Apple has at least one more trick — or possibly a treat — up its sleeve this year. On October 30, the night before Halloween, the company is hosting another event. This one is dubbed “Scary Fast,” which is a strong indicator that Apple will have some speedy new hardware to show off. Unusually, Apple is holding this event in the evening. It starts at 8PM ET.

This year’s iPhones and Apple Watches are out in the wild already, but Apple has a bunch of other product categories that it could focus on here. There’s always the chance that we might get iPad updates. But, if rumors are to be believed, Apple’s focus during the Scary Fast event will be on Macs and a fresh batch of chipsets to power them.

M3 chip

Apple won’t be talking about speed advancements without having new hardware to discuss. That could all start with upgraded chipsets. It’s been nearly 17 months since Apple’s M2 system on a chip (SoC) debuted. With many manufacturers having an annual cadence for their chipsets, it may be time for Apple to move onto the next generation. (No, shoving two M2 Max chips together isn’t quite the same thing.) For what it’s worth, the M2 series debuted 19 months after the M1. So, if Apple announces the M3 at the Scary Fast event, the latest SoC would be arriving after a similar period of time.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that “M3 series MacBook Pro” will be the focus of the event, indicating that the company will have more than one new SoC to reveal. As such, there’s a chance that we could see an M3 Pro and maybe even an M3 Max during the Scary Fast showcase.

iMac

A new 24-inch iMac could make its debut at the Scary Fast event. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported that a fresh model is expected to arrive this month. He noted that the iMac is in short supply at Apple retail stores, which is another sign that an upgrade is imminent.

The 24-inch iMac is well overdue for a refresh, and there have been rumblings for a while that an M3 variant was in the pipeline. The most recent model was an M1-powered machine that arrived in April 2021. Making the leap to M3 — assuming that the new chip lineup is more capable than the M2 series — may make any new iMac worth the upgrade for many users.

MacBook Pro

There’s a very good chance Apple will have at least one MacBook Pro refresh to show off at the event. Both Kuo and Gurman have indicated that will be the case.

Gurman pointed out that the 13-inch, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro all currently have extended shipping times on Apple’s web store. That’s often an indicator that the company is winding down the supply of existing products. Furthermore, Gurman reported that Apple has been testing M3 Max and M3 Pro MacBook Pro models. Those could now be ready for prime time.

However, Kuo doesn’t expect Apple to have a huge inventory of new MacBook Pro units to sell this year. He previously didn’t anticipate that Apple would start selling M3-powered laptops before the end of the year due to limited supply of between 400,000 and 500,000 units. Unless demand drops, Kuo said supply may remain tight until early 2024.

MacBook sales have waned this year, mainly due to “the limited M2 computing power upgrade,” Kuo wrote on X. That might be a reason why Apple is willing to start shipping M3 MacBook Pros now, even if supply is constrained. Announcing new models just a few days before reporting quarterly earnings could help give investors confidence in the company (recent increases of Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and Apple News+ prices could play into that too).

If M3-powered models don’t lead to a boost in sales, though, Kuo suggests it’s more likely that a MacBook Pro with a new design will arrive in 2025. Furthermore, Apple may try to beef up the division with a more budget-friendly MacBook that has an annual sales target of between 8 million and 10 million.

iPad Pro

We can’t disregard our hunch that we’ll see at least one iPad at Apple’s event. With the focus likely to be on M3-powered products, the chances are that any new iPad will be of the Pro variety with one of those chips inside.

It has only been a year since the most recent iPad Pro debuted. Other than a few small tweaks, Apple only really swapped in the M2 in place of the M1. The next iPad Pro will probably need more changes to make it more palatable for anyone who picked up the previous two models, which means Apple might need more time to get it ready. If that’s the case, the company might be content to give the iPad Pro a spec bump for the time being.

Other iPads could also get a refresh at the event, just in time for the holidays. We won’t have to wait too long to find out either way. We’ll have full coverage of everything you need to know from the Scary Fast event at Engadget, so while you’re waiting for Halloween trick-or-treaters to show up, slip into your jammies, grab a mug of cocoa and join us on Monday evening.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-we-expect-at-apples-scary-fast-event-m3-powered-macbook-pros-and-new-imacs-191549274.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – What we expect at Apple’s Scary Fast event: M3-powered MacBook Pros and new iMacs

Drones aren’t new tools for live sports production, but when the World Series begins this Friday, Fox Sports will use a fleet of three compact aircraft during the Fall Classic for the first time ever. Previously, the network used drones during baseball games for coverage of the All-Star and Field of Dreams games. Fox also employs drones for its broadcasts of USFL and first began using them for production in 2015. 

For the World Series, Fox plans to use the trio of drones to capture moments like relief pitchers coming in from the bullpen, warm-ups between innings and pitchers leaving the mound. The network collaborated with Beverly Hills Aerials on the customized fleet and that company will operate them. While Fox says it will select the drone best-suited for what it’s capturing, all three are FPV units (first-person view) and only one will be in the air at any given time. The pilot will be positioned in the outfield either behind or between the bullpens. While all three drones are equipped with 4K cameras, Fox says they’ll transmit 1080p HDR footage that will also be available for use on jumbo screens inside the two stadiums. 

The drone shots will join Fox’s new UmpCam that it debuted during this year’s ALDS. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a camera that gives you the vantage point of the home plate umpire. The camera is installed in the top of the umpire’s mask, getting viewers as close as they can get to what he sees. Fox uses UmpCam to show ball/strike calls and for an on-field perspective of big hits. The network will employ 52 cameras total during the World Series, including an overhead FlyCam, three DirtCams (near home plate, first base and second base), 13 Super Motion cameras and three RF cameras. To capture audio inside each ballpark, Fox will position over 100 microphones to bring fans at home every bit of sound from the game that it can. 

The World Series begins Friday, October 27 at 8PM ET when the Texas Rangers host the Arizona Diamondbacks for Game 1. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fox-sports-will-use-drones-in-world-series-broadcasts-for-the-first-time-190330105.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Fox Sports will use drones in World Series broadcasts for the first time

Daimler has finally started producing its flagship medium-duty electric truck, the Freightliner eM2, in its manufacturing plant in Portland, Oregon. The company didn’t say when its first production units will be available but once they are complete, the vehicles will be delivered to select commercial leasing companies in the US and Canada.

The eM2 is powered by a battery-electric Detroit ePowertrain and is designed with 2-speed transmissions that minimize energy cost per mile. The truck’s driving range will depend on the battery capacity per model. The class 6 single-motor version that has a 194 kWh battery can drive up to 180 miles on a single charge. Alternatively, the class 7 dual-motor which is equipped with a 291 kWh battery can drive up to 250 miles on a single charge.

The Freightliner eM2 electric delivery truck, which has been in the works since 2019, was able to be recharged to 200 miles in 60 minutes during testing with Penske. But that test was four years ago, and the company didn’t say anything about recharge times in today’s news. Access to charging stations, like the ones being developed by Penske, will be essential for Daimler’s rollout of the eM2. In a similar regard, Volvo, which contends against Daimler in the EV long-haul trucking space, has been focused on improving the battery ranges of vehicles in its truck fleet. The Volvo FE electric truck, which competes against the eM2, has a range of up to 170 miles and is expected to be out for deliveries in autumn of this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/daimler-begins-manufacturing-freightliner-em2-electric-trucks-185447791.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Daimler begins manufacturing Freightliner eM2 electric trucks

Threads finally has built-in options for posting GIFs and polls. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the updates on Thursday, replying with his own GIFs and polls to a string of users who’d questioned when these features would come to the platform. Both have begun rolling out for the Threads app and on the web, though polls seems to be taking a bit longer to make its way to the latter.

While users could previously post GIFs using workarounds like third-party keyboards or by copy/pasting them from elsewhere, with mixed results, there was no native button in the app itself. Now, users will see a GIF button in the post creation window next to the image gallery button, which will pull up a searchable GIPHY library to choose from.

For polls, users will be able to add up to four choices for others to vote on, and control who can and can’t respond. Polls will stay open for 24 hours after they’re posted, and only people who responded to the poll will be able to see the results as they come in. The poll button will appear in the post creation toolbar as three horizontal lines.

GIFs and polls have become staple features on Twitter, where they’ve been available for years, and users who have turned to Threads as an alternative have been asking for them since the beginning. Instagram got GIF replies this past spring and polls only last week, so their arrival on Threads was perhaps an obvious next step. Slowly but surely, Threads has been adding more and more to the experience as it finds its footing, and it seems to be working. Just yesterday, Zuckerberg said the platform now has almost 100 million monthly active users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/threads-now-has-polls-and-an-easy-way-to-post-gifs-184330729.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Threads now has polls and an easy way to post GIFs

As the right to repair movement continues to pick up steam, DIY aficionados iFixit just announced a partnership with Microsoft to provide replacement parts for a wide range of Surface devices. These are genuine parts manufactured by Microsoft specifically for the purpose of conducting repairs, so you won’t have to worry about integration issues.

All told, iFixit’s offering parts for 13 Surface models, including the Surface Pro 9 and the Surface Laptop 15. Visit the dedicated Microsoft Repair Hub for a list of compatible devices and parts. These components range from batteries and SSDs to displays and keyboards. As with all iFixit collaborations, you also get access to disassembly videos and step-by-step guides so you don’t accidentally turn your Surface tablet into an expensive paperweight.

Chinese gadget manufacturer Honor just teased its forthcoming flagship smartphone, the Magic 6, at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit. While many details of the phone remain mysterious, the company did announce that it would include built-in eye-tracking and an on-board artificial intelligence powered by a large language model (LLM.)

One of the phone’s key features is something called Magic Capsule, an “eye-tracking based multimodal interaction.” Eye-tracking has some potential real world uses when it comes to smartphones, as the sensors and cameras can perform actions based on where you’re looking. So you can open up an app or engage with content on the phone simply by staring at the right spot.

Starting Thursday, Uber users in Phoenix might find themselves taking a ride in a driverless car. The company, which sold its own self-driving unit a few years ago, has teamed up with Waymo to offer driverless rides. It’s the first time Uber has offered fully autonomous rides.

When someone in Phoenix requests an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort or Uber Comfort Electric ride, they may be matched with a Waymo vehicle if they’re in the service area and there’s one available. Users will be able to request a ride with a human driver if they’re matched with a Waymo but don’t want to travel in a robotaxi. Alternatively, those eager to try a Waymo ride can set up their ride preferences to make it more likely that they’ll match with an autonomous vehicle.

As with any other ride, users will see the price of a Waymo trip up front. They’ll pay the same as an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort or Uber Comfort Electric fare. When a Waymo vehicle shows up, you can unlock it by tapping a prompt in the Uber app. Once you’re inside and ready to go, tap another button to start the ride. You’ll still have access to Uber support staff at any time too.

“Today is an important step in our journey to bring safe, reliable autonomous driving technology to the Uber platform,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a blog post. “Looking ahead, we expect that the number of human drivers and AVs on the Uber platform will continue to grow, side by side, for quite a long time as we continue to scale a hybrid, global network that combines both.”

Waymo has been offering autonomous rides in Phoenix since 2020, but the Uber partnership will likely see many more people trying them out for the first time. Even so, Waymo says its vehicles already carry out more than 10,000 trips every week in the Metro Phoenix area.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uber-starts-offering-fully-autonomous-waymo-rides-in-phoenix-153055331.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Uber starts offering fully autonomous Waymo rides in Phoenix

We call Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 the best option for Android users in our smartwatch buying guide, and it’s now on sale for $235 at Amazon. There’s always a chance we see a better deal on Black Friday, but for now, that’s the lowest price we’ve tracked for the wearable outside of trade-in deals. The discount only applies to the 40mm Graphite model without LTE support, but it’s still $65 cheaper than buying from Samsung directly and $25 below the previous low we saw earlier this month. If you have larger wrists or want a bigger display, the 44mm version of the wearable is down to $280, which is $50 off its MSRP. The 40mm Gold model is also on sale for $250.

We gave the Galaxy Watch 6 a review score of 84 back in September. It’s not all that different than the Galaxy Watches that preceded it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Its design is still clean and relatively durable, its interface remains simple enough to navigate and it continues to offer the usual array of health-tracking sensors. New with this model is a slightly brighter and larger OLED display with thinner bezels. There’s a bigger battery as well, though you shouldn’t expect much more than a day of use out of this 40mm model on average (the 44mm variant should last longer, though). 

Apart from the expected activity- and sleep-tracking insights, the Galaxy Watch 6 can measure your skin temperature overnight, monitor your blood oxygen levels and notify you if it senses an irregular heart rhythm. It’s still accurate at automatically detecting and logging workouts as well. All of this runs on Google’s Wear OS 4, and Samsung says the device will gain software updates through 2027.

One thing the Galaxy Watch 6 does not have is a rotating bezel for navigating the OS. For that, you have to step up to the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, which is on sale for $350 and also comes with a sturdier stainless steel case. Though we broadly like both devices for Android users, they’ll still work best when paired with a Samsung phone. Many of the Galaxy Watch 6’s software features will trickle down to older models as well, so there’s no need to upgrade if you own a Watch 5. But if you don’t use an iPhone and have been looking to grab your first smartwatch, this is a good entry point. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-galaxy-watch-6-falls-to-an-all-time-low-of-235-151528892.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 falls to an all-time low of 5

Respawn Entertainment is adding a long-awaited feature to Apex Legends: cross-platform progression. When the new season goes live on October 31, players will see an in-game message that explains how this works. The profile with the highest account level will be designated as their primary account. They’ll maintain that level, and all of the cosmetics, achievements and badges from other profiles that are linked to the same EA ID will be merged into the master account. An EA ID is required to play Apex on any platform.

Account merging for cross-progression is mandatory, Respawn said, but it means that those who play the battle royale across multiple platforms will have access to their cosmetic items and currencies no matter where they happen to be playing at a given time. You’ll also make progress on the same battle pass whether you’re playing on PC, PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch. Respawn noted that nothing will change for folks who only play on one platform with a single profile.

Cross-progression has been a long time coming. Respawn has been chipping away at the feature since at least 2020, the same year the studio enabled cross-platform play. However, work on cross-progression was delayed by hacks that impacted Apex and both Titanfall games.

Linksys just released its first-ever mesh Wi-Fi 7 router, the Velop Pro 7. It’s powered by the latest Qualcomm Networking Pro 620 platform, which the company says helps it achieve “wire-like stability.” The mesh system can connect up to 200 devices per node and each node offers approximately 3,000 square feet of coverage.

Linksys says these routers use a proprietary technology called Continuous Mesh that continually optimizes the system to match connected devices and increase speed. The company says this makes the Velop Pro 7 particularly useful for gadgets equipped with AR/VR technology, like the recently-released Meta Quest 3 headset.

Mesh router systems can be frustrating to install, particularly when you’re working with multiple nodes, but Linksys claims its newest release can be fully incorporated into your home in just ten minutes. The company says its new setup technology hastens the process by nearly 70 percent when compared to other Linksys router systems.

This is a tri-band system, so it’ll connect to just about anything, which is always nice. It also integrates with the Linksys app, so you can keep an eye on what devices are connected to suss out anything that doesn’t quite belong. This app even lets you pause your wireless connection so you can focus on homework or, cough, writing about routers for the internet.

The Velop Pro 7 is available today straight from the company or via Best Buy. The bare-bones pack, featuring a single node, costs $400, with two nodes costing $750 and three nodes ramping up to $1,000. UK residents will have to wait until mid-November for the launch, with global availability coming at a later date.

This may be the first mesh Wi-Fi 7 system for Linksys, but the industry is adopting this modern wireless standard at a rapid clip. Netgear, for instance, has gone all-in on the concept with the release of its Nighthawk RS700S router and the ultra-expensive flagship Orbi 970 system.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/linksys-releases-its-first-ever-wi-fi-7-mesh-router-system-160053926.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Linksys releases its first-ever Wi-Fi 7 mesh router system

It’s only been a month since Xiaomi introduced the 13T series to the international market, and the company is already pushing out more flagship phones back in China. The freshly-announced Xiaomi 14 series is the first device to run the company’s supposedly more efficient and more interoperable HyperOS, which aims to bridge the gap between “human, cars, and home.” Naturally, these phones also feature Qualcomm’s AI-centric Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor launched earlier this week, with the bonus being a faster Leica Summilux lens and a floating telephoto lens for both the 14 and 14 Pro, along with a tough “Xiaomi Ceramic Glass” plus a titanium edition — literally the “one more thing” at the launch event — reserved for the Pro model.

Starting with the Xiaomi 14, its 6.36-inch screen boasts a new C8 AMOLED display panel co-developed by the phone maker and TCL CSOT. This offers an industry-leading peak brightness of 3,000 nits, as well as the common pixel density of 460 ppi and variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz. The phone also packs a 4,610mAh battery with 90W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging. Audio-wise, you get a 4-mic array — great on paper when it comes to noise cancellation for phone calls — and stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos. If waterproof (and dustproof) is a must, don’t worry, as the phones in this series are all rated with IP68.

The higher-end Xiaomi 14 Pro looks very similar, except for its larger size — it’s a 6.73-inch screen here, and there’s a bigger 4,880mAh battery tucked inside (with faster 120W wired charging; same 50W wireless charging though). You won’t see it, but it’s also worth noting that the 14 Pro’s USB 3.2 port offers a whopping 10Gbps data transfer speed, which is twice as fast as the one on the 14.

If you place both models side by side, you’ll see how all four sides of both glass panels are curved on the Pro, with the top panel retaining a flat screen look to avoid distortion. The display packs a 2K (WGHD+) resolution, which equates to an impressive pixel density of 522ppi. For the first time, Xiaomi took a page out of Huawei’s book and created its own tough glass, which is aptly dubbed “Xiaomi Ceramic Glass.” This supposedly features “10 times higher drop resistance and 1.25 times higher scratch resistance.” In fact, the 14 Pro’s titanium edition even has both sides shielded by this special glass, hence its 7g (0.25oz) of extra weight when compared to the regular model’s 223g (7.87oz). 

Both models come with a set of similar cameras, with the main Summilux lens featuring a new “Light Fusion 900” image sensor (50-megapixel, 1/1.3-inch, 1.2um, OIS) with a supposedly high dynamic range. While the Xiaomi 14’s main camera has an f/1.6 aperture, the Pro has a variable aperture ranging from f/1.42 to f/4.0 for more the sake of versatility. For the first time, you get the same floating telephoto lens (3.2x zoom, f/2.0, OIS) on both models (instead of just on the Pro), which lets you easily toggle between telephoto mode and close-up mode. For ultra-wide capture, it’s a 50-megapixel f/2.2 camera with a 115-degree viewing angle. For those who are nerdy enough to care, both the telephoto camera and the ultra-wide camera use a Samsung JN1 sensor.

Xiaomi is currently taking pre-orders for both models in China. The 14 Pro starts from 4,999 yuan (around $680) for the 12GB RAM with 256GB storage, and it maxes out at 5,999 yuan (about $820) with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. If you want the titanium edition, it’s the same top specs, but it’ll cost you 6,499 yuan (around $890). As for the more affordable Xiaomi 14, it starts from 3,999 yuan ($550) with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, then it goes all the way up to 4,999 yuan — matching that of the 14 Pro’s base model — with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage. There’s no word on when to expect international availability yet, but given the pattern of Xiaomi’s recent flagships, it’s probably just a matter of time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-xiaomi-14-pro-packs-a-faster-leica-camera-and-comes-in-a-titanium-edition-141515470.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – The Xiaomi 14 Pro packs a faster Leica camera and comes in a titanium edition

It’s getting to the point these days that we can’t even trust our own eyes with the amounts of digital trickery, trolling, misinformation and disinformation dominating social media. Heck, even reputable tech companies are selling us solutions to reimagine historical events. Not Leica, though! The venerated camera company officially announced the hotly-anticipated M11-P on Thursday, its first camera to incorporate the Content Credential secure metadata system.

Content Credentials are the result of efforts by the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), “a group of creators, technologists, journalists, and activists leading the global effort to address digital misinformation and content authenticity,” and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), “a formal coalition dedicated exclusively to drafting technical standards and specifications as a foundation for universal content provenance.” These intertwined industry advocacy groups created Content Credentials system in response to growing abuse and misuse of generative AI systems in creating and spreading misinformation online. 

“The Leica M11-P launch will advance the CAI’s goal of empowering photographers everywhere to attach Content Credentials to their photographs at the time of capture,” Santiago Lyon, Head of Advocacy and Education at CAI, said in a press statement, “creating a chain of authenticity from camera to cloud and enabling photographers to maintain a degree of control over their art, story and context.”

“This is the realization of a vision the CAI and our members first set out four years ago, transforming principles of trust and provenance into consumer-ready technology,” he continued.

Content Credentials works by capturing specific metadata about the photograph — the camera used to take it, as well as the location, time and other details about the shot — and locks those in a secure “manifest” that is bundled up with the image itself using a cryptographic key (the process is opt-in for the photog). Those credentials can easily be verified online or on the Leica FOTOS app. Whenever someone subsequently edits that photo, the changes are recorded to an updated manifest, rebundled with the image and updated in the Content Credentials database whenever it is reshared on social media. Users who find these images online can click on the CR icon in the pictures corner to pull up all of this historical manifest information as well, providing a clear chain of providence, presumably, all the way back to the original photographer. The CAI describes Content Credentials as a “nutrition label” for photographs. 

The M11-P itself is exactly what you’d expect from a company that’s been at the top of the camera market since the middle of the last century. It offers a 60 MP BSI CMOS sensor on a Maestro-III processor with 256 GB of internal storage. The M11-P is now on sale but it’s also $9,480 at retail so, freelancers, sorry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/leicas-m11-p-is-a-disinformation-resistant-camera-built-for-wealthy-photojournalists-130032517.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Leica’s M11-P is a disinformation-resistant camera built for wealthy photojournalists

As with all things Google of late, AI capabilities are coming to Maps. The company announced a slew of machine learning updates for the popular app Thursday including an “Immersive View” for route planning, deeper Lens integration for local navigation and more accurate real-time information. 

Back in May at its I/O developer conference, Google executives debuted Immersive View for routes, which provides navigation shots of your planned route. Whether you’re on foot, bike, taking public transportation or driving, this will allow you to scrub back and forth through street level, turn-by-turn visuals of the path you’re taking. The feature arrives on iOS and Android this week for Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Florence, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo and Venice.

Just because you can see the route to get where you’re going doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to read the signage along the way. Google is revamping its existing AI-based Search with Live View feature in Maps. Simply tap the Lens icon in Maps and wave your phone around, the system will determine your precise street level location and be able to direct you to nearby resources like ATMs, transit stations, restaurants, coffee shops and stores. 

The map itself is set to receive a significant upgrade. Buildings along your route will be more accurately depicted within the app to help you better orient yourself in unfamiliar cities, lane details along tricky highway interchanges will be more clearly defined in-app as well. Those updates will arrive for users in a dozen countries including the US, Canada, France and Germany over the next few months. US users will also start to see better in-app HOV lane designations and European customers should expect a significant expansion of Google’s AI speed limit sign reader technology out to 20 nations in total. 

Google Maps also runs natively in a growing number of electric vehicles, as part of the Android Automotive OS ecosystem. That Maps is getting an update too as part of the new Places API. Starting this week, drivers will see increased information about nearby charging stations including whether the plugs work with their EV, the power throughput of the charger, and whether the plug has been used recently — an indirect means of inferring whether or not the station is out of service, which Google helpfully points out, is the case around 25 percent of them. 

Even search is improving with the new update. Users will be soon able to look for nearby destinations that meet more esoteric criteria, such as “animal latte art” or “pumpkin patch with my dog,” results of which are gleaned from the analysis of “billions of photos shared by the Google Maps community,” per a Google blog post Thursday.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-maps-update-ai-immersive-view-search-ev-charger-location-130015451.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Google updates Maps with a flurry of AI features including ‘Immersive View for routes’

Image Line continues to admirably stick to its guns, delivering free updates for life to FL Studio users. And every update brings something new and noteworthy, rarely are they simple bug fixes. FL Studio 21.2 is no different, bringing two of the biggest updates in some time. 

First up is the introduction of stem separation. This is huge for producers who want to dabble in remixing, but can’t get access to official stems for songs they want to reimagine. But it’s also a boon for anyone who is into sampling. At some point we’ve all come across a record that we absolutely love the drums or strings on, but can’t seem to find a clean enough section of the song without vocals or bass. This is a feature that has proven particularly popular in DJ focused apps like Serato and Djpro, but is obviously of interest to more traditional music producers as well. 

FL Studio handled the handful of tests I tossed at it pretty admirably. The quality and busyness of the mix made a huge difference in how effectively it was able to pull out individual tracks, but that’s no surprise. It’s also limited to drums, bass, vocals and “instruments” which covered literally everything else. 

When I pulled in a mix of an instrumental track I was working on it snagged the drums perfectly. The bass was isolated, but sounded thin and distant, while the “instruments” (two guitars and a synth) had a regular click in it that seemed like it might have been bleeding through from the hi-hats. The Escorts’ “All We Need Is Another Chance” and Beyonce’s “Freedom” fared better. While there was definitely some digital artifacts in the drums on “Freedom” they’d have been barely noticeable in a full mix. The bass and vocals came out perfectly, though. (By the way, reduced to just drums, bass and vocals, it still hits hard.) 

In general the stem separator fared best with drums and vocals. Though, I dream of the day when the technology is advanced enough for me to single out things like guitars or strings. 

The other major addition is one that might prove a little controversial, FL Cloud. There is a free tier, but its most exciting features are locked behind a subscription service, though, one that delivers a solid value. For one it puts all of Image Line’s samples and sound packs directly in your DAW and will tempo sync and time stretch them to match your project. If you pay for a subscription, you have unlimited access to all of these, including the new packs released every month — no worrying about credits or monthly caps like you might find on Splice. The free tier gives you access to free sounds, but you’ll have to pay for premium sample packs.

FL Cloud also includes an AI mastering tool. You get a basic version of this for free, but paying unlocks more advanced options tailored to specific genres. And lastly, subscribers get access to distribution tools powered by DistroKid directly from within FL Studio. 

While there will undoubtedly be some users irked by even this limited implementation of a subscription model, it’s hard to argue with the value. $8 a month, or $80 a year gets you unlimited royalty free samples, advanced AI mastering and distribution to all the major streaming services. That’s the same price as a Loopcloud sample subscription on its own, which has pretty stringent monthly limits and significantly cheaper than any Splice sub. Image Line is even offering an introductory discount of $50 for the first year and a one month free trial to all FL Studio users. 

Finally there’s also a new instrument added to the native FL Studio plugins called Kepler that is a pretty solid recreation of the Roland Juno 6. FL Studio 21.2 is available now as a free update for existing users, though some features, like the Kepler plugin are only available with the Producer edition or higher.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fl-studio-212-can-separate-the-bass-vocals-and-drums-from-your-favorite-songs-140041298.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – FL Studio 21.2 can separate the bass, vocals and drums from your favorite songs

The following article contains major spoilers for Season Four, Episode Nine

Star Trek: Lower Decks takes its name and premise from a late episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. “Lower Decks” pivots away from the show’s usual format to focus on four junior crew members and is told mostly from their perspective. One of them is Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill) who had appeared two years earlier as a cadet in “The First Duty.” That episode focused on Wesley Crusher’s involvement in a conspiracy to cover up an accident that killed a fellow cadet. It also gave us our first look at Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), the episode’s ostensible villain. Locarno was, at some point, intended to be the helm officer in Voyager and was named as such in an early draft of the series’ bible. But, during pre-production, Locarno’s name was dropped and McNeill instead played Tom Paris, with the same backstory. Producers have, in various interviews, said the issue hinged on Locarno’s redeemability after his actions in “The First Duty.” But it’s equally plausible that the character was changed to avoid paying royalties to the character’s creators. But, even if you knew none of the above information, I don’t think you’d get any less out of this week’s episode of Lower Decks. Because while this series was conceived at the get-go to play to the crowd and bury itself in references, it rarely does so at the expense of telling a good story.

Mariner is once again throwing herself into harm’s way to save her friends without regard to her own safety. Her cavalier attitude to life, death, and her own career have threaded through much of this season to the point that now, even Captain Freeman is worried. She pulls the rest of Beta shift into a plan that’ll keep her daughter out of harm’s way on the next mission. Starfleet thinks the rogue ship destroying everything in its path might be targeting former officers. The list of at-risk individuals includes high-profile figures like Dr. Crusher but, this being Lower Decks, the Cerritos is sent off to find Nicholas Locarno. And while that’s going on, Freeman sends Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and T’Lyn on what she hopes will be a zero-stakes assignment to fix a weather buoy in orbit around Sherbal V. Except, of course, the crew’s shuttle is attacked by a Klingon Bird of Prey and the crew have to beam down to the hostile planet below.

Meanwhile, Freeman, Shaxs and Rutherford head to what can only be described as a Star Wars planet where Locarno is meant to be plying his trade. Despite its reputation as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, it’s got a muscular bureaucracy that the inhabitants use to frustrate Starfleet officers. The episode makes full use of that disconnect between the stuffed-shirt crew and the rougher corners of the universe. It was rare that we’d see the Next Generation crew really get their elbows dirty – the best I can call to mind is the awkward moments in “Gambit.” There’s just something inherently funny about the primary-colored space communist scouts encountering hairy-assed people who live in the “real world.” That’s before you get to Captain Freeman trying to beat up a Balok puppet that turns out to be a real alien. Of course, it’s a double bluff – at each turn, the villains put bureaucratic obstacles in Starfleet’s way but wave through a sinister bounty hunter type out of spite. Except the bounty hunter in question is Billups wearing a silly helmet, who got the necessary data to track down Locarno.

On the planet, the rest of Beta Shift is left fending for their lives as chaotic weather makes survival even harder. It doesn’t help that the victims of other attacks, explorers from several other alien races, are all fighting to the death for supremacy. Mariner, frustrated at the gang’s wise refusal to fight their way to safety, opts to go it alone and bumps into a Klingon. But their own fight to the death is interrupted by a rainstorm of glass shards and, while they shelter, Mariner finally reveals the source of her angst. She’s been sabotaging her career because she’s deeply resentful about Starfleet, and her role within it. When she signed up, she’d bought into the idea of exploring strange new worlds, but instead the Federation has been embroiled in an endless parade of galaxy-threatening wars. Her best friend was Sito Jaxa, from “Lower Decks,” who in that episode was sent to her death on a covert mission. Starfleet quite literally chewed up and spat out one of her friends, but as much as Mariner may hate what Starfleet is, she can’t quite just walk away because of what the Starfleet ideal represents. And you don’t need to be fluent with the events of a TV series from 31 years ago — Good God, I feel old — or the para-narrative around Voyager’s pre-production, to appreciate that dilemma. Of course, her Klingon opponent counters, saying that Mariner’s angst dishonors Sito’s sacrifice, and that she needs to get on with the job at hand. And, much as she agrees, she adds (just before hugging her former opponent) that she’s still duty-bound to call out when Starfleet “can do better.” 

Despite its love of self-referentiality, Star Trek has often struggled with any degree of on-screen self-interrogation. There are moments, best exemplified by the Root Beer scene in “The Way of the Warrior,” where the show touches on the values it espouses. The show’s numerous creative teams have often pushed the idea that Starfleet, and the Federation, aren’t as noble a force as the myth suggests. With Beyond, Simon Pegg wanted to focus on the nature of the Federation as a colonizing force, even if that concept is almost entirely erased from the finished film. I’ll leave it to better writers than I to explore this in depth, but it’s rare we get moments where Starfleet officers wonder, out loud or in private, if they aren’t the universally good force they’ve been led to believe they are. This thread is also paid off in the B-story as Freeman and Co. are told, more or less, that nobody in the real world likes having them around. Sure, it’s a gag in a sitcom, and our sympathies are almost universally with the Starfleet crew, but the fact it’s here at all isn’t to be sniffed at.

By the time we’ve reached the cliffhanger, Beta shift is trying to cajole the warring parties to work together. And, if we’re honest, the idea of disparate groups coming together to solve a problem as a whole is, surely, an idea worth upholding. But before we can see if they are able to be rescued, Mariner is beamed away to an ultra-minimalist starship. After forcing the door, she comes face-to-face with her rescuer / captor, and it’s… Nicholas Locarno.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-lower-decks-goes-back-to-its-beginnings-130001207.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Star Trek: Lower Decks goes back to its beginnings

With concerns around generative AI ever-present, Google has announced an expansion of its Vulnerability Rewards Program (VRP) focused on AI-specific attacks and opportunities for malice. As such, the company released updated guidelines detailing which discoveries qualify for rewards and which fall out of scope. For example, discovering training data extraction that leaks private, sensitive information falls in scope, but if it only shows public, nonsensitive data, then it wouldn’t qualify for a reward. Last year, Google gave security researchers $12 million for bug discoveries. 

Google explained that AI presents different security issues than their other technology — such as model manipulation and unfair bias — requiring new guidance to mirror this. “We believe expanding the VRP will incentivize research around AI safety and security, and bring potential issues to light that will ultimately make AI safer for everyone,” the company said in a statement. “We’re also expanding our open source security work to make information about AI supply chain security universally discoverable and verifiable.”

AI companies, including Google, gathered at the White House earlier this year, committing to greater discovery and awareness of AI’s vulnerabilities. The company’s VRP expansion also comes ahead of a “sweeping” executive order from President Biden reportedly scheduled for Monday, October 30, which would create strict assessments and requirements for AI models before any use by government agencies. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-expands-its-bug-bounty-program-to-target-generative-ai-attacks-120049796.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Google expands its bug bounty program to target generative AI attacks

Traeger, Kamado Joe and Weber are some of the biggest names in smart grilling. These companies have built numerous products that allow you to control and monitor their grills, usually pellet-burning setups, from the comfort of your living room or while you run an errand. Based right outside of Augusta, Georgia, Recteq is another company that’s doing the same. If you aren’t familiar with its products, now is a great time for an introduction as its new lineup has two novel takes on the pellet grill that offer something those larger competitors don’t.

Flat-top griddles are all the rage in backyard grilling right now. The popularity of smash burgers and the ability to cook everything from breakfast to fajitas and fried rice make them a versatile piece of any grill setup. Until now, most of them have been gas-powered and some companies offer griddle inserts for equipping a charcoal, gas or pellet grill you might already have with a large, flat cooking surface. Recteq has taken a different approach, opting instead to stick to its pellet grill roots with what it says is the first wood-fired griddle.

“We’ve had our eye on griddles for a while,” Recteq’s VP of product development Ben Lesshafft explained to Engadget. “We didn’t want to just go with a gas grill, we’re not a gas grill company. We believe in wood fired food and we believe in wood-fired flavor.” Lesshafft said the company knew there had to be a way to do something different by introducing the smoke flavor from pellets into a category where nearly all of the grills work the same way.

Recteq

To design this wood-fired grill, which Recteq calls the SmokeStone 600 ($999), the company drew on its experience building the direct-fire Bullseye grill. That model looks like a mashup of a pellet grill and a charcoal kettle, allowing you to do both high-heat cooking and low-and-slow smoking, but it was designed primarily for the former with temps topping out at nearly 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Another challenge was making sure a pellet-powered griddle offered even heat distribution.

“That took us quite a bit of time,” Lesshafft noted. “I spent more time with thermometers in a couple months than I did in my entire life previously combined.”

Of course, there has to be a method for getting the pellet smoke to roll over the grilling surface in order to impart that wood flavor. To achieve this, Recteq designed a 360-degree vent system around the griddle. The SmokeStone has a blower fan like any other pellet grill that regulates the temperature and intensity of the fire, but it also pushes smoke into the upper cooking chamber. The company includes a raised lip on the griddle surface to help corral any small bits of food, but it also made sure those smoke vents were tall enough to clear it. This design means smoke rolls over your food whether the lid is open or closed.

“The smoke kind of ends up coming across the surface of the grill, because it’s forced out at such a velocity that it has to shoot out before it finally relaxes,” he said. “What we discovered is, the beauty of it, you [can] cook with the lid up or down. You’re going get some smoke no matter what, because you’re always burning wood.”

And on top of imparting some wood-fired flavor into griddled foods that ordinarily wouldn’t get it, the SmokeStone is still a smart grill. There’s Wi-Fi onboard for controlling and monitoring grill and food temperatures from your phone, plus an algorithm to make sure the controller keeps things consistent and even throughout your cook. A temperature range of 300-600 degrees also gives you some room to adjust based on what you’re cooking.

Recteq

A pellet-burning griddle isn’t the only unique entry in Recteq’s new lineup, though. The company also debuted a dual-chamber pellet grill that allows you to cook at two different temperatures at the same time. With the DualFire 1200 ($1,799), Recteq sought to improve another popular grill configuration. If you’ve taken a stroll down the grill aisle at your local hardware store in the last decade or so, chances are you’ve seen grills that offer one side for charcoal and another for gas. Maybe you’ve come across one more recently that’s pellet and gas. While Recteq understood the utility of the two sections, Lesshafft and his colleagues decided making both pellet burning offered something that didn’t yet exist.

“We did not invent the dual-chamber grill, they’ve been out forever,” he said. “One of the reasons these dual chamber grills sell is people love the fact that you can go low-and-slow on one side and hot-and-fast on the other. And so that was kind of the evolution of our philosophy.”

Lesshafft further explained that he never understood the 50-50 split of the barrel of dual-chamber cookers, so Recteq opted instead for a 65-35 division. He said this allows for larger cuts like brisket on the bigger, more traditional pellet grill side while the smaller chamber is designed for direct-fire searing. You can do low-and-slow on both sides, but the left side is closer to the heat source and lacks the convection of a typical pellet grill.

Recteq also refreshed its main pellet grills, giving them an updated leg design, better wheels and an improved controller. The company also changed the shape of the RT-590, now called the Deck Boss 590, to be consistent with the rest of its lineup. Previously, it had an octagon-shaped barrel, but now it’s round like the others. Recteq also saw an opportunity to give customers a mid-range option between the Deck Boss and its largest new grill, the Flagship 1100 (replacing the RT-700). That’s where the Backyard Beast 1000 comes in.

Recteq

“The intentional difference between grills is really a matter of size,” said Lesshafft. “You have more capacity, you have more headroom, and it gets rid of the buyer confusion of also changing shapes.” The numbers correspond to square inches of grillings space, where the Backyard Beast doesn’t have a second shelf inside the cooking chamber. It also doesn’t have quite as much pellet hopper capacity as the Flagship. A third option also allows the company to bridge the gap price-wise between its most affordable new grill and its largest “traditional” pellet model. The Deck Boss is $899, the Backyard Beast is $1,099 and the Flagship is $1,299. Of course, ditching the old alphanumeric product names eliminates customer confusion, and Lesshafft admitted there was even some trouble with the names amongst employees (please take note, Sony).

All five of the new grills are equipped with the updated controller, though it functions differently on models like the SmokeStone and DualFire due to their direct-heat setups. And, of course, the DualFire needs special firmware in order to run two grills. A new display is both easier to use and easier to read thanks to better knob and larger letters and numbers. Recteq also ditched the large, external antenna for an internal one that offers similar Wi-Fi range without the gaudy appearance. Lesshafft explained that nothing was off the table in terms of the redesigned controls. However, the company really wanted to focus more on the app rather than putting a touchscreen on its grills like Traeger did.

“If people are going to [swipe through recipes], they’re probably going to do it on their phone or their tablet,” he noted. “We kept the physical interface similar, we just wanted to improve it, but we didn’t really want to give it a full-blown facelift.”

Another key element of the new controller is dual-band connectivity. Recteq introduced this on its grills over the last couple of years, and as someone who has struggled to connect a 2.4G grill in a mostly 5G world, this makes the setup process much easier. Lesshafft also quipped that this reduced W-Fi-related calls to customer service. And overall, the company has been continually trying to improve the quality of its app. It is, of course, the place where you monitor temperatures and control the grill, but it’s also where you can browse recipes, make notes and revisit temperature graphs. In other words, it needs to be reliable and deliver what’s promised. Lesshafft admitted that wasn’t always the case.

“There was a day when our ratings weren’t very good on iOS, and now we’re the highest rated growing app,” he said. “The app has come a long way. We’re pretty proud of it.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-recteqs-dual-chamber-and-griddle-designs-put-a-unique-spin-on-pellet-grills-120025500.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – How Recteq’s dual-chamber and griddle designs put a unique spin on pellet grills

Meta’s Threads continues to grow, all while the service it aped, X, continues to splutter and fall apart. Mark Zuckerberg said that Threads currently has “just under” 100 million monthly active users and that the app could reach 1 billion users in the next couple of years.

Threads picked up 100 million sign-ups in its first week, with easy ways to create an account from your existing Instagram profile. However, engagement dropped off amid complaints about limited functionality and feeds flooded with unwanted posts from brands and users with big audience numbers on Instagram. I was not interested in the piecemeal thoughts of startup execs with a podcast. Shocking, I know.

Meta has since steadily added new features, and engagement seems to have rebounded in recent weeks as Elon Musk continues to make unpopular changes to X, like stripping headlines from links and well, all the other things. 

– Mat Smith

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

Black Friday 2023: The best early deals

The White House will reportedly reveal a ‘sweeping’ AI executive order on October 30

iOS 17.1 is here with improvements to AirDrop and new flair for Apple Music

Apple will reportedly bring ANC to its ‘regular’ AirPods next year

X is rolling out an audio and video calling feature nobody asked for

What did we just say?

X (formerly known as Twitter) has begun rolling out yet another feature nobody asked for. Now, users will have the option to call each other via audio and video calls on the platform. This doesn’t come as a total surprise, as CEO Linda Yaccarino previously confirmed that video chat would be coming to the social media site back in August. The best explanation for the addition is Elon Musk’s aim to make X the “everything” app – a one-stop shop for multiple features and services.

Continue reading.

DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3 camera features a 1-inch sensor and a rotating display

It also offers 4K 120p video and ActiveTrack 6.0 stabilization.

DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera has arrived with major updates over the previous model, adding a much larger 1-inch sensor that should greatly improve image quality. It also packs a new 2-inch display with 4.7 times the area of the last model. That said, It’s also significantly more expensive than the Pocket 2 was at launch. It costs $520 in the US, $170 more than the Pocket 2.

Continue reading.

Apple TV+ prices have doubled in just over a year

Apple One, Arcade and News+ plans are now more expensive too.

The price of Apple TV+ is going up by $3 per month to $10. The annual TV+ plan has risen from $69 to $99. Apple Arcade is now $7 per month instead of $5. As for Apple News+, that’ll now run you $13 per month for a standalone subscription, up from $10. The cost of an Apple TV+ subscription previously went up from $5 per month to $7 in October 2022, meaning that the price of the service has doubled in just over 12 months.

Continue reading.

TikTok’s first live ‘global music event’ will feature Cardi B and Charlie Puth

In The Mix will take place in Arizona on December 10.

TikTok In The Mix will take place in Mesa, Arizona on December 10 – the first global live music event from the video platform. The headliners are Cardi B, Niall Horan, Anitta and Charlie Puth, with surprise guests and performances by emerging artists. Followers of the four headliners will get presale codes to buy In The Mix tickets starting on October 27. The general sale will start on November 2 and TikTok will stream the event live on its app too.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-metas-threads-reaches-almost-100-million-active-users-111509107.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – The Morning After: Meta’s Threads reaches almost 100 million active users

If you’ve been looking for a high-end smart speaker with a subwoofer, Amazon has an interesting deal in its Echo lineup right now. It’s got a bundle deal with the high-end Echo Studio and the Echo sub, with both on sale for $248 instead of $330, saving you $82 (24 percent). Those are a killer combo for home theater and more, particularly if you get a second Echo Studio to make a stereo pair. 

The Echo Studio appears in our guide to the best smart speakers as an alternative to the Sonos Era 100 for those who already rely on Alexa. It’s the largest smart speaker Amazon makes, and it put the space to good use. There’s a 24-bit DAC (digital-to-analog converter) and an amplifier, along with five separate speakers, allowing for crisp sound throughout the frequency range. We gave it an 88 in our review, and noted the quality, hi-res sound that does justice to HD and lossless music — but also makes regular old Spotify tracks sound pretty good.

For those who need more bass, the Echo sub adds 100W of low-frequency power and a6-inch downward-firing woofer, enhancing the already solid bass on the Echo Studio. If you add a second Echo Studio, you’ll get true stereo 2.1 sound. The latter isn’t on sale alone right now but has been in the past. In any case, if you’re an Alexa fan and want the ultimate sound without paying Sonos money, now is a great time to get this combo. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-echo-studio-and-echo-sub-bundle-is-24-percent-off-right-now-085559003.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Amazon’s Echo Studio and Echo Sub bundle is 24 percent off right now

Spotify’s royalty model will get a massive revamp next year to give “working artists” a bigger cut, according to Music Business Worldwide. Starting in the first quarter of 2024, Spotify will reportedly implement three changes meant to “combat three drains on the royalty pool.” The first one is establishing a minimum number of annual streams a track must reach before it starts generating royalties, which is supposed to demonetize tracks that earn less than 5 cents a month.

Apparently, while these tracks make up a tiny percentage of music on the platform — 99.5 percent of all monetized content will still be earning money after this change — their royalties still cost Spotify tens of millions of dollars a year. Based on Music Business Worldwide’s computations, a track has to generate 200 plays a year to be able to earn 5 cents. As The Verge notes, the company is already getting flak for this particular change, because there are a lot of indie tracks that don’t reach that threshold. Smaller artists might see their already meager earnings dwindle so that popular artists could get paid more. 

Meanwhile, the second change coming to the platform will leverage its anti-fraud detection technology. If it detects illegal activity, such as the use of AI tools to repeatedly stream tracks and artificially boost their play count, the company will slap their distributors with financial penalties. Spotify is hoping that by enforcing a per-track penalty, it could deter people from committing streaming fraud in the long run. How effective this move is, of course, depends on the accuracy of the company’s fraud detection technology. 

The third and the last change in the service’s royalty model will affect creators of “non-music noise content,” such as white noise and binaural beats. At the moment, there are a lot of noise tracks on Spotify that are only 31 seconds long, uploaded that way because the platform pays for every play that’s longer than half a minute. With the change that’s supposedly coming, though, Spotify will require these noise tracks to meet a minimum length of time before they can generate royalties. 

While this move can potentially cut noise creators’ earnings significantly, Spotify originally wanted to take even more drastic measures. According to a previous Bloomberg report, the company considered removing white noise content from its platform altogether and prohibiting future uploads in the category, because doing so would raise its annual gross profit by as much as $38 million. Spotify neither confirmed nor denied these changes — “We do not have any news to share at this time,” a spokesperson told Music Business Worldwide — so we’ll have to wait for its official announcement to know if they’re real and when they will be implemented if that’s the case.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-looks-set-to-overhaul-its-royalty-model-next-year-081722667.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Spotify looks set to overhaul its royalty model next year