Stability AI just unveiled Stable Audio 2.0, an upgraded version of its music-generation platform. This system lets users create up to three minutes of audio via text prompt. That’s around the length of an actual song, so it'll also whip up an intro, a full chord progression and an outro.
First, the good news. Three minutes is huge. The previous version of the software maxed out at 90 seconds. Just imagine the fake birthday song you could make in the style of that one Rob Thomas/Santana track. Another boon? The tool is free and publicly available through the company’s website, so have at it.
Introducing Stable Audio 2.0 – a new model capable of producing high-quality, full tracks with coherent musical structure up to three minutes long at 44.1 kHz stereo from a single prompt.
It primarily works via text prompt, but there’s an option to upload an audio clip. The system will analyze the clip and produce something similar. All uploaded audio must be copyright-free, so this isn’t for the purposes of mimicking something that already exists. Rather, it could be useful for, say, humming a drum part or extending a 20 second clip into something longer.
Now, the bad news. This is still AI-generated music. It’s cool as a conversation piece and as an emblem of a possible future that’s great for tinkerers and bad for musicians, but that’s about it. The songs can actually sound nifty, at first, until the seams start showing. Then things get a bit creepy.
For instance, the system loves adding vocals, but not in any known human language. I guess it’s in whatever language that makes up the text in AI-generated images. The vocals sort of sound like actual people, and other times they sound Gregorian chanters filtered through outer space. It’s right smack dab in the middle of that uncanny valley. The Vergecalled the vocals “soulless and weird," comparing them to whale sounds. That tracks.
Stable Audio 2.0 makes the same weird little mistakes that all of these systems make, no matter the output type. Parts can vanish into thin air, replaced with something else. Sometimes melodic elements will double out of nowhere, like an audio version of those extra fingers in AI-generated images.
There’s also the, well, boring-ness of it all. This is music in name only. Without a human connection, what’s the point? I listen to music to get inside the head of another person or group of people. There’s no head to get inside of here, despite constant proclamations that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is only months away.
So, this tech is an absolute gift for those making silly birthday videos or bank hold music. For everyone else? Shrug. One thing I can say from personal experience: It’s pretty fast. The system concocted an absolutely terrifying big band song about my cat in around a minute.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stability-ais-audio-generator-can-now-crank-out-3-minute-songs-160620135.html?src=rss
Stability AI just unveiled Stable Audio 2.0, an upgraded version of its music-generation platform. This system lets users create up to three minutes of audio via text prompt. That’s around the length of an actual song, so it'll also whip up an intro, a full chord progression and an outro.
First, the good news. Three minutes is huge. The previous version of the software maxed out at 90 seconds. Just imagine the fake birthday song you could make in the style of that one Rob Thomas/Santana track. Another boon? The tool is free and publicly available through the company’s website, so have at it.
Introducing Stable Audio 2.0 – a new model capable of producing high-quality, full tracks with coherent musical structure up to three minutes long at 44.1 kHz stereo from a single prompt.
It primarily works via text prompt, but there’s an option to upload an audio clip. The system will analyze the clip and produce something similar. All uploaded audio must be copyright-free, so this isn’t for the purposes of mimicking something that already exists. Rather, it could be useful for, say, humming a drum part or extending a 20 second clip into something longer.
Now, the bad news. This is still AI-generated music. It’s cool as a conversation piece and as an emblem of a possible future that’s great for tinkerers and bad for musicians, but that’s about it. The songs can actually sound nifty, at first, until the seams start showing. Then things get a bit creepy.
For instance, the system loves adding vocals, but not in any known human language. I guess it’s in whatever language that makes up the text in AI-generated images. The vocals sort of sound like actual people, and other times they sound Gregorian chanters filtered through outer space. It’s right smack dab in the middle of that uncanny valley. The Vergecalled the vocals “soulless and weird," comparing them to whale sounds. That tracks.
Stable Audio 2.0 makes the same weird little mistakes that all of these systems make, no matter the output type. Parts can vanish into thin air, replaced with something else. Sometimes melodic elements will double out of nowhere, like an audio version of those extra fingers in AI-generated images.
There’s also the, well, boring-ness of it all. This is music in name only. Without a human connection, what’s the point? I listen to music to get inside the head of another person or group of people. There’s no head to get inside of here, despite constant proclamations that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is only months away.
So, this tech is an absolute gift for those making silly birthday videos or bank hold music. For everyone else? Shrug. One thing I can say from personal experience: It’s pretty fast. The system concocted an absolutely terrifying big band song about my cat in around a minute.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stability-ais-audio-generator-can-now-crank-out-3-minute-songs-160620135.html?src=rss
Jon Stewart hosted FTC (Federal Trade Commission) chair Lina Khan on his weekly Daily Show segment yesterday, but Stewart's own revelations were just as interesting as Khan's. During the sit-down, Stewart admitted that Apple asked him not to host Khan on a podcast, which was an extension of his The Problem with Jon Stewart Apple TV+ show at the time.
"I wanted to have you on a podcast and Apple asked us not to do it," Stewart told Khan. "They literally said, 'Please don’t talk to her.'"
In fact, the entire episode appeared to have a "things Apple wouldn't let us do" theme. Ahead of the Khan interview, Stewart did a segment on artificial intelligence he called "the false promise of AI," effectively debunking altruistic claims of AI leaders and positing that it was strictly designed to replace human employees.
"They wouldn’t let us do even that dumb thing we just did in the first act on AI," he told Khan. "Like, what is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to even have these conversations out in the public sphere?"
"I think it just shows the danger of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies," Khan replied.
The Problem With Jon Stewart was abruptly cancelled ahead of its third season, reportedly following clashes over potential AI and China segments. That prompted US lawmakers to question Apple, seeking to know if the decision had anything to do with possible criticism of China.
While stating that Apple has the right to stream any content it wants, "the coercive tactics of a foreign power should not be directly or indirectly influencing these determinations," the bipartisan committee wrote. (Apple's response to this, if any, has yet to be released.)
Stewart didn't say that the AI and Khan interview issues were the reason his show was cancelled, but they do indicate that Apple asserted editorial influence over issues that directly involved it.
Elsewhere in the segment, Khan discussed the FTC's lawsuit against Amazon, stating that the FTC alleges the company is a monopoly maintained via illegal practices (exorbitant seller fees, shady ads). They also touched on the FTC's lawsuit against Facebook, tech company collusion via AI, corporate consolidation, exorbitant drug prices and more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jon-stewart-says-apple-asked-him-not-to-host-ftc-chair-lina-khan-090249490.html?src=rss
LinkedIn is testing a new feed of TikTok-like vertical videos. The feature hasn’t been publicly announced but it’s been spotted by users in recent days and the company confirmed the tests to TechCrunch.
According to a screenshot shared by Instagram employee Jenny Eishingdrelo and a video posted to LinkedIn by influencer marketing exec Austin Null, the new feed will appear in a separate “video” tab in the LinkedIn app. Users will be able to scroll vertically to move between clips, much like TikTok or Instagram Reels.
It’s not the first time the company has hopped on a trendy format. LinkedIn previously experimented with a Stories feature for disappearing posts. That feature lasted less than a year, though the professional network hinted at the time that it wasn’t done with its video experiments, saying it was working “to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn.”
Presumably, LinkedIn is hoping the feed will showcase content from its ranks of professional creators and thought leaders, many of whom are already posting video to their feeds. However, it’s not clear how many of the site’s users are interested in a dedicated video feed for workplace-related content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/linkedin-is-testing-a-tiktok-like-feed-for-vertical-video-233454044.html?src=rss
LinkedIn is testing a new feed of TikTok-like vertical videos. The feature hasn’t been publicly announced but it’s been spotted by users in recent days and the company confirmed the tests to TechCrunch.
According to a screenshot shared by Instagram employee Jenny Eishingdrelo and a video posted to LinkedIn by influencer marketing exec Austin Null, the new feed will appear in a separate “video” tab in the LinkedIn app. Users will be able to scroll vertically to move between clips, much like TikTok or Instagram Reels.
It’s not the first time the company has hopped on a trendy format. LinkedIn previously experimented with a Stories feature for disappearing posts. That feature lasted less than a year, though the professional network hinted at the time that it wasn’t done with its video experiments, saying it was working “to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn.”
Presumably, LinkedIn is hoping the feed will showcase content from its ranks of professional creators and thought leaders, many of whom are already posting video to their feeds. However, it’s not clear how many of the site’s users are interested in a dedicated video feed for workplace-related content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/linkedin-is-testing-a-tiktok-like-feed-for-vertical-video-233454044.html?src=rss
An oddball new app called Palmsy lets you post to a social media network full of adoring followers who only exist in your imagination. Whether used as a journaling app with a fresh twist or a nicotine patch equivalent for social media addiction, Palmsy prevents the real world from ever seeing your “posts,” storing them on-device, offline and private.
Palmsy’s App Store description says it “lets you make little posts for yourself.” And, at its core, that’s all you’re doing. As for why you’d want to do such a thing, people who have trouble with typical journaling or mind-mapping apps may find it a more inspiring framework. Or, if your social posting habit has gotten out of hand (or you want a break from it for any other reason), it could serve as a way to wean yourself off and give you the dopamine hit without sharing anything publicly.
One clever wrinkle from developer Pat Nakajima is that the app imports your contacts to generate fake likes from them. As pointed out by TechCrunch, Nakajima wrote on Threads that nothing leaves your device or is posted to your contacts, the app’s servers or anywhere else. “It’s just pretend,” he clarified.
If seeing fake likes from real contacts feels a bit too weird, a recent update added the ability to limit the number of faux likes your posts get. You can also set caps on how long you receive them, ranging from a few seconds to a few days.
The app is free and iOS-only, including iPhone and iPad variants.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/journaling-app-palmsy-offers-fake-likes-from-real-friends-194059136.html?src=rss
An oddball new app called Palmsy lets you post to a social media network full of adoring followers who only exist in your imagination. Whether used as a journaling app with a fresh twist or a nicotine patch equivalent for social media addiction, Palmsy prevents the real world from ever seeing your “posts,” storing them on-device, offline and private.
Palmsy’s App Store description says it “lets you make little posts for yourself.” And, at its core, that’s all you’re doing. As for why you’d want to do such a thing, people who have trouble with typical journaling or mind-mapping apps may find it a more inspiring framework. Or, if your social posting habit has gotten out of hand (or you want a break from it for any other reason), it could serve as a way to wean yourself off and give you the dopamine hit without sharing anything publicly.
One clever wrinkle from developer Pat Nakajima is that the app imports your contacts to generate fake likes from them. As pointed out by TechCrunch, Nakajima wrote on Threads that nothing leaves your device or is posted to your contacts, the app’s servers or anywhere else. “It’s just pretend,” he clarified.
If seeing fake likes from real contacts feels a bit too weird, a recent update added the ability to limit the number of faux likes your posts get. You can also set caps on how long you receive them, ranging from a few seconds to a few days.
The app is free and iOS-only, including iPhone and iPad variants.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/journaling-app-palmsy-offers-fake-likes-from-real-friends-194059136.html?src=rss
I had a favorite version of Mulan growing up (Anita Yuen in the 1998 Taiwanese TV series). I obsessed over Chinese period TV series like Legend of the Condor Heroes, My Fair Princess and The Book and the Sword. I consider myself fairly well-versed in Chinese historical figures, especially those represented in ‘90s and 2000s entertainment in Asia. So when I found out that a UK-based studio had made a VR game called The Pirate Queen based on a forgotten female leader who was prolific in the South China Sea, I was shocked. How had I never heard of her? How had the Asian film and TV industry never covered her?
I got to play a bit of the game this week, which was released on the Meta Quest store and Steam on March 7th. The titular character Cheng Shih is voiced by actor Lucy Liu, who also executive produced this version of the game with UK-based Singer Studios’ CEO and founder Eloise Singer. Liu and Singer sat with me for an interview discussing The Pirate Queen, Cheng Shih, VR’s strengths and the importance of cultural and historical accuracy in games and films.
Cheng Shih, which translates to “Madam Cheng” or “Mrs Cheng,” was born Shi Yang. After she married the pirate Cheng Yi (usually romanized as Zheng Yi), she became known as Cheng Yi Sao, which translates to “wife of Cheng Yi.” Together they led the Guangdong Pirate Confederation in the 1800s. Upon her husband’s death in 1807, she took over the reins and went on to become what South China Morning Postdescribed as “history’s greatest pirate.”
Singer Studios
How did Singer Studios learn about Cheng Shih and decide to build a game (and upcoming franchise including a film, podcast and graphic novels) around her? According to Singer, it was through word of mouth. “It was a friend of mine who first told me the story,” Singer said. “She said, ‘Did you know that the most famous pirate in history was a woman?’”
Cheng Shih had been loosely referenced in various films and games before this, like the character Mistress Ching in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Jing Lang in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. As Singer pointed out, Cheng Shih had also appeared in a recent episode of Doctor Who.
Singer said that her team started developing the project as a film at the end of 2018. But the pandemic disrupted their plans, causing Singer to adapt it into a game. A short version of The Pirate Queen later debuted at Raindance Film Festival, and shortly after, Meta came onboard and provided funding to complete development of the game. Liu was then approached when the full version was ready and about to make its appearance at Tribeca Film Festival 2023.
“The rest is history,” Liu said, “But not forgotten history.” She said Cheng Shih was never really recognized for being the most powerful pirate. “It seems so crazy that in the 19th century, this woman who started as a courtesan would then rise to power and then have this fleet of pirates that she commanded,” Liu added. She went on to talk about how Cheng Shih was ahead of the time and also represented “a bit of an underdog story.” For the full 15-minute interview, you can watch the video in this article or listen to this week’s episode of The Engadget Podcast and learn more about Liu and Singer’s thoughts on VR and technology over the last 20 years.
Capturing the historical and cultural details of Cheng Shih’s life was paramount to Liu and Singer. They said the team had to create women’s hands from scratch to be represented from the player’s perspective in VR, and a dialect coach was hired to help Liu nail the pronunciation for the Cantonese words that Cheng Shih speaks in the game. Though I’m not completely certain if Cheng Shih spoke Mandarin or Cantonese, the latter seems like the more accurate choice given it’s the lingua franca in the Guangdong region.
Singer Studios
All that added to the immersiveness of The Pirate Queen, in which players find themselves in an atmospheric maritime environment. The Meta Quest 3’s controllers served as my hands in the game, and I rowed boats, climbed rope ladders and picked up items with relative ease. Some of the mechanics, especially the idea of “teleportation” as moving around, were a little clunky, but after about five minutes I got used to how things worked. You’ll have to point the left controller and push the joystick when you’ve chosen a spot, and the scene changes around you. This probably minimizes the possibility of nausea, since you’re not standing still while watching your surroundings move. It’s also pretty typical of VR games, so those who have experience playing in headsets will likely be familiar with the movement.
You can still walk around and explore, of course. I scrutinized the corners of rooms, inspected the insides of cabinets and more, while hunting for keys that would unlock boxes containing clues. A lot of this is pretty standard for a puzzle or room escape game, which is what I used to play the most in my teens. But I was particularly taken by sequences like rowing a boat across the sea and climbing up a rope ladder, both of which caused me to break a mild sweat. Inside Cheng Shih’s cabin, I lit a joss stick and placed it in an incense holder — an action I repeated every week at my grandfather’s altar when I was growing up. It felt so realistic that I tried to wave the joss stick to put out the flame and could almost smell the smoke.
It’s these types of activities that make VR games great vehicles for education and empathy. “We didn’t want to have these combat elements that traditional VR games do have,” Singer said, adding that it was one of the challenges in creating The Pirate Queen.
“It’s nice to see and to learn and be part of that, as opposed to ‘Let’s turn to page 48,’” Liu said. “That’s not as exciting as doing something and being actively part of something.” When you play as a historical character in a game, and one that’s as immersive as a VR game, “you’re living that person’s life or that moment in time,” Liu added.
While The Pirate Queen is currently only available on Quest devices, Singer said there are plans to bring it to “as many headsets as we possibly can.” Singer Studios also said it is “extending The Pirate Queen franchise beyond VR into a graphic novel, film and television series.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-pirate-queen-interview-how-singer-studios-and-lucy-liu-brought-forgotten-history-to-life-160007029.html?src=rss
I had a favorite version of Mulan growing up (Anita Yuen in the 1998 Taiwanese TV series). I obsessed over Chinese period TV series like Legend of the Condor Heroes, My Fair Princess and The Book and the Sword. I consider myself fairly well-versed in Chinese historical figures, especially those represented in ‘90s and 2000s entertainment in Asia. So when I found out that a UK-based studio had made a VR game called The Pirate Queen based on a forgotten female leader who was prolific in the South China Sea, I was shocked. How had I never heard of her? How had the Asian film and TV industry never covered her?
I got to play a bit of the game this week, which was released on the Meta Quest store and Steam on March 7th. The titular character Cheng Shih is voiced by actor Lucy Liu, who also executive produced this version of the game with UK-based Singer Studios’ CEO and founder Eloise Singer. Liu and Singer sat with me for an interview discussing The Pirate Queen, Cheng Shih, VR’s strengths and the importance of cultural and historical accuracy in games and films.
Cheng Shih, which translates to “Madam Cheng” or “Mrs Cheng,” was born Shi Yang. After she married the pirate Cheng Yi (usually romanized as Zheng Yi), she became known as Cheng Yi Sao, which translates to “wife of Cheng Yi.” Together they led the Guangdong Pirate Confederation in the 1800s. Upon her husband’s death in 1807, she took over the reins and went on to become what South China Morning Postdescribed as “history’s greatest pirate.”
Singer Studios
How did Singer Studios learn about Cheng Shih and decide to build a game (and upcoming franchise including a film, podcast and graphic novels) around her? According to Singer, it was through word of mouth. “It was a friend of mine who first told me the story,” Singer said. “She said, ‘Did you know that the most famous pirate in history was a woman?’”
Cheng Shih had been loosely referenced in various films and games before this, like the character Mistress Ching in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Jing Lang in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. As Singer pointed out, Cheng Shih had also appeared in a recent episode of Doctor Who.
Singer said that her team started developing the project as a film at the end of 2018. But the pandemic disrupted their plans, causing Singer to adapt it into a game. A short version of The Pirate Queen later debuted at Raindance Film Festival, and shortly after, Meta came onboard and provided funding to complete development of the game. Liu was then approached when the full version was ready and about to make its appearance at Tribeca Film Festival 2023.
“The rest is history,” Liu said, “But not forgotten history.” She said Cheng Shih was never really recognized for being the most powerful pirate. “It seems so crazy that in the 19th century, this woman who started as a courtesan would then rise to power and then have this fleet of pirates that she commanded,” Liu added. She went on to talk about how Cheng Shih was ahead of the time and also represented “a bit of an underdog story.” For the full 15-minute interview, you can watch the video in this article or listen to this week’s episode of The Engadget Podcast and learn more about Liu and Singer’s thoughts on VR and technology over the last 20 years.
Capturing the historical and cultural details of Cheng Shih’s life was paramount to Liu and Singer. They said the team had to create women’s hands from scratch to be represented from the player’s perspective in VR, and a dialect coach was hired to help Liu nail the pronunciation for the Cantonese words that Cheng Shih speaks in the game. Though I’m not completely certain if Cheng Shih spoke Mandarin or Cantonese, the latter seems like the more accurate choice given it’s the lingua franca in the Guangdong region.
Singer Studios
All that added to the immersiveness of The Pirate Queen, in which players find themselves in an atmospheric maritime environment. The Meta Quest 3’s controllers served as my hands in the game, and I rowed boats, climbed rope ladders and picked up items with relative ease. Some of the mechanics, especially the idea of “teleportation” as moving around, were a little clunky, but after about five minutes I got used to how things worked. You’ll have to point the left controller and push the joystick when you’ve chosen a spot, and the scene changes around you. This probably minimizes the possibility of nausea, since you’re not standing still while watching your surroundings move. It’s also pretty typical of VR games, so those who have experience playing in headsets will likely be familiar with the movement.
You can still walk around and explore, of course. I scrutinized the corners of rooms, inspected the insides of cabinets and more, while hunting for keys that would unlock boxes containing clues. A lot of this is pretty standard for a puzzle or room escape game, which is what I used to play the most in my teens. But I was particularly taken by sequences like rowing a boat across the sea and climbing up a rope ladder, both of which caused me to break a mild sweat. Inside Cheng Shih’s cabin, I lit a joss stick and placed it in an incense holder — an action I repeated every week at my grandfather’s altar when I was growing up. It felt so realistic that I tried to wave the joss stick to put out the flame and could almost smell the smoke.
It’s these types of activities that make VR games great vehicles for education and empathy. “We didn’t want to have these combat elements that traditional VR games do have,” Singer said, adding that it was one of the challenges in creating The Pirate Queen.
“It’s nice to see and to learn and be part of that, as opposed to ‘Let’s turn to page 48,’” Liu said. “That’s not as exciting as doing something and being actively part of something.” When you play as a historical character in a game, and one that’s as immersive as a VR game, “you’re living that person’s life or that moment in time,” Liu added.
While The Pirate Queen is currently only available on Quest devices, Singer said there are plans to bring it to “as many headsets as we possibly can.” Singer Studios also said it is “extending The Pirate Queen franchise beyond VR into a graphic novel, film and television series.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-pirate-queen-interview-how-singer-studios-and-lucy-liu-brought-forgotten-history-to-life-160007029.html?src=rss
Ever since Tamagotchi Uni became globally available last summer, it’s felt like a product with a lot of unrealized potential.
Bear in mind, I say this as someone who loves this device and has run it daily since launch. But on top of all the basic activities one would expect at this point from the digital pet toy, the Wi-Fi capable Tamagotchi Uni promised users the “Tamaverse” — a virtual playground that would broaden the Tamagotchi experience like never before. So far, it hasn’t, really.
Sure, players could send their characters there to “meet” others, go on little vacations and buy outfits, but those small activities don’t really add much substance. The “travel” experience involved watching short animation, and occasionally getting a special food dish, item or achievement badge. Even the aspect of mingling was sorely limited, allowing players to send just one Heart (a “like” to acknowledge another player’s Tamagotchi) per day.
The Tamaverse has been slow to live up to the expectations Bandai set, despite it being the Uni’s biggest selling point. That seems to be changing in a big way.
With an update that rolled out on March 19 — version 1.6.0 — Bandai opened the Tama Portal, an area of the Tamaverse that’s been cordoned off all this time. A few days after, it dropped the first two DLC packs for Tamagotchi Uni in the form of “Tamaverse Tickets,” which allow users to travel to new locations through that portal. In a bonus, non-Tamaverse-related move, the update also answers players’ desperate pleas for more item storage by adding “My Box,” where surplus items can be stowed so you no longer need to delete older goodies to make room for new ones.
Bandai
The first two Tamaverse Tickets, as the DLCs are being called, are available now. One, which takes you to Very Berry Land, is free, while the other, for the LoveMelo Concert, costs $6. Each new area comes with a slew of additional characters you can raise (including some that are brand new for the franchise), an on-theme mini-game and a shop with new food, items, accessories and furniture you can buy with Gotchi Points.
This is the kind of depth the virtual space always seemed to imply. Now it feels like we’re finally seeing what the Tamaverse can really be. Hopefully, it’s just the start.
There will undoubtedly be some who balk at having to pay for DLC beyond the one freebie, and while I can’t say I’d blame them for that, it doesn’t bother me for what we’re getting. Purchasing a ticket gives you access to a download code that can be used three times. Once the code is registered to a device, you can visit that location as much as you want, and switch freely between the different locations you’ve downloaded. That means I was able to use the same codes to download Very Berry Land and LoveMelo Concert on both of my Tamagotchi Uni devices, and still have one use left for each ticket in case I ever have to do a reset.
As was the case with the Tamagotchi Smart’s DLC, the physical TamaSma cards, only one Tamaverse Ticket can be active at a time, so switching will wipe out any location-specific items or food in your inventory, but you won’t need to reenter the code in order to switch back. All of a person’s downloaded locations can be found in a new list called DL Area when you visit the Tama Portal.
Bandai
It’s not just one or two characters that come with each location, either — you get six. Some people buy whole new devices for that kind of expansion (definitely not me… haha…). And the free Very Berry Land brings back the fan-favorite adorable strawberry, Ichigotchi, which feels like a win for everyone.
The DLC also reintroduces the method of obtaining specific characters by feeding your fledgling Tamagotchis certain meals or playing with a particular item three times before they reach adulthood. I was excited to try and get the new character, Tanghulutchi, that comes with Very Berry Land, and fed my teen Tama an abundance of Fruit Candy snacks in hopes that it would make her appear. It worked! (I’m now also fiending for the real candied fruit treat of its namesake, Tanghulu. Thanks Bandai).
Once I’m strong enough to part with Memetchi on my other device, which is running LoveMelo Concert, I’ll probably try to get Drumcrubitchi, a new character that’s literally a drum kit with a face.
Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget
All of the things you can purchase in the Tama Portal locations are as of now much cheaper than the usual Tama Mall offerings, with furniture and accessories falling between 200 and 500 Gotchi Points. It’s really nice to have some new mini-games to freshen up the daily routine, since there aren’t many built into the device when it’s offline, and the ones they’ve added to the first Tamaverse locations are great.
In Very Berry Land, you can play Cake Factory, where you have to move your character around to place strawberries on top of cake slices as they come down the conveyor belt. It’s a game style we’ve seen before, but is slightly more exciting than other similar versions because the pace really picks up in the second half of the round.
LoveMelo Concert brings back the popular Guitar-Hero-style rhythm game format we saw (twice) in the Tama Arena’s Nyanoe Dance, but the new Happy Happy Harmony features a different song for you to try and keep up with. It’s actually pretty challenging, and is the type of game I’ll have to obsessively revisit until I’ve perfected it. Nyanoe Dance was clearly well received, and I’m sure a lot of fans will be happy that a version of it has found a permanent home in the Uni one way or another.
Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget
One of the best things about previous versions of the modern Tamagotchi, like the Tamagotchi On, was the joy of discovery when you unlocked a new location. The new Tama Portal destinations garner that same feeling, and I can only hope Bandai will keep it going even beyond the additional expansions it teased with update 1.6.0.
The announcement materials indicated that there are at least three more DL Areas on the way, including the Tamamori Fashion Show that’s set to drop at the end of May. That world introduces some more absolutely unhinged Tamagotchi character designs — like a pair of anthropomorphic work boots named, I kid you not, Bootsbrothers — and I truly cannot wait. The other areas haven’t yet been revealed.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tamagotchi-uni-finally-feels-complete-after-its-biggest-update-yet-140041168.html?src=rss