruments, and it’s part of what gave Casio’s SK series its charm.

But it’s worth noting that the sampling process here is slightly more cumbersome than on those old-school instruments. There’s no dedicated sampling controls on the front, you have to do a little menu diving. And there’s no built-in microphone for quick and dirty recording, you need to use the ⅛-inch jack around back, or a Bluetooth connection. It’s a nice tool to have, but I do wish it were featured more prominently and the interface a little less obtuse.

Casio deserves credit for doing something somewhat unique in building a singing keyboard. Sure, it’s a bit gimmicky to type out (or dictate) your favorite song and then play it back using a synthesized choir. But it’s undeniably fun. And including the ability to record custom samples, and layer them with the keyboard’s built-in sounds is a welcome feature.

It’s hard to overlook the $450 price, though, especially considering the limited sound design controls. The CT-S1000V is probably best suited for someone learning to play piano who wants a fun keyboard with a bit of versatility to practice on. But its price is a bit steep for what feels like mid-range Casiotone. You can get a more capable sampler for around the same price, and Arturia’s MicroFreak delivers limited vocal synthesis and a real vocoder for less. Obviously, the Casio has advantages over those — quality built-in speakers, expansive full-sized keyboard — but you’ll have to decide how much those features are worth in terms of tradeoffs and price. 

Source: Engadget – Casio made a super fun singing keyboard