Tag Archives: Media

Meta is bringing usernames to Facebook Groups

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Meta has long required Facebook users to post under their real names (with some exceptions), but at least for Facebook Groups, the company is now offering new options. Members of Facebook Groups will now be able to participate under a custom nickname and avatar, rather than being forced to use their real name or post anonymously.

You can set a custom nickname via the same toggle that lets you create an anonymous post, Meta says. Nicknames have to be enabled by a group's administrators, and in some cases individually approved, but once they are, you can switch between posting under your real name or a nickname freely. The only other limitation is that the nickname needs to comply with Meta's existing Community Standards and Terms of Service. While you set your new nickname, you can also pick from a selection of custom avatars, which seem to mostly be pictures of cute animals wearing sunglasses.

Groups are one of several areas of Facebook that Meta has continually tried to tweak in the last few years to bring back users. In 2024, the company introduced a tab that highlighted local events shared in Facebook groups. More recently, it added tools for admins to convert private groups into public ones to try and draw in new members. No single change can make Facebook the center of young people's lives in the way it was in the early 2000s, but letting people use what amounts to a username might encourage Facebook users to explore new groups and post more freely.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-bringing-usernames-to-facebook-groups-231405698.html?src=rss

Meta now lets you invite people for virtual hangouts in Hyperscape Capture spaces

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Meta is rolling out a way for people to interact together in its virtual spaces. Users will now be able to invite friends to hang out in the spaces created with Hyperscape on Meta Horizon. Up to eight people can join an instance, as long as they are age 18 or older and have the link to the space. The virtual spaces can be joined through a Meta Quest 3 or 3S as well as via the Meta Horizon mobile app, which is on both Android and iOS. People can scan their own homes to create a virtual hangout when they can't be in person together, or they can indulge their inner lookieloos and wander around some of the celebrity spaces, such as Gordon Ramsay's kitchen or Chance the Rapper's living room.

It's an application of Hyperscape Capture, which Meta showed off during its Connect conference earlier this year. That tech allows people to use a Meta Quest to scan real spaces and create digital replicas. The invite option is being gradually added to accounts, and Meta also said that it hopes to raise the party cap in the future for this metaverse feature.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-now-lets-you-invite-people-for-virtual-hangouts-in-hyperscape-capture-spaces-231152311.html?src=rss

Total Chaos, which started life as a Doom II mod, is now out for Xbox, PS5 and PC

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The survival horror game Total Chaos has been in development for years and it's finally available for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Incidentally, this a Game Pass release if you're hankering to spend $30 a month. The launch announcement was made during a recent Xbox Partner Showcase.

This is an interesting title for a number of reasons. First of all, it's absolutely dripping with style. The art direction seems plucked right out of the Alan Wake universe. It also seems to have something akin to an insanity mechanic, which reminds me of recent games like Dredge and not-so-recent games like Eternal Darkness. It's a survival horror title set in a creepy old fort, so that tracks.

The developer also made Turbo Overkill, which was a well-liked FPS with retro vibes. Total Chaos actually started its life as a Doom II mod, so releasing as a standalone title on gaming consoles is a legit flex. The soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka, who made the music for many of the Silent Hill games. It's likely to include some terrifying bangers.

The game is available on the Xbox Store, the Microsoft Store for PC, PlayStation and Steam. It costs $25, but there are some introductory sales right now. Again, it's also playable on Game Pass.

Update, November 20, 4:20PM ET: This story was updated after publishing to include information on the game’s launch on PS5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/total-chaos-which-started-life-as-a-doom-ii-mod-is-now-out-for-xbox-ps5-and-pc-194508861.html?src=rss

A Vampire Survivors roguelike deckbuilder spinoff is coming in 2026

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Poncle has been pretty darn busy lately. Along with greenlighting a licensed Warhammer take on Vampire Survivors, bringing a VR version of the original game to the world and working on crossover expansions, the studio is making a brand-new game. Vampire Crawlers is a Vampire Survivors spinoff. Rather than running around the map to collect gems to level up and unlock or upgrade auto-firing weapons, Vampire Crawlers has a different format. It’s a dungeon-crawling roguelike deckbuilder.

It’s set in the same world as Vampire Survivors and each of the playable characters is in the original game. You’ll put together decks of attacks and other abilities to help you on your journeys through dungeons. There’s a card customization feature too.

Development of Vampire Crawlers started soon after Vampire Survivors hit early access and blew up in 2021. Poncle founder and CEO Luca Galante told Xbox Wire that this is hopefully the first in a series of spinoffs in which “the idea is to take some of the core pillars behind the development of VS and to apply them to existing genres.” Galante hinted that a Vampire Survivors sequel is in the works too.

Vampire Crawlers is expected to arrive in 2026. It’ll be available on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS. The game will debut on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/a-vampire-survivors-roguelike-deckbuilder-spinoff-is-coming-in-2026-183841289.html?src=rss

New Chromebooks now come with a year of priority GeForce Now access

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The rise of cloud-based streaming for games has made it possible to play plenty of high-profile games on Chromebooks — not natively, but when you’re using a primarily web-based platform you’ll take what you can get. As of today, Google’s making it easier for new Chromebook buyers to play games right out of the box. Anyone who buys a Chromebook will get 12 months of access to GeForce Now, NVIDIA’s cloud-streaming service that lets you access games you own on platforms like Steam, Xbox and so forth.

It’s not just the standard GeForce Now access, either. Google says this new “Fast Pass” tier has no ads and lets Chromebook users skip the queues that free members have to wait in. Of course, there are some restrictions: this plan only provides 10 hours of gameplay a a month. Since GeForce Now already has a free tier, I presume that after the 10 hours is up you’ll just get dropped down to that experience, which removes priority queue access, has ads and limits you to one-hour sessions. You’re also capped at 1080p and 60 fps, but that should be fine for most Chromebooks.

This is the latest attempt by Google to inject some gaming life into the Chromebook platform. A few years ago, some of Google’s hardware partners released Chromebook models built with cloud-based gaming in mind, and Google also was working on bringing Steam to Chrome OS. Even though Steam worked pretty well, Google has reportedly decided to nix the project going forward. And I haven’t heard much about the Chromebooks for gaming initiative recently either — but that matters less if any Chromebook with decent specs can take advantage of services like GeForce Now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/new-chromebooks-now-come-with-a-year-of-priority-geforce-now-access-181708311.html?src=rss

Spotify now includes a built-in tool for importing your playlists from other services

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Spotify definitely wants you to only use Spotify for streaming music, but it’s willing to admit that you might have used another service in the past. Those people can now more easily import their playlists into the Spotify app, thanks to its latest integration with TuneMyMusic.

Available through Spotify mobile users and rolling out globally from today, you can access the new feature through Your Library in the Spotify app. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see an option to import your music by connecting to TuneMyMusic (it looks like it boots you into your browser at this stage) and choosing the service you want to transfer from. Apple Music already lets you do something similar directly from within your settings on an iPhone, iPad or Android device, or through the web.

TuneMyMusic supports transfers into Spotify from a wide range of streaming platforms, including Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and Tidal. You won’t lose your playlists in the source location. It’ll just copy them over so they appear in your Spotify library.

If you aren’t already aware, Spotify lets you customize playlists in a number of ways, from inviting friends to add their own songs, to designing the cover art yourself. So if you’ve been considering a jump from elsewhere, this new feature should make the transition a little easier.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/spotify-now-includes-a-built-in-tool-for-importing-your-playlists-from-other-services-175100343.html?src=rss

Spotify’s SongDNA feature will show you which songs are sampled on a track

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Spotify has unveiled an upcoming interactive feature called SongDNA designed to show you the samples, collaborators and covers included in a given track, the company announced. As part of that update, Spotify also revealed that it has acquired WhoSampled, the company behind the SongDNA technology.

"Through our recent discussions with Spotify, it became clear that we share a strong belief in the power of musical context — and a vision for helping listeners go deeper into the songs they love," the WhoSampled team wrote in a blog post. 

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Spotify is acquiring both the WhoSampled team and its database. WhoSampled's standalone platform and brand will continue to operate following the deal with improvements like faster moderation times, the elimination of display ads and free downloads and subscriptions for its mobile apps.

Spotify Premium users will see the SongDNA feature in the "Now Playing" view. It's described as a way to see connections between songs, "showing collaborators, samples and covers all in one place," Spotify wrote. 

In the song Kiss me More (feat. SZA), for example, SongDNA shows Carter Lang and two other composers, along with Doja Cat and SZA as the main artists. It reveals that a sample is used from Olivia Newton-John's Physical and that Kiss me More has been covered multiple times, most prominently in a Japanese version by the artist Rainych.   

Spotify is also working on a feature called "About the song," showing swipeable cards in the "Now Playing" view. Those will reveal information like the inspiration for a song, how the music was created and the cultural impact — all with links to the sources.

London-based WhoSampled tracks over 1.2 million songs and 622,000 samples in its database, along with covers, remixes and artists. Its mobile app offers a Shazam-style music recognition service that can tell you the song you're listening to and any samples it might contain. The two companies have partnered previously on a deal that allows WhoSampled users to access their Spotify playlists and tracks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotifys-songdna-feature-will-show-you-which-songs-are-sampled-on-a-track-130050490.html?src=rss

Letterboxd will start renting movies in December

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Letterboxd's foray into digital video rentals officially launches in December, the social film platform shared in a new blog post. Plans for a “Letterboxd Video Store” were first announced in March, but now Letterboxd has started to fill in some of the details of what kinds of movies its store will carry and where they'll be available to watch.

The collection of films available through the Letterboxd Video Store will be curated around a few categories, according to the company. Those include films featured at film festivals that currently don't have distribution, titles that continue to hang around in users' watchlists, film restorations and "limited-time drops of sneak peeks and unreleased gems." Letterboxd compared the process of narrowing down what films to try and offer like the "employee picks" shelf you might see at a local video store, only every Letterboxd user is an employee.

Films rented through Letterboxd will be available to watch on the web, iOS, Android, Apple TV and Android TV, and can be streamed to screens that support Chromecast and AirPlay. Letterboxd hasn't shared what its rental terms or prices will be, but did note that rental availability and cost will vary depending on your location. The company also warns that some films will only be available for a limited amount of time.

As an expansion on its core competencies of tracking what films you and your friends have watched and letting you review them, video rentals seem like a natural addition for Letterboxd. It's a bit like Amazon and Goodreads. Amazon acquired the book reviewing platform Goodreads in 2013, after establishing itself as a physical and digital bookseller. Letterboxd has defined itself as a trusted film reviewing platform, and now it's branching out into selling films. In the same way Goodreads can funnel readers back towards Amazon, Letterboxd can use movie fans to surface the best films to rent and keep them from heading somewhere else to watch them.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/letterboxd-will-start-renting-movies-in-december-214900026.html?src=rss

Warner signs AI music licensing deal with Udio

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Warner Music Group (WMG) settled a lawsuit with an AI company in exchange for a piece of the action. The label announced on Wednesday that it had resolved a 2024 lawsuit against AI music creation platform Udio. As part of the deal, Udio gets to license Warner's catalog for an upcoming music creation service. This follows a similar settlement between Universal Music Group and Udio, announced last month.

Udio's service will allow subscribers to create, listen to and discover AI-generated music trained on licensed work. You’ll be able to generate new songs, remixes and covers using favorite artists' voices or compositions. The boundaries between human creation and an algorithm's approximation of it are about to grow murkier. Not in terms of artistic quality, but it will be based on what proliferates online.

WMG is framing the deal as a win for artists, who will — if they choose to opt in — gain a new revenue stream. Ahead of the service’s launch, Udio will roll out "expanded protections and other measures designed to safeguard the rights of artists and songwriters."

So, the settlement does at least appear to reassert some control over artists’ work. What the normalization of robot-made music will do for society's collective tastes is another question.

A neon sign on a wall, reading, "You are what you listen to."
A neon sign on a wall, reading, "You are what you listen to."
Mohammad Metri / Unsplash

The settlement echoes a warning Spotify sounded to musicians and labels last month. "If the music industry doesn't lead in this moment, AI-powered innovation will happen elsewhere, without rights, consent or compensation," the company wrote. Spotify plans to launch "artist-first AI music products" in the future, a vague promise to be sure. However, given Udio's plans, it wouldn't be surprising to see the streaming service cooking up a similar licensed AI music-creation product.

"We're unwaveringly committed to the protection of the rights of our artists and songwriters, and Udio has taken meaningful steps to ensure that the music on its service will be authorized and licensed," Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl wrote in a press release. "This collaboration aligns with our broader efforts to responsibly unlock AI's potential - fueling new creative and commercial possibilities while continuing to deliver innovative experiences for fans."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/warner-signs-ai-music-licensing-deal-with-udio-213433325.html?src=rss

Stargate is coming back to TV, thanks to Prime Video

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Disney+ has Star Wars and Paramount+ has Star Trek, so it's about time Amazon gets its own sci-fi franchise with "star" in the title. Prime Video has just greenlit a TV revival of the iconic Stargate franchise, according to a report by Deadline. This will be the fourth major TV show in the series, following the first movie.

We don't know anything about the plot and where it fits into the decades-long mythology but we do know that the showrunner is Martin Gero. He's a veteran of the IP, having cut his teeth in the industry while working on Stargate: Atlantis back in the early 2000s. He also created the show Blindspot and was showrunner on the recent reboot of Quantum Leap, which was actually kind of nifty (RIP.)

Franchise creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are on board as executive producers, as are Brad Wright and Joe Mallozzi. That last duo were behind most of the Stargate TV projects, including the most recent live action show Stargate Universe.

This makes a lot of sense for Prime Video. Amazon did recently buy MGM, after all, and the Stargate IP came along with that purchase. It's not the first time the platform will have dabbled with science fiction. Prime Video most famously saved The Expanse after it was originally cancelled by SyFy. There are three more books in that series that have yet to be adapted. Just saying.

For the uninitiated, the Stargate franchise involves the titular Stargates. These are transportation devices created by ancient aliens that act as galaxy-spanning wormholes. It all started with a movie from 1994.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/stargate-is-coming-back-to-tv-thanks-to-prime-video-200049713.html?src=rss