Google is officially a monopoly, according to a US court. But what does that really mean? This week, Devindra and Senior Editor Karissa Bell dive into the landmark Google antitrust case to explore how it could affect the future of search. Google claims it's simply delivering the best product, but clearly the court thinks otherwise. Also, we chat about X/Twitter's desperate lawsuit against advertisers who boycotted the social network.
Stay tuned to the end of this episode for an interview with the creators of HBO Max's Industry, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay. We discuss season three of the series, which recently premiered, and how they plan to deconstruct the excesses of overhyped tech startups.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Topics
A U.S. court declared Google a monopoly, now what? – 1:22
X (formerly Twitter) sues advertisers for “illegal boycott” of their platform – 19:15
Meet Chromecast’s successor, the Google TV Streamer – 33:49
Less than a year after SAG strike, Meta is offering actors millions to use their voice in AI – 41:01
Where does all the Facebook AI slop come from? 404Media found out – 44:30
People are returning Humane’s AI Pin faster than they can sell them – 50:23
Working on – 53:43
Pop culture picks – 53:58
Industry interview with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay - 1:02:00
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Ben Ellman Guest: Karissa Bell Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/engadget-podcast-the-google-search-monopoly--industry-creator-interview-113028361.html?src=rss
Good news, oversharers: Instagram has doubled the number of photos and videos users can share in a carousel post. A representative for the social media network told Engadget that the limit has been increased from 10 to 20 pieces of media. This update will roll out to all Instagram users round the world beginning today.
For users of a certain age, this change may harken back to the late 2000s era of photo dumps on Facebook. Long before it became “Meta,” Facebook was the place to share vast numbers of photos. And since smartphones were only just arriving on the market, most of those photos were from digital cameras that would never fit in your pocket. Ah, memories!
The carousel post format first rolled out to all Instagram users back in 2017 but was restricted to 10 items until now. Instagram has explored additional carousel features since that original launch, such as the ability to delete a single photo from the batch and setting the posts to music.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/you-can-now-include-20-images-in-a-single-instagram-post-211516632.html?src=rss
We’re less than a day away from the premiere of the Borderlands movie based on the violent, treasure-hunting comedy adventure games from Gearbox Software. Unfortunately, the vast majority of its reviews are wishing it never went beyond its gaming phase.
Rotten Tomatoes rounded up 34 reviews of Eli Roth’s adaptation of the Borderlands games and so far, it’s earned a freshness rating of 3 percent. Only one of the included critics have given the movie a positive review.
So what are the rest of the critics actually saying about this movie? Well, their words are unkind and that’s being generous.
“...a quick internet search of images from Borderlands games yields better-rendered results.” - Bob Strauss, The San Francisco Chronicle
“...a horrendous waste of time, talent and pixels.” - David Fear, Rolling Stone
“...the definitive worst film of Roth’s career…” Alison Foreman, IndieWire
“...one of the worst big-budget movies I’ve seen in a while.” - Chris Bumbray, JoBlo
“...clunky direction...lifeless…cringeworthy attempts at witty quips…” Billie Melissa, Men’s Journal
So there you go. It’s settled. If you’re itching for a grown-up action comedy based on a satiric adventure franchise that mocks the very medium in which it exists, just go see Deadpool & Wolverine again.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/borderlands-single-digit-rotten-tomatoes-rating-can-make-you-taste-the-bloody-hatred-204522555.html?src=rss
A good portion of the upcoming season of Netflix’s hit animated drama Arcane has leaked online, a and according to reporting and folks on Reddit. A production assistant at Fortiche, the French animation studio behind the series, confirmed the news in a now-deleted post on X, which was captured and published by Mobile Syrup.
“We just got informed that episodes from Arcane season two have been leaked,” the post read. “I cannot express how sad we are. We worked very hard on the show. Please, try to avoid the spoilers as much as you can and do not share them. It feels devastating.”
This is especially noteworthy because Arcane doesn’t come back until November, which is three full months from now. There have been leaks for other shows, like Game of Thrones, but those have typically happened days before a premiere and not months.
The leak impacts multiple episodes of the forthcoming Arcane season, but it remains unclear as to the exact number. Some Redditors say it's nearly the first half of the season, but note that the episodes are unfinished. This is yet another reason to wait until November. Who wants to watch half-animated storyboards or whatever?
The leak doesn’t stop with Arcane. Reports indicate that other Netflix animated shows were also put online, including footage from Terminator Zero, Dandadan and Ranma ½. Wait, there’s a reboot of Ramna ½ coming? Cool!
As for Arcane, this second season will be its final batch of episodes. The spoilers are likely to be highly impactful and could involve plot elements that involve the end of the series, so browse at your own risk. For the uninitiated, the cartoon delves into the backstories behind some of the champions in Riot Games' League of Legends.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/arcane-second-season-has-leaked-online-so-watch-out-for-spoilers-173527865.html?src=rss
On more occasions in the last few weeks than I’d like to admit, I found myself doing jumping jacks in my kitchen an hour before going to bed.
That’s not when I’d usually prefer to do any exercise, but on those nights, I looked down at my watch only to see I was so close to hitting my Move Goal, yet still far enough away that shuffling around doing my nightly routines wouldn’t get the job done. And there’s no way I’d finish the day without making the elongated blue cat on my watch face vomit up a bunch of ice cream and turn rainbow-colored. Or, in other words, close my movement ring and watch it play a celebratory animation. I guess you could say the Fitbit Ace LTE has been a great motivator.
How the Fitbit Ace LTE works
The Fitbit Ace LTE is Google’s latest kid-focused activity tracker. It offers some smartwatch features, like location-tracking and the ability to call and text parent-approved contacts (who have downloaded the Fitbit Ace companion app). It looks a lot like the company’s adult fitness smartwatches from the Sense and Versa lines compared to the original Fitbit Ace, but more fun.
The digital clock face, for one, is trimmed with a faint ring that’s gradually overtaken by a cartoonish “Noodle” design as the wearer’s activity points rack up throughout the day. That includes the cat I mentioned, a dog, a tentacle, a robot arm and a deeply unsettling anthropomorphic hotdog that surely only kids in a certain pre-tween age range will get a kick out of. By swapping out the Ace LTE’s “Cartridge” band with one of the other styles (sold separately), you can add different Noodles and themes to the watch. There are built-in movement-based games as well, including quirky interpretations of a kart racer, golf and fishing.
Meet the eejie
Then there’s the eejie: a customizable humanoid creature that lives in the device, whose happiness is dependent on the completion of daily health goals.
Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald/Engadget
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that drawn to the eejie at first glance. When it comes to virtual companions, I’m typically more interested in weird little critters that in no way look human. But after designing my own eejie, I couldn’t help but get attached. It turns out there are a bunch of skin colors, eye shapes, hair types and mouths to choose from, so you can make your eejie as human or nonhuman as you want. Creating a character is always fun, and I could see kids getting really into crafting their virtual friends and switching up their outfits as they unlock more clothing and accessories. My eejie is a freaky-cute Nosferatu-like child with purple skin, sporting a huge pink bow.
The watch’s Daily Quests and Arcade are really the main stars, as they’re what actually entice you to move. Every day, there are four new quests to complete, which feels like a comfortable amount of tasks to be achievable without taking over a kid’s life. These include playing a game — the quests will always pick up from the last game you played — and hitting the daily Move Goal, which kids can set in the app. The other two items have less to do with activity. You might be instructed to visit Bit Valley, where the eejies live, and shown a brief tap-to-open fact to learn more about the watch’s health features. These more random tasks also sometimes included small mindfulness exercises, which is a thoughtful touch that I’m sure parents would appreciate.
Called Community Notes, these challenges asked me to do things like write down the sights and smells around me, or turn off the lights in a room that isn’t being used. The watch will sometimes show fun facts to complement your movement goals, like “walk 5,000 steps, the length of 33,333 hot dogs.” It’ll also deliver gentle reminders to complete your quests in the notification section. (Parents have the option to silence these and other notifications during designated “School time” so they don’t become a distraction).
Games on the Fitbit Ace LTE
Cheyenne MacDonald/Engadget
As I would imagine will also be the case for kids, completing my game quest for the day has been easy. The games are a lot of fun, more so than I was expecting. So far, the Fitbit Ace LTE offers six: Kaiju Golf, Pollo 13, Jelly Jam, Smokey Lake, Galaxy Rangers and Otal’s Secret. And Google said that new games will periodically be added to keep things fresh. Two more — Spirit Garden and a virtual pet game, Sproutlings — are already on the way.
Games require a bit of patience on startup, though, with slow loading times and a few too many dialogue boxes to tap through before you can actually play, especially the first time. Even I was antsy trying to get through this, so I can only imagine how a kid might be squirming. But once you’re in, it’s smooth sailing. There’s a good amount of variety in the small catalog, too, with options for both relaxed and more active play.
Pollo 13, in which you play as a chicken racing through space in an inflatable tub, had me out of my seat, moving around and shouting. On the other hand, Otal’s Secret had me solving puzzles, which I did from the comfort of my couch. At first, I was unsure how such seemingly involved games would work on the watch’s small screen, but everything was well-sized and laid out nicely.
You can only play for limited amounts of time before the game will stop and prompt you to get moving in order to proceed. Only after hitting certain activity milestones will the game be unlocked again. Most of the time, this meant I’d just play in short bursts and return later after I’d naturally racked up more move points over the course of the day. But there were a few moments where I had nothing better to do, so I’d set out to hit those goals right away, taking a brisk walk in the vicinity of my house or, again, launching into some jumping jacks (I’m not very creative).
Pollo 13 on the Fitbit Ace LTE.
Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald/Engadget
After months of using a Fitbit Charge 6 prior to this, I found that the Ace LTE was turning me into a much more active participant in my fitness. I exercise a fair amount in general, and my Charge 6 has basically become a way to passively keep track of my habits. But the visual rewards that came with achieving my goals on the Fitbit Ace LTE felt more like a gratifying pat on the back than the boring notifications on the standard trackers, so I worked to keep earning them. In addition to the silly Noodle animations, I’d be surprised here and there with the appearance of a bouncing pug piñata that I could tap to break open, revealing presents like arcade tickets to buy things for my eejie.
Fitbit also slyly uses a dash of guilt as a motivator by tying the eejie’s emotional state to the fulfillment of quests. After the first time I saw how dejected she looked when I accidentally neglected my goals for a few days, I never wanted to let her down again.
The Fitbit Ace LTE versus Tamagotchi and Digimon
All of these things make it a really great health-focused device for kids. Hell, if a software update could bring some of these features to Fitbit’s regular fitness trackers, I’d download it in a heartbeat. The Fitbit Ace LTE is essentially a fully realized version of something toymakers have dipped their toes into with wearable virtual pets like recent Tamagotchi and Digimon devices. It straps a little companion to your kid’s wrist in hopes that it’ll encourage them to get moving, and uses games to make it all go down easier.
Bandai’s Digimon Vital Bracelet — which was released in Japan in 2021 before coming to the US the following year with the Vital Hero model — took a direct approach to fitness, using metrics like daily steps and heart rate activity to influence the outcome of the monsters’ evolution paths. With a companion app, you can also participate in battles, and more monsters can be unlocked by buying and swapping in what are known as DIM cards.
The Tamagotchi Uni, the first version of which came out in 2021, expanded on the basic step-counters of earlier models to include a full-fledged walking activity. Rather than simply logging steps, initiating a Tama Walk will send your pet on a 20-minute stroll, during which it can pick up supplies that can later be used to craft special items. How fruitful these outings are depends on how much you moved in real life to fill up the red activity bar. Plus, going on Tama Walks is a good way to boost your pet’s happiness.
Photo by Cheyenne MacDonald/Engadget
As a sophisticated fitness device rather than a toy, Fitbit Ace LTE is able to go so much further. Its game Jelly Jam, for example, almost exactly mirrors a movement-based dancing game found on the Tamagotchi Uni and the Japan-exclusive Tamagotchi Smart. But while the Tamagotchi version is something I stopped playing pretty quickly after the novelty wore off — it’s boring and the toy’s sensors don’t correctly log the motions half the time — Fitbit Ace LTE’s spin on an arm-tracking dance game is pretty fun, if only because it actually works as it’s meant to.
Best of all, it could come with me anywhere. I swam with it, went horseback riding and even put it through a few dance classes. It’s lightweight and never felt cumbersome in any of those situations.
Still, a part of me wishes there were more ways to get involved with the eejie’s care beyond simply dressing it up and keeping it happy, like feeding or playing with it directly. Right now, it doesn’t have much depth and mostly feels like a mascot. I wouldn’t mind seeing future eejie options that include more animal-like creatures, either. My only real gripe with the watch is its battery life. It’ll need to be charged every night, which might be tricky for kids to remember. I woke up to find it dead several times after taking it off and forgetting to pop it on the charger. And it doesn’t track sleep.
Nonetheless, the watch is also a good peace-of-mind option for parents just as much as it is a solid wellness device. The call/messaging features are as basic as they come, but they work just fine for the intended purpose — giving parents and trusted individuals an easy way to get in touch with their kids, and vice versa.
Screenshot by Cheyenne MacDonald/Engadget
Calls with the watch sounded decent on both ends, and the location-sharing feature accurately reflected the device’s position when I checked it in the app. The Fitbit Ace app itself is easy to set up and navigate, with a simple interface that shouldn’t be hard to work with, even for someone who isn’t very tech savvy.
It’s not a full-featured smartwatch with an app library or even a way to communicate outside of the Fitbit Ace app, but its limitations are designed to keep risks to an absolute minimum. Given it’s made for kids starting at age 7, I think this is worth the trade-off. At $230 plus the $10/month Fitbit Ace Pass (which allows you to use the LTE connectivity without adding a new line to your existing phone plan), it is pricey. But it should be able to grow with a kid for at least a few years into the early double-digits without coming off as age-inappropriate. Pop off that bright green protective bumper, and it looks like any other smartwatch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/fitbit-ace-lte-review-a-kids-activity-tracker-that-was-fun-for-me-an-adult-140043586.html?src=rss
X has updated its Premium+ subscription tier so that paying users don't have to see any advertisement at all. The website formerly known as Twitter has announced that Premium+, which costs $16 a month in the US, is now fully ad-free. While one of the tier's original perks is having an ad-free For You and Following timelines, subscribers still saw advertisements on other parts of the social network.
As Social Media Today points out, the FAQ page for X's subscriptions used to say that the no-ads feature for Premium+ "does not apply to promoted content elsewhere on X, including but not limited to ads on profiles, ads in post replies, ads in Immersive Media Viewer, promoted events in Explore, promoted trends, and promoted accounts to follow."
Some users in that announcement thread on X have expressed concerns about the company's revenue-sharing scheme. People can earn on the social network by getting some of X's ad revenue, but they can only earn money for an add if a fellow verified user sees it. That is why X engineer Eric Farraro had to write a post answering a common complaint from creators that their payouts were lower than expected. "Revenue is only earned for ads shown to Verified users. This is one of many ways we mitigate attempts to manipulate the program," he tweeted. Since ads had been limited for Premium+ subscribers from the start, though, this might not have a big impact on the revenue amount X can share with its users. People paying for the basic tier, the cheapest option at $3 a month, will continue seeing ads like usual.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-makes-its-premium-subscription-tier-fully-ad-free-120017998.html?src=rss
Fortnite is reversing a long-held policy for its Battle Passes. Previously, developer Epic Games had treated Battle Pass items as limited-time rewards that would never show up in the in-game shop. Going forward, Epic Games may make Battle Pass rewards available in the shop, but not until at least 18 months after the pass expires. The company said that the updated policy will not have any impact on battle pass pricing.
"This change lets us continue investing in new and exciting Battle Pass rewards while enabling players down the road to also enjoy the content, including Outfits based on popular licensed characters," Epic Games said in a blog post published on Wednesday.
This policy covers every item type that might show up in a Fortnite Battle Pass. The shop may offer alt styles of a Battle Pass reward as well as the original. The 18-month wait time will also apply to any items from the game's Bonus Reward and Quest Reward tabs.
The chance to buy a cosmetic later on takes some of the exclusivity pressure off each season for players. Epic said there was no guarantee that a Battle Pass cosmetic would become available in the shop at a later date, so playing enough to obtain unlocks is still the most reliable way to get an item you really want. However, the studio said it would notify players if an item would be exclusively available via Battle Pass.
Battle passes are a common way for game developers to maintain revenue for games-as-a-service. The latest one for Fortnite has a post-apocalyptic theme, with tie-ins to the Mad Max and Fallout franchises. Or if cute and colorful is more your jam, check out the limited time integration with Fall Guys.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fortnite-battle-pass-rewards-may-appear-in-the-shop-under-new-epic-games-policy-220355795.html?src=rss
If you miss the colorfully profane world of Succession, a show where most characters would gladly sell their souls for power and money, then you should be watching HBO Max's Industry. While they share some similarities — both come from British creators and follow a cadre of anti-heroic characters into a world of hyperwealth — Industry is even more focused on the inhuman ambition that drives its characters.
While Succession follows a family that's already wealthy and striving to hold onto its relevance, Industry centers on a group of twenty-somethings who are (mostly) not rich and are all desperate to prove themselves at London's renowned investment bank Pierpoint & Co. Breaking with the rampant nepotism of the Roy family, their workplace could charitably be described as meritocratic — who you are doesn't matter as much as the money you bring in — but it's also an obscenely toxic world devoid of morality.
Our gateway to the world of Pierpoint is Harper Stern (Myha'la Herrold, Bodies Bodies Bodies), a genius trader with a dark secret (she never graduated college). As a young black American woman, she stands out from the sea of mostly white British men on the sales floor. Perhaps that's why her New Yorker boss, Eric Tao (Ken Leung, Lost), sees her as a potential protege. Harper works alongside Yasmin (Marisa Abel), the daughter of a wealthy publishing family; Gus, a gay black conservative trader; and Harry (Robert Spearing), the obligatory high achiever from a working-class background.
In season three, premiering on August 11, Game of Thrones' Kit Harrington joins the cast as Henry Muck, the wealthy CEO of Lumi, a beloved green tech energy startup on the verge of an IPO. (Not to be confused with actual companies like the design studio Lumi, the piano learning gadget Lumi, or the dead packaging firm Lumi.) But, like a cross between Theranos, Solyndra and the slew of failed Obama-era green tech startups, Lumi may not entirely live up to its eco-friendly hype. Some banks would have qualms about pushing a problematic company into the stock market, but not Pierpoint — its job is to make money on the IPO, not judge the long term viability of Lumi.
That sort of amoral viewpoint isn't anything new for Pierpoint or its minions on Industry. From the beginning, series creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay avoided turning the series into a lecture against the investment banking world. Instead, its characters all reflect the selfish philosophy initially laid down by Wall Street's Gordon Gekko: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
Photo by Simon Ridgway/HBO
While some characters voice their concerns about Lumi, Industry explores the more cynical (and arguably realistic) outcome: Just about everyone finds a way to profit from the company's potential failure — except, of course, for Lumi's customers and early investors.
"We wanted to write about an energy company that had real world stakes that felt like it was scratching the heels a bit of the sort of bigger monopolistic competitors," Down said in an interview on the Engadget Podcast. "And then also we wanted to write about the collapse of a company like that — a company which [has] really been founded to do something really good and what happens when that company goes kaput and leaves a lot of destruction in its wake."
Industry started out as a show focused on interpersonal relationships between a small group of colleagues, their hedonistic night lives and Pierpoint's erosion of their humanity, but now it's scope has expanded to include the wider global economy, Britain's role in propping up failed companies and rival trading outfits.
Photo by Simon Ridgway/HBO
"When we started off, we were very inexperienced writers," Kay said. "We deliberately wrote about a very sealed off hermetic experience, a very universal one, which is people starting in the workplace at a certain time. [now] The stakes are higher. It's more interested in how the training floor intersects with the wider world, politics, newspapers, media, class."
Beyond the inner-workings of finance and the soapy romantic lives of Industry's characters, the real draw of the show is "watching competent people be good at their jobs," as Down says. It doesn't matter if you don't understand all of the financial jargon the characters are spouting off in the first season. Like a cross between Margin Call and Michael Clayton, what makes Industry truly compelling is seeing smart people prove their brilliance repeatedly in a pressure cooker environment.
For a show that seemed like a Succession clone early on, Industry has evolved into something dramatically different. Wealth and success isn’t a given for anyone in the show — it’s something they have to earn with blood, sweat and moral compromise.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/industry-tackles-the-impact-of-overhyped-tech-in-its-ambitious-third-season-170032365.html?src=rss
Balatro, the terrific card game that pushes you to break most of the rules of poker to achieve ever-higher scores, is in line for its first major gameplay update. You'll have to wait until next year for that, but developer LocalThunk promises it will bring "new ideas and strategies to the game." What's more, it will be a free update "as a token of huge appreciation to the game’s brilliant and passionate community."
This is the first of three Balatro announcements/surprises LocalThunk and publisher Playstack are revealing this summer (one of them has to be a mobile version, right?) just after the game reached two million sales. Some players might be a little nervous about the developer tinkering with a stupendously well-balanced title — which is surely going to end up on many people's game of the year lists — but LocalThunk has probably earned most fans' trust at this point given how exquisitely designed and tuned Balatro is already.
We're announcing this today as we officially celebrate TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! pic.twitter.com/oziwEqyL3a
Meanwhile, LocalThunk this week doubled down on a promise never to let Balatro be used for gambling purposes. The developer says he's been approached by several parties over the last few months to license the intellectual property, "presumably to make Balatro-themed gambling games like slots or video poker." That's something LocalThunk has firmly opposed though, to the point the developer has made clear in his will that "the Balatro IP may never be sold or licensed to any gambling company/casino."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/balatro-is-getting-its-first-big-free-gameplay-update-in-2025-161938348.html?src=rss
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is coming to last-gen consoles on September 17, including the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game was originally released for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC back in 2023.
For the uninitiated, this is a sequel to the absolutely fantastic Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It’s a third-person adventure with a bit of Metroidvania flair that’s set in the Star Wars universe in between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It’s a very good video game, particularly for franchise fans.
Pre-orders are available now and early purchasers get some bonuses. These include in-game cosmetic items that will turn the protagonist into someone who resembles Obi Wan Kenobi and a new blaster set. As for the software, EA says it’s been fully optimized to run on those older consoles.
It’s worth noting, however, that the game has struggled to run on PCs. EA has issued several updates to address performance problems but some still linger. To that end, the company’s prepping a new PC update that’ll release “in the coming weeks.” This will bring “enhancements to the game’s technical performance, controls and more,” in addition to “a variety of quality-of-life improvements.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/star-wars-jedi-survivor-is-coming-to-ps4-and-xbox-one-on-september-17-181004549.html?src=rss