Tag Archives: region|US

I finally understand the hype around the Playdate game Root Bear

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Root Bear is one of those games that seems to get recommended all the time to new Playdate owners looking for somewhere to start. After months of encountering the title on the internet and vaguely wondering what could be so great about a game where all you do is pour root beer for bears, I finally decided to give it a go this weekend. And, yup, I totally get it now. Root Bear is ridiculously fun — emphasis on ridiculous.

Root Bear is a $3 Catalog game in which your goal is to achieve the perfect pour from the root beer tap while picky customers (all bears, of course) judge your work. You can also get it on itch.io. The game requires precise use of the crank to get the root beer flowing at just the right rate, and cut it off at just the right time so it doesn’t go above or fall short of the desired fill line. There’s foam to consider too, and how it settles can really mess you up if you aren’t careful. The closer you get to a perfect pour, the more money you’ll earn.

A still from the game Root Bear showing an extreme illustration of a bear screaming as root bear overflows a glass on the table
Alex Sussman/Cole O'Brien/Andrea Cabral/Beau QP

It’s exactly the kind of design to bring out a person’s competitive streak. But the best part about Root Bear is the bears themselves. Or, their reactions. The first time I royally messed up a customer’s order, the bear let loose a Howie Scream that I was in no way prepared for — with a facial expression to match — and I was completely floored. So yes, Root Bear is a really good, really silly time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/i-finally-understand-the-hype-around-the-playdate-game-root-bear-002037850.html?src=rss

OpenAI confirms it’s looking into text watermarking for ChatGPT that could expose cheating students

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Following a report from The Wall Street Journal that claims OpenAI has been sitting on a tool that can spot essays written by ChatGPT with a high degree of accuracy, the company has shared a bit of information about its research into text watermarking — and why it hasn’t released its detection method. According to The Wall Street Journal’s report, debate over whether the tool should be released has kept it from seeing the light of day, despite it being “ready.” In an update published on Sunday to a May blog post, spotted by TechCrunch, OpenAI said, “Our teams have developed a text watermarking method that we continue to consider as we research alternatives.”

The company said watermarking is one of multiple solutions, including classifiers and metadata, that it has looked into as part of “extensive research on the area of text provenance.” According to OpenAI, it “has been highly accurate” in some situations, but doesn’t perform as well when faced with certain forms of tampering, “like using translation systems, rewording with another generative model, or asking the model to insert a special character in between every word and then deleting that character.” And text watermarking could “disproportionately impact some groups,” OpenAI wrote. “For example, it could stigmatize use of AI as a useful writing tool for non-native English speakers.”

Per the blog post, OpenAI has been weighing these risks. The company also wrote that it has prioritized the release of authentication tools for audiovisual content. In a statement to TechCrunch, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company is taking a “deliberate approach” to text provenance because of “the complexities involved and its likely impact on the broader ecosystem beyond OpenAI.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-confirms-its-looking-into-text-watermarking-for-chatgpt-that-could-expose-cheating-students-223920531.html?src=rss

What we’re listening to: I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby, Stampede and more

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In this installment of What We're Listening To, Engadget's Weekend Editor Cheyenne MacDonald dives into the new releases she's been enjoying lately.

Francesca Wexler - I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby

Every once in a while, “the algorithm” actually does right by me. While scrolling through my Instagram feed sometime in the last month or so, a suggested Reel from artist Francesca Wexler popped up, and I couldn’t help but get pulled in by her captivating flow. Her style isn’t so easy to nail down to a single genre, but would fit under the alt hip-hop umbrella — she described her work in one instance as “psychedelic rap.”

Some songs on Wexler’s latest album, I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby, have almost an ethereal quality to them, like its opening and closing tracks, “Heaven on Earth” and “Moonwalking.” The upbeat and catchy “Ain’t I” hits like a sunny day. But there are darker, harder moments too in songs like “Amphetamine Man” that really show off Wexler’s depth as a rapper. With I Dreamt I Found a Red Ruby, it’s evident that Wexler is an artist that shouldn’t be slept on.

Orville Peck - Stampede

Orville Peck didn’t make us wait long for a full album after dropping Stampede: Volume 1 in May. On Friday, the country artist released the duets album in its entirety, and even though it hasn’t been a full three days yet since it came out, I can already tell it’s going to dominate my Most Listened playlists for the foreseeable future.

Stampede sees Peck collaborating with country legends and emerging artists alike, and genre-wise, there’s a little of everything in there. On top of the songs I shouted out from the first half, the rest of Stampede brings a bunch of new bangers, my favorites including “Back At Your Door” featuring Debbii Dawson, “Papa Was a Rodeo” featuring Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, and “You’re an Asshole, I Can’t Stand You (and I Want a Divorce)” featuring Margo Price.

I recently set out looking for music that sounds like it could be straight out of an ‘80s horror/thriller movie, and Reddit pointed me to Street Cleaner. Well let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Street Cleaner, whose style is described on Bandcamp as being a “theatrical and grimey take on synth music,” has become my go-to artist to pop on when I need to get some work done or otherwise be locked in. 

There isn’t a particular song or album I've latched onto — I just throw the entire discography on and let it get me in the zone. Street Cleaner released some new music in April, though, and that's as good a place as any to start your listening journey. The artist apparently also made a video game, which I fully plan on checking out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-were-listening-to-i-dreamt-i-found-a-red-ruby-stampede-and-more-205000229.html?src=rss

The Eternal Life of Goldman is a gorgeous platformer that looks like a hand-drawn cartoon

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There’s a new hand-drawn platformer coming to PC and consoles, and it looks absolutely breathtaking. The Eternal Life of Goldman, announced on Friday during THQ Nordic’s Digital Showcase, is an upcoming title from Weappy Studio that’s “inspired by ancient fables and depicted in classic frame-by-frame animation.” There’s no release date just yet, but when it does come out, it’ll be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Weappy describes The Eternal Life of Goldman as “a vibrant yet dark platformer adventure that weaves together legends, fairy tales and myths.” 

Its protagonist is an old man who uses his cane to fight off legendary creatures in a land known as the Archipelago. The trailer gives us a glimpse at some gameplay footage, revealing a sprawling and gorgeously animated fantasy world. The developers say it’s designed to be challenging but not grueling, and encourages exploration to uncover all the secrets of the Archipelago.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-eternal-life-of-goldman-is-a-gorgeous-platformer-that-looks-like-a-hand-drawn-cartoon-173751928.html?src=rss

A four-pack of Apple AirTags is back on sale for $76

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Apple’s AirTags are the best item trackers an iPhone user can get, and they’re going for cheap right now in a deal on Amazon. A four pack of AirTags — normally $100 — is 23 percent off, making it just $76. That’s only $1 more than the pack was selling for during Amazon Prime Day. AirTags tap into Apple’s Find My network, sending out a signal that can be picked up by nearby devices to guide you to your lost item.

AirTags work seamlessly with other devices in the Apple ecosystem and have a battery life of over a year. In addition to helping locate belongings you may have left somewhere outside the home, AirTags can also help you track down items you’ve misplaced in your immediate surroundings thanks to the Precision Finding feature in the Find My app. You can also ping the AirTag so it’ll play a sound that you can follow.

AirTags don’t have a loop or clip that would allow you to attach them to a keyring, so you’ll need to pick up a case if you want to do so. There are all sorts of accessories available for AirTags to secure them to your belongings, including keyring holders and cases designed to adhere to fabric so you can securely stick them in the lining of a jacket or purse. AirTags have an IP67 rating, meaning they’ll withstand dust and brief exposure to water, and the CR2032 battery is easily replaceable. The Find My app supports tracking up to 32 items.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-four-pack-of-apple-airtags-is-back-on-sale-for-76-150547693.html?src=rss

Apple has finally started sending out payments from its butterfly keyboard settlement

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Payments relating to a class action lawsuit filed in 2018 over Apple’s butterfly MacBook keyboards have reportedly begun to arrive. The settlement website now states that payments for approved claims will go out in August — and sure enough, 9to5Mac’s Michael Burkhardt reports that he received two settlement checks in the mail on Saturday. Just how much eligible MacBook owners will get varies depending on the extent of the repairs their devices needed. But for some, it could mean a check (or multiple) of up to $395.

After Apple introduced the butterfly keyboard in 2015, complaints arose over “sticky” and unresponsive keys, susceptibility to debris and other major issues. The company ultimately started phasing out the design in 2019. The lawsuit filed in 2018 accused Apple of knowing that its keyboards had problems and concealing this from consumers. While Apple denied the lawsuit’s allegations of defective keyboards and did not admit to any wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $50 million as part of a settlement.

Per the settlement website, people who got two or more topcase replacements within four years of purchasing one of the affected MacBooks are expected to get between $300-$395. MacBook owners who got just one topcase replacement could get up to $125. Claimants who only needed keycap replacements will get a maximum of $50. Of course, to receive a payment, you’d need to have filed any claims by the deadlines outlined in the settlement. And, when the settlement was first reached in 2022, Reuters reported that it will only apply to customers who bought the affected laptops in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Washington. You can find the full details in the case’s FAQ.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-has-finally-started-sending-out-payments-from-its-butterfly-keyboard-settlement-210754935.html?src=rss

What to read this weekend: Existential sci-fi, a repair manual for the climate crisis, EC Comics resurrected

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

The book cover for Toward Eternity by Anton Hur, showing surreal botanicals with a planet pictured in the background

Toward Eternity does not waste any time in getting to the drama. The novel by Anton Hur begins in the not-so-far-off future, and opens with a moment of crisis: a patient in a nanotherapy research clinic has seemingly vanished into thin air. This patient had been undergoing a new type of treatment that uses android cells (dubbed “nanites”) to cure cancer by replacing the body’s own cells. In doing so, however, it transforms the body entirely into a nanodroid, giving rise to “nano humans” that are no longer subjected to mortality.

The story jumps through time and different perspectives, exploring what it means “to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology.” From the second I started reading this one, I did not want to put it down.

The book cover for Into the Clear Blue sky which shows thick blue clouds above a red and purple landscape that appears to be on fire

It can be hard not to get swept up in the doom and gloom of climate change, especially amid reports marking Earth’s hottest years on record and still-rising emissions from fossil fuels. Stanford climate scientist Rob Jackson’s new book Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere aims to foster a more optimistic outlook by calling attention to the courses of action that could lead us to a better future for our planet and its inhabitants.

“I view my book as a home repair manual for the planet,” Jackson said in a recent interview published by the scientific journal ACS Central Science. “It highlights the people and the ideas needed to solve the climate crisis. I want most of all to give people hope, a sense of optimism. Yes, climate change is already bad, but we can still fix this problem.”

A cover for the first issue of the horror comic Epitaphs from the Abyss, showing a person hiding under a bed while creatures holding a chainsaw and an ax walk past

Legendary comic book publisher EC Comics, which brought us series like Tales from the Crypt and Weird Science more than 70 years ago, is making a comeback with its first new series in decades: Epitaphs from the Abyss. The first issue of the horror series was released at the end of July and features four tales — which are introduced by a ghoulish narrator dubbed The Grave-Digger.

Epitaphs from the Abyss #1 has stories by Brian Azzarello, J. Holtham, Stephanie Phillips and Chris Condon, with art by Lee Bermejo, Phil Hester, Peter Krause and Jorge Fornés. There’s something about those old EC Comics that just hits different, and Epitaphs faithfully slips back into that vibe to deliver spooky new stories that have a classic feel.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-to-read-books-existential-sci-fi-ai-technology-climate-crisis-solutions-ec-comics-horror-183058573.html?src=rss

Prison Architect 2 is delayed indefinitely

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Prison Architect 2, the sequel to the 2015 cult hit, isn't coming out this year as its creators had planned. The prison construction simulator's publisher, Paradox Interactive, has announced that its release has been delayed indefinitely. In its post, Paradox has admitted that its internal reviews and beta testing feedbacks surfaced the areas that need more attention, mainly the game's performance and content. "We need to raise the quality a bit more to meet the standards we'd like to achieve with this sequel," it wrote. 

This latest development comes after a series of delays. Prison Architect 2 was supposed to come out on March 26, but it was pushed back a couple of times so that its developers at Double Eleven and Kokku could resolve issues concerning memory usage and minimum spec configuration. This time, Paradox decided not to set a new release date. It says it will announce a new one once the Prison Architect 2 teams are done reworking the game's scope. 

Earlier this year, Paradox Interactive also had to deal with the overwhelmingly negative reception for Cities: Skylines 2's Beach Properties asset pack. Players weren't happy with the $10 DLC's contents, especially since they're still waiting for patches for the main game that was riddled with visual and mechanical bugs when it was released in 2023. Prison Architect 2's delay could prevent a repeat of what happened to Cities: Skylines.

Paradox explained that improving the game will take time, because it has "deep systems that all interact with each other." If one area is fixed, other parts of the game need to be fixed or adjusted, as well. For now, the publisher and the developers will refund all pre-orders. Those who purchased from Paradox directly will automatically be reimbursed, but those who purchased from the Xbox, PlayStation or Steam stores will have to go through those platforms to get their refund. Paradox will remove the option to pre-order the game entirely and will add the supposed pre-order bonus to the base game instead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prison-architect-2-is-delayed-indefinitely-160038125.html?src=rss

NVIDIA’s Blackwell AI chips have reportedly hit a snag and may arrive months late

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NVIDIA has discovered “design flaws” in its upcoming series of AI chips that may push their release back at least three months, The Information reports. The company has reportedly started notifying customers of the delay, including Microsoft. Large orders of the new Blackwell chips were initially slated to start shipping sometime this year, but sources told The Information that they’re now not expected until early 2025. In addition to Microsoft, the publication reports that Google, Meta and other major companies have placed bulk orders of the Blackwell chips that are collectively worth “tens of billions of dollars.”

NVIDIA announced the Blackwell series chips back in March, touting performance boosts of up to 30 times what’s achieved by its flagship H100, which serves as the backbone for some of today’s biggest AI systems. The company at the time also said the Blackwell chips could reduce “cost and energy consumption by up to 25x.” But according to The Information, citing sources involved with the Blackwell chip, “design problems arose unusually late in the production process.”

NVIDIA and its chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, are now doing test production runs to get to the bottom of the issues, according to The Information, which reports that the first big shipments may not go out until the first quarter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidias-blackwell-ai-chips-have-reportedly-hit-a-snag-and-may-arrive-months-late-163009474.html?src=rss

Meta is reportedly offering millions to use Hollywood voices in AI projects

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A future artificial intelligence product by Meta could have you chatting with celebrities. According to Bloomberg and The New York Times, the company is in talks with Awkwafina, Judi Dench and Keegan-Michael Key, among other celebrities from various Hollywood agencies for its AI projects. The company apparently intends to incorporate their voices into a conversational generative AI-slash-digital assistant called MetaAI, which is similar to Siri and Google Assistant. 

Meta plans to record their voices and to secure the right to use them for as many situations as possible across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and even the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Bloomberg says negotiations have started and stopped many times, because both sides can't seem to agree with the terms for use. For now, they seemed to have settled on a time limit, meaning any voice the company records can only be used over a set period. However, the deals with the actors could be renewed or extended by the time their contract is up. 

The actors' representatives are still looking to negotiate for stricter limits, though SAG-AFTRA has reportedly reached an agreement with Meta on terms. SAG-AFTRA, if you'll recall, fought for the establishment of provisions to protect actors from the threat of job loss due to AI when it went on strike last year. Under those terms, a company will have to pay actors and obtain their consent before it can use their AI-generated likeness. If Meta reaches a deal with the actors it's talking to, it could pay them millions of dollars in fees. 

Meta is looking to finalize deals before its Connect conference in September, The Times says, where it's expected to launch a bunch of AI products. During the same event last year, the company also introduced a chatbot platform with 28 "characters" voiced by celebrities, including Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Dwyane Wade and Kendall Jenner. The Information reports that Meta has just quietly scrapped that project, and the celebrity chatbots' pages on Facebook and Instagram are no longer available. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-reportedly-offering-millions-to-use-hollywood-voices-in-ai-projects-121019385.html?src=rss