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Engadget

IBM's AI can predict how Parkinson's disease may progress in individuals

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 03:30 PM PDT

In the past, we've seen doctors use AI software to detect brain tumors, kidney illness and various cancers. Now, researchers from IBM and Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) say they've developed a program that can predict how the symptoms of a Parkinson's disease patient will progress in terms of both timing and severity. In The Lancet Digital Health journal, they claim the software could transform how doctors help patients manage their symptoms by allowing them to better predict how the disease will progress.

"Our aim is to use AI to help with patient management and clinical trial design. These goals are important because, despite Parkinson's prevalence, patients experience a unique variety of motor and non-motor symptoms," IBM said.

The breakthrough wouldn't have been possible without the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative, a study the Michael J. Fox Foundation sponsored. IBM describes the dataset, which includes information on more than 1,400 individuals, as the "largest and most robust volume of longitudinal Parkinson's patient data to date" and says it allowed its AI model to map out complex symptom and progression patterns.

It's estimated Parkinson's disease affects more than 6 million people globally, and there's currently no known cure for it. IBM Research and MJFF plan to continue work on the AI model. In the future, they hope to make it better at providing more granular characterizations of the various stages of the disease.

Amazon's Fire TV Cube works with Zoom, if you have a webcam

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 02:23 PM PDT

Starting today, you can use a second-generation Fire TV Cube to take part in two-way Zoom calls. For the best experience, Amazon recommends a webcam with a 60- to 90-degree field of view that can capture video at 1080p. The company also suggests mounting the device on the top of your TV set, and that you sit about six to 10 feet away. At the very least, you'll want a 720p camera that supports USB Video Class (UVC). You'll also need a Micro USB-to-USB adapter since the second-generation Fire TV Cube doesn't have a full-sized USB-A port. One thing to note is Amazon recommends against using a 4K-capable camera. Outside of those requirements, you'll need to download the latest Fire TV Cube update and the Zoom app from the Fire TV Appstore.

Once you have everything ready to go, you can tell Alexa to join a video call for you, at which point the voice assistant will ask you to provide a meeting ID and passcode. It's also possible to link your calendar to Alexa, which will allow you to more seamlessly join any Zoom meetings you have on your schedule.

Amazon isn't the first company to allow you to use your TV for video calls. Since last August, you've been able to stream Google Meet calls to Chromecast and other Cast-enabled devices. Over that same time frame, Amazon has offered two-way video calling between Fire TV Cube and camera-enabled Alexa devices. It might seem like a late offering, but with the return-to-office plans of most companies constantly shifting due to new developments in the pandemic, it's a feature that's likely to get plenty of use.

Behance adds Patreon-like subscriptions to support creators

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 01:35 PM PDT

In one of the most significant changes to come to the platform since it was acquired by Adobe in 2012, Behance is introducing Patreon-like subscriptions. Starting today with a small group of about two dozen artists, Adobe is allowing creators to offer access to premium projects, live streams and source files in exchange for a monthly fee. The company says creators can set their own subscription price, and it's up to them to decide what people get in return for their financial support. You'll see prompts to support creators throughout the platform, including when you watch live streams.

For Adobe, obviously this is another way for the company to monetize one of its products beyond its Creative Cloud subscriptions and standalone software offerings. However, just as important here is the fact the company is giving creators, many of whom depend on Behance to showcase their work, a way to make money.

Twitter Spaces updates makes it easier to share and discover live audio

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:50 PM PDT

Twitter's Spaces is getting another update that makes the audio feature easier to share and discover. Now, users will be able to compose a new tweet directly from the Space, which will link to the audio chat and any accompanying hashtags. While it was previously possible to compose new tweets while listening to a Space, having the composer directly in the space will allow participants to more easily tweet about the conversation as it's happening.

On iOS, Twitter is also adding new "guest management" controls, that allows hosts to more easily view who is in a Space and who has requested to speak. Finally, the company is adding a new search feature to the Spaces tab it started testing in June. Now, instead of just a curated list of active Spaces, users with access to the tab will also be able to search for Spaces by title or the name or handle of a host. (No update on when more people will have access to the Spaces section of the app, though.)

Twitter has been steadily updating Spaces since introducing the Clubhouse competitor late last year. The company has recently added support for a web version of the feature and has started experimenting with allowing hosts to sell tickets to the conversations.

‘Stanley Parable’ and ‘Gone Home’ devs team up to form Ivy Road studio

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:45 PM PDT

Along with showing off a bunch of upcoming games during its showcase on Thursday, Annapurna Interactive announced some developer partnerships. One of them is with a new studio called Ivy Road from powerhouse indie developers Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja.

Wreden is best known as the writer and designer of The Stanley Parable. Zimonja previously worked at Fullbright and is the co-creator of indie hits Gone Home and Tacoma. They're now combining their talents at Ivy Road, which is based in Vancouver.

The duo didn't reveal any details about the first game they're working on for AI. However, they did note that composer Daniel Rosenfeld (aka C418), of Minecraft fame, is part of the team, along with severalotherdevelopers.

‘Sound Shapes’ creator Jessica Mak is making a game with Annapurna Interactive

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:35 PM PDT

The last time Jessica Mak released a game was in 2012 when they worked with Sony's Santa Monica Studio to create Sound Shapes. The game went on to become one of the PlayStation Vita's standout gems, in part thanks to an unforgettable soundtrack that featured contributions from Shaw-Han Liem of I Am Robot and Proud fame, Indie Game: The Movie composer Jim Guthrie and Beck.

After nearly a decade since the release of Sound Shapes, Mak is working with Annapurna Interactive on a new project, the publisher announced on Thursday during its developer showcase. The game doesn't have an official name or release date yet, but Mak shared some details about the project. 

Like Everyday Shooter and Sound Shapes, music will play a central part in the experience, and part of the reason Mak took a break from making games was to become a better musician."The music, for me, is very much as important as the game part of it," Mak said. They went on to describe the game as an action-adventure experience that they hope will surprise players.

'Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye' is an expansion of a modern classic

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:34 PM PDT

How do you create DLC for a game whose very purpose is to offer a confined, looping world? Honestly, after watching the trailer for Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, I still have no idea. Outer Wilds was one of our favorite games of 2019, building an enthralling mystery into a non-linear exploration game that effectively restarts every 22 minutes.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, the game's first and final DLC, will build on the game with new narrative threads and locales. Not much is known beyond that, but based on the strength of the original, I'm down to play an expanded version. Hopefully, the expansion will persuade more people to try out this gem of a game, which, as Devindra Hardawar wrote in our "Favorite games of 2019" article, "demands patience and an adventurous spirit," but "promises adventure like nothing else." Echoes of the Eye will be available September 28th for PS4, Xbox One and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store for $14.99

Cat simulator 'Stray' heads to PlayStation and PC in early 2022

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:27 PM PDT

The last time we saw Stray was in the form of a cinematic trailer Sony shared in 2020 that highlighted the game's futuristic neon-soaked setting and adorable feline protagonist. At the time, we didn't get to see the game in action, a fact that Annapurna Interactive has now remedied. The publisher shared a slice of gameplay footage from the title during its recent showcase and said it would release Stray sometime in early 2022.

In the opening moments of Stray, our feline protagonist finds himself injured and separated from his family. Gameplay involves using his physical abilities as a cat to navigate the environment and solve puzzles. In the time-honored tradition of duos like Ratchet and Clank, partway through the adventure, you'll meet a drone named B-12. They will allow you to converse with the city's other robotic inhabitants and interact with certain objects in the environment. The cat has a playful side to his personality, and you can do things like scratch furniture, interact with vending machines and rub up against the legs of the robots you meet. Good stuff.

When Stray comes out next year, it will be available on PlayStation 4, PS5 and PC. Developer BlueTwelve Studio promised to show off more of the game before then.

'What Remains of Edith Finch' will hit iOS on August 16th

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:24 PM PDT

Annapurna Interactive is making lots of announcements today about its future, but the publisher hasn't forgotten its roots either. What Remains Of Edith Finch, the very first game AI released, is coming to iOS on August 16th.

The first-person mystery, which was developed by Giant Sparrow, debuted on PC and PS4 in April 2017. AI brought it to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch later. It's a well-reviewed game that encapsulates much of AI's ethos of releasing "personal, emotional and original" games. Perhaps the iOS release will help it find a whole new audience.

'Skin Deep' is a stinky sci-fi shooter from indie icon Brendon Chung

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:21 PM PDT

Brendon Chung knows what people expect out of a first-person shooter. Guns? Check. Strafing? Yep. Ammo drops in strategic yet predictable locations? You betcha.

A sneezing system? Uh, sure. Noxious green clouds that follow you when you're smelly, giving away your location? Um. Actually, yes.

Skin Deep is the latest project out of Chung's studio, Blendo Games, and it's his first-ever FPS title. He's known for developing clever first-person action and puzzle games including Gravity Bone, Thirty Flights of Loving and Quadrilateral Cowboy, and visually, Skin Deep fits perfectly into his repertoire. The only difference is the gun.

"I'd never done one where you just have a gun and you straight-up shoot people," Chung said. "I thought, you know what? This is something that I love. This is a game genre that has been so important to me for a long time... This is kind of my attempt at making a bunch of little things that I like in first-person shooter games, and putting them into a game that I think will be funny."

Skin Deep
Annapurna Interactive

Chung started coding back in elementary school, when he would spend hours between classes customizing levels in FPS classics Doom and Quake, and he continued modding as titles like Half-Life, Quake 2 and Doom 3 hit the scene. He got a job at a mainstream studio in Los Angeles, but continued working on his own projects and eventually went fully independent, picking up a handful of accolades in the process.

Despite a deep personal connection to the FPS genre, Chung hasn't released a shooter of his own — but that's going to change when Skin Deep hits Steam. The actual release date is still up in the air, a fact that may be concerning for anyone who remembers waiting for Quadrilateral Cowboy, a game that was "six months away" for well over three years. (On the Skin Deep FAQ page, one of the Qs reads, "Is Skin Deep going to take 4+ years of development time like your previous game Quadrilateral Cowboy?" and the accompanying answer is, "I hope not.")

Regardless of a release date, today publisher Annapurna Interactive showed off a new trailer for Skin Deep. A new, extra-smelly trailer.

Skin Deep is a non-linear espionage shooter set on a spaceship and played from the perspective of an armed, cryogenically frozen insurance agent whose job is to protect the vessel from invading space pirates. The game looks lighthearted yet sophisticated, in classic Blendo fashion; it involves shooting, sneaking and solving puzzles, and all of it is animated in Chung's signature cubist style. This ties back to FPS history, too — Skin Deep and most of Blendo Games' titles are built on a modified port of the Doom 3 engine, idTech4.

Skin Deep

"I've played like a bazillion FPS games because I just really enjoy them, but I feel like there's so much that can be explored and that I wish these games would explore," Chung said.

One of the many odd mechanics in Skin Deep is a sneezing function that appears in particularly dusty or peppery environments.

"If you're crawling through a dusty vent your little sneezy air level will increase, then you'll do a big sneeze noise," Chung said. "And there's a bag of pepper that we have. If you shoot it, a big cloud of pepper flies out. You can pick up a pepper bag and throw it at someone and they'll start sneezing."

And then there's the odor system, which leaves literal clouds of stink behind the player, alerting the space pirates and generally causing problems. There's logic to this system: The player becomes smelly only once they're expelled from the space ship's trash chute, fish bones and all, and then they climb back aboard. The smell clouds disappear once the player figures out how to wash up. All of this falls under a mission titled, Protocol 832: Being Smelly And What To Do About It.

Skin Deep
Annapurna Interactive

"I love it when games just do things that you don't expect," Chung said. "Like for me, one of the big games that was important for me back in the day was Far Cry 2, back in 2008. That game did so much cool stuff for the first-person genre that was not technologically advanced, but they just made design choices that were just interesting and funny. Like you had this map that you had to pull out but it didn't pause, and you had to look at a map while getting shot at with guns. And so I thought, there's so much space to do stuff like that. Why not make people smelly?"

All of Chung's games are part of the same cinematic universe, so to speak, and Skin Deep is closely tied to Flotilla, a space-based battleship game he published in 2010.

"They all kind of talk to each other, they all kind of share characters," Chung said. "We're still figuring out details, but right now the character that we're playing as in this game is the character from a game I made before called Flotilla. It's fun to make these little connections between the different games and have them all kind of share things between them."

There's no word on which of Chung's future projects will receive the smell clouds from Skin Deep.

'Solar Ash' brings surreal 3D platforming to PC, PS4 and PS5 on October 26th

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:17 PM PDT

As a kid, Alx Preston spent a significant amount of time as a member of the audience, watching his brother sing in choir and opera groups. One night, he found himself sitting in a pew at the heart of a large, elegant church, letting the sounds of yet another performance wash over him. He was tired. He also happened to be playing a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time at home.

"I kind of fell into a dream state," Preston said. "I was playing a lot of Ocarina of Time at the time, and so the vocals of that mixed with this kind of fantastical vision of going through a forest. I think for me that Ocarina of Time was one of those formative games that really allowed me to see what was possible within the medium."

Preston was the creative energy behind Hyper Light Drifter, a pixelated 2D title that helped define a generation of neon-coated indie hits in the mid-2010s, and he's the founder of LA-based studio Heart Machine. He and a growing team of developers have been working on their sophomore release, Solar Ash, since late 2016. It's a third-person, 3D game set in a dreamlike sci-fi space called the Ultravoid.

Solar Ash
Annapurna Interactive

To put it in terms of Zelda titles, Hyper Light Drifter is A Link to the Past, and Solar Ash is Ocarina of Time.

"[Ocarina of Time] was really the game that felt so much bigger and limitless in its scope and scale and adventures," Preston said. "It built a believable world that I could live in and it was 3D, and so of course I always had some idea I might jump into 3D."

Today, publisher Annapurna Interactive announced Solar Ash will hit PC and PlayStation platforms on October 26th, five years after Heart Machine began working on it.

"Hyper Light was a way for me to get started, it was a way for me to be more grounded and put together a crew and understand, can I do this? Can I actually make games?" Preston said. "And so having answered that question, then the natural next step for me was something in 3D. Can I put something out there that really opens up the world and makes you feel like you can truly escape into something, a creation that is otherworldly, that you otherwise wouldn't have the experience of? A lot of my childhood was spent escaping into those bigger experiences."

Hyper Light Drifter was a deliciously difficult 2D action RPG, and at first glance, Solar Ash looks like the third-person, 3D interpretation of that same game world. It's bright and ethereal, with an emphasis on massive enemies and rapid-fire mechanics. The protagonist, Rei, is a slender assassin on a journey to save her home from the Ultravoid, a supermassive black hole hungry for whole planets.

Even though it's 3D, Solar Ash looks so similar to Hyper Light Drifter that Preston has had to clarify whether it's a sequel a few times over. To be clear, it's not. But to be fair, Preston has personally contributed to the confusion.

Solar Ash
Annapurna Interactive

"I did ambiguously say it's in the same universe," Preston said. "Not like Marvel Cinematic Universe, but literally in a universe. So a million galaxies away, technically sure. It's still in a universe. So it's kind of a goof way of saying it. I would say that there are connected threads between the games, because I am who I am as a creator, as an artist... but it's its own game, it's its own identity in many ways. It's not trying to say 'I'm a sequel' or anything like that to Drifter."

Solar Ash is an action platformer with Heart Machine's DNA baked into its code. It doesn't attempt to do too much, and the team instead has focused on implementing a handful of core mechanics and making them feel as perfect as possible. Solar Ash is filled with radioactive environments and grotesque enemies, and it's all about fluidity and agility, surfing through the ruins of lost civilizations at the center of a black hole.

There are about 25 people on the Solar Ash team, including Hyper Light Drifter and It Follows composer Rich Vreeland, otherwise known as Disasterpeace. That's a bigger dev team than the original Hyper Light Drifter crew, but then again, Solar Ash is a bigger game.

Solar Ash

"For Drifter and for Solar Ash, there are similar threads of really focusing on the core elements that are impactful and getting as much mileage out of those as we possibly can," Preston said. "Because we have a small team making a big-ass project, and the team has been excellent in carrying through on everything that we could. Everyone's done incredible heavy lifting and worn a lot of different hats, as you have to do on this scale of team, for this scale of project."

As Heart Machine's second game, there's a lot riding on Solar Ash. Preston has established his brand as an innovative, thoughtful developer, and Solar Ash is his chance to defend it — not only in the court of public opinion, but in his own mind.

"Audience expectation absolutely factors into it, but for me I'm my own worst critic," Preston said. "Like any artist, like any creative person, you hate your own work until you don't and then you let it go. I mostly focused on, how do we feel we're succeeding internally? Rather than, what is the audience going to expect out of that? Or, what kind of score will you get on Metacritic?"

Of course, if Solar Ash ends up feeling like a trippy sci-fi extrapolation of Ocarina of Time, it should be a success on all fronts.

Jason Schwartzman plays a floating brain in musical adventure 'The Artful Escape'

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 12:05 PM PDT

The Artful Escape is an idealized vision of everything the music industry could be, straight out of the brain of Australian rockstar Johnny Galvatron. In five years of development (at least), The Artful Escape has transformed into a psychedelic adventure game with a living soundtrack of original folk and rock music, a cast of ridiculous characters, otherworldly environments, and a roster A-list voice actors, including Jason Schwartzman, Lena Headey, Michael Johnston, Carl Weathers and Mark Strong.

The Artful Escape is set to hit Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC on September 9th, priced at $20. It'll hit Game Pass at the same time, and it's being published by indie hit-maker Annapurna Interactive.

Galvatron is the frontman of The Galvatrons, a high-energy Australian rock group that toured the continent and opened for bands like Def Leppard and Cheap Trick in the late 2000s. However, for the past few years, Galvatron has been a game developer first and foremost. In the 2010s, he used YouTube videos to teach himself how to create a game in Unreal, building off the 3D animation and coding courses he took back in college, right before Warner Music signed him. He then founded a studio, rented some office space, secured a deal with Annapurna, and somewhere along the way, he ended up in a recording booth with Jason Schwartzman.

"We just hung out and spoke about David Bowie and Bob Dylan and video games and stuff," Galvatron said. "And it was just like, it was a moment for me. He came into the studio and he had like a cape and he had a dressing gown and like an umbrella and a little tiny Korg synth. He brought all these things and he put them all around him and he would like, do the line with the cape and then he would throw the cape around another way, and then he would hold the umbrella and do the line. I was just on my feet the whole time."

The Artful Escape
Annapurna Interactive

In The Artful Escape, the main character, Francis Vendetti, goes on a multidimensional journey to discover his true stage persona — which seems to be a David Bowie-esque shred machine — while at the same time reckoning with the legacy of his late uncle, a Bob Dylan-style folk icon. He travels through strange and trippy worlds, playing music and hunting for his true sound.

To give a sense of the game's oddball vibe, Schwartzman plays a giant brain perched atop a pile of discarded fish parts.

"He's a really funny comic support character," Galvatron said. "Like a very lofty British alien, like a brain floating in an aquarium on a flotilla of goldfish fins. It'll make sense when you see it."

For Galvatron, The Artful Escape is exactly that — an escape. His career as a mainstream rockstar was ultimately unfulfilling, filled with red tape, stagnant bureaucracy and awkward interactions. In between shows, he often found himself curled up in the corner of the tour bus, reading Dune or writing his own novel, watching the continent fly by. 

The Artful Escape

As a game developer, he's building the industry he actually wanted to be a part of, one line of code at a time.

"It's kind of what I dreamed the music industry would be, this world of magical doors and these great experiences, instead of like drinking Melbourne Bitter at an RSL in Wollongong, trying not to get beaten up because you look like you're in Poison," Galvatron said. He laughed and, without missing a beat, added, "Can you use that quote in its entirety?"

Sure thing, Galvatron — but only because that sounds like a solid premise for a sequel to The Artful Escape.

'Black Widow' star Scarlett Johansson sues Disney over streaming strategy

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 11:33 AM PDT

Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over the company's decision to release the movie in theaters and on Disney+ simultaneously. Johansson claims that the move constituted a breach of contract, as The Wall Street Journal reports.

In the suit, Johansson says Black Widow was supposed to be released exclusively in theaters, per her deal with Marvel. As is often the case for movie stars, a large portion of Johansson's salary was tied to its box office success.

To watch Black Widow on Disney+, viewers need to fork over $30 for a Premier Access pass. Disney initially estimated that the film generated $60 million in revenue on Disney+ from its opening weekend earlier this month, along with $80 million in domestic and $78 million international theatrical revenue.

The move may have impacted Black Widow's performance in theaters (though it's worth bearing in mind that many cinemas around the globe are still closed amid the pandemic). The total worldwide box office tally is currently $319 million. As Variety points out, that puts it on track to become one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies to date. Only one of the six other Marvel movies released since early 2018 has made less than $1 billion in theaters.

Johansson's representatives tried to re-negotiate her deal after news emerged about the new Black Widow release strategy, the suit says, but Disney and Marvel were allegedly unresponsive. Releasing Black Widow on Disney+ simultaneously could cost Johansson over $50 million, according to a WSJ source.

In 2019, before COVID-19 changed everything and with Disney+ on the horizon, Johansson and her team contacted Marvel for confirmation that Black Widow would still be a theatrical-only release. According to an email from March 2019 that's cited in the filing, Marvel's chief counsel Dave Galluzzi confirmed that. "We understand that should the plan change, we would need to discuss this with you and come to an understanding as the deal is based on a series of (very large) box office bonuses," the email states.

Movie theaters around the world were forced to close their doors following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Distributors scrambled to revamp their release strategies. Warner Bros. has adopted a hybrid format this year, with its movies coming to both theaters and HBO Max on the same day (aka day-and-date releases). It will return to theater-first releases next year.

However, that approach was criticized by prominent directors, including Christopher Nolan. Warner Bros. owner WarnerMedia reworked some deals and reportedly paid creative talent who were due a cut of box office revenue north of $200 million. NBCUniversal also released The Boss Baby: Family Business in theaters and on Peacock on the same day.

Disney adopted different tactics. Several of the movies it has released day-and-date (including Mulan, Raya and the Last Dragon and Cruella) were initially locked behind that $30 pass on Disney+. Artemis Fowl, and Pixar movies Soul and Luca skipped theaters entirely in many countries and went straight to Disney+ as part of the regular library.

'Marvel's Avengers' Black Panther expansion arrives August 17th

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 11:14 AM PDT

We knew it was coming, but the War for Wakanda expansion for Marvel's Avengers now has a street date. Square Enix will release the free DLC on August 17th, the publisher announced today. Billed as the largest content update to Marvel's Avengers since the game came out last September, fans can look forward to playing as Black Panther, with God of War actor Christopher Judge there to lend his voice to the character. 

Additionally, the expansion will add two new villains and a host of enemies for players to challenge, as well as a brand-new environment to explore. When you add the expansion, the game includes about 25 hours of single-player story content.

Crystal Dynamics will share more details about War for Wakanda during a Twitch stream the developer has planned for August 16th. In the meantime, if you've been on the fence about Marvel's Avengers, now is a good time to try the game. Until August 1st, you can download and play it for free on PlayStation 4, PS5, Stadia and PC via Steam. And if you decide you want to continue playing it past this weekend's trial period, it's currently 40 percent off.

Robinhood CEO's plan for the future sounds a lot like a bank

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 10:55 AM PDT

Newly public Robinhood has ambitions to be much more than just a stock-trading app, according to its CEO. In an interview with the AP, CEO Vlad Tenev said that, eventually, he wants to turn Robinhood into "the single money app" his users need.

Though Tenev didn't use the word "bank," his description certainly sounds more like a bank than the current iteration of Robinhood.

Over time, we want to be the single money app, the most trusted and most culturally relevant money app worldwide. So, everything that you use your money for, you should be able to do through Robinhood.

Anytime you receive a paycheck direct deposit, we'd like you to do that through Robinhood. Your emergency fund, your bill pay, your day-to-day spending, we'd like for customers to use us for that. And of course, all types of investing ranging from more discretionary investing to long-term retirement savings as well.

Tenev didn't elaborate on exactly how these plans could take shape. And though it's not necessarily surprising the company would want to expand the types of services it offers, the CEO's comments will likely raise more than a few eyebrows.

The app, which became popular for its simple interface and commission-free trading, has also drawn criticism for many of its practices. The SEC fined the company $65 million last year, for misleading users about how it executes trades. It was also hit with a class action lawsuit earlier this year after it restricted trading on GameStop and other "meme stocks." The company has also been accused of making the stock market feel too much like a casino, particularly for younger and less-savvy investors.

GarageBand can teach you how to remix songs from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 10:20 AM PDT

GarageBand creators have a bunch more tools at their disposal as of today, including sound packs from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga. You can learn how to remix Dua Lipa's "Break My Heart" and Lady Gaga's "Free Woman" in the app.

Along with videos of the artists telling the stories behind those songs, the Remix Sessions include step-by-step tutorials, which you can play picture-in-picture. An Apple Retail Creative Pro will give some pointers on how to remix the tunes using a GarageBand Live Loops version of each song. You can play around with isolated vocals, instrumental tracks and beats to create completely different versions of the hits.

Apple says these Remix Sessions build on the Today at Apple workshops that take place at its stores (and online over the past year or so). Big names like Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift have previously been featured at in-store Music Labs.

There are also seven new GarageBand producer packs created by Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch and Trakgirl. Each contains royalty-free loops, samples, instruments, drum kits and more that aim to encapsulate the feel of each producer's work. The packs also include videos from the producers, in which they provide words of encouragement and info about their creative process.

Oak Felder said he hopes his pack can help even the playing field and make it easier for newcomers to start producing music. "There is a possibility that you, picking around and making beats on your iPad, can actually turn it into a side hustle," he said.

There's another producer pack which acts as a companion piece to Apple TV+ docuseries Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson. You'll be able to play around with GarageBand versions of samples, drum machines, vocal effects and other elements featured in the show, which premieres on Friday. All of these free downloads are now available from the Sound Library.

Airbnb adds built-in speed test to help hosts include WiFi info in listings

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 10:10 AM PDT

While Airbnb has for a long time allowed hosts to list how fast the WiFi connection is at their rentals, it's not something you see detailed with every home, condo and apartment on the service. As the company continues to try to attract remote workers, it's introducing a speed test tool hosts can access within the Airbnb app.

The tool itself is fairly simple. Provided you've switched to a host account, you'll find it under the "Amenities" section of a listing, and it will only estimate your download speeds. When you complete a speed test, the app will share that information with Airbnb and M-Lab, the organization that provided Airbnb the open-source software the company used to build the tool.

According to a support document from the company, M-Lab will include your test results in a publicly available database it provides for internet researchers. More importantly, those who want to stay at your home or accommodation will see if your WiFi connection is suited to their needs. It should also help ensure listings have accurate estimates.

Airbnb considers anything above a consistent 7 Mbps as a "snappy" connection. "Guests can hang with family and friends on a video call or gather together to stream a rom-com," the company says on its website. Airbnb has started rolling out the WiFi tool to hosts in the US, with global availability to follow in the coming weeks.

Nikola founder Trevor Milton indicted on fraud charges

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 09:16 AM PDT

Trevor Milton, the founder and former executive chairman of electric vehicle company Nikola, has been charged with two counts of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud by a federal grand jury. Milton has been accused of lying about "nearly all aspects of the business" to boost Nikola's stock.

The indictment claims Milton made it seem Nikola was much further along than it actually was in terms of having fully functional EVs. It asserts he had a hand in creating a video that made it seem a Nikola One prototype was able to move by itself when it was actually rolling down a slope.

Milton falsely claimed the company had "billions and billions and billions and billions" of dollars worth of preorder reservations and that the company was producing its own hydrogen at four times less than market rates, according to the indictment. He's also accused of falsely claiming that Nikola had developed "game-changing" battery technology, that it was developing and making several key components for its EVs in-house and that "the total cost of ownership of Nikola's trucks was 20-30 percent below that of diesel vehicles."

Prosecutors claim Milton, who resigned in September in the face of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe, targeted and misled amateur investors (or "retail investors"). According to the indictment, some of those investors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

At Nikola's peak valuation, Milton held around $8.5 billion worth of stock, as CNBC notes. The grand jury argues that Milton should surrender property "traceable to the commission of said offenses." That could include the over $1 billion Milton made when the company went public in June 2020.

Milton pled not guilty to the charges in a Manhattan court on Thursday. He was released on a $100 million bail bond. A judge imposed travel restrictions on Milton, who has been banned from contacting investors.

The SEC also filed civil securities fraud charges against Milton on Thursday. The agency asked a district court to force Milton to forfeit "ill-gotten gains" and to pay a fine. It also called for a lifetime ban on Milton serving as an officer at a company that issues securities.

Update 7/29 3PM ET: Added details about Milton's court appearance.

'Hawkeye' debuts on Disney+ on November 24th

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 08:58 AM PDT

Hawkeye, the next live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe series, will debut on Disney+ on November 24th, with new episodes to follow every Wednesday thereafter. Disney shared the news in an interview Entertainment Weekly published with series star Jeremy Renner. The article also includes a first-look screencap (below) showing Renner opposite co-star Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Hawkeye's protégé Kate Bishop in the series.

Hawkeye screencap
Marvel Studios / Disney

With Hawkeye, Disney looks to continue the recent success it's had with Marvel content. In June, Loki had Disney+'s most-watched premiere, beating out an already impressive debut showing from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier earlier in the year. At the start of July, Black Widow brought in more than $60 million in revenue solely from people willing to pay $30 each to watch the film from the comfort of their homes.

Uber will offer free Rosetta Stone language courses to drivers

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 08:03 AM PDT

Uber wants to overcome the language barriers you'll sometimes encounter when hailing a ride. The Vergesays Uber has partnered with Rosetta Stone to offer free language lessons through its Driver app. Both Uber and Uber Eats drivers can use the feature to learn any of Rosetta Stone's 24 languages. They'll even get material tailored to common ridesharing scenarios.

Drivers will need to have reached Gold, Platinum or Diamond status through the Uber Pro program in a qualifying country (including large parts of the Americas, the UK, India and Spain).

The courses arrive alongside another career initiative. Drivers in some countries (including many of those from the Rosetta program) can request an achievements letter that will help them with job applications.

Uber wasn't shy about the official rationale for both moves. Many of its drivers are either immigrants (and less likely to be familiar with local languages) or see languages and rideshare work as key to expanding their opportunities. Uber is aware that driving for the company might just be a "temporary stop" on a career path — this gives workers a better chance to move upward.

There are practical incentives for Uber. The more languages its drivers speak, the more likely those drivers are to get favorable ratings and encourage repeat business. The career incentives could also encourage more drivers to sign up for Uber in the first place, even if they ultimately spend less time in the role.

Huawei’s P50 lineup is powered by HarmonyOS 2 but lacks 5G

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 07:45 AM PDT

Huawei has revealed the P50 and P50 Pro, its first flagship phones that use HarmonyOS 2 from the outset. The company started rolling out the operating system to its existing devices in early June.

The switch to HarmonyOS was made in part due to US sanctions that have hit Huawei. Along with slowing down manufacturing and hobbling the company's ability to source components with American technology, the restrictions led to Google shutting off Huawei from official Android updates. Huawei switched to an open-source version. It was also prevented from using Google apps and services on its most recent phones. There have been suggestions that HarmonyOS is actually a fork of open-source Android.

The sanctions also seem to have impacted Huawei's choice of processor in the latest handsets, too. The P50 and one of the P50 Pro variants boast Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 4G chipset with Adreno 660 graphics. Qualcomm received permission in November to sell some chips to Huawei. The other models use Huawei's own Kirin 9000 processor, but there's no mention of 5G support for any of the devices.

The P50 and P50 Pro, which are aimed at the Chinese market, boast 6.5-inch and 6.6-inch displays, with 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rates respectively. Both devices use the same hole-punch front-facing 13MP camera.

The P50 Pro's rear camera array includes 50MP color and 40MP mono True-Chroma lenses, a 13MP ultra-wide and a 64MP telephoto camera. The P50 has a 50MP True-Chroma camera, a 13MP ultra-wide and a 12MP telephoto lens. The devices are IP68-rated for their splash, water and dust resistance.

The phones both support 66W super-fast wired charging, and the P50 Pro offers 50W wireless charging. The P50 has a 4100mAh battery, while the P50 Pro has a 4360mAh capacity.

The P50 starts at 4,488 yuan (approximately $695) for a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It'll be available in September. The P50 Pro, meanwhile, will be available broadly on August 12th, starting at 5,988 yuan (about $927) for the same memory and storage capacity as the base P50. Huawei hasn't clarified if or when it'll sell the devices outside of China.

Apple's MacBook Air M1 is on sale for $850 right now at Amazon

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 06:56 AM PDT

Those looking for a new daily-driver should seriously consider the MacBook Air M1. Thanks to Apple's new processor, it's powerful enough to serve most people well and its new fanless design is a big improvement. The laptop normally starts at $1,000, but now you can get it for $850 on Amazon. That's a new all-time low and it's $50 cheaper than the price the laptop has been hovering at for the past few weeks.

Buy MacBook Air M1 (256GB) at Amazon - $850Buy MacBook Air M1 (512GB) at Amazon - $1,099

The base model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but you can also grab the 512GB model for less now, too — $1,099 to be exact, or $150 off its normal price. The extra-storage models ship relatively quickly, but you'll have to wait until the end of August to get the base laptop in your hands. If you're willing to wait, this is the best sale we've seen on the MacBook Air M1 in months.

We consider the MacBook Air M1 to be the best Apple laptop for most people right now. The performance boost that the M1 chipset provides is impressive — sites load almost instantly, scrolling feels effortless and native apps run like clockwork. There's no fan inside the Air M1, so you'll get a quieter experience overall — no annoying whirring when you're pushing the machine to its limits. And the Air M1 should last all day (about 16.5-hours in our testing) so you can use it for work and play.

The Air M1's design is quite familiar, but that's not a bad thing. It's that familiar thin-and-light clamshell with a lovely 13.3-inch Retina display, a big and accurate trackpad and a comfortable keyboard. Yes, you'll have to deal with a 720p webcam and just two USB-C ports, but those are small prices to pay for an otherwise stellar machine.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

YouTubers have been rickrolled over a billion times

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 06:52 AM PDT

One of the internet's best-known videos just marked an important (and arguably overdue) historic moment. KIRO7notes that Rick Astley's video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" crossed 1 billion YouTube views on July 28th, putting the original Rickroll in the same rare company as clips from the latest pop stars.

Not surprisingly, Astley approves. He told Twitter followers the figure was "mind-blowing" and that he was "very lucky." He wasn't originally thrilled with the concept when it first took off, but his daughter eventually won him over by noting that it kept him well-known long after the song peaked in 1988.

This has been a long time in coming. Rickrolling started in earnest in 2007, when 4chan users started pranking people looking for one video by playing Astley's, and it quickly blew up to the point where Astley was performing at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It's almost surprising this didn't happen sooner. Psy's "Gangnam Style" hit the billion-view mark in 2012, and it didn't have the benefit of a years-old meme.

Astley won't top the YouTube charts any time soon. Many videos are now in the billion-view club, and the leader ("Baby Shark," of course) has over 9 billion plays. It's still a rare feat, though, and it's how Astley got to 1 billion that helps him stand out — he's as much a part of internet culture as "Charlie Bit My Finger" and Nyan Cat, not just the artist du jour.

Samsung’s 500GB T7 portable drive drops to $70 at Amazon

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 06:35 AM PDT

Samsung's T-series of portable SSDs has been a favorite of ours for a while thanks to its compact design, speedy performance and general versatility. Not only are they good options for photographers and content creators who work with large files regularly, but they're also good for students who want a reliable drive that can serve them for the entirety of their time at school. Now you can get the latest Samsung T7 drive in 500GB for $30 less than usual as Amazon has it for only $70. Other capacities are on sale, too: the 1TB model is down to $150, while the 2TB version will set you back $300.

Buy Samsung T7 (500GB) at Amazon - $70Buy Samsung T7 (1TB) at Amazon - $150Buy Samsung T7 (2TB) at Amazon - $300

The T7 is the latest in this lineup, along with the T7 Touch, which is essentially the same drive but with a built-in fingerprint sensor for an extra layer of security. Both drives have sleek aluminum unibodies that are roughly the size of a credit card, and they're protected against drops and shocks. The T7 also uses ePCM technology and Dynamic Thermal Guard to control heat levels, so it should never get too hot even when you push it to the limit. As far as speed goes, the T7 supports reads speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and write speeds up to 1,000 MB/s.

The T7 may not have a fingerprint sensor, but it does have optional password protection — that way you can prevent unauthorized persons from accessing your documents. It has just one USB-C port on it, but it comes with both USB-C and USB-A cables, so you can use it with nearly any device you have, including some game consoles. Overall, it's a solid drive to grab if you're looking for a no-fuss portable storage option for photos, important files and more.

And if you're looking for other storage gadgets like thumb drives and microSD cards, Amazon has a daily deal today that knocks 24 percent off a bunch of PNY gadgets. You can get things like a 256GB PNY Pro Elite Class 10 SD card for $35, a 256GB Pro Elite USB flash drive for $39 and a three-pack of 64GB Elite-X Class 10 microSD cards for $21.

Shop PNY one-day-only sale

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

PlayStation 5 SSD upgrades are finally enabled for beta testers

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 06:07 AM PDT

As expected, Sony is gradually opening up access to the PS5's empty M.2 expansion slot. Starting today, a new system software update gives beta users in the US, Canada and parts of Europe the ability to boost local storage with select SSD drives. But, the process isn't as straightforward as previous reports suggested. 

We already knew the required read speeds would be 5,500MB/s or higher, which limits you to PCIe Gen4 SSDs. Of course, there are plenty of drives that can manage that: The Samsung 980 Pro, Western Digital SN850, Corsair Force MP600, Seagate Firecuda 530, Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus, to name a few. 

To make things more complicated, Sony says that you'll also need to take into account the PS5's cooling mechanism. That means you can either attach a heatsink to your SSD, either in a single- or double-sided format, or purchase a compatible SSD with the cooling structure built-in. But, even then, it needs to be the right-sized heatsink that matches the required dimensions. The total size including the cooling structure needs to be smaller than 110mm (L) x 25mm (W) x 11.25mm (H) or, in inches, smaller than 4.33in (L) x 0.984 in (W) x 0.442in (H).

Basically, you can forget just popping the cover and slotting in just any Gen 4 SSD. For instance, the Corsair Force MP600 has a heatsink which is too high to fit (though you can purchase it without one and use your own thermal solution). Whereas the WD Black SN850 heatsink should be fine.

Beyond the M.2 SSD support, the PS5 beta software also includes additional software and improvements. Among them is 3D audio support for built-in TV speakers that can boost sound by measuring the acoustics of a room using the DualSense controller. You can switch it on or off from the sound menu in the console's system settings. What's more there are a bunch of control customization options in the Control Centre. Here, the Game Base will also let you message friends and parties and see how many friends are online. 

While PS4 and PS5 games will also be labeled accordingly and appear separately in the home screen and game library. The update also packs a trophy tracker for quick access to up to five trophies per game via the Control Center, the option to pick between 720p and 1080p on PlayStation Now and the ability to enable automatic video clips in challenges for high scores. The software update is also rolling out in Japan, UK, Germany, and France.
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