X reportedly paid its Brazil fines to the wrong bank, causing further delay in reinstatement case

Despite the company’s recent decision to abide by the demands of the Brazilian Supreme Court, X still isn’t back online in Brazil — and according to Reuters, that’s at least in part because it paid its fines to the wrong bank. After weeks being banned in Brazil, X in late September named a legal representative for the country as ordered, and took down accounts the court accused of spreading misinformation and hate speech. Its final hurdle was to pay off the fines that it had racked up, reportedly amounting to roughly $5 million.

Citing Friday court filings, Reuters reports that X says it’s paid the fines and requested to have services restored. But, Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the funds went to the wrong bank, and the decision will have to wait until they’ve been transferred. X maintains that it paid its fines correctly, according to Reuters. X has been banned in Brazil since the end of August. While the company initially resisted the court’s orders, it recently changed its tune and said it was working with the Brazilian government to get the platform back online in the country.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-reportedly-paid-its-brazil-fines-to-the-wrong-bank-causing-further-delay-in-reinstatement-case-164959494.html?src=rss

Apple’s rumored smart display may arrive in 2025 running new homeOS

Apple is planning to debut a new operating system called homeOS with its long-rumored smart displays, the first of which is expected to arrive as soon as 2025, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Reports of a HomePod-like device with a display have been swirling for over a year, and Gurman said just this summer that Apple is working on a tabletop smart display equipped with a robotic arm that can tilt and rotate the screen for better viewing. In his latest report, Gurman says there are two versions in the works: a low-end display that will offer the basics, like FaceTime and smart home controls, and the high-end robotic variant that’ll cost upwards of $1,000.

We’ll reportedly see the cheaper version first — possibly next year — followed by the high-end display. Gurman previously said the robotic smart display could be released in 2026 at the earliest. You won’t have to wait for the premium model to get a taste of Apple’s vision for home AI, though. According to Gurman, Apple Intelligence will be a key part of the experience for both devices. The new homeOS will be based on Apple TV’s tvOS, he notes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/apples-rumored-smart-display-may-arrive-in-2025-running-new-homeos-212401853.html?src=rss

Spotify is up and running again after a brief outage

Spotify should be working normally again now after a few hours of service issues. The Spotify Status account posted on X Sunday afternoon to say, “Everything’s looking much better now!” Earlier in the day, it confirmed that it had been experiencing problems following users' reports that the app and web player were acting up. Spotify users on social media reported a variety of issues, from songs repeatedly pausing on them to being locked out of the streaming platform entirely.

The problems spiked a little before 11AM ET, per Downdetector, and persisted for two hours or so. At 12:14PM ET, Spotify Status posted, “We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!” In the meantime, the comments section of Downdetector turned into a full-blown unhinged group chat. I was still having issues with the web player around 1:15PM, but it all appears to have been resolved now. 

Update, September 29 2024, 2:45PM ET: Spotify is back online. This story has been update to include a note from Spotify Status on the issue's resolution.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-confirms-its-having-service-issues-and-is-working-on-a-fix-164159110.html?src=rss

Songs from Adele and others are returning to YouTube as SESAC agrees to a new deal

Update, September 30, 4:30PM ET: YouTube says it has reached a deal with SESAC, and that the affected songs will be returning to the platform soon. A spokesperson sent the following comment: "We're pleased that SESAC reconsidered our offer. We've reached a deal and content will come back up shortly. We appreciate everyone's patience during this time." 

The original story, headlined "YouTube blocks songs from artists including Adele and Green Day amid licensing negotiations," follows unedited.


Songs from popular artists have begun to disappear from YouTube as the platform’s deal with the performing rights organization SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers) approaches its expiration date. As reported by Variety, certain songs by Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, R.E.M., Burna Boy and other artists have been blocked in the US, though their entire catalogs aren’t necessarily affected. Videos that have been pulled, like Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” now just show a black screen with the message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

A black screen with the message: Video unavailable. This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country

In a statement to Engadget, a YouTube spokesperson said the platform has been in talks with SESAC to renew the deal, but “despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before its expiration. We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.” According to a source that spoke to Variety, however, the deal hasn’t even expired yet — it’ll reportedly terminate sometime next week — and the move on YouTube’s part may be a negotiation tactic. SESAC has not yet released a statement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/songs-from-adele-and-others-are-returning-to-youtube-as-sesac-agrees-to-a-new-deal-151741508.html?src=rss

Here’s a peek at how A Minecraft Movie will handle crafting

The team behind the upcoming Minecraft movie shared a new clip during Minecraft Live that expands on the brief crafting moment we saw in the polarizing first teaser. The scene comes in the middle of a discussion between Mojang creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson and A Minecraft Movie director Jared Hess, at 4:51. The segment also gives us our first look at the movie’s interpretation of a Minecraft bee, which I’m not quite sure how to feel about yet. That you can find toward the end of the video.

A Minecraft Movie is slated for release in April 2025 and stars Jack Black as Steve, alongside Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Plans for it were first announced a decade ago, and potential release dates were set and scrapped on multiple occasions in the time since. At long last, it’s actually now happening — for better or worse.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/heres-a-peek-at-how-a-minecraft-movie-will-handle-crafting-220454126.html?src=rss

Judge rejects Apple’s last-minute request for a deadline extension in Epic case

Apple tried at the last second to get out of producing a trove of documents by Monday as it was ordered to in its ongoing dispute with Epic, and Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson is not having it. In early August, the company was given a deadline of September 30 to produce documents relating to the changes it made to its App Store rules this year, which was its attempt to satisfy an injunction. Apple initially told the court that the task would entail reviewing roughly 650,000 documents — but in a status report on Thursday, it said the number had ballooned to over 1.3 million, and asked for a two-week extension. Hixson denied the request on Friday in a strongly worded order spotted by The Verge, and called out Apple’s move as “bad behavior.”

Apple and Epic have been submitting joint status reports to the court every two weeks, and the issue of Apple’s documents exceeding its earlier estimate never previously came up, the judge noted. “This information would have been apparent to Apple weeks ago,” Hixson said in the order. “It is simply not believable that Apple learned of this information only in the two weeks following the last status report.” The judge said the request raises other concerns, calling into question the quality of Apple’s reports and its intentions around complying in a timely manner. Apple has “nearly infinite resources” that it could have tapped to get the task done in the allotted time, according to Hixson.

“This is a classic moral hazard,” Hixson said in the order, “and the way Apple announced out of the blue four days before the substantial completion deadline that it would not make that deadline because of a document count that it had surely been aware of for weeks hardly creates the impression that Apple is behaving responsibly.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/judge-rejects-apples-last-minute-request-for-a-deadline-extension-in-epic-case-195536755.html?src=rss

What to read this weekend: The history of overhyped tech, and a new graphic novel from Charles Burns

New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/history-of-overhyped-tech-charles-burns-final-cut-richard-powers-playground-163018545.html?src=rss

See the iPhone 16’s game-changing battery removal process in new iFixit teardown

Apple introduced some major repairability improvements with the iPhone 16 lineup, but nothing stands out as much as the new battery removal process for the base iPhone 16. Doing away with the usual pull tabs, Apple is using an adhesive that debonds in response to a low electrical current. It only takes about a minute and a half for it to come unstuck, per Apple’s repair guide. A teardown by iFixit shows the process in action, and it sure looks easier than ever. iFixit tech Shahram Mokhtari said, “I’m not sure we’ve ever had a battery removal process go so cleanly and smoothly.”

Only the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have the new adhesive, and they’ve earned a 7/10 on iFixit’s repairability scale. “Apple definitely seems to be leveling up on repairability,” Mokhtari, adding Apple has “landed another repairability win” with this year’s base iPhones thanks to the new battery removal procedure. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/see-the-iphone-16s-game-changing-battery-removal-process-in-new-ifixit-teardown-213911136.html?src=rss

Indie classic To the Moon comes to Xbox Series X/S and PS5 October 8

The emotional 2011 indie game To the Moon will soon be playable on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Developer Freebird Games and publisher Serenity Forge announced this week that ports for the consoles will arrive on October 8 for $10. At the same time, they released a new installment in the series — a short called Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode that offers one of the series’ endings. It’s available now on Steam.

To the Moon is a time travel adventure that follows two doctors who have developed a way to help dying patients fulfill their greatest dreams by taking them back in time within their minds. The patient at the heart of the story is an elderly man named Johnny, whose final wish is to go to the moon. The game, which originally launched for PC, has become beloved over the years and eventually expanded to mobile and Nintendo Switch.

Freebird Games followed it up with another episode called Finding Paradise, which focuses on a different patient, and the time-travel murder mystery, Imposter Factory. There’s also a heartfelt short called A Bird Story. They’re all tear-jerkers. The developer has described the latest, Beach Episode, as “​​half of an ending” to the series.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/indie-classic-to-the-moon-comes-to-xbox-series-xs-and-ps5-october-8-193949307.html?src=rss

Jony Ive confirms he’s working with Sam Altman on a secret project

Rumors emerged last year of a collaboration between former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but the two have until now kept quiet about it. In a profile by The New York Times that was published this weekend, though, Ive confirms his company LoveFrom is leading the design on an AI product being built with Altman. Also on board are Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, both of whom held big design roles at Apple.

There’s so far a team of about 10 employees involved with the project, based in a San Francisco office building that’s one of several properties Ive has purchased on a single city block, according to the Times. But we still don’t know much about the product they’re working on. The report describes Tan and Hankey wheeling chairs between the LoveFrom properties that were “topped by papers and cardboard boxes with the earliest ideas for a product that uses A.I. to create a computing experience that is less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”

Since Ive left Apple in 2019 to start LoveFrom, the design firm has worked on a typeface and even a red clown nose, but we haven’t seen much in the way of hardware — just that $60,000 turntable. While an AI product seems to be on the horizon, there’s currently no timeline for when it’ll make its debut.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/jony-ive-confirms-hes-working-with-sam-altman-on-a-secret-project-163201291.html?src=rss