Author Archives: Mariella Moon

X is officially making likes (mostly) private for everyone

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Thanks to X showing what its users "like" on its platform, politicians and public personalities have been caught looking at salacious and unsavory tweets in the past. Now, the platform formerly known as Twitter is making likes mostly private, and according to company chief Elon Musk, it's an important change so that people can "like posts without getting attacked for doing so." The company originally launched the ability to hide the likes tab as a perk for X Premium subscribers last year. "[K]eep spicy likes private," X said when it announced the new feature. 

In a new tweet, X's Engineering account has revealed that the social network is making likes private for everyone this week. Users will no longer be able to see who liked someone else's post, which means likes on the platform will no longer cause PR crises for public figures who like sexual, hateful and other unpalatable posts in general. They can still see who liked their tweets, however, along with their like count and other metrics for their own posts. 

This rollout kills one reason for getting a premium subscription, though. The company's advertising revenue took a nosedive last year, and it launched two new tiers for its subscription service to help solve some of its financial woes. The Premium+ tier costs users $16 per month and removes ads from their timelines, while the cheapest tier costs users $3 a month and doesn't come with the website's blue checkmark.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-officially-making-likes-mostly-private-for-everyone-035837613.html?src=rss

Thrasher, the psychedelic game from the artist behind Thumper, arrives in July

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Thrasher, which its developers describe as a "mind-melting arcade action odyssey," will be available for the Meta Quest and the Apple Vision Pro on July 25. The SteamVR version will follow at a later date. Thrasher was first announced at The Game Awards last year as a new project by Brian Gibson, who was the artist and composer behind the nightmare-inducing rhythm game Thumper. For Thrasher, Gibson teamed up with Mike Mandel, known for working on games like Rock Band VR and Fuser, who took charge of the coding and research and development. 

The player takes control of a space eel in Thrasher, which they have to guide with "fast-paced gesture controls" through unsettling landscapes, so that it can evolve and defeat a cosmic baby god by the end of their journey. Based on the images and teasers the developers have released so far, the game's environments truly do look mind-bending with their psychedelic neon colors and their geometric patterns. Even the eel's powers sound trippy: Players can fight bosses with a rainbow spray of bullets or bulldoze environment elements in a blaze of color and light. 

The developers said that Thrasher's "music, visuals, and gameplay mesh into one transcendent experience" for the player. While the virtual reality version offers the most immersive option for gamers, Thrasher is also expected to be available for consoles and PC in the future

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thrasher-the-psychedelic-game-from-the-artist-behind-thumper-arrives-in-july-133026724.html?src=rss

Spotify will start showing you personalized banners and messages based on your listening habits

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Spotify has launched a new campaign that's meant to make users' audio streaming experience on the platform even more personalized. The "My Spotify" initiative will show users home page banners and personalized messages within the app that contain information about their listening habits, along with links to mixes that they'd presumably enjoy based on those habits. In one of the examples above, for instance, Spotify presented a user with a banner that links to a Doja Cat mix, because they've listened to the rapper's tracks 58 times over the past month. 

The service showed the user a banner that links to a DJ mix of Go Gina in another example, demonstrating how the messages can be personalized for every listener. A My Spotify banner or message could also link to the "Made For You" hub, where users can find personalized playlists, podcasts, features and recommendations based on their activity on the app. 

My Spotify gives the service a way to present users with data of their listening habits around the year, outside of Wrapped. The company's year-in-review feature only goes live during the holiday season, and it takes over social media when it does. It's not quite clear if users will also be able to share their My Spotify messages and banners on social networks. Spotify also didn't say whether it'll make its way to everyone on the app in the future — it only announced that the feature "will appear first" in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand over the next several weeks. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-will-start-showing-you-personalized-banners-and-messages-based-on-your-listening-habits-130007917.html?src=rss

Just Dance VR is coming to Meta Quest headsets in October

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If you think Just Dance would be a great addition to your library of virtual reality games and experiences, then mark this date: October 15. 2024. Ubisoft is launching Just Dance VR: Welcome to Dancity that day for the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3. You'll be able to customize your avatars for the game and choose your own body shape, facial expression, skin color, hair and outfit. Once you're done creating a virtual version of yourself, you can enter the Dancity social hub to meet other players. 

You'll also have your own "apartment" in game, where you can dance with up to six players or do other interactive activities with the group, like play basketball. The game will let you send emote stickers to players who aren't in your friends list, but you can do voice chats with dancers who are. Welcome to Dancity features 360-degree environments and what Ubisoft describes as an "all-new gameplay with two-hand scoring."

You'll be able to dance to 25 hit and original songs at launch, including Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, Bad Liar by Selena Gomez, Starships by Nicki Minaj and Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. As UploadVR notes, the game was supposed to be exclusively available to Pico headsets. However, after the ByteDance-owned company laid off a big portion of its workforce, Ubisoft started working with a new partner (Meta) to develop the game.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/just-dance-vr-is-coming-to-meta-quest-headsets-in-october-043151830.html?src=rss

Blackmagic is developing a camera for immersive Apple Vision Pro videos

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At Apple's WWDC presentation this year, the company said it was working with Blackmagic Design to make immersive videos for the Vision Pro easier to work with and capture. Turns out Blackmagic is currently developing a camera specifically to capture immersive films for Apple's mixed-reality headset. The digital cinema company and manufacturer announced the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera on X/Twitter and made sure to add a few photos to give us a glimpse of what it would look like. 

It didn't share a lot of details about the device other than it's "designed to capture content for Apple Vision Pro" with 8,160 x 7,200 resolution per eye and "16 stops of dynamic range for 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content." Based on the images Blackmagic attached to its post, users will even be able to strap the camera to a drone for aerial videos.

The company is hoping to release the camera sometime later this year, though it didn't say how much the device would cost. In the past, Blackmagic released a camera that can shoot in 12K for $9,995, which is much lower than what other comparable models cost. Last year, it unveiled its first full-frame model that can shoot video in 6K for $2,595. 

A camera against a white background.
Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic said it's also releasing an update of its DaVinci Resolve video editing app with changes that make creating Vision Pro content easier. On top of allowing editing of Vision Pro material, the app will introduce a "new immersive video viewer will let editors pan, tilt and roll clips for viewing on 2D monitors or on Apple Vision Pro for an even more immersive editing experience." It will also introduce a feature that removes transitions created by Vision Pro, along with presets that create a package that can be viewed directly on Vision Pro headsets. 

Apple showed off the new lens Canon is working on for its R7 camera at WWDC, as well. The 7.8mm f/4 dedicated spatial lens is also meant to capture content for the Apple Vision Pro. While the brand has previously released lenses for virtual reality, it said that none of its current cameras are fast enough to offer video that matches Apple's headset. Like Blackmagic's announcement, Canon's was light on details, though we'll most likely hear more information the nearer we get to the lens' release date. 

Catch up here for all the news out of Apple's WWDC 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/blackmagic-is-developing-a-camera-for-immersive-apple-vision-pro-videos-022834820.html?src=rss

Messenger’s new community chats don’t need to be connected to Facebook groups

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Meta will now let you create massive community chats on Messenger with people you aren't connected to in any way. Back in 2022, the company launched community chats for Facebook Groups, giving people belonging to the same groups an easy way to talk in real time. While that community feature is tied to groups on the social network, this one isn't — it will let use Messenger like Discord to connect with as many as 5,000 random people using the app. 

The company didn't post an announcement, but it confirmed the new feature's rollout to TechCrunch. All community chats will be displayed in one place inside the Messenger app, with each one having a "Home" space where administrators can post updates and announcements. According to Meta's Help page for the feature, it's "not available to everyone or on all platforms at this time." You'll know if you're part of this rollout if you see the option to create a new community in the left menu of your Messenger app on mobile. 

If you do create a community, you'll get the power to remove someone from the chat, report or remove content and delete the chat altogether. All members can issue shareable invites, though, so communities have the potential to grow big beyond the initial participants' circle. The fact that this flavor of Facebook chats is meant for public conversations, however, also means that you'd have to be more careful of what you share. It's not just current members who'll be able to see what you've said, but also future members other people invite. 

As TechCrunch notes, you could use the new option to make chats for schools, organizations, neighborhoods and other groups with a large number of potential members. It could also be a more convenient and better option than WhatsApp's similar community chats feature, since the app needs to be connected to a phone number. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/messengers-new-community-chats-dont-need-to-be-connected-to-facebook-groups-131511680.html?src=rss

Amazon Freevee adds terrifying AI-generated men to 12 Angry Men poster

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The classic movie 12 Angry Men is titled as such because, well, it's about a jury comprised of 12 men. But viewers have noticed recently that the image Amazon uses for the movie has more than 12 characters in it. Further, their melting, inhuman faces look like they could be somebody's sleep paralysis monsters. The terrifying quality to the characters' faces is just one of the elements indicating the use of AI to generate the image. Their deformed and claw-like hands are another, along with the other obvious AI artifacts in the photo. 

Upon checking, Amazon didn't use the AI-generated image for the Prime Video version of the classic film. Some viewers pointed out that one could only see the AI version of the film's poster on Freevee, Amazon's free ad-supported streaming service. According to AV Club, the company used a different poster on Freevee due to licensing issues. Apparently, Freevee got its license to stream 12 Angry Men from a third party, which also provided images for the film. It's not quite clear why the third party didn't provide any of the film's official posters for use, but Freevee is reportedly working to get the AI-generated one replaced. 

Viewers also previously called out Amazon for using what looked like AI images to tease its Fallout TV show. Seeing as the use of generative AI could potentially save companies money — and they are, as we all know, driven by profit — we may have to get used to seeing TV and film posters and marketing materials that range from odd to nightmare fuel and beyond.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-freevee-adds-terrifying-ai-generated-men-to-12-angry-men-poster-120011551.html?src=rss

Popular US news app accused of using AI to make up fake stories

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NewsBreak, a popular free news app in the US, has been publishing fictitious stories written by AI since 2021, according to Reuters. The app publishes licensed content from legitimate news sources, such as CNN, AP and Reuters itself, but it also uses artificial intelligence tools to rewrite press releases and local news. One of the most egregious examples of a false news story by NewsBreak was published on Christmas Eve last year. The app's writeup claimed that there was a shooting in Bridgeton, New Jersey when no such incident took place. 

New Jersey's police department dismissed the claims made in the article before the app, which said it got the information from another website, took it down four days later. In January, February and March, a Colorado-based food bank told Reuters that it had to turn people away because NewsBreak published the wrong time for food distribution. It also received no response from the company when it complained about its inaccurate reporting. 

Another charity in Pennsylvania said NewsBreak published a report, twice, that claimed it was holding a 24-hour foot-care clinic for homeless people when it wasn't. The app removed all the false stories involving the charities after Reuters notified it. In March, it added a warning on its homepage that says its content "may not always be error-free," as well. Aside from publishing erroneous stories, NewsBreak allegedly copied articles from websites without permission and had previously settled copyright infringement cases with at least two publications. Reuters describes NewsBreak as the "most downloaded US news app." If you haven't heard of it before, that's probably because its users are predominantly women above the age of 45, who don't have college degrees and who live in suburban and rural US. It's known for posting links on social networks like Facebook, and clicking on one will prompt you to download the app. 

NewsBreak, which is only available in the US, launched in the country as a subsidiary of China-based company Yidian, which is partly owned by a Chinese state-linked media firm. Yidian is no longer connected with the app, but one of its primary investors is IDG Capital, a Beijing-based company that the Pentagon says is affiliated (PDF) with the Chinese military. 

Former employees told Reuters that NewsBreak's China-based engineers do most of the work on its algorithms, even though the app presents itself as a US-based company with US investors. NewsBreak CEO Jeff Zheng told Reuters that it complies with US data and privacy laws and that it's maintained on Amazon servers based in the United States. Its Chinese staff, Zheng said, can only access anonymous data stored on those servers. It's worth noting that despite its connection to China, Reuters didn't find evidence that NewsBreak has published stories that showed the Chinese government in a positive light. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/popular-us-news-app-accused-of-using-ai-to-make-up-fake-stories-140016882.html?src=rss

FTC launches an antitrust probe into Microsoft’s deal with Inflection AI

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Microsoft is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over its deal with Inflection AI, according to The Wall Street Journal. Back in March, the company hired almost all of Inflection AI's employees, including founders Karén Simonyan and Mustafa Suleyman, who was also a DeepMind cofounder. In addition, Microsoft paid Inflection AI $650 million to license its artificial intelligence technology. Now, the FTC wants to know whether the companies deliberately structured the deal to avoid being the subject of regulatory antitrust review. 

As The Journal notes, companies are required to report any acquisition that's valued at $119 million or more to federal antitrust agencies. The FTC or the Justice Department could then investigate whether the deal stifles competition in the industry and then sue to block the merger or the investment that it deems to be anti-competitive. When companies want to hire all the talent in another firm, they typically buy the other out in an "acquihire." But Microsoft didn't buy Inflection, which denied that the bigger company has any power over it. Ted Shelton, its new COO, told the publication that it still operates as an independent company under new leadership. 

The FTC has already sent out subpoenas to both Microsoft and Inflection, asking for relevant documents over the past two years. If it does determine that the companies entered into an agreement in a way that would give Microsoft control over the other while dodging regulatory review, then Microsoft could be fined, and the transaction could be suspended pending a more in-depth investigation. 

Microsoft provided Engadget with the following statement: "Our agreements with Inflection gave us the opportunity to recruit individuals at Inflection AI and build a team capable of accelerating Microsoft Copilot, while enabling Inflection to continue pursuing its independent business and ambition as an AI studio. We take our legal obligations to report transactions under the HSR Act seriously and are confident that we have complied with those obligations."

US federal agencies have been cracking down on monopolistic practices by the world's largest tech companies over the past few years. To be even more efficient in conducting antitrust investigations involving the current biggest players in artificial intelligence, the agencies have also just struck a deal on how they're dividing their responsibilities. The Justice Department will take the lead in investigations involving NVIDIA, while the FTC will take charge of antitrust probes involving Microsoft and OpenAI.

Update, June 6 2024, 11:46AM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Microsoft.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ftc-launches-an-antitrust-probe-into-microsofts-deal-with-inflection-ai-130038896.html?src=rss

Boeing’s first crewed Starliner mission is finally heading to the ISS

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Boeing's first Starliner flight with a human crew onboard has successfully blasted off to space on top of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, almost a month after it was originally scheduled to launch. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams entered the Starliner capsule and completed necessary checks by 10:08AM ET. Less than 30 minutes after the astronauts entered the capsule, the CEO ULA tweeted that the company was "working an issue with topping valves on the ground side" and that it was running the fix through its Software Integration Lab (SIL) before it's executed. In the end, ULA was able to implement a workaround, and the spacecraft lifted off at 10:52am ET. 

Back on May 6, the companies scrubbed the flight two hours after it was originally scheduled to launch after their ground teams detected "anomalous behavior by the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the Centaur upper stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle." The valve was replaced and the Starliner teams were ready to make another launch attempt when they encountered another issue: They found a "small helium leak" in the spacecraft's service module. 

NASA and Boeing had to push back Starliner's launch date in order to investigate the leak and figure out how it would affect the flight. They eventually determined that it didn't pose a threat to the mission's safety, so they scheduled a launch attempt for June 1. Last week's launch was also scrubbed last minute due to the "computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count."

Aside from the NASA astronauts, Starliner flew with 760 pounds of cargo, including 300 pounds of food and other supplies requested by the crew that's currently onboard the International Space Station. Wilmore and Williams will spend eight days on the ISS conducting tests to help determine whether the Starliner is ready for regular flights to the orbiting laboratory. NASA said that if the mission is completed successfully, it will begin the final process of "certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/boeings-first-crewed-starliner-mission-is-finally-heading-to-the-iss-151053557.html?src=rss