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Engadget

Apple Music's Siri-only plan seems on track to arrive with iOS 15.2

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 03:05 PM PST

Apple Music's recently announced Voice Plan will launch alongside iOS 15.2, according to the patch notes the company shared for the update's release candidate. The changelog was first spotted by MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci. When Apple first announced the more affordable tier at its fall Mac event in October, the company said it would become available "later this fall" in 17 countries, including the US, UK and Canada.

The plan will offer access to Apple Music's entire song catalog for $5 per month, provided you're willing to rely on Siri for control. You can play specific tracks and playlists, as well as complete albums on your Apple devices. What the tier doesn't offer is access to the Apple Music interface.

We've reached out to Apple to confirm it plans to launch the Voice Plan alongside iOS 15.2. The update will add a handful of other new features, including a toggle that allows iPhone 13 Pro owners to turn on and off the camera's included macro mode. Based on the timing of the release candidate, Apple is likely to push out iOS 15.2 soon.

Razer built a MagSafe cooling fan for iPhone gamers

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 02:45 PM PST

Do you play enough mobile games that your phone gets hot to the touch? Probably not, but Razer has you covered regardless. According to iMore, Razer has released a $60 Phone Cooler Chroma that promises to keep your handset cool. There's a version with a clamp for Android phones and older iPhones, but the star of the show is the MagSafe model — you won't completely sully the design of your iPhone 12 or 13.

This being a Razer accessory, you can expect the seemingly obligatory RGB lighting (controlled through Bluetooth) as well as a high-powered seven-blade fan that remains quiet at about 30dB. Be prepared to stay near power outlets, though, as you'll need to plug in a USB-C charger whether or not you're using MagSafe.

The Phone Cooler Chroma is available now. The question, of course, is whether or not you'll benefit from it in the first place. Modern phones do get warm and can throttle performance under sustained heavy loads, but it's not clear how much cooler your phone will get when the fan sits outside of your handset. There's also the simple matter of necessity. Do you really want a wired fan just for a performance bump in Genshin Impact or PUBG Mobile? This might not be completely far-fetched, though — gaming phones with elaborate cooling have an audience in countries like China, and Razer's fan makes that overkill available to a wider audience.

Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is going to the ISS ahead of his trip around the Moon

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 02:30 PM PST

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is set to go on a test run for his future trip around the Moon. He's set to spend 12 days on the International Space Station alongside his assistant, Yozo Hirano, who will document the trip.

Along with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, the pair will travel to the ISS on a Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft operated by Russia's space agency, Roscosmos. The launch is scheduled for 2:38AM ET on December 8th.

Maezawa has been training for the trip for 100 days. His stay on the ISS is another indication that civilian trips to the space station are becoming more commonplace. According to Agence France-Presse, he and his assistant will be the first space tourists to visit the ISS in more than a decade, though Roscosmos took a film director and actor there in October to shoot a feature film in space for the first time.

The billionaire announced in March that he was looking for eight other people to join him on his week-long lunar trip, which is tentatively set for 2023. All going well, he and his crewmates will become SpaceX's first lunar tourists. Mazewa, who bought out all of the seats on the flight, has become well-known for giveaways. In early 2019, he promised to give away over $900,000 to people who retweeted him. That led to him shattering Twitter's retweet record via his excellent handle, @yousuck2020.

Twitter tests optional one-time content warnings for sensitive posts

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 02:15 PM PST

Twitter is testing a feature that allows people to append one-time content warnings to images and videos they share through the platform. The company announced the test on Tuesday, noting it's available to "some of you." If you have access to the feature, you'll see a new flag icon in the image editing interface, which you can access by tapping on the three dots icon that appears at the bottom right of a photo when you add one to a tweet. In its current iteration, you can add warnings for nudity, violence and otherwise sensitive content.

"The tweet author flagged this tweet as showing sensitive content," says the warning Twitter appends to an image when you tell the app you're sharing something sensitive. We've reached out to Twitter to see if the company will share more information about the feature. The test comes one week after the company banned the sharing of private images and videos without consent. This latest feature should help Twitter users protect their followers from accidentally exposing themselves to content that might be upsetting or otherwise difficult to watch.

Scuf's first PS5 controllers include one built for first-person shooters

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 01:30 PM PST

Scuf Gaming is finally diving into PS5 controllers, and its first offerings might be noteworthy if you thrive on titles like Call of Duty. The Corsair brand has launched its first PS5 gamepad line, Reflex, with a variant specifically tuned for first-person shooters. The appropriately named Reflex FPS adds instant bumpers and triggers, includes grippier surfaces and even ditches haptic feedback — in theory, you'll a lighter control that won't disrupt your aim.

The FPS, the regular Reflex and the Reflex Pro all have four remappable paddles, a profile switch, removable faceplates and interchangeable thumbsticks. The Pro adds the improved grip of the FPS while preserving the adaptive triggers you might need for some PS5 titles.

Scuf's pricing shows these controllers are meant for enthusiasts and competitive players. The base Reflex is available now for $200, while the Reflex Pro and Reflex FPS respectively sell for $230 and $260. That's difficult to rationalize if you just want an alternative to the official DualSense pad, but might be justifiable if you're determined to emerge triumphant in a battle royale.

Report finds Instagram makes it easy for teens to find drugs online

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 01:17 PM PST

Instagram makes it trivial for teens as young as 13 to find and buy drugs like MDMA and Xanax, according to a newly published report from the Tech Transparency Project. The organization recently conducted an investigation where it created a series of fake accounts to test the safeguards Instagram has in place to protect young people from potentially deadly pharmaceuticals.

While hashtags like #mdma are banned on the platform, TTP found it was easy to skirt those restrictions with an account tied to a minor. Using MDMA as an example, the organization found it could employ terms like "mdmamolly" to find people who were selling the substance. In fact, the app's search algorithm made it easy to find those hashtags, with its autocomplete feature pointing researchers in the right direction.

To make matters worse, once someone follows even just one account belonging to an alleged drug dealer, Instagram's recommendation algorithm will suggest the user follow similar profiles. Despite Instagram's Community Guidelines prohibiting "buying or selling non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs," TTP found many drug dealers operate openly on the platform.

Separately, TTP says Instagram did not take decisive action against the content it found on the platform. The organization claims it submitted 50 posts to the company for review. Of those, Instagram said 36 (or 72 percent) did not violate its Community Guidelines, despite what TTP says were "clear signs" of drug dealing activity. At the time of publishing, the company had only banned one account flagged by TTP. However, when the organization went to check on that profile, it was still up on Instagram along with all of its violating content.

"We prohibit drug sales on Instagram. We removed 1.8 million pieces of content related to drug sales in the last quarter alone, and due to our improving detection technology, the prevalence of such content is about 0.05 percent of content viewed, or about 5 views per every 10,000," Stephanie Otway, a spokesperson for Meta, told Engadget. "We'll continue to improve in this area in our ongoing efforts to keep Instagram safe, particularly for our youngest community members."

The report comes just one day before Adam Mosseri is slated to testify to the Senate about Instagram's impact on young users. The platform has faced increasing scrutiny in recent weeks following testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. According to Haugen, Meta, then Facebook, knew from its own internal research Instagram was harmful to many teens and yet the company disregarded those warnings. TTP's findings are likely to inform some of the questions the consumer protection subcommittee asks Mosseri on Wednesday.

Kenya will start regulating lending apps

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 01:17 PM PST

Lending apps have shaken up Kenya's financial landscape, but they've largely gone unregulated — until now. TechCrunchreports President Kenyatta has signed an amended law that gives the country's Central Bank the power to license and regulate digital lenders. Companies have six months to apply for a license.

Lenders will also have to honor existing consumer and data protection laws. Firms will have to maintain the confidentiality of customer info. They'll need to disclose pricing, the consequences of defaulting on loans, and outline debt recovery.

Mobile lending has thrived in Kenya and other countries where many residents don't have bank accounts and can't take advantage of conventional financing. However, some services have been accused of abusing their audiences with predatory interest rates. While the updated law isn't guaranteed to end shady practices, it might discourage those lenders and improve trust for would-be customers.

Google temporarily disrupts a botnet that infected 1 million PCs

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:23 PM PST

On Tuesday, Google disclosed it recently disrupted a massive network of computers infected by Glupteba. The company estimates the malware has infected approximately one million Windows PCs globally, which would make it one of the largest known botnets to date.

A botnet is a network of computers or internet-connected devices all infected by malware that is under the control of a single party. In this case, Google traced Glupteba to at least two individuals based out of Russia. The company is suing them in hopes it will "set a precedent, create legal and liability risks for the botnet operators, and help deter future activity."

At times, the company says it saw the network grow by about 1,000 devices per day. The malware that adds a computer to the Glupteba botnet is usually found hidden on sketchy websites that offer free software. According to Google, Glupteba's operators used the malware to steal personal data, mine cryptocurrencies and funnel other internet traffic through the infected machines.

Per The Washington Post, the hackers also used some of Google's own services to distribute the malware. The company suspended more than 1,000 accounts that had been used to spread Glupteba.

"We don't just plug security holes, we work to eliminate entire classes of threats for consumers and businesses whose work depends on the Internet," the company said. "We have teams of analysts and security experts who are dedicated to identifying and stopping issues like DDoS, phishing campaigns, zero-day vulnerabilities, and hacking against Google, our products, and our users."

Google coordinated with internet infrastructure providers to disrupt the botnet, but warns it has so far only succeeded in stopping it temporarily. Glupteba uses blockchain technology as a failsafe against a complete shutdown. When it doesn't hear from its owners, the software is programmed to automatically use data encoded on the Bitcoin blockchain for instructions on how to reconnect.

"Unfortunately, Glupteba's use of blockchain technology as a resiliency mechanism is notable here and is becoming a more common practice among cyber crime organizations," Google said. "The decentralized nature of blockchain allows the botnet to recover more quickly from disruptions, making them that much harder to shutdown." The company says it's working with its partners to make the internet more resilient to such attacks.

Apple snaps up a movie about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:01 PM PST

Apple will fund and distribute a long-in-the-works movie about embattled Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Bad Blood will star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, while Adam McKay will write and direct. Both are producers on the project, which is a coproduction between Apple Studios and Legendary.

The movie, which is based on the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up by former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, has been in development since at least 2016, as Deadline notes. The film will depict the rise and fall of Holmes and her company.

Hype around the blood-testing startup led to Holmes becoming the youngest self-made billionaire. Accusations and charges of fraud led to her stepping down as CEO in 2018 and the company liquidating later that year. Holmes is currently on trial for fraud.

Bad Blood is far from the only film and TV project about Theranos and Holmes. Hulu greenlit a miniseries in 2019 with Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon pencilled in to play Holmes. She dropped out earlier this year, and was replaced by Amanda Seyfried. An HBO documentary about the Theranos saga premiered in 2019.

Meanwhile, Lawrence and McKay recently worked together on the Netflix film Don't Look Up, which hits theaters this weekend and will be available to stream on December 24th. It's a satire about two astronomers (played by Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) who try to warn humanity about a catastrophic comet that's set to collide with Earth.

Twitter will overhaul its reporting process for harmful tweets

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 11:49 AM PST

Twitter is testing a new process for reporting tweets in what it says is a major overhaul intended to make it easier to flag harmful behavior on its platform. With the change, the company is changing how it allows users to flag tweets and significantly expanding the criteria that can be included in reports.

In a blog post, Twitter says it's revamping the process to take a "people first" approach, in which the reporting process begins by asking users "what happened" rather than expecting them to figure out which of the company's complex policies may have been violated. That's a significant change from the current process, which requires users to navigate through a series of menus and identify specific rules that were broken by the tweet in question.

Instead, the new reporting flow allows users to specify who was targeted and then describe how it happened. For example, it includes much more detailed ways to report hate speech, including hate speech targeting groups of people. Then, once users have described the incident, Twitter will suggest which of its rules may apply.

Twitter is overhauling its reporting process.
Twitter

The company says this process is both simpler for users, and could help the company improve its policies and process further. "The more first-hand information they can gather about how people are experiencing certain content, the more precise Twitter can be when it comes to addressing it or ultimately removing it," the company writes. "This rich pool of information, even if the Tweets in question don't technically violate any rules, still gives Twitter valuable input that they can use to improve people's experience on the platform."

Twitter is currently testing the new reporting flow with a "small group" of users in the US, and plans to expand it to more people in 2022.

Senate confirms Jessica Rosenworcel as first female FCC chair

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 11:31 AM PST

The Federal Communications Commission now has its first permanent chairwoman. The Senate voted 68 to 31 to confirm President Biden's nomination of Jessica Rosenworcel, converting her acting chair role into an official (and additional) five-year term. Her temporary position was due to expire within weeks.

Not surprisingly, Rosenworcel signalled plans to maintain her existing policies of making communictions accessible to "everyone, everywhere." The chairwoman has been a proponent of net neutrality and other regulations meant to keep large technology companies in check, contrasting sharply with the anti-regulation stance of former chair Ajit Pai.

The move gives the FCC some extra stability. However, it might not be the most important nomination. The White House is still waiting on the confirmation of Gigi Sohn to fill an empty commissioner seat. If she's accepted, the FCC will have a 3-2 Democrat majority that's more likely to support Biden's telecom-related priorities. Rosenworcel may have to temper her expectations if the Commission remains in its current stalemate.

Hydrasynth Explorer review: Possibly the most synth you can get under $600

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 10:30 AM PST

Ashun Sound Machines, or ASM, came virtually out of nowhere to deliver one of the most hyped synths of 2020. The Hydrasynth is an unabashedly digital instrument with an impressive collection of sound design tools and a proprietary keyboard that has polyphonic aftertouch. For those looking to leave behind the warm but staid world of analog for the complex frontiers of digital, it's pretty alluring. But, while its $1,299 list price isn't absurd given the feature set, it's also out range for many hobbyists. Even the desktop model, which ditches the keyboard in favor of 24 pads, is slightly pricey at $799.

The new Hydrasynth Explorer, however, is expressly designed to get ASM's keyboard and synth engine in the hands of as many people as possible. And it's "portable" to boot. (Although, as I'll get to later, the company's definition of portable is highly questionable.) Of course to reach the more attainable price of $599, some things had to be sacrificed. But the good news is, most of what's missing amounts to minor conveniences.

Before we go any further, let's set some expectations: I cannot possibly cover every feature of the Hydrasynth Explorer in detail. Even the 88-page manual feels like it's just skimming the surface. If you're looking for an exhaustive walkthrough, I highly recommend Loopop's nearly hour-long tutorial on the original Hydrasynths and its half-hour long follow-up looking at what's different on the Explorer and Deluxe.

The most important thing you need to know is that the core of the Hydrasynth — its wavemorphing engine — remains unchanged and it's running on the same hardware. So the Explorer still has eight-note polyphony, with three oscillators per voice, and over 200 waveforms to choose from. The first two oscillators can be static or in "wavescan" mode, which simply means you can choose up to eight waveforms at a time to morph between. While you can't import your own custom wavetables, you can essentially build your own from the pre-approved ingredients.

Hydrasynth Explorer
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

Those oscillators can be combined and manipulated using what ASM calls Mutators — two each for oscillators one and two. There are eight different Mutators to choose from, ranging from classic FM (frequency modulation) and hard sync, to the slightly more exotic PhazDiff, and even three different flavors of pulse width modulation.

The third oscillator is a much simpler affair. It's a static wave and it can't be sent through a Mutator, but it can still add depth to a sound. The most obvious use is as a sub-oscillator to add a little bass, but it can also be fed through the ring modulator. Which, by the way: Yes, there is a ring modulator and a noise source as well.

There are also two filters, which can be in series or parallel, and you can control how much of each oscillator goes to which filter. The first filter has 16 different modes, ranging from classic 12db low pass to a speech-like vowel filter, while the second sweep from low pass, through bandpass or notch, and into high pass.

To control all these various parts, you've got five six-stage envelopes and five LFOs that all feed into a 32-slot modulation matrix. In total there are 29 modulation sources and 155 destinations. It's a lot of variables to contend with. Frankly, it can feel overwhelming, and that's even before you start digging into the effects and voice options like "density."

The good news is, to get started with the Hydrasynth you don't need to master its sound design tools, you can just dig into the presets. The stock sounds are pretty solid and cover a wide range of styles, though it does especially excel at icy ambience, strings and plucky keys. But even navigating those can be daunting, especially as some of them start to sound indistinguishable. There's a grand total of 640 presets spread over five banks of 128 patches. Scrolling through them one by one with the large patch knob can get tedious. But if you turn your attention to the small OLED to the right of the "Main Systems" section, you can use the encoders there to filter presets by category, such as brass, ambient or e-piano. There's also a favorites menu, where you bookmark 32 of your most used patches.

Hydrasynth Explorer

(I do want to briefly pause here, to nitpick about the layout of the Hydrasynth Explorer, especially because this isn't an issue on other models. The Keyboard, Desktop and Deluxe versions all have their displays in a single line. But the Explorer has them staggered, with the navigation display being below and to the left of the parameter display on the right. The right display is significantly smaller and more cramped on the Explorer, but that's less of an issue than the alignment, which means your eyes have to move much further when going back and forth. It's doubly frustrating since the solution is simple: move the large patch knob from above the left display, to below it. This would have the added benefit of making it easier to see the left OLED when browsing patches since your hand wouldn't be blocking it.)

Now, while there's absolutely nothing wrong with playing presets (I am mostly a tweak-a-preset guy myself), you would be underutilizing the Hydrasynth if you didn't explore its depths. And while it's an incredibly complex instrument no matter how you slice it, ASM deserves credit for making the interface as clear and intuitive as possible. The Hydrasynth is far from being knob-per-function, but a lot of work was done to minimize menu diving.

Hydrasynth Explorer
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The front panel is divided up into neatly labeled sections: arpeggiator, filer controls, main systems, master controls and module select. In each of these sections are easy-to-read buttons, often with just one function, plus some knobs. And, by the way, all of those buttons and knobs are a delight to use. This is an incredibly well made instrument and while some sacrifices were made to reach the $599 price, build quality was not one of them.

You'll spend most of your time at the bottom of the Master Control and Module Select section where there are 26 buttons for the various parts of the signal chain. The leftmost buttons are where you select which oscillator to modify. When you press the OSC 1 button, the right screen brings up the options for that module and you change the parameters with the endless encoders at the four corners of the display. The up and down arrows to the right scroll through the pages of settings.

For the oscillators, there are only two pages and you'll only really need to venture to the second one in Wavescan mode. That's where you'll find the "wavelist edit" option. Press that and you'll open the menu to select the sounds for your wavetable. All you do is turn the knobs next to each parameter for Wav 1, Wav 2, etcetera until you're happy with your selection. You can pick up to eight, but you're not required to. What makes the Hydrasynth somewhat unique is that you're not just picking a set of static wave shapes to switch between, but as you change the position of the Wavescan it will morph from to the other seamlessly. Which means if you move through those eight shapes slowly, you can get a lot of movement out of just a single oscillator.

To set the sound for the second and third oscillators, the process is the same.

Hydrasynth Explorer

As you move from left to right in the signal chain you'll next encounter the Mutant 1-4 buttons. Press one and the OLED on the right brings up the parameters. (Noticing a trend?) Depending on what Mutator you select using the top left encoder you'll see different options here to control. But at its most basic, you just turn one knob to choose, say PWM, then another set the wet/dry value you want.

There are eight different Mutators to choose from, but I want to focus briefly on PW-ASM, or Pulse Width ASM. There are two things that make pulse width modulation special on the Hydrasynth. One, you can use it on any waveshape — usually PWM is associated with square waves. And two: in ASM mode you can create your own custom pulse width patterns. PW-ASM breaks a wave into eight distinct sections and you dial in the amount of modulation around each of the slice points. It's not exactly the easiest thing to explain, but suffice to say I don't know of any other synths out there with this feature. (If you do, please tell me in the comments.)

Under the Mutants is the button to bring up the ring modulation and noise parameters, and then as you follow the line illustrating the signal chain to the right, you see they all feed into the mixer. Here you can dial in the volume of each oscillator, the ring mod and noise section, as well as panning for each. And this is also where you'll decide how much of each to send to which filter and whether the filters are in series or parallel. This is one of the sections with the most pages of options to scroll through, but it's still straightforward. Just press the up and down buttons next to the display until you see the parameter you want, then turn the knob next to it.

Hydrasynth Explorer
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

After the mixer, you'll see the signal chain branches off again with your envelopes (ENV) along the top, LFOs along the bottom and down the middle your audio signal, including filters, amp and effects.

By default ENV 1 and LFO 1 are connected to the filters, while ENV 2 and LFO 2 are connected to the amp. There's no way to break the connection between ENV 2 and the amp, it will always define the total volume of your sound. That doesn't mean you can't control the volume of the oscillators separately; it just means you have to get creative.

So if you wanted OSC 2 to come in slightly after OSC 1 you could use ENV 3 to control it, just with a slightly longer attack time than ENV 2. To make the connection you could press the mod matrix button at the top and scroll through all the options. But the easier way is to hold the ENV 3 button, then press the mixer button. Then those two modules will be automatically connected and all you have to do is pick the parameter you want (OSC2CVol in this case) and dial in the depth. It's also worth mentioning that the Hydrasynth's envelopes have six stages — delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain and release — as opposed to the more common ADSR. That means you can actually delay the start of the envelope for a certain amount of time after a key press.

Even more interesting are the LFOs. While you can use them to create whooshing filter sounds and gentle pitch warbles, you can also use them as a sequencer. Step mode lets you create a customized modulation pattern of up to 64 steps.

On the fourth page of the LFO settings, though, you'll find the SemiLock option — this is where the magic happens. See, Hydrasynth doesn't have a proper sequencer, but you can use the LFOs locked to semitones thanks to the latest firmware. So, with fairly minimal work, OSC 2 could come in behind OSC 1 and play melody over a pad. This is just one example of how to use this power. You can sequence anything from filter cutoff to the wet/dry mix on the reverb to the detune or glide time, or even the parameters of the Mutators. This level of control opens a whole world of possibilities.

At the end of the signal chain you have four effects slots to work with: one pre-fx, one post-fx and sandwiched between them are dedicated delay and reverb modules. There are a few different varieties of the latter two. The reverse delay is excellent, and while the plate and hall reverbs are solid, cloud is my favorite setting.

The post- and pre-fx sections have the same options to choose from, including phaser, distortion, compression, rotary, tremolo and more. But my favorite to stick at the end of almost every patch is Lo-Fi. You can turn down the sample rate to get some crushed digital sounds and there are various filter types to choose from that give you the quality of something being played through a phone or over a radio. It's just a nice touch to keep everything from getting too crisp and clean.

Here's the thing: This is only just scratching the surface of what the Hydrasynth is capable of. There are a number of options in the Voice menu for adding depth and warmth, like the sort of vague Analog Feel. There's an incredibly capable arpeggiator with eight different modes. There's a macro section where you can assign multiple parameters to a single knob to dramatically transform sounds in a performance-friendly way. And I barely even mentioned the keyboard which has polyphonic aftertouch — something basically unheard of at this price point.

Hydrasynth Explorer
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The Hydrasynth Explorer, at least under the hood, is virtually indistinguishable from it's larger counterpart the Hydrasynth Keys, which costs almost twice as much. So what are you giving up here? Well, one the Explorer has mini keys instead of full-sized ones, but that might not be a con for some people like myself with small hands and limited piano skills. There's also no proper pitch and mod wheels, instead you get touchstrips; they're fine, but not nearly as accurate. The biggest loss is the reduced number of controls. The filter knobs have been reduced from five to three, and there's only four macro / parameter knobs, versus eight on the larger models. But honestly, these are minor sacrifices to reach this price.

The one last thing to address is that ASM calls the Hydrasynth Explorer "portable," but that's only true in the most technical of senses. In addition to the included AC adapter you can power it with eight AA batteries — which is not a trivial amount — for three to four hours. Plus, the Explorer weighs 7.5 pounds and it's nearly 22 inches long. Sure, that's petite compared to the 22 pounds and 32 inches of the Hydrasynth Keys, but this is not something that you're gonna toss in a backpack and bring to the park on a whim. While it's easy enough to toss in the trunk and bring to a jam session, that ASM doesn't include or sell a travel case for it, kind of undermines the portability pitch.

Hydrasynth Explorer

So no, the Explorer isn't really what I'd call "portable," but that doesn't matter. Even if this thing never left your studio it would be worth the money. It sounds great (as long as you can accept that it sounds obviously digital), it's solidly built, and it has an almost bottomless set of sound design tools to explore. It's possible to just get lost building patches on the Hydrasynth — and not in an annoying menu-diving way. If you've got the money, the larger Keys with more hands-on controls will almost certainly save you some headaches, but the Hydrasynth Explorer might be the most synth you can get for under $600.

Activision Blizzard workers stage walkout over Call of Duty studio layoffs

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 10:15 AM PST

Employees and contractors at Activision Blizzard are walking out of work today in support of their colleagues at Raven Software. The protest, the third such work stoppage to hit the company since it was sued by California over sexual harassment allegations in July, comes after Raven, one of the studios that supports Activision's incredibly popular Call of Duty franchise, laid off 12 quality assurance contractors. The action started on Monday when 60 workers at Raven Software, including both full-time employees and contractors, left work to protest the surprise terminations.

The protest has no planned end date, a first for the walkouts at Activision Blizzard. Those involved in the action are demanding the publisher hire all QA contractors, including those who lost their jobs on Friday, as full-time employees. "Those participating in this demonstration do so with the continued success of the studio at the forefront of their mind," said Blizzard Activision worker advocacy group A Better ABK on Twitter. "The Raven QA department is essential to the day-to-day functioning of the studio as a whole. Terminating the contracts of high performing testers in a time of consistent work and profit puts the health of the studio at risk."

Management at Raven told QA staff at the end of last week it would hold one-on-one meetings with everyone to decide if they would get the chance to stay at the studio as a full-time staff member. The developer told approximately 30 percent of the team their contracts would end on January 28th, with more still waiting to find if they'll have a job beyond the start of the year. According to A Better ABK, every worker Raven decided not to keep was in "good standing," which is to say they had not underperformed in their job or committed a fireable offense.

According to The Washington Post, Raven studio head Brian Raffel said during an all-hands meeting on Monday he didn't consider the terminations as layoffs. Instead, he said the studio had merely decided not to renew the contracts of those who were let go. Raffel reportedly later apologized for his comments.

"We are converting approximately 500 temporary workers to full-time employees in the coming months," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier in response to the layoffs. "Unfortunately, as part of this change, we also have notified 20 temporary workers across studios that their contracts would not be extended." The move comes after the publisher posted a net income of $639 million during its most recent fiscal quarter.

We've reached out to Activision Blizzard for additional comment.

This latest action isn't directly related to the misconduct claims that have left Activision Blizzard in turmoil for months — though it's likely safe to say frustrations across the company are at a boiling point. The first walkout occurred in July shortly after the company issued an "abhorrent and insulting" response to the harassment lawsuit from California's fair employment regulator. More recently, employees staged a second action after The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report on Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick's handling of the crisis. That article implicated Kotick in the mistreatment that has characterized the company's work culture for years. As part of that protest, thousands of Activision Blizzard employees called for Kotick's resignation.

Amazon Web Services went down and took a bunch of the internet with it

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 09:31 AM PST

Users are reporting a widespread outage at Amazon Web Services, bringing down websites and backend services for organizations including the Associated Press, Disney+ and Vice. Details about the outage are scarce.

The AWS status page reported increased error rates for its Management Console on Tuesday morning. 

"We are experiencing API and console issues in the US-EAST-1 Region," the page said. "We have identified root cause and we are actively working towards recovery. This issue is affecting the global console landing page, which is also hosted in US-EAST-1."

AWS went down in June, taking out sites like Twitch, Reddit, Twitter, Hulu, HBO Max, Shopify and Amazon itself. That outage was resolved the same day. AWS has suffered outages prior to this year, too.

'Uncharted 4' and 'Lost Legacy' remasters hit PS5 on January 28th

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 09:28 AM PST

You won't have to wait too much longer to play (or replay) the last two Uncharted games on your PlayStation 5. Naughty Dog and Sony have confirmed that Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will be available for PS5 on January 28th for $50, or $10 if you've bought the PS4 versions of either included game. The companies have also revealed just what audiovisual upgrades you can expect. These aren't complete overhauls (they're both mid-cycle PS4 releases, after all), but they might be worthwhile if you missed out on Uncharted 4 or Lost Legacy, or just want to make the most of a new TV.

As with some PS5 titles, you can prioritize the graphics for either resolution or speed. A "Fidelity Mode" jumps to native 4K while preserving a target frame rate of 30FPS. You can alternately use a "Performance Mode" if 60FPS matters more than crisp graphics, and there's even a "Performance+" option that caps the resolution at 1080p in return for an extra-smooth 120FPS.

Both games promise "near instant" load times thanks to the PS5's SSD, and Naughty Dog is taking advantage of improved DualSense haptic feedback as well as spatial audio for built-in TV speakers and headphones. It should be a more immersive experience, then, even if you can't justify an elaborate audio setup.

You'll have to be patient if you're jonesing for the PC version. You can add the Uncharted bundle to your wish lists on the Epic Games Store and Steam, but the developers haven't narrowed down the release date beyond a generic "2022." The system requirements aren't yet available, either. While that's not surprising given the extra challenges of porting a PS4 game to PCs, it could leave you waiting a bit longer than you might like.

Tesla’s in-dash video games can be played even while driving

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 08:53 AM PST

Many Tesla vehicles allow drivers to play a selection of games on the infotainment system while the car is in motion, according to a report by The New York Times. The company rolled out an update in the summer that reportedly let drivers play Solitaire, jet fighter game Sky Force Reloaded and strategy title The Battle of Polytopia: Moonrise while on the road.

The touchscreen is said to display a warning before a game of Solitaire starts. "Solitaire is a game for everyone, but playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers," the message reads, according to the Times. That indicates Tesla knows the game is playable while the car's moving.

Although players have to acknowledge that they're a passenger, the driver can tap that button and play the game. Even if a passenger is playing something, it's possible that a driver will divert their attention to the screen to see what's happening anyway.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 3,142 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers in the US in 2019. A 2017 study suggested that many infotainment features absorbed drivers' attention too long for them to be safe. Researchers at the University of Utah found that, when drivers used voice-based and touchscreen systems, they "took their hands, eyes and mind off the road for more than 24 seconds to complete tasks."

Drivers are supposed to keep their hands on the steering wheel when Tesla's Autopilot is engaged, but a recent study suggested drivers become less attentive when the mode is active. In August, the NHTSA said it was investigating Autopilot following a number of crashes with parked first responder vehicles. Those resulted in one death and 17 injuries.

Other automakers lock many touchscreen and infotainment features when the car is in motion. Stellantis (fka Fiat Chrysler), for instance, lets drivers and passengers watch a DVD on the dashboard screen in some vehicles, though only when the car's parked. NHTSA guidelines urge automakers to ensure that cars with infotainment devices prevent drivers from carrying out "inherently distracting secondary tasks while driving."

Tesla has addeda numberof games to its infotainment system over the last few years. Until a few months ago, they were only playable while the car was parked. The Times says Tesla and CEO Elon Musk didn't respond to requests for comment — the company no longer has a PR department. Engadget has contacted the NHTSA for comment.

Nick Offerman will play Bill in 'The Last of Us' on HBO

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 08:41 AM PST

Ron Swanson is coming to the world of The Last of Us. Yesterday, Murray Bartlett, a cast member on the upcoming HBO show based on the video game, said that he recently shot scenes with Nick Offerman, a person who hadn't yet been linked to the production. Now, Naughty Dog has confirmed a report from Variety that Offerman is playing the loner Bill in The Last of Us. Bill had a small but crucial role in the original game that was played by W. Earl Brown, who said earlier this year he wouldn't be reprising the role in the HBO show.

Offerman is not the first person to be cast as Bill. The role was originally offered to Con O'Neil, who previously had worked with show runner Craig Manzin on his Chernobyl series (also on HBO). According to Variety, O'Neil had to back out of the role due to scheduling conflicts.

In addition to filming scenes with Bartlett, Offerman should get plenty of screen time with series leads Pedro Pascal, who is playing Joel, and Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie. While there have been plenty of leaks from location shooting around Canada that shows this production is well underway, there's no word yet on when The Last of Us will arrive on HBO. It's expected sometime in 2022, though. 

Snapchat is hoping lens creators can make augmented reality useful

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 08:38 AM PST

While Facebook is still trying to explain what a metaverse is, Snap has been working toward a very different vision for an AR-enabled future. Over the last four years, the company has recruited a small army of artists, developers and other AR enthusiasts to help build out its massive library of in-app AR effects.

Now Snap is tapping lens creators — it has more than 250,000 — to help it make AR more useful. The company is releasing new tools that allow artists and developers to essentially make mini apps inside of their lenses. And it's working on getting its latest AR innovation into more of their hands: its next-generation Spectacles, which have AR displays.

The goal, according to Sophia Dominguez, Snap's head of AR platform partnerships, is to expand the ways AR can be used, while keeping those experiences firmly rooted in the real world — not the metaverse. "You don't want to escape into another world," she says of Snap's philosophy. "To us, the world around us is magical, and there's things to learn from it." Instead, she says, the company is looking to enable experiences that can "bridge" digital spaces and physical ones, and create "more useful applications" for AR.

For now, Snap is leaving it up to creators to figure out exactly what a "useful" augmented reality lens is, but the company is introducing a number of new tools to help them build it. At its annual Lens Fest event, Snap is also introducing a new version of Lens Studio, the software that allows developers to create and publish lenses inside of Snapchat.

The latest version includes new APIs that allow AR creators to connect their effects to real-time information. The resulting lenses are almost like mini apps inside Snapchat lenses. For example, creators can build lenses with real-time translation capabilities via iTranslate. Or check on their preferred cryptocurrency with a lens powered by crypto platform FTX. Weather data (via Accuweather) and stock market info (from Alpaca) will also be available, and the company is planning to add more partners in the near future.

New APIs available in Snapchat's Lens Studio software.
Snap

These kinds of lenses are even more intriguing in the context of Snapchat's augmented reality glasses, its "next-gen" Spectacles. Snap first showed off the glasses earlier this year, saying that the device would only be available to a small number of AR creators and developers. Since then, the company has handed out its latest Specs to hundreds of creators, who have been helping Snap figure out how far they can push the tech, and what kinds of new experiences AR glasses can enable.

That's because with Spectacles, a "lens" doesn't just have to be something that goes on top of a selfie — it can add contextual information to the world around you. For example, one creator experimenting with Spectacles recently showed off a concept where staring out a train window can surface details about where you are and what the weather is.

Nike created a Spectacles lens that allows runners to follow an AR pigeon along their route, and view different animations along the way.

Creator Brielle Garcia, who has also been experimenting with Spectacles, recently previewed a concept for an AR menu that allows users to view 3D models of meals on a restaurant menu. Other creators are experimenting with interactive shopping and gaming lenses.

"When you think about what's gonna get people to put glasses on their face every single day, those are the things today you're checking your apps for," Dominguez said. "We're really excited to see the different UIs that people can create in augmented reality with this kind of utility."

A concept for a 3D interactive menu with Snapchat's AR Spectacles.
Snap

All that comes with an important caveat: the reason why the AR Spectacles aren't for sale and likely won't be anytime soon is due to some pretty significant hardware limitations. Battery life is extremely limited (the charging case provides four extra charges) and the glasses themselves are, well, ugly.

While previous iterations of Spectacles look and feel like sunglasses, the next-gen Specs are comically large. Every time I see them, all I can think of is the chunky black frames worn by Roddy Piper in They Live. And, after spending some time wearing them, I can confirm that they are even more ridiculous looking when you put them on your face.

That said, Snap has been clear from the get-go that this version isn't intended to look good, or even like something people will want to buy. Rather, the goal is to enable new types of AR development. 

And, despite the looks, their capabilities are impressive.The frames are equipped with "3D waveguides," which power the AR displays; as well as dual cameras, speakers and microphones. On the left side is a capture button, so you can snap a photo or video of your surroundings, and on the right is a "scan" button. Much like the feature of the same name in the Snapchat app, scanning can help you find lenses based on your surroundings.

I only got to experiment with a handful of AR lenses while wearing the Specs, but the process was strikingly similar to using lenses in Snapchat's app. I was able to scroll through a selection of lenses by swiping along a touchpad on the outside of the frames. Then, you can place the lens into your surroundings to see the AR effects around you. Like other AR headsets, the field of view is narrow enough that it's not fully immersive, but I was impressed by the resolution and brightness of what I saw.

"'I've worked on each generation of Spectacles and this one is by far the most fun," says David Meisenholder, a senior product designer at Snap, pointing to the company's close collaboration with its creator community. "We're also learning how much we need to go to make those perfect for the consumer glasses of the future."

BMW will help recreate 'Rocket League' in real life for charity

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 08:15 AM PST

You probably won't see Rocket League's flying cars in the real world any time soon, but BMW and esports brand LVL might offer the next best thing. They're teaming on Das Race Goal, a Rocket League-style esports platform that has remote-controlled cars play soccer for charity. Players worldwide will steer the vehicles in a real arena while grabbing virtual powerups and activating "special effects."

The initial event takes place December 12th at 1PM Eastern and will be streamed live on LVL's Twitch channel. This inaugural competition will have six three-player teams compete in Munich's BMW Welt stadium to raise awareness and funds for the United Nations Population Fund's Skills for Life programs, which aim to improve education and healthcare for youth in the Caribbean and Latin America. Each team will have an esports player (including members from Cloud9, Fnatic, G2 Esports and OG), a social media influencer and a young gamer involved in the UN's efforts.

Thomas Fellger, chief of Das Race Goal partner Icon Group, stressed this wasn't just a one-off tourney — it was part of a "long-term partnership" that could help the UN's long-term rights initiatives. At the least, this could add the thrill of real-world elements to a video game format that already has a loyal following.

Discord gives server owners the tools to put channels behind a paywall

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 08:00 AM PST

Discord has started testing a feature called Premium Memberships with a small group of users. The tool allows community owners to gate access to part or all of their server behind a monthly subscription fee. It's something the company's growing number of users, particularly admins and mods, have been asking it to implement for a while. Before today, those individuals had to turn to third-party services like Patreon to monetize access to their servers.

By contrast, the Premium Memberships tool creates a streamlined interface for that same purpose. A new tab under the "Community" heading in the app's setting's menu allows server owners to do things like set price tiers and view related analytics. The feature similarly streamlines the process of signing up for paid channels for users. If you want to support a community, you don't need to leave Discord to do so. When you tap on a premium channel, indicated by the new "sparkle" icon in the sidebar, the client will tell how much you need to pay for access, as well as what perks you'll gain for doing so.

Discord Premium Memberships
Discord

As for pricing, Discord says it will encourage server owners to experiment. As a baseline, the company will recommend a monthly fee of $2.99 as a minimum and $99.99 as a maximum. When it comes to most of the channels you visit, you probably won't pay more than $5 or $10 a month for access. The top end of the price range is a reflection of how much Discord has changed since the start of the pandemic to accommodate a more diverse group of communities. Discord isn't exclusively a place for gaming anymore.

"Access to a channel can seem simplistic, but it's a foundational piece that someone can build a lot of flexibility on top of," said Jesse Wofford, group product marketing manager at Discord, in an interview with Engadget. One of the server owners the company is working with on this week's soft launch is someone who runs gaming bootcamps. According to Wofford, they've built an entire business around private lessons. The company wants to give those people the opportunity to create a sustainable business on its platform. 

Whatever someone decides to charge for access to their channels, the company plans to take a 10 percent cut of the subscription. "It's an important stake in the ground for us that this product, like a lot of other ones, is built around creator success," Wofford said. Additionally, for people who want to continue to use services like Patreon to monetize their channels, Discord won't stop them from doing so. "One of the important things here is that we're still investing in those relationships," said Wofford. "We want to create an ecosystem that gives creators as many options to succeed as possible."

Discord Premium Memberships
Discord

Premium Memberships is something Discord has been working on for a while. "There's probably a world where we could have released this a while ago," Wofford told me. "We wanted to make sure we took in the right feedback from a diverse set of creators and built it in a way that we felt confident would deliver value." To that end, the company plans to take its time testing the feature before it rolls it out more widely.

The Hubble telescope is fully operational again after a month-long nap

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:57 AM PST

NASA's Hubble telescope has been in a "coma" since going into system failure in late October — but today, the agency announced that it is waking Hubble up. After multiple instrument sync failures that required putting Hubble into safe mode, NASA says the telescope is now functioning as normal, with all four active instruments collecting data. 

On October 23rd, NASA first noticed that Hubble's instruments weren't receiving sync messages from the telescope's control unit. Communications issues continued for several days, which led NASA to put the telescope into a sort of safe mode — something that takes a long time to come out of because of the sensitivity of Hubble's hardware. Rapid power or temperature changes aren't good for its lifespan, so NASA took its time here.

This shutdown was the second that was required in 2021, with another month-long "coma" taking place in July to deal with an unrelated issue. Given the 31-year-old telescope's age, it's entirely possible that Hubble is nearing the end of its useful life in space, but for now NASA expects Hubble to work in tandem with the Webb telescope "well into this decade." After numerous delays, the Webb telescope is expected to finally launch on December 22nd.

Twitter buys would-be Slack competitor Quill

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:31 AM PST

You may not have heard of messaging service Quill, but it was positioned as a Discord- or Slack-style app for team communications that tried to be less noisy and more structured. The platform only launched this past February, but today Twitter has announce it is purchasing Quill and shutting it down this weekend. Twitter's tech GM Nick Caldwell announced the move this morning, and Quill confirmed the news in a blog post on its own site.

The fact that it's shutting down this weekend is a stunningly fast turn-around; Quill is offering details on how to export data, which any team using it will probably want to do ASAP. (They'll also want to go and find a new messaging service to use post-haste.) 

The app had billed itself as "messaging for people that focus," and it's not clear how that mission will continue as part of Twitter. Caldwell said that the goal was to have the Quill team help "make messaging tools like DMs a more useful & expressive way people can have conversations." Chances are good this is more of an acqui-hire situation, in which Twitter wanted to have the Quill team working on Twitter's existing products. Given how fast Quill is shutting down, it's pretty clear Twitter doesn't have any interest in spending resources on that existing product.

It's the second major acquisition Twitter has made in the last month or so — in mid-November, Twitter purchased Threader, a popular tool that pulled threads of tweets together into an easier to read format. Just like the Quill purchase, Twitter didn't waste much time shutting down Threader — the app is set to disappear on December 15th. (At least it got a longer lease on life than Quill.) Threader is expected to be rolled into the Twitter Blue subscription service; we'll have to see if some of Quill's legacy ends up there, as well.

A hacker named Bowser agrees to pay Nintendo $10 million to settle a civil piracy suit

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:20 AM PST

A Canadian hacker named Gary Bowser (yes, like Mario's nemesis) has agreed to pay the company $10 million to settle a civil piracy lawsuit. Bowser, who was part of Switch hacking group Team Xecuter, was accused of being part of a "cybercriminal enterprise that hacked leading gaming consoles," as Eurogamer notes. Nintendo argued Bowser violated the company's copyright and it seems the hacks were not in another castle.

News of the settlement emerged several weeks after Bowser pleaded guilty to multiple federal hacking charges. He was fined $4.5 million in that case and faces up to 10 years in prison. Bowser, who was arrested in the Dominican Republic in October 2020 and deported to the US, admitted to having "developed, manufactured, marketed, and sold a variety of circumvention devices" that let people play ROMs on consoles. 

Rohingya refugees sue Facebook for $150 billion over Myanmar genocide

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:06 AM PST

Facebook has been repeatedly accused of enabling Myanmar's genocide against the country's Rohingya minority, and now it will deal with those accusations in court. A Rohingya woman has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of refugees against Facebook parent company Meta, alleging the company both amplified anti-Rohingya hate speech through its algorithms and failed to remove content fostering violence. The refugees ask for over $150 billion in damages.

The plaintiffs argued that Facebook only took meaningful action against pro-genocide factions after it was pushed. The Myanmar military launched its purge of Rohingya in 2017, with officials and nationalist monks spreading slurs and misinformation on Facebook to either justify or cover up atrocities. Facebook only started cracking down in August 2018 following a UN report linking unchecked behavior on the social network to real-world violence. The company requested an independent audit at the same time that reached a similar conclusion. This was too little too late, according to the refugees — the company admitted it "should and could have done more" only after mass displacements and deaths.

Meta has already declined to comment on the lawsuit. A similar complaint is expected in the UK in 2022.

The firm was quick to clamp down on the Myanmar military following its February 2021 coup, and went so far as to pull the military's main page. However, that swifter response won't help much with a lawsuit over past actions. While it's too soon to say whether or not the lawsuit will succeed, let alone obtain the hoped-for damages, the company may have a difficult time defending itself.

Amazon's Alexa Together caregiver service is available today

Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST

You can now use Alexa Together to help take care of aging family members. Amazon has launched the $20 per month ($199 per year) service, with a six-month free trial available for a "limited time." Care Hub users get a full free year from now until December 7th, 2022. Your loved one will need an Alexa-capable device, but after that it's relatively hands-off — they ideally get more independence while you get some peace of mind.

The elderly relative can reach an emergency helpline if they ask Alexa to "call for help," but Together is mainly useful for notifications. You'll get alerts if your family member calls that line, or simply for their first Alexa interaction of the day. Use a fall detection sensor from ATS or Vayyar (more device support is coming) and you'll also get word if there's an incident.

Amazon stressed that seniors would still have their privacy. They have to grant permission for you to remotely assist them by adding contacts, reminders and services. Any Alexa interaction alerts are also generic. You'll know your loved one made an entertainment request, for instance, but you won't know what was playing.

The service is still relatively limited. Amazon doesn't expect to support multiple caregivers until early 2022, for instance, so this won't help if your siblings also want to pitch in. It might still be useful if you want that safety net, though. If nothing else, it's clear between this and Halo services that Amazon wants to be a part of your daily wellness checks — whether they're your own or someone else's.
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