Tag Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Spotify is launching a comment section for podcasts

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Spotify is bridging the gap between podcasters and their listeners by launching a comment section for podcasts, which will start showing up on episodes today. Listeners can find the service's new comment section by scrolling past the play controls or navigating to the episode page once they're done listening. At launch, all posts will be private by default, and creators will have full control over what comments will show up on their page. They have the power to publish and unpublish any response they want. If they have no time to do that, they can enable comments for specific episodes only or opt out of the feature altogether. 

The service is making it possible for all creators to oversee comments by giving them access to the updated Spotify for Podcasters app, whether or not they're hosted by the company. Creators that aren't hosted on the Spotify for Podcasters platform just have to claim their show through the app first. In addition to being able to control what responses get published on their page, creators will also receive notifications for new comments and for reaching show milestones. They'll get access to analytics and insights on their audience, as well. 

Spotify says listeners who engage with its interactive features, such as its Q&As and polls, are (on average) four times more likely to return to a show within 30 days. Those users also spend twice as many hours per month listening to podcasts than those who don't engage with Spotify's interactive features. The company intends to make its platform even more interactive and has more plans for fall this year. It also vows to continue improving its comments experience based on the feedback it gets from both podcasters and listeners. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-is-launching-a-comment-section-for-podcasts-130034091.html?src=rss

Blizzard shows off Overwatch 2 Transformers skins in animated trailer

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Blizzard and Hasbro have revealed the Transformers skins for Overwatch 2’s upcoming collaboration with the popular mecha toy franchise. The two companies released an animated trailer on the Overwatch YouTube channel today, showing off the skins based on three Autobots and a Decepticon.

The trailer shows that the Transformers skins are assigned to Reinhardt, Bastion, Illari and Ramratta — four characters that were already robots or humans wearing armor to begin with. Reinhardt will be cosplaying Optimus Prime, the fearless leader of the Autobots; Bastion will be Bumblebee; Illari will be pretty in pink as Arcee; and Ramratta will be the fearsome Decepticon leader, Megatron. Many Overwatch 2 players are anticipating how well the Transformers skins will fit with the game’s aim-and-click, collection, and respawn mechanics in actual gameplay.

The Transformers crossover comes on the heels of the game’s collaboration with Porsche back in May, which transformed (pun entirely intended) the newest models of the German company’s cars into souped-up skin for D.Va and Pharah. Earlier this year, players got to dress up Cassidy as Spike Siegel and Ashe as Faye Valentine during the Cowboy Bebop collaboration, among other characters from the classic anime. Last year, fans put Doomfist in a skin based on Saitama from another hit anime, One-Punch Man.

The Overwatch 2 x Transformers collaboration begins tomorrow. Blizzard didn’t put a price tag on the Transformers skins nor mention whether they’ll be obtained as free rewards via gameplay. For reference, the Cowboy Bebop and Porsche skins cost a pretty penny, so you may be expected to spend big on the Transformers skin you like the best. Regardless, this crossover may appeal to players who played with Transformers action figures and watched the animated series when they were kids.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/overwatch-2-shows-off-transformers-skins-in-animated-trailer-222358657.html?src=rss

Hackers reverse-engineer Ticketmaster’s barcode system to unlock resales on other platforms

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Scalpers have used a security researcher’s findings to reverse-engineer “nontransferable” digital tickets from Ticketmaster and AXS, allowing transfers outside their apps. The workaround was revealed in a lawsuit AXS filed in May against third-party brokers adopting the practice, according to 404 Media, which first reported the news.

The saga began in February when an anonymous security researcher, going by the pseudonym Conduition, published technical details about how Ticketmaster generates its electronic tickets. If you aren’t already familiar with how modern e-ticketing systems work, Ticketmaster and AXS lock ticket resales inside their platforms, preventing transfers on third-party services like SeatGeek and StubHub. (For higher-priority events, they often take it a step further by prohibiting transfers to other accounts on the same platform.)

Although the companies claim the practice is strictly a security measure, it also conveniently allows them to control how and when their tickets are resold. (Yay, capitalism?)

Side-by-side phone screenshots of the Ticketmaster app showing event barcodes.
Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster and AXS create their “nontransferable” tickets using rotating barcodes that change every few seconds, preventing working screenshots or printouts. On the back end, it uses similar underlying tech similar to two-factor authentication apps. In addition, the codes are only generated shortly before an event starts, limiting the window for sharing them outside the apps. Without interference from outside parties, the platforms get to lock ticket buyers into their own resale services, giving them vertical control of the entire ecosystem.

That’s where the hackers come in. Using Conduition’s published findings, they extracted the platforms’ secret tokens that generate new tickets, using an Android phone with its Chrome browser connected to Chrome DevTools on a desktop PC. Using the tokens, they create a parallel ticketing infrastructure that regenerates genuine barcodes on other platforms, allowing them to sell working tickets on platforms Ticketmaster and AXS don’t allow. Online reports claim the parallel tickets often work at the gates.

According to 404 Media, AXS’ lawsuit accuses the defendants of selling “counterfeit” tickets (even though they usually work) to “unsuspecting customers.” The court documents allegedly describe the parallel tickets as “created, in whole or in part by one or more of the Defendants illicitly accessing and then mimicking, emulating, or copying tickets from the AXS Platform.”

AXS’ lawsuit claims the company doesn’t know how the hackers are doing it. The promise of essentially jailbreaking Ticketmaster is so lucrative that several brokers have reportedly tried hiring Conduition to help them build their own parallel ticket-generating platforms. Services already operating on the researcher’s findings go by names like Secure.Tickets, Amosa App, Virtual Barcode Distribution and Verified-Ticket.com.

404 Media’s entire story is worth reading. More technically minded folks may take an interest in Conduition’s earlier findings, which illustrate what the ticketing behemoths are doing on their back ends to keep the entire ecosystems in their clutches.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hackers-reverse-engineer-ticketmasters-barcode-system-to-unlock-resales-on-other-platforms-194826061.html?src=rss

Agatha All Along finally comes to Disney+ on September 18

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Let’s start this news off with a catchy song: Who just got a release date for Disney+? It’s Agatha All Along! The WandaVision spinoff series starring the titular witch who pulled every evil string in the original show starts streaming on September 18.

Disney and Marvel announced the release date for Agatha All Along today and gave us a teaser trailer to go with it. 

The trailer shows Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) working as a detective when she finds the body of a Jane Doe by the river in Westview. She’s shocked to discover that the Jane Doe is none other than Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch, who went into hiding after casting a containment spell on Agatha, stripping her of her powers in the process at the end of WandaVision. Rio (Aubrey Plaza), the warrior witch of Agatha’s coven, convinces her to break the spell. Soon enough, she embarks on a quest to regain her bewitching powers — but not without help from some new members of her coven, should they choose to join.

Agatha All Along was first announced in November 2021 under the working title Agatha: House of Harkness. The show’s title underwent a few hilarious revisions, including Agatha: Coven of Chaos and Agatha: The Lying Witch and Her Great Wardrobe, before Marvel decided to cease the jokes and title it after the song “Agatha All Along.” Just like WandaVision, the show will run for nine episodes, with the first two episodes airing on Disney+ on release day.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/agatha-all-along-finally-comes-to-disney-on-september-18-184250997.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day early deals include five months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free

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Amazon Prime Day may not actually start until July 16, but early deals continue to roll in. Prime members can now scoop up five whole months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free. This is Amazon’s streaming music platform, like Spotify, Apple Music and the rest. So that’s five months of unlimited access to pretty much every song ever made.

Again, this deal is only for current Prime members. The service costs $10 per month once the free trial ends, which is more-or-less in line with rival streaming platforms. If you want the free trial without having to worry about getting charged, just set a reminder to cancel before those five months are up.

Amazon Music Unlimited didn’t make our list of the best music streaming services, but it’s still a mighty fine option. It narrowly missed the list due to a slightly less elegant interface than some rivals and aggressive podcast marketing. Otherwise, it’s a decent choice. It sounds good and the library is nearly-identical to other platforms. What else is there?

There’s one downside that applies to not just Amazon, but all music streamers. The payout to artists is absolute trash. Amazon Music Limited pays around $0.004 per stream, which is right in the middle of Spotify’s range of $0.003 to $0.005 per stream. However, Amazon does have direct licensing agreements with major labels, so someone like Taylor Swift likely negotiated a better deal than that. Emerging artists, as always, remain screwed.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-prime-day-early-deals-include-five-months-of-amazon-music-unlimited-for-free-165639788.html?src=rss

Apple’s ‘F1’ movie looks really good

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I’ve sneered at Apple’s F1 movie since it was announced, assuming it’ll be a cynical exercise in brand building. Given the close involvement of the sport’s governing body, its stars and teams, it has the vibes of a two-hour commercial. But the teaser trailer for the film has made me worried, because it actually looks like it could be quite good. Oh no.

F1 was co-produced by (F1 great) Lewis Hamilton himself, who pledged to make it the most realistic racing movie ever made. It centers on Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes, who is recruited from retirement to be a mentor to Damson Idris’ hot new prospect, Joshua Pierce. The last sequence in the teaser, all roaring engines and heavy breathing as the car warps around the track, is enough to make me think this has to be seen in IMAX.

There’s still time for it all to go wrong, and you can’t make a plucky underdog sports movie in this of all environments. After all, even the smallest team is a multi-multi-million dollar outfit with millionaire drivers behind the wheel of each car. And it’s not as if you can make a wacky design tweak to improve your car above the others given the yearslong homologation process.

But I have to hope that any movie that features (former Haas F1 team principal and living meme) Guenther Steiner in a reaction shot can’t be all bad.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-f1-movie-looks-really-good-120035709.html?src=rss

The Morning After: NASA’s year-long Mars simulation volunteers return to the real world

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NASA’s Mission 1 crew — all volunteers — have left their 1700-square-foot habitat at the Johnson Space Center. Since last June 25, they’ve conducted a fair few simulated Mars walks, grown vegetables and performed other tasks designed to support life and work in that environment. They also faced (a simulation of) the stressors actual space travelers to Mars could experience, like 22-minute communication delays with Earth.

After 378 days in a mock Mars habitat, the four volunteers for NASA’s yearlong simulation of a stay on the red planet are coming home. The crew — Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones – left the 3D-printed habitat in Houston on Saturday evening.

Do you feel like you’d like to live in fake space? There are plans for two more one-year missions. One has already closed applications, but the third is scheduled for 2026.

— Mat Smith

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Nike

Nike is discontinuing its self-lacing Adapt BB sneakers. First announced in 2019, the sneakers used a Back to the Future II style power-lacing system called FitAdapt, adjustable both manually and with an app. Now, the company will stop making Adapt shoes and is retiring the Nike Adapt App. When the app goes, the shoes will retain the last light color selected. Features still available without it include power on, check battery status, adjust your fit, save your fit, unlace shoes and, wait for it, power off.

Continue reading.

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YouTube has released an upgraded erase song tool to remove music from video segments without deleting other audio, such as conversations. When creators get a copyright claim for music, YouTube allows them to trim out the affected segment or replace the song with an approved one in its audio library. YouTube admits the tool might not always work. If a song is particularly hard to remove, it’s presumably due to audio quality or the presence of other sounds.

Continue reading.

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NASCAR

NASCAR unveiled its first prototype electric racer this weekend at the Chicago Street Race. It developed the $1.5 million electric crossover in partnership with ABB, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota to call attention to sustainability efforts of… NASCAR. Apparently, it’s making an effort.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-nasas-year-long-mars-simulation-volunteers-return-to-the-real-world-111544445.html?src=rss

Salad Fingers turned 20 this week and there’s a new episode out to commemorate it

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It pains me to say this, but it’s been 20 years since David Firth’s Salad Fingers made its debut and irrevocably altered the humor of the internet. The first episode of the web series hit Newgrounds on July 1, 2004. To mark this milestone birthday, Firth dropped a 20th anniversary special earlier this week that sees the titular Salad Fingers taking a walk down memory lane, bringing us all the way back to those early moments that seared the phrase “I like rusty spoons” into the collective consciousness of an entire generation of internet users.

Things won’t be exactly as you remember them, though. This is how it all went down according to Salad Fingers and, well, are we really expecting Salad Fingers to be a reliable narrator? The 7-minute video expands the lore a bit and revisits characters like the shrieking “young child” (who has some clarifications to make regarding their identity) and the disturbing finger puppet friends Hubert Cumberdale, Marjory Stewart-Baxter and Jeremy Fisher. If you’ve followed the series over the years and made it all the way to 2023’s “Harvest,” you’ll also recognize the absolutely horrifying Melvin Wishcake, who Salad Fingers refers to this time as “Manky Melvin, the stinky reject.”

I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for this deranged cartoon, as I’m sure many of you do, and this was a real treat. I might just have to dive back in and rewatch the whole series now, which is up to 13 episodes not counting this latest special. Thanks for the (cursed) memories, Salad Gregory Stuart Fingers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/salad-fingers-turned-20-this-week-and-theres-a-new-episode-out-to-commemorate-it-163230203.html?src=rss

Salad Fingers turned 20 this week and there’s a new episode out to commemorate it

Posted on by

It pains me to say this, but it’s been 20 years since David Firth’s Salad Fingers made its debut and irrevocably altered the humor of the internet. The first episode of the web series hit Newgrounds on July 1, 2004. To mark this milestone birthday, Firth dropped a 20th anniversary special earlier this week that sees the titular Salad Fingers taking a walk down memory lane, bringing us all the way back to those early moments that seared the phrase “I like rusty spoons” into the collective consciousness of an entire generation of internet users.

Things won’t be exactly as you remember them, though. This is how it all went down according to Salad Fingers and, well, are we really expecting Salad Fingers to be a reliable narrator? The 7-minute video expands the lore a bit and revisits characters like the shrieking “young child” (who has some clarifications to make regarding their identity) and the disturbing finger puppet friends Hubert Cumberdale, Marjory Stewart-Baxter and Jeremy Fisher. If you’ve followed the series over the years and made it all the way to 2023’s “Harvest,” you’ll also recognize the absolutely horrifying Melvin Wishcake, who Salad Fingers refers to this time as “Manky Melvin, the stinky reject.”

I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for this deranged cartoon, as I’m sure many of you do, and this was a real treat. I might just have to dive back in and rewatch the whole series now, which is up to 13 episodes not counting this latest special. Thanks for the (cursed) memories, Salad Gregory Stuart Fingers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/salad-fingers-turned-20-this-week-and-theres-a-new-episode-out-to-commemorate-it-163230203.html?src=rss

YouTube upgrades its ‘erase song’ tool to remove copyrighted music only

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YouTube is trying to make it easy for its creators to remove songs from their videos and resolve copyright claims. In a new Creator Insider video, the website has announced that it has released an upgraded "erase song" tool that has the capability to remove music from video segments without deleting other audio, such as conversations, as well. 

When creators get a copyright claim for music, YouTube gives them the option to trim out the affected segment or to replace the song with an approved one in its audio library. Creators can't monetize that particular video until they resolve the claim. The website has been testing its "erase song" tool for a while, but in the video, the company says it hasn't been as accurate as it would like. To solve that problem, it redesigned the tool so that it now uses an AI-powered algorithm to accurately detect and remove copyrighted music from videos. 

Still, YouTube admits that the tool might not always work. If a song is particularly hard to remove, presumably due to audio quality or the presence of other sounds while it's playing, creators may have to resort to other options. In addition to being able to trim out the offending segment or to replace its song, creators will also be able to mute that part of their video through the new erase tool. 

The website's upgraded erase song tool will be available in YouTube Studio in the coming weeks. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-upgrades-its-erase-song-tool-to-remove-copyrighted-music-only-140032261.html?src=rss